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Eldritch Horror is a weird one because it has 4 different Old Ones out the box, so scenario-wise it's quite good, and it has a decent number of different characters too. It does however have a pretty small number of event cards, to the point where if you've played the game once or twice you've probably seen every guard. Not the end of the world given scenario variety, but you might feel it starts to get samey. Standard advice is if you're gonna get it, make sure to get the first expansion Forsaken Lore at the same time. Includes a new scenario and a shitload of cards for the base game ones.
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Oct 15, 2021 15:30
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LifeLynx posted:Arkham Horror 3rd Edition I don't know about the others, but out of the box Mansions of Madness has 4 scenarios on the app, 3 DLC scenarios you have to pay to unlock, and a bunch of fan-made scenarios of varying quality. https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1916430/fan-made-scenarios-reviews-valkyrie/page/1
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Oct 15, 2021 15:49
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Mansions isn't super replayable with just the core box - the expansions don't just add new scenarios, they also remix other ones. There are at least three variants on the first scenario if you have all the big box expansions (and I believe more if you have tiles from 1st edition or the small box expansions that reuse 1st ed tiles). It's a great game though.
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Oct 15, 2021 16:08
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I can't speak for the others but I've gotten a fair amount of play out of the core box of 3rd edition. Though I will say it's a little odd in that it feels more like a vehicle to an event rather than the event itself. My group has enjoyed the game but most of the fun seems to come from jokes that develop while playing rather than the game itself. Like how I got perpetually lost in a cave (failing skill test) or how one of my friends ended up becoming rich by dealing in corpses (event cards).
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Oct 15, 2021 16:52
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I haven't played Arkham 3rd Ed but of the others I'd say Death May Die probably has the most replayability and is definitely the most fun game. It has six scenarios out of the box and I think about twelve investigators plus two great old ones, but beyond that you also get a random insanity card each game of which there are maybe ten or so and that alone can significantly change how the game plays out. It is however a very different game. Eldritch and Mansions of Madness are very much about creating a narrative experience (Mansions particularly) whereas Death May Die has about three paragraphs of narrative over an entire game and is 100% about the mechanics instead - which are very satisfying but might not be what you're looking for if you're comparing it to those other options.
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Oct 15, 2021 18:20
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I vote for Cthulhu Death May Die, but understand it's nothing like the others. It's a dungeon crawler that answers the question of what would happen if Rasputin teamed up with Indiana Jones to fight Hastur and treats that with all the gravitas necessary. It's basically a Cthulhu game for people who are sick of Cthulhu games. It's also shockingly sound mechanically both for CMOM and for Cthulhu games.
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Oct 15, 2021 22:18
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The Arkham files games all run extremely long, which is the problem only fixed by the card game (which is more expensive). Death may die is a tighter experience and always gets hectic at the end, it’s very hard to steamroll the boss because your insanity powers your best abilities.
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Oct 15, 2021 23:57
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Played two new games today: Ark Nova, 4 players, 4 hours with explanation Really, really enjoyed it. The "take and action at strength x, then move it to the strength 1 slot" feels good, timing is everything and x-markers (which boost your strength temporarily) are so useful. Everyone played different, going for small animals, birds, apes and such. Having to choose which cards to upgrade varied from player to player and every upgrade has a payoff, none felt mandatory. Everyones engine felt different and the low interaction (snapping away cards and trying to be first for the species protection cards, which give lots of points) was alright for this kind of game. Everone had fun and wants to play again to see all the different kind of animals and sponsors. We played thorugh 1/3 of the deck and no card seemed really that bad or useless. And the art is fine, it feels apropriate for the theme of the game and looks a lot better live. Messina 1347, 4 players, 3 hours with explanation Another great game. Again, everone tried something different and we were all pretty close pointswise at the end. The puzzle aspect on your estate board is quite satisfying and the place first, move later aspect of your workers is really tricky. I got stuck in one end of the map and had to take an action or two which were not that efficent but if I had payed more attention that would have been a smaller problem. Getting all the right citizens for repopulating the city was also a problem early on but it worked later on. Again, everyone hat fun and wants to play again with the asymmetrical boards. Will definitly try the solo modes for both games
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Oct 16, 2021 00:10
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How similar does Ark Nova feel to something like Terraforming Mars?
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Oct 16, 2021 00:41
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Golden Bee posted:The Arkham files games all run extremely long, which is the problem only fixed by the card game (which is more expensive). Death may die is a tighter experience and always gets hectic at the end, it’s very hard to steamroll the boss because your insanity powers your best abilities. Ah that's the information I didn't know I needed. I love the AH card game, but even though I could play it with my fiance, she will never get into the metagame of upgrading your deck between games. Which... I'm not sure how much of a problem that really is in the grand scheme of things, but I was looking for a more self-contained experience. Death May Die sounds more what I'm after, even though I'll miss the characters and atmosphere from Arkham Files.
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Oct 16, 2021 00:45
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Ohthehugemanatee posted:I vote for Cthulhu Death May Die, but understand it's nothing like the others. It's a dungeon crawler that answers the question of what would happen if Rasputin teamed up with Indiana Jones to fight Hastur and treats that with all the gravitas necessary. As someone who has played an awful (awful) lot of the various Arkham games in all incarnations, very much agree with this. C:DMD is really the only eldritch horror game I'm excited to play now. It simplifies all the not fun stuff, and expands all the fun stuff. My experience with the lcg was very very bad, but I understand it was an outlier. I'd play that again I guess.
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Oct 16, 2021 00:49
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KongGeorgeVII posted:How similar does Ark Nova feel to something like Terraforming Mars? Never played TfM so I can't answer that one.
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Oct 16, 2021 01:25
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LifeLynx posted:Which... I'm not sure how much of a problem that really is in the grand scheme of things, but I was looking for a more self-contained experience. Death May Die sounds more what I'm after, even though I'll miss the characters and atmosphere from Arkham Files. DMD is definitely great for this. Setup is not too bad, and games run 60-90 minutes for us generally. I get missing the Arkham Files characters and atmosphere, but the CDMD are honestly just really entertaining and create great emergent narrative even though there's basically no flavour text. Playing a psychopathic fireball-wielding child who falls down to take a nap and search for treasure in a room full of monsters when things get too scary, or a shotgun-toting nun who periodically flips out and murders everything in the nearest room is just ridiculous silly fun.
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Oct 16, 2021 02:25
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I brought Star Wars Rebellion and the expansion, should I combine them right off the bat or am I going to screw things up if I don't play just the base game first?
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Oct 16, 2021 09:27
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I'd say combine them. The revised combat rules are such a step up.
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Oct 16, 2021 09:52
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I bought Coldwater Crown for a friend who is big into fishing and we're gonna play it in a few weeks. I hope it's good. 
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Oct 16, 2021 10:57
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Selecta84 posted:Played two new games today: What's the interaction level of Messina?
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Oct 16, 2021 16:46
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LifeLynx posted:Ah that's the information I didn't know I needed. I love the AH card game, but even though I could play it with my fiance, she will never get into the metagame of upgrading your deck between games. The new expansion has a card that rewards you for only upgrading, not changing your deck. You could build a Diana deck with her, and do an entire campaign and only swap one or two cards, and just upgrade everything else in there. (adding a tarot and I’ve had worse(2), you can even upgrade Dodge now.)
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Oct 16, 2021 17:15
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Is Caverna fun if I like Agricola? I know a dude who can sell me the base game + expansion (both mint) for cheap.
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Oct 16, 2021 18:07
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Terminally Bored posted:Is Caverna fun if I like Agricola? I know a dude who can sell me the base game + expansion (both mint) for cheap. If what you like about Agricola is the constant struggle to get things done while scrounging up enough food to feed your family, Caverna won't scratch that itch. If you just want to build an engine without your face getting ground into the dirt, it's a lot of fun. The upgrades in Caverna are a bit more front-loaded since there's nearly 50 tiles that are available to everyone instead of a hand of 14 cards to look at.
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Oct 16, 2021 19:29
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Yeah Agricola is a drowning simulator, whereas Caverna is much more of a "dig and grow out your home" simulator.
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Oct 16, 2021 19:37
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Megasabin posted:What's the interaction level of Messina? It's more indirect then direct. You are competing for the best spots so most of the interaction comes from trying to be on top for turn order on the next turn. Taking a spot your opponent wanted can really mess up your plan and an alternative can be hard to come by, especially if you have backed yourself into a corner and don't have enough coins to get out of it. So manipulating the 4 tracks (points, fighting the plague, overseers and lieutenants) is important and that will influence the interaction the most. But what I like is that more actions were not necessarily better. I didn't get a fourth a fifth action pawn and came in second with like 6 points behind and if I have payed more attention to my movement I would have come in first.
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Oct 16, 2021 22:54
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 The island's still healthy, see? Says so right there.
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Oct 17, 2021 04:48
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 This is how I'm going to spend my Sunday arvo. Leaving Earth with the Outer Planets expansion. I do have the Stations expansion too but I might come to grips with this first before I add even more.
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Oct 17, 2021 05:33
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Played two games of Ride the Rails tonight. An impulse buy after visiting a game store for the first time in 2 years. The game plays 6 rounds involving 3 phases: phase 1 you take one stock in a railroad company (color) of your choice, phase 2 everyone builds any combination of up to 4/5/8 (5/4/3 player game) train tracks in colors they own stock in, then phase 3 each player chooses a passenger to travel the railroad, scoring you a point for each city they visit and scoring everyone points based on what railroad colors were travelled and how much stock you invested in it. It's a solid euro! It doesn't have any individual resource-collecting mechanics like money or building materials, making it very welcoming to new players (had 2 people new to board games who loved it). The only resource in the game is the finite number of tracks you can lay in each color (27). The track pieces are also used to represent stocks taken in a company, so heavily invested colors will quickly run out of pieces in 1-2 turns. The gameplay focuses on diplomacy and sabotage: heavy investors in a color want to work together and build their train efficiently across America while rival players lightly invest so they can waste track pieces and devalue the railroad's profits. Here's a photo of the end of game 2. A passenger can't visit the same hex twice during their travel, so sabotagers built a very windy path with yellow and blue to reduce efficiency. The purple company was built up but never connected to the eastern railroads over fear it would be more beneficial to rival players than the person who completed it. It was eventually sabotaged from connecting to yellow on the final round by someone squandering its remaining pieces in Utah.  I think it's a perfect entry level into board games. It's under 90m for the intro game and under 60m for the second. It joins a short list of games where friends wanted a game 2 in the same night.
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Oct 17, 2021 09:20
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Played the Galaxy Truckers 2ed the other r night there and its very much Galaxy Truckers. The main difference is that there are titles which you claim after flight 1. They are like have a long corridor, have lots of batteries, have crew compartments on the outside of the ship. You win these at the end of flight 1,if you win more than 1 you gift one to someone who didn't get one. In flight 2 you defend your title, so be the highest scorer in its category and you get some money. Other people cannot take your title or get money from it, but they can stop you defending it. If you successfully defend your title in flight 2 then you flip it and it gives you a restriction on flight 3, like the cargo one requires that your cargo holds are not adjecent, the powered components one requires you to not attach batteries directly to it. But if you defend your title on flight 3 you get a lot of money. Overall the titles are pretty good and feel very galaxy truckers. You can also use an app to add a rough roads if you want to. I think it's also now £30 and in a small box.
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Oct 17, 2021 09:45
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I've been out of the loop for a while, so what are the best coop games for 2 players right now? Preferably a smaller game, and we've already played Gloomhaven and Spirit Island.
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Oct 17, 2021 11:41
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Aeon's End is pretty good
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Oct 17, 2021 12:19
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Electric Hobo posted:I've been out of the loop for a while, so what are the best coop games for 2 players right now? Preferably a smaller game, and we've already played Gloomhaven and Spirit Island. I like Renegade from Victory Point Games
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Oct 17, 2021 13:30
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Electric Hobo posted:I've been out of the loop for a while, so what are the best coop games for 2 players right now? Preferably a smaller game, and we've already played Gloomhaven and Spirit Island. The Lord of the Rings or Arkham Horror LCGs are both good coop games, though definitely on the expensive side if you want to play more than the first few scenarios in each.
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Oct 17, 2021 13:33
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It might not be quite what you're looking for, but my friends and I had a lot of fun with The Initiative.
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Oct 17, 2021 15:36
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My group played two games back to back of Horrified! Universal Monsters. It's a solid light co-op in the Pandemic vein. We got our asses kicked the first time fighting Dracula, the Wolfman, and Frankenstein plus Bride, and won the second time against the Frankensteins and the mummy. It's pretty cool that the monsters all have to be defeated in very different ways, while still revolving around collecting items of different sorts, and the items you don't need this time are still useful, because having items is essentially an HP pool. Looks like Ravensburger put out a new set based on North American cryptids. Does anyone know if they screwed that one up the same way they screwed up the Villainous expansion that they put out after splitting with Prospero Hall?
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Oct 17, 2021 19:06
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I've spent some time with the Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game Digital (on Steam/PC). From my vague memories of the physical game I think they've changed some things, but the overall plan seems similar. I've tried pretty hard to like it, but it just feels like a random mess, and the progress is too slow. The first deck I built was just "all the playable Leadership cards, leaning towards dwarves" and it got me through the campaign with only a couple losses, and with very few card changes (there isn't a lot of choices to start, and you unlock cards very slowly). The game overall is very snowbally, and doesn't do enough to stop you from exploiting this. The zero brain "strategy" of "getting a bunch of dudes/equipment before travelling" is way too effective. Having a big board presence means you can deal with new threats pretty immediately as they pop up, while you build up a bank of cards/resources/light (especially digging for a few overpowered cards, like the one that readies all your dudes for 1). When the campaign does fight back, it feels random - and you don't really have much wiggle-room to deal with it. You mostly hope the random anti-fun mechanics -counters/discard/nonsense - doesn't hit your stuff, or that you can fight through it. The game already feels like it has too many "currencies" without trying to bring in your own counterspells to hopefully hit something meaningful. When there's effective BS (eg. a giant enemy at the end you have to beat with willpower instead of punching), it doesn't feel anything but frustrating. Oh good, now I have to swap out a few cards and do that all again. The "Encounters" seem better than the "Campaigns". More focused, shorter, harder. The "Adventure" thing was incompehensible nonsense. Now my party is split. Now it's just this guy? Now this other guy is back. Now I have to lose this fight I guess? I walked through it pretty easily, despite not reading any of the text or bland narrative or special rules after the first couple fights. In better news: Escape Room: The Game: The Puzzle Adventure: The Secret of the Scientist was better than I expected. Escape Room: The Game is a consistently terrible brand, but this puzzle thing was pretty good. Building the puzzle in sections worked better than the monolithic puzzles in the Ravensburger ones. I wouldn't do this with more than 2 players.
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Oct 18, 2021 20:53
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My review of Imperial Steam is up on Game Brain podcast. I'll have a discussion of the game on my channel later this week.
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Oct 18, 2021 21:13
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I played a lot of Death Valley this weekend. Like all button shy games, it packs a lot into fewer than twenty cards. One thing that stood out was that it is probably the only game I can recall that explicitly used card-counting as a mechanism. By that I mean, if you DON'T count cards, you're pretty much guaranteed to crash and burn. There are four "suits" and a specific number of each (six heat, five terrains, four water, and three animals) and each card prominently displays both the suit as well as the total number of cards in that suit. The reason this all matters is this: if at any point you have three of a single suit at the end of your turn, you bust (which is bad). Therefore, how many of what you have showing + how many of what are left in the deck becomes an important part of deciding what to do in mid- to late-game. Seeing two waters on your side and one on your opponent's (3 out, 1 left in the deck) is critical information. And the game makes it easy to see and read. The basic concept is typical for push your luck elements, but I can't really think of any other card game that so explicitly makes card counting a critical mechanic in the same way. Just goes to show -- like most of their games do -- that just plain old playing cards can be used in a wide variety of ways.
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Oct 18, 2021 21:34
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Did the farm themed sequel to Sprawlopolis come out yet and if so, any comparisons?
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Oct 19, 2021 00:59
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NSW has just come out of hard lockdown, so it looks like Gonna host an Extremely lovely Halloween Costumes You Buy From The Discount Store themed game day on the 30th. Time to play some Fury of Dracula + Whitehall Mystery in lovely costumes babbbbbyyyyyy
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Oct 19, 2021 01:25
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Bottom Liner posted:Did the farm themed sequel to Sprawlopolis come out yet and if so, any comparisons? Yup, it’s out and good. Haven’t done Megaopolis yet, but standalone it is very good. Feels pretty similar really.
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Oct 19, 2021 01:59
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jmzero posted:
I was genuinely impressed by this. My partner and I had played a couple Exit puzzle games, and found some of the puzzles annoyingly obtuse, and half of the challenge being try to make out murky shaped in the dark colors of the puzzles, rather than solving the actual puzzles themselves. Secret of the Scientist, however, was much more fun. Easier overall, but with the fact that we didn't have to shine a light directly on the thing just to see what we were looking for, combined with how everything fit together, and some enjoyable puzzles (that didn't require component destruction), I'd definitely be willing to pick up the next one.
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Oct 19, 2021 06:23
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Sub Harrison posted:Played two games of Ride the Rails tonight ... Interesting. I recently played Iberian Rails, which sounds 80% similar. A lighter than 18XX level game, which still some interesting situations like running down a rail line to crash it, leasing other lines to go on, limited cash. Liked it a lot. Also played the new Friedman Fries game Free Ride, which I'm more on the fence about. It's like Ticket to Ride, but with a much more constrained choice of routes and beiing able to use others lines (at a cost). Unfair about longer-term play but enjoyed it.
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Oct 19, 2021 12:53
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