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PerniciousKnid posted:Is Crew less good with 2? I'd also say that Burgle Bros 2 isn't exactly small from a sprawl perspective. The box is small, but it can be more of a table hog than you might expect. It is fairly straightforward though.
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May 5, 2022 00:09
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Jarvisi posted:Anyone have any ideas for smallish semi easy to learn games? I'm going out on a trip in a couple of weeks with some friends and I need something. The OP has many thread approved suggestions, that are divided by weight and player count. It's hard to offer much more particular suggestion without knowing the player count.
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May 5, 2022 00:18
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I played through The Crew with two, the dummy player works well IMO but it is a somewhat different experience than playing with e.g. three people. The way it works is that the dummy player gets half their cards dealt facedown in a row, and the second half get dealt faceup on top of those. So you only know half of the dummy player's hand at the game start (the other half is facedown, underneath the faceups.) When you choose a card for the dummy to play, you choose among the faceups only. If the faceup card chosen to be played was on top of a facedown card (therefore "exposing" it), the facedown card gets flipped faceup and can now be played on subsequent turns. There's a balancing act between playing cards and exposing new ones that varies somewhat based on the goals and the state of play. As far as dummy systems go, I thought it was clever and worked really well.
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May 5, 2022 00:20
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Jarvisi posted:Anyone have any ideas for smallish semi easy to learn games? I'm going out on a trip in a couple of weeks with some friends and I need something. Songbirds I got after the SUSD review and it's real, real good. Very fast to learn, and very tense competition game. I also second(third, fourth, nth) the The Crew (deep sea is the best, but the first game is good too if you cant get deep sea). Also, at the risk of pissing off Board Game Elitests, Monopoly Deal is a very fun game for <$10 in most places. Depending on your table space available, Carcassonne is great but needs a bit of space, Codenames (and duet) are both great. Santorini is incredible (avoid New York). Or take a good ol' fashion box of cards and play Shithead or Cabo ad nauseum.
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May 5, 2022 00:25
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Lost cities rivals and blue lagoon are both small, easy to learn and cheap. Maybe one of the micro macro games. Perhaps tiny towns
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May 5, 2022 00:34
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I don’t actually remember much about Monopoly Deal other than it being weirdly good and fun and getting a ton of playtime with my wife like fifteen years ago.
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May 5, 2022 00:43
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A couple more light, compact suggestions: Hey, That's My Fish! (2-4 players) Sushi Go Party (best 3-7) - Bigger than Sushi Go, but better for repeated plays. Lots of empty space if you want to throw it in with something else Love Letter (3-4) Cartographers (1-6 or so) - Use solo rules for monster placement if people don't like the Take That interaction Sprawlopolis/Agropolis (best with just 1 or 2) Hidden role games: I haven't played these, but I think Resistance: Avalon is recommended in the OP?
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May 5, 2022 01:40
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Spiteski posted:Also, at the risk of pissing off Board Game Elitests, Monopoly Deal is a very fun game for <$10 in most places. My recollection of the thread consensus is that Monopoly Deal is better than you'd think.
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May 5, 2022 01:41
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yeah, I remember playing it some years ago and it was pretty fun for what it was. Definitely the best version of Monopoly there is lol
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May 5, 2022 02:12
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Jarvisi posted:Anyone have any ideas for smallish semi easy to learn games? I'm going out on a trip in a couple of weeks with some friends and I need something. Valley of the Kings would have been good for this but new version is big. If you could still find the old run, that would work well. Bohnanza is a classic that I feel is overlooked nowadays (probably due to the amount of crap expansions), but it still holds up whenever I get it to the table. More fillerish, but No Thanks, 6 nimmt, and For Sale are small, easy to grasp, and still hold up to repeat play. The Eyes Have It posted:I played through The Crew with two, the dummy player works well IMO but it is a somewhat different experience than playing with e.g. three people. Agreed, it's a different game but my partner and I really enjoyed playing it this way, and didn't feel like we had a compromised experience.
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May 5, 2022 03:41
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Rockman Reserve posted:I really like the idea of, mechanics, and art/components for Unfathomable but it seems so overtuned against Humans that the only thing unfathomable about it is a Human victory. The best way to boost human chances fairly is to give them more starting resources. +1 each was pretty significant in BSG, and you could give an additional +1 to like food/morale if you are having issues with crisis checks, or +1 souls if you are having problems defending passengers. There are a few ways to trade off resources when you know the game better, so the extras can be more helpful than you think if you have the breathing room to make those exchanges. BSG really required many plays to get human players proficient enough to have a shot at coordinating well, but depending on the expansions you were playing with, humans could actually be favored! I think Unfathomable's design is definitely weighted against humans, which can be frustrating for groups that play it infrequently. But it's really a tough game to balance and erring towards the other side means that becoming a traitor is way less exciting. Try bumping the resource tracks and if the game is still kicking your rear end, bump it some more. It's definitely better than adjusting the distance, that is a huge timer and even -1 there could be consistently one entire less travel cycle. Also this post is mostly written on BSG knowledge, I've only played Unfathomable twice so far. So if your experience is a lot different, that's why!
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May 5, 2022 04:20
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Doctor Spaceman posted:I'm looking for some tips on teaching 18xx (probably Chesapeake, maybe 61/67). Encourage people to buy trains as much as possible, not just if they can use them. Buying trains disrupts the status quo of the game, and you only ever want the status quo if you are winning. If you are playing with 4 players, you have less than a 25% chance of being the current winner of the game. So buy trains. This is perfect logic and I won't be taking any questions. Also make sure people aren't thinking too hard about stuff the first game. There's a reason all the psycho heavy gamers gravitate towards 18xx and that's because they are opaque and it's hard to determine consequences of your actions, which is exciting! Thinking about stuff too hard won't help you, the decision tree gets too complicated too fast until you have experience. Especially when you are doing that in the middle of your turn and thinking out loud too much with other players. It's very friendly and casual and will make your game take another 2+ hours. It will undoubtedly happen the first game, but if you can get people to be less conservative alongside it, you will have a much more fun experience. Buy those four 2T, or invest in the four 2T company and get dumped on. It'll be funny and engaging and might actually not be that bad if they were running hot in the early game and had like $200 of capital left for you to rob. also I'm fond of this NPI video as an introduction to the genre and basic concepts. It gets a great overview in like 25 min (with another 15 min for meta discussion of the genre) and is funny without being in the way of the vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QErygzM4W_Y also they hit a train meeple with a cleaver to illustrate train death
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May 5, 2022 04:39
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Been playing a bunch of great games lately (thanks to a new group) but the only one I want to post about is 7 Wonders: Architects, Edit: I checked the rules myself and holy poo poo the personal decks are supposed to be FACE UP. I still think it'd be a dull game even played correctly, but christ almighty that makes a huge difference. I'm leaving the rest of the post as an archive of my dumbass take. [...] because after one play I'm fairly certain that it isn't, well, a game. If you aren't familiar, the way it works is you get a unique wonder and personal deck. The deck is shared with the player to your left (so you always are sitting between two decks, effectively) and there's a deck in the middle. If there's a meaningful difference in composition between the different decks, I certainly didn't notice it, although the middle deck has about twice as many cards as the personal decks. Your wonder is made up of 4-5 cardboard bits, each of which has a cost (always X resources, either all the same or all different) and your overall goal is to score points - largely by building your wonder from bottom to top (the different wonders have different "build orders" - one has a base, then three columns that you can build in any order, then a peak, while another is a pyramid where you build one level at a time with no choices). On your turn, you draw a card from one of the three decks you have access to. You flip it over and get whatever's on it. I have now explained how to play 7 Wonders: Architects. OK, that's a bit reductive. The different cards do different things: there's resources, which you just hang on to until you have enough to build a wonder part (at which point you must spend them), science cards, which if you collect enough let you buy an ongoing power, and military cards, which slowly build up until people draw enough to trigger a conflict, at which point you compare your military to your neighbours and get points for each person you beat. Now I've explained everything (oops, last thing - there are victory point cards, some of which give you "the cat" which lets you preview the top card of the central deck before you draw). As far as I can tell, you only have two choices in the game:
If anyone else has played this game, please tell me if I'm missing something. I didn't learn from the rulebook (someone taught the table) so I guess we could have missed something important, but as far as I could tell, it was almost an entirely random experience, with the central choice (what deck to draw from) being meaningless 99% of the time. BinaryDoubts fucked around with this message at 05:04 on May 5, 2022 |
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May 5, 2022 04:58
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BinaryDoubts posted:Been playing a bunch of great games lately (thanks to a new group) but the only one I want to post about is 7 Wonders: Architects, I think the decks between the players are supposed to be face up. That at least gives you a choice between two known things and the unknown middle deck, but there's still a ton of randomness. With those decks face down as well though there would be incredibly little actual decision space.
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May 5, 2022 05:10
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Fellis posted:The best way to boost human chances fairly is to give them more starting resources. +1 each was pretty significant in BSG, and you could give an additional +1 to like food/morale if you are having issues with crisis checks, or +1 souls if you are having problems defending passengers. There are a few ways to trade off resources when you know the game better, so the extras can be more helpful than you think if you have the breathing room to make those exchanges. Hmmm, might try that next time. Honestly I was thinking bumping down the distance required while also bumping down all resources a tick would probably keep the pressure on but also make it slightly easier for the humans, since so many of the Waypoint cards are hugely detrimental mid-to-late game even if the Captain is a loyal Human. The other thing I want to monkey around with is the 3-card-starting-hand rule. I get that it's there to throw the ship into crisis immediately so the Humans don't have much time to prepare, but it's insanely punishing and is only more punishing with the more players you have in the game - it just does not scale well at all, which is really weird for a game that at least seems to have some thought put into the math. Even just increasing it to four cards instead of three, still not a full hand, would make it seem like you at least have a real choice about pitching towards Mythos skill checks before your first turn.
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May 5, 2022 06:46
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Rockman Reserve posted:I don’t actually remember much about Monopoly Deal other than it being weirdly good and fun and getting a ton of playtime with my wife like fifteen years ago. Azran posted:yeah, I remember playing it some years ago and it was pretty fun for what it was. Definitely the best version of Monopoly there is lol PerniciousKnid posted:My recollection of the thread consensus is that Monopoly Deal is better than you'd think. Ok cool, I'm glad I got the threads opinions wrong in a good way!
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May 5, 2022 07:02
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Lords of Vegas is getting a new expansion later this year, so imma wait for that before picking it up  Jarvisi posted:Anyone have any ideas for smallish semi easy to learn games? I'm going out on a trip in a couple of weeks with some friends and I need something. Had a blast with Good Cop Bad Cop the other night. It's pretty much one of the lightest touch Werewolf/Mafia games and rounds are super quick.
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May 5, 2022 07:59
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Fellis posted:Encourage people to buy trains as much as possible, not just if they can use them. Buying trains disrupts the status quo of the game, and you only ever want the status quo if you are winning. If you are playing with 4 players, you have less than a 25% chance of being the current winner of the game. So buy trains. This is perfect logic and I won't be taking any questions. I like this, I'll keep the "buy more trains" thing in my pocket. But that's the type of counter-intuitive thinking that I think makes no sense initially. "Why should I buy more trains if I can't use them?" To be fair though, it's a little tricky to do a quick glance and really tell if you're winning or losing currently outside of some obvious discrepancies. Really like the thinking aloud advice that's been brought up a few times and to advise that people just not over-think things I also think it's interesting that you describe the decisions/consequences as being opaque because I've always thought they can be maddeningly clear because of the lack of hidden information/randomness. You can spend a lot of time planning ahead only for the someone to pass a turn earlier than you thought or sell down a company or start the one you thought was safe and and and... God I love these games, I'm an evangelist for them now.
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May 5, 2022 16:13
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armorer posted:I think the decks between the players are supposed to be face up. That at least gives you a choice between two known things and the unknown middle deck, but there's still a ton of randomness. With those decks face down as well though there would be incredibly little actual decision space. Correct, when they're face up it becomes about properly timing hate drafting against your neighbors. It's...fine? I didn't hate my time with it but it's not going to replace 7 wonders or Sushi Go Party for my group.
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May 5, 2022 16:16
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FulsomFrank posted:I like this, I'll keep the "buy more trains" thing in my pocket. But that's the type of counter-intuitive thinking that I think makes no sense initially. "Why should I buy more trains if I can't use them?" To be fair though, it's a little tricky to do a quick glance and really tell if you're winning or losing currently outside of some obvious discrepancies. Really like the thinking aloud advice that's been brought up a few times and to advise that people just not over-think things I think that's why newbies fall into that trap, because they have a hard time seeing that they are not winning. But I think it's easy enough to explain "advancing toward the next phase is the easiest way to disrupt the opposition", and the revenue tracker is a good way to illustrate who is winning the status quo.
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May 5, 2022 16:21
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Rockman Reserve posted:Hmmm, might try that next time. Honestly I was thinking bumping down the distance required while also bumping down all resources a tick would probably keep the pressure on but also make it slightly easier for the humans, since so many of the Waypoint cards are hugely detrimental mid-to-late game even if the Captain is a loyal Human. I think you should adjust it how you want, but be mindful that if humans win by more than the bare minimum then it’s probably too much. It’s supposed to be a tense game that should be a coinflip at the end IMO. I haven’t played enough with Unfathomable to figure out balance stuff like that, or figure out the tricks of characters + equipment and how good digging through the spellbook is (utilizing the bsg equivalent was a key to managing resources). I think the biggest balance thing in Unfathomable is you no longer have like 2 turns of breathing room after a jump, the way the ship progresses and moves monsters really makes managing the board much more difficult, but then civilians dont work the same either and everyone can fight. The waypoint cards are supposed to be punishing, because the humans should always be pushing to go as far as possible and they mostly just tax fuel or allow you to trade fuel. The distribution of locations means you typically have to do 5 cycles of travel to win (3 average i think, and need to hit 12+ and then one more) so if you get anything less than 3 without already having one more than 3 you are behind the curve. In forums BSG meta, the admiral choosing anything less than average distance was a huge cylon tell, and it was important to scout locations to confirm admiral.
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May 5, 2022 16:25
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FulsomFrank posted:I like this, I'll keep the "buy more trains" thing in my pocket. But that's the type of counter-intuitive thinking that I think makes no sense initially. "Why should I buy more trains if I can't use them?" To be fair though, it's a little tricky to do a quick glance and really tell if you're winning or losing currently outside of some obvious discrepancies. Really like the thinking aloud advice that's been brought up a few times and to advise that people just not over-think things Yeah that’s why I included the joke logic because its a fun way to illustrate to new players. “In a 4-player game where nobody knows what’s going on, you have a 25% chance you are winning right now. However I *do* know what’s going on so you have less than a 25% chance. Buy trains.” I’d make a more explicit steiner math reference but i’m lazy I call it opaque because of what you describe, the player chaos is a much more powerful force than anything else in the game. Making a good decision is very hard because to really do it well you need to evaluate the position of every player and determine what they might be doing. It’s why 18Chesapeake has train exporting, because it puts some force in the game’s hands to drive to the endgame which is friendlier for new players who aren’t pushing trains as hard as possible early. Like if you want to win any game with new players, just try position yourself to buy the last 2T and/or first two-three 3T and run them decently. Your company will run those 3’s forever, and the extra 2 will help you keep up with anyone who went harder early. This usually happens because “gain a permament” is an easy objective for people to focus on and try to time starting a company, and they’ll stall out the 4T. If you get a second company with whatever, you can usually buy trains across to force buy the last 5 or a 6 in the middle of the OR and will definitely catch someone who didnt see that coming.
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May 5, 2022 16:58
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I've played Unfathomable a handful of times with a group that can overall get a little overwhelmed and anxious with heavier stuff, and they made the exact statement of "it seems impossible for humans to win" after like games 2 and 3. Efficient play seems relatively reasonable to get a hold of once all the moving parts are understood, but I feel like their issue is that those parts are just complex enough to basically make them more or less entirely forget the hidden role element. There aren't really any critical eyes being turned to weird or slightly inefficient moves that really should be prompting more grilling and asking "why, exactly, did you do that?" because the plate spinning of the board management isn't quite locked in. Up to this point the big reveal turns have been brutally debilitating by the traitor just waiting until a resource is particularly stressed and then openly hitting it a little harder, very similar to that description above of just playing as a human until the bright red weak spot pops up mid to late game. My perception of the whole thing is that once those traitor-free fundamentals of the game are locked in then they'll be a lot more comfortable with thinking about shoring up weak spots in the resource pool, and questioning/throwing people in the brig more liberally. Once everyone has a really sound understanding of efficient play I feel like there's a ton of potential for an ah-ha moment and the hidden role stuff really coming into its own.
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May 5, 2022 17:22
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Fellis posted:Yeah that’s why I included the joke logic because its a fun way to illustrate to new players. “In a 4-player game where nobody knows what’s going on, you have a 25% chance you are winning right now. However I *do* know what’s going on so you have less than a 25% chance. Buy trains.” You know they say that all men are created equal, but you look at me and you look at you three and you can see that statement is not true. See, normally if you go into 4 player trains, you got a 25% chance of winning. But I'm a train freak and I'm not normal! So you got a 15%, AT BEST, at beat me. Then you add the other 2 into the mix, your chances of winning drastic go down. See the 4 way at Trains, you got a 25% chance of winning, but I, I got a 75% chance of winning, because the other 2 KNOW they can't beat me and they're not even gonna try! So you take your 15% chance, you half that and you got a 7.5% chance of winning at trains. But then you take my 75% chance of winning, if we was to go one on one, and then add 50% percent, I got 125% chance of winning at trains. See, the numbers don't lie, and they spell disaster for you at trains. Buy trains.
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May 5, 2022 17:33
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Gumdrop Larry posted:I've played Unfathomable a handful of times with a group that can overall get a little overwhelmed and anxious with heavier stuff, and they made the exact statement of "it seems impossible for humans to win" after like games 2 and 3. It feels like there should be some kind of explicit new player adjustment rule, like "add one resource for each newbie" or something. Traitor games aren't that much fun when traitors can just do dumb poo poo and say "it's my first day!" Force them to make big plays.
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May 5, 2022 17:44
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After the discussion yesterday I snagged Vanuatu for 15 bucks off the BGG market.
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May 5, 2022 18:57
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PerniciousKnid posted:Is Crew less good with 2? The Crew is best with four, fine with three, okay but much more difficult with five. The rules for two players are a bit different (it uses a pseudo-player controlled by the Captain), and I wouldn't bother, personally.
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May 5, 2022 19:19
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Just a heads up for folks who like board games on computers, and for some reason haven't tried Terraforming Mars yet. It's currently free to keep on the Epic Game Store. If you wanted to take a look, it'll be on there for the next week or so. Reviews of the implementation are mostly positive. Got to be worth a try at free if you curious. Funso Banjo fucked around with this message at 19:47 on May 5, 2022 |
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May 5, 2022 19:43
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It's 'fine', but I'll never play The Crew 2p ever again
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May 5, 2022 19:45
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Gay Rat Wedding posted:I liked the concept of the search for planet X but was very sus about the game’s need for a mobile app to function. having finally played it, I’m completely sold and want to play it again. the app didn’t feel intrusive at all and crossing off possibilities on your map as you gain information/make connections is very satisfying. It probably wouldn’t work with many groups/mindsets though as there’s absolutely no direct interaction, everything’s inference based on what other people choose to do As you start to play it more it begins to open itself up to light "semi-interaction" through the Journal mechanic. Often you can find yourself making an educated guess on the Journals your opponents publish before they are peer reviewed, and if you're correct you can find that it'll put you a step or two ahead in terms of sussing out the solution, which in this game can give you a large advantage. But to turn this on its head you can absolutely bluff with your own submissions to potentially mess up people who are trying to use your submissions to their advantage. There's some room for mind games and shenanigans, but not enough so that it dominates the game. Great game overall.
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May 5, 2022 20:34
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Aramoro posted:You know they say that all men are created equal, but you look at me and you look at you three and you can see that statement is not true. See, normally if you go into 4 player trains, you got a 25% chance of winning. But I'm a train freak and I'm not normal! So you got a 15%, AT BEST, at beat me. Then you add the other 2 into the mix, your chances of winning drastic go down. See the 4 way at Trains, you got a 25% chance of winning, but I, I got a 75% chance of winning, because the other 2 KNOW they can't beat me and they're not even gonna try! 
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May 5, 2022 21:38
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Board Game adjacent: Nemesis adaptation coming to Steam. Now you can see what Infinitum keeps raving about without foisting it on your friends. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1915550/Nemesis_Lockdown/
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May 5, 2022 23:01
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It's just Dead of Winter but with even more random personal objectives.
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May 5, 2022 23:07
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Looks like we're 'only' at 6 players for TI:PoK for next weekend, so we went ahead and did the draft last night so people can research what they wanted. I lucked out and got The Vuil'Raith Cabal aka Space Godzillas https://twilight-imperium.fandom.com/wiki/The_Vuil%27Raith_Cabal Gonna eat so many ships and produce copies for free  CitizenKeen posted:Board Game adjacent: Nemesis adaptation coming to Steam. Now you can see what Infinitum keeps raving about without foisting it on your friends. It's also Nemesis Lockdown which is a bit more in-depth with power outages and the like impacting how powerful the Intruders are. I like that they're not going for a straight 1:1 implementation and having a 3D space and the all the bells and whistles. Could be fun. Honestly I'm just waiting for Awaken Realms to put out a Character Box rather than pickup Lockdown. I love Nemesis, but I don't need 2 versions of it I don't think
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May 6, 2022 03:18
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Bottom Liner posted:It's just Dead of Winter but with even more random personal objectives. Hey at least Nemesis doesn't give me a 5% chance of outright dying because I rolled poorly trying to move. (That I know of...)
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May 6, 2022 20:34
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FulsomFrank posted:Hey at least Nemesis doesn't give me a 5% chance of outright dying because I rolled poorly trying to move. Having seen this happen to someone on their first turn of the game, I am comfortable never playing dead of winter again.
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May 6, 2022 22:29
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Gay Rat Wedding posted:Having seen this happen to someone on their first turn of the game, I am comfortable never playing dead of winter again. but it made for such a good story to tell!!!1!1!11q1!
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May 6, 2022 22:36
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Gay Rat Wedding posted:Having seen this happen to someone on their first turn of the game, I am comfortable never playing dead of winter again. It's one of the worst games I've ever played.
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May 7, 2022 00:00
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Hey  Ark Nova is in stock at Boardgamebliss RIGHT NOW
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May 7, 2022 07:03
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FulsomFrank posted:Hey at least Nemesis doesn't give me a 5% chance of outright dying because I rolled poorly trying to move. Could be worse, Kingdom Death Monster rolls a 10% chance and it happens to you 35 hours in. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST) (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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May 7, 2022 07:41
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