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BonHair posted:What's the consensus on Istanbul? It's pretty fun. The random board state gives some replayability. The general lack of luck is good as well. However, I've only played it twice.
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Feb 14, 2015 17:40
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BonHair posted:What's the consensus on Istanbul? I really really like Istanbul. It can be a little intimidating to new players since there is a decent amount of information front-loaded, but the iconography is pretty intuitive.
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Feb 14, 2015 18:52
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BonHair posted:What's the consensus on Istanbul? Great lighter pick up and deliver, can be very satisfying when you plan out a good route and can capitalize on it. I've played it over 20 times with player counts from 2-5, and it scales well to all of them and can be finished in close to or less than an hour. It has waned on us a bit but I can't complain if we've played it over 20 times. It also has an expansion on the way that adds coffee, new tiles and new ways to get gems. I posted awhile back about playing Concordia for the first time. Since then I've played it again with 2 and recently with 4. I really love this game, I don't know how much replayability it will have but regardless it's been very fun and satisfying to play, the cards give you a ton of control over how you're going to play so there is a lot of good long and short term strategy. Resources are tight and you're often wanting to do multiple things at once since cards and cities get grabbed up quickly, it can be tough to decide between expanding your network or buying more cards for the actions and/or points. Really interesting card play and it scales well, our 4 player game took a bit over an hour and a half which was about what I expected, but that's also due to all the players being new and like most euros it has a bit of upfront learning but goes very smoothly after a few turns and it has a good sense of escalation. Also finally got my Keyflower the Merchants expansion this week and tried it last night. I prefer this one over the Farmers, not that Farmers is bad but this one changes up the game a bit more. The contracts are really cool and give you a lot more options for scoring and acquiring items. Also the new end of season boats are nice to have for extra variability. I had the jeweller winter tile and one of the new ones that gives points for unfulfilled contracts, and fortunately a bunch of gold producing tiles came out so I grabbed up those and all of the contracts tiles and just produced as much as I could. My wife kept stealing the turn order tile and got all the cabins(give you extra upgrades) and just upgraded the poo poo out of her village. In the end it was really close with me scoring 100 and her having 102, she got a winter tile that gives points for upgrades and another for extensions which was a ton of points. I thought I had it but on the last turn she had 2 hidden blue guys (we play open information but she had a bunch of worker producing tiles) and stole first player from me when I had the contract for having first player. EBag fucked around with this message at 19:17 on Feb 14, 2015 |
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Feb 14, 2015 19:15
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Tiny Chalupa posted:So what does the hive mind think of Star Wars imperial assault Are there goons that don't like imperial assault? I don't have much to compare it to, but it seems well balanced, plays fairly smoothly, and has good components. I've done a handful of missions as rebels and they have all been very narrow victories. It also seems like the imperial player has a lot of choices and upgrades just like the other players.
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Feb 14, 2015 19:32
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There are goons who haven't tried it. I'd really like to - it sounds like it should be a good replacement for Descent 2e.
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Feb 14, 2015 19:34
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Imperial Assault is very good at what it does. You know already if you want it or not. If you think you want Imperial Assault, you will enjoy it.
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Feb 14, 2015 19:42
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Echophonic posted:I liked Constantinople better. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsQrKZcYtqg
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Feb 14, 2015 20:04
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Imp rear end is pretty cool; it's fun and thematic and if you like the kinds of games where you run around rolling dice at things you'll probably like it. It's better than Descent 2e. It has its flaws in the design of certain missions but they're not as bad as Descent 2e's and besides, it's loving Star Wars and that's awesome. Speaking of which, my favorite stupid loving mission story in Imp rear end is one mission where the two sides are basically playing football, trying to get a macguffin into the endzone/goal to win the mission, but both players' endzones/goals are in the same place so when you run the ball towards it and the other player suddenly gets possession, you've done most of their work for them. As the Imperial player, I lost that one in two rounds - I ran the ball to within one move of the endzone/goal and then the rebels snatched it and instantly ran it the rest of the way. I'm not entirely sure how Imperials are supposed to win that one, considering how easy it is for Rebels to get possession but how hard it is for Imperials to take it back, but I definitely know that my strategy sucked rear end.
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Feb 14, 2015 20:15
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DontMockMySmock posted:Speaking of which, my favorite stupid loving mission story in Imp rear end is one mission where the two sides are basically playing football, trying to get a macguffin into the endzone/goal to win the mission, but both players' endzones/goals are in the same place so when you run the ball towards it and the other player suddenly gets possession, you've done most of their work for them. As the Imperial player, I lost that one in two rounds - I ran the ball to within one move of the endzone/goal and then the rebels snatched it and instantly ran it the rest of the way. I'm not entirely sure how Imperials are supposed to win that one, considering how easy it is for Rebels to get possession but how hard it is for Imperials to take it back, but I definitely know that my strategy sucked rear end. Can't you just kill them all? That was the goal of the Imperial player when I tried it. But then he (the owner of the game) messed up the rule where exhausted units don't get to go again just because they're the only one left. He had the boss walker going after each of our turns and just slaughtered us. I think we were supposed to also be getting a 4th turn each round, but we were just getting the 3. Not sure, not my game, but he won pretty easily doing his way. Didn't leave a good impression, but after that, no one wanted to play it again with using the correct rules.
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Feb 14, 2015 20:30
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QnoisX posted:Can't you just kill them all? That was the goal of the Imperial player when I tried it. But then he (the owner of the game) messed up the rule where exhausted units don't get to go again just because they're the only one left. He had the boss walker going after each of our turns and just slaughtered us. I think we were supposed to also be getting a 4th turn each round, but we were just getting the 3. Not sure, not my game, but he won pretty easily doing his way. Didn't leave a good impression, but after that, no one wanted to play it again with using the correct rules. Yeah, reducing the Rebels' number of turns by 1/4 and increasing the number of Imperial turns is a good way to gently caress up the balance of the game. Normally it's pretty hard to wound the Rebels in a timely manner.
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Feb 14, 2015 20:39
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DontMockMySmock posted:Yeah, reducing the Rebels' number of turns by 1/4 and increasing the number of Imperial turns is a good way to gently caress up the balance of the game. Normally it's pretty hard to wound the Rebels in a timely manner. Yeah, I hate it when someone else is in charge of explaining the rules and then they screw it up in their favor. I'm the guy that always ends up grabbing the rule book part way through the game and reads it while it's not my turn. Actually I think I was dead at that point anyway. I was wounded before I even took my second turn I think. It was pretty bad. "So the game gets harder the more Imperials you kill because they get to go more often? That sounds a bit off..." Each of our characters would get to go once per round. He had the Imperials go after each of our turns and when it was down to 2 groups, he just picked whichever one he wanted to go again. Then it was just the boss and he went 3 times per round. We died fast.
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Feb 14, 2015 20:49
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Echophonic posted:I liked Constantinople better. How do you feel about New Amsterdam?
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Feb 14, 2015 21:03
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bobvonunheil posted:How do you feel about New Amsterdam? It's a pretty good gin if you're mixing it.
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Feb 14, 2015 21:20
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How much of a step up in complexity is Troyes over CoB? I play a lot with 3 and I really like the look of the mechanics/aesthetic/everything on BGG but I'm kinda worried it would be a little much for one of the players I play CoB with.
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Feb 14, 2015 21:25
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T-Bone posted:How much of a step up in complexity is Troyes over CoB? I play a lot with 3 and I really like the look of the mechanics/aesthetic/everything on BGG but I'm kinda worried it would be a little much for one of the players I play CoB with. A fair bit... it's not terribly complex but there are many, many more options to consider than in CoB, especially towards the end. That said it's a fantastic game and would be great with 3 if your group can handle it.
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Feb 14, 2015 21:32
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I just finished my first TTS solo game of Final Attack! and yeah, it definitely works. Rationing your energy seems to be a massively important concern that I completely overlooked in my thirst to get MORE PAYBACK, and I died in the last Impact round because I was one energy short of getting enough Barriers to survive. The attack didn't kill me, far from it, but I was fighting against Libra, who was in Beta and primed for evolution. In short: This game is a loving blast, I'm probably going to record a video of me playing at some point, and I died by taking [keyboard mash] damage at the last possible second.  BL, I do have an important question! When fighting Fornax, does "Let's Final Combination!" count as a statement?
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Feb 14, 2015 21:47
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Poison Mushroom posted:I just finished my first TTS solo game of Final Attack! and yeah, it definitely works. Rationing your energy seems to be a massively important concern that I completely overlooked in my thirst to get MORE PAYBACK, and I died in the last Impact round because I was one energy short of getting enough Barriers to survive. The attack didn't kill me, far from it, but I was fighting against Libra, who was in Beta and primed for evolution.
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Feb 14, 2015 21:49
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I've done a little bit of gaming with my girlfriend, and I was hoping to get her something that she might like. We tend to play 2-player, and she's liked iOS Pandemic, Hanabi, 2-player Love Letter, and Forbidden Desert. She hasn't much enjoyed Sentinels of the Multiverse or Robinson Crusoe for the many bits to track and card piles to manage. I think the features we're looking for are scales well to 2 players + plays in 60-90 minutes or less + fewer fiddly bits to set up/track +/- cooperative. Are there any recommendations you can think of? I was thinking Roll/Race for the Galaxy, LoTR LCG, Shadowrun: Crossfire. Alternatively, fiddly/complex games are ok if there are iOS or otherwise electronic versions that will set up and track the bits for us (and reduce the likelihood of cats messing the board up)
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Feb 14, 2015 21:53
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quote:This was actually answered on the comments section of the Kickstarter and I think the answer is no. Both the final attack and combination phrases are exempt from restrictions. Boo. Attempting to inflect out "Let us final combination?" while shouting would be, uh, thematic.
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Feb 14, 2015 21:56
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Rivensteel posted:I've done a little bit of gaming with my girlfriend, and I was hoping to get her something that she might like. We tend to play 2-player, and she's liked iOS Pandemic, Hanabi, 2-player Love Letter, and Forbidden Desert. She hasn't much enjoyed Sentinels of the Multiverse or Robinson Crusoe for the many bits to track and card piles to manage. I think the features we're looking for are scales well to 2 players + plays in 60-90 minutes or less + fewer fiddly bits to set up/track +/- cooperative. But don't take my word for it. As a poster in this thread, you now have access to the Print-And-Play demo/reviewer version that BL linked a couple of pages ago!
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Feb 14, 2015 21:59
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Poison Mushroom posted:BL, I do have an important question! When fighting Fornax, does "Let's Final Combination!" count as a statement? Sadly, the answer is no. There are a few points where it would make unwinnable game states. What difficulty did you have it set at? edit: Here's an idea of what 2P FA! plays like, be forewarned that the video cuts off just before Final Impact and there's a ton of swearing. Broken Loose fucked around with this message at 22:03 on Feb 14, 2015 |
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Feb 14, 2015 21:59
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Broken Loose posted:Sadly, the answer is no. There are a few points where it would make unwinnable game states. Edit I think the big hurdle for a single player is that you don't have enough brainspace to process everything your massive hand of cards can do. A lucky event meant I could Final Combination during the second stage, but that just left me with a dozen and a half cards in my hand while I tried to find one that would give me Barriers.
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Feb 14, 2015 22:01
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Rivensteel posted:I think the features we're looking for are scales well to 2 players + plays in 60-90 minutes or less + fewer fiddly bits to set up/track +/- cooperative. Have you considered Final Attack?  Alternately, Escape: Curse Of The Temple might be worth a look. Unfortunately most of my go-to co-op games to play with my wife (D&D Adventure Game Series, Legendary) are on the fiddlier side to set up, although none of them are anywhere near as fiddly to play as Sentinels.
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Feb 14, 2015 22:03
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Poison Mushroom posted:Eight events. I got cocky. "Oh, man, I'm great at these games, I should be fine at- OH GOD EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE". Honest question: How hard did you think it was? 85% of my playtesters are Space Alert Yellow Alert-class veterans, and I also had to compensate for us getting better over time. I'm happy that you experienced your particular problem, because it increases the relative strength of the "wild card" Systems that auto-Hold Attacks without needing to match icons.
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Feb 14, 2015 22:05
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Rivensteel posted:I've done a little bit of gaming with my girlfriend, and I was hoping to get her something that she might like. We tend to play 2-player, and she's liked iOS Pandemic, Hanabi, 2-player Love Letter, and Forbidden Desert. She hasn't much enjoyed Sentinels of the Multiverse or Robinson Crusoe for the many bits to track and card piles to manage. I think the features we're looking for are scales well to 2 players + plays in 60-90 minutes or less + fewer fiddly bits to set up/track +/- cooperative. I recommend Escape the Curse of the Temple, Sushi Go, RftG, Cribbage E: also, Carcassonne and IOS Ticket to Ride
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Feb 14, 2015 22:13
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Broken Loose posted:Honest question: How hard did you think it was? 85% of my playtesters are Space Alert Yellow Alert-class veterans, and I also had to compensate for us getting better over time. I'll admit, I was dubious about how much difference one attack/event would make as far as difficulty goes, but a Battery event in the mid-game pulled my rear end out of the fire pretty majorly, and I ended up using the Balance symbol from High Ground basically every single Impact. I'll be happy to give more thoughts (and let you grill me on things I got wrong) once I get this video together. I do have a couple more questions, though, while I'm thinking. First, is it kosher to spend a while thinking and planning before you start the next stage? I tried to avoid it because it felt like I was exploiting a loophole, but I don't know if I was just unnecessarily handicapping myself or not. And second, how do you feel about, for lack of a better term, fan content? Like, if some goons come up with some killer ideas for new Robeasts or K-Machines or what-have-you? I feel like it'd be a pretty neat way to extend the lifespan of the game, but I don't know if you have some ideas for an expansion on the backburner and don't want to end up colliding with players on implementations of similar ideas. As a dumb example, even just looking at the components, I had a really dumb idea about an expansion that adds an extra player, who's controlling a semi-autonomous buffed K-Machine (a la the MMPR Dragon Zord), who doesn't get any Limbs from the Final Combination, but can perform an optional Ultimate Final Combination with Final Kaiser. (My first thought for how to balance that would be having to deal with the effects of two Robeasts at once, or having extra guaranteed attacks at the start.)
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Feb 14, 2015 22:21
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Cool, thanks for the recommendations. I actually just got Escape from the KS and haven't had a chance to table it, we'll have to give that a shot.
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Feb 14, 2015 22:24
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I don't think the guy wants a game that will at the earliest will get to him 5 months later, barring the PnP. 2 player games I would recommend are: Castles of Burgandy - Castle Building Simulator #408709. The game looks like it has more fiddly bits than it does. Affords you a few decisions, conflict light, and it pretty cathartic. Carcassonne: Literally only has tiles, meeples, and a scoreboard as components. Draw a tile, place a tile, maybe place a meeple, and score points by completing roads or buildings. It can be as la or cut throat as you'd like. Dominion and/or expansions: Deck building game. I could see your girlfriend being annoyed with the 14 or so decks to set up, but it plays nicely with two. Lost Legacy: Made by the same guy as Love Letter I believe. The game trades quick player elimination for a game that values knowledge of hidden cards much more. Paperback: Mash up Scrabble and Dominion. You have to order directly from the creator, so it may or may not be out of print. Games to avoid: Eldritch Horror: Unless ou practice and buy a Plano box, set up will take around 30 minutes. Decent coop otherwise. Ghost Stories: Unforgivingly difficult.I've won like 1 out of 6. If that's not a problem, go for it. There may be an iOS app that lets you try it out for much reduced cost.
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Feb 14, 2015 22:26
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Poison Mushroom posted:Very. But, not in a frustrating way. I don't know if it says more about me or the game, but a couple of times, I would notice that I put energy on cards that would do diddly loving poo poo, either because I forgot about the Needs, or just got a bunch of symbols I had no need for. And I just had to laugh. I couldn't not. Don't forget that Element-providing Events automatically Hold themselves off. High Ground should be affecting you every other Impact, but I'm sure that's what you meant. The play time advertises minimum 15 minutes. That's possible if you don't use the Icon Tracker and if you don't spend any time planning during Impact. If you use the Icon Tracker and plan during Impact, it makes the game way easier but doubles the play length. If you're taking more than 40 minutes to play you're probably overthinking your Impacts. About fan content, I'm okay with pretty much anything, but keep in mind that I've been working on this game since 2013 and I've thought of a lot of really good ideas in the meantime and tested a bunch, too. New Robeasts, K-Machines, and Limbs should probably wait until all of them are in the public eye. Fan versions of the audio tracks with alternate music would be cool if I don't hit the audio track stretch goal (and give me an excuse to release the original anime versions of the audio tracks which I believe are superior). The game used to support 6 players. It was functional but required very optimized play from everybody to a fault (namely, more people were crushing Generic Systems for WILL than getting to actually play the game, something that seems quaint in the wake of the "consider passing your turn!" blip from Exploding Kittens). I have ideas for how to fix this with expansion components, but 1 step at a time. On that last bit, Hydra W13 was a Robeast that drew 2 other Robeasts which you fought simultaneously. It was AWESOME until you drew Eridanus and Microscopium at the same time and nobody could touch the EN chips. It's backburnered until I fix it.
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Feb 14, 2015 22:35
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Rivensteel posted:I've done a little bit of gaming with my girlfriend, and I was hoping to get her something that she might like. We tend to play 2-player, and she's liked iOS Pandemic, Hanabi, 2-player Love Letter, and Forbidden Desert. She hasn't much enjoyed Sentinels of the Multiverse or Robinson Crusoe for the many bits to track and card piles to manage. I think the features we're looking for are scales well to 2 players + plays in 60-90 minutes or less + fewer fiddly bits to set up/track +/- cooperative. Before more people spam Final Attack at you, you might want to try some of the older Real Time co-op games. Space Alert, the modern forefather of the genre, is still a thread favorite, but it's a bit overwhelming by design. You have 10 minutes to protect a ramshackle spaceship from an onslaught of angry aliens, meteors, and the occasional amorous space squid. You have to program your movements (robo-rally style) before the soundtrack stops, then everyone gets a soda and you calmly step through your moves to figure out where (not if, where) someone hosed up and killed everyone. Here's a video. If that sounds like a bit much, Escape: The Curse of theTemple is the lighter, softer real-time game. Roll dice as quickly as possible to move through the rooms of the temple, returning stolen gems to various altars, before the soundtrack ends and the temple collapses on you all. Of course, if your dice come up with curse symbols, you might get briefly turned to stone, and another player will need to come rescue you. If you've played Farkle/Zombie Dice/Martian Dice/Sushi Dice/Whatever-Nerd-Bait-Noun Dice, you can play Escape. Have another video. Zombie 15' is relatively new, a bit expensive, and features goddamn loving zombies, but I like the look of it. This is really the game Zombicide wanted to be and failed at. Run through the streets! Scavenge weapons! Kill zombies to clear your path! But don't make too much noise, or you'll attract more of the fuckers. Streamlined down to the absolute essentials, with no clunky dice mechanics or enemy AI to slow you down. And look, another video. Only the best for you, my friend. If any one of these ends up turning your crank, then yes, Final Attack is the new hotness. That said, and I'm sorry if I'm taking a sale out of your mouth, BL: If you don't like fumbling around with a huge array cards, you might not like Final Attack. The cards are much, much simpler and less mathsy than Sentinels. Almost all of them have big, bright icons instead of text, and boil down to "spend X, get Y." But if big piles of cardboard just intimidate you, it might be a bit too much. EDIT: And you just said you already have Escape. Awesome! If that goes over well, look into these others. gutterdaughter fucked around with this message at 22:44 on Feb 14, 2015 |
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Feb 14, 2015 22:42
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I want to recommend Caylus and Dominion, but neither of them are coop. Caylus has an ios version, however, and is amazing. Also Dominion is amazing. Buy Dominion. Space Alert 2P isn't too hot and gets mad fiddly. Throwing cards facedown onto dummy tableaus to control auxiliary players? That's a lot of poo poo to track. Space Alert is my second-favorite game, though, and is worth a purchase if you can get 4-5 people together every now and again. This post contains all the information you need to know about Space Alert. Broken Loose fucked around with this message at 22:55 on Feb 14, 2015 |
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Feb 14, 2015 22:47
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I'm gonna draft up your PNP of Final Attack today BrokenLoose, I'll get back with my impressions of the solo play and see if I can get some folks at a meetup to give it a shot on Monday.
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Feb 14, 2015 22:55
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I will likely play my Escape Big Box tomorrow for the first time. Leaning the rules and it seems like the basic game is too simple and probably too easy. Would it be a smart idea to start straight away with treasures and curses?
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Feb 14, 2015 23:14
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Timett posted:I will likely play my Escape Big Box tomorrow for the first time. Leaning the rules and it seems like the basic game is too simple and probably too easy. Would it be a smart idea to start straight away with treasures and curses? I'd say spend the 10 minutes on a base game, but yeah, toss the additional curses and treasures in soon after.
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Feb 14, 2015 23:18
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Yeah fair point I guess when it's only 10 minutes there isn't much to lose. Edited to avoid double post! So when playing treasures and curses you replace all of the normal tiles and now everything is either a treasure or curse room? That seems a little awkward Seems like having a mix would ultimately feel the best but I haven't actually played it so  what would I know
Tree Dude fucked around with this message at 00:31 on Feb 15, 2015 |
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Feb 14, 2015 23:19
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In imperial assault is it always competitive? IE one person has to be the rebels and one imperial trying to beat each other? Also no thoughts on pressure cooker?
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Feb 15, 2015 00:34
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Tiny Chalupa posted:In imperial assault is it always competitive? IE one person has to be the rebels and one imperial trying to beat each other? Yeah, Imp rear end is X vs. 1, one player is the Imperials and 2-4 other players are the Rebels. (You can play it 2-player if you want to, but one player will have to control two Rebel characters.)
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Feb 15, 2015 00:54
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Timett posted:Yeah fair point I guess when it's only 10 minutes there isn't much to lose. Yeah, replace everything but the gem rooms. It doesn't really throw things one way or the other, as you'll still need to poop the gems onto the board. It might just make it harder to move around. The curses are a lot of fun poo poo though, cause who doesn't love the "you can't talk" rule.
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Feb 15, 2015 01:18
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Broken Loose posted:Sadly, the answer is no. There are a few points where it would make unwinnable game states. Thanks for posting that video. To be honest I wasn't sold on the idea until I watched it 
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Feb 15, 2015 02:49
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I tried to record a video of me playing/explaining solo. I learned two things: 1. Tabletop Simulator is a diva, and will act up way more when you're recording than when you aren't. 2. I am not great at off-hand explanations, nor at trying to come up with them while playing.
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Feb 15, 2015 02:51
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