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al-azad posted:Nah, the board gets overcrowded and inhibits the smaller factions like WA or Lizards or it completely overpowers the Otters who now have nearly infinite currency to play with. Two government factions on the same board is totally fine. We included the Eyrie as one of the four factions in the base game for a reason.  Three can get a little messy, but it's still manageable.
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Feb 10, 2020 00:38
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Caedar posted:Two government factions on the same board is totally fine. We included the Eyrie as one of the four factions in the base game for a reason. I’m talking about mixing the expansion factions. Cats and moles are building and unit heavy, together they choke out the board which is bad for the WA because they’ll almost never be able to move but it’s a great benefit to the otters who profit from collecting warriors.
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Feb 10, 2020 01:13
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Anybody have recommendations for favorite heavy 2 player games on Tabletop Simulator? I'd like to set up a play date with a friend. I was thinking of learning Three Kingdoms Redux, but lost our third player. Trying to avoid standalone digital implementations because I doubt we'll play more than one or twice, so not worth spending $20x2 or whatever.
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Feb 10, 2020 01:18
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PerniciousKnid posted:Anybody have recommendations for favorite heavy 2 player games on Tabletop Simulator? I'd like to set up a play date with a friend. I was thinking of learning Three Kingdoms Redux, but lost our third player. Indonesia's on there. I seem to recall that there's a mod for The Gallerist, but I can't find it.
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Feb 10, 2020 02:31
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al-azad posted:I’m talking about mixing the expansion factions. Cats and moles are building and unit heavy, together they choke out the board which is bad for the WA because they’ll almost never be able to move but it’s a great benefit to the otters who profit from collecting warriors. I haven't had that problem? In all the games I've played thus far with moles, they've remained relatively concentrated in a handful of clearings since they only have six buildings and tend to turtle around the clearings they've built up. If anything, there needs to be another military faction on the board that can push and threaten them.
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Feb 10, 2020 02:52
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Acebuckeye13 posted:I haven't had that problem? In all the games I've played thus far with moles, they've remained relatively concentrated in a handful of clearings since they only have six buildings and tend to turtle around the clearings they've built up. If anything, there needs to be another military faction on the board that can push and threaten them. The thing is the cats and moles have a large military but aren't very efficient at fighting. Eyrie is more suited for direct combat with lizards and corvids being able to wipe out buildings remotely making them natural opponents. In my experience of at least 4 games with cats + moles on the same board, the result is frustratingly slow paced as those factions' action economy relies on amassing cards which in turn is a big boon to the otters and makes the WA completely unfun to play when every clearing can't be moved into or has martial law in effect. e: I would be kind of interested in seeing a cats/eyrie/mole/vagabond setup with a combat build vagabond but I'm pretty positive in that scenario a smart vagabond player would end up winning most of the time. al-azad fucked around with this message at 03:12 on Feb 10, 2020 |
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Feb 10, 2020 03:10
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al-azad posted:I’m talking about mixing the expansion factions. Cats and moles are building and unit heavy, together they choke out the board which is bad for the WA because they’ll almost never be able to move but it’s a great benefit to the otters who profit from collecting warriors. I feel like cats, moles Erie and something else would be fun. Jedit posted:Indonesia's on there. I seem to recall that there's a mod for The Gallerist, but I can't find it. Do not play Indonesia two player. It is Garbo. Spirit island is the way to go.
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Feb 10, 2020 03:30
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al-azad posted:The thing is the cats and moles have a large military but aren't very efficient at fighting. Eyrie is more suited for direct combat with lizards and corvids being able to wipe out buildings remotely making them natural opponents. Moles are very efficient at fighting with a little build-up, and they can do that a lot more consistently than the Eyrie who has to balance their bird cards carefully between fight and build. If both Cats and Moles are sitting around amassing 3+ warriors in every clearing while giving the Otters a ton of cards that does sound like a slow game that will inevitably be won by the Otters, but neither of those factions are locked into that plan.
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Feb 10, 2020 04:10
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FTJ posted:Speaking of Spirit Island. Do people play with the thematic side or the more well balanced side of the board? Played a few 2p games of Spirit Island at 6 and 7 difficulty today. For the second game we looked at the thematic board and decided that we'd rahter just play with the side that we can read. BTW Thunderspeaker is loving great.
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Feb 10, 2020 04:33
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Cats v Moles is a good and fun dynamic. You need two highly militarized forces in root for the game's size constraints to really be 'felt'. For a four player game in Root to reach a viable sum according to the new faction combinations chart in the 4th printing without including any of the other large factions, you need to play cats, vagabond, riverfolk, woodland alliance/corvids. You can't play the vagabonds or lizard cult without having one of the aforementioned subbed in by the moles or eyrie. Plus, smaller factions like the mice or lizards absolutely need there to be another faction kicking around for there to be a second power to play off the cats. Moles / Birds is fine, as you have teh most aggressive expansion faction playing off one that can defend itself, but having all three - moles / cats / birds is actually great too. Also the cats have the least interest in the cards in their hand of anyone in the game maybe. They can't craft for poo poo and their special power based on cards was buffed to only require one card per battle.
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Feb 10, 2020 05:08
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I played a game of Root that was cats, lizards, riverfolk, and vagabond and that was loving weird. I was the lizards and I was the de facto second offensive faction, except that, y'know, they kinda suck at attacking. I think a balanced game of 4p root needs two army factions (cats, eyrie, moles), one disruption faction (alliance, cult, corvids), and one "neutral" faction (vagabond, riverfolk). Also is there a reason not to betray the vagabond when they ally with you? The ability to burst out with card donations is sort of killer.
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Feb 10, 2020 08:16
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GrandpaPants posted:Also is there a reason not to betray the vagabond when they ally with you? The ability to burst out with card donations is sort of killer. Betraying the Vagabond is non-trival as you can't directly break the alliance. If you attack him and mess it up he could end up unable to kill any of your warriors in which case you're friends forever. Best idea is to be the boot stamping on his face forever from the the start of the game.
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Feb 10, 2020 10:30
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admanb posted:Moles are very efficient at fighting with a little build-up, and they can do that a lot more consistently than the Eyrie who has to balance their bird cards carefully between fight and build. By the time that buildup happens the game is nearly over. Amassing warriors isn't a conscious issue, it's a result of their action economy being limited and they gain nothing from fighting except to smash unprotected tokens from the factions that focus on dropping unprotected tokens. An action to battle as cats or moles is almost always a wasted action unless you're picking up cards from vagabond/otters to feed yourself. Eyrie has to fight if they're devoted to it, sometimes they have to fight to have enough dudes to recruit and with the right governor it's the right choice for them.
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Feb 10, 2020 11:08
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Czts will run out of room for structures real fast and lose their abilities to score without expanding p. Fast
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Feb 10, 2020 11:53
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There are some setups that cause Root to really drag. It’s a strong game at 45-60 but I’ve been through 90-120 minute clunkers and it sucks.
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Feb 10, 2020 12:41
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In Root, what's the strategy with the Corvids? My group played our first game last night with Birds, WA, Vagabond, Moles, and Corvids (very little consideration was given to this composition). The Corvid player was the worst performing but that was almost certainly due to lack of understanding of the faction.
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Feb 10, 2020 15:05
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SettingSun posted:In Root, what's the strategy with the Corvids? My group played our first game last night with Birds, WA, Vagabond, Moles, and Corvids (very little consideration was given to this composition). The Corvid player was the worst performing but that was almost certainly due to lack of understanding of the faction. It's the same strategy as WA, poo poo out tokens nonstop. You get exponentially more points for revealing multiple tokens. Lizards and early mole clearings are good targets because their action economy doesn't encourage aggression early on. Early game just drop tokens randomly, put bombs in empty clearings, put raids in corners, don't be predictable. Once people get their engines rolling they're more worried about their own goals than stopping you and corvids can score like 8+ points in a turn easily if unchecked. I greatly underestimated the raid token because it doesn't go off until someone attacks it but it's still a token that can be revealed so in effect it's a cruel joke: other players can either let the token remain which is 2 points minimum for any future reveals, or they can attack it and let you have usually 4 new warriors for free.
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Feb 10, 2020 15:31
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Learned Bus this weekend and loved it. I found the rulebook to be a bit of a slog, half because the thematic map-design of it was confusing to read through and that I found the rules on when you could or could not double-up routes to be opaque but after we got going it was a blast. It was so cool seeing us go from "wtf are we doing" to "oh god, what have I done with my routes and buildings and passengers". So many interesting decisions packed into one design. Incredible. Afterwards we had a few minutes so we played half a game of Pax Pamir at 3p with someone who had never played before who grabbed onto the concepts quickly and was just sitting there the whole time going "wow, this game is great". Really incredible game that can have you viciously fighting for control one moment to teaming up with that same person to prop-up/foil someone else. Brilliant game. Also, the components are gorgeous.
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Feb 10, 2020 16:22
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Played a 6p game of Bargain Quest over the weekend, it held up better than I expected, with 4 people coming at the game for the first time. It's not fantastic, but it's pretty fun and becomes a lot more strategic when there are that many players. A bit longer too, but not by much since a lot of the game's decision time is simultaneous between players. Also played the Oath module on TTS, though it was hardly an actual game of it - we just played two players to get a general feel for the game's decisions and mechanics (pretty sure it's minimum 3p). The game's interesting, a lot of decisions to make with very few turns to make them in - I played the Chancellor and felt my power ebbing away as the other player, with their extra turn, started doing more and more over the course of the game. Would definitely like to see it with multiple exiles fighting over popular support and favours of particular suits.
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Feb 10, 2020 16:27
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Played Orléans yesterday for the first time and it was great! Having 18 turns to figure things out made it so that what began as a learning game shifted into a fully strategical game before we even hit the midpoint. Final scores were 94 - 94 - 95 - 97. It was great to have so many ways of earning points, and it felt like I was constantly making progress even on those weaker turns where I wasn't able to take as many actions. e: VVV Those kinds of parties are the best... when at the end, you feel like you've successfully roped your normie friends into having fun with board games  Chubbs fucked around with this message at 16:42 on Feb 10, 2020 |
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Feb 10, 2020 16:34
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Oh also at the party where we played Bargain Quest, played some Monikers and Insider. Both went extremely well with people who usually don't play board games, to the point where someone started looking up where they can pick up their own copy of Insider. Just some really excellent light games to play with a bunch of people.
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Feb 10, 2020 16:35
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Chubbs posted:Played Orléans yesterday for the first time and it was great! Having 18 turns to figure things out made it so that what began as a learning game shifted into a fully strategical game before we even hit the midpoint. Final scores were 94 - 94 - 95 - 97. Base game only, or with Handel & Intrige?
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Feb 10, 2020 16:44
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FulsomFrank posted:Love that this is the opposite of the advice I'd give someone playing Viticulture. I hear a lot of people say you can win Viticulture without really making wine, but in my admittedly few plays, I've won almost every game by just immediately pushing out grapes and making wine as hard as I can. When I sell my first wine other players are always like "Holy crap you can already fill a wine order?" I can see how there are other ways to push VPs but I guess the people I've played against haven't been able to take advantage of those strategies. Also, I missed the Dominion/Chapel chat, but as someone with literally thousands of plays of Dominion (mostly online), I fully understand the power/value of Chapel and how it fits into various kingdoms and strategies, but I still hate it. When the kingdom pops up and Chapel is in it, it's usually like "oh, great, Chapel  "
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Feb 10, 2020 17:42
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Part of it is because Chapel is such a friggin' magnet. It's there I GOTTA USE IT.
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Feb 10, 2020 17:58
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The Batman Funkopop Skirmish game was 10 bucks on Amazon last night (may still be idk). It was also part of a Buy 2 Get 1 Free promotion, so I pulled the trigger on it. Will report back with results, as I suspect it could be better than it should be.
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Feb 10, 2020 18:05
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Jedit posted:Base game only, or with Handel & Intrige? Base game. I've heard the expansion makes it even better?
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Feb 10, 2020 18:11
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Mayveena posted:Part of it is because Chapel is such a friggin' magnet. It's there I GOTTA USE IT. Just listened to the game brain episode about taverns of tiefenwhatever and...the dominant strategy is to chapel? Except it's always available? Is this game basically just a few acres of snow?
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Feb 10, 2020 18:21
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Edit: Nevermind
Elysium fucked around with this message at 18:30 on Feb 10, 2020 |
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Feb 10, 2020 18:27
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FulsomFrank posted:Learned Bus this weekend and loved it. I found the rulebook to be a bit of a slog, half because the thematic map-design of it was confusing to read through and that I found the rules on when you could or could not double-up routes to be opaque but after we got going it was a blast. It was so cool seeing us go from "wtf are we doing" to "oh god, what have I done with my routes and buildings and passengers". So many interesting decisions packed into one design. Incredible. Learning BUS the first thing I did was make my own rules summary sheet. That was a good decision  Nice board and components but yikes that rulebook needs a round of editing.
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Feb 10, 2020 19:21
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Chubbs posted:Played Orléans yesterday for the first time and it was great! Having 18 turns to figure things out made it so that what began as a learning game shifted into a fully strategical game before we even hit the midpoint. Final scores were 94 - 94 - 95 - 97. These scores are unusually low, I would doublecheck things on the next playthrough. One thing a lot of people miss is everyone can build a guildhall in Orleans. I do enjoy Orleans but the expansions make it much better. The base game feels like a race to get and dump knights out of your bag onto the deeds board. Bellmaker fucked around with this message at 19:33 on Feb 10, 2020 |
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Feb 10, 2020 19:29
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silvergoose posted:Just listened to the game brain episode about taverns of tiefenwhatever and...the dominant strategy is to chapel? Except it's always available? You can buy extra tables, which is different from chapeling. There are some ways to cull from your current draw, but except for a few one-shot cards in the market row everyone has equal access to them. The problem with just going heavy tables and nothing else is you have no guarantee you'll draw the table before someone to sit in it and when your tavern is full you stop drawing immediately. The game's also only 8 rounds, and I don't think that's long enough for a pure tables run to catch up on other bonuses after you've achieved table parity.
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Feb 10, 2020 19:37
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Chubbs posted:Base game. I've heard the expansion makes it even better? It does. Swapping six fixed events in groups of three for random selection from a host is night and day when it comes to picking your game strategy, and the new Deeds board encourages everyone to cull tactically.
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Feb 10, 2020 20:20
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Bellmaker posted:These scores are unusually low, I would doublecheck things on the next playthrough. One thing a lot of people miss is everyone can build a guildhall in Orleans. I don't think we missed any rules, but it was the first game for all of us so none of us had any real strategy in mind when we started. The guy who won with the 97 points was actually the lowest on the development track, but he had the tailor shop and was constantly grabbing cloth tiles from that. In my case, I spread myself out and missed some chances to grab citizen tiles (ended up with 2, and 2 tradeposts) but had a lot of coins from running the brewery most turns. I didn't go for knights as aggressively as I probably should have early on. I also didn't make use of the tech tiles at all, I had 1 on my board at the end. I think we all had similarly mediocre turns/choices we made throughout the game. We all enjoyed it but agreed that we'd play it a lot differently next time, and stick to a particular path to getting points. I'll definitely pick up Trades & Intrigue. The coop expansion looks cool too. Chubbs fucked around with this message at 21:09 on Feb 10, 2020 |
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Feb 10, 2020 21:07
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Elysium posted:I hear a lot of people say you can win Viticulture without really making wine, but in my admittedly few plays, I've won almost every game by just immediately pushing out grapes and making wine as hard as I can. When I sell my first wine other players are always like "Holy crap you can already fill a wine order?" I can see how there are other ways to push VPs but I guess the people I've played against haven't been able to take advantage of those strategies. Those opinions were all due to the first edition of Viticulture. Back then, the tasting room gave you 1VP even if you didn't have any wine. Also, the ability to buy/sell fields was part of an expansion in first edition. But they added to the base game for Viticulture essential edition. Selling a field on the first year allows players to buy the essential infrastructure to make high value wines much faster, which ensures that proper play (actually making wine) is the best strategy. golden bubble fucked around with this message at 22:40 on Feb 10, 2020 |
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Feb 10, 2020 22:34
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Thanks for the recommendations for March of the Ants! I ran it by the extremely insectophobic one and hes marginally okay with the artwork so well see how that turns out when I eventually get the game
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Feb 10, 2020 23:40
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[Food Chain Magnate + Ketchup] The Whopper is up - 6p, Milestones, Coffee.
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Feb 11, 2020 00:11
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golden bubble posted:Those opinions were all due to the first edition of Viticulture. Back then, the tasting room gave you 1VP even if you didn't have any wine. Also, the ability to buy/sell fields was part of an expansion in first edition. But they added to the base game for Viticulture essential edition. Selling a field on the first year allows players to buy the essential infrastructure to make high value wines much faster, which ensures that proper play (actually making wine) is the best strategy. of course it would be stegmaier who makes a game about making wine where it's too hard to bother making wine
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Feb 11, 2020 01:17
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notes from playtest: players seem to not like being forced to make wine. say that they feel forced into an optimal path, don't like being forced to do one action (get grapes) before another (make wine). is there some way to streamline this so they don't have to choose?
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Feb 11, 2020 01:25
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Good design is when you cant remove anything else, and removing the need to make wine in a game about making wine is the sort of genius youd expect from the guy who makes an area control game where controlling an area doesnt really matter
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Feb 11, 2020 02:49
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stegmeier's magnum opus is going to be WAR: Legacy. both players draw a card, the high card wins, both cards are thrown into a fire place. now future games are irrevocably changed in this powerful legacy card game.
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Feb 11, 2020 02:59
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