|
Mayveena posted:awesome trains post Didn't you say you played 30 like every week for a year back then? Was it a desire to focus on it, lack of other 18xx on your radar, other players' preferences?
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2020 18:41
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 13, 2024 05:42 |
|
|
silvergoose posted:Didn't you say you played 30 like every week for a year back then? Was it a desire to focus on it, lack of other 18xx on your radar, other players' preferences? We had been playing '29 for a couple of years and then we got '30 and played it like every weekend for about four years. There was nothing else we wanted to play. Within that scope of time other 'xx's were released but we didn't like them. Then the group broke up and that was that.
|
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2020 18:58
|
|
|
Mayveena posted:Also I remember the last time I played '30 we played it on my laptop. What app/script/program would have enabled that? (it wasn't the DOS version) Because if I ever play '30 again, that's how I'm playing. RR18XX is a rules implemented website. I don't know if it supports hotsesting so it may not have been what you used. The other big one for pbf is Board18 and a spreadsheet. I think people mention gamebox too, lord knows what that is. For augmented play, Survey Party is the route calculator we use. It may not be the best, but it has a wide range of games implemented. It may also be the best, I don't know. I'm also a convert (after one play) to a spreadsheet for calculating payouts. Google Sheets is free and can handle it fine. Also, what don't you like about the Lookout edition? Complaints I've heard are the double sided trains, tiny logos, a colour switch, a missing OO, and of course the fancy track. None of which is enough to get my blood up but I've never seen an Avalon Hill copy.
|
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2020 18:58
|
|
|
Going through the Mayfair edition as an 18xx newb and coming to terms with the double sided trains and other weird combining of different versions and rulesets (because Mayfair tried to "fix" 1830) that share a spectrum of some but not all components was something I found personally pretty frustrating but it's playable.
|
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2020 19:12
|
|
|
Half the rules in the Lookout version are for dumb variants nobody plays. Rr18 allows for hot seating if you just turn on master command mode the entire time
|
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2020 19:30
|
|
|
Maybe I’m growing soft in my old age, but I’m feeling less-and-less interested in cutthroat competitive games. Even if something catches my eye, I remember that most of the time myself or those in my group are not going to be up for something tense and combative, especially if it requires deep understanding of the systems. Seems a shame to write off so many games out there that look and sound really fun - I really want a crack at Watergate, for example, or Root- but lately it seems everyone would rather play something where we aren’t trying to be the one to come out on top unless it’s a silly, “yeah, the points don’t really matter” kind of party game. I really don’t know if it’s a phase, or the group dynamics, or just a natural change in taste, but it’s a bummer to see a well-developed, well-produced game and think “that’s great, but I don’t see myself really having fun with it.”
|
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2020 19:47
|
|
|
vegetables posted:The first time we played GWT it was as three people new to the game and I think we were maybe four hours in and halfway through before abandoning it in despair? But that’s partially because we were trying to learn using the manual that hates newbies as much as it hates white space Once upon a time in a board game cafe , my friend and I taught ourselves Race for the Galaxy by making essentially random moves with no thought towards winning or any kind of strategy. It actually worked okay since when we referenced the manual we were only trying to comprehend the one action right in front of us rather than grok the whole thing. Obviously GWT has way more moving parts than RftG, but the process of doing anything -> "Was that legal" -> "OK, so what did I actually do" might help with the learning process.
|
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2020 19:59
|
|
|
Mayveena posted:The 18xx day went well. There were three of us, me, a friend who is very experienced in 'xx and the newb. I did decide to go with '46, since it's much closer to '30 and '30 was what he wanted to play as his quest to play the 200 top games on BGG (yes he knows it changes but he's working with that). He had watched a '46 vid but he said it did not prepare him for the game play. He stayed in the game, had to issue a decent amount of shares to avoid the train rush but that happens sometimes. He lost by twice as many points as the winner but he was fine with that. That also could have been a moderator. Probably Lemmi’s?
|
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2020 20:30
|
|
|
Minus1Minus1 posted:Maybe I’m growing soft in my old age, but I’m feeling less-and-less interested in cutthroat competitive games. Even if something catches my eye, I remember that most of the time myself or those in my group are not going to be up for something tense and combative, especially if it requires deep understanding of the systems. All of those are a factor. We went from a more casual atmosphere where the heaviest game was Terra Mystica but once introduced to 18xx and a divorce caused a split in the group it’s now a tight nit atmosphere that only wants to play the heaviest, most competitive titles where the lightest game is Container.
|
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2020 20:40
|
|
|
All the complaints folks have mentioned here are my complaints. I guess if I hadn't played the AH version so much I wouldn't mind the Mayfair version but it's (to me at least) a big comedown. Thanks for the suggestions for the online, I'll check them out. I like to play mostly heavy games but I'm fine with coming up for air from time to time 
|
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2020 20:56
|
|
|
Dream Home remains one of the nicest games I own. I also got King Thief Minister to the table with a group of kids and non-gamers, and they wanted to play again immediately. gently caress the Iranian sanctions is all I can say.
|
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2020 20:56
|
|
|
Minus1Minus1 posted:Maybe I’m growing soft in my old age, but I’m feeling less-and-less interested in cutthroat competitive games. Even if something catches my eye, I remember that most of the time myself or those in my group are not going to be up for something tense and combative, especially if it requires deep understanding of the systems. For us, it's been a combination of two things: large gatherings where we play 7+ player games to avoid 'excluding' anyone and a few players who veto complex games. The solution has been to forcibly break into 3-4 player games whenever feasible and to have smaller game gatherings more frequently with more curated guest lists. The latter is possible since none of us have kids or many other big responsibilities, but we also can't get together weekly like it sounds like most of the thread can either. It can't just be about excluding some people, it has to be about getting the goddamn games played.
|
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2020 21:32
|
|
|
Mayveena posted:
Was it Rails? https://rails.sourceforge.io
|
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2020 23:03
|
|
|
The Journey Fraternity posted:Was it Rails? https://rails.sourceforge.io Yep! Thanks!
|
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2020 00:13
|
|
|
Update: since someone here mention Mah Jong Soul was one of the better ways to play online I can't stop playing anime Mah Jong. Send help.
|
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2020 00:15
|
|
|
M a x posted:Update: since someone here mention Mah Jong Soul was one of the better ways to play online I can't stop playing anime Mah Jong. That was either me or Stelas It's bonkers good. It's tenhou but in english and the anime girls are fine, whatever But riichi!!! So good. I'm silvergoose on there, I'm curious if I've played you or Stelas...up to expert, in the gold room.
|
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2020 00:40
|
|
|
silvergoose posted:I'm silvergoose on there, I'm curious if I've played you or Stelas...up to expert, in the gold room. I can assure you we haven't played each other. I'm very garbage at the game still (here's hoping I can make adept soon).
|
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2020 00:54
|
|
|
Mayveena posted:There were three of us, me, a friend who is very experienced in 'xx and the newb. Thanks for the AAR but um what kind of person has time to play 1846 and 1830 back to back but not time to type out "18XX"? 
|
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2020 01:14
|
|
|
Got a chance to play a couple games of King's Dilemma this weekend. Fun stuff! Had a really good time playing it and definitely going to try to play more soon. The only hitches were the scoring and general endgame wrap-up, that's the only part of the game that feels a bit awkward. You'd think the transition from one game to another would be smoother than that. But, I think a lot of that could be rectified with everyone just having some paper to write their scores down. The other thing was, it seems pretty easy for games to end early? And by that I mean, the stability scale getting to one end way faster than anyone wants. It seems like if you vote consistently positively or negatively a few times, that can get you to abdication very quickly. I guess that's one of the things you can vote on though, trying to get a decision passed that will center the scale. But that can be tough when the dilemma has outcomes that could both tip the scales even more. I don't know, maybe we were doing something wrong there. But like I said, overall a very fun time.
|
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2020 03:46
|
|
|
Got in a couple of 2p games of Wingspan over the weekend. I actually really enjoyed it. Mechanically it's not amazing, but the art is good and it felt like a pretty low pressure game. Also, I recommend a house rule that players must read the flavor text on the bird cards out loud when they play them.
|
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2020 21:55
|
|
|
Funzo posted:Got in a couple of 2p games of Wingspan over the weekend. I actually really enjoyed it. Mechanically it's not amazing, but the art is good and it felt like a pretty low pressure game. Also, I recommend a house rule that players must read the flavor text on the bird cards out loud when they play them. Hoping to play March of the Ants tomorrow. Looking forward to taking over a meadow.
|
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2020 22:59
|
|
|
Minus1Minus1 posted:Maybe I’m growing soft in my old age, but I’m feeling less-and-less interested in cutthroat competitive games. Even if something catches my eye, I remember that most of the time myself or those in my group are not going to be up for something tense and combative, especially if it requires deep understanding of the systems. I would be inteested in hearing about games that your group currently enjoys.
|
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2020 23:04
|
|
|
Went to a friend's birthday party yesterday, and at her request we played her new (well, un-opened; the game is about 10 years old) copy of Rails of New England (4 players). She was ready to get it to the table and see how it played. By the time we were done she was ready to be rid of it. The game just has problems everywhere. For starters, the printed rulebook isn't well written, and is missing key features such as a list of components. We had a pile of cardboard bits and some wooden train pieces that we had no idea what they were for. The game board is also poorly laid out. For those who haven't seen it, RoNE is a lot like Power Grid, in that you have a bunch of cities spread across the map, with varying link costs between them. Unlike Power Grid, however, the names of the cities you're building depots in actually matters, which meant we were constantly hunting all over to find the specific city we needed for a card we'd built or a special route we wanted to hook up. And the number of cities and links on the board is frankly ludicrous (God help you if you're trying to calculate the cheapest link cost to an important city on the other side of the map). Rules questions and graphic design aside, the most disappointing part was that the game just wasn't fun. There's a public card draft every round, with early cards having wild and nonsensical differences in power, to the point that the game felt more dependent on luck than strategy. Speaking of Power Grid, this game has none of the interesting decisions of that; you have no reason to build depots in another player's territory since the map is so huge and each player's starter cards are in different states, and turn order just passes clockwise rather than being based on who's built up the most stuff. One player in our game got behind early on income, and loans in the game are locked behind a random event that didn't pop until the end of the third round for us, so we were there building up our infrastructure while he was literally passing his turns. He only caught up because everyone got to a point where we'd all optimized our tableaus and had nothing left to do, and at that point it was just a question of who wanted to spend the money (and by extension, victory points) to cause the end of the game to trigger. I think I came in second? But none of us cared enough to check.
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2020 07:16
|
|
|
Ugh that sounds excruciating. Reminds me a little of the first edition Robinson Crusoe which had a terrible, terrible rulebook. Full of terms like "put the matching token in the appropriate space" without ever explaining what any of those were. Just shameful. People will say that the game itself is bad but the rulebook was really very poorly written all on its own. And this was back when I was more enthusiastic and easily sat down to crack my knuckles with a new game and a blank Sunday all ahead of me. Nowadays a game has a so much smaller window to impress me with what it has to offer. I'm far less patient with bad execution and rough edges in general.
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2020 08:39
|
|
|
Cracking open the shrink and playing a boardgame sight-unseen is always excruciating - at the very least someone should have read the rules beforehand!
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2020 08:45
|
|
|
Gonna get to play 1830 this Saturday. Any beginners tips? Thinking about watching this a few times to prepare a bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dtNSyjyPgs&t=269s
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2020 09:55
|
|
|
Quality of life tips: Use chips unless you absolutely cannot help it. I've got a terrible memory so I place one dollar on each group of shares to remind myself that I took its payment. Record revenues from like, the 5T onwards. The routes are kinda set and you don't have to recalculate it every time, though of course be aware if it gets severed by an unfriendly token. For floating a co, you can spend 6x the par price all at once and take to your hand 60% of the shares, placing them face down. Then on subsequent turns you can flip them to buy it. If someone else buys in, just throw one of your shares back and refund yourself. Strategy tips; For valuing the private companies, the more expensive they are the better they are, except the most expensive of all which is kinda junk. This is because you can sell all but the last one for 2x face price, so even ignoring revenue and powers, people are buying like, $70, $110, $160 at a later point in the game. If you're not earning the most money at the moment, buy trains. Withold to buy trains if you must. The game can drag if people are content w/ their revenue, and are happily losing the game while adding hours to the playtime.
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2020 11:16
|
|
|
Gonna try to keep that in mind. Hope the video gives me a bit more context cause without a reference some of that stuff doesn't seem to make too much sense to me but yeah, I have never really played a train game before. Thanks
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2020 11:27
|
|
|
I would say the last one is important, the rest you can forget about.
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2020 11:30
|
|
|
Ok then. Thanks
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2020 11:33
|
|
|
Selecta84 posted:Gonna try to keep that in mind. just buy more trains (dont buy 4 * 2T), if you're trying to figure out what to do, engineer a situation such you can buy more trains, During the private auction, start by bidding 195 on C&A
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2020 12:05
|
|
|
Duly noted. Thanks
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2020 12:07
|
|
|
Phelddagrif posted:Went to a friend's birthday party yesterday, and at her request we played her new (well, un-opened; the game is about 10 years old) copy of Rails of New England (4 players). She was ready to get it to the table and see how it played. Ohhh. Oh I'm so sorry. I haven't played rails but I know the designer, and also I know a game of it gets played basically every year at the con I go to. It does not sound like a game to learn from the rules, no. And the events sounded pretty random from what I knew. I had and have no interest in ever playing it, mind you.
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2020 13:21
|
|
|
Selecta84 posted:Gonna get to play 1830 this Saturday. There's a good chance you've already seen it but this video series is worth watching. It's by the same person who did that 1830 video.
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2020 13:32
|
|
|
Doctor Spaceman posted:There's a good chance you've already seen it but this video series is worth watching. It's by the same person who did that 1830 video. Thanks for reminding me. I did indeed saw one of Ambies videos but didn't watch the whole series. But I might now if I can manage it until Saturday.
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2020 13:35
|
|
|
I have a couple of questions for the Civ veterans in this thread: - Do you guys deliberately hold onto trade goods until you've got a full set or do you trade them in when you've got enough to buy the tech(s) you're aiming for? - Do you deliberately avoid trading with the people in the lead or see opponents doing the same to you if you're doing well? - Do you ever deliberately try and give a nasty calamity via trade to the leader(s) or an aggressive neighbour or are you just happy to offload it? - Do you think it's better to keep peace between you and your neighbour than start fights/throw units at them to prevent city construction? Is the random trade good and treasury from sacking a city worth the investment in resources to make it happen? The more we play the more the meta seems to evolve. War techs used to be rarely grabbed but we're seeing a marked increase in people picking them up, especially for the sweet sweet last move abilities. People are starting to invest in the Naval Warfare, Engineering, Cloth-making, Astronavigation techs to build city destroying torpedo boats. In short, the game is getting meaner. EDIT: and just thinking about it now, are tech buys via AST? Because I think we're going to start seeing people paying really close attention to what the people ahead of them are buying. EDIT 2: sorry, I meant Mega/WE but Adv Civ works too. FulsomFrank fucked around with this message at 17:42 on Mar 3, 2020 |
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2020 17:21
|
|
|
FulsomFrank posted:I have a couple of questions for the Civ veterans in this thread: Are you talking about the original Civ? Advanced Civ? Mega Civ?
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2020 17:31
|
|
|
FulsomFrank posted:I have a couple of questions for the Civ veterans in this thread: It depends. If I need need metalworking to survive, or I can just afford astronomy as Africa, or fives are coming up and I'm Egypt and need engineering, or I don't want to bump in the ast. Those are some situations to pay now instead of save. Usually I want to save, though if I'm getting to the end of a set, it may be hard to get someone to part with that last one, so it's not as worth it. Definitely try to hit leaders or neighbors if you can, though I won't try not to trade them away. Too, they might give you one back. Depends on which one I have, too. Epidemic uggh. Avoid wars, but make it clear that if territory is super there, you might toss extra units into it. Hard to judge this one, really. Don't go overboard but don't box yourself in with unenforceable peace treaties. Tech is...ast or reverse ast I think, can't remember right now. But yeah pay attention, knowing astronomy just came out may mean you want your metalworking this turn.
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2020 17:33
|
|
|
Mayveena posted:Are you talking about the original Civ? Advanced Civ? Mega Civ? Given the post, I'd assume either civ or adv? I would say advice is similar for both... edit: wait no it's gotta be mega, naval warfare ain't in civ or adv silvergoose fucked around with this message at 17:42 on Mar 3, 2020 |
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2020 17:34
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 13, 2024 05:42 |
|
|
For the 1830 route stuff, I've found it helpful once the routes have stabilized to write them out on a piece of paper so I can make adjustments for the occasional upgraded city that increases the value. I know I wrote a post with newbie advice before but I'm on my phone so I'm not going to dig it out of my post history.
|
|
#
?
Mar 3, 2020 19:13
|
|
