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al-azad posted:That game sounds miserable for otters because none of those factions want to spend warriors. Yeah, Root falls apart when there aren't two big military factions (Cats, Birds, Moles) duking it out, because most of the other factions feed off of their conflict.
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# ? Feb 18, 2020 19:52 |
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# ? Jun 5, 2024 08:36 |
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Shadow225 posted:How do you feel about the decisions that Burgle Bros affords you coop? I've played a bit on my phone, but can't get a good grasp on how that would translate to the physical space. Like any purely-coop game, Burgle Bros doesn't really have any decisions to make regarding your singular character. Essentially, you're all, as a group, making decisions for what each of your characters do at any given time. If you've played it on the phone, you know that it's a shared victory and a shared loss, so essentially it's like Pandemic, in that there's nothing a coop group can do that a single person controlling 2-4 characters can't. From what I've read of BB2, it seems that it's better to just wait for that one to come out if you don't have the first one. If you have BB1, the sequel may not have enough new stuff in it to make it worthwhile. The_Doctor posted:Coward, lock the door at 9am when they all arrive, and then pull out Twilight Imperium. No no, I want them to come back.
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# ? Feb 18, 2020 20:18 |
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Morpheus posted:No no, I want them to come back. They don't need to come back if they never leave! Welcome to the Hotel Mecatol Rex...
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# ? Feb 18, 2020 20:25 |
Hope your board games are in pristine condition: https://www.asmodeena.com/en/customer-service-faq/
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# ? Feb 18, 2020 21:31 |
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GrandpaPants posted:Hope your board games are in pristine condition: Putting all the stress on the brick and mortars sucks, potentially leaving you out a game for weeks or months while you wait for a replacement that may not even still be in print sucks, dropping an "effective immediately" replacement policy sucks. Consolidation and capitalism are the worst.
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# ? Feb 18, 2020 21:35 |
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CommonShore posted:Somehow this gave me a game idea: 18xx B.C. already exists (Poseidon) but I'm down for this. Carts breaking down makes more sense than trains rusting anyways. GrandpaPants posted:Hope your board games are in pristine condition: What the hell. I'm sure my FLGS is going to love this
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# ? Feb 18, 2020 21:37 |
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I remember the good old days (literally a year ago) when a friend’s dog ate a card from Star Wars Rebellion and FFG no questions asked sent an entire pack a week later.
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# ? Feb 18, 2020 21:41 |
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GrandpaPants posted:Hope your board games are in pristine condition: I can't imagine the store just not just throwing it back to the distributor who in turn would throw it back to the supplier? Seems crazy to me that you'd put retail in the crosshairs of an irate customer who is missing pieces or has damaged components and is told, "Sorry!" Got to play Yamatai on the weekend. Played it two player and I really liked it. Very puzzly with tons of tough decisions. Definitely a companion to Five Tribes and would be neat to play them back to back for comparison. Very pretty game too. EDIT: VVV And I know at least one store near me that would probably bend over backwards to help you if you were missing things so I can't imagine the headache it might be to not only sort the customer out but make yourself whole at the end unless Asmodee is basically saying, gently caress you use an extra copy you paid for as a corpse to pick through in case of extras. FulsomFrank fucked around with this message at 22:07 on Feb 18, 2020 |
# ? Feb 18, 2020 21:46 |
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I have a game store near me run by two grumpy old men that will absolutely not give a poo poo if someone comes in with missing/damaged pieces, so, uh, thanks Asmodee I guess. Don't get me wrong, one of the best stores in Ottawa, just...don't count on service with a smile or any of that.
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# ? Feb 18, 2020 21:49 |
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Way back when, I lost one of the gate tokens for Arkham Horror 2nd ed and when I asked for a replacement they sent it to me for free with a hand written note asking me to enjoy the game. This is like the mom and pop stores being replaced by Walmart, isn't it.
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# ? Feb 18, 2020 22:06 |
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FFG had a great component replacement policy, which was really great for X-Wing. If your customers are spending thousands of dollars on resin minis and little cards it shouldn't be a big deal for them to have support staff dig though replacement components to get new ones.
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# ? Feb 18, 2020 22:17 |
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Wow, that new replacement policy FAQ is one of the worst pieces of slimy corporate-speak I've read in a while. I'm hesitant to even keep buying LCG stuff now, because if a card or two is missing (which is well within possibility), I'm basically screwed since I buy mostly from smaller online shops that aren't going to be able to ship replacements around. This very much seems like the first of several decisions to come that will cause hobbyists to completely avoid FFG in a few years.
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# ? Feb 18, 2020 22:30 |
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Morpheus posted:I have a game store near me run by two grumpy old men that will absolutely not give a poo poo if someone comes in with missing/damaged pieces, so, uh, thanks Asmodee I guess. Fandom 2? Man, that shop feels like the platonic ideal of a grognard game store. Not a bad thing, but yeah, no way in a million years will they help you out with a missing part.
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# ? Feb 18, 2020 22:36 |
What companies exactly does this impact?
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# ? Feb 18, 2020 22:42 |
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GrandpaPants posted:What companies exactly does this impact? Whole lot of them
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# ? Feb 18, 2020 22:44 |
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@Matagot give me my missing phoenix mini already its been like 4.5 years or at least respond to my emails or tweets gd I'm gonna take it back to CSI and tell them asomdee told me to do it this way
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# ? Feb 18, 2020 23:29 |
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canyoneer posted:Whole lot of them The reason why consolidation was wrong simply illustrated by 1 jpg.
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# ? Feb 18, 2020 23:43 |
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I hope GMT can hold out against all this poo poo
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# ? Feb 18, 2020 23:53 |
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It's been most obvious with FFG, but they're definitely slashing and burning for another stupid private equity sale. Just in the last couple of years they've lost their founder and acting president of their parent company. They've also lost the person that took over from him. Their 2 biggest name designers in Konieczka and Valens both left. Netrunner was allowed to die and they've since killed the Game of Thrones LCG, Star Wars Destiny and from the sounds of things L5R is on a lifeglug. Big box games released recently, that in the old days of FFG would have had expansion support basically guaranteed, are being left to just die. The only 2 proper new releases they have coming down the pike are a small, light Fallout Shelter worker placement game and a 2p version of Cosmic Encounter nobody wants. They've fired everyone from their RPG division, and while people held out some hope they'd keep them on freelance, the news today is they're just discontinuing every RPG line they currently offer. Their biggest release from 2019 in Marvel Champions has been doing well, but they're clearly not printing nearly enough copies of the expansion packs and it's pissing everybody off. Added to that they've also got a weird obsession with producing and offering playmats for every single thing they release - including ones for every new character added to the Marvel LCG. What the gently caress is going on over there? My first assumption would be good old asset-stripping; but at this rate they won't even have anything left over of value. Maybe the Star Wars license?
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# ? Feb 19, 2020 00:30 |
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I remember hearing a similar story in another industry and licenses are often cut because they’re so expensive/bad deals for profit in the end. Disney pulls a significant amount of every dollar of Star Wars game FFG sales.
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# ? Feb 19, 2020 00:41 |
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I couldn't imagine that they'd kill the Star Wars golden goose until I typed it out and realized they could
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# ? Feb 19, 2020 00:53 |
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Making me worry for X-Wing. They've already stopped re-releasing 2.0 versions of previous ships. I'm sure they have some new stuff already in the pipeline, but after that, who knows?
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# ? Feb 19, 2020 03:40 |
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Funzo posted:I'm sure they have some new stuff already in the pipeline, but after that, who knows? Granted I haven’t kept up with ‘wangs for the better part of a decade but what on earth would give you this idea, given FFG’s record over the last few years?
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# ? Feb 19, 2020 05:27 |
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Shadow225 posted:The Batman Funkopop Skirmish game was 10 bucks on Amazon last night (may still be idk). It was also part of a Buy 2 Get 1 Free promotion, so I pulled the trigger on it. Will report back with results, as I suspect it could be better than it should be. I know this was like a week ago, but I'm pretty sure you're talking about Funkoverse Strategy Game, in which case, yes, it's much better than it should be. I did a ton of playtesting for it and am happy to answer questions about it.
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# ? Feb 19, 2020 06:10 |
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Funzo posted:Making me worry for X-Wing. They've already stopped re-releasing 2.0 versions of previous ships. I'm sure they have some new stuff already in the pipeline, but after that, who knows? They have at least two waves of ships on the way, and another film to fulfil, but i wouldn't be surprised to see the pipeline slowly dry up after that. Especially given that the CIS faction in particular is essentially out of content from anything other than the Clone Wars cartoon, and movie content is what shifts ships to the non-die-hard fans, and the Republic factions has like... 2 ships left - the ETA-2 and the LAAT, which is in the next wave, done as duly boringly as expected. I was sad to get out of x-wing a few months ago, but honestly it's feeling more and more like the right decision.
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# ? Feb 19, 2020 09:53 |
Had some local goons over for games. Most were familiar with games but not like deep into the hobby, so we brought out more medium to light stuff. Turned out well! Arboretum may have been a little on the mean/tight side, to be honest. The other three folks were a little shocked at the final scores of 6, 5, 4 and 4. Potato Man on the other hand had the other half of the table laughing quite a lot. Really good 2 or 4 player trick taker. I taught Abraca...what? to my side and people loved it, one person said they might go out and get it. Nice light hanabi style can't see your own tiles game, without the crazy stress of a coop with limited communication. FITS kept the other half busy and laughing, basically Tetris. Can't think of earlier polyomino games other than princes. Shuffled, then I taught RA which went over pretty well, despite the fact that I'm still bad at auction and press your luck games. I got to entertain everyone by being the last to go with some space left, so I slowly drew red tile after red tile. Alien Frontiers can get a bad rap for being ap prone and kinda random, but it took only a little longer than RA, no one seemed to be holding things up, and everyone had a good time. Underappreciated game, I say. Anyway overall had a great time, it's been a while for a number of those games and it's always great to bring out new-to-people games to remember why we like em.
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# ? Feb 19, 2020 13:15 |
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There is no way some of the local game stores can deal with this. Worse while I wait for the, to work it out I am without a game to play. I will ask my store about it next time I stop in to get their take. “Return to the store where you originally purchased the game with proof of purchase, and they will be able to request a replacement copy of the game from Asmodee USA or their distributor. When they receive it, you will be able to exchange your defective copy for the new one, subject to availablity and store policy. For issues unrelated to missing or damaged components, your store’s regular return/exchange policies will apply.”
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# ? Feb 19, 2020 13:36 |
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That return policy is especially farcical given how fast games go out of stock everywhere if they’re a hit.
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# ? Feb 19, 2020 13:40 |
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That policy is huge "gently caress you" to both consumers and stores. I feel like it's time I quit buying Asmosdee products, at least firsthand.
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# ? Feb 19, 2020 13:50 |
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Not many board game consumers even know about Asmodee/private equity so I imagine people will just complain about the specific smaller publishers. Nice way to shield the behavior.
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# ? Feb 19, 2020 13:58 |
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Every major board game personality and retailer should be complaining very loudly about this. Whoever that guy is who loudly gives Stegmaier poo poo every time he opens his mouth should be shouting to the moon.
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# ? Feb 19, 2020 14:05 |
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Worth noting that in Australia, consumers already had the ability to go to the game store they purchased a game from and get a repair, replacement or refund from them. (And the game store can, in turn, recover all their associated costs from the manufacturer if the problem was due to a manufacturing defect). I wonder if Asmodee is going to try and play hardball against game stores trying to recover their costs, when those costs are larger than what Asmodee profited by to begin with.
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# ? Feb 19, 2020 15:01 |
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Different track from Asmodee working hard to become the biggest villain in board gaming, Chill or anyone else, what's special about 1849? I just fast forwarded to the end of the Heavy Cardboard playthrough and I was astounded the game was only 3 hours long, which I know is partially because these guys are all veterans but still, seemed quick.
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# ? Feb 19, 2020 15:48 |
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FulsomFrank posted:Different track from Asmodee working hard to become the biggest villain in board gaming, Chill or anyone else, what's special about 1849? I just fast forwarded to the end of the Heavy Cardboard playthrough and I was astounded the game was only 3 hours long, which I know is partially because these guys are all veterans but still, seemed quick. So the train rush is a roller coaster. Even when my group was newer, as this was one of the PNP designs (Broggles) I really loved, it was 3-4h. The big thing here is that companies can close, which means that the usual pattern of starting a company OR1, let it run until you get a second company in ~OR3, get a flush of money to pay for permanents for both your companies is disrupted. Look at the deltas on the stock chart too. Crawling along the bottom is different from crawling along the bottom (compared to top) for something like 30. There's very interesting track considerations and a random setup (order of companies) that is very nicely designed compared to the static startup of most xx. The latter part is impressive, since a badly done random setup could just throw the game to priority deal. I also really like the footsie game of getting the 20% last share, which you can only do if it's the last item remaining in the market/company. Chill la Chill fucked around with this message at 16:24 on Feb 19, 2020 |
# ? Feb 19, 2020 16:22 |
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FulsomFrank posted:Different track from Asmodee working hard to become the biggest villain in board gaming, Chill or anyone else, what's special about 1849? I just fast forwarded to the end of the Heavy Cardboard playthrough and I was astounded the game was only 3 hours long, which I know is partially because these guys are all veterans but still, seemed quick. The game has a 2-D 1830 style market, paired with the 1846 style incremental capitalization of companies. The opening routes and trains are very bad and the only way to access company capital early on is to destroy your stock value by issuing shares. The typical timing puzzles of getting good trains, getting good tokens, and getting good shares are all intensified by earlier train rusting events, choosing between good track and cheap track, and the increased value of the 'last share' of each company which is worth 20% on one cert. The metagame can be easily shaken up when you discover various tricks to advantage yourself on these timing puzzles, for instance: if you have priority deal and 30-40% of your company, you can issue down to the last share and buy it easily. Companies closing is very interesting and using it to your advantage is difficult, but when you pull it off (either to reduce train liability or to restart it to access more capital) it feels good. It's a game that has a bit more chaos and startup randomness than your typical 18xx, and it is short. The first few games can be a little fraught as people figure out the brutality of the train rush, and figuring out the rules for some of the new mechanics (the rulebook is not great, there is some effort by AAG to revise it for the upcoming mass print), but after that it is a tremendous weeknight game especially as it plays fine with 3-4 people. also there is a volcano that takes out one of the better cities on the map during the game (it can be rebuilt later) it's actually an earthquake Fellis fucked around with this message at 17:06 on Feb 19, 2020 |
# ? Feb 19, 2020 16:58 |
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We got our Cards Against Humanity: Bigger, Blacker Boxes yesterday. They are pretty sturdy and I think they'll work well for holding all our Dominion expansions. A surprisingly good news is that the cards go in upright. For whatever reason, I expected them to go sideways like a Dominion box; it kind of looked that way in whatever picture I saw, but perhaps the aspect ration was screwed. I'm left now thinking about how exactly I'll end up doing this. The slots are a little wider but definitely taller than regular cards. I'd like to create little index cards for each category. However, I'd like to balance rigor and sloth when making something with some robustness and decent aesthetic. I could just chew up some card stock with scissors with a marker, but I wonder if there are a category of blank card that are slightly taller I could use in bulk to do this. I imagine they would hold up better than some cut cardboard that'll break down on the edges just from sitting there.
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# ? Feb 19, 2020 17:47 |
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BinaryDoubts posted:Fandom 2? Man, that shop feels like the platonic ideal of a grognard game store. Not a bad thing, but yeah, no way in a million years will they help you out with a missing part. Yeah grognard as gently caress - cramped store, faded boxes in the window, old guy with big beard at the counter reading the newspaper, absolutely no organization. Good stuff on the shelves though.
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# ? Feb 19, 2020 18:04 |
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This Asmodee corporate speak is infuriating.quote:Why are you removing the parts replacement program? Ah yes, the current experience of "email a photo, receive free replacement in mail a week later" will be improved when you take it back to the retailer (or ship it back), have the retailer do an RMA, wait until the RMA is approved, wait until the replacement copy arrives, and then exchange the copy for a new one without a missing component.
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# ? Feb 19, 2020 19:29 |
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Thanks for the write ups guys, it sounds interesting. I've been eyeing 1817 for a while because Azad raves about it so I was curious about the rest of the line of games AAG was putting out and when you brought up '49 and said how many times you had played it you got my eyes going. A game like this you could crank out on a week night sounds pretty nice so pretty tempting...
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# ? Feb 19, 2020 19:36 |
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# ? Jun 5, 2024 08:36 |
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Speaking of villains in board gaming, Villainous is getting a standalone version for Marvel villains, which will probably sell a billion copies. Pretty smart idea. The three confirmed villains so far are Thanos, Hela and Ultron, with two more to be revealed before it comes out this summer.
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# ? Feb 19, 2020 20:05 |