Deceptive Thinker posted:

Rutibex posted:

A bunch of the cards required major rewrites to work in Tanto Cuore (and for my basic sanity, jeez did the Dominion designer never play Magic?).

cosmicjim posted:

There's an Amazon sale on board games today and I'm looking for recommendations. The only thing I have on the whole list is Tokaido.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_st_...t=featured-rank

Lottery of Babylon posted:

He didn't just play Magic, he literally helped write the rules to Magic. Which might have something to do with Dominion's writing being very clear and good.

Sailor Viy posted:

How can you say that Tanto Cuore is mechanically superior when, by your own admission, you don't understand high level Dominion strategy and were 'playing it wrong' the whole time.

quote:

Tanto Cuore by far. Dominion's need-for-greening implies an immediate anti-pattern for me, that is, the game slows itself down for the sake of victory. The fact that in Tanto Cuore you can buy cards that act as VP, can work in concert with other cards, and continue to build your engine means the game stays fast and tense, everyone watches everyone else to get a rough idea of who's in the lead. Also, Private Maids are a good flair which forces other players to decide when to act in gote and remove that card from play.

quote:

I've got all three. Truthfully, Romantic Vacation actually speeds up the game because the utility of buying certain-cost cards becomes so much more, than it should speed up over slowing down. Tanto Cuore is tense, but like a careful buildup kind of tension. All three of the sets become this insane loving shootout of buying and comboing.

quote:

I have to agree with this. With the Expanding the House expansion, some of the maids can be put into Estates and "protected" which is great, and helps decrease deck clutter while also giving you additional VP. In Dominion your VP cards are just stagnant and just clog up your deck. I have to say Tanto Cuore for me is the better game by far and doesn't have such a boring theme.

quote:

Tanto Cuore also seems more interactive than Dominion. I realize that Dominion does have some interactive cards. Seaside has them, another reason that it's my favorite set in Dominon.

One other thing I like about Tanto Cuore is that the physical size of each set is smaller. I often just take one set of Tanto Cuore rather than all three when I head out to a game meetup. It takes up less physical space than Dominion Seaside (the only set of Dominion that I own).

One thing Tanto Cuore could use is some expansion on its existing card types. A couple of extra Events, Buildings, and Private Maids might be nice.

Overall, Tanto Cuore is my favorite deck building game both thematically and mechanically. I rarely mix sets together, but doing so hasn't detracted much from the games I've played. Dominion Seaside is enjoyable for me, but I don't enjoy Dominion as much when all the sets are mixed together. Unfortunately, most of the people I know who play Dominion prefer that style of play.

quote:

Dominion has more variety and potential for big combos and engines.. but Tanto Cuore has more strategic depth and is more interactive.

Rutibex posted:

Was it like the first set of Magic? Because that is how some of the Dominion cards are written. The language he uses is not the standardized kind used in Magic cards today, thats for sure!

Rutibex posted:

It has better bones. I have read many reviews that compare the game, from advanced users and they all say "Tanto Cuore is best"

Lottery of Babylon posted:

It was the sixth edition rules overhaul.

Dominion has some of the best card-writing I've seen in a board game, because the writing ensures that the answer to pretty much any rules question can be determined by simply reading the card -- and it manages that with a 4-page rulebook instead of a 400-page rulebook. Care to provide some examples of how Dominion is badly-written?

Gabriel Pope posted:

I know I'm breaking the cardinal rule here, but there was some discussion about what makes Dominion and deckbuilders in general tick a couple pages ago and I wanted to expound on that anyhow.

Dominion's greening mechanic is brilliant and every deckbuilder that tries to "fix" it is garbage. Dominion uses green cards as an elegant way to unobtrusively level the playing field and slow things down to create a more deliberate, more competitive, and more strategic experience. Ascension is the only other deckbuilder I'm really familiar with and it demonstrates what happens when you take the pillar of Dominion's excellent design and gut it: luck of the draw takes over since drawing a big hand early gives you an advantage in your points and in your engine at the same time. Making VP cards inert means that the same deck is less likely to have massive swings in effectiveness depending on whether it draws 5 coins or 8 coins on turn 5.

Demon_Corsair posted:

Speaking of Dominion, how does Valley of the Kings compare?

foxxtrot posted:

I prefer VotK. There pretty different games though. VotK is about set building and market manipulation, particularly since the market is guaranteed to shift every turn.
The way the market works, makes it less of a straight engine builder like Dominion, and the fact that cards are either actions or money message the choices are quite different.

UrbanLabyrinth posted:

What should I know before playing Viticulture/Tuscany?

Lottery of Babylon posted:

It was the sixth edition rules overhaul.

Dominion has some of the best card-writing I've seen in a board game, because the writing ensures that the answer to pretty much any rules question can be determined by simply reading the card -- and it manages that with a 4-page rulebook instead of a 400-page rulebook. Care to provide some examples of how Dominion is badly-written?

Wizards website: January 15, 1999 posted:

I also worked with many top rules experts outside of Wizards, like Collin "Gammavirus" Jackson, Dan Gray, Dave DeLaney, David Sachs, DonaldX, Jeff Jordan, Michael "Meowse" Phoenix, Stephen D'Angelo, and Paul Barclay. We didn't always agree on all the answers (just ask DonaldX about triggered abilities), but we always discussed all the issues and the vast majority of us are extremely pleased with the final product.

Demon_Corsair posted:

If I just want to grab one should I go for the original or afterlife?

cosmicjim posted:

There's an Amazon sale on board games today and I'm looking for recommendations. The only thing I have on the whole list is Tokaido.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_st_...t=featured-rank

Demon_Corsair posted:

Speaking of Dominion, how does Valley of the Kings compare?

Aghama posted:

How is Broom Service, specifically with 2 players? The rules seem pretty straightforward and I like that it is modular, but I'm not sure how well the brave/cowardly mechanic would work with 2.

cosmicjim posted:

There's an Amazon sale on board games today and I'm looking for recommendations. The only thing I have on the whole list is Tokaido.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_st_...t=featured-rank

ETB posted:

To compensate for only having two players, the rules select "bewitched" cards each round that count against you (3 points) if selected by players. This adds a layer of risk/reward and reduces "perfect play."

Mister Sinewave posted:

Wait, is that ONLY in 2p? If so then the guy who taught the game I played didn't know his poo poo.

cosmicjim posted:

There's an Amazon sale on board games today and I'm looking for recommendations. The only thing I have on the whole list is Tokaido.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_st_...t=featured-rank

dropkickpikachu posted:

Does Legends of Andor hold up well compared to some of the coop games that have come out since then? That's a pretty good discount on it.

ETB posted:

What was the verdict on Via Nebula? My FLGS has it currently...

Bottom Liner posted:

Marry - gently caress - Kill: Tom Vasel, Wil Wheaton, Rutibex

Bottom Liner posted:

Marry - gently caress - Kill: Tom Vasel, Wil Wheaton, Rutibex

MrDru posted:

why would you do this

Bottom Liner posted:

Marry - gently caress - Kill: Tom Vasel, Wil Wheaton, Rutibex

dropkickpikachu posted:

M - Vasel
F - Wheaton
K - Rutibex

ETB posted:

What was the verdict on Via Nebula? My FLGS has it currently...

Trasson posted:

I have a very hard time deciding what the bigger crime is. Going full on creepy rear end in a top hat and shoving awful anime maid art into MSE templates and pretending you're groundbreaking is dumb enough.

But you know what shows you to be a selfish worthless rear end in a top hat? You picked this drat game because it was Dominion but with a theme you liked better, tasteless though it is. And yet you find it lacking because it doesn't have all of the same cards, and so poor little Rutibex has to go and painstakingly craft his perfect set of skeevy looking anime girls because he doesn't even have the intellectual integrity to stand by his horrible decision with all its consequences.

Congrats on stealing someone else's hard work and pretending you're accomplishing something by doing so, you rear end in a top hat. Go away. Never come back.

Radioactive Toy posted:

Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition first play trip report:

I'll get the bad out of the way first. The component quality for the figures and their bases is not at all what I have come to expect from FFG products. The figures are all a softer, more bendable plastic than other FFG games. I don't recall if this was the same for MoM 1st edition, but I constantly felt like the monsters were going to bend and snap while setting them on the bases. It doesn't help that many of the monsters have only 1 peg to slot in to the base on a thin arm or something. Really weird design choice for a lot of these pieces. The pegs on the monsters and holes for the bases were also extremely inconsistent. Some of the monsters had to be forced in to the slot and couldn't fit all the way in, but a few others had pegs too small and they do not stay on the bases at all. The molding process also seemed like it was weird as some of the smaller features are muddy looking. Kind of a disappointment coming from IA and Descent 2nd edition which both have really great figures.

Most of the rest of the game seems pretty good. It definitely has the same "mystery dungeon crawl" feel as the original game did, but instead of a 1 hour set up time there is a 0 minute set up time as you pretty much grab characters and go. The app does a great job keeping track of exploration, searching, and monster attacks/damage and rules have been streamlined well enough to easily pick up and play. Having the puzzles on the app is also great, as they were fairly clunky in the first edition. There is a weird bit of learning curve when figuring out what exactly the app tracks or doesn't (I spent too long trying to figure out how to barricade a door on the app, but it turns out that doesn't matter at all) but by the end of the first game it had a nice flow.

The game does seem like it launched a bit content-scarce with only 4 scenarios. I'm hoping that they are varied enough to be slightly different every time you play, like with the scenario variants that MoM 1st ed. had.

I'm not sure what else to add but if you have any questions about the game let me know! We'll probably play our 2nd game tomorrow morning.