Board Game Thread 4e: The Call of Catan

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malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

!Klams posted:

We played a huge game of Eldritch Horror, and it was just abysmal. I was wondering, are there any games that are similar, but where you all do something on everyone's turn, so that you don't just sit there waiting until its your turn?

For one thing, neither Arkham nor Eldritch Horror resolve an entire player turn at once. You do each player's piece of a phase, then move to the next phase etc. So it shouldn't be "wait through 5 turns, do your thing". If you weren't playing that way that would be a big component of it. Secondly, never play either above maybe 5 players, preferably 4. That would also contribute heavily to it sucking, if when you say "huge" you mean "lots of players".

Beyond that...I honestly can't think of any coop games where people are all acting more or less simultaneously outside of real-time stuff like Space Alert. Also very little if anything that would be good at a high player count.

Probably the closest I can come would be Gloomhaven (everyone plans their actions simultaneously, reveals for initiative, and then you flip monster actions and people and monsters act in order of initiative) or Pathfinder Adventure Card Game (people take discrete turns but you can play some cards to help other players on their turn or might also have to join in an encounter/encounter the same thing at the same time).

# ¿ May 5, 2017 02:53

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 09:12

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

Fusion Restaurant posted:

Any recommended co op games? Have enjoyed Zombicide, Arkham Horror, Space Alert, and Pandemic so far.

Pandemic Legacy, for sure. Gloomhaven, for sure. I second Legendary Encounters (Alien and Predator are both good but probably start with Alien since it's a more complete package and has an expansion...also they can be combined later if you want). I personally would also strongly recommend Sentinels of the Multiverse and potentially Pathfinder Adventure Card Game (not the first adventure path, but any of the others will do). Flashpoint: Fire Rescue is a pretty good light coop. If you can get your hands on the upcoming Darkest Night second edition, that game is amazing. If you can get your hands on FFG's Warhammer Quest Adventure Card Game (which they are no longer printing due to the license having expired) for a reasonable price, that's pretty solid. It didn't get enough content to pay more than MSRP though, IMO.

Oh, and although there's significant overlap with Arkham Horror, Eldritch Horror, the Arkham Horror LCG and Mansions of Madness 2E might very well also appeal. Perhaps more so than Arkham Horror, perhaps not.

# ¿ May 7, 2017 15:14

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

deadwing posted:

This has been on Amazon all weekend for 20 bucks, FYI. Probably the cheapest it'll get before it disappears.

Yeah, that seems like a price to jump on to me.

# ¿ May 7, 2017 16:48

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

Kashuno posted:

What's the current kickstarter hotness now that Gloomhaven is finished

Dunno about hotness per se, but I'm real excited for Button Men.

# ¿ May 7, 2017 19:07

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

DadJokeGenerator posted:

Bad Points:
1) The stands for the monsters (I got the kickstarter version with PC minis) are bad, they look brittle and the hard plastic can ruin the cardboard. The XP and HP trackers on the small player mats (MAN, they are small) are hot garbage, backing the 2nd ed. upgrade kit was a smart move.
2) No glossary or FAQ in the rulebook. The FAQ on Boardgamegeek is essential and I hope it (or something like it) gets put in the 2nd Edition box.
3) No 'Read this first!' or 'Starting the campaign checklist' in the box. The 6 starting classes are first mentioned on page 42 of the rule book, finding out which cards are available in the starting market is on another page, finding out only the first 30 city and road encounter cards are used to begin with is on another, etc. Just stick it all together somewhere.

Good Points:
1) Every thing that's already been said previously is or sounds true. This game is awesome and is nearly everything a dungeon crawler would want.

The reprint's stands are going to be better, not that that really helps those of us with the first printing, and it's my understanding that a lot of what's in the Boardgamegeek FAQ will be edited into the revised rulebook/scenario book/cards etc. The former two were available as KS addons in print and are I believe already up as PDFs although I don't have the link handy. No idea if point 3 is addressed, though, and if not you might want to message Isaac and suggest it. Probably still time to get that in there.

# ¿ May 8, 2017 02:07

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

Frush posted:

Oh yeah, and we had another Pandemic: Legacy day today! Reminder to use spoiler tags as appropriate since we have people who haven't played, please!

So far we've played to the end of May. We've only lost once at the start of May, and so we've basically had nothing in the way of funding for a while now. I think that's pretty good. It's definitely been getting harder. One little mistake where we got ahead of ourselves and got a bad draw (literally the only one that could screw us) and we all took a scar as a result.

For most of our wins we managed to eradicate at least one of the diseases, so we've got all four debuffs on yellow and three on blue. Definitely helpful, but we don't have much in the way of research stations, so I think we may have to work on infrastructure.

Those faded are really rough! Really neat little minis though. We've managed to keep them mostly contained, but I can see things getting a lot worse before they get better. Aggressive quarantine has been our best strategy so far, and I'm not really seeing the value in most cases of roadblocks by comparison, since you can still lose by outbreak counter. Has anyone found the military stuff particularly useful? We're only playing with three people so our role diversity is a bit lower.

If you're proactive about it, roadblocks can be used to strongly contain the Faded, especially since they can be made permanent. In our game we managed to lock them into the continent where they first spawned (Asia, for us) save for one city, and there's just a permanent wall across the western border and the trans-oceanic routes out.

# ¿ May 9, 2017 01:18

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

Impermanent posted:

yea you should pick up Archipelago. Same sort of "might be a traitor" thing, but with a bit more to think about in terms of resources, and you can trade them with each other like in Catan!

For more crossroads like stuff with storylines you should try Gloomhaven if you like DnD tactical minis combat or maybe Pandemic for a co-op boardgame that has video-game like story and progression, complete with dramatic reveals.

I assume you mean Pandemic Legacy, since baseline Pandemic has none of the above.

# ¿ May 22, 2017 02:22

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

I get that there are reasons why companies benefit from doing stuff like this. What I take issue with is the idea that this benefits me as a consumer when all I end up with are higher prices. Especially on high ticket stuff like many CMON projects or FFG's big box miniature-heavy products like 2E Mansions of Madness where the online discount was the difference between me being willing to buy the game at all or not.

Even the wider audience thing would maybe be a benefit with collectible games like TCGs or Warhammer, but with a traditional boardgame I'm the only one that needs to own it to play with anyone that might be interested in playing it.

# ¿ May 25, 2017 02:28

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

SlyFrog posted:

Roll, with expansion.

I've played a lot of games, and the iconography in Race still doesn't make sense to me (in that it makes some sense, but there are so many different types that I need to look up the card anyway, which defeats the purpose). It does in Roll.

I genuinely don't get that. I know that most people don't find the iconography in Race instantly intuitive the way I do, but there's only like three or four standard icons in any given phase and they are pretty directly linked to what they do. If a card does something weird it generally has rules text for it directly on that card. So I can see taking a little bit to get used to the icons but not having trouble interpreting them thereafter.

# ¿ May 29, 2017 18:29

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

Most played: Gloomhaven, not even a contest lately. Possible that all time is still Sentinels of the Multiverse since we've done at least one run of almost every villain and there are quite a few. But that's tabled til OblivAeon hits, whereas Gloomhaven is basically every week and early on, multiple times a week.

Favorite? Probably Gloomhaven at this point. It's just incredibly satisfying and absorbing and startlingly well designed. Before that hit, probably Mage Knight, with honorable mentions for Sentinels, Race for the Galaxy, Arkham Horror (I've played Eldritch but don't actually like it quite as well), Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, Pandemic Legacy, and Tales of the Arabian Nights. I'd probably also cite things like Argent: The Consortium, Darkest Night, and The Gallerist/Vinhos Deluxe if I'd had more opportunity to play them, but I can't be sure.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2017 06:01

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

LLSix posted:

I played Pandemic and Flashpoint for the first time in the same week. I can't think of anything Flashpoint does that isn't done better by Pandemic.

That's funny, because I literally can't think of anything Pandemic (non-Legacy) does that Flash Point doesn't do better. I still don't play it that much because it's a little too lightweight for me, but it has a strong theme expressed in the mechanics, whereas Pandemic's theme seems actively at odds with mechanics like the cards; roles aren't massively determinative of your actions because a) you will commonly need to help out in other ways anyway and b) you can switch out mid-game if you need to; it's not as solvable; and the expansion boards make for a lot of variety in a way that even the addon content from On the Brink does not for Pandemic (I haven't played with In the Lab, admittedly).

I don't really need a PC version anytime soon, though.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2017 01:41

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

Kashuno posted:

Idk what it is about legacy games but every time I hear a game is a legacy game I write it off. I enjoyed Pandemic well enough but never bothered with legacy, seafall didn't interest me, I guess Gloomhaven is legacy(?) but it's too good to pass up

Just a reminder that Gloomhaven isn't really a Legacy game in the sense that Risk, Pandemic or Seafall are. You're not making very many permanent modifications to components based on choices or game events. It's largely just unspooling content through play. Really the main thing that you might permanently change is magically enhancing a couple of cards in a character deck, usually right before you retire them, so that they have a +1 to some number somewhere, or maybe a new status effect or element or something. (These are simultaneously pretty small changes and quite expensive, and also surprisingly meaningful.)

# ¿ Jun 2, 2017 23:57

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

Ragnar34 posted:

So much love for Gloomhaven. I wonder what "widely available in November" means. So the problem with wider distribution is that publishers don't like the slim return on investment, right? It sounds like a price hike in November would be perfectly fair.

Maybe if they cut some of the stuff, making a sort of "Gloomhaven: Essentials," sold alongside an expansion consisting of the remaining bits of the KS version of the game plus some other optional bits for anyone who's got the full KS edition. Hell, if they bring it down to $60 I might actually be able to afford it someday, though from the sounds of it they'd have to maim the hell out of it to get it down that far.

No idea what to cut because I avoid Gloomhaven info, but there's got to be SOMETHING not strictly necessary in that giant rear end box.

The retail version will be more expensive than either KS price, yeah. Currently projected to be $140. Which is still cheap for what you get.

(I paid $64 for the first KS standee version. This is the only boardgame project where I've ever saved real money over retail.)

# ¿ Jun 4, 2017 00:30

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

homullus posted:

I've backed 46 projects over five years and all but 7 have come in; three of those seven are recent pledges, two will be in soon (Ben Robbins' Follow and Blades in the Dark POD), one is a video game (Bard's Tale), and one is Alas Vegas, which ... probably will come in eventually. Not all 46 have been or will be in retail -- they hit enough of their market with the KS, or were pretty niche things.

My experience with Kickstarter has been good throughout, but it got significantly better once I learned to recognize a good game when I saw it. That usually means finished rules that I can see while it is being Kickstarted, and/or a proven designer.

To be fair, the PDFs for Alas, Vegas are out. Just waiting on the hard copies. And waiting.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2017 02:08

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

Sloober posted:

My specific issue with TIME stories is it's a 5 dollar concept that costs 20 dollars, because it isn't replayable and you're really not getting much for you money

More like $40-50, for the base set, which includes one whole story/case. And then $20-30 per additional story. It's incredibly poor value for money, especially when you compare to something like SHCD that's around $35-40 for 10 cases and has zero arbitrary randomness.

If it weren't I'd probably check it out just on principle.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2017 02:39

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

Single Tight Female posted:

To piggyback on Dr. Light, I own Mountains of Madness and Under the Pyramids and can easily say UtP is like 100 times better than MoM, so either way don't get MoM if you want a big box. They kinda fudged it as the first big expansion. The whole point of the big boxes is to add a new area where you can do cool poo poo, and MoM's is just... there. You can go to the fridge if you want. Whereas afaik Dreamlands you can pretty much visit whenever, and UtP literally drags you towards the Pyramids as a mechanic.

So basically skip MoM for a big box, make Forsaken Lore your first small if you can, and then just grab whatever you like. Everything apart from MoM is varying degrees of good.

Also the big boxes add like, a rulebook's worth of table space. It's just a small sideboard and maybe one new deck. Most of the stuff they add is subsumed into the whole.

Eh. The sideboards are kind of superfluous. Most of the reason to buy Eldritch Horror expansions is More Stuff (tm), particularly investigators and old ones, and big boxes give you more of both than the small boxes. (Small box expansions didn't add investigators at all in Arkham Horror, but that may have changed for Eldritch, I forget - and all my expansion stuff is in one box so that's no help.)

# ¿ Jun 23, 2017 05:27

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

Cthulhu Dreams posted:

This is my group with gloomhaven

But to be fair, Gloomhaven actually is the best.

Whereas Shadows over Camelot may be the worst.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2017 01:01

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

Captain Ironblood posted:

I'm sure this is known but I just got an email from Peterson Games confirming Cthulhu Wars Onslaught 3 was coming to kickstarter this month.

I think I'm going to back whatever level gets me the game and all expansions. I've been nerd salivating about this game for too long.

I'd be tempted, but I don't actually own a house to remortgage.

# ¿ Jul 1, 2017 20:57

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

Frush posted:

I'm not 100% about Mindthief, but I think their biggest attack requires an adjacent ally.

You're thinking of the Scoundrel. Mindthief's pretty independent.

# ¿ Jul 5, 2017 23:58

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

Ojetor posted:

They're essentially the same game, but Mage Knight pulls ahead because of its expansions. Lost Legion, in particular. The other two (Krang and Shades of Tezla) are nice if you want more content, but LL is essential.

Did they ever fix the printing issues with Shades of Tezla? That's the only reason I haven't bought it.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2017 15:21

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

Dr. Video Games 0069 posted:

Vast: It's that 5 player asymmetrical game where you can be a knight, dragon, thief, goblin tribe, or cave. I've played it a couple times two player and once with 3 players, and it's really hard to say how well it works as a game still. There's so many rules and interactions that it's difficult to even get a sense of what good play looks like. Each role only has about 2 pages of rules to read, yet you need to know what every other players' rules are well, plus what special powers they can get from cards or whatever. My sense is also that with more than two players, it becomes very political as well. Our 3 player game was with the knight, dragon and cave. The knight has to kill the dragon, the dragon has to escape the cave, and the cave has to expand fully and then collapse. Our knight was having a tricky time getting started, while the dragon was jumping ahead. The cave had no real way of affecting the dragon during the expanding half of the game, other than just trying to give good stuff to the knight and hoping she could slow down the dragon. But then the knight hit a lucky streak, and with her extra items was able to steamroll the game. Of course, this was a learning game and maybe not all games are like that, but it didn't seem promising. However, there's a lot to learn in all the combinations of roles, and I do like learning new games, so I will keep playing at least a few more times.

I will say that the core, baseline Vast design is 4 players w/ Knight, Goblins, Cave, and Dragon. Patrick has tried to make it playable at anywhere from 2-5 with any combination of characters, but I think inevitably the quality of the experience is going to vary a bit when you depart from that baseline. possibly a lot.

# ¿ Jul 18, 2017 06:16

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

homullus posted:

Descent's advantages are that one can buy it right now in a store and also not spend $100 on it.

I'll give you the "is currently in stock" thing, and I guess if you need a dungeon crawler for $60-70 and can't stretch any further than that, fair enough. But you'd have to spend way more than $100 (or even $140, which is going to be the MSRP) on Descent to get anything like as much content as you get in Gloomhaven.

# ¿ Jul 24, 2017 00:07

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

Gumdrop Larry posted:

So they're making the Runewars mini wargame except kind of rear end and with a Game of Thrones coat of paint. I can't imagine the IP will be enough to give a new wargame any kind of meaningful foothold or longevity. Seems like a fool's errand to go that route instead of a more self-contained board game.

FFG has the boardgame license. Probably exclusively. I'm guessing they didn't bother to secure the miniatures license though.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2017 02:16

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

SlyFrog posted:

Being honest, I think there is also a recency bias because gaming has become very disposable. When I was young (25+ years ago), we played games like Space Hulk over and over partially because we were poor, but also because there weren't a lot of new games to buy.

Now, whenever I go to a gaming group, what they played a month ago is old, and they're always playing the newest thing.

For all the kudos gaming gets for being relatively cheap and replayable, most gamers seem to want to ignore those virtues and always play something new. I'd guess that most game groups don't play things more than a few times.

Yeah, I've definitely found that to be the case. My problem is that there are constantly new games coming out that I want to play and I can usually only get people together once a week to actually play them. (And that's a lot more often than many people can manage.) I try to cycle back to games periodically so they're not quite so disposable but that treadmill continues.

Campaign games have helped a lot to keep things coming back to the table. We've beaten a Pathfinder Adventure Card Game adventure path (albeit only the first of the four that are now out), Pandemic Legacy, and sunk almost every session since February into Gloomhaven, and we've revisited Sherlock Holmes and Mythos Tales repeatedly. But that still leaves plenty of titles languishing on my shelves. A few not even played once, still.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2017 02:18

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

Tai posted:

Take a peek at Gloomhaven. 1 hour ish legacy/campaign game. Might be right up your aisle. Goes retail in September.

Gloomhaven is amazing but how are you getting set up, playing and finishing a scenario in an hour? We usually take around 3, sometimes 2-2.5 if it's a shorter scenario. An hour seems ludicrously fast.

# ¿ Aug 6, 2017 02:50

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

Kai Tave posted:

I would unironically like to see someone in this thread try to defend Sentinels of the Multiverse without defaulting to the Appeal To Fun argument.

Yeah, no. The last time I attempted to talk positively about Sentinels in this thread y'all were such colossal assholes I wasn't planning to ever read this thread again. Only my intense hype for Gloomhaven discussion brought me back.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2017 01:58

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 09:12

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

Chill la Chill posted:

You can like a game the rest of the thread doesn't like nor does it make you a bad person. My friends and I love police precinct as our coop game and it's pretty terrible. I don't bring it up here because nobody else will share my enthusiasm.

Oh, believe me, the thread not liking Sentinels does nothing to diminish my enjoyment of it or make me feel bad about myself. But neither is there any compelling reason to try to sell people on it when their minds are already made up and they poo poo all over anyone who tries.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2017 02:23

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