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Wow thanks for all of the awesome replies! I was hopeful that I'd get better replies than the "poker, uno, fluxx" crap offered up in some hiking forums. Valley of the Kings looked like a lot of fun so I'll definitely pick that up. Battle Line looked cool too, as did Hive and Mint Pocket. I'll try and demo all of those soon so I can see which I think my hiking group would like the most.
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Jul 6, 2017 16:57
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| # ? May 24, 2024 19:50 |
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Cthulhu Wars is available on Miniature Market for $159. That's way way more than I like paying for board games, but...is it worth it?
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Jul 6, 2017 17:35
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Some Numbers posted:Cthulhu Wars is available on Miniature Market for $159. That's way way more than I like paying for board games, but...is it worth it? Nah it's a bad, unbalanced game that is more focused in popping out more broken poo poo to keep the cash flow going than actually fixing anything.
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Jul 6, 2017 17:44
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^^ what they saidSome Numbers posted:Cthulhu Wars is available on Miniature Market for $159. That's way way more than I like paying for board games, but...is it worth it? Get FCM with the insert instead.
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Jul 6, 2017 17:46
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If you want a good dudes on a map game, just get Kemet and the expansion for half that price.
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Jul 6, 2017 17:54
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Chill la Chill posted:^^ what they said Which insert?
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Jul 6, 2017 18:03
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Papes posted:Which insert? https://www.etsy.com/listing/285485829/insert-for-food-chain-magnate I think he's upped his price since I got mine. He used to not really make any money at all, since he would assemble them and the profits would get eaten up by shipping price he gave. It's a really good insert, but you have to be diligent about keeping the cards straight.
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Jul 6, 2017 18:08
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Are FCM and Cthulhu Wars anything alike?
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Jul 6, 2017 18:19
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No, not at all. That was a bad suggestion. It is a good game but nowhere near the same type of game.
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Jul 6, 2017 18:21
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Some Numbers posted:Are FCM and Cthulhu Wars anything alike? Mostly, but CW doesn't have the focus on milestones (which is one of my favorite mechanics in FCM) and the CW board is also more static (ie. there's no way to add houses, and if you don't start with a Zeppelin Pilot there's no way to get one later). On the flip side, I think they did a good job on the faction asymmetry in CW (the different FCM factions feel a bit samey other than the Gluttony one). I think probably the biggest difference is tone - CW is more friendly while FCM can get pretty violent.
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Jul 6, 2017 18:44
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Some Numbers posted:Are FCM and Cthulhu Wars anything alike? But yeah get Kemet or Inis. jmzero posted:I think probably the biggest difference is tone - CW is more friendly while FCM can get pretty violent.
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Jul 6, 2017 18:47
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As a counterpoint, I've enjoyed the games of CW that I've played (base factions, 4p). I don't have a large enough number of games to say what is balanced vs what isn't balanced, but asymmetric games are really, really prone to seeming unbalanced on early plays. Most people I've played Chaos in the Old World will say that Khorne is overpowered and whatnot, but don't realize that the play against Khorne is to not engage him in combat at all. It would be like if people say Nyarlathotep sucks because they overextended their first turn of their first game to get his spellbook, and all his cultists got captured as a result. The one thing that I've heard is that the game doesn't scale well with number of players, especially Yog Sothoth, who I believe needs to be on a space with all other players, which is a bit more of a challenge with 6 players than 4, for example. Also, combat is dice driven, which is its own derelict design decision, where half the results don't do anything and only 1/6 results in death (the last third causes units to run away). This makes combat feel weirdly unimpactful, but it's mostly about attacking someone's board position and economy, rather than their actual units (which, I guess, is also an extension of economy). What I like about the game is that the goals of each player are pretty drat clear, so there isn't that "What do I need to do to win" feeling that you get with a lot of games. The rules also provide a primer on general strategy, so that you're not completely left in the dark. This may lead to games feeling like they sorta play themselves, but I imagine you can reduce a lot of asymmetric games to that if you want. The factions themselves do feel different, which can be further adjusted with the order in which you unlock your spellbooks. I haven't played enough to determine how much this choice matters in the face of adapting to the game state or if there is just one true path of unlocks (i.e., analogous to Nurgle almost always getting Provender of Ruin as their first upgrade). I'm not going to go so far as to say it is worth $150, since it's a lot of money that can get you 2-3 other games instead, but I wouldn't call it a trash game at all. jmzero posted:Mostly, but CW doesn't have the focus on milestones This is a weird criticism of CW since the entire game is about hitting your faction's personal milestones. Like you literally cannot win if you don't hit all six.
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Jul 6, 2017 18:56
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I've been a big fan of burgle bros so far! Any suggestions for games in a similar vein?
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Jul 6, 2017 19:10
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It's pretty ridiculous, imo, to dismiss CW as a bad, unbalanced cash grab game. The dynamics of that game make balance really hard to measure in the first place and I've seen argument about pretty much all of the factions being the most broken over the game's lifespan. And, fwiw, Petersen *has* been more responsive than many devs in terms of responding to player feedback and making a select few, but important, balance erratas. It's also pretty ridiculous to refer someone to FCM instead of CW, but I'll just figure that was someone feeling particularly goony. If you're thinking about CW, $150 or thereabouts is a reasonable market price for the base game as that's what they sold it for in the last KS. They're about to do another KS where I'm sure it'll be available at that price, so if you're willing to wait and want to see what Wave 3 brings, maybe do that.
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Jul 6, 2017 19:43
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GrandpaPants posted:What I like about the game is that the goals of each player are pretty drat clear, so there isn't that "What do I need to do to win" feeling that you get with a lot of games. The rules also provide a primer on general strategy, so that you're not completely left in the dark. This may lead to games feeling like they sorta play themselves, but I imagine you can reduce a lot of asymmetric games to that if you want. The factions themselves do feel different, which can be further adjusted with the order in which you unlock your spellbooks. I haven't played enough to determine how much this choice matters in the face of adapting to the game state or if there is just one true path of unlocks (i.e., analogous to Nurgle almost always getting Provender of Ruin as their first upgrade). First, the game may have some scaling difficulties at higher player counts - I'm about to try my first 8-player game on Sat and I can *anticipate* where some might be. Shub-Niggurath is actually the one who needs to be on a space with all other players and my gut instinct is that that'll be hard with 7 players. OTOH, the maps only scale so much at 8 players and Shub can send her ghouls to combat sites pretty strategically so it'd certainly be possible (although it seems difficult) to be spread out to being around 7 players if circumstances cause there to be a few good 3-player clumps for her to go to. I know that Windwalker got errata'ed because his power got *much* stronger as the player count went up and so they implemented a soft cap on that that would require Windwalker to really gimp himself for a turn to take advantage of a high player count on the following turn -- while he could still theoretically hibernate and end up with a massive following turn of power, the players could also recognize that and dismantle him during his early hibernation period. It's by no means a perfect game, but dismissing it out of hand seems to be something that people who haven't given it more than a play or two might do; it's not my experience after a good 15 or so games (with wins spread pretty evenly among the factions) Anyway, totally agree with the final statement. It may not be worth $150 to many people and I've told folks that if they're hesitant about the gameplay or just aren't all that into the Cthulhu miniatures, they're definitely better off buying something else. That said, the $150 would be a ridiculous bargain compared to a GW minis boardgame, given the amount and quality of the base games minis, even if it causes some sticker shock when it's sitting on the shelf next to Kemet.
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Jul 6, 2017 19:52
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That said, and to complete a hat trick of inconsequential opinions, I just grabbed Bruxelles 1893 after about six months of hemming and hawing about the reprint, and I'm pretty impressed and slightly intimidated by the sheer amount of different mechanics popping about in that game. It's about as overwrought as the art nouveau it's about, so I guess this is a matter of theme matching mechanics pretty well. I do worry that explaining it to a new group may cause their eyes to glaze over, but overall, looks pretty great.
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Jul 6, 2017 19:58
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It's not really that popular but I really like Bruxelles. So pretty, and everything blends pretty well.
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Jul 6, 2017 20:00
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GrandpaPants posted:As a counterpoint, I've enjoyed the games of CW that I've played (base factions, 4p). I don't have a large enough number of games to say what is balanced vs what isn't balanced, but asymmetric games are really, really prone to seeming unbalanced on early plays. Most people I've played Chaos in the Old World will say that Khorne is overpowered and whatnot, but don't realize that the play against Khorne is to not engage him in combat at all. It would be like if people say Nyarlathotep sucks because they overextended their first turn of their first game to get his spellbook, and all his cultists got captured as a result. The one thing that I've heard is that the game doesn't scale well with number of players, especially Yog Sothoth, who I believe needs to be on a space with all other players, which is a bit more of a challenge with 6 players than 4, for example. Also, combat is dice driven, which is its own derelict design decision, where half the results don't do anything and only 1/6 results in death (the last third causes units to run away). This makes combat feel weirdly unimpactful, but it's mostly about attacking someone's board position and economy, rather than their actual units (which, I guess, is also an extension of economy). A couple of corrections: It's Black Goat that needs to both spread wide and occupy a space with all other players. And yeah, Goat is tougher to play with 6+, but the base game was only designed to go up to five and I know she's fine at that count. The board is fairly cramped at high counts, though, and as combat costs both power and actions there's often windows where two or even three players share one space. I'm with you on people saying the factions are unbalanced without understanding them, also that there's a certain amount of advisable scripting. Worst offender was the guy who drew Nyarlathotep one time. I told him that the hardest spellbook for his faction to gain was "Capture an enemy Cultist" and that he would be best off taking Madness first because it becomes so much easier to do when you control where all the retreats go to. He said he was going to work it out for himself, left Madness until last, and of course declared that he hated this terrible game after he got completely crushed without getting all six books. We already have a rough idea of what will be in Onslaught Three, by the way. It's going to be a lot smaller in terms of new stuff, serving in large part as a jumping on point for people who missed the first two runs.
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Jul 6, 2017 20:38
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If I enjoyed Forbidden Stars a bunch, am I likely to enjoy CW as well?
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Jul 6, 2017 21:10
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PrinnySquadron posted:If I enjoyed Forbidden Stars a bunch, am I likely to enjoy CW as well? I think they're too different to really correlate. I think if you like Chaos in the Old World, you'd like CW.
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Jul 6, 2017 21:16
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GrandpaPants posted:I think they're too different to really correlate. I think if you like Chaos in the Old World, you'd like CW. Ah right. I've played a game of Chaos in the Old World and enjoyed it(though it was slightly soured by the guy that owned the game picking the Horned Rat and sometimes just going "oh yeah I forgot i can do this thing" often) so I'll look into the CW kickstarter.
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Jul 6, 2017 21:20
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PrinnySquadron posted:Ah right. I've played a game of Chaos in the Old World and enjoyed it(though it was slightly soured by the guy that owned the game picking the Horned Rat and sometimes just going "oh yeah I forgot i can do this thing" often) so I'll look into the CW kickstarter. Launches July 17th. I'm still trying to figure out how the PBF spreadsheet works.
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Jul 6, 2017 21:48
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How to play Cthulhu Wars 1) Choose a faction very different from how you usually play 2) Don't play to any of the faction's strengths whatsoever 3) Lose horribly 4) Declare the game totally imbalanced
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Jul 6, 2017 22:49
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A friend of mine drunkenly ordered FCM 
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Jul 6, 2017 22:57
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Rumda posted:A friend of mine drunkenly ordered FCM Goals to aspire to
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Jul 6, 2017 23:03
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I drunkenly ordered a subscription to Trains Magazine one time. It is not a model train magazine, it is actually about trains. I like trains but I'm not gaga about them That's my story.
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Jul 7, 2017 00:05
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Quidthulhu posted:I like trains but I'm not gaga about them why is this sentence so funny
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Jul 7, 2017 01:53
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Rumda posted:A friend of mine drunkenly ordered FCM Lucky! My friends don't buy many games, they just play what I buy. I want to play FCM badly, but not 'buy it for $115 or whatever and play it once with disinterested friends' badly.
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Jul 7, 2017 01:57
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It's on BGC and goons are pretty actively playing it there
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Jul 7, 2017 02:42
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Out of all the 1vMany games out there, how's the new Doom board game? I was debating between getting either that one or Imperial Assault because of the possibility of an app getting released for the latter but everything's been pretty quiet on that front so I'm wondering if I should stick to Descent 2nd Ed. as a fully coop experience. My friends would be way more interested in Star Wars than in bog standard fantasy, I think. Since I missed out on both Kickstarters, Gloomhaven ISN'T an option. 
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Jul 7, 2017 02:45
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Played Dice Forge (created by Seasons designer Régis Bonnessée) a couple times last night and my verdict is that it's pretty good. The main mechanic of the game is crafting your dice to get more gold which is only used to buy new faces, sun/moon shards which let you buy cards that are spread around the board. You get to roll both your dice at start of everyone's turn which helps limit getting wrecked by RNG. Your turns then consist of either purchasing dice faces or getting a card; you can also spend 2 sun shards resource to take one more action. Cards are pretty simple as well: they give you points, abilities you activate on your turn, one time powerful actions like rolling your dice twice, and even dice faces. I enjoyed the dice building mechanic more than I thought, and getting a sweet combo off like hitting 3X on one of you big faces feels  . It kinda gives off Dominion vibes in that respect. Another cool aspect I liked is that if you get kicked off a card spot you get to immediately roll your dice; so getting in people's way pays off even though you can't block them.Like a lot of Régis's work, Dice Forge looks amazing on the table. The cards slot in along the board and their art matches perfectly, the insert is well designed so everything fits, and you even get a nice sleeve to put over the dice face storage tray so they don't escape. Overall Dice Forge is quick, fast playing dice chucker that even a grog like I can recommend.
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Jul 7, 2017 03:18
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Quidthulhu posted:I drunkenly ordered a subscription to Trains Magazine one time. Real trains > model trains
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Jul 7, 2017 07:25
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Azran posted:Out of all the 1vMany games out there, how's the new Doom board game? I was debating between getting either that one or Imperial Assault because of the possibility of an app getting released for the latter but everything's been pretty quiet on that front so I'm wondering if I should stick to Descent 2nd Ed. as a fully coop experience. My friends would be way more interested in Star Wars than in bog standard fantasy, I think. Imperial Assault is an endless money pit. Plus the scummy fact that some of main characters of expansions are only in there as standees and you get to pay more for the mini. I'd stay away if you already have descent. Also Gloomhaven will be available for regular order as well afaik.
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Jul 7, 2017 07:25
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I think I've played 1846 like 10 times in the past two weeks, I am officially addicted and still kinda suck at it, but it's such a cool space to explore.
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Jul 7, 2017 14:39
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I love getting a notification from BoardGameBliss at 2:30 in the morning that Time of Crisis is in stock but by 9:30 when I can actually check it they're already all sold out.
FulsomFrank fucked around with this message at 14:53 on Jul 7, 2017 |
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Jul 7, 2017 14:44
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FulsomFrank posted:I love getting a notification from BoardGameBliss at 2:30 in the morning that Time of Crisis is in stock but by 9:30 when I can actually check it they're already all sold out. Played Time of Crisis for the first time yesterday. I was surprised at how quickly the game moves. While there is an element of deckbuilding, and it is important, you may not get to many of the most powerful cards. The game ends when somebody who is Emperor is over 60 legacy points; you get two for every battle you win (regardless of whether you initiate it), one for every barbarian you defeat in a battle you win (not a big shortage of these guys, it is a time of crisis after all), one for every province you govern, one for every improvement you have, and then more on top of that if you are emperor. Even a conservative player could ramp up to 10/turn pretty quickly. There is also a mechanism for the game to end by exhausting most of the event deck, but it's much less likely to come to that if you are prioritizing becoming emperor or taking down the player who is.
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Jul 7, 2017 15:39
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homullus posted:Played Time of Crisis for the first time yesterday. I was surprised at how quickly the game moves. While there is an element of deckbuilding, and it is important, you may not get to many of the most powerful cards. The game ends when somebody who is Emperor is over 60 legacy points; you get two for every battle you win (regardless of whether you initiate it), one for every barbarian you defeat in a battle you win (not a big shortage of these guys, it is a time of crisis after all), one for every province you govern, one for every improvement you have, and then more on top of that if you are emperor. Even a conservative player could ramp up to 10/turn pretty quickly. There is also a mechanism for the game to end by exhausting most of the event deck, but it's much less likely to come to that if you are prioritizing becoming emperor or taking down the player who is. What was your player count? What level of complexity would you put it at? The production quality looks great and the theme and mechanics really appeal to me as something that I could hopefully get on the table reasonably often.
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Jul 7, 2017 15:44
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FulsomFrank posted:What was your player count? What level of complexity would you put it at? The production quality looks great and the theme and mechanics really appeal to me as something that I could hopefully get on the table reasonably often. I think it's medium complexity. A more complicated and warlike Concordia, I think? Moving your armies around is perhaps half the game, though you're not always fighting -- putting an army in an undefended enemy provincial capital weakens other players' ability to buy/trash cards and makes it easier for you to replace that governor with one of your own (if available). We played with two and concluded that was ultimately not the way to go aside from a teaching/learning game. With two, one becomes emperor and the other is playing catch-up; with three, one becomes emperor and the other two can both take that one down. Brief periods as emperor still help you -- there is a separate "turns spent as emperor" scale. There would also be more barbarian incursions with three players (and even more with four) since you do a 2d6 roll on the crisis chart at the start of each player turn.Only two of the entries don't activate barbarians, and only one (albeit the 7) gives you a new event, which is what makes the Diocletian game-ending event somewhere in the last four cards of the deck a less likely end). And it really was fast. We had time for me to teach and play both Time of Crisis and Days of Ire in about 4 hours. We did only play to 40 legacy in Time of Crisis, but it would have added, like, two turns to get to 60.
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Jul 7, 2017 16:51
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Hopper posted:Imperial Assault is an endless money pit. Plus the scummy fact that some of main characters of expansions are only in there as standees and you get to pay more for the mini. I haven't got Descent either, sorry for phrasing it weirdly. I was particularly attracted by the fact that IA had an updated version of the Descent rulebook but the lack of an app is kind of a bummer.
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Jul 7, 2017 17:43
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| # ? May 24, 2024 19:50 |
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Imperial Assault is getting an app sometime, though they announced it almost 2 years ago at this point with little details. Hopefully more info coming at Gencon next month.
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Jul 7, 2017 18:13
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