Board Game Thread 4e: The Call of Catan

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Board Game Thread 4e: The Call of Catan

Dancer: May 23, 2011

Hey so I watched a review for a game recently and I can't for the life of me remember what it was called. I know it was pretty drat pretty (might even have had metal coins?). Every player had a personal board (sorta but not really similar to what I know from Terra Mystica). Players would draw a bunch of tokens from a bag, I think these tokens represented various people, because the monk was a "wild-card", and on their personal board were a bunch of buildings which you needed the right combination of tokens to activate. You could also get cogs, I'm assuming representing technological advancement, which allowed you to reduce the activation requirements for buildings. And finally I think you could build tier 1 or tier 2 buildings.

Any help in identifying this would be appreciated.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2016 23:05

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 01:13

Dancer: May 23, 2011

Rumda posted:

Orleans

Many thanks, goon Sir

# ¿ Apr 11, 2016 23:37

Dancer: May 23, 2011

Afriscipio posted:

Hey BG thread,

Any recommendations for a 2 player mid-weight game to play as a couple? My wife likes board games but is often put off by the themes, she's not a big sword and sorcery or sci-fi fan. Competitive is preferable to co-op.

She likes:
Jaipur
Netrunner (but was resistant to the theme)
Archipelago
Carcassonne
Pandemic

Maybe it's a bit on the light side but Patchwork is amazing, and really cute. People who play Splendor at a high level tell me it's very competitive as well, when both players know what they're doing..

# ¿ Apr 22, 2016 09:23

Dancer: May 23, 2011

I recently assembled a copy of 2 rooms and a boom for a party that's coming up, and I have been positively surprised by the results. I got a bunch of Magic commons for free from my local board game store, printed card fronts and backs at the print shop for good quality, glued them to the cards, and sleeved and it actually looks and feels pretty nice.

So now I'm interested in repeating the process. The next game on my list is Timeline (http://www.cheapass.com/freegames/timeline), but beyond that I have no specific plans. Can anyone recommend some other cool game that I could make this way?

Edit: I should also point out that I've already done Secret Hitler as well (before figuring out this process so it was much more difficult and expensive and involved purchasing a large sheet of cardboard, and manual art, and lamination and other hassles)

Dancer fucked around with this message at 16:24 on May 12, 2016

# ¿ May 12, 2016 16:20

Dancer: May 23, 2011

silvergoose posted:

I mean, coup, the resistance, apparently you can do talisman like this too, just ask Rutibex.

I've used my secret hitler set for resistance once in the past, but didn't know of Coup. Thank you.

# ¿ May 12, 2016 16:46

Dancer: May 23, 2011

Zveroboy posted:

Galaxy Trucker was a hit with the in-laws at the weekend, and despite my partner digging her heels in and saying "But I don't like sci-fi games!" she actually really enjoyed it! Also realised I've been playing Castles of Mad King Ludwig wrong the past 4 times or so, because I'd completely forgotten about the "left over rooms get 1000 Mark bonus" rule every time. Also had a four hour Canasta session....

Another easily missed rule is that each room from an exhausted pile is worth 2 points at the end of the game. Just in case you weren't aware.

# ¿ May 31, 2016 11:15

Dancer: May 23, 2011

berenzen posted:

Hey guys, I'm looking for a board game that I'd be able to play with my girlfriend. Our current go-to games are Tash-Kalar, Dominion and Pandemic, with the occasional Dungeon Petz. We're looking for another game to diversify the games that we can play together. Any recommendations?

I will never stop recommending Patchwork. It's fast, it's cute, and it has a surprising amount of strategic depth.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2016 11:57

Dancer: May 23, 2011

Papes posted:

Sounds like patchwork would be a good fit for you.

This man knows what's up.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2016 19:08

Dancer: May 23, 2011

So I just played my first round of Istanbul (discounting the 2 plays against myself to learn the game), and I think it's an amazing light-medium game. The rules are fairly simple and straight-forward, the art is pretty, and I was struck by just how fast it moves. I would make a move, and it would be my turn again within a minute.

# ¿ Jun 15, 2016 23:26

Dancer: May 23, 2011

sonatinas posted:

Looks like I'll be playing a game called Lanterns soon. Anything I should be aware of or is it bad?

I think it's a great game, although light. There's very little to be aware of, except to take note that card advantage is crucial. Basic rules say that you place your tile, and every player gets a card of whatever colour is directed at them on that tile, and you yourself might get bonus cards for certain reasons. It can be worth sacrificing your own bonus cards (if they're not in important colours), or going for worse colours, to make sure whoever is leading doesn't get a card at all. I would also suggest focusing on the 4 of a kind bonus, as that gets you points for the least amount of cards handed in. You may get less points in the short term, but you save more cards you could use for other trades.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2016 15:35

Dancer: May 23, 2011

One more thing I will mention: You will quickly notice that "corners" (i.e. places where a tile could be placed that's adjacent to two already placed tiles) can be very strong if you have the right tile. Even if you don't have the right tile, if you find yourself in a situation where filling in a corner is equally immediately beneficial as placing a tile only adjacent to one other tile, you should fill in the corner so that your opponents can't (and so that you don't create new corners).

# ¿ Jun 16, 2016 15:39

Dancer: May 23, 2011

So here's a rather open ended question. I really like Istanbul, and it made me realize that it's the only "lighter" game I actually have in my collection (also Patchwork which I love but that only plays 2). So... recommend me light games, based on that knowledge? FWIW other games I like a lot are Terra Mystica and Galaxy Trucker. Bonus points if they're pretty/have high quality components. I know of Tokaido, but I'm on the edge because of how expensive it is.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2016 13:50

Dancer: May 23, 2011

Texibus posted:

What about Istanbul did you like? Sorry if you answered that somewhere else, but if there was a specific element/mechanic in that game that stuck with you that makes it easier to make some recommendations.

I assume you're looking for a game that plays more than two as well?

I'd find it difficult to point out some design aspect, but I liked that turns were really fast, but it still felt like decisions were meaningful. I played with 4 and it felt like about a minute between turns so I was constantly engaged. The fact that everyone seemed to "accelerate" and gather rubies very fast towards the end of the game, making it so that all players would be able to finish within a few turns of each other also made it exciting.

It wasn't for me, but whoever suggested Ra reminded me of how great it is so that's definitely going on the list.

And yes, ideally something that works well with more than two.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2016 22:37

Dancer: May 23, 2011

sector_corrector posted:

People who own Morels: is it worth it? I'm going to get a few new games, and I don't have anything that plays 2P really tightly (aside from Dominion).

Edit: Also considering Spyfall and Mascarade. Any opinions?

This is your weekly reminder that Patchwork is Cool and Good.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2016 15:15

Dancer: May 23, 2011

My ex just got Targi for 1 euro from a thrift shop... I hosed up

# ¿ Jun 28, 2016 14:06

Dancer: May 23, 2011

Hey Cool People, someone is coming out with a pretty nifty and well priced set of historical themed metal coins: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1260256740/swords-and-sails-coins-realistic-byzantine-coins-f . They're zinc, so I don't expect them to be of great quality, but I like the looks.

# ¿ Jul 23, 2016 14:17

Dancer: May 23, 2011

SynthOrange posted:

Istanbul hoo boy, when you get someone who wants to play it and says I can teach! make sure that your play experience is more than one game a few months back. We eventually got through the awful introduction and I can see a fun game.

Keep at it. Istanbul can lead to some really close and exciting games when everyone knows what they're doing, and can achieve this with pretty simple rules and fast gameplay.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2016 01:14

Dancer: May 23, 2011

Hey so Scythe seems to be really popular with you people so I figured I'd point this out to you: https://www.massdrop.com/buy/scythe-preorder/talk

There's evidence that it might be shady (among other things someone from Stonemaier games said they weren't aware of it happening), but the person who posted the drop seems reactive, and seeems known in the community. So I suggest bookmarking that page and maybe ordering if the dust settles.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2016 15:31

Dancer: May 23, 2011

I think it was a goon in this thread that mentioned and recommended Freedom: The Underground Railroad a long time ago. A few hours ago I saw it in the half-price bin at my FLGS, but it's still not exactly cheap (40 euro). Can that person, or maybe someone else give me some words on it? From video reviews I see it has at least some things in common with Robinson Crusoe, and I couldn't stand playing that because of all the bits and pieces I had to shift around. I also don't like the idea of an "event deck" that is randomly drawn from a set of cards that are both good and bad (so you might get 5 good ones one game or 5 bad ones the next and it's impossible). Am I right in assuming that this game at least uses up *all* those cards, thus slightly alleviating the randomness?

Dancer fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Aug 12, 2016

# ¿ Aug 11, 2016 23:58

Dancer: May 23, 2011

al-azad posted:

That was probably me. I'll say this, don't fret over the event deck. I don't remember the distribution but it's like 15% of the deck has opposition cards and they don't take away agency, they just increase the cost of something until you purchase (discard) them from the board or they change the board state if you let them fall off the market which will only happen if everyone consciously ignores it. You can always buy a card from the market and the cheapest it'll get is $1, and since you always get $1 at the start of your turn the opposition cards basically exist to make the players decide who can afford to purchase a bad card.

The biggest random element is determining where a single slave catcher goes at the start of a new round. He only catches a slave in the location he ends up so it's never disastrous unless you kept a ton of slaves in a city space but you can plan around this. We've yet to beat the game's "hard" mode but it's never felt like a fault of the random element, always a planning and logistic issue. The game is all about resource management. There's a hard limit on money and movement powers, and you need a lot of it to advance through the game. Advancing too fast and playing too safely seem to be our biggest downfall and not once have we gone "The deck hosed us!"

I haven't played Robinson Crusoe but this game is all about shifting pieces around. You're moving slave cubes which draws different colored slave catchers along their trail. I haven't played Robinson Crusoe but looking over the box contents Freedom has nowhere near the amount of bits and bobs. The game could be language independent if it weren't for the cards but even they could be boiled down to basic symbology. At most you're moving like 10 cubes around one or more spaces on a board, then moving little chits in the direction of those cubes. That's about it.

With that said I would hesitate at that price unless it came with the wooden slave catcher pieces. They advertise the wood pieces on the box but nope, the boxed game comes with chits. It's a good co-op but it's not an easy sell for people and if I friend didn't purchase it I probably wouldn't have until it was like 35 USD or something.

Thanks so much for the words. Helps a lot with making a decision.

# ¿ Aug 13, 2016 11:45

Dancer: May 23, 2011

Hey so I've been asked if I want to play Eclipse this Thursday, and it looks like quite a commitment. What should I know before heading into it? Is luck a big factor (that's a big turnoff for me)?

# ¿ Sep 13, 2016 11:10

Dancer: May 23, 2011

Jedit posted:

Eclipse is a game of minimising luck. My advice to beginners is to expand out before you expand sideways or in, and to try and develop choke points that restrict access to your territory. If you choose Planta as your race, double down on this - never expand inwards and block yourself off from the rest of the game.

Also pay attention to your empire upkeep and calculate strategic bankruptcy carefully.

Thanks. Since you mentioned a race, assuming we don't assign them randomly, is there a particular race you'd advise for a beginner?

Lord Frisk posted:

Here's the biggest thing you have to know: you do NOT have to place a tile when you use the explore action.

Have I achieved anything at all if I decline to place the tile, or is it simply a wasted action? Also, are there some reasons to decline a tile that are non-obvious (like, I will probably figure out myself that I don't want a tile if it has too few resources, or if there's some big bad alien on it, but there might be some more subtle ones)

Undead Hippo posted:

The player who plays the best should generally win in Eclipse. At its heart it is an economic game about managing resources to snowball into further expansion/development. There are potential big swings though, and the combat system is kind of garbage.

Thanks you.

Ohthehugemanatee posted:

My advice is actually the opposite. Inner hexes are generally more valuable and their orientation is key for keeping you safe. You really want to know what's there too. Ancients (barbarians from civ) means you need combat upgrades whereas undefended planets give you options.

Expanding out gives you generally resource-poor hexes and drains your economy. There is a time and place for it (green and yellow aliens especially) but usually less than folks do. You never want another player placing your tier 1 hex because you can literally be blocked out of the game until near the end if they're a dick.

Also, get computers. You'll enjoy combat a lot more and so will everyone else.

Yeah, I had heard the computers thing before. I'm assuming the tier 1 hex is the hex in-between me and the centre of the board. Is it possible for an opponent to place multiple consecutive hexes? (i.e. am I "safe" if no opponent has placed something adjacent to my tier 1 hex yet?)

# ¿ Sep 13, 2016 21:27

Dancer: May 23, 2011

One last question about Eclipse. So, over-extension with your discs can be bad because upkeep costs get higher. Am I right in believing there is absolutely no drawback to "overextending" with your cubes?

# ¿ Sep 15, 2016 16:12

Dancer: May 23, 2011

Radioactive Toy posted:

Things that are uncool: someone spilling a beer all over the center of your Eldritch Horror board and all of the components on it.

I consider myself lucky. The one game of mine that has suffered this way is Istanbul (white wine), and those heavy cardboard tiles can take it like a champ.

# ¿ Sep 17, 2016 22:05

Dancer: May 23, 2011

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10154600292600972&id=684680971

# ¿ Sep 22, 2016 11:24

Dancer: May 23, 2011

minema posted:

I'm going away next week and taking only hand luggage on. When we get there we'll have plenty of room. I'm looking for a game that packs down small but is at least medium weight and length. I've got Valley of Kings and Hanabi but I'd like something else a bit longer.

Maaaaybe a bit light for you (I think so, but my regular group is full of wimps who almost never play it because "it's too difficult") but Istanbul might fit the bill very well. Although it's not so great at two players, if you're only with your partner.

# ¿ Sep 22, 2016 11:26

Dancer: May 23, 2011

Mister Sinewave posted:

Let me know what you think of the game; I also dig pre-programmed actions and would probably give it a shot based on that alone.

Jsyk, I checked 3 hours after orders opened, the page already said "Shipment 2" which is expected to start shipping mid-December. Personally, I was convinced that I had a decent idea of the game from the gameplay videos I had seen so far. I'm also a total slut for pretty things, and boy, does it look pretty. Probably would've bought it with a generic bland fantasy/sci-fi theme as well, if it had the same amount of *stuff* at the same price. The price point feels seriously insane.

# ¿ Oct 14, 2016 00:49

Dancer: May 23, 2011

I guess I got lucky with MvM then. I'm in Europe, I spent about 40 minutes on it right on release, and my order confirmation doesn't say shipment 2. Time to get hyped.

# ¿ Oct 14, 2016 10:59

Dancer: May 23, 2011

LongDarkNight posted:

I've played it 5 or 6 times and it's fun, we've never had a game that wasn't close so everyone feels like they are in it. Only problem I've seen is when doing the random board layout is having the Teahouse and Gemstone Dealer close enough that a player can move back and forth between the two.

There are a few set-up details like that one that you should avoid. I house-rule the tea house to be in the corner each game, and make sure that the gemstone dealer and wainwright can't be reached in one move (including with the straight-line move you can get in the coffee expansion). I did read that a guy who organized a pretty big tournament (might have been Essen? I know it was in Germany) also blocked the black market from being too close to the tea house; my guess is he did this so that the red mosque tile wouldn't be overpowered.

# ¿ Oct 15, 2016 15:42

Dancer: May 23, 2011

Ropes4u posted:

How is the quality?

The cards are pretty, the non-minion minis are solid and have really nice painting (imo; I don't have a lot of minis in my life), the cardboard is crazy thick and solid. It's slightly weird, the plastic structure of the hourglass actually feels really flimsy and poorly made, but that's literally the single component that isn't great. Lots of minions, and they come in multiple shapes, and it's kinda nifty that they engineered the insets so that any minion can go into any slot (oh yeah did I mention the insets are amazing).

# ¿ Oct 19, 2016 22:12

Dancer: May 23, 2011

Fidel Castronaut posted:

Me and the lady played our first game of Pandemic Legacy. It was intense and felt so wrong to put stickers on things. We lost (with three cures and one in hand!) and had one city in riot and I think four or five others that had outbreaks. Just really lousy epidemic draws and a bad chain reaction epidemic very early in the game. Should I be worried?

Also, I didn't realize that after a disease is cured that treat disease gets rid of all the cubes of the cured color on that city. Was that in the base game? If so, that would have changed our W/L ratio considerably!

Yes that was in the base game I'm afraid

. Pandemic seems to be a game where a lot of people make mistakes with the rules.

# ¿ Oct 28, 2016 18:29

Dancer: May 23, 2011

Archenteron posted:

I was saving my Google survey bux to get a $5 boardgame app off the app store and now I forget which one I was planning on getting, and I didn't use the wishlist

All I remember is that it wasn't the 'gric

If it wasn't Galaxy Trucker/the expansion for it in case you don't have it yet, you're doing it wrong :colbert:

# ¿ Nov 3, 2016 01:04

Dancer: May 23, 2011

So I think I got a great deal from the bargain bin. Caylus for 15 euro. Now if only my regular group wasn't full of wimps who think Istanbul is "on the difficult side"

# ¿ Nov 4, 2016 14:32

Dancer: May 23, 2011

Dirk the Average posted:

I just... what? How? It's one of the best intro games that I've seen out there.

Some of their favourite games are King of Tokyo, Qwixx and Bang the card game. They're not into the whole deep strategy, actually make a plan more than half a turn ahead, thing. They also don't like it when I "tryhard" in Dominion with witches and chapels and stuff. Like, I've adapted, and I've found ways to enjoy myself with them, but I don't get to play my preferred games very often.

Edit: also the group isn't homogenous (there's 14 of us). When certain people are there, I get to play GoT, TM, Power Grid, so it works out. Just not very often :P.

Dancer fucked around with this message at 15:23 on Nov 4, 2016

# ¿ Nov 4, 2016 15:19

Dancer: May 23, 2011

To give an example, I remember reading an analysis of a certain card combo where, in a simulation, a strategy would be *more* likely to win if they bought duchies with 8+ money, instead of provinces, because buying they wanted a long game, and buying provinces would end the game quicker. There is more interaction in dominion than most people think, it's just subtle (and yeah, the base game can be a little bland).

# ¿ Nov 5, 2016 21:15

Dancer: May 23, 2011

Broken Loose posted:

I'm back from the void. I have 300 pages of thread on which to catch up.

You know Tony Stark in Iron Man 3? That's been me, but instead of suits, games. You're all gonna love my Mk42, though.

system_CRASH is a 2-10 player hacker fighting game. When I say "hacker fighting game," what I mean to say is that it's a fighting game with no screen where you play as hackers. It took me a month to even figure out how to write the elevator pitch for this monstrosity. It's real-time, but it has turns. It's turn-based, but you can take your turn anytime you want (including simultaneously with other players). It's a social game with no discussion. It's a team game but you can betray your team. It's a deduction game where what you find out makes you a liability.

I need playtesters, is what I'm saying. It's feature-complete, but there are some rough edges in the 6-10 player area that I'd like to see ironed out before I start hammering out review copies. Anybody wanna try?

I can't guarantee anything, but my weekly meet in the FLGS regularly gets 8+ (even 10+) groups, and people are generally eager to try new things. I've also PnP'd a few things before. So yeah, I'm definitely interested!

# ¿ Nov 7, 2016 02:49

Dancer: May 23, 2011

Rutibex posted:

There are lots of board games for men and women of every age. There are also lots of board games for men only, or women only, or anything in between. Every single board game does not have to appeal to women for the hobby to be inclusive to women. Thats like saying every movie has to be a romantic comedy or something. It's fine if some games are "misogynistic" (sexy) to appeal to a certain crowd, not all board games are that way.

Just play the games that appeal to you and leave other people to their own business.

This is an extremely shallow interpretation of the question at hand. And this is universally brought up every single time someone tries to approach the question of inclusivity in board games (and video games for that matter. Also movies. And any other type of pop culture). Nobody is arguing that "every movie has to be a romantic comedy" or that showing women (or men for that matter) in revealing/sexy outfits is morally wrong, and saying that sexy = misogynistic is loving moronic.

The issue is when a company engages in unjustified marginalizing behaviour. If a woman who's supposed to be a bad-rear end warrior is wearing things that would be impractical (boob armor being the classical example), then that is unjustified (and in this case it actually actively takes away from the theme of the game). If the art for a female superhero emphasizes her breasts, that is unnecessary. This kind of behaviour is pervasive in almost any aspect of society and should therefore be discussed in the context of every aspect of society, otherwise it does not get solved.

When SUSD did a review of Istanbul they actively dedicated a significant part of their video to addressing ways in which the game marginalized certain groups. They discussed the issue of orientalism, and the issue of lack of female representation in the game. Also there, people immediately came with the response of "a board game reviewer's job is to review board games. How well they play, how much fun they are, etc," without taking into account that the fun people can have with the board game can be directly damaged by this sort of thing. The game would not just have marginalized people less by having fixed those problems before publication, but would've also actively strengthened the theme of the game. The kebab shop in the game does not look like any locale that would've existed in the supposed setting of the game. And the absolute absence of women in any of the art for the game (86 men vs. *zero* women) also feels weird and off-putting if you're playing. You don't need to care about social justice to ask yourself "why isn't there a single woman in this entire bazaar?", and that breaks immersion, and damages your fun a tiny bit (and potentially damages the fun of female players a lot more).

And as an example where it sorta went well: Five Tribes. At first the game included slaves cards, under the guise of "historical realism" (note: the game also includes genies). People were rightly uncomfortable buying and killing (you use slaves primarily to activate genies) slaves while playing the game. So the publisher eventually decided to replace the slaves with fakirs. Now instead of sacrificing *people you own*, you just have magically gifted people do magic. A massively problematic element of the game has been removed, and the game is in no way worse because of it. There was no justifiable reason why slaves *had* to be in the game, and it was marginalizing, so the publisher decided that if it's not necessary they might as well change it, and now more people can enjoy a pretty well designed game without feeling dirty inside. You keep harping on about how great Tanto Cuore is, but the overwhelming majority of us here *do not give a poo poo* because the game's theme is loving disgusting. If the publisher just deleted the theme and replaced it with an entirely new one that's not as disturbing, many more of us might enjoy what you say is an actually good game. Right now we won't even try because we *know* it will not be enjoyable.

(honourable mention: loving Burano. It's an enjoyable game, and when I first saw it I actually thought it's kinda progressive how each worker token has a male portrait on one side, and a female portrait on the other. I thought hey, I can have my workers be any gender I want. Then I read the rule-book and it said that when you send people fishing you must use the male portrait, and when you send them to make lace you must use the female portrait. I just ignored the rule and placed my tokens whatever way I wanted, so it had zero impact on my game, but the inclusion of that text just feels so... stupid. It would've taken zero effort to just *not* put that in there. In Five Tribes they actually had to put in a trivial but non-zero amount of effort to figure out what to replace slaves with. Here one press of the delete key would've sufficed)

tl;dr: the arguments you made are straw-men and paying attention to social justice issues actually makes games better.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2016 00:48

Dancer: May 23, 2011

Big McHuge posted:

Today I get to try out Nippon, Captain Sonar, Isle of Skye, Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, and Via Nebula.

Lucky bastard. Skye owns, and I can't wait to try Sonar. Heard good things about Via too.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2016 14:45

Dancer: May 23, 2011

Just want to shoot some love to my most recent purchase Steampunk Rally. It's "Ameritrash" but it's Ameritrash the way it should be done. I may like strategic Euro games, but rolling a bunch of dice is still inherently *fun*. The art is really pretty, the theme is fun, and there are also several characters who aren't white males.

You assemble inventions out of all sorts of wacky elements, then you roll a bunch of dice and you figure out the best way to use them. There are clever mechanics which make both high and low rolls desirable: Parts which require a number of pips to activate reward high rolls, but there are many parts which are activated per die, and low rolls are actually rewarded because parts have to be "vented" before being used again, and lower valued dice are cheaper to vent (of course you can also forcefully vent parts by taking damage and throwing them off your machine). It plays two to eight reasonably well (simultaneous drafting, and the other phases can also be mostly simultaneous if everyone at the table trusts each other.) and it has just the right amount of depth to not be scary to most people who like lighter games. This is the perfect buy if you're looking for something to be able to play with your friends who think your collection is too heavy.

# ¿ Nov 16, 2016 14:07

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 01:13

Dancer: May 23, 2011

Oh yeah and I totally forgot the thing that actually made me decide to post about the game in the first place: A thing I really love about the game is that the rule-set is very flexible (and the designers have actively encouraged people on bgg to play the game any way works). I've played the game twice so far, and in my second game we decided that each player would be allowed to draw a card from a stack of their choice, in addition to a card from each stack for the drafting phase. I've also seen variants on bgg for an open draft from a pool of cards, or even auctioning (which seems un-fun to me but some people may like it). We also thought up a house rule for the "explosion" mechanic, because it seemed too arbitrary to simply move to the space behind the last player (we made it 1 space backwards + 1 for every player you're in front of). Unfortunately nobody ended up exploding ever :V. A thing I'm considering (but which might add un-needed complexity) is to make damage/armor less linear. Maybe make it so that you lose 1 machine part per point of damage, as in the rules, but only half of the damage taken goes away, making big bursts of damage extra punishing. Then there are varying levels of strict-ness regarding when you can rearrange the pieces of your machinery, or if you're allowed to do it at all. And finally a bit of pre-provided flexibility with the challenge tokens.

So yeah, great and flexible game, and I believe it earns its slot in basically any gamer's collection.

# ¿ Nov 16, 2016 16:03

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Board Game Thread 4e: The Call of Catan

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