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The Supreme Court posted:Replace the OP with a link to http://www.shutupandsitdown.com please I like SU&SD enough to back them, but they're not especially discerning. I think any review with both Paul and Quinns is worthwhile, but I usually check other reviews or this thread before I jump on a recommendation of theirs. City of Horror is a game that I own that I don't regret owning. It is also a game that I am rarely especially excited to play. Something about the combination of luck and beat-the-leader politics mean this can be an especially frustrating experience.
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Dec 13, 2014 22:06
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Southern Heel posted:I have played and enjoyed both Pandemic and Forbidden Island. I may have jumped off the deep end by putting Twilight Imperium (the political game) and Crusoe (the co-op survival game) on my Amazon wishlist for Xmas. Beyond reading the books and cheat sheets, is there anything that I can do with these to minimise angry tears on the big day? I think you'd be doing the world a service if you went in completely blind and filmed your first TI play session. It looks like these might be decent introductory videos for Twilight Imperium: http://shutupshow.tumblr.com/post/33647587925/lets-play-twilight-imperium https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qMVB5xp9qc
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Dec 17, 2014 22:10
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Broken Loose posted:ARE YOU loving KIDDING ME?! Hey, that is awful.
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Dec 17, 2014 23:50
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thespaceinvader posted:Wooh, my Dungeon Lords Anniversary Edition/Dungeon Petz/Dark Alleys set arrived! Ive spent a lot of time today sticking on stickers and trying to work out what bits fit where in the box, which was fun (the only bit I couldn't figure out was the enhanced tunnel tiles which don't seem to fit anywhere). When teaching Petz, I actually try to mention the flavor as explanations for game mechanics as we go along. It's pretty helpful, not everyone necessarily remembers that you need at least two Imps on the Cage space, but more people remember that an Imp is too small to carry a cage alone. 
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Dec 18, 2014 00:03
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Honestly I'm kind of sick of Fantasy Flight producing well-designed, infinitely expandable games.
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Dec 18, 2014 21:20
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Paper Kaiju posted:I will be too, as soon as they start. I get that their support structure for those games is often lacking, like the rules clarification and sloppy tournament stuff that goes on in Netrunner, but I think those elements are only so frustrating because the games they're associated with are generally fantastic.
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Dec 18, 2014 21:55
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Adventure Time is a good show though. I can understand a dislike for people who over-identify with it, I guess, but that seems a little petty. I mean, if you're going to play Munchkin, why not play it with a theme that seems like it would be spot-on?
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Dec 25, 2014 20:00
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Paper Kaiju posted:But that doesn't answer the question of why are you playing Munchkin? Well yeah, don't play Munchkin. I hadn't really considered that, the game probably skews more towards the kind of Hot Topic/Cryptozoic interpretation of 'haha, so wacky!' that a lot of fans would find tedious.
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Dec 25, 2014 20:12
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Tekopo posted:Yes, because it's meant to allow discussion. Why do you like Munchkin? You are free to enjoy whatever, but if you are going to recommend something, have something to back it. And yeah, people are posting 'YEAH DON'T PLAY MUNCHKIN', and I wish people would stop doing that rather than explain why a game like Munchkin is bad. People just post "YEAH DON'T PLAY MUNCHKIN" because the conversation about why Munchkin isn't a good game isn't interesting. The choices you make during your turn are rarely interesting or especially meaningful. There's little agency in your decisions, most choices are either obviously beneficial or not. A flow-chart could play the game as well as anyone. The victory mechanic doesn't reward playing well and turns the game into a slog because you just attack the winning player until you can't. The amount of variance in the door deck and the treasure deck means that difficulty of the challenge you encounter is not reliably proportionate to the reward you receive.
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Dec 25, 2014 22:19
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I got copies of Overthrone and Timestreams for Christmas. Does anyone have any experience with these games? They don't rank so hot on BGG but I would feel crappy returning them, unless they're real bad.
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Dec 26, 2014 23:17
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Ohthehugemanatee posted:Netrunner I'd love to get this for one of my friends, I need other people to play this game with me.
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Dec 30, 2014 00:06
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This goes back to an earlier discussion I missed out on, but I think Quantum should take Small World's place as the gateway wargame of choice. I can teach Quantum in ten minutes or less, it has a huge replay value with the modular board and variable upgrades, the combat is more interesting, and it's quick enough that the luck elements don't feel too aggravating. I have a lot of nice things to say about Small World, even though I rarely feel the need to open the box now, but Quantum is just better in most ways.
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Jan 6, 2015 19:01
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GrandpaPants posted:I have Quantum on a pending CSI order (LCGs apparently cost me $100/month now...), and I hear that it is good, but is it good for "veteran" gamers or would we have outgrown it? Well, I guess you could call me a veteran gamer and I am very fond of it. Kemet might be a technically superior game, but I can get Quantum to the table way more often. That comparison might not be especially apt because they're honestly very different games, but it's a handy point of reference. There is a fair amount of variance, but most of that is focused in the beginning stages of the game and is gradually diminished as you pick upgrades. Again though, I would be very surprised if a game lasted more than an hour so any rough raps don't feel especially egregious. The sense of movement is one of my favorite aspects of Quantum, especially given the nature of the modular board it shows that the designers really understand what makes area control work.
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Jan 6, 2015 19:24
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TheKingslayer posted:If I just got Battlestar Galactica, would I be missing out on a lot by not getting the expansions? I'm going to see some friends who love traitor games next month and want to get the most out of it. I think the game is better if you use about half of Pegasus, but it's not strictly necessary. However, I would definitely grab a pdf of the Pegasus rules since I think it has some important errata. I dunno, I think it would be important to play the base game at least a few times before adding an expansion though, there are a lot of moving parts. I bought Maria finally and I can't help but feel like I'm hitting the hard stuff now. Anything I should know before I play? I expect to get it to the table once in the next ten years, so I want to be ready.
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Jan 7, 2015 16:42
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Especially with newer players, I would highly recommend Diplomacy over Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones is almost exactly Diplomacy with a lot more moving parts, some balance issues, and a Fantasy Flight Games manual. Diplomacy is a pretty simple game that anyone should be able to pick up and the lack of mechanical cruft makes it even more cutthroat. Coup and Avalon are mechanically, easy to teach, and good games where your choices matter. However, I've played with people who aren't into board games and hated the lying aspect. Some people will take to those games like ducks to water, but I think there's a certain subset of non-gamers who just want to move trains on a board. It's not really an either-or situation, TTR and Coupvalon are both good beginner games and I think you should own both. BSG is not a buy recommendation for someone who is not into board games at all, it is a recommendation for someone who wants to get into games. It is a good recommendation. Yeah, there are a lot of interlocking systems, but the core of your turn is just maybe move and then take an action. You can teach anyone that.
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Jan 8, 2015 16:54
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Well yeah, Diplomacy is mean and player elimination sucks. I was just saying that I would recommend it over Game of Thrones.
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Jan 8, 2015 17:46
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ETB posted:I would recommend Kemet before making newer gamers jump into either Game of Thrones or Diplomacy. Personally, Game of Thrones is better overall because 1) it's dripping with theme and 2) the game will end if someone is really good at it or after 10 rounds. Both suffer from rules, rules, rules, so I think it's the stronger of the two options. I don't think Kemet is a good beginner introduction at all. It's definitely a gamer's game. Quantum would be a good substitute, I think. I guess whether Game of Thrones or Diplomacy is better is open to interpretation, but I don't think it's at all reasonable to say that Diplomacy suffers from being overly complicated. It's a pretty simple mechanical system with a couple odd, well-documented exceptions.
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Jan 8, 2015 19:01
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Lichtenstein posted:So, uh, what's the proper way to seriously play Ticket to Ride? I mean, I'm not a big fan of ultra-light euros and only really play it when forced by a swarm of newbies at my friends house, mostly by waiting for a beer to cool and mindlessly popping down trains. I dunno if this is the optimal strategy but I've had a large amount of success in knocking out my destinations as quickly as possible and then focusing on taking as many long tracks as I can. Obviously this is dependent on a couple factors. If you draw destinations that take a while to complete and a few people have destinations connected by a 6-train track then it's going to be less effective. Why bother with destinations when securing track gives you a boatload of points? Obviously block people where you can, but don't get over-invested. You can end up spending way more time and effort than is actually helpful unless you are sure you can keep them from getting to their destination. The ill-will you generate is often not much to deal with either. I would say that now I win most games using this strategy. Honestly it has a little too much variance to be able to play competitively. I have no idea if this strategy would work on the different maps, but I have tried it with the American expansion and it seems to still work there.
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Jan 9, 2015 17:44
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CodfishCartographer posted:So I’m playing Quantum for the first time in a while with my group tomorrow. Had a bit of a rough experience with it the last time we played (was the first time we played the game) due to some ridiculously bad luck and us not realizing how big of a threat a runaway leader could be. That's interesting, I presume you were playing with four players? How big of a lead did they get? The game allows you to re-roll all of your dice at the start if you like, but I can't imagine how everyone agreeing on a preset configuration would hurt at all.
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Jan 9, 2015 17:48
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Are you playing with children? No. Play for more than two hours? No Are you a huge nerd? Yes Do you want to spend dozens of hours preparing to play? No Do you really like spending money? No (Incidentally yes leads to Magic) Does the name Boomer give you wet dreams? What Yes and no respectively find in favor of Cosmic Encounter and Battlestar Galactica. It's difficult for me to articulate why this makes me angry.
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Jan 10, 2015 06:30
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Dr. VooDoo posted:Looking at Kickstarters I saw that there is one for a deluxe edition of Pixel Tactics that had smashed way past its goal funding. Is the game really that good or is it just people flocking towards something with pixel art ala Boss Monster? My experience with Pixel Tactics was limited to a single game. It's okay. There are much better two player games out there though.
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Jan 10, 2015 06:54
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Toshimo posted:That's only because the Kickstarter for Homestuck Munchkin hasn't been fully funded yet. Truly a theme and a game worthy of each other; both keep going well after they've outstayed their welcome.
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Jan 13, 2015 16:57
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I still back SU&SD for a couple reasons. While I no longer find the majority of their reviews very helpful when considering making a purchase, they get me excited about board games. While I much prefer collaborative reviews, Quinns definitely conveys a sense of enthusiasm that makes him a great salesman. I also enjoy their little club bags. It's fun to get them in the mail and pour over the content, some of it is pretty funny. I really enjoyed the Tips for the Aspiring Netrunner pamphlet, but then I miss the Netrunner Tips section in general. I dunno if SU&SD is necessarily the best voice in the board gaming community, but they bring people into the hobby and I think that's worth a few bucks.Lord Frisk posted:Except he didn't do it when it came out, he did it last year. Okay yeah, this poo poo is inexcusable and it drives me bonkers. Somberbrero fucked around with this message at 17:12 on Jan 13, 2015 |
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Jan 13, 2015 17:06
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My local game shops charge a significant markup compared to Miniature Market(which is also local for me), have terrible loyalty programs, and are generally managed by unpleasant or unorganized people. I visit them for Netrunner events but that's about it. I understand their margins probably aren't great to begin with, but I'm not going to pay extra to support people I don't particularly care for. I would love a board game cafe with nice big tables where I wouldn't feel like a jerk for talking loudly and excitedly about why you definitely shouldn't send Carl on that quest.
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Jan 14, 2015 23:54
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Triple-Kan posted:Try working there. I have several times 
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Jan 15, 2015 16:57
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Bobby The Rookie posted:People should just get Caylus and then swap out the pieces with Game of Thrones miniatures or something and make up a bunch of 'thematic' rules so they'll be able to play a cool game. This but unironically. There are a lot of good euros with a generic theme and it's hard for me to keep track of which ones sound interesting.
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Jan 15, 2015 23:10
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MildManeredManikin posted:What is the thread consensus on Jaipur? In short, it's a fantastic two player game. Seriously can't recommend it enough. I convinced my store to start carrying it even though I knew it probably wouldn't sell there.
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Jan 16, 2015 04:06
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edit: wrong thread Whenever my group talks about Times Board Games Went Too Far, they talk about when someone blocked a purchase in Dungeon Petz and the Ghost Puppy left the market for greener pastures.
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Jan 16, 2015 17:52
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Man I know those people are your friends and there might be some culture shock here on my part but, sever. Holy poo poo.
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Jan 19, 2015 18:23
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I dunno if anything can be more Fantasy SWAT than the D&D games. I would say that I actually find at least the Castle Ravenloft version pretty thematic, for what it's worth. It cuts to the essence of Dungeons and Dragons for me. You're in a tomb/crypt/sepulcher that you should absolutely not be in. Being in there is dangerous, you aren't exploring so much as surviving. Sure you're a hero and it feels great to power through several tiles, but you know you're on borrowed time as whatever built the dungeon is much older and scarier than you. The idea isn't to defeat and cleanse the dungeon so much as it is to find the objective and then get the hell out of there as quickly as possible. I was playing it with my goonfriend and girlfriend and we had discovered the antagonist deep in the dungeon. I forget the exact rule now, but I believe that we were under the impression that every player got a chance to stand back up after being knocked out, only to find out that he had used up our one extra life. There were two gnarly gargoyles, the alchemist antagonist on the board, we were split up, and the exit was very far away. There was some very real tension there and the narrative of running out to escape as the alchemist fell at the last second felt very compelling. That said, it's still dice combat. Good dice combat, but dice combat.
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Jan 21, 2015 20:11
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djfooboo posted:Who thinks ferrets are a good thing for business with as thin of profit margins as a game library/store? Am I being a stuck up dude, or does the hivemind also find this practice unacceptable? When I hear about poo poo like this it makes me want to open a gaming store, because how could I gently caress up any harder than that?
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Jan 21, 2015 21:23
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My group has gone through two plays of 3rd ed Fury of Dracula now, and I am generally impressed. I think the nature of the design creates an experience that can't result in a good experience every time, but it has the potential to create some excellent experiences. I only ever played one game of 2ed here on the forums, but I think the inclusion of Mina Harker as an additional hunter was very healthy for the game. Both games have been Dracula wins so far. The first game, I was the Count and they picked up my trail almost immediately and held it due to some critical event cards. I picked up a few early points fighting an unprepared Van Helsing and my final points off Mina catching me by accident. She had garlic out, but the damage was short of killing me so I just kept biting. I think I only got one vampire matured? It was a reasonably close and tense game, but I wasn't healing off bites like I should have been. The next game, Clockwork Gadget was Dracula and clowned on us. I think the other hunter and I were in the wrong mindset from the get-go, but also that it really helps to actually have more people at the table. If you can quarterback the entire game, good for you, but I was struggling even with another person helping. Wolf Form into Misdirect is a good play. If there's anything I don't like, it's the variance of the event deck. Some are way more crucial than others, it's hard to balance when usefulness is situational.
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Nov 9, 2015 02:46
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Sorry, I knew I only played 2ed with three hunters and thought I read Mina was the one left out.
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Nov 9, 2015 03:24
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SuccinctAndPunchy posted:we played Cash n Guns (2nd Edition) again and it was a real wet fart of a game I'd recommend Tontine as a substitution. Clockwork Gadget and I reviewed it recently on our podcast recently and we were both impressed. Best of all, it's free!
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Dec 20, 2015 19:10
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Zaphod42 posted:Anybody played Arctic Scavengers? Shut up & Sit down seemed to be pretty keen on it, and a better version of a Dominion deck-building game sounds pretty nice. It's not bad. I think I wrote a bit about it in the last thread. Dominion is a better game overall but I burnt myself out on Dominion. If you're going to play Arctic Scavengers, I'd suggest throwing at least one of the built in 'expansion' modules to start. It can get a little monotonous otherwise. The end of round rumble is a cool idea and when it works, it works really well. However most of the time there isn't a lot you can do to influence the outcome once you see your hand. I know someone in the last thread brought up some technical issues, the rulebook is not always the best written. If you can get it for less than $40 and like Dominion but want something different, I would go for it. The biggest issue I have with the game is that after I played the Warmachine: High Command deckbuilder I felt like that was what I wanted Arctic Scavengers to be.
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Jan 5, 2016 23:39
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There are no innocents here, everyone is guilty by association.
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Jan 7, 2016 20:07
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Timeline is totally fine with some small caveats, but I prefer Chronology when it comes to trivia games.
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Jan 9, 2016 03:28
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I would much, much rather someone excuse themself from a game they have no interest in playing than sit at the table miserable for any length of time.
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Feb 5, 2016 03:51
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Some friends got my partner and I an Amazon gift certificate to buy a board game. I asked her what she wanted and she said "A good cooperative experience, like Pandemic Legacy." Does that game exist? I have no interest in Arkham/Eldritch. I'm yhinking about just buying the new Through The Ages because Vlaada is a safe bet.
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Feb 18, 2016 07:27
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Azran posted:Got to try out Dragon Punch today, it's great. Thanks for the recommendation :allears: We also played Conquest and Netrunner, both were really fun. My friends got the hang of Conquest really fast. Dragon Punch is maybe my favorite game we've looked at for the printnplay cast. It does a great job of encapsulating that Netrunner-like feeling of ~yomi~ back and forth. Managing to land a hit, or especially a throw, is so satisfying. Delay mechanics are maybe not the worst thing in the world? I agree that it is antiquated and inelegant design, but I can see it having a place. In Fury of Dracula, for example, it expands Dracula's options in some interesting ways. The impact isn't as bad there as you have four characters worth of actions. But 'lose a turn :o)' is mostly inexcusable.
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Feb 21, 2016 20:16
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