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OgreNoah
Nov 18, 2003

silvergoose posted:

I don't wonder, I've been solidly on the "I like the game and like teaching it" camp here.

I really enjoy Splendor for either after or before heavier games, it's a good warmup/cooldown. We usually play to 21 instead of 15, because with 15 one person can get all the nobles and then the game just ends too quickly for anyone new.

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FulsomFrank
Sep 11, 2005

Hard on for love
What are people's thoughts on Indonesia? I'm not dying to grab it and I know I've asked before in terms of whether people prefer Zimbabwe to it or not, but now that it's available again I'm curious as to this thread's take on it in general.

jmzero
Jul 24, 2007

I posted earlier about some problems with the new Dominion client. Whatever they were, they seem to have been worked out now and it plays pretty solid.

I'm mostly playing against the bot right now. It's not a great player (well, I'm not either... but in any case it's not a brilliant AI or something). There's a few cards that confuse the crap out of it (eg. Chapel, Counterfeit, Bank) but generally he plays fast and basically competent. If you try something crazy, the bot provides enough benchmark to see whether your plan was better than just going Platinum/Boredom/Smithy. He'll buy enough attacks that you have to take them into consideration when planning. He shouldn't be winning very often, but he does enough to make the game work and feel interactive.

Why not humans? Well, I really like being able to play/pause as I like - and, most importantly, I like being able to just reject boring kingdom setups quickly and without discussion/sadness. Playing a bunch of games in a row, you get a pretty good sense of what kingdom setups are going to be boring (eg. Rebuild is the only relevant card here, this is a Cultist race, this would be a great board except there's no +Buy/Colony/+Action/Payoff so lots of it is irrelevant, etc..). I like being able to quit games where I got 4/3 on a board where 5/2 wins... and I also like playing out games where I'm on the other end of that. I like having someone be patient while I get 300 points with Goons and take endless Minion turns.

Anywho, Dominion is great and this client works pretty good. (it is here).

CaptainRightful
Jan 11, 2005

CommonShore posted:

Sushi Go is pleasing people but they're starting to get tired of it already. It's not engaging enough for adults to play for an hour once they get how it works. The second hour has been pushing it.

Sounds like you need Sushi Go Party!

CommonShore
Jun 6, 2014

A true renaissance man


CaptainRightful posted:

Sounds like you need Sushi Go Party!

I regret not buying Sushi Go Party. I was in a board game cafe examining them while my friends paid their bills. By looking at the boxes I didn't glean that there was more -game- to the party version, and it looked as if the "Party" version just allowed for more players. So I was like "Hm $18 vs $34 for a teaching tool I won't be reimbursed for... 5 players seems like enough...."

And here we are.

What does the party version add?

Bottom Liner
Feb 15, 2006


a specific vein of lasagna

CommonShore posted:

What does the party version add?

A lot more cards and variable setup for added depth and replayability. It's great.

Elysium
Aug 21, 2003
It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
I got Sushi Go Party for $21 at Barnes and Nobles.

Rutibex
Sep 9, 2001

by Fluffdaddy

CommonShore posted:

Oh another thing I realized this last hour -

The thread often wonders why Splendor goes over so well with non-gamers. The art and components are often posited as the main reason. I propose that it's because once a player figures it out, Splendor has an elegant simplicity to it and a also non-random (non-dice at least) strategic space. People who are accustomed to board games like Risk and Monopoly think of "board games" as having sprawling rules with tons of inconsistencies and exceptions, and decision subject to the mercy of dice.

Whatever you can say about Splendor being too light, it has really an elegant rules design. (e. even if communicated in flawed documentation)

I have to say, after playing a few games of Reiner Knizias: Age of War I am starting to come around to Splendor. When considering Splendor I always thought "why not play Ticket to Ride?" but portability is a major issue! Splendor is much more portable (especially if you ditch the spacey box), and better suited for two players. I might pick it up if I see a good price for it.

The Eyes Have It
Feb 10, 2008

Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

FulsomFrank posted:

What are people's thoughts on Indonesia? I'm not dying to grab it and I know I've asked before in terms of whether people prefer Zimbabwe to it or not, but now that it's available again I'm curious as to this thread's take on it in general.

I ordered Indonesia just based on the fact that I haven't met a Splotter game yet that I didn't like :shepface:

Xaris
Jul 25, 2006

Lucky there's a family guy
Lucky there's a man who positively can do
All the things that make us
Laugh and cry
What are people's thoughts on Inis? My only other similar game is Kemet, which sadly doesn't get quite enough play as I want. Does Inis play well at 2, 3, or 4 people?

CommonShore
Jun 6, 2014

A true renaissance man


Quick section 3 update

Splendor and Hanabi were hits. This group finished the game of Splendor. Codenames and The Resistance still chugging along and generating laughs.

Trynant
Oct 7, 2010

The final spice...your tears <3

FulsomFrank posted:

What are people's thoughts on Indonesia? I'm not dying to grab it and I know I've asked before in terms of whether people prefer Zimbabwe to it or not, but now that it's available again I'm curious as to this thread's take on it in general.

Indonesia is harder to get to the table for me (longer game that needs at least three despite box player count and wants four or five), but it's one of Splotter's most acclaimed games for a reason. I've heard some say it scratches the 18XX itch in ways that no game outside of 18XX's do. The board and pieces are very form over function, however--get ready for fiddly; and wrapping one's head on certain mechanics is hard (e.g. mergers). It's not really comparable to Zimbabwe and Food Chain. For that matter, Indonesia feels a bit unique in Splotter's titles while still having their signature "complex game with relatively simple rules, fiddly, pieces questionable." I might have ended up liking it more than Zimbabwe if I could play it enough, but Zimbabwe has the added benefit of being a 30-60 minute two-player game.

FulsomFrank
Sep 11, 2005

Hard on for love

Xaris posted:

What are people's thoughts on Inis? My only other similar game is Kemet, which sadly doesn't get quite enough play as I want. Does Inis play well at 2, 3, or 4 people?

Inis is really good and plays quite well at all play amounts.

Two player is an interesting experience that someone who isn't me spent a lot of time writing about :

quote:

Finally did a full play of 2-player Inis. Going to do a sperg post about it.

I really like the game now. I hesitate to disagree with "all the games you like are bad" guy, because he has played the game way more times than me. With 2-player though, I think his big issue with the epic tale cards isn't really a negative to me. I'm not sure about 3 or 4-player, but I still think I disagree with him. 2-player plays very nicely, and on our second time playing we both knew the cards quite well. The limited action card pool is great design because it makes the draft and the season phase both feel inter-connected to each other and very strategic. Compared to something like Seasons, where you have a big fat draft at the beginning of the entire game, and then you play for over an hour and never draft again. In Inis the drafts are quick and always related to the current board state, so they don't feel tacked on at all. My wife is one of the slowest players in the world at every game, and the draft almost never takes more than 5 minutes.

My take on the epic tale cards--which is what most people who don't like the game complain about--is that if you let your opponent just sit there and amass them, you need to "get good," and a) start to get a stack of them yourself to maintain parity with your opponent, b) use your more active action cards to force your opponent to use epic tale cards to stop your own victory conditions, or c) use "The Bard" to get deed tokens rather than epic tale cards.

I lost the game we played tonight because I tried to do b) while my wife piled up epic tale cards. I probably would have been okay, but I botched two clashes and put myself too far behind on the board. I think if I hadn't botched the clashes the way I did (I misread one of my epic tale cards and didn't realize until it was too late), I probably would have forced her to use up one of her epic tale cards to stop my own victory. When I hosed up the clashes, it put me behind on board and allowed her to use her epic tale cards to combo into a victory condition.

What I mean by "more active action cards," is that the only two action cards which give you epic tale cards are "The Bard," and "Sanctuary." If you use "The Bard" to get an epic tale, that's all it does. You haven't affected the board state at all, and the fact that you drafted "The Bard" means that your opponent will have more "active" cards than you in general. "Sanctuary" is a complicated card to evaluate, as placing a sanctuary can affect the board state, but without solid map control, a sanctuary you place can easily end up benefitting your opponent. I think it's a very powerful card if you can place a sanctuary that guaranteed benefits you and you only. If you draft the card and get stuck throwing a sanctuary in a spot that benefits both players, you still got an epic tale card out of it, but your "affecting the board state" is mostly a wash and you played a "passive card."

If you go for a), you will have a stack of epic tale cards that will probably allow you to strip the victory condition your opponent can create using their own epic tale cards. You do have to look at your epic tale cards and sometimes form strategy based on them. Many epic tale cards will dictate a longer-term strategy for you, and I think this aspect of them is pretty cool. With more plays under our belt, I could potentially see it being possible to predict what kind of epic tale card an opponent has based on things they are doing on the board.

I hadn't realized that deed token created by "The Bard" never goes away. It just sits there as your deed forever, and it immediately makes victory much easier to achieve. There are probably situational epic tale cards more powerful than a deed token--when used under ideal conditions--but I think getting a deed token is generally more powerful. Since "The Bard" gives you an epic tale card for free, but only gives you a deed token after removing any enemy clan, this is the game design itself telling you a deed token is stronger than an epic tale card. Holding "The Geis" to counter someone trying to get a deed token is a really strong play that denies them a ton of resources--and it's probably one big reason I lost the game I just played (I had my attempt to take a deed token countered twice). If you can bait "The Geis" and then guaranteed accumulate deed tokens, this is stronger than an opponent who is just using "The Bard" to pile up epic tale cards, as having two deed tokens stocked is likely going to force your opponent to blow their epic tale cards just to stop you from hitting victory conditions.

The dynamic between deed token vs. epic tale card is actually really cool and seems easily overlooked since the rulebook doesn't spell the deed token out very well. I had to read this thread to be sure: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1633265/deeds

The other major thing people don't like about this game is the "attrition-based combat." The way combat worked turned me off on my first play, but after playing a full game and having everything click, I like how combat works. I'll just do some bullet points about why I think combat in this game is good:

-The instigator getting to attack first, and the defender getting to use citadels is a cool design that gives asymmetric advantages to both sides of the clash.
-"Warlord" is an easy card to overlook that can give you a really powerful and overbearing attack if you combo it with another attack/movement card. You can use it to start a fight and attack twice in a row, or attack, and then immediately withdraw.
-The choice of losing a dude from the map or discarding an action card when you are attacked is awesome. Passing your turn and trying to get your opponent to use up their action cards can give you strong attack opportunities where you know what the outcome will be.
-The limited reserve of 12 clans on the map forces combat, as does "The Bard" card's mechanism for giving you an epic deed. I think a lot of people get a first impression of combat in this game as lovely and "lose-lose" for everyone involved, but once you get a better grasp on all the cards and how to actually achieve victory, you will know how to attack in a way that will generate advantages for you while harming the other person (rather than just loving over both people equally).

I'm just really impressed overall. I might change my mind about how epic tale cards work, but I think epic tale cards and deed tokens both function as a timer to move the game toward its end state. It feels to me that there is A LOT you can do to mitigate randomness, especially in a 2-player game. The way passing works and the way you grab a pretender token to go for a victory condition also helps to stop instances of: "I just played four epic tale cards and won..gg," from happening.

The main thing, like you'll read in that break down, is that the game really shines when everyone is on the same playing field with regard to understanding what cards do and how someone can completely do a number on you in a way that might feel unfair if you are not careful. It also plays really quick and the game is gorgeous.

atholbrose
Feb 28, 2001

Splish!

Mister Sinewave posted:

I ordered Indonesia just based on the fact that I haven't met a Splotter game yet that I didn't like :shepface:

You obviously haven't played Cannes.

FISHMANPET
Mar 3, 2007

Sweet 'N Sour
Can't
Melt
Steel Beams

Fat Turkey posted:

Any reviews on the Android app Steam:Rails to Riches? All I can gather is that it is a hexagon train game!

OK, Trip report. So to be clear, this is an implementation of Steam: Rails to Riches by Martin Wallace. It's just the base game, not the Steam Barons expansion. It includes the two maps that are in the base game. It also has some DLC maps, for $2.99 each. Currently it has the 2 player Belgium & Luxembourg map, from Expansion #1, as well as maps that appear digital only: Carcassonne (Southern France and Northeastern Spain), USA-Canada (Eastern half of US and parts of Canada), and Northern England, as well as a promise for more maps coming soon. All the new maps except Carcassonne come with new rules as well. So that's what's "in the box" so to speak.

Implementation of the game mechanics is very good. The only thing that was unclear to me was how to rotate track tiles once you've selected their location on the map (turns out you swipe side to side). I played 1 game with the most basic AI. I won, but it was still pretty crafty. I should have grabbed a screenshot. There were a lot of tracks running under each other and the AI felt like it was behaving pretty well. It would grab cubes that I had placed before I had an opportunity to deliver them, for example.

It says it supports online cross-platform play but I don't have anyone to play against so I don't know how well that works. In the lobby some people are saying Android notifications don't work so well in a multi-player game (it sounds like it should give you a notification when it's your turn). It also supports pass around play. It's $2.99 on iOS right now as well, and it sounds like notifications work well as there.

Since my group refuses to play Steam because they're a bunch of whiners this certainly scratches an itch for me I can't otherwise scratch. While I'm sure it would be even better on a larger tablet, on my (now small) Nexus 5 I still felt like everything was big enough for me to interact with but still give me all the information I needed to play.

The Eyes Have It
Feb 10, 2008

Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

atholbrose posted:

You obviously haven't played Cannes.

I'm more what you'd call a "greatest hits" fan.

My #1 is Antiquity though, I honestly cannot get enough of that game. Food Chain Magnate I love to death but eventually take breaks from it. Antiquity on the other hand is more of an enough is never enough.

T-Bone
Sep 14, 2004

jakes did this?
Antiquity is supposedly getting reprinted this year :science:

Container, too, if someone can do Neue Heimat that would be cool (although it looks really easy to PNP).

Actually there are a lot of interesting reprints this year (Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage, Glen More, Troyes, Notre Dame, Amun-Re, Three Kingdoms: Redux, etc).

T-Bone fucked around with this message at 22:48 on Jan 11, 2017

Mikey Purp
Sep 30, 2008

I realized it's gotten out of control. I realize I'm out of control.
Me and two friends played Cry Havoc for the first time last night, and CommonShore's experiment and the importance of effective communication to game enjoyment kept popping into my head throughout the experience.

I think all of us left the game feeling underwhelmed, but it's mostly because the rulebook is so poorly put together that we spent most of our time rehashing and reinterpreting rules. It got to the point where by the end we were bypassing the rulebook altogether and just googling BGG forums for answers. In fact our whole game ended up being meaningless and we didn't even figure it out until the last round because we didn't realize until googling how the Pilgrim's crystal pool mechanic works (which, like every other race's default skill, advanced skills, buildings, etc. are never loving touched on in the rulebook). For the previous five rounds the Pilgrim player was just counting all crystals they controlled as their pool, which resulted in them easily being able to dominate by netting an extra 10-15 points once per round.

And don't get me started on how vague the instructions are with regard to how to play the Trog faction in a 2-3 player game. It's like they really wanted to just release it as a 4 player game but then at the last minute they begrudgingly added 3 sentences to suggest how you might play the Trog as a dummy player if you really have to.

Despite all that, I think that all of us are excited to play it again because the mechanics really shine despite the opacity of the rules. The battle mechanic is one-of-a-kind and the game does a great job of making each faction feel really different, both thematically and mechanically. There are a million decisions and strategies to try for each faction and I'm really looking forward to playing the game at a point where we are all comfortable enough not to have to stop every 2 minutes to ask a question. But god drat, I feel like our game was actively sabotaged by lazy writing that amounted to little more than "yadda yadda, here's a round...you'll figure out the rest."

Some Numbers
Sep 28, 2006

"LET'S GET DOWN TO WORK!!"
Dammit, I made a copy of Container expecting it would probably never be reprinted.

Oh well.

The Eyes Have It
Feb 10, 2008

Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

T-Bone posted:

Antiquity is supposedly getting reprinted this year :science:

Container, too, if someone can do Neue Heimat that would be cool (although it looks really easy to PNP).


OHSHI:shepspends::shepspends::shepspends:

The Eyes Have It fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Jan 11, 2017

Lord Hydronium
Sep 25, 2007

Non, je ne regrette rien


How are Arctic Scavengers and/or Core Worlds? My only experience with deck builders is Valley of the Kings, which I love, but I'm not sure is comparable to others. Both of those caught my eye, but seem to have a mix of people who love them and people they fall flat with.

E: I usually play two player, but am up for things that work with small (3-5) groups as well.

Lord Hydronium fucked around with this message at 23:55 on Jan 11, 2017

Dancer
May 23, 2011

Fat Turkey posted:

Any reviews on the Android app Steam:Rails to Riches? All I can gather is that it is a hexagon train game!

This is one of my main apps for when I'm in public transport. I've played dozens of game. It's really well designed, the AI makes clever tactical plays (although it's pretty bad strategically) and it has a decent variety of maps, but they haven't released a new one in what feels like a year. You can get a lot of fun out of it.

djfooboo
Oct 16, 2004




Fenn the Fool! posted:

Ice Cool: I haven't seen it talked about at all in this thread, but Ice Cool is pretty radical. It's a dexterity game where you flick anime penguin weeble-wobbles around multiple-room cardboard high-school. Weeble-wobbles make great things to flick, you can get them to jump up and over walls by flicking them in the head and cause them to curve with spins. This is challenging to do reliably, but most players start experimenting with these techniques in their very first game. The game is all about flicking your penguin through doorways, which is great both because it requires an accurate flick and because it means you can easily put a wall between you and the penguin trying to smash into you (of course they can still try to hit you with a curve or jump). It's light, silly, and quick but definitely check it out if you get the chance.

This was the surprise hit of Gencon 2016 for me, such a fun little dex game.

al-azad
May 28, 2009



Xaris posted:

What are people's thoughts on Inis? My only other similar game is Kemet, which sadly doesn't get quite enough play as I want. Does Inis play well at 2, 3, or 4 people?

I was recommended it as someone who hates Blood Rage and I wasn't disappointed. The draft feels important, the victory conditions are varied enough that you could lose everything but still stay in the game by sneaking units in key locations, a 4-player game goes in about 60 minutes, and in a genre that makes for kingmaking you can prevent it by everyone agreeing to pass and force an additional turn. I think it's amazing and played like 10 games in one day.

Japanese Dating Sim
Nov 12, 2003

hehe
Lipstick Apathy
I really want to order Archipelago while it's in-stock at CSI, but the Arkham Horror LCG and Mansions of Madness 2nd ed expansions come out tomorrow... :homebrew:

CommonShore
Jun 6, 2014

A true renaissance man


I'm happy to say that none of these games that you're discussion seem to appeal to me so I get to save my money and wait for my copy of The Colonists which I preordered and then the four p500 games I have ordered and the copy of probably Thunder Alley that I'm going to get on the GMT whenever sale.

Nope. I'm having a board game purchase moratorium.

Bottom Liner
Feb 15, 2006


a specific vein of lasagna
Should have gotten The Colonists yesterday at CSI when they had 2 copies left. No telling when A Feast for Odin will be back. Sigh.

djfooboo
Oct 16, 2004




CommonShore posted:

Nope. I'm having a board game purchase moratorium.

My New Year's resolution is no new games until I get my game alcove fully shelved. Between my procrastination and lack of time, I can see it lasting months.

CommonShore
Jun 6, 2014

A true renaissance man


Oh and I just noticed that some of my international students were having trouble with the idea of turn passing clockwise. They had some kind of arcane zig zagging turn order for Hanabi which made sense to them but which to me was just a garbled mess. I just let them have it.

Doctor Spaceman
Jul 6, 2010

"Everyone's entitled to their point of view, but that's seriously a weird one."

CommonShore posted:

Oh and I just noticed that some of my international students were having trouble with the idea of turn passing clockwise. They had some kind of arcane zig zagging turn order for Hanabi which made sense to them but which to me was just a garbled mess. I just let them have it.

How'd it work with Sushi Go? I'm guessing they didn't alternate directions either?

theroachman
Sep 1, 2006

You're never fully dressed without a smile...
Weird. You didn't ask them to explain? Could it be some cultural thing, perhaps something like... based on age? Alphabetical order of names?

silvergoose
Mar 18, 2006

IT IS SAID THE TEARS OF THE BWEENIX CAN HEAL ALL WOUNDS




theroachman posted:

Weird. You didn't ask them to explain? Could it be some cultural thing, perhaps something like... based on age? Alphabetical order of names?

Might be game-related; I know mah jongg and big two go counter clockwise, among other things.

The Eyes Have It
Feb 10, 2008

Third Eye Sees All
...snookums
Yeah I was just thinking of that and how it always hosed me up the instant I didn't pay 100% attention.

Stelas
Sep 6, 2010

I sprung for Mansions of Madness 2.0 over Christmas, and I'm honestly really glad I did in the end. My friends have played and reasonably enjoyed EH a few times by now, but the biggest problem they always cited was that the story feels very disjointed - you fly around the world, each adventure step is a couple of words on a card, and nothing really ties it all together or feels related to your character. I was hopeful that MOM would fix this, but at the same time I was worried that it'd basically be the same drat game, only in a house.

Well, what we got was pretty charming. It is basically the same game, at least in its core mechanics, but that really just meant that it was lightning-fast to learn. The app manages to add a lot more flavour, and the theming went down very well, especially when we reached the finale of the tutorial adventure and you have to start removing tiles from the board en masse as the house rips itself apart. It's still possible to easily get dice-hosed - requiring you to roll Observation when swinging a Heavy Weapon at something is a bit weird - but by and large the descriptions of search tokens do a good job in informing you what you're going to need for a given challenge.

The worst part seems to be replay value - I tried experimenting by running the scenario again and the map switches around, but the various triggers are still in very similar places (i.e. behind the same door descriptions). Fine enough if you're willing to 'run it' for multiple groups, not so much if your group is tight-knit enough that you're usually going to have the same players.

I'm tempted to try soloing the 4-6 hour adventure.

The Eyes Have It
Feb 10, 2008

Third Eye Sees All
...snookums
I really enjoyed the app driven MoM 2.0; I was pretty impressed with the variability of the first mission though, I mean sure it's basically the same but I was pleased to see that it switches things up between plays enough to keep it fresh through repeated plays while we figured out how to go about things.

Rad Valtar
May 31, 2011

Someday coach Im going to throw for 6 TDs in the Super Bowl.

Sit your ass down Steve.
Looking for some suggestions for a midweight euro that plays really good with 2 for me and the wife but has the ability to go up to 4 for a gaming group?

Dancer
May 23, 2011

Rad Valtar posted:

Looking for some suggestions for a midweight euro that plays really good with 2 for me and the wife but has the ability to go up to 4 for a gaming group?

Keyflower. Caylus probably a bit heavy. Does Galaxy Trucker count as euro :v: ?

homullus
Mar 27, 2009

Rad Valtar posted:

Looking for some suggestions for a midweight euro that plays really good with 2 for me and the wife but has the ability to go up to 4 for a gaming group?

Keyflower.

Stelas
Sep 6, 2010

Rad Valtar posted:

Looking for some suggestions for a midweight euro that plays really good with 2 for me and the wife but has the ability to go up to 4 for a gaming group?

k e y f l o w e r

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Dancer
May 23, 2011
Also, if instead of euro you said "midweight strategy", Tash-Kalar would be a perfect fit (for 2 or 4)

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