|
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.
|
# ? Jan 11, 2017 19:33 |
|
|
# ? Jun 4, 2024 03:19 |
|
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.
|
# ? Jan 11, 2017 19:42 |
|
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).
|
# ? Jan 11, 2017 19:52 |
|
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!
|
# ? Jan 11, 2017 20:01 |
|
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?
|
# ? Jan 11, 2017 20:06 |
|
CommonShore posted:What does the party version add? A lot more cards and variable setup for added depth and replayability. It's great.
|
# ? Jan 11, 2017 20:07 |
|
I got Sushi Go Party for $21 at Barnes and Nobles.
|
# ? Jan 11, 2017 20:55 |
|
CommonShore posted:Oh another thing I realized this last hour - 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.
|
# ? Jan 11, 2017 21:12 |
|
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
|
# ? Jan 11, 2017 21:17 |
|
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?
|
# ? Jan 11, 2017 21:56 |
|
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.
|
# ? Jan 11, 2017 21:59 |
|
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.
|
# ? Jan 11, 2017 22:06 |
|
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. 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.
|
# ? Jan 11, 2017 22:07 |
|
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 You obviously haven't played Cannes.
|
# ? Jan 11, 2017 22:12 |
|
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.
|
# ? Jan 11, 2017 22:25 |
|
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.
|
# ? Jan 11, 2017 22:29 |
|
Antiquity is supposedly getting reprinted this year 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 |
# ? Jan 11, 2017 22:38 |
|
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."
|
# ? Jan 11, 2017 23:00 |
|
Dammit, I made a copy of Container expecting it would probably never be reprinted. Oh well.
|
# ? Jan 11, 2017 23:06 |
|
T-Bone posted:Antiquity is supposedly getting reprinted this year OHSHI The Eyes Have It fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Jan 11, 2017 |
# ? Jan 11, 2017 23:15 |
|
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 |
# ? Jan 11, 2017 23:53 |
|
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.
|
# ? Jan 11, 2017 23:58 |
|
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.
|
# ? Jan 12, 2017 00:03 |
|
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.
|
# ? Jan 12, 2017 00:09 |
|
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...
|
# ? Jan 12, 2017 00:10 |
|
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.
|
# ? Jan 12, 2017 00:18 |
|
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.
|
# ? Jan 12, 2017 00:21 |
|
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.
|
# ? Jan 12, 2017 00:22 |
|
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.
|
# ? Jan 12, 2017 00:24 |
|
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?
|
# ? Jan 12, 2017 00:37 |
|
Weird. You didn't ask them to explain? Could it be some cultural thing, perhaps something like... based on age? Alphabetical order of names?
|
# ? Jan 12, 2017 01:00 |
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.
|
|
# ? Jan 12, 2017 01:12 |
|
Yeah I was just thinking of that and how it always hosed me up the instant I didn't pay 100% attention.
|
# ? Jan 12, 2017 01:17 |
|
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.
|
# ? Jan 12, 2017 02:28 |
|
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.
|
# ? Jan 12, 2017 02:37 |
|
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?
|
# ? Jan 12, 2017 02:58 |
|
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 ?
|
# ? Jan 12, 2017 03:18 |
|
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.
|
# ? Jan 12, 2017 03:19 |
|
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
|
# ? Jan 12, 2017 03:21 |
|
|
# ? Jun 4, 2024 03:19 |
|
Also, if instead of euro you said "midweight strategy", Tash-Kalar would be a perfect fit (for 2 or 4)
|
# ? Jan 12, 2017 03:24 |