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ketchup vs catsup posted:instead of sandwich bags I use bags like these: Only 2mil bags? I’d just politely excuse myself from the table at that point.
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Dec 28, 2020 05:38
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I have a very specific rules question about Pandemic Legacy Season 0 that I can't find an answer for. I'm gonna spoil the hell out of it for obvious reasons. It's about a later part of the year. So we got through August and now we're at the point where you have to do the infiltrate action on the super secret board that's under the false-bottom of the box. The question is, in between games, what happens to the security markers? Are they supposed to reset every game or are we supposed to keep track and just set it up again the next time? I can't find any clarification, but I'm famously dumber than a box of hair.
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Dec 28, 2020 09:05
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Infinitum posted:Is 31 too many bags? Because that's how many I used for TI I think I used nearly 50 bags for Brew Crafters before I got the Game Trayzzzz
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Dec 28, 2020 11:37
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I can't ever imagine having that many baggies. I just like everything fitting nicely in an insert you guys.
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Dec 28, 2020 13:01
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Has anyone got to try Curious Cargo? It's a 2 player game from the guy who did Pipeline so I'm interested.
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Dec 28, 2020 15:10
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How is Lovecraft Letter? A game store near me has it for normal price still (it's either sold out everywhere else or going for silly money).
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Dec 28, 2020 17:16
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Xiahou Dun posted:I have a very specific rules question about Pandemic Legacy Season 0 that I can't find an answer for. I'm gonna spoil the hell out of it for obvious reasons. It's about a later part of the year. They reset. I'm not able to access the rulebook at the moment so I can't point out the exact wording, but they definitely reset.
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Dec 28, 2020 19:01
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I want to share some games that were new or new to me this year, I enjoyed basically all of them. Red7: Simple card game with a neat premise. Cards can be played for their value, or to change the current "rule" (e.g. "Only the red cards count" or "Most odd numbers", etc) The only meta-rule is that you must always end your turn in a winning position, or you're out. There's an advanced game that mixes things up for people who are used to it, but I didn't like the advanced rules much. I prefer it as a light filler game. The Crew: limited communication trick-taking game with a progression of "missions" each with progressively-more-challenging rules about who wins how many tricks. Really enjoying this one. It's great to play with the same people so that you can feel yourself get into the groove of play. It's one of those games that shows that it's still possible to create new and clever ways to use a deck of cards (and a few tokens). On a side note, I know some people consider the theme pasted on (and this ain't gonna change your minds) but to me I really do see it as a metaphor for performing complex procedural teamwork tasks where every important action needs to be planned and stuff like "oh I forgot the drill, lemme just run back and grab one" isn't an option. Clans of Caledonia: economical pieces-on-a-map game, with a simple "stock" market for buying and selling goods I love this one. It's not terribly complex rules-wise but the presence of the "stock market" is what really elevates the gameplay. It rewards good planning and execution as well as giving opportunities for pivoting and being mindful of what your opponents are doing. I like that there is little to no nickle-and-diming; every action is precious, doing something is usually clearly at the cost of something else. I like games with a noticeable gear shift in the gameplay -- where there's a distinct point at which players decide when to stop doing X and now begin Y, and judging when to do that is important. X helps you do Y better, but only Y helps you win. Well, Clans of Caledonia is chock full of that. Teotihuacan: modular board resource conversion game with progress bars & variable workers That brief gameplay summary sounds dry as hell but I really enjoyed Teotihuacan because it's full of interesting decisions. The only problem is that there is a lot to take in and there is also a fair bit of setup. Thankfully, the digital version on Boardgamearena is well done, because having the computer handle all the upkeep is what turned this from a "it'll hit the table a few times" to "I play this regularly". 7 Wonders Duel: multiplayer game distilled down to a 2 player focused experience 7 Wonders never did much for me but Duel is really nice; they focused the gameplay nicely and IMO improved the experience a lot in the process. It's also another game that benefits nicely from a digital implementation, because not only do you not need to bother with all the card layout setup, but the computer displays costs and deck contents (e.g. seen/not-seen cards) on the fly, including an option to display two card costs: cost for you vs cost for your opponent. Really nice quality of life improvements that help people play effectively without having to basically internalize the entire deck. Brass Birmingham: resource conversion, economic game that is all about sustainable growth (and you can't do everything so don't try) Only played with with 4 players pre-pandemic and loved it. Loads of interesting decisions, but your decisions are also bookended by the cards in your hand which narrows the decision space. Lots of decisions need to be done while being mindful of the future (hard to do because there is so much short term to focus on). The game is (simplistically) about the pivot away from moving goods by horse and wagon to modern stuff like trains. Navigating that reminds me a little bit of rusting trains in 18xx -- stuff from earlier in the game just straight up becomes obsolete, so it's important to balance. Star Trek Ascendancy: space empires with modular, player-created map and multiple paths to victory Played 3 and 4 player pre-pandemic. Really enjoyed it; I know licensed stuff is typically low bar but this has actual game guts inside it. I think the warp mechanic is particularly clever, and the map building is both functional and useful. The only thing that let me down a little is that the Vulcans have unknown victory conditions, so if you're playing with a bunch of new or new-ish people the Vulcans will most likely win out of the blue because no one knows what to watch out for & there are zero indicators of it. Take it from me: give everyone a heads up on the options Vulcans may have for victory (i.e. "Vulcans will need one of..."), otherwise the game's likely to end by unsatisfying surprise unless there are experienced players. Wingspan: less a "game" and more a chill, game-structured pastime My wife loves it, I enjoy it for what it is. You won this time, I won last time mainly because of a lucky bonus score draw, it's all good. Not a complicated game, so it's easy to pick up. Anyone in this thread probably doesn't need the 'how to play' tutorial stuff in the newer edition. Clever Hoch Drei: dice-rolling, combo-building progress bars (could also fairly call it a game-structured pastime rather than a proper game) My wife also loves this game and so do I. It just clicks for us, for whatever reason. We've played the poo poo out of all the previous Clever games, and Drei is more of the same. We find it fun to bang out a game during a meal or something and try to beat one's previous high score. Pandemic Legacy Season 2: narrative-focused co-op legacy game Like Season 1 (good), but also better polished overall. Really leans into the legacy aspects with stickers on the board and drawing routes, etc with a pen or marker. They have added several new mechanics, some of which are really clever. We played it once a week until we were done and really enjoyed doing so. I can't resist sharing my thoughts regarding "story" based games: A game whose story comes mainly from a baked-in narrative -- which can alter how the game works and affects whether or not players are doing the "right" thing -- will live or die by the quality of its writing. Not exposition/flavor text, but in how well that narrative is executed within the game, and how well it holds together. I don't think many games that attempt it pull it off, frankly. Narrative-based games could learn something from the Pandemic Legacies, because they do it well IMO. There is a shitload of work put into them, and it shows. Root (Digital) I've played Root digital FAR more than my tabletop version. I've grown to appreciate the game much more and be far more in tune with what's going on as a result. I suck at it, but it's nice to be able to just pick it up and play a quick game against players who, you know, actually know how to play already. Come to think of it that might be the best advantage of a digital version. You avoid the whole "I just want to play a chill game with cute animals, not have to read and follow simple in-order steps that are literally printed on my player card!" 
The Eyes Have It fucked around with this message at 20:48 on Dec 28, 2020 |
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Dec 28, 2020 20:42
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Got my aFfO insert printed and got it for christmas. Really loving this thing. Having everything stored in the main box feels amazing and the footprint with the insert is also much smaller, I can get the whole game on a 1*1 meter Ikea table :-D https://scontent-muc2-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...db1&oe=600FCF3B https://scontent-muc2-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...323&oe=600F35AF https://scontent-muc2-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...d48&oe=60119423 https://scontent-muc2-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...97e&oe=6010B693
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Dec 28, 2020 21:16
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How does Princes of Florence hold up now? Is it a relic of a older time, has it been outshone by newer games or still a classic?
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Dec 28, 2020 21:16
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Selecta84 posted:Got my aFfO insert printed and got it for christmas. Just curious which files you used and where you got it printed?
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Dec 28, 2020 21:42
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Street Horrrsing posted:How does Princes of Florence hold up now? Is it a relic of a older time, has it been outshone by newer games or still a classic? The big problem with Princes of Florence is proper Joker pricing. You play this with a mix of newbies and experienced. and if the experienced gets the Joker for cheap, it's all over.
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Dec 28, 2020 22:02
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Y'all convinced me to get the Norwegians expansion, is it possible to fit it in the base game box?
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Dec 28, 2020 22:13
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medchem posted:Just curious which files you used and where you got it printed? https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3708198 A friend of mine printed it for me. No changes to the files were made. Slimy Hog posted:Y'all convinced me to get the Norwegians expansion, is it possible to fit it in the base game box? The Insert fits the base game, Norwegians and the two mini expansions into the base game box. I think Jedit has condensed the three storage trays into two trays and that way is should fit. Selecta84 fucked around with this message at 22:17 on Dec 28, 2020 |
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Dec 28, 2020 22:13
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Yep. Takes some arranging but I have base/promo islands/expansion in there and it fully closes.
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Dec 28, 2020 22:14
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Our unexpected lightweight hit of the holidays is Elf: Journey from the North Pole. My partner picked it up on a whim because she’s a Farrell fan and we both liked the movie, but we both expected it to be cheesy and terrible. Turns out it’s from the surprisingly competent devs at Target’s in-house(?) game shop, Prospero Hall (Pan-Am, Horrified, Jaws, Bob Ross). The box claims that the goal of the game is to help Buddy find his dad, but that’s a gentle lie. Instead, the players are competing sight-seeing brainworms attempting to force Buddy to travel out of his way to visit as many of your secret goal landmarks as possible before he (maybe) makes his way to New York. The board hexagonal with the starting North Pole location at the top point, NYC at the bottom, and six landmarks arranged near the edges. Players take turns moving Buddy along tiny path cards chosen from their hand.  Each player has a card with three secret landmark goals (like Narwhal Pal). VPs are scored at the end of the game for each location Buddy travelled through, with the first two locations visited scoring 3 points for anyone with matching goals and the last two locations scoring 1 and 0 points. There’s also four gingerbread man tiles scattered about the board that score the player that runs Buddy over them 1-3 points, and sending Buddy to NYC scores you 2 points and ends the game. There’s a decent number of interesting strategic choices for such a light game. Players can use as many path cards as they want (at least one) during their turn but always draw two more at the end, so you can send Buddy toward your goals (or away from opponents goals) now or bank cards for a big turn later. Path cards are also open information so you can see what your opponents will have available on their turn. Goals are secret, but the direction you steer Buddy gives away information. The game ends when the path card deck runs out or Buddy lands on NYC, so if you think you’re close to winning you can try to beeline for the Big Apple and get those extra two points. And of course if you miscalculate the path you might just be giving those points to an opponent. We played at 3 and I suspect that’s the best player count. At two, you’ll either share goals or not and I suspect the resulting stalemate will mostly come down to the luck of the draw in the path deck. At four, Buddy will potentially move a lot before your turn comes around again. At three, typically two players will share goals meaning you end up with temporary alliances as Buddy approaches landmarks. Like any open-movement game, lining up the path cards can be fiddly, so aid definitely avoid playing with folks bothered by imprecision. Unthinking players can also make life easier for the following player by setting them up to easily access bonus gingerbread men or failing to steer away from goals, so it might be a frustrating game to play with mixed skill levels if folks take it too seriously. On the plus side, it’s a quick 10-20 minutes per game. Overall, I was impressed and I’m keeping it around as a light filler (especially at 3). It’s nicely interactive without being overly take-that. Slimy Hog posted:Y'all convinced me to get the Norwegians expansion, is it possible to fit it in the base game box? It’s definitely possible, at least minus the instructions. I used this method minus rubber bands. Philistines! Stickman fucked around with this message at 21:41 on Dec 31, 2020 |
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Dec 29, 2020 02:26
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Played outfoxed with my 4 yr old. Good kids game ; it’s like baby clue.
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Dec 29, 2020 02:35
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Selecta84 posted:The Insert fits the base game, Norwegians and the two mini expansions into the base game box. I took photos of how I did it last month and posted them in the thread. I don't post pics often, so ? my posts and you'll find it easily - it's on page 74 of my posts. Not seeing the Harvest expansion in that insert, by the way. Where is it? Jedit fucked around with this message at 03:28 on Dec 29, 2020 |
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Dec 29, 2020 03:25
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Jedit posted:I took photos of how I did it last month and posted them in the thread. I don't post pics often, so ? my posts and you'll find it easily - it's on page 74 of my posts. In the same vein here's a condensed tile tray setup too that I kept in tabs for anyone interested: https://i.imgur.com/AoU4NLr.png https://i.imgur.com/VOF8AzO.png https://i.imgur.com/VNNF6Ms.png
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Dec 29, 2020 04:16
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My Kickstarter version of A War of Whispers Collector's Edition arrived today I'll post some pics in the KS thread later, but for the moment take a look at how nicely packed in it was.  FulsomFrank posted:In the same vein here's a condensed tile tray setup too that I kept in tabs for anyone interested: Yeah those were my pics from when I was toxx probed  You 100% can have AFFO+Norwegians+Mini Expansions all in the 1 box with some creative packing. Doesn't feel forced in or like your ruining the box either.
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Dec 29, 2020 04:30
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Jedit posted:Not seeing the Harvest expansion in that insert, by the way. Where is it? It's in the two small trays with the elks. They are placed in top of the 1 and 2 coin pieces.
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Dec 29, 2020 07:11
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Oh sweet, thanks for all the resources!
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Dec 29, 2020 07:53
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The_Doctor posted:How is Lovecraft Letter? A game store near me has it for normal price still (it's either sold out everywhere else or going for silly money). Cthulhu is like nerd bacon.
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Dec 29, 2020 11:37
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Don't @ me about wanting to pick-up Infinity Gauntlet Love Letter
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Dec 29, 2020 11:44
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Lovecraft Letter has an extra set of cards for each value which has both the normal effects and a much stronger effect depending on whether you have previously played one of those cards.
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Dec 29, 2020 12:03
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It's still Loveletter but the other deck adds some interesting interactions. It does like, double the rules so it probably makes it less suitable for non-boardgamers but it's a fine filler. Also, production and art is very nice. They give you big poker chips!
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Dec 29, 2020 14:03
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Ausgoons - Does anyone have any experience with Polymorph Games down in Tasmania? Their payment options are PayPal or Bank Transfer, which is.. odd.
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Dec 29, 2020 14:46
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The_Doctor posted:How is Lovecraft Letter? A game store near me has it for normal price still (it's either sold out everywhere else or going for silly money). I think it's excellent. For starters, since there're more cards in the deck, it supports 5/6 players compared to Love Letter's maximum of 4, but does so without extending the length of each round by too much (I've found that e.g. Love Letter Premium's 5-8 player rules makes the rounds a little too long). The round-by-round metagame is more interesting than Love Letter's, since there are: a. "sane" and "insane" points, scored depending on which cards you've played throughout the round, and of which you need 2 of the former or 3 of the latter to win the game b. a fairly difficult to pull off "win the entire game" move. So rather than fairly consistently attacking whoever's in the lead, players need to think about who's ahead on each type of point, what type of point each player would score if they won a round, and who's in a position to potentially snatch the entire game. I have had a few issues with the components, which may or may not be resolved based on the edition that you buy: The game comes with tarot-sized card sleeves for the tarot-sized cards, but after some time (don't recall specifically, but want to guess around a year?) the design peeled off of the sleeves and left a reflective silver back. Looks dope as hell but makes the game quite difficult to play so eventually had to toss them for transparent sleeves. The rulebook is just a smidge on the atrocious side. If you've already seen the general flow of how the game works, the specifics that we had trouble with: 1. Drawing the sane 8 (The Necronomicon) during a sanity check kills you. 2. The insane 0 (Mi-Go Braincase), which starts each round in the centre, appears to have a similar effect to the sane 8 effect but, actually, only kills the holder if played during their own turn for its effect, but not when forcibly discarded using the sane 5 effect. 3. Playing the insane 8 (Cthulhu)'s insane effect (to immediately win the entire game) requires you to already have two insane cards played in front of you at the beginning of your turn. This is relevant in cases where you can play multiple cards per turn, such as when using the insane effect of either the insane 2 (Golden Mead) or insane 5 (Mi-Go)).
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Dec 29, 2020 21:29
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Infinitum posted:Don't @ me about wanting to pick-up Infinity Gauntlet Love Letter I did and was disappointed. It's one v all and super unbalanced, which would be fine if it wasn't a team based game unlike normal love letter.
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Dec 29, 2020 21:52
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Infinitum posted:Ausgoons - Does anyone have any experience with Polymorph Games down in Tasmania? I don't, unfortunately. However I mean, it IS Tasmania, so to me that makes the unusual-ness of the store much more understandable. Anyway, seems like they might be relatively new? Only a few reviews online, which seem generally positive. I'll have to keep an eye on them, in the future
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Dec 29, 2020 21:57
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I never really got the appeal of love letter
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Dec 30, 2020 00:34
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Slimy Hog posted:I never really got the appeal of love letter Nice light bluff/deduction game that can play 2-5 for in between other games or when you mostly want to just shoot the poo poo. Minimal action paralysis issues, and incredibly low stakes.
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Dec 30, 2020 00:44
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PJOmega posted:Nice light bluff/deduction game that can play 2-5 for in between other games or when you mostly want to just shoot the poo poo. Minimal action paralysis issues, and incredibly low stakes. Yep, this. It's also good to play when you have a few people, while you're waiting for others to arrive. Solid little filler, imo
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Dec 30, 2020 00:53
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We used to play Love Letter while waiting to start 18xx games. High randomness games are fine as long as they are short.
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Dec 30, 2020 01:08
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I probably should save said "saw the appeal" instead of "understood". I get why other people like it (the reasons y'all listed) but I'd rather just chat with my friends during downtime rather than play love letter. Edit: maybe I just don't like love letter 
Slimy Hog fucked around with this message at 01:45 on Dec 30, 2020 |
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Dec 30, 2020 01:42
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I now would play field of cloth of gold as my "oh that table is about to finish, let's play a quick 2p while we wait" game.
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Dec 30, 2020 01:45
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Slimy Hog posted:I never really got the appeal of love letter It blew up at essen the first year Japon Brand had a booth because 1) Japanese designers were pretty unknown to the eurogame crowd at the time and 2) the microgame craze hadn't become a thing yet. So the idea of "an entire board game in just 18 cards" blew minds. Then AEG picked up the game and it was an unusual success in the shadow of their dying ccg brand, so they drove it into the ground publishing 5000 different reskins and made everyone sick of it. I'm pretty sure the modern consensus on Love Letter these days is "sure, it's fine?"
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Dec 30, 2020 01:46
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I played it once as filler and my general opinion of it was "this is stupid". I've played it a few more times since then though, and while I would never pick it as a main event, it's grown on me a little bit as a filler.
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Dec 30, 2020 01:53
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The Baron is my favourite card in anything, ever.
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Dec 30, 2020 02:04
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Sorry, I can't remember who it was suggested playing Ecosystem if you like Wingspan, thanks! Got it my Wife for Christmas and it's great! I kind of have no idea why you were saying it's the same game but better, I think it's wildly different, but certainly it's a great suggestion! It's a really nice little drafting game, very simple, you draft a card and place it adjacent to another card you've played, and have to make a 4x5 grid. That's literally the entire game, each different type of card scores differently in easy to grasp ways (Bees like meadows, so they score if they're next to them, Bears like Trout who like Rivers etc) but with JUST enough complications to make it interesting and different every time, and 'just one more'ish. Had a couple of games of Dune Imperium now too, both two player though, obviously. I'm a huge Dune nerd, so was always going to get it, but my wife (who is kinda loving sick of my Dune poo poo) is really into it, because it IS actually great! It's a deck builder with a market row, but wait! It's not poo poo! You do worker placement stuff before buying from the market row, but if you want you can stop doing worker placement stuff early to buy. So if there's something you MUST have, you can, but at a (strategic) cost! The game needs 3 or 4 players, so at 2 you get a kind of AI player controlled with a deck. Normally I hate that kind of stuff, it feels sort of fake somehow, like, not the real experience, but actually we both said, it's actually great, to the point I'm not sure I'd prefer it with 3 human players! (I mean, obviously, seeing other humans again, I CRAVE! but from a technical standpoint). I think that's pretty impressive. The only game I've ever played Solo beyond learning the rules is Spirit Island, and I'm definitely going to make this my second. There's just something really compelling about it's intertwining mechanics and resource management. I'm still very much in the honeymoon phase, but it definitely feels fresh, fun and fair!
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Dec 30, 2020 02:09
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