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Too Many Inuyashas
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Jun 18, 2022 02:08
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PRADA SLUT posted:ngl, still would play tokyo sidekick if it flopped on my table
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Jun 18, 2022 02:34
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Does anyone have experience with the Steam implementation of Brass:Birmingham? If so, how's the AI? I am a total novice for context on difficulty level.
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Jun 18, 2022 02:57
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welp it’s been in place for like less than a year and I’m already getting burned by Asmodee’s lovely “not our problem” customer service - I grabbed Mysterium from Target during the b2g1 sale and the ghost screen doesn’t have plastic for the card inserts on the bottom (object) row of the ghost screen the practical upshot of the asmodee bullshit is I can just gank some cool/pretty vision cards as office decorations before replacing it I guess
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Jun 18, 2022 09:22
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Just did the third and final inclusion in the Unlock Heroic Adventure box, which is based on Alice in Wonderland. This one was almost decent. There was still some serious moon logic and lack of clarity that has been present in all of them, but it blossomed into something that was at least mediocre. The case was more interesting than the Sherlock one, but probably less good overall. Thank god it's not permanently marked or anything so I can pass it on, except I would actively feel bad giving this to a friend knowing how insipid it is. I cannot say it is worth anyone's time to play, even for free. And this is the highest ranked one on BGG. I'm certainly not going to get another Unlock until exploring a few more of the other options out there. What a big airy disappointment.
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Jun 19, 2022 15:20
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My sister got me Unfathomable for my birthday! Played a bunch of battlestar, but is there anything we should know going in?
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Jun 20, 2022 09:02
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Rockman Reserve posted:Just posting to say how much Flesh and Blood sucks out loud and how much I wish there was a CCG I could occasionally pop some boosters for that wasn’t Magic or licensed anime stuff. you can buy cases of hyborian gates booster boxes on ebay for like $50 or something
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Jun 20, 2022 10:24
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!Klams posted:My sister got me Unfathomable for my birthday! Read carefully what the different monster activations do - we messed those up on our first game and assumed they were more similar than they actually are. The game's unbalanced in favour of the hybrids - after your first game (which has its own rules for balancing the game in favour of the humans that you only use in your first game) you might want to increase all resources by 1 to give the humans a chance.
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Jun 20, 2022 12:03
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Played Return to Dark Tower last night at a friend's. We lost the base scenario, which was okay. 103 minutes for a game isn't something I'm going to whine about either, it was nice to have something that 'quick'. A pretty cool game, and a lot of the game is loaded into the app, I assume to save space, because monster cards, event cards, companion event cards, and an entire-rear end dungeon crawling minigame wouldn't fit in any reasonable box. Won't be getting it myself (friend lives next door, so uh, you know) but I think I'm a little less concerned about app-driven games now, having played one and finding it cool. That being said, how is Journeys in Middle Earth, because that sounds like it might be more up my alley, more of an RPG in a box and I like that. Gloomhaven missed me taking 20+ minutes to set up and tear down, so
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Jun 20, 2022 17:48
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I  .
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Jun 20, 2022 17:57
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Mayveena posted:I I played this on Saturday. It's pretty good. It's a bit like Western Legends in that it's pretty much a sandbox where you do whatever you fancy doing, but it's not as fiddly as WL (especially with expansions) and similarly not quite as free. The expansion adds loads, literally twice as many cards, and the very cool optional favours/debt system which is very handy for completing multi stage jobs without having to have the perfect crew (which was a problem in the base game imo). Being able to warp from one end of the board to the other is also extremely useful.
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Jun 20, 2022 18:22
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In other news, I was planning to get this very functional perfectly sized board game table. At Odyssey Games in Pasadena, the owner put together some really good board game tables. They are 48 inches wide and a little longer than that. I got a deal with the owner to make one for me at a good price. HOWEVER, Saturday's session makes me wonder if I'll ever have folks over to play games again (fortunately the community has a clubhouse we can use!). The cat kept walking over the board (he had to be removed from the room), the dog took his bouncy ball and continually bounced it under the table hoping someone would throw it for him, and my African Grey parrot went through his entire repertoire, ending with him barking at the dog. The noise doesn't bother me but I feel like most people wouldn't want to put up with all that. So I'm putting the table on hold until I can think this through. The reason we didn't play at the clubhouse is because it's normally fairly busy on Saturdays and I'm hard of hearing. The quiet of my home is way better for me, even with the zoo animal style background noise.
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Jun 20, 2022 18:34
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girl dick energy posted:With the golden age of LCGs being over I wanted to follow-up on this. I think the golden age of competitive LCGs is probably over. If the card pool doesn't rotate fast enough, they become prohibitively expensive to get into, and the only company big enough to rotate rapidly was FFG, and they (a) never got off their rear end, and (b) are a shadow of themselves. But. I think the golden age of co-op LCGs is either now or just around the corner. Co-op games have all the benefits of competitive LCGs (like a defined pack you can buy, etc.), but you don't need rotation. You're playing against an automated deck - you don't need to have the current meta deck because you're not playing against meta decks made by humans. With Marvel Champions, FFG really figured out how to sell packs. Every single pack stands alone - you want to play Captain America or Spider-Ham or Agent Venom, go buy that pack. The deck works out of the gate, it's really easy to convince a friend to start collecting. And with the new Arkham Horror publishing model (you buy and entire set's player cards and enemy cards in two boxes for the whole cycle), the price has dropped significantly and it's really convenient to grab cards for the whole table.
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Jun 20, 2022 18:39
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I bet there is a way to design an asymmetric mode for Marvel Champs using the existing card pool. One side playing the villains trying to advance their agendas, one side playing heroes like normal. Could even do 1 v all like the regular mode.
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Jun 20, 2022 18:45
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CitizenKeen posted:I wanted to follow-up on this. So what happened? As far as I can tell, it appears to be the case that Asmodee was more interested in FFG's manufacturing facilities than their massive catalogue of titles and let most of the licenses and such go the way of the dinosaur. Is that the long and short of it?
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Jun 20, 2022 18:59
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TheDiceMustRoll posted:So what happened? As far as I can tell, it appears to be the case that Asmodee was more interested in FFG's manufacturing facilities than their massive catalogue of titles and let most of the licenses and such go the way of the dinosaur. Is that the long and short of it? From a pure profit point of view, they probably had too many games they were trying to publish. So Asmodee trimmed them down and now has games and intellectual property that Asmodee thinks will be profitable for the company instead of games that some folks would like to play. With Netrunner, they were up against Hasbro and probably didn't want to pay Hasbro prices.
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Jun 20, 2022 19:10
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Mayveena posted:In other news, I was planning to get this very functional perfectly sized board game table. At Odyssey Games in Pasadena, the owner put together some really good board game tables. They are 48 inches wide and a little longer than that. I got a deal with the owner to make one for me at a good price. I recently played on a professionally made board game table for the first time and it was like finally hopping in a Porsche after seeing them drive by you all your life. Engineered from top to bottom with all the luxuries you can imagine and then some... and expensive as hell. I'd have one in two seconds if I had the space and disposable income to throw at it without any guilt but at our next house with more room I would consider commissioning one from my carpenter cousin, it was that good. Plus, the one I played on had the removable slats/leaves so you could have a normal table when not gaming (if that ever happens...) Regarding animals: nothing would stop me from playing games with people with home zoos unless the animals were actively trying to destroy the game components/poo poo on me so I wouldn't stress about it unless people are actively avoiding you or turning down your invites en masse. An easy way to figure it out is scheduling another session and seeing if people magically are busy or God forbid say something to you about it but my guess is it isn't an issue so full steam ahead!
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Jun 20, 2022 19:19
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Mayveena posted:I I checked it out a bit while trying to look for something to get the feeling I had when I played the old Firefly game. Didn't manage to play with others, but it was fine. It's got the whole deal of going from place to place doing jobs and dodging the bigger powers. The thing I really didn't like conceptually was the fact that the game board is just a fairly narrow pathway, but I guess Unfinished Business is supposed to add the ability to visit core worlds, so that provides more. You get a nice playerboard and ship that you plug your character, crew, and gear into as you build yourself up to go pew pew woosh zoom zap across the galaxy (or the small segment of galaxy you have access to).
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Jun 20, 2022 19:22
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CitizenKeen posted:I think the golden age of competitive LCGs is probably over. If the card pool doesn't rotate fast enough, they become prohibitively expensive to get into, and the only company big enough to rotate rapidly was FFG, and they (a) never got off their rear end, and (b) are a shadow of themselves. TheDiceMustRoll posted:So what happened? As far as I can tell, it appears to be the case that Asmodee was more interested in FFG's manufacturing facilities than their massive catalogue of titles and let most of the licenses and such go the way of the dinosaur. Is that the long and short of it? With regards to which? With regards to (a), FFG would rotate when the veterans would start to feel like the system was creaking under new systems. But they should have rotated when new players were expected to pay more than $200 for the most competitive deck. A game like Netrunner could have absolutely supported more than one format - look at Magic with it's bajillion formats. With regards to (b), Asmodee is slowly stripping FFG for parts, and while they're still putting out some good products, anything that requires effort (like maintaining a competitive scene) was one of the first things to get the axe. CitizenKeen fucked around with this message at 22:13 on Jun 20, 2022 |
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Jun 20, 2022 19:53
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TheDiceMustRoll posted:That being said, how is Journeys in Middle Earth, because that sounds like it might be more up my alley, more of an RPG in a box and I like that. Gloomhaven missed me taking 20+ minutes to set up and tear down, so I haven't personally played it, but my impression was that the app integration in Journeys in Middle Earth is poorly conceptualized, to the point that the game state is pretty opaque without looking at it through the app. IMO a game and the board state should still be entirely "readable and plannable" without the app. Maybe someone else can fill in the blanks more? Return to Dark Tower does a decent-to-good job of app integration, I think: do your turn (using the app if needed for e.g. combat), drop a skull into the tower, resolve any events, then pass the tablet to the next player. I'd change a couple things for better clarity and user experience, but nothing major. IMO a real sweet spot of app integration was achieved with Mansions of Madness 2e. It has the perfect architecture for app integration IMO: the app handles housekeeping and randomization of setup elements (and things like map tile reveals) while also being hands-off in terms of "rules enforcement". (To explain the latter, you can -- for example -- freely and at any time modify health of monsters on the board, even killing them entirely, and the app will just "ok that monster's dead now, that's fine" and truck right along. Forget that monster A was supposed to get an extra wound in the last combat? Do it now, no problem.) The app tracks the two basic phases of the game, but within that, it stays pretty much completely out of your way. Exposition or narrative elements are terse, everything is super clear, just excellently done overall.
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Jun 20, 2022 20:33
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Mayveena posted:I It’s fine as long as everyone plays bounty hunters really. It’s in no way as awful as Western Legends.
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Jun 20, 2022 20:44
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The Eyes Have It posted:I haven't personally played it, but my impression was that the app integration in Journeys in Middle Earth is poorly conceptualized, to the point that the game state is pretty opaque without looking at it through the app. IMO a game and the board state should still be entirely "readable and plannable" without the app. Maybe someone else can fill in the blanks more? The search for planet X uses an app well. I was pretty wary about it until I finally played it and it does a good job of bookkeeping the puzzle without having you spend more time looking at your phone than at the game.
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Jun 20, 2022 20:50
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Mayveena posted:In other news, I was planning to get this very functional perfectly sized board game table. At Odyssey Games in Pasadena, the owner put together some really good board game tables. They are 48 inches wide and a little longer than that. I got a deal with the owner to make one for me at a good price. i love my dedicated board game table and it actually makes it possible for me to play games that take a lot of setup
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Jun 20, 2022 23:13
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I have a pool table with a wooden cover for when it's not in use, so this became my defacto gaming and dining table. I would love a fancy gaming table with all the compartments, but that would mean giving up being able to play pool. Unless someone makes a convertible gaming pool dining table. Then I'm going to spend a great deal of money.
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Jun 20, 2022 23:17
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jarofpiss posted:i love my dedicated board game table and it actually makes it possible for me to play games that take a lot of setup Yeah some of my games take up a lot of space and that’s why I was looking for one. My table at 42” wide makes everything have to be placed length wise and that’s somewhat inconvenient.
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Jun 21, 2022 03:03
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I’ve heard Inis is great but is improved by a rule in the expansion that breaks stalemates. Do you need the expansion to use that rule?
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Jun 21, 2022 10:27
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Apocron posted:I’ve heard Inis is great but is improved by a rule in the expansion that breaks stalemates. Do you need the expansion to use that rule? Nope. You can look up the manual on BGG and just implement it. It is probably worth using but it’s not critically necessary in order to enjoy Inis.
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Jun 21, 2022 10:35
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Blamestorm posted:Nope. You can look up the manual on BGG and just implement it. It is probably worth using but it’s not critically necessary in order to enjoy Inis. Thanks! Good to know!
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Jun 21, 2022 11:34
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Every so often I get some board game money in my pocket and I wonder again to myself if there are any new assymetric games with leveling up / tech trees out there. I realise, specifically, what I'm after is a game to replace Rune Wars, the boardgame. (not the miniatures game). Kemet doesn't, because you are all choosing from the same menu. Spirit Island is co op. Root doesn't really have level up choices. Oath looks pretty amazing, but still not quite right. Dune is the greatest game ever, but there's no tech tree. I guess TI is baaaasically it. I just want to play warcraft 3, but as a board game. (but also not that board game). Im always surprised with the billions of kick starters that none of them are ever it. I guess, be the change, and all that, I should probably just design it at this point.
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Jun 21, 2022 12:48
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!Klams posted:Every so often I get some board game money in my pocket and I wonder again to myself if there are any new assymetric games with leveling up / tech trees out there. Runewars (which I really also like) isn’t THAT tech tree focused surely. Mostly you just build up additional resource gathering and unit deployment, plus whatever the heroes get. Forbidden Stars has some similarities but it’s almost impossible to get (I think the designer is working on a non 40k version). The tech trees are mostly combat based but are completely different for each faction - it’s a great game. The order system in it, funnily enough, was based on the StarCraft board game. If you want “tech trees: the game” look into Beyond the Sun. It isn’t much like Runewars but it’s another great game. Civilization: a New Dawn with the expansion also has some similarities to Rune Wars and is also a great game that takes a third the time to play. Possibly Space Empires 4X is another option but you need to know what you’re walking into and have someone to play it with. It takes hours to play but has everything. Eclipse as well obviously. I know what you mean about RTS dynamics. I don’t really find that in Runewars though. I also keep an eye out for Runewars like games - I like war games with fantasy or sci fi rather than historical themes, and I really like the area control elements of Runewars combined with the order system, seasonal structure and pseudo 4X stuff, there isn’t much like it. But neither it nor stuff like TI make me think of RTSs which have that balance of fighting over ground while frantically building up. Something like Chaos in the Old World maybe (and I understand Cthulu Wars is the modern version of that) except it feels more strategic and kind of political. Edit: after thinking about it a bit Forbidden Stars is probably closest: combat focused, unique factions, pressure to be aggressive but balancing that with working your way up a tech tree.
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Jun 21, 2022 14:09
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!Klams posted:Every so often I get some board game money in my pocket and I wonder again to myself if there are any new assymetric games with leveling up / tech trees out there. Kemet is more unique than you think and you'd be surprised at how varied the tech tree will develop. Plus the game is super fast and aggressive. Dune is... not as fast and lacks tech tree but the asymmetry between factions is very powerful and interesting and you could argue the item cards could be considered a form of a temporary tech tree but that's a stretch I admit. When played properly and tightly you are watching fights and excitedly seeing them develop and what cards are played and holy poo poo when a traitor is revealed... Wow. TI is very good but unless you're very patient and have a great group you will find yourself playing it once a year like me. It takes forever, time between turns can be intolerable, requires everyone to be on the ball with regard to paying loving attention to what phase it is (and not breaking the rules either deliberately or accidentally), and for people to not be goddamn babies when attacked or have objectives disrupted. It is a behemoth and one of those games that people treat like Civ or 1830 in terms of "let's commit an entire Saturday to this" and sometimes you have fun but my God is it a slog at times. Most of my points are personality and skill based and I'm sure pure YMMV I have to think very hard about playing it when Civ and 18xx is sitting right there instead.
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Jun 21, 2022 14:34
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You might want to check out Ares Project. It is RTS the board game. Heavily inspired by StarCraft and has 4 unique factions. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/65534/ares-project
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Jun 21, 2022 15:20
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I’ve seen Anachrony critiqued for it’s time travel just being a loan mechanic in disguise. Loan mechanics are not inherently bad though and some of the best games use them. Does Anachrony use the mechanic in an interesting way? Does it have anything other interesting design decisions?
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Jun 21, 2022 16:21
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Anachrony's loan also has a bluffing aspect, as whoever has the biggest loan for the round gets a yellow card (triangle, to be exact); three triangles and you get a penalty (a building worth negative VP). The theme around it is that you're causing a gradual time paradox. Anachrony's resources are also very thematic and fun to work with. Water is essential to manage your workers, and you generally feel like you're squeaking by on how much you need; fitting for a post-apocalyptic setting.
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Jun 21, 2022 16:35
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I also wanted to add that paying back your loan (which has some additional costs attached) is also a way to get VP. I'm not saying it's necessarily a winning strategy to have good time credit, but it's at least somewhat encouraged to take the loan, aside from the immediate short term benefits.
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Jun 21, 2022 16:40
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!Klams posted:Every so often I get some board game money in my pocket and I wonder again to myself if there are any new assymetric games with leveling up / tech trees out there. Looking at pictures on BGG, Rune Wars doesn't look very assy at all so that seems like a very strange metric to praise it on - most of the characters are wearing big robes! In all seriousness though, have you tried Ankh? On the surface it might not be what you're looking for as everyone has the same tech tree boards, but each god has a unique power that really influences how they can best build. It doesn't seem like the one single power would make as much difference to how the factions play or prioritize items, but it absolutely does. Plus, the game itself just has a fantastic decision space - everyone chooses their two actions per turn from the same central board tracker, and hitting the end of an action track will advance an event track that does things like build monuments, cause wars, or even split the board areas to the whims of whoever triggered the event. Since there's incentives to level up your powers early (they allow you to unlock unique creatures, each with their own abilities - and there aren't enough to go around for every player) you really have to decide whether it's worth pushing the action track further towards triggering a battle or if you should play it safe and shore up your forces more. I can't emphasize enough how differently the gods play, though - in my last game, Isis (whose figures directly adjacent to enemies cannot die even if they are defeated in battle) was taking a lot of powers that keyed off of losing fights, while Osiris (who can summon an extra figure adjacent to an Underworld portal on a summoning action) beelined to powers that let him also summon adjacent to all of his pyramids at once, and he was able to essentially put all of his figures out in a turn by the late game.
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Jun 21, 2022 16:43
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Megasabin posted:I’ve seen Anachrony critiqued for it’s time travel just being a loan mechanic in disguise. Loan mechanics are not inherently bad though and some of the best games use them. Does Anachrony use the mechanic in an interesting way? Does it have anything other interesting design decisions? When you take a "loan", the specific turn gets marked on the (turn) timeline. At some point, you can build various warp engine buildings on your tableau which allow you to change "focus" to a previous turn. Having focus on a previous turn lets you repay whatever you took back then ("correcting" the timeline), as well as buy various technology that was only available on that turn if you couldn't afford it then. As turns progress it gets more difficult to repay due to your warp engines having limited "range" (e.g., an arbitrary engine might only take you back one turn, so you either need to repay quickly, get multiple engines, or accept some penalties from missing your repayment targets. Or maybe a powerful engine takes you back more, but it costs some resources to activate). If you don't repay, you collect "anomaly" penalties for each item still on the timeline, which eventually turn into paradoxes, which swallow your buildings/resources/people/points. Some buildings will also help you remove anomalies, so you can run a strategy of taking out fat "loans" and then just trying to slow down the crumbling effects. Also, at a points in the game, you can no longer power up all your exosuits (reducing your actions on the main board), but you can still warp them in, granting you extra actions late-game if you can organize your cyclical loan engine. Other mechanics: Actions on the main board require exosuits, which you spend resources to activate each turn, so your main board actions need to be fairly planned. However, your tableau actions are "free", so you can move cardboard as much as you want between your buildings. You end up with a sort of dual turn structure of a few powerful main actions, and however many actions you managed to squeeze out of your tableau. Your people generally get used one time, and then require water to refresh, so you've got a water engine as well. So in my mind, it's a combination of balancing a few main board actions that require fuel, unlimited tableau actions that require water, and loan actions (which are effectively a main board action) that require a repayment engine. It's really a game about trying to maximize each turn, just squeaking by in water production to get your people back up for the next turn, and slowly getting an engine up and running. It feels very.. Mindclashy, if you've played anything else from them Verdict: Anachrony is A Good Game and goons have no taste
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Jun 21, 2022 16:44
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Blamestorm posted:
All awesome suggestions, thank you! If forbidden stars had an expansion with ANY other, non boring af races, I'd snap it up. Loved SC but it was always hard to get to the table because of the fiddly combat, sounds like they cleared that up! But, yeah, Space marines, space marines, orks and elves... Sigh. Come on. Suddenly Susan posted:You might want to check out Ares Project. It is RTS the board game. Heavily inspired by StarCraft and has 4 unique factions. This looks pretty interesting, but from the reviews it sounds pretty dry? Rockman Reserve posted:
No! Let's have a gander!
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Jun 21, 2022 17:26
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What’s the best version of Patchwork to buy? I assumed most of the editions were just cosmetic differences and then I saw the Halloween edition has rebalanced tiles? Are there other versions with those as well? Also if there are any other games with stitching/knitting/etc themes that people could recommend I’d appreciate it!
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Jun 21, 2022 17:32
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!Klams posted:No! Let's have a gander! Ankh is a CMON game, so a not insignificant chunk of gameplay is a Kickstarter exclusive.
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Jun 21, 2022 17:40
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