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Megasabin posted:I've played Kanban and it's good, but not great. I think the consensus of this thread is that Gallerist is just all around the better game and does a similar you get 1-2 actions per turn, but those actions have lots of mini-decisions within them thing. Count me out of the consensus  as I traded The Gallerist for Trickerion and never looked back  Still have Kanban, the rules overhead is the biggest issue with that game, otherwise imo it's a very solid heavy euro.
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Feb 7, 2020 17:41
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taser rates posted:Yea, the most important thing to know about Res Arcana is that a game will on average go 4 turns long, so if you know a card isn't going to net benefit you before the game ends you're far better off discarding it. whoa really? how do you build an engine and run it in 4 turns?
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Feb 7, 2020 17:42
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From what I can tell, there's no consensus anywhere on Lacerda, no one can agree on a top 3 basically. (I just played Lisboa, my very first Lacerda, it was good but I didn't like the decree card market row)
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Feb 7, 2020 17:43
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Shadow225 posted:whoa really? how do you build an engine and run it in 4 turns? I disagree that games will average 4 turns. more like it's possible to win in 4 turns if you have the right character and draw. Res looks like an engine builder but it's not, it's a race.
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Feb 7, 2020 17:48
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It's not just possible, it should be the normal in my experience. Longer than 4 turns can happen, but it shouldn't be often. 3 turns can happen as well, but also rarely. Res is definitely a game about cobbling something makeshift together that wins fast, not building a finely tuned machine.
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Feb 7, 2020 17:56
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al-azad posted:Probably 1862. Looks like exactly what I was thinking of. Thanks. Train gamers - is it any good?
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Feb 7, 2020 17:57
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Indolent Bastard posted:I don't know for certain, sorry. I'm sure you'll have read but w/ base game milestones, there are a lot of openings that are just flat-out traps. You get rewarded w/ a employee you can't pay and so must sack, and the ability to store food which, while useful, doesn't in itself help you to sell that food. Or Waitresses making $2 more, which is also nice, but you don't win games by fielding an army of Waitresses. First turn buy either Recruiting Girl or Trainer (I believe Trainer is strictly better). That aside, don't bother with supply unless you know there will be demand, lowering prices is very good, there's no brand loyalty so prepare to have your demand stolen from you, you want to either be first or last (so to be first the next turn). The decision space opens up after the first few turns, which is why it's a good game. Try to take your turns quickly but honestly if they get annoyed by a first timer getting a bit flummoxed, they're jerks who aren't worth your time.
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Feb 7, 2020 18:07
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ketchup vs catsup posted:
That’s the secret of every (good) engine builder though.
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Feb 7, 2020 18:08
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OrthoTrot posted:Looks like exactly what I was thinking of. Thanks. Very dependent on what you like. It's fast once you get past the chrome (roughly a 2 - 2.5 hour game in my group), but there is a decent amount of chrome especially if you're more used to the "standard" 18xx type games. There is a lot of financial manipulation and a rather intense train rush, but it also trends towards being more euro-y in the way you're trying to put together a top contending railroad for the endgame.
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Feb 7, 2020 18:08
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OrthoTrot posted:Looks like exactly what I was thinking of. Thanks. If you're looking for an operational game, it's very enjoyable. The heart of the game is reading the opening flop of companies and licenses, and building the right companies with the right routes and the right trains to run on them. To ensure this is what you're doing, the game kicks out all of the stocky stuff that wins in other 18xx games. A lot of people miss that element but stocky 18xxs still exist, so it's not so tragic. The rules are inelegant, but once you know them they're very playable. Getting to know them might be a bit rocky but I think it's worth it.
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Feb 7, 2020 18:13
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Bottom Liner posted:That’s the secret of every (good) engine builder though. drat I was going to post this.
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Feb 7, 2020 18:20
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PerniciousKnid posted:TM is a boring slog carried by its theme. Dominion is the perfect version of itself. If they're both flawed it's in very different ways. They both "suffer" from rushing default actions (big money, standard projects) sometimes being much better strategies than the more interesting engine building offered by both games. In Dominion you can fix the flaw by playing with a good selection of +action/+draw and attack cards, in Terraforming Mars I assume it can be fixed with expansions (I've only played base game + Prelude.) Bottom Liner posted:That's basically the opinion of the thread. You are part of the hivemind you seemingly have a grudge against, congrats. What I mean is that it's good but not a top 3 game for me. There is lots of "TfM is unplayable garbage" in this thread. Lord Of Texas fucked around with this message at 19:39 on Feb 7, 2020 |
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Feb 7, 2020 19:37
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I'm going to be acquiring and playing Vinhos at an upcoming convention, does anyone have advice for someone diving into their first Lacerda?
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Feb 7, 2020 19:37
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Vinhos is a good first lacerda make sure everyone understands the wine fairs. You have to go into debt to win. Also kanban best lacerda the gallerist a distant 4th.
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Feb 7, 2020 19:52
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Lord Of Texas posted:I'm going to be acquiring and playing Vinhos at an upcoming convention, does anyone have advice for someone diving into their first Lacerda? It was my first Lacerda as well and the first game, 3 players, went pretty well. Very close game and the rules explanation was not as hard as I expected it to be. Played two handed solo to get into it and that helped a lot. Remember the following quote from the Designer: Vinhos is a game about producing wine so do that. 3 estates minimum. Small caveat: played the first edition which has the bank as an additional mechanic.
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Feb 7, 2020 20:02
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Selecta84 posted:Remember the following quote from the Designer: Vinhos is a game about producing wine so do that. 3 estates minimum. Love that this is the opposite of the advice I'd give someone playing Viticulture. I've wanted to play Vinhos forever but no one has a copy and I haven't seen it on sale. Ah well.
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Feb 7, 2020 20:41
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Lord Of Texas posted:They both "suffer" from rushing default actions (big money, standard projects) sometimes being much better strategies than the more interesting engine building offered by both games. In Dominion you can fix the flaw by playing with a good selection of +action/+draw and attack cards, in Terraforming Mars I assume it can be fixed with expansions (I've only played base game + Prelude.) Yeah, I like Terraforming Mars because I just play it to win and then everyone gets mad at me for not playing right. People who play it as some three hour monstrosity to get the perfect engine going are fools. It’s about putting together a sparse tableau of just enough crap to buy the win.
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Feb 7, 2020 20:49
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Also make sure you play 2015 not the original, since it gets rid of a lot of stuff that honestly I don't think adds much to the game.
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Feb 7, 2020 21:02
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FulsomFrank posted:Love that this is the opposite of the advice I'd give someone playing Viticulture. Yeah, I didn't know that in my first game and suffered the consequences, e.g. not having enough wine to activate the specialists. And I really want to play again, last game was like 7 or so month ago 
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Feb 7, 2020 21:21
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Safety Biscuits posted:If it cost 3, it would cripple 2/5, though. Yeah I agree. The solution is probably just fixed opening hands.
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Feb 7, 2020 22:34
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Cthulhu Dreams posted:Yeah I agree. The solution is probably just fixed opening hands. Letting people choose if they want 2/5 or 3/4 would be better.
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Feb 8, 2020 01:14
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I started a new job this week. Today at lunch I saw some people playing Dominion in a conference room and introduced myself. I think this job is going to be OK.
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Feb 8, 2020 01:21
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God loving damnit I love Dune so much! I'm slowly but surely doing the rounds and playing as every faction, but I love the Bene Geserit so much that I have to go back and play them every other game! It's just so cool how it all hangs as such a tight, self regulating balance, but based on the player actions. Then, the BG's are pretty much 'only' kingmakers, which makes them super hard to play well, but super amazing if you get the payoff and manage to wheel within a wheel coerce someone else into winning on a certain turn! I've managed to set it up 'PERFECTLY' twice, but both times the player just missed that they could win. In one of them, no one suspected me, and I stitched up my partner by demanding I needed spice off them for the auction round, that I basically just fed to the Atreides player for info, such that it would basically be a given for them to be able to beat my partner in one combat and then I'd flipped up in a stronghold that I was in with them that would have been their final combat which I could just throw. The other one was a little more convoluted and hinged off me being able to switch off the Fremen's power of 'being better than Sardukar' by distracting the Fremen with the fabled mystical donkey of retribution 'as was foretold', although, this time I think they saw it, but didn't think they could win the combat, and me doing it before combat would have been way too sketchy a tell. Its funny as well, because you can't really tell people after the game, otherwise they'll start to smell a rat in future games, so you just have these really exciting tense games where to everyone else it looks like your brain fell out your rear end and you had a poo poo game where you just put some buttons down and paid people for random poo poo that never came to anything. What I'm finding is that actually, after the Bene Geserit, I'd say that actually the Harkonnen are the hardest / people bounce off the most. I think it's because actually, their power isn't combat, because, combat is poo poo for everyone. It's the 'threat' of you attacking them, and that being a scary prospect. I think bullying people into paying you not to fight them has to be the way you play them, and none of my friends have been that mercenary, so have just gone into fights and then lost because  (only 'Dune'). The Atreides have a lot going on, but, it's quite easy to leverage their skills without actually having to fight until you know you can win. I love it though, all the stories and fun moments come from the way your friends act or react. We've had a few combats happen where one player, on paper, shouldn't have been able to win, but they just smack talked / bluffed / lied their way into things going their way, and it's hilarious every time. Seeing people get tied in double-think knots, or the reverse when they're SURE they've got you sussed and then you whip the rug out and they LOSE EVERYTHING is SO glorious. Especially so when you see that happen in a combat you're not involved in.
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Feb 8, 2020 02:52
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OrthoTrot posted:Looks like exactly what I was thinking of. Thanks. I hated it. It's fiddly and it lacks any of the bite that the more stocky train games have. Once you're set up it's near-impossible for someone to take you down. The game revolves around how well you can evaluate the initial flop and how you finance buying permanents. I played it a couple of times and probably won't play it again.
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Feb 8, 2020 06:56
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Wow, turns out I have no idea how to play the Riverfolk. Bursting out with a poo poo ton of trading posts is pretty good though! Also keeping weird board control.
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Feb 8, 2020 07:36
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First play of Living Planet... It's mechanically simple but packed full of crunchy decisions. Boelinger has delivered. l
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Feb 8, 2020 07:59
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My wife and I are trying to prioritize Mystic Vale expansions. There are many strong endorsements for Vale of Magic online but it sounds like it's mostly a little bit more of the same. We like the game but find it's a little too tactical and not strategic enough for our preferences so we're hoping any of the other expansions does something about that. So far, generally the person who plays a Big Money kind of game wins. It just takes too long to assemble anything like a cool combo that can then be consistently and repeatedly executed. So we were hoping find stuff that:
I've heard some of the expansions adding additional resources and scoring things and I don't know if we're really wanting that right away. As it stands, we wind up with turns where we have to write down what we harvested for faster bookkeeping when buying stuff.
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Feb 8, 2020 08:24
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Played Puerto Rico for the first time in almost a decade and despite the awful loving rulebook, it still holds up
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Feb 8, 2020 08:55
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Control Volume posted:Played Puerto Rico for the first time in almost a decade and despite the awful loving rulebook, it still holds up What's your issue with the rulebook?
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Feb 8, 2020 10:25
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There are a lot of conditional notes that say things like "remember what the workshop does! Dont forget the factory!!" when the building rules cover that pretty clearly, and things get bogged down with a bunch of stuff to remember instead of getting to the point of what a role card actually does. Its awkward in a way that 2000s board game rulebooks exemplify
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Feb 8, 2020 10:54
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That new deluxe edition of Clinic sure is pretty. Anybody played it who can give me an idea whether it's actually worth exploring?
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Feb 8, 2020 11:37
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Garphill Games is having a sale right now on their website and I liked Architects of the West Kingdom so much that I bought the entire North Sea series at once. Next game night is gonna be dope as hell. Vikings and mead and poo poo. Anyone taking advantage of this, note that their sale copy of Shipwrights doesn't include the little expansion later packaged together.
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Feb 8, 2020 14:25
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Played age of steam last night finally. While I still like the known cube placements from steam more, the VP money pump is gone so I prefer the AOS scoring much more. The tiles are also only one-sided which is much better than the double sided crap they did for steam. That was awful CaptainApathyUK posted:That new deluxe edition of Clinic sure is pretty. Anybody played it who can give me an idea whether it's actually worth exploring? I’ve played the original mailing box version and unless they’ve changed the rules drastically it’s a pretty good game. The behavior of people isn’t too hard but it does seem daunting at first. Personally, while I like the combo of action selection and tableau building, I’d still rather play Vanuatu most times even though the action is on a shared board. But that’s mostly because I find the auction actions more compelling. Clinic is plenty interesting for what it is. I’m not a big fan of the giant box, however. The game plays in 45-75 minutes with 3.
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Feb 8, 2020 16:07
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!Klams posted:God loving damnit I love Dune so much! I'm slowly but surely doing the rounds and playing as every faction, but I love the Bene Geserit so much that I have to go back and play them every other game! It's just so cool how it all hangs as such a tight, self regulating balance, but based on the player actions. Then, the BG's are pretty much 'only' kingmakers, which makes them super hard to play well, but super amazing if you get the payoff and manage to wheel within a wheel coerce someone else into winning on a certain turn! I've managed to set it up 'PERFECTLY' twice, but both times the player just missed that they could win. In one of them, no one suspected me, and I stitched up my partner by demanding I needed spice off them for the auction round, that I basically just fed to the Atreides player for info, such that it would basically be a given for them to be able to beat my partner in one combat and then I'd flipped up in a stronghold that I was in with them that would have been their final combat which I could just throw. The other one was a little more convoluted and hinged off me being able to switch off the Fremen's power of 'being better than Sardukar' by distracting the Fremen with the fabled mystical donkey of retribution 'as was foretold', although, this time I think they saw it, but didn't think they could win the combat, and me doing it before combat would have been way too sketchy a tell. Its funny as well, because you can't really tell people after the game, otherwise they'll start to smell a rat in future games, so you just have these really exciting tense games where to everyone else it looks like your brain fell out your rear end and you had a poo poo game where you just put some buttons down and paid people for random poo poo that never came to anything. The secret of Harkonnen is that you do want to fight all the time but with small probing attacks. Dune’s combat is like proxy bidding: you see what the bid is but you don’t see the maximum bid and you’re paying whether you win or lose. One unit with an unknown weapon is a huge threat to 10 units and drat right people should be afraid of that.
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Feb 8, 2020 18:30
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I’ve played my first go of Watergate and enjoyed it a lot. Easy to teach, interesting decisions and huge upsets. Nixon seems unstoppable at fist but the Editor has great one offs on their Momentum card and playing Deep Throat twice is huge. A question: when exactly are you allowed to play your Editor momentum powers? We ruled “whenever you drat well please” because I swear we’ve read the manual thrice and can’t find it.
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Feb 8, 2020 21:22
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Page 9: Gaining the momentum token When you gain this round‘s momentum token, take it from the research track and place it onto your momentum card on the empty space with the lowest number. If there is an instruction text next to that space, carry it out now.
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Feb 8, 2020 22:18
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So just how convoluted is Barrage? A new train friend I met said she wanted to bring it sometime, but said she's up for FCM/18xx so I'm hesitant and want to just keep jamming more splotter and 18xx games as much as possible. I saw the board and....it's just the worst of contemporary heavy euro design that immediately turns me off. Looks like it has individual rondels and tracks and more tracks and my eyes just glaze over. I've heard people say it's a "heavy economic" game but it looks like it's just a resource conversion game that likes to use the wide umbrella term of "economic."
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Feb 9, 2020 03:49
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I think you should just keep playing 18xx and FCM. I don't think you'd like Barrage much. It's in my top three of last year, but I like convoluted Euros when they are good.
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Feb 9, 2020 04:04
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Does anyone know a game that does what Scythe attempts to do with aggressive area control and resource management and all that? As much as I want to love Scythe, its just really, really bad at 3 players when everyone has enough space to never be in conflict
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Feb 9, 2020 06:47
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Control Volume posted:Does anyone know a game that does what Scythe attempts to do with aggressive area control and resource management and all that? As much as I want to love Scythe, its just really, really bad at 3 players when everyone has enough space to never be in conflict There are some usual answers but I’ll take this opportunity to drop Adrenaline, an area control game where the players are the area.
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Feb 9, 2020 07:21
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