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Dr. Video Games 0069 posted:Long, confusing, boring and heavily luck driven. One of the worst games I've ever played. Ah, I won't bother with it then. Thanks for the review.
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Oct 30, 2019 02:15
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Interesting choice of weapons.
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Oct 30, 2019 02:28
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Fat Samurai posted:Interesting choice of weapons. If you secure the bow to the crossbow, you can pull back both drawstrings at the same time and fire two arrows at once!
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Oct 30, 2019 02:37
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My copy of Dune finally shipped from CSI so be on the lookout, I guess.
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Oct 30, 2019 04:33
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Fat Samurai posted:Interesting choice of weapons.
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Oct 30, 2019 11:24
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Anyone have a chance to play Maracaibo and can share their thoughts?
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Oct 30, 2019 13:35
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Mayveena posted:Anyone have a chance to play Maracaibo and can share their thoughts? Selecta84 posted:So we finished our Euro Day. Nobody played any of the games before and we were 3 players every time.
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Oct 30, 2019 13:40
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So I bought War of the Ring partly on a whim. How much did I gently caress up?
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Oct 30, 2019 15:29
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Pierzak posted:So I bought War of the Ring partly on a whim. How much did I gently caress up? It's awesome assuming you like lotr. Do you have someone to play with?
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Oct 30, 2019 15:38
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It's a pretty great 2p game made better by flavor and theme. I like the dice driven action system and the various strategies each side can push. The Universal Head rules summary is great for learning and playing: https://www.orderofgamers.com/downloads/WaroftheRing_v5.4.pdf
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Oct 30, 2019 15:40
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Pierzak posted:So I bought War of the Ring partly on a whim. How much did I gently caress up?
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Oct 30, 2019 15:40
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I like (not love) LotR, dislike the movie art that's pushed everywhere nowadays (so the older(?) style is a plus for me), and was looking for a very thematic game that's usually gonna be played 2p. So it seems I chose well in that regard. DOAM is "dudes on a map" right? And thanks for reminding me UH exists, gonna grab that cheat sheet just in case.
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Oct 30, 2019 15:52
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Pierzak posted:I like (not love) LotR, dislike the movie art that's pushed everywhere nowadays (so the older(?) style is a plus for me), and was looking for a very thematic game that's usually gonna be played 2p. So it seems I chose well in that regard. DOAM is "dudes on a map" right? Yep good choice then. Be prepared for a bit of a slog the first time, and try to set up before whomever you're playing with arrives, it'll save some waiting around. He seeeeees He knoooooows
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Oct 30, 2019 16:07
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Pierzak posted:I like (not love) LotR, dislike the movie art that's pushed everywhere nowadays (so the older(?) style is a plus for me), and was looking for a very thematic game that's usually gonna be played 2p. So it seems I chose well in that regard. DOAM is "dudes on a map" right?
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Oct 30, 2019 16:10
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Has anyone here played John Company? I loved Pax Pamir and bought JC based on the Sierra Madre Games pedigree, but after a few plays it seems real bad. The rule book is unbelievably turgid (even by Eklund standards!), there doesn't seem to be much gameplay there, and the scoring is punishingly random. Am I missing something critical?
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Oct 30, 2019 21:10
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Re war of the ring, Ricky Royal did a play through on YouTube which is a good primer for the game too.
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Oct 30, 2019 21:21
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Gilgameshback posted:Has anyone here played John Company? I loved Pax Pamir and bought JC based on the Sierra Madre Games pedigree, but after a few plays it seems real bad. The rule book is unbelievably turgid (even by Eklund standards!), there doesn't seem to be much gameplay there, and the scoring is punishingly random. Am I missing something critical? It's a political game like Dune. Leverage your privilege and sit comfortably as the Governor of Punjab or rob it dry and punish the fools who invested too heavily.
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Oct 30, 2019 21:22
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Also you can often engineer retirements, particularly if you are willing to tank the company. Just start taking one dice actions and retire in disgrace.
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Oct 30, 2019 21:23
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Yep, you messed up buy buying it off Madre's pedigree instead of Cole Wehrle's. But seriously JC is a game where you can fail to see where the player agency comes in. But after a few plays you will realise you have more control over the beast that is the EIC than you though. Shares and Manors are points without relying on attrition. Attrition can be forced for your executive cubes by the Chairman forcing a bailout by not paying shares. If you have a Presidency you can help this by just flat out refusing to ship to make money so the company can't afford to payout. You need to get writers in the writer box at the start of the game otherwise they will never make it up the corporate structure. Not sure you can retire in disgrace with a failed action. Only bailout or closure of position. "A roll of 5 or 6 is a failure, and the officeholder is immediately returned to that player’s stock of unused pieces" dishwasherlove fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Oct 30, 2019 |
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Oct 30, 2019 21:24
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Cole said the rulebook issues were his fault (he designed the entire game with no Eklund input) and that the biggest change the remake will get is a redesigned rulebook. He went off against weird formatted rulebooks (mostly anything that's square) at one point saying "never again!" and Sierra Madre's brand is very much about slim form factor. The format is something I really appreciate about Sierra Madre games but it does mean rules are clunky which is exacerbated by Eklund taking an axe to them every other day.
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Oct 30, 2019 21:44
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Gilgameshback posted:Has anyone here played John Company? I loved Pax Pamir and bought JC based on the Sierra Madre Games pedigree, but after a few plays it seems real bad. The rule book is unbelievably turgid (even by Eklund standards!), there doesn't seem to be much gameplay there, and the scoring is punishingly random. Am I missing something critical? It’s a game about gambling on future game states and exploiting whatever power you can grab. I don’t think the game is that random personally.
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Oct 30, 2019 23:02
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I described Dune as a game where every game state is random but each faction mitigates one element of randomness to exploit for their benefit. John Company is the same except the cheaty bits change rapidly. You're balancing investments on the future while building a nest egg to escape when it all collapses. It's random in the same way a good card game is: you might draw a losing hand, but one hand is only a portion of the long battle.
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Oct 30, 2019 23:13
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About to play Dune for the first time. Any important notes or tips?
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Oct 31, 2019 00:53
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Jimbozig posted:About to play Dune for the first time. Any important notes or tips? Who're you playing? That's almost as important as anything else. (I can't answer anyway, but still)
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Oct 31, 2019 00:56
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Jimbozig posted:About to play Dune for the first time. Any important notes or tips? Never give away information for free. Unless you're playing the Emperor or Guild your soldiers are precious. Send small probing attacks against large, condensed forces.
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Oct 31, 2019 01:03
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Jimbozig posted:About to play Dune for the first time. Any important notes or tips? Barter and bribe and blackmail often. Leverage everything you can! Tactical tips hugely depend on your faction, but just bear in mind that you CAN utterly gently caress yourself over by over spending resources, so tread lightly.
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Oct 31, 2019 01:05
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Jimbozig posted:About to play Dune for the first time. Any important notes or tips? Harkonnen will win on turn 6.
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Oct 31, 2019 01:05
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Gilgameshback posted:Has anyone here played John Company? I loved Pax Pamir and bought JC based on the Sierra Madre Games pedigree, but after a few plays it seems real bad. The rule book is unbelievably turgid (even by Eklund standards!), there doesn't seem to be much gameplay there, and the scoring is punishingly random. Am I missing something critical? I’ll echo the thread that JoCo is a Werhle game and not so much a Madre game. The thing all of Cole’s games have in common is that they’re Capital-P Political. Both because they boil down to deciding who to help/hurt, and because they’re about exploring Big Ideas. Pax Pamir’s big idea is when and why local powers might support or oppose imperial powers. Root’s big idea is “What is a Government?! John Company wants you to explore how the same people that built an enterprise can turn on that enterprise and gut it for scrap. Which is a hard mindset to get into! And if you’re playing competitively I understand why the scoring is frustrating. No game is for everyone! But before you give up on it, let me make two suggestions. First, play a Solo game to completion so you see how the Company functions. Fudge dice when you need to so you can conquer all of India. Then try a multiplayer session with the Low Luck variant that’s on the BGG forums.
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Oct 31, 2019 01:05
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Game of Thrones Board Game: 2nd Edition OK thank you for your advice for my first playthrough. We were done in three and a half hours with Baratheon (experienced player) winning. I was the Lanasters and allied with the squidpeople. much to the chargrin of the experienced players "You are meant to be rivals." Everybody was sort of spatting and the Baratheons and I were just running head first into each other. He won, not least because of his competency with the hero combat cards. But I really enjoyed playing the closest game to Diplomacy I will probably ever play. I would play again - but I can't help but feel there are too many subsystems that are meant to add flavour but egh. I'd love a streamlined version of Game of Thrones board game where its basically just Diplomacy on this map. Otherwise, I never want to see or talk about or post about Game of Thrones ever again in my life my god 2005 was when my friends introduced me to the ccg and if I knew I'd still be stuck in gots orbit fourteen years later I'd be choosing another path. Please. No more thrones. no more games. no more of. goodbye.
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Oct 31, 2019 01:33
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All of that seems completely accurate except the time, that game drags so much in my limited experience.
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Oct 31, 2019 01:38
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Jimbozig posted:About to play Dune for the first time. Any important notes or tips? - it is very likely that you will get hosed militarily at some point and it's hard/slow to stand back. If that happens, use whatever special abilities you have to let you survive (offer them as bargaining chips to ally, sell knowledge as Atreides/Fremen and transport/money as Guild/Emp) - yes, alliances are broken, you are supposed to form counter-alliances and cockblock each other. - Fremen are the newbie faction because they care little about money, have good leaders, regen troops for free and if hosed can still sell their weather knowledge. - truth trance is for game-related questions only, no asking Steve if he's loving your girlfriend. - why do Guild Navigators float in huge tanks full of spice? Because they can afford to.
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Oct 31, 2019 01:40
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Ok, played 4p and harkonnen seem totally overpowered. Literally nobody else fought each other. It was essentially a 3v1 the whole game and they still won. They won almost every battle because we rarely had many cards and they had 8. So they could always pick between 3 different weapons and whatever defense, and we had maybe 1 defense available if we were lucky so most battles we lost our leaders. He got more money. He didn't usually need to spend money on cards because he didn't tend to lose them. The battles he lost: I went in with 2 troops vs his 1 to stop him from winning and his laser blew up my shield. I went in 14vs5. He killed my leader but I still won because I put 9 on my dial. I only put a leader at all because I wanted him to kill it so I could get the money when I won. The fremen and Atreides never had much money and because the harkonnens rarely had to buy cards, even the emperor didn't have that much money. On the last turn he had 3 spice and 2 troops, so he dropped 2 against the harkonnen's 1 but lost after another leader got unstoppable killed, while the Atreides lost a different battle against the harkonnens. It was so ridiculous that I'm not even going to ask what strategy we missed. What rule did we mess up?
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Oct 31, 2019 04:49
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Pierzak posted:I like (not love) LotR, dislike the movie art that's pushed everywhere nowadays (so the older(?) style is a plus for me), and was looking for a very thematic game that's usually gonna be played 2p. So it seems I chose well in that regard. DOAM is "dudes on a map" right? Spend 15 mins painting the bases of the minis to match their countries colour on the map. It will make setup a whooooooole lot easier.
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Oct 31, 2019 05:03
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Thanks everyone for the points on John Company. I think it's just not a good fit for my group - or at least it lacks the immediate appeal that would get us to play it often enough to appreciate its strengths.
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Oct 31, 2019 05:18
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NRVNQSR posted:Harkonnen will win on turn 6. This was almost right. I stopped him on turn 3 and turn 4. He won on turn 5 though. For more info, the Fremen player was a bit weak and misplayed a key battle, but I still think there's a problem if it requires excellent play from all other factions to stop one faction. And there was some luck - in the one early combat where I had both a defense and a weapon, he guessed right on both. So maybe it's just the case that if the Harkonnens get lucky in a couple of battles then they are unstoppable. He never had to pay much for his treachery cards because none of us had money to outbid him. Also if it wasn't clear, we were not playing with advanced rules, this being our first game and all.
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Oct 31, 2019 05:31
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Jimbozig posted:It was so ridiculous that I'm not even going to ask what strategy we missed. What rule did we mess up? It's hard to say and honestly it's been a while since I played, but to take an example the Emperor cooperating with another player should be able get that player treachery cards for free. Just have that player bid as much as they want, then the Emperor gives them back the spice as soon as they've paid for it in time for them to bid it again on the next card. By the same method those two can push the bid price for an enemy player as high as the cooperating player has spice to bid, limited only by hand sizes. So in a 3v1 situation Harkonnen should have been paying through the nose for every two treachery cards - all of that spice going to the Emperor - while the other players should be getting their single cards for almost free. It seems like your mistake may simply have been letting the Harkonnen get that many treachery cards in the first place? Jimbozig posted:This was almost right. I stopped him on turn 3 and turn 4. He won on turn 5 though. A good Bene Gesserit player should have no trouble nudging their alliance partner's victory back a turn, so I'll count that as a win.
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Oct 31, 2019 05:39
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NRVNQSR posted:It's hard to say and honestly it's been a while since I played, but to take an example the Emperor cooperating with another player should be able get that player treachery cards for free. Just have that player bid as much as they want, then the Emperor gives them back the spice as soon as they've paid for it in time for them to bid it again on the next card. By the same method those two can push the bid price for an enemy player as high as the cooperating player has spice to bid, limited only by hand sizes. So in a 3v1 situation Harkonnen should have been paying through the nose for every two treachery cards - all of that spice going to the Emperor - while the other players should be getting their single cards for almost free. It seems like your mistake may simply have been letting the Harkonnen get that many treachery cards in the first place? That's a good point. But this was our first game so we didn't know we had to cooperate against them from the start. We thought, you know, that the factions would be balanced? Like if we had all been truly 3 against 1 from round 1, I'm sure that we could have stomped them. The issue is we played the first 2 rounds just trying to grab spice and do normal stuff, lost a couple of small battles to them which started them rolling. So next time you'd recommend everyone spends the first couple of rounds cooperating to poo poo on the Harkonnens before we start playing for real? Edit: gently caress, I just looked at the map and realized you can reach Sketch Tabr from Carthag. I could've moved in a bunch of forces and stopped him on turn 5 but I just didn't see that move. Despite his huge advantage due to treachery, he had an awful lot of forces in the tanks and if I kept up murdering him maybe we could have made a comeback. Jimbozig fucked around with this message at 05:59 on Oct 31, 2019 |
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Oct 31, 2019 05:45
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More like, if any faction is allowed to build up a dominant position in their strength then they'll be difficult to deal with; it's perhaps most visible with the Harkonnen and treachery cards but it applies to some extent to anyone. Naturally preemptively ganging up on the Harkonnen isn't the answer as that just leaves an opening for some other faction to pull ahead; I think it's more about getting enough experience to recognize quickly when a player is at risk of dominating, because the window you have to respond to that can sometimes be very narrow.
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Oct 31, 2019 06:01
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Jimbozig posted:Ok, played 4p and harkonnen seem totally overpowered. Don't play Dune with less than 6 players.
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Oct 31, 2019 06:05
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NRVNQSR posted:It's hard to say and honestly it's been a while since I played, but to take an example the Emperor cooperating with another player should be able get that player treachery cards for free. Just have that player bid as much as they want, then the Emperor gives them back the spice as soon as they've paid for it in time for them to bid it again on the next card. By the same method those two can push the bid price for an enemy player as high as the cooperating player has spice to bid, limited only by hand sizes. So in a 3v1 situation Harkonnen should have been paying through the nose for every two treachery cards - all of that spice going to the Emperor - while the other players should be getting their single cards for almost free. It seems like your mistake may simply have been letting the Harkonnen get that many treachery cards in the first place? Speaking of which, what are the restrictions (if any) on exchanging spice? I know you can sell players any and all information (although I guess they need to accept that it may be a lie), but can you only hand over the dosh when it's your turn, or? (Obviously bids are a bit different from the above as you mentioned, but I mostly mean this in terms of information selling and donating spice for deployments, etc)
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Oct 31, 2019 06:21
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