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My hollandspiele holiday sale stuff arrived, picked up the war of the roses table battle expansion and meltwater. Also got whatever the bonus holiday sale game was but I haven't looked at it so I don't remember what it even is. I've been trying to unload and organize my board games lately, we've got this tall closet with a bunch of shelves already in it so I'm hoping to unload some of my stuff into that so it's no longer just stored in a bunch of totes. It also gives me the chance to make sure I'm storing expansions with their base games as well as storing similar games or products together (like keeping all the miniature crafting poo poo in one tote with any gaslands poo poo, putting any miniatures and dice in a display case in another room, and storing smaller stuff like welcome to & its expansions or various exit and unlock games in a smaller shelf in the bedroom). I'm glad I've got plans and ideas for how to organize my stuff, just have to actually go through with finishing it all up. Hoping to maybe even take some photos afterward and share my collection for once 
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Dec 21, 2021 20:54
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CitizenKeen posted:Well, that sucks about Stationfall. I backed, and have been eagerly awaiting it. It seems like it'll fill a really good niche in my collection. drat. Don't feel too bad. Those types of garbage humans pray on people just not knowing. I mean, how commonly before consuming a product do we check that the people behind it, just in case they lack even the most basic human decency? Obviously with modern consumer and media literacy, it's becoming more and more necessary, but our default feelings of 'they're probably normal levels of decent, or within some range thereof' doesn't always hold up. Virtually all of us had to be told what a shitdick Eklund is by someone who knew and cared enough to share; I learned from goons. The only difference is some of us were lucky enough to find out they before parting with any dollars, but that is not a moral judgement. It might be a pain, but you could resell it. That way you are preventing at least one additional sale.
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Dec 21, 2021 22:49
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Stationfall advertises itself as, IIRC, a "party game for board game nerds". What's a good "party game" for people who are neck deep in board game mechanics?
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Dec 21, 2021 23:05
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Phil Eklund thinks colonialism and capitalism were net positives, anthropogenic climate change isn't real, and almost nobody's died of COVID; I think he's wrong on all three poo poo opinion counts and won't buy his games. "One person drawing salary at a game company has some poo poo opinions, so I will never play any game from that company" is too high a bar for me. Definitely a fan of people purchasing/not purchasing in line with their values though.
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Dec 21, 2021 23:05
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I backed whatever the last Kickstarter was before it all came to light 
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Dec 21, 2021 23:11
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Fwiw I'm pretty sure Matt has fairly different politics to his dad, who said as much on a podcast when referring to their work together on pax transhumanism.
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Dec 21, 2021 23:23
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homullus posted:Phil Eklund thinks colonialism and capitalism were net positives, anthropogenic climate change isn't real, and almost nobody's died of COVID; I think he's wrong on all three poo poo opinion counts and won't buy his games. "One person drawing salary at a game company has some poo poo opinions, so I will never play any game from that company" is too high a bar for me. Definitely a fan of people purchasing/not purchasing in line with their values though. This is going to sound more critical than I mean it to be. I know everyone has to draw the line somewhere. Cue Sonic.jpeg of There's No Such Thing As Ethical Consumption Under Capitalism. But hear me out. One of the more industy-facing goons can correct me, but I'd attest that this guy's is something of a special case. I don't believe there are tons of designers drawing a salary from companies that they don't also own; most that are employees are owner-operators (Ryan Laukat and Red Raven Games, and I think Uwe Rosenberg and Lookout IRRC?) or not employees and simply independent contractors (The good Dr. K, Emerson Matsuuchi, etc). Cole Werle (Leder) and previously Eric Lang (CMON) and Corey Konieczka (FFG) are the three I can think of that were actual employees. The independent ones get paid in advances / royalties instead of salary, though I imagine that the employed ones get royalties or something as well. If someone's an independent contractor, all you have to do is avoid their games and the royalties never go to them; if their games don't sell, people might not buy their future games. If someone owns the company, you avoid the publisher and the profits never register and the owner potentially has to fold the business. Those cases are the ones we're used to in the board game world, and are simple. However, when someone is an employee of a company, then that person is getting paid so long as they are employed. More explicitly, that company's success means that person will likely be retained, and if they were to suffer a cash shortfall then perhaps that person would have to be let go. So, if you buy something unrelated from the publisher who is paying the garbage human, then some portion of that money is going to feeding and clothing the garbage human. I just think that perhaps it is time for this particular garbage human to be faced with the realities of capitalism that he loves so much where people rationally decide to buy their games from publishers who don't financially support these particular garbage humans.
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Dec 21, 2021 23:31
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Kevin Wilson also used to be an employee of FFG, but he's one of the good guys.
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Dec 21, 2021 23:52
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I see where you're coming from but isn't Ion Games essentially Phil Eklund, like all their top games are Phil Eklund games and those will sell well enough to pay Phil's salary what ever happens with Stationfall. Ion Games will never fire Phil, because he makes all of their games bar Stationfall and Crusader Kings. If Phil is just an employee of Ion Game then his salary is not going to up up or down on the basis of the success or failure off Stationfall. It should go down on the basis he keeps on making High loving Frontier. If Matt has disavowed his father views then it all starts to feel a bit 'Sins of the father'.
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Dec 22, 2021 00:02
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If he had a different publisher, I'd agree. But he didn't.
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Dec 22, 2021 00:06
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CitizenKeen posted:Stationfall advertises itself as, IIRC, a "party game for board game nerds". What's a good "party game" for people who are neck deep in board game mechanics? Pictomania simultaneously feels slightly too complex for a silly drawing game but also exactly complex enough to get some interesting situations. Northern Pacific takes train game ideas and distils them down into something simpler than Ticket to Ride.
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Dec 22, 2021 00:06
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Magnetic North posted:This is going to sound more critical than I mean it to be. I know everyone has to draw the line somewhere. Cue Sonic.jpeg of There's No Such Thing As Ethical Consumption Under Capitalism. But hear me out. I agree with most of your thoughtful analysis, but not the conclusion. For me, the two important parts of "cancel culture" are (1) people spending money in line with their values (as you say, to the extent possible under capitalism), and (2) the deplatforming of dangerous opinions. I don't need Phil Eklund punished for those lovely opinions. I want to stop perpetuating his libertarian weirdo gamesturbation with my own finite dollars. I think the way his lovely opinions manifest (games), and the audience to which they manifest (almost nobody), moderates my response. But again, I don't think those whose reaction is stronger, such that they don't want to play Ion games, are "going too far." I'm just not there.
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Dec 22, 2021 00:49
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Personally I tripped, fell, and woke up with a shrinkwrapped copy of Stationfall in my hands, so my conscience is clear
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Dec 22, 2021 02:19
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Same, but not in my hands so that's why I had to go to the ER
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Dec 22, 2021 02:21
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I’m personally okay with buying non-Phil Elkund games from Ion, because it will give them more power over him to reign his screeds back in. Come contract re-negotiation time, the less Ion are reliant on his games, the more power they’ll have to get what they want, or just let him go. If all their games are suffering equally, they aren’t going to have that clear incentive to pivot away from the games that are selling poorly or damaging the brand.
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Dec 22, 2021 02:47
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I wrote about my favorite/best board games i played this year. https://geek.gay/2021/12/21/the-best-board-games-of-2021-that-i-played/
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Dec 22, 2021 04:14
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Frozen Peach posted:I wrote about my favorite/best board games i played this year. more like geek.gay/2021/04/01/the-best-board-games-of-2021-that-i-played (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Dec 22, 2021 04:54
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You really suck
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Dec 22, 2021 05:44
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Anyone have any ideas on how best approach playing Gaia Project? I've played now two games on BGA and I just don't seem to understand how to actually get points or build something that works? The other players just seem to do a lot better than I do I'm sure it would make more sense were I in person but with omicron that doesn't look to be happening anytime soon. I know people love the game so would love to know what I'm missing.
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Dec 22, 2021 07:42
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Year-end stats: 140 hours of games this year, with the majority being the Gloomhaven poopsock and the other major games being Lisboa and Rococo. Played 30 different games in total. I never won a game of Quacks, Azul, Dream Crush, or 7 Wonders Architects. Highest win rate is Everdell. Acquires 11 new games, 22 on preorder. Got rid of/consumed 20.
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Dec 22, 2021 07:50
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The big trick to both Gaia and TM is to aggressively burn power (for most factions) to get to bowl 3 and use powers early and often. That plus QIC and round bonus tiles let you eek out extra resources and therefor extra actions each round. That’s how you’ll see experiences players getting so much more out of each round. With Gaia, you can plan a lot of your game from initial setup, only deviating if someone blocks you or round score tiles are worth breaking off your plan. Early game you want to build and upgrade as close to others as possible to maximize leech. Research Lab + Trade Station + 2 Mines is a solid round one strat for most factions and will teach you about setup placement and get you thinking about getting and spending every resource possible each round. and never pay ore for terraforming steps.
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Dec 22, 2021 08:07
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In addition to the advice above, most factions either want to rush building their planetary institute because of the bonuses it gives, or rush a temple (I can never remember the Gaia name) to grab a useful tech tile to improve your early resource game or point generation engine. The other key to doing well when you're still learning the game is learning how to balance your resources. It's not much use having a surplus of gold /credits if you don't have the ore to match for building, so always be looking ahead to the next round and what your income is going to look like. This doesn't all have to come from buildings - often you can get away without having any trading houses (or the Gaia equivalent, the ones that generate money) on the board as long as you have some combination of income from tech tiles, bonus tiles, or have enough power and are early enough in turn order to grab the 7 money power action. I feel like if you can learn to juggle your resources well enough that you typically run out of them fairly simultaneously and you can learn to cycle and burn power effectively to claim power actions then you have a solid base to start learning the more complex game strategy and the strengths of the different factions. Edit : also always play to the round bonus unless you have a very strong reason for not doing so
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Dec 22, 2021 08:22
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Frozen Peach posted:I wrote about my favorite/best board games i played this year. This reminded me that I need to play the new Anachrony expansion. I really love how Anachrony's theme is carried in its mechanics.
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Dec 22, 2021 08:28
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Frozen Peach posted:I wrote about my favorite/best board games i played this year. I see someone is in the pocket of I tried to get my group to try Nidavellir on BGA but no one bit 
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Dec 22, 2021 11:28
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Magnetic North posted:I see someone is in the pocket of I played a bunch of it on BGA and it was fun enough but the real time scoring on there convinced me to not buy a meatspace copy , who's got time to do that much maths.
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Dec 22, 2021 12:46
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I played Nidavellir once and the theme felt completely inexistant to me. Pretty sure I could play this game with a regular deck of cards with the same results.
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Dec 22, 2021 12:56
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The theme was absolutely non-existent, though that never bothers me especially with card games in general. I played it a few times on bga and probably don't want to ever again, it didn't seem like the choices I was making were particularly interesting.
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Dec 22, 2021 13:26
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PRADA SLUT posted:more like geek.gay/2021/04/01/the-best-board-games-of-2021-that-i-played Not pervy enough for you? Ubik_Lives posted:I’m personally okay with buying non-Phil Elkund games from Ion, because it will give them more power over him to reign his screeds back in. Come contract re-negotiation time, the less Ion are reliant on his games, the more power they’ll have to get what they want, or just let him go. If all their games are suffering equally, they aren’t going to have that clear incentive to pivot away from the games that are selling poorly or damaging the brand. -downplaying the pandemic -his wife got arrested for protesting tyranny (sanitary measures), which is like what would have happened under Hitler -he is the brave designer who was able to successfully gameify rape as a game mechanism -it was thanks to capitalism that slavery was abolished -the real slavery is socialism -overt transphobia -did you know that the Holocaust happened because of "bankers"? -Hitler was racist, but he must have had his reasons Also, to see how much clout Ion has without the Eklund name, their KS Dawn on Titan didn't hit a single stretch goal. Llyranor fucked around with this message at 14:22 on Dec 22, 2021 |
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Dec 22, 2021 14:12
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PRADA SLUT posted:more like geek.gay/2021/04/01/the-best-board-games-of-2021-that-i-played 
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Dec 22, 2021 14:31
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Magnetic North posted:I see someone is in the pocket of  Nidavellir really works with my group, and I can't see that it would be as fun on BGA (though few games I find as fun on BGA as I do in real life). I love the bidding mechanic, and trading coins for better coins. It's just really fun for us. 
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Dec 22, 2021 14:47
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It's much harder to learn at new game on BGA in my opinion. But once I know a game having everything tedious about it automated makes BGA better. Ive been getting back into a race for the Galaxy and checking out Jaipur. Both have the same problem as Terraforming Mars but play in a tenth of the time. Terraforming Mars was my favorite game until I played it a few times on steam. Still takes forever. Really emphasizes how much is about synergy luck once you have any idea what you're doing.
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Dec 22, 2021 14:58
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Ubik_Lives posted:I’m personally okay with buying non-Phil Elkund games from Ion, because it will give them more power over him to reign his screeds back in. Come contract re-negotiation time, the less Ion are reliant on his games, the more power they’ll have to get what they want, or just let him go. If all their games are suffering equally, they aren’t going to have that clear incentive to pivot away from the games that are selling poorly or damaging the brand. I see what you're saying, but it's not my job to improve a lovely company, esp if there's no guarantee that they'll actually improve. Just let them fail and slowly die, who cares. I damaged my karma enough by buying High Frontier, so guess I'll pass on Stationfall.
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Dec 22, 2021 15:14
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Love to hear all of this after just getting my hands on Pax Pamir (used) lol Gotta say the notes at the end were something else having never played an Eklund game before
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Dec 22, 2021 15:41
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Finally, after what feels like two and a half years, I got to play my friend's copy of Lords of Hellas. We kind of muddled through it at first before hitting a stride and then inevitably getting bogged down whenever something novel came up (Monster hunting! Player combat! Blessing draft!) but overall I didn't mind it. Seems like a pretty okay DOAM game but with some gorgeous minis. Something that I noticed and liked was that there was a real sense of players all getting significantly more powerful as time goes on, some more some less, but everyone kind of moving forward. The monument construction was neat but felt half-baked mechanically. Four win conditions are nice but some seem easier to pull off than others. Curiously based on my single, error-filled experience the area control aspect of the game seemed the weakest. Very easy to build death balls and load up on combat cards and just steamroll/defend to heart's content. Might be very difficult if multiple players decide to mess with you in sequences though, especially if they move monsters onto your spots and god forbid get lucky with triggering attack rolls. Anyway, more than happy to play again but I can see after a single play the allure was primarily the minis.
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Dec 22, 2021 16:32
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Llyranor posted:-did you know that the Holocaust happened because of "bankers"? Jesus gently caress, I somehow missed hearing about those two. I mean, not that there was any real doubt based on everything else he was saying that he was likely an anti-semite, but still a big yikes-a-rooni there.
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Dec 22, 2021 16:33
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From his Pax footnotes and his facebook: (WARNING: Eklund shite) https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ErZlpo2XMAkHgri?format=jpg&name=900x900 https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/197569560134680577/830087524469833749/unknown.png https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/691651504695935017/800634839094001664/Screenshot_20210118-003529.jpg Those footnotes are in games published by Ion. So it is 100% on Ion as well. F Ion. Llyranor fucked around with this message at 16:48 on Dec 22, 2021 |
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Dec 22, 2021 16:44
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MikeCrotch posted:Love to hear all of this after just getting my hands on Pax Pamir (used) lol Pax Pamir (2nd Edition) is kosher. Wehlegig is Cole's company, and Cole's a good lad. Maybe he's paying through the nose to license his game back from Phil but I've never heard anything like that. I'm not sure what you mean about notes though so maybe you've got the 1st edition, which was put out by Phil's company, and so he got to put an essay (on the merits of the British empire) into the rulebook, though iirc it's like in the middle. Cole's essay was removed for reasons of space.
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Dec 22, 2021 16:44
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grate deceiver posted:I see what you're saying, but it's not my job to improve a lovely company, esp if there's no guarantee that they'll actually improve. Just let them fail and slowly die, who cares. Compared to all the human rights violations and coups perpetrated by the other corporations I patronize daily without thinking about it, boycotting Ion seems arbitrary and capricious to me. I guarantee the CEO of Asmodee has done worse, but cloaked in acceptable liberalism.
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Dec 22, 2021 16:48
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PerniciousKnid posted:Compared to all the human rights violations and coups perpetrated by the other corporations I patronize daily without thinking about it, boycotting Ion seems arbitrary and capricious to me. I guarantee the CEO of Asmodee has done worse, but cloaked in acceptable liberalism. Well, ok, maybe it is arbitrary, but so what? Stationfall looks cool, I admit, but I have already decided I can survive not playing it, so are you trying to convince me back into buying from the dipshit company? What's the play here?
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Dec 22, 2021 16:57
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Keeping supporting the company that publishes Holocaust denial content because other corporations are also bad, friends
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Dec 22, 2021 17:01
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