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Ground loving floor. Trying to decide between Alchemists or Castles of Mad King Ludwig for post-christmas purchase.
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Dec 13, 2014 14:48
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Can confirm that the galaxy trucker app owns. Might pick up the cardboard as a post-Christmas buy.
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Dec 21, 2014 04:54
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Any goons want to give their thoughts on Village and Five Tribes? I'm starting to think about post-christmas board game sales. Think I might hold out on Castles of Mad King Ludwig - at the moment the cost of the game + shipping in Australia will rack up close to $100, so I think I'll just wait it out for the game to become a bit more widespread and see if I can't get it cheaper later. I very much like the worker placement styles of Village, Dungeon Petz, Agricola, T'zolkin, etc. etc., I just can't decide between them because they all seem like strong games in their own right. Ideally I'd be able to get all of them, but it seems I have an interesting decision. I'm not exactly asking for a recommendation of one over the others here, just peoples' thoughts on what each game has going for them individually. Agricola is the granddaddy to an extent of the genre and I know it is fairly commonly recommended, I'm just mulling it all over. Five Tribes thoughts are just for my own interest. I only recently learned how Mancala-style games work and have been playing Kalah on my phone. I'm not sure if I'm very good - the style of the game in general does my head in when it comes to actually thinking of "strategy". SU&SD seemed to enjoy the game's ideas but didn't really appreciate the Mancala mechanic itself because they felt it didn't allow for any significant strategic planning. Is this a common criticism of that style of game?
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Dec 24, 2014 14:55
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Tekopo posted:I'll put in a word for Dungeon Petz because it is my favourite worker placement game of the lot. The theme of Dungeon Petz is obviously what grabbed me at first, even before I really knew what the actually game of it was. Even though as a Vlaada game it has these odd little rules, they are so strongly tied to the theme that I can envisage it being easy to explain in thematic terms e.g. needing two imps to carry an enclosure back home. Another positive is how much the theme stands out - while the gric is a classic, I sort of worry that it might seem too dry to catch the attention of my friends/SO so I can teach them the game. I think I may be a little overhyped for Village - reading about it further, it sounds like the game suffers in that you can be very successful by sticking to only a couple of scoring opportunities. Is that accurate? So let's put that one aside for now.
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Dec 24, 2014 15:21
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Tekopo posted:I wasn't enamored of Village. It felt like a perfectly decent worker placement and it has a few interesting innovations (your people dying off and giving you points), the 'generations' of meeples, the way that you pick a slot by selecting a resource etc. It was perfectly alright, it just didn't excite me at any point and there wasn't the stress of the 'Gric or Dungeon Petz. It was just sort of alright That sounds fair enough. SU&SD went bananas for it, and I think Rahdo really liked it. As we've established, though, Rahdo likes most every game he plays (or mostly only plays games he will probably like) and SU&SD are more entertainment than deep critique (though even then they've been dipping in the former lately). Speaking of, Quinns' waxing philosophical on retirement in the "Wet Retirement Special" came off as a bit strange - they seem to have run out of steam somewhat in the last 6 months and I get the sense they maybe don't really enjoy the schedule of playing + reviewing games in quick turnaround any more? It's a bit of a shame, as SU&SD (along with this thread) helped get me interested in the hobby when I first started out this year, so to see their rise and decline as the videos have gone on is a bit uncomfortable.
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Dec 24, 2014 15:38
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Kai Tave posted:Also known as "playing Arkham Horror." I will tentatively suggest Rahdo Runs Through. First thing I should mention, however, is that he A) is often AP-prone, B) makes mistakes (which lately are pointed out by annotations) and C) does looooong videos; he generally releases two ~30-45 minute videos of gameplay as well as a "final thoughts" video. Also due to his/his wife's preferences, they tend to focus on indirectly-competitive games over confrontational ones. But I do have a soft spot for him. He explains the game setup and runs through a few turns of a two-player game between him and his wife. He also gives a running commentary of sorts to explain the strategy behind his decisions, while also attempting to show off all the aspects of a game. One advantage of the video lengths is that he can certainly be comprehensive. If you just want his take on a game, you can skip ahead to "final thoughts" videos (hint: he probably likes the game if he's playing it). Edit: worth mentioning is that he does hand-recording, which may be a problem if you're susceptible to motion sickness. Lately, though, he has been filming static-cam versions of his videos simultaneously. Considering the guy is doing this as a hobby of sorts and not to make money, I really appreciate the guy's commitment to his work. The Narrator fucked around with this message at 04:27 on Dec 25, 2014 |
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Dec 25, 2014 04:24
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Chomp8645 posted:I would recommend 7 Wonders for this. Easy to learn, difficult to master so it's good for new or serious players. Also being a card game is a plus since the lack of a big intimidating board helps put "the casuals" at ease, as does the short play time (which makes it easy to play multiple rounds!) I would actually recommend holding off on 7 Wonders in favour of Dominion or Carcassonne. 7 Wonders has a ton of symbols and a few different ways of scoring points which IME can make it intimidating for new players. It's a fine third game, but someone who's only played monopoly etc. in the past might find it all a bit overwhelming.
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Jan 8, 2015 09:30
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^^ beaten.Chomp8645 posted:I think that if someone finds 7 Wonders overwhelming then they can find literally any game in the universe overwhelming. Maybe on an individual level some people might find it more difficult than Dominion or whatever else, but on the whole I think it's about as entry level as a game can get. Hell my mom thought that Catan was "too complicated and confusing" and even she loves 7 Wonders and got the hang of it after a practice game. I think it's more an issue of easing them in. When teaching dominion I can at least say "these cards are points, they cost $X. You win by having the most points". Teaching 7 Wonders is a bit bigger of a job: "you win by having the most points, which you get from Blues, science, military, money...". Obviously I'm probably overstating it and it depends on the group, but IMO Dominion or Carcassonne strike me as more suitable games for teaching to the completely uninitiated.
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Jan 8, 2015 09:49
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Post-Christmas purchases were Tash-Kalar and Dungeon Petz. TK ended up being the CGE edition, which was a great surprise! Played three games so far, two against my girlfriend and one against my housemate. All three used the "first game" setup (no legendaries, no advanced objectives for high form, Imperial vs. Imperial) but I'm definitely keen to move onto the full game. Even if I haven't won yet  .Dungeon Petz is yet to arrive, but drat I'm excited. After having read over the rules a few times recently, I feel fairly confident when it comes to teaching the game. Is there anything in particular I should make sure to emphasise when teaching/anything I may miss?
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Jan 16, 2015 15:28
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Bubble-T posted:Any opinions on Fresco? I initially dismissed it as probably being too similar to Dungeon Lords to be in my collection but I figure I should ask. Does it play out as similarly as it looks? Is it any good? I have used this game as the first step up from carcassone/dominion for my parents and my girlfriend. It's fun enough, but if you just pay the base set (without pink + brown or the other mini-expansions), it's a bit of a degenerate strategy to just get money with your workers. I haven't played dungeon lords, but I really don't think they're very similar. For one, fresco doesn't have blocking outside of market buys or tiles to paint. I would classify it as a light-medium, so if you have dungeon lords (or dungeon petz, as I got in real life) it's easily outclassed if you're looking for depth.
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Feb 15, 2015 17:22
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Timett posted:I'm looking at the Galaxy Trucker Android app. Worth my 5 bucks? Definitely worth the money
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Feb 20, 2015 17:07
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Rutibex posted:The second biggest draw of the hobby is of course emergency preparedness. The modern world is scary; a North Korean EMP bomb could cripple the entire continent of America with no notice. Or maybe a solar flair; or simple civil disturbances take out the power! Oh no! When there are no iPads and no Xboxs, no kindles or gameboys then the man with with Agricola set will be king And a single game of Talisman can ride out nuclear winter.
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Feb 26, 2015 13:19
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Tell me thoughts on Dominant Species.
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Mar 2, 2015 11:00
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fozzy fosbourne posted:Broken Loose what do you think about Twilight Struggle's shared deck? He's not a fan
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Mar 6, 2015 15:24
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Indolent Bastard posted:Anything that stands out in your mind? Specific cases: Remember poop cards resolve before sickness cards, and how sickness works (When Poop + Sickness > 2 = 1 suffering cube for getting sick + 1 more extra sickness/poop greater than a value of 2. Imps can't clean poop from a cage with a pet in it. The extra meat rule. Resolving the final scoring blocks as competitions/exhibitions, not just extra points all around (this tripped me up for my first couple of games, which probably caused some blowouts of scores. You can move pets between cages, but you can't move cages/add-ons/poop elsewhere once they've been placed (except removing poop of course).
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Mar 9, 2015 16:21
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Tekopo posted:In the last turn (if you are just playing the base game, that is), the turn order marker goes to the player with the least number of VPs.  I have not remembered this so far. Fortunately most of the plays I've had have just been 2 player, but that's something I'll have to keep in mind for next time.Sloober posted:I think the only thing I didn't stress enough is using gold to bolster groups is usually better than just hanging onto it, since there is literally no other use for gold in the base game outside of the one coin you have to send to buy a pet. I think I need to restate this point to my girlfriend, who tends to hoard gold and consequently often has rather anemic shopping groups. I think the 1 gold = 1/2 point thing has gotten into her head a bit more than it should of. Reminds me of Fresco, where every $2 you have at the end is worth 1 point. Getting money each turn is an action that you can't be beaten to, so it's always a pretty safe action to throw workers at. This means in my experience that going for money over paint can be a fairly powerful strategy. The mini-expansions alleviate this issue somewhat by adding higher-value tiles to paint or allowing you to swap out your salary tiles (which give you free money each turn without having to use a worker) for even more points.
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Mar 9, 2015 16:35
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I was amazed how well they summed up the game. SU&SD has been hitting the mark for a while now, but they've clearly put thought into approaching the 'review'. I appreciate that they manage to cover both the fact that the game's content is pretty irredeemable while also explaining why it's a mechanically poo poo game.
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May 7, 2015 14:31
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fozzy fosbourne posted:Yeah, that was a good review. I still didn't find Quinns review of Elysium that helpful and the Dogs of War review had some weird undertones in it, as if it were a retaliation towards Paul's argument that solo games can be fun in the Friday review. Felt like it was pushing the gaming-is-fun-because-of-your-friends agenda thing a little bit. Haven't watched the Imperial Settlers/Nations review or Panamax reviews yet; I think the reason is I can't tell if they genuinely like games like that anymore and so it doesn't feel like I'd get a whole-hearted take on the topics. But I guess Paul liked Panamax so maybe I'm wrong and should check it out. The Nations/Imperial Settlers review is... interesting. Towards the end, it becomes apparent that Quinns views visual design in games as potentially more important than game design. At the same time, the focus on "fun" (generally equated with lighter games) and "funny" as points of focus makes it difficult to take seriously. I feel like I would enjoy Quinns' reviews more if he were the SU&SD "light" games correspondent and evaluated those particular games with greater depth, rather than when he reviews heavier games that he's clearly not keen on because he has certain expectations of what board games should do. edit: VVVV tekopo sort of touches on the problem. It's clear they want to talk about games, but the fact that they probably only play a few games before they do the review (which is fair enough, as they have a high turnover to get through) means they can't get stuck in to the mechanics as much as I'd like and end up focusing on things like visual design, social aspects and the "funny" thing. The Narrator fucked around with this message at 15:08 on May 7, 2015 |
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May 7, 2015 15:04
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Opened up Dominant Species, popped all the cardboard and such out, and set up an imaginary two player game to make sure I understood how the rules worked. It's exciting - lots of bits. The actions themselves are all fairly straightforward. I think the biggest hurdle is just going to be working out strategy and how the actions all interact with each other to make meaningful decisions. Anyone have some basic advice in getting to grips with the game and in teaching it to other people? Edit: VVV that's a concise, useful way of explaining individual approaches for the different animals. Much appreciated! The Narrator fucked around with this message at 12:43 on May 8, 2015 |
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May 8, 2015 10:55
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Obligatory "love letter". Do virtual ones count? Because there's Galaxy trucker for Android, Apple devices and Windows Phone; also Carcassonne, Dominant species, Catan at the least.
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May 28, 2015 07:59
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Hi board game thread, it's been a while. Looking for a game that can be played on a camp table/easily stored for travel. Will mostly be played with 3 players, 4 max. I assume lightweight games are the norm for these sort of requirements. It's for my parents, who are quite fond of playing Carcassonne on their camping trips. Sushi Go or Love Letter are the starting ideas, any other suggestions?
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Nov 8, 2015 07:27
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Ordered Keyflower  in the last two weeks I've gotten to play Dominant Species and Dungeon Petz (both with more than 2 players for the firs time), so I'm having some pretty good board game times right now.It was either going to be Keyflower or New Through the Ages. I figure for the moment at least Keyflower will be a comfortably medium game - while I'm sure I can do TTA, I feel like something that won't melt my brain for the moment. Also worried about how long nTTA might take. It's definitely on my to-buy list, just for another time.
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Feb 29, 2016 10:10
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foxxtrot posted:I genuinely find it astonishing that the professional poker circuit allows this. It's fundamentally a bluffing game. Players should be forced to play with their faces and hands visible to each other at all times. Eh, I would think of poker more as an odds/auction kind of game with elements of bluffing when it comes to it. You can calculate your equity without having to see someone's eyes, and a lot of the bluffing/thinking can just be done from player actions of calling, raising or folding.
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Mar 11, 2016 01:42
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Xelkelvos posted:Speaking of Cash and Guns, I keep hearing about how the older version is better than the current one. Any reasons why? IIRC because 2nd ed. added a "boss" role that can point a gun away from them and gets first pick of the loot, loot value was tweaked for the worse, as well as (subjectively) worse art. Edit: beaten with better points
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Mar 11, 2016 02:46
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Kai Tave posted:John Kovalic's art is pretty much the definition of "objectively worse" regardless of circumstance or context. I feel the same way, just didn't want to step on the shoes of any Kovalic fiends in case. Also that worse art is (to me anyway) less painful than worse mechanics.
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Mar 11, 2016 03:00
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Fat Samurai posted:Played Keyflower yesterday, lost because my friends are dicks and I didn't understand why moving poo poo around was important. Played Keyflower today. Won because my girlfriend didn't understand why moving poo poo around/upgrading was important and I was a dick  I'm already starting to see how this game can be brutal. Nothing compares to the  of plonking down a green meeple as a "gently caress you, I get this."
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Mar 11, 2016 09:35
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oxsnard posted:What's the thread consensus on a good two player game for me to pick up and play with my wife? She's not a huge gamer but something that's a simple euro style game would be great Haven't played it, but often seen Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small recommended. The Narrator fucked around with this message at 03:52 on Mar 15, 2016 |
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Mar 15, 2016 03:16
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TheCog posted:Having just recently begun to play TS, I think the key concept is you spend every second of every game sweating bullets, trying to guess what your opponent is doing and how to counter it. Even when you're at 18 vp and everything seems to go swimmingly you're only a couple steps away from losing your hold on Europe, and oh god the communists have begun to take over Africa again, and I can't let them score it, but I'm losing my hold over Asia, and why am I holding a bunch of 2 ops cards and lovely events that will utterly break me if I play them for ops points. Oh, crap, defcon two again, better bin my plan of launching a Coup to regain influence in Africa. Oh gently caress me, I bet they have score middle east, and I've only got a tenuous hold of Israel, if they play that stupid war card I may as well give up on holding it. Having only started playing since the Steam version came out a couple of days ago, this sounds right. I really enjoy how it captures the paranoia between the two superpowers. All that influence getting placed in South-East Asia COULD mean they have the scoring card, or maybe they're just trying to make you think that so you'll waste your ops there, or maybe they think you're making a play for South-East Asia, or... There's a nice sort of widening out of the game as you go from early to mid war, too. As the US, the Fidel/Fall of the Portuguese Empire and other cards are an annoyance, but you're too busy in Europe/Asia/the ME to put those fires out right now. Which of course bites you in the rear end in the midwar when there's commies everywhere. It's a nice push-and-pull of brinksmanship as you use coups to further your agenda and lock out some regions with DEFCON, but if you get too close you have the potential of blowing everything up. Boycotting my opponent's Olympics card to hit DEFCON 1 and lose the game for them was also a hilarious way for the cold war to go thermonuclear hot 
The Narrator fucked around with this message at 08:20 on Apr 17, 2016 |
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Apr 17, 2016 08:18
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CaptainRightful posted:For an example of the former: I didn't realize at first that DEFCON level disallows coups and realignments in different regions. The interface doesn't make that clear: you can highlight an ineligible country, the click doesn't work, but the game doesn't tell you why. Just in case anyone wasn't aware as well, there's a mushroom cloud symbol under the region name on the board when that region's locked out by DEFCON. I agree that the interface should make it a bit more obvious that "hey, DEFCON means you can't do the thing you're trying to do," but it eventually gets internalised.
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Apr 18, 2016 04:09
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w00tmonger posted:Anyone done 2 rooms and a boom? It looks interesting but I don't know how many people I should really be throwing at it, and whether or not it makes sense to divide a party into 2 for however long... I've not played it, but according to the rules a regular game only takes 15 minutes. Less if you have 9 players or fewer, in which case you just skip the 5 and 4-minute rounds. If time is really pressing, I'm sure you could just, say, half the time for each phase. Ideally, most of the people there will want to play (or at least won't object or poo poo up the game) and can agree to spend 15 minutes playing a social game.
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Apr 28, 2016 05:58
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Merauder posted:15 minutes is a bit of a misleading number though. Especially if you're playing with new people, the abstract nature of social deduction games is often tough to explain to new players, so I'd expect with a full group of new people that you're going to want 30+ minutes for the first attempt at the game. If you go for a second attempt it will go a little faster, but even if everyone knows what's what the 15min is technically still a bit inaccurate since that's the official round count for 5 rounds, but there's a brief period in between each round where you swap players between rooms that doesn't happen instantaneously, and usually adds 3-5min to the overall game time. That's fair. As I said, haven't played the game, and I didn't consider what it would be like trying to teach a new game (even a social deduction game) to a group of even 10 people.
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Apr 28, 2016 06:40
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Is Scythe any good, or is it all style?
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Sep 12, 2016 05:08
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How do I pop out cardboard components without tearing the paper? Just unboxing Skull and I took a bit of paper off one of the pieces. Fortunately, it's on the skull side, so it doesn't interfere with the game. Still  I know, the answer is probably "don't force it you goddamn ape man" The Narrator fucked around with this message at 12:24 on Sep 21, 2016 |
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Sep 21, 2016 12:21
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Oldstench posted:I just changed phones to android and know jack poo poo about any boardgame apps on this platform. Is there a good list somewhere or can someone recommend any? Galaxy Trucker is on it, it has an in-depth campaign and some interesting variations (like a turn-based building mode). I've also played Suburbia, Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, Catan, Splendour, San Juan, and Coup, among some. Castles of Mad King Ludwig is available but recommended for tablets, too. Being able to speed up the game is a godsend. Something like Catan is a lot more bearable when you can knock out a game on a 5-10 minute bus ride.
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Dec 11, 2016 00:12
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What're you playing there, Synth?
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Dec 29, 2016 10:01
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Always a good sign.
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Dec 29, 2016 10:38
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Doctor Spaceman posted:E: I don't know what 6 player Love Letter is like but it might be worth checking out too. Is this made possible through an expansion or alternative version or something? Base Love Letter has a 4-player max. Sushi Go/Sushi Go Party makes a fine family game for people who have never played designer board games, much more so than 7 Wonders IMO where the few extra mechanics can make it difficult to teach in a few minutes. And once people are familiar with the rules, games of Sushi Go can really fly by.' edit: vvvv dip, thanks! The Narrator fucked around with this message at 02:27 on Jan 9, 2017 |
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Jan 9, 2017 02:21
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Cthulhu Dreams posted:That looks pretty good, will read some reviews but looks strong. I own Sushi Go, but might consider the upgrade to party. Colt Express was another game I was looking at but that was partly me justifying something I wanted to buy to myself. I haven't played it, but I think a fair bit of the SU&SD guys' enjoyment comes from being able to get into character and embrace the silly. So it might be a matter of whether you think your family will get into that. I'll second Camel C/Up as a good family gateway game.
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Jan 9, 2017 03:56
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Really interesting project you're doing, CommonShore, so keep up the posting!
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Jan 11, 2017 04:48
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fozzy fosbourne posted:Archipelago, my dude. Awesome and pretty novel game still, I think. Caveats are that it's a little complicated going in and has some potential for implosion due to the group, like all political games While we have you here, about how long is a Short game of Archipelago for 4? Would you recommend a Short game to learn with?
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Jan 13, 2017 05:43
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