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Had a chance to play The Great Split at the weekend. It's a bit like 7 Wonders except without the Wonders, and replacing the drafting and playing of a single card with a Solomon draft where you play everything you receive and keep the cards in circulation. It's clever, as you have far more opportunity to respond to what players are feeding you and while you can persuade people to give back the cards you really want, you've got to sweeten the pot quite heavily. We played a three-player game in around 30 minutes including teach, but it's undoubtedly better with more players and also not appreciably longer as almost everything is done simultaneously.
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Oct 19, 2022 00:58
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FirstAidKite posted:Which ones? Serpent Slumbering, Shifting Memory of Ages, Stone’s Unyielding Defiance, and Rampant Spread of Green are all a bit meh in my opinion. I also wish Thunderspeaker was a bit less sexualized. I will say that the card art has been consistently excellent though, always very evocative.
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Oct 19, 2022 01:11
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Jimbozig posted:Just play Mage Knight like the rest of us complexity fiends. I keep drawing enemies that are immune to my poo poo. How do I better enjoy this?
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Oct 19, 2022 01:40
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Sokani posted:I keep drawing enemies that are immune to my poo poo. How do I better enjoy this? draw better
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Oct 19, 2022 02:21
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Fate Accomplice posted:draw better 
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Oct 19, 2022 02:30
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First game of Root for me. We played with an expansion to get 5 people on the board. Never seen a game with more AP, we went for 3.5 hrs and had to end for the shop closing, leader (Crows) ended with 24 points. I chose Woodland Alliance and struggled worse than any other player at the table. I think only one other person was new to the game but besides one or two players it was a 1st or 2nd game. I probably Battled too much and it gained me nothing due to some bad rolls (tie rolls) which really set me behind. Also figured out too late that it's better in the mid to late to shore up Sympathy in the Evening rather than during Birdsong? I fought a bunch because the sympathy track can't hit 30 on its own... I had a bird card that wins after 10 pts if you have opposite corner bases but having no presence on the board at start of game made that pretty much a non-starter. Any tips? Just to have in my back pocket cause I don't know when I'll want to play for over 3 hours with no true resolution again, haha. First game I've really seen with that much AP and with one player in particular being notoriously stunlocked during their turns... Perry Mason Jar fucked around with this message at 04:03 on Oct 19, 2022 |
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Oct 19, 2022 04:01
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Jewmanji posted:Stone’s Unyielding Defiance Stone's Unyielding Defiance is just the spirit of grumpy old people and I love it  "drat humans get off my lawn"
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Oct 19, 2022 04:14
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Perry Mason Jar posted:First game of Root for me. We played with an expansion to get 5 people on the board. Never seen a game with more AP, we went for 3.5 hrs and had to end for the shop closing, leader (Crows) ended with 24 points. I'm no expert on Root but generally speaking, Woodland Alliance doesn't benefit a lot from proactively fighting unless it's to hit a weak undefended target, your actions are much better spent on shoring up warriors and deploying them for sympathy. What you generally want to do is get a base or two in play as early as possible, then deploy warriors to heavily defended areas so you can turn them into sympathy for cheap. Eventually, you hit an equilibrium state where half the map is covered in sympathy, and the other factions can barely move or clear them out without giving you cards from Outrage, allowing you to buy back those sympathizers easily and scoring points for doing so. Their VP gain really surges once they hit that point, and they can easily overtake the big army factions even if you've been lagging behind all game. Their big weakness is that they start out weaker than the other factions and it's hard to get a sheer numerical advantage, so army factions like cats or birds can shut them down by aggressively clearing sympathy early-game and never allowing them a foothold, or simply parking a big stack of warriors in your base so you lose your area claim and have to waste a few turns clearing them out. There's not all that much you can really do about that except trying to convince your opponents that picking on you this early in the game is a waste of time (it is not). There isn't really a lot you can do to vary up this playstyle, it's pretty much the only way the Woodland Alliance plays and the only spin you can really put on it is how quickly you advance along its various stages and how you respond to people trying to counter it. By the way, maybe I'm misreading it but were you scoring points for every Sympathy token you put down? The sympathy track isn't 'you have X points for having this much sympathy on the board', it's how much VP you gain for each Sympathy token you put down on the board, with each new one being worth more for how much you already have. Also, don't forget you can craft to earn VP, using Sympathetic areas for crafting requirements.
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Oct 19, 2022 05:01
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Spirit Island Horizons solo is really easy for even a lapsed veteran player with rusty skills like me to win solo. I played three times, and had confined the invaders to the coast very early without even trying to do anything special. I really want to try these new spirits solo against real adversaries though. There are some spirits in the full content that I wouldn't play anymore because they were too boring, and some that were too powerful to be fun, but these seem like they'd be a good balanced challenge.
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Oct 19, 2022 05:06
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Played John Company 2nd Edition last night, 3 players and we managed to quite by accident tank the company by the end of turn 2. We undershot expectations which was bad but we had control of 2 regions, Bombay and Punjab so things were looking good for the company. Then events happened. We got Leader in Bombay which was Company controlled so it revolted and became Sovereign again losing us a company standing. Bombay now being sovereign we put the elephant on the triangle border which happened to be the border with Punjab. Next event, Crisis so Bombay invaded Punjab routing us there and losing us 2 more Company Standing and putting us in the black. We think we resolved this correctly. Quite rightly the public blamed the military for the collapse of the company so justice was done there. A++ Will play again. We're going to try it with 6 now we , kinda, know the rules and see how chaotic is gets.
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Oct 19, 2022 09:52
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Conquering India is a bit of a trap in the 1710 scenario, the army starts out weak and you’ve got a ton of sovereign regions that will try to smack an exhausted army
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Oct 19, 2022 16:42
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Aramoro posted:
Every now and then you'll read something in this thread that makes total sense personally but is so esoteric and hilarious to imagine someone with no context reading and trying to comprehend.
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Oct 19, 2022 17:00
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Inadequately posted:There isn't really a lot you can do to vary up this playstyle, it's pretty much the only way the Woodland Alliance plays and the only spin you can really put on it is how quickly you advance along its various stages and how you respond By the way, maybe I'm misreading it but were you scoring points for every Sympathy token you put down? The sympathy track isn't 'you have X points for having this much sympathy on the board', it's how much VP you gain for each Sympathy token you put down on the board, with each new one being worth more for how much you already have. Also, don't forget you can craft to earn VP, using Sympathetic areas for crafting requirements. Nah I was adding points written on the track. I'm seeing a different board online than I played with cause my first sympathy gained nothing rather than +1 and if I remember correctly there's some point changes to the 2nd and 3rd cost sympathies. I added them up and they add to shy of 30 --- 27 I think? Reading a bit now and I definitely spent too many supporters garnering sympathy when I had good options to remove warriors to play sympathy instead. I'd also avoid having 3 bases as early on as I did since it ruins my Revolt threat (to be fair I didn't realize I could only revolt in spaces that don't match a base I already have). Beyond that I should've been playing to put down sympathy for crafting to get points there rather than through outright takeovers. A lot of my crafting I threw to Supporters and only crafted bird cards for fights. Not the best strategy! I think I'd prefer a different faction to be honest but yeah I misplaced it pretty hard I think. Either that or WA shouldn't be played on boards with 5 players... hard to say. LifeLynx posted:Spirit Island Horizons solo is really easy for even a lapsed veteran player with rusty skills like me to win solo. I played three times, and had confined the invaders to the coast very early without even trying to do anything special. I really want to try these new spirits solo against real adversaries though. There are some spirits in the full content that I wouldn't play anymore because they were too boring, and some that were too powerful to be fun, but these seem like they'd be a good balanced challenge. Yeah it's too easy for me and I'm a dumb bitch who's generally new to board games and largely dumb as hell. And it's so weird cause the complexity means it's not particularly inviting for children who would have an easier time with a lower difficulty game. Unless someone is managing steps and triggers for them I don't see it being particularly fun for them either.
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Oct 19, 2022 18:58
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FulsomFrank posted:Every now and then you'll read something in this thread that makes total sense personally but is so esoteric and hilarious to imagine someone with no context reading and trying to comprehend. Well at least it made sense to someone. We were just rolling teach/learn and we'd had 4 events in the first turn that did almost nothing. Just those 2 events in that order just shot the company in the back of the head before it really got started.
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Oct 19, 2022 19:04
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FulsomFrank posted:Every now and then you'll read something in this thread that makes total sense personally but is so esoteric and hilarious to imagine someone with no context reading and trying to comprehend. When the thread goes into train chat mode I'm baffled at the way people can just mention two numbers between 1800 and 1900 and other people will have an immediate understanding of how the slightly different auction rules will lead to wildly divergent experiences.
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Oct 19, 2022 19:08
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Poopy Palpy posted:When the thread goes into train chat mode I'm baffled at the way people can just mention two numbers between 1800 and 1900 and other people will have an immediate understanding of how the slightly different auction rules will lead to wildly divergent experiences. As one of those people, it's really just...playing them. They're wildly different games with a common structure. Now, <noun> of the <direction> <noun> games, I've no idea how anyone keeps any of them straight.
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Oct 19, 2022 19:22
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Triskelli posted:Conquering India is a bit of a trap in the 1710 scenario, the army starts out weak and you’ve got a ton of sovereign regions that will try to smack an exhausted army It feels that invading India is done almost purely for personal profit and power. Yes you can open orders, but so can the Director of Trade. The main benificary of war is personal fame.
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Oct 19, 2022 19:24
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silvergoose posted:As one of those people, it's really just...playing them. They're wildly different games with a common structure. Now, <noun> of the <direction> <noun> games, I've no idea how anyone keeps any of them straight. Cardinals of the Cardinal Direction.
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Oct 19, 2022 22:56
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I have to refamiliarize myself with 1862’s rules again cuz I have a feeling the other attendant who is supposed to come will flake, so I’m limited to a 2-3P train game. Still, can’t really say I’m sad. 62’s fantastic and the train rush is wildly similar to 49. Except it feels like it’s more measured, but exciting, and not the steep climb into wild depravity that is 49.
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Oct 20, 2022 12:54
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SettingSun posted:Should have twice as many extra tokens tbh. I crave complexity. Spirit Island but with Gloomhaven status chits for each individual invader
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Oct 20, 2022 15:41
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Perry Mason Jar posted:Yeah it's too easy for me and I'm a dumb bitch who's generally new to board games and largely dumb as hell. I've been enjoying it as something I can breeze through in a lunch break. The new spirits are definitely less mentally intensive, which makes me more effective. For new players though, you still have the same minor and major power cards as the base game which have been the biggest barrier to me introducing it to non-hobbyist gamers. You're always having to think oh I can't use that there because it's too far or the wrong terrain or there's blight. It makes me wish they had made a new deck of simplified power cards that are still compatible with the base game where maybe there's only four elements, all ranges are 1 and effective on all terrain, and each card does one simple thing. See how well the bones of the game hold up when players don't have to think too hard about what their cards can do and can focus on what's the best option now. And then adding a basic adversary to increase the difficulty without increasing mental load.
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Oct 20, 2022 16:01
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Chill la Chill posted:I have to refamiliarize myself with 1862’s rules again cuz I have a feeling the other attendant who is supposed to come will flake, so I’m limited to a 2-3P train game. For some reason I thought this thread was cool on 62? I really like 49 minus how fiddly it felt with the track gauges, have to get it on the table again with willing victims. All I play lately is 18MEX, which I love, but would not mind mixing it up.
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Oct 20, 2022 16:19
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Wheeler W Wetherby posted:I've been enjoying it as something I can breeze through in a lunch break. The new spirits are definitely less mentally intensive, which makes me more effective. For new players though, you still have the same minor and major power cards as the base game which have been the biggest barrier to me introducing it to non-hobbyist gamers. You're always having to think oh I can't use that there because it's too far or the wrong terrain or there's blight. I've won most of my games by drawing out the Fear deck, mostly abusing Paralyzing Fear. I was one blight away from a loss with 1P Wind Cat but won by playing Paralyzing Fear in the penultimate round and then reclaiming for the replay to end the game before their next ravage. Actually it was super narrow in the penultimate round, I almost lost then but a one energy defend 2 in all lands and Wind Cat's Special saved me. [I played this game with the higher difficulty rule] I've leaned heavily into drawing out the entirety of the Fear deck with both Spooky Eyes and Wind Cat. Only other spirit I've tried is Mud Otter which can either do the same or just wipe out buildings which is easy enough when the Special prevents them getting built. I'm not sure how the former two would manage with detuned Power cards cause their damage really can't keep up. I also haven't found range, land type ranges, and target land restrictions particularly punishing though.
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Oct 20, 2022 16:46
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FulsomFrank posted:For some reason I thought this thread was cool on 62? I really like 49 minus how fiddly it felt with the track gauges, have to get it on the table again with willing victims. All I play lately is 18MEX, which I love, but would not mind mixing it up. Different people like different 18xx, I doubt there's a thread consensus at all on the genre w.r.t. individual titles, even among those who play the games.
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Oct 20, 2022 16:50
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silvergoose posted:Different people like different 18xx, I doubt there's a thread consensus at all on the genre w.r.t. individual titles, even among those who play the games. I get that but I feel like I did an informal poll about the game here years ago when trying to decide if I should grab it (because no one I know has it, bastards) and had people chime in about its mediocrity but I'm probably misremembering one person replying and saying 'meh'.
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Oct 20, 2022 17:06
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FulsomFrank posted:I get that but I feel like I did an informal poll about the game here years ago when trying to decide if I should grab it (because no one I know has it, bastards) and had people chime in about its mediocrity but I'm probably misremembering one person replying and saying 'meh'. It's meh.
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Oct 21, 2022 00:51
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If anyone was interested in the Gloomhaven Steam release, it's 25% off right now, putting it at about $25.
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Oct 21, 2022 01:07
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Going to NZ's biggest board gaming event this weekend. Are there any stand out games from the last 6-12 months that I should be looking to try? Probably more at the lighter to mid end of things since I don't want to have to try and read and learn from complex rule books at the event. I'd be particularly interested in any shorter (like 45-60) minute games that if I like I might buy to give us more options at the end of games nights when the main game doesn't take up the whole time.
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Oct 21, 2022 01:30
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Kerro posted:Going to NZ's biggest board gaming event this weekend. Are there any stand out games from the last 6-12 months that I should be looking to try? Probably more at the lighter to mid end of things since I don't want to have to try and read and learn from complex rule books at the event. I'd be particularly interested in any shorter (like 45-60) minute games that if I like I might buy to give us more options at the end of games nights when the main game doesn't take up the whole time. The Fuzzies
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Oct 21, 2022 02:04
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Prada Slut for etherfields did you only ever play with the 2.0 rules or did you try both? Do the 2.0 rules actually fix any of the complaints with the initial release's rules?
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Oct 21, 2022 02:28
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FirstAidKite posted:Prada Slut for etherfields did you only ever play with the 2.0 rules or did you try both? Do the 2.0 rules actually fix any of the complaints with the initial release's rules? Yes, 2.0 is significantly better: 1) Player turns are now freeform so everyone can act at the same time. Keeps the game moving and gives more interesting player reactions (e.g., someone gets into position in anticipation of another player investigating a weird tile) 2) You get a key each slumber, so the "random encounters" always progress the game. 1.0 can lag late-game when you have a pile of slumbers to go through to farm keys (and you haven't deliveranced any encounters). Also, the reduction in random slumbers between dreams means you enter less damaged/sealed, so you enter dreams usually having to make a quality decision between unsealing and healing, but you don't enter too damaged to be screwed 3) If you fail a dream, you can start the same dream again for no keys (power nap). You take the failure penalty but can just restart the dream without farming again 4) There's a "continuous dream" mode that allows you to skip every encounter if you want to go hard on the dream content and don't care about the transitionary action. I could see it good for multiple playthroughs or if you're in late-game and just want to go to the new content and not worry about the random encounters anymore (and you don't want the rewards for them) The 2.0 box actually includes the 1.0 components and then a "2.0 envelope" which you can just exchange rulebooks/components as you want them. So you can still play 1.0 if that's your thing (at least in the KS release) Unrelated to the changes, the Etherfields Secret Scripts makes it really nice to not have to flip through the book to read the story entries: https://etherfields-secret-scripts.web.app -- I play with an iPad on the table with this page loaded and a PDF of the rulebook for reference e: if I've learned anything from Awaken Realms, its to wait for wave 2 because they always have some expansion content that doesn't make it into wave 1, and they usually clean up some gameplay with the 2.0 release. I'm in wave 2 for ISS Vanguard as well, and if it's anything like Etherfields, looks to be really good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTiV1QwXUgU PRADA SLUT fucked around with this message at 05:31 on Oct 21, 2022 |
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Oct 21, 2022 05:14
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I recently bought the CYOA game House of Danger, and played it with my wife and a good friend of ours. Unfortunately, the box omitted chapter 2 cards and contained 2 sets of chapter 3 cards. We're probably going to continue playing anyway, but it got me thinking that we should see if there was anything similar out there. The only thing I've seen that's like this game is Escape From The Dark Castle/Sector, but it looks like those are both out of print. Any suggestions for a narrative co-op game similar to these CYOA games? I'm looking for something without too much complication as my wife wants to play something simple, maybe 1 or 2 choices per round without a lot of fiddly bits to keep track of. I know there's War With The Power Master, but she kind of hates scifi and we're looking for something with a more grounded theme.
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Oct 21, 2022 06:28
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SoR Blaze posted:I recently bought the CYOA game House of Danger, and played it with my wife and a good friend of ours. Unfortunately, the box omitted chapter 2 cards and contained 2 sets of chapter 3 cards. We're probably going to continue playing anyway, but it got me thinking that we should see if there was anything similar out there. The only thing I've seen that's like this game is Escape From The Dark Castle/Sector, but it looks like those are both out of print.
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Oct 21, 2022 06:32
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Try looking into the Adventure Games series by Thames & Kosmos. They're cooperative adventure games with a sierra-style point system. Players pick different characters that have a few different basic traits and it's possible to lose from a person dying but players just take hits for other players until someone dies, then you just start over. Or undo that death and just continue on  Each game is split into 3 acts to give the players a defined stopping/starting point, the interactions usually provide a few different choices with a few unique character-specific or item-combination-specific interactions, and there are multiple endings. The way the adventure game part works is you'll be told to draw a map card. That card has a picture with some numbers on it. You go investigate the numbers. As you find more rooms, you add them onto the rooms you've already found. Each player takes a turn doing an investigation action. Taking a hit for another player or trading inventory items is a free action, everyone is just thought to have access to every item the players have found. They're playable with 1-4 players and are relatively inexpensive. There are currently 7 different games though I think only 5 are available in English and I don't know if there are any plans to translate the 2 newer games or not. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/57030/series-adventure-games-kosmos/linkeditems/boardgamefamily       
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Oct 21, 2022 07:33
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Unless they got better after monochrome inc, the adventure games were bad. It’s a bunch of kings quest searching everything for the correct halves of the bear rear end to open the door. SelenicMartian posted:Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective? This is it, though it can be hard. Like, make sure you play with people who have a reasonable amount of critical thinking skill. Unironic rec: scooby doo escape from the haunted mansion
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Oct 21, 2022 19:03
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PRADA SLUT posted:Unless they got better after monochrome inc, the adventure games were bad. It’s a bunch of kings quest searching everything for the correct halves of the bear rear end to open the door. Well I did say they were sierra-style
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Oct 21, 2022 19:16
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Jewmanji posted:From the Backerkit video it looks like they’ve upped the quality of the spirit panel art, which is nice. Some of the spirits have always had frustratingly mediocre art imho. I would have to call that dog spirit they released today an exception here. The big derpy looking dog with weird floating spectral eyes
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Oct 21, 2022 19:59
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Micro macro are also really fun co op, and while they aren't a written narrative, there are some really fun stories to uncover in the Where's Waldo storytelling style they use. If you aren't familiar, cases start with a crime and you work backwards through time using a giant poster to track victims and perpetrators and their various activities so that you can explain the methods and motives of all those involved. For me it hits all of what I love about Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective while ditching some of the convoluted reasoning.
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Oct 21, 2022 20:17
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New Coke posted:I would have to call that dog spirit they released today an exception here. The big derpy looking dog with weird floating spectral eyes Kinda reminds me of the Cheetos mascot lol
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Oct 21, 2022 20:22
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Ohthehugemanatee posted:Micro macro are also really fun co op, and while they aren't a written narrative, there are some really fun stories to uncover in the Where's Waldo storytelling style they use. Micro Macro is great. There's also the 'Bureau of Investigation' Sherlock Holmes spin-off which is all Lovecraft-based if you want a horror adventure puzzler.
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Oct 21, 2022 22:31
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