Board Game Thread 4e: The Call of Catan

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

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

I had the opportunity today to go to an awesome Barnes and Nobles (one that actually carries GOOD board games and x wing stuff) and I saw a bunch of stuff thats has been reccomended by the thread and I just wanted to buy up everything. The problems are

1.Storage of these things is getting tight

2. How often would I really get the chance to play half these things

3.Price, everything was $50+ dollars, nothing I'm not used to but it's alot to spend up front when im suppose to be christmas shopping.

So I settled on Memoir 44 and Pandemic: In the Lab for myself, although I will definitely be going back for the other stuff

# ¿ Dec 14, 2014 03:27

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# ¿ May 4, 2024 20:00

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

Rocko Bonaparte posted:

We played Betrayal at House on the Hill last night. It was scenario 7, and my wife ended up being the traitor. She got kind of butthurt because we just about beat her in two turns, so I'm trying to figure out if there are some details to this. However, I will spoiler it:

Scenario 7 was the one with the carnivorous plants. She was excited to play this as the traitor since we do keep some carnivorous plants. She was one of the little girls, since we didn't have the priest in our group, and the fallback went to her due to a dominant stat. The heroes did not know the plants could not move up/down stairs, nor did we know what the traitor's motives were. We had a kitchen on the ground floor from which we could make the chemicals. I had the item (book with instructions on the bug spray) that triggered the haunt, might surpassing 8, and knowledge of 5. Two of us were in the basement and one was in the upper. So we sent our upper-floor person into the mystic elevator and crashed down into the basement--it was a zero roll, but it worked out. We piled into the elevator, and hoped for the ground floor so we could get to the kitchen, but we wound up at the upper level. I believe here my wife as the traitor actually moved towards us, which I considered to be the only part of the scenario over which she had much control and should have done something different. This is because on our turn after that, we just stormed out of the elevator and turned her little girl character into a red streak across the floor. The first melee was a roll of 9 might versus 6, and then I rolled 9 might versus 3.

The traitor dying ended any chance of her explicitly winning the scenario according to the traitor's tome. At best we could all just died and triggered a draw. My wife was frustrated because she knew she had to take our item and throw it away to win absolutely, but we pressed that it was a suitable victory if we all died. In the previous scenarios, the traitor didn't have to live for the traitor to succeed. So she kept playing with the plants, but we managed to mix up the spray. It looked like from the rules that we could do the "Walk of Jesus." with the spray. It wasn't an attack action to use it; merely walking into a room with a plant tip while having the spray would kill that plant. So immediately after mixing the spray, I walked through three rooms and took out something like 6 plants--far more than the 4 we needed for victory.

What we didn't know on our side, and what my wife did not play well, was that apparently the plants could grab on to us and drag us into the roots, which would cause us to be devoured. So I was thinking if she had positioned them so that they were just out of reach on our turn, she could have caught some of us and dragged us away, but I dunno.

The last time we played we had this exact scenario and it ended diffrently

It came down to a dice rolling match as the last good guy was repeatedly getting dragged away then immediately freeing herself while the traitor pinked away at her with a gun

Yeah as much as i love playing Betrayal it's not exactly the best in terms of actual game design, but then again i'm ALSO a fan of Mansions of Madness so maybe i just like lots of little tokens and pieces and huge boards over "good" gameplay experiences :v:

Speaking of expansions, does Pandemic:In the Lab assume you bought the other expansions? The rules talked about On the Brink and the Bioterriost alot. Is it possible to play it without those 2 other expansions then?

# ¿ Dec 15, 2014 00:05

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

So in the base game of Memoir 44 the only real sticking point in the rules I see is that they don't specify how many dice you roll when retreating, we've been going off the assumption that it's always 4? Unless there is something I missed.

Also the card Air Power talks about effect groups of 4 or less enemies that are adjacent to each other, what exactly does I classify as a group? Meaning if for example there are 2 infantry and 2 tanks next to each other I could attack both of those units right? Or if it was 1 infantry across 3 hexes then 1 tank, bi could attack all of them correct?

# ¿ Dec 18, 2014 02:05

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

Scyther posted:

You don't roll any dice when retreating. What exactly would the purpose of these rolls be?

Regarding Air Power, you basically target 4 or less connected hexes (they could be in a straight line or a line with a bend or all bunched up, or whatever) that have enemy units on them. The number of figures in the units doesn't matter, if that's what you're asking with your examples, which I'm having trouble parsing because the wording is ambiguous.

When I mean went you take a hit, you roll the dice to see how many spaces back you move, the confusion was on how many dice to roll then, not during the actual retreat, sorry!

Is Air Power that simple? Maybe I'm just misremembering the wording on the card itself but I thought it says something like "target hexes that has groups of 4 enemies or less adjacent to each other"

but if it's just targeting 4 connected hexes and rolling the hits then I must have bad reading comprehension

# ¿ Dec 18, 2014 02:31

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

Scyther posted:

[i]e: Please tell me you're not rolling dice to determine how far you can move in any other situations either, this should never happen

Nope that was the only time! I guess because both sides have the same dice my mind told me the defender has to roll for how cowardly their men are in the face of danger or something. Thanks for the clarification

# ¿ Dec 18, 2014 03:22

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

Thanks to the guy a few pages back that mentioned that Kemet was for cheap, my copy came today! Skimming through the rules i was very surprised it's only 8 pages (those pesky other languages making up the majority of the manual) and it didn't seem complicated to play, but how newbie friendly is it? By newbie, i mean the people i'm thinking of playing this with have played Risk so they're at least a little familiar with the concept of moving dudes on a board and attacking, but they are also the kind of people who i'd have to explain what a VP is too.

# ¿ Dec 20, 2014 19:26

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

Yeah i'm probably going to follow the recommendation that somebody made in the last thread about making copies of the reference sheet. I'd rather they take forever to make a decision on what they are buying than having them go "uh what the hell am i doing right now? Oh well gently caress i take this one" and end up losing because the power they bought didn't help them at all

# ¿ Dec 20, 2014 20:17

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

So what's the verdict on Star Wars:Imperial Assault? My brother was really excited to play this (mostly for the AT-ST's and AT-AT's) but we've both never played Descent before so i'd rather not drop that amount of money on something i'm not sure i'm not going to like as well.

# ¿ Dec 23, 2014 18:45

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

Kai Tave posted:

Kemet

Go here and print out however many copies of the first link (rules and various summaries) you think you'll need. It will save you much headache when somebody wants to buy powers and they don't know what anything is (which will be the case since it's just a poo poo load of pictures and symbols with not a lot of meaning to it at first glance. You will not want to pass around the 1 English player aid that comes with the box (unless you're only playing 2 players i guess)

http://www.orderofgamers.com/games/kemet/

If you get lots of blank looks i would tell them that Red=Attacking Blue=Defending and White=Economy

If you're playing with 2 or 3 people, don't get confused like i did and assume the big,flashy,blue temple at the top of the map is the Temple of All Gods (which is not actually considered a temple in terms of the "have dudes in 2 temples at the end of a round" VP condition, in the case of both a common pitfall AND misinterpreted rules)! because that building isn't on the 2 and 3 player side of the board, that would be the Delta Temple! Which does almost exactly the same thing except you get like 4 or 5 Pray Points for 1 dude instead of a VP for 2.

Also get into the habit of knowing to give yourself 2 Prayer Points and another Divine Intervention card at the start of every new round, at least in my first game i was kind being overwhelmed with so much information and was to busy thinking about tactics and what powers i wanted that i routinely forgot that i had 2 more points than i thought i had.

I would also consider watching this video series if you want to get an idea of how a round goes

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHvfN_pNBj_GRUlSc4RaJSbwwHHtdpgoT

# ¿ Dec 24, 2014 09:50

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

Kai Tave posted:

Perfect, thank you. I was going to type up summary sheets myself but you may have just saved me a whole bunch of time and effort, much appreciated.

On the subject of misinterpreted/unclear rules, what happens to units that are killed in battle? Do they go back to reserves? I ask since there seems to be a difference between "killed" and "pulled back to the reserves" and so I'm wondering, is it possible to fully deplete a player's manpower to the point that they can't muster armies anymore?

And thanks again, I'd forgotten to ask if there were any videos that showed how the game worked in action. I'll definitely be watching these.

Any unit that is killed in battle/sacrificed/taken out of the game in any way go back to your reserve so that you can recruit them again later (or even put right back in your city if you have the points to spend on a recruit action right after a battle!)

It's totally possible to completely wipe out the units somebody might have deployed but between always getting at least 2 points a turn on top of the various powers that can increase how much you generate you're almost never completely out of a game. It's bit more of a problem in a 2 player game since there is nobody else to gun for but the other guy so you can concentrate on murderizing him but it's still a good way to at least get individual players familiar with mechanics before throwing them into a 5 player bloodbath.

The Shame Boy fucked around with this message at 10:15 on Dec 24, 2014

# ¿ Dec 24, 2014 10:10

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

For Azatoth the token on the green omen, at least if IIRC, is that when the green omen rolls around you move the doom track down 1 for every green portal that is open? It's been a while since I've played it

# ¿ Dec 27, 2014 20:26

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

edit:f;b by the guy above me! he did a better job of explaining anyway

# ¿ Jan 10, 2015 19:31

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

So a quick rules thing on Kemet

1.is it ever explicitly said anywhere when you can sacrifice dudes you've teleported to the Temple of All Gods? Is it the same time as when you can give up 1 guy for 5 prayer points at the other temple?

2.While you are occupying a temple you're adding the amount of Prayer Points it's showing during the Night Phase right?

3.The White Power that gives you a discount on the cost of all powers doesn't actually lower the level your pyramid needs to be to get them,just the cost itself.

On that topic, what power combinations are you guys running? I've had some success running mostly defense+Elephant so even if i'm the defender i have a good chance of either coming out victorious with Defensive Victory or i'm throwing out so much defense that when i do lose i lose none of my own guys while killing a bunch of the others in retaliation.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2015 10:46

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

Bubble-T posted:

Board Game Thread: Forty dollars will be teleported away from your pocket

I'd save a lot more money on this hobby if all board games only cost $40.

Quidnose posted:

Wait when did SU&SD get bad? Everyone loved them two years ago.

From what i've gathered from the previous thread some people don't like how they put more of an emphasis over theme and spectacle in the games they play more than the mechanics. Also they only play the game once or twice before doing a review so they aren't exactly out of the "oh my god this game is new and exciting and it's awesome!" phase so it makes them a bit biased when it comes to their reccommendations (which isn't always unanimous)

Plus their second Sci-Fi special was pretty bad :colbert:

# ¿ Jan 13, 2015 10:46

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

So far other than a few fringe cases here and there around my hometown most nerd poo poo seems to go down in Arlington which is kind of a long drive for me

# ¿ Jan 15, 2015 08:00

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

Mister Sinewave posted:

Thanks for spelling it out. I wouldn't personally lay "bad documentation" at Vlaada's doorstep, but it's a fair complaint if there is trouble looking up the fiddly bits after the fact, especially if the games tend to have such questions pop up. Having significant trouble looking stuff up after the fact in games isn't really my recollection but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. Also there were things you brought up that are outside my experience; the way you describe TtA makes me cringe.

Speaking of separate, more comprehensive rulebooks for looking up specific rules questions that come up: The Witcher Adventure Game stands out as incredible in this regard. The how to play was straightforward but I have - honestly, no word of a lie (and I would never lie to you anyway, you dear friends) -- I have never had an easier time looking up specific rules questions in a reference and having a conclusive answer in no time flat. Like, not even any significant casting through the index to figure out what your issue is listed under.

That was put out by Fantasy Flight right? How in the hell can they have the perfect rulebook with what is basically Talisman but have issues explaining poo poo correctly in what is basically Descent (Imperial Assault)?

Despite the kind of lovely rules explanations Imperial Assault is a great game that everybody should go play

# ¿ Jan 20, 2015 21:45

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

Stelas posted:

Bear in mind I love 2e pretty hard despite its flaws, but I think it's a lot better. I also never got to finish the IA campaign but got pretty drat far.

I've finished one campaign as Rebels with 2 players and are currently in the middle of a second one with 4 players and me as the Imps.

I'll agree with all your points except that the only legit baffling decision on the part of imperials is picking the deck that i think is called Subversive Tactics? (the one that has the imperial officers on the back) is all about piling on strain into the heros, which is what they use to use their abilities,meaning you're just giving them free fuel for what is going to be kicking your rear end the majority of the time! The best ability in that deck is a 3XP card that lets you turn all damage into strain, but why would you do that when you could just do the damage and be one step closer to actually winning?

A shame you've never finished the campaign some of those final missions are pretty sweet.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2015 07:02

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

Stelas posted:

Yeah, this is due to FFG's token fetish. Think of strain as 'negative endurance' - you're not giving them fuel, you're burning off their ability to use their special moves, slowing them down and forcing them to rest a lot.

From what I've seen the overwhelming power deck is a lot better, though. It's hard to beat more dice and troops in general.

oh so you're saying we've been playing it backwards this whole time?! That definitely makes that deck a lot more powerful and it makes hero abilities a bit less of a no brainer to actually use (Diala and Gharkhan especially since it seemed like they were entirely self sufficient strain-wise.Strain twice to get movement points to move in, then use ability to remove that same 2 strain to Precise Strike for instance)

Overwhelming is still better yeah, 5 HP stormtroopers that can heal off damage you've done is incredibly annoying no matter what. Strangely the game was still relatively balanced map to map despite how hosed up the way we were playing was, truly ImpAss is the most balanced game ever released :psyduck:

Edit:It also makes the Supply Deficit Influence card actually DO something since it orignally lead to lots of "well..in theory if i DON"T use abilities every turn this could eventually stack up to a bunch of extra damage, now excuse me while Diala Precise Strikes that Trandoshan again. Don't complain, it's balanced because you can only strain twice an activation!"

The Shame Boy fucked around with this message at 12:47 on Jan 25, 2015

# ¿ Jan 25, 2015 12:32

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

So what is a good number of players for Samurai Spirit? Playing with just 2 didn't really seem to click that well (didnt help we were expecting just Ghost Stories but with Samurai and not MATH)

Also the rules themselves seem pretty simple, but in regards to when you add in the new cards (the 5s and 6s) do you use the exact same cards you played the last round with or do you draw a whole new set and then add in the new ones?

# ¿ Feb 5, 2015 02:15

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

Short answer: Don't

Long answer: Don't because it leads to one of you becoming so powerful so fast you roll right over the other and it's not a lot of fun. Play with 3+ or don't at all

# ¿ Feb 7, 2015 01:52

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

Deathlove posted:

Played a few games of Samurai Spirit over the weekend. Won both times on Normal without really any danger, which had me wondering if we were doing it wrong, but we checked the rules obsessively and I think we just had a good deal of plunderers. You can use your own Kiai every time on your turn, right? And if you support, the other person has to give back the support token at the end of their turn?

Yes, as long as you're hitting the required number every time i believe

Also yes, you have to give it back regardless if you actually used it or not.

Also I made an account on KS just to back Final Attack, don't let me down BrokenLoose

# ¿ Feb 10, 2015 23:59

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

So Tales of the Arabian Nights has been described not so much as a game you try to win but somthing that you get some friends together and experience bullshit things together.

How does this experience maker of a game handle with 2-3 players?

# ¿ Feb 26, 2015 23:51

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

The Supreme Court posted:

Nope, you hide them under your battle card when you place that face down, so your choice is totally hidden.

That said, I'm not sure if you can play more than one in a combat; that's never come up in the games I've played.

Edit:

Pyramids belong to the city's owner unless there are enemy troops on them. They revert back to being yours when the enemy leaves.

Also: awesome! It's amazing to see players who're timid or defensive in strategy games play Kemet when they realise the mechanics fit attacking. It's just so much more fun!

Doesnt the rulebook say that you can play as many DI cards as you want, went you want, as long as you can pay it's cost (if any) i imagine you could do the same thing during combat as long as all the cards you're plyong can be used during combat.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 01:14

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

deadly_pudding posted:

Picking up Space Alert tomorrow

Any advice for teaching, or is it a pretty good Vlaada tutorial?

The one thing that threw me off was at some point in the first or second tutorial it will tell you to play the soundtrack, then a bit after that tell you to go play the mission. At least for my group this was a bit of confusing wording since we thought the game was basicaly saying "here's what you need to know, go have fun" when what they're trying to do is let you hear all the things the computer says before you're actually in a timed situation and go "uh wait what do we do now?"

Other than that it explains itself well and hopefully your group gets a good laugh out of failure.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2015 08:32

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

Aw man is it to late to get a free avatar? I want Betrayal at The House on the Hill please :v:

Anyway for content i will say i finally got my tax refund back so i got plenty of money which means there will be many new board games in my future :getin:

# ¿ Apr 5, 2015 22:34

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

So i need suggestions on games for a group of people that liked Escape:Curse of the Temple i don't know if they'd like the more complex nature of Space Alert so that's kind of out and it doesn't really have to be real time either.

# ¿ Apr 8, 2015 08:43

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

Lottery of Babylon posted:

In my experience it's pretty typical for the traitor to not have real decisions. Many haunts introduce some powerful threat that plays itself, like the sinking house or a boss monster with strict AI. Then the game remembers that the traitor is a player too and says "Uh, you can still keep your Might 3 little girl, maybe if you're lucky you can mildly inconvenience one of the other players with her?"

Yeah but then sometimes you get the ones where you're invincible or invisible or somtimes you just get luck your 3 Might little girl just happened to get lucky enough before the haunt that she is now a Might 6 Speed 5 little menace with a gun that goes around executing everybody because the house has poison gas or aliens or some poo poo that makes it impossible to win.

But it's fun so who cares if it's balanced right? :v:

# ¿ Apr 12, 2015 05:59

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

So Tales of the Arabian Nights came today and holy poo poo is the box bigger than i anticipated! Taking a quick look through the Tales book reveals that i made the right choice in buying this wonderful thing. The thread has mentioned a few times about house rules to make gameplay more bearable, what were those rules?

The Shame Boy fucked around with this message at 22:07 on Apr 13, 2015

# ¿ Apr 13, 2015 22:04

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

PopZeus posted:

Okay, so my friend and I have a few days off next week and we're itching to play something tactical/dungeon-crawly/possibly campaign-y. To give you an idea, we're looking at stuff like:

-Imperial Assault
-Descent
-Claustrophobia
-Earth Reborn

What do you guys think is the best game of this loosely defined type? We'll most likely only have 2 players and we don't need it to be beginner-friendly or anything. Love the Star Wars theme of ImpAss, but we're not sure if it's good with 2 players or if it shines more when you can play with more.

Also have heard nothing but praise for Earth Reborn, but that's more skirmish-based instead of having a longer campaign right?. So those are probably our top two, but just wanted to poll the thread real quick before any hasty impulse buys are made (especially if there's any heavy hitters we're missing).

ImpAss is fun with 2 if your rebel player doesn't mind controlling 4 characters. It's a Fantasy Flight game so the rulebook is bad (not to mention split up between 3 different books, 2 if you're not going to use the Skirmish mode) but you can get past all that you'll have a lot of fun.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2015 21:31

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

Megaman's Jockstrap posted:

The Imperial Player is not the GM. He is another player at the table with some special rules.

All of those special rules fall apart when your Rebels didn't know that they were suppose to go after the terminals instead of all your stormtroopers, oh and you guys lose because it's round six and you're not done? GUESS I WIN :smug:

What do you mean you didn't know you had a time limit? That was suppose to be secret! It should have tipped you off that there were terminals on the map in the first place!

Edit:totally not venting about my first game of Impass as well no sir

The Shame Boy fucked around with this message at 07:50 on May 12, 2015

# ¿ May 12, 2015 07:47

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

Kai Tave posted:

I know that FFG has a rightly deserved reputation for lovely rulebooks but is ImpAss really that bad? Because I've heard quite a few stories now about things like Imperial players withholding information that's supposed to be shared so is this a result of bad rules clarity or just collective stupidity?

It's a bit of both, you have rules split up over multiple books so it can be easy to go over the "extensive" portion of the rules that was already covered in the Learn to Play guide and go "okay yeah we get that part already" and kind of skim through not really paying attention.But when really the couple of sentences they left out changes things so immensely! Plus the wording on certain things can be finicky.

Maybe it's a holdover from Descent? I've never played it so i don't know if everything was super secret to in that and thus people assume it works the same way in ImpAss

# ¿ May 12, 2015 08:05

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

bobvonunheil posted:

I have spent a while looking over all the cards and rules in my own copy and I'm still utterly mystified about how missions are supposed to tie together. Haven't started playing it yet though.

The campaign book does stress that a lot of the content is supposed to be 100% secret so it's likely people being too picky about what they share with the Rebel players to avoid ruining the ~*experience*~

The short answer is the majority of them don't connect at all! There might some mention of "thanks to the intel you retrieved we now know we need to go here". But to fair previous missions aren't mentioned in any capacity and there is one mission that leads into another that makes sense Shockingly, if you lose while inside a Star Destroyer or some kind of base (i don't remember which exactly) they throw you into the Brig which you then escape from in the next mission immediately afterwards

I know in my first campaign we got both Han Solo missions and seems ol' Han got such a thrashing from the first time he didn't seem to remember us the second time.

Also the campaign mentions that everything is secret except everything in the mission briefing column You need to tell your friends that they have to destroy all the terminals to win, but they don't have to know Darth Vader shows up if they don't do it fast enough :v:

# ¿ May 12, 2015 08:53

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

Think of it this way as well, the only time you DON"T move into the space to attack is when attacking orcs or dragons.

Gutter Owl posted:

To add to the above: When you enter a city, you put your figure on the city's location card. Cities are the only spaces (beside the portal) that can hold multiple Mage Knights without initiating PVP. Hence the off-board placement.

You're also allowed to travel through a space with another Mage Knight if you're just trying to pass on through for example, it doesn't necessarily mean you're chummy to each other as you pass, but you're totally allowed to do this :v:

# ¿ May 14, 2015 03:50

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

The one time i got to play as Krang i got Master of Chaos and got really excited since there's a lot of good stuff on there! Then as the game went on i kept forgetting to move it along after every turn or the ability i'd have woulden't do me any good at the time.

I"d much rather have Puppet Master or Arcane Disguise tbh, what exactly is the timing on Puppet Master? Just whenever you beat sombody?

# ¿ May 21, 2015 03:25

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

Speaking of Mage Knight what would be an easier scenario to do in Solo play? I'm thinking of the shorter variant of Conquest i don't really want to fiddle with the dummy player. Either of the Volkare scenarios would eliminate that problem but then his would be a bit harder to do considering you're by yourself against his army.

# ¿ Jun 6, 2015 22:30

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

Mister Sinewave posted:

The Lost Legion book with the Volkare scenarios do say to feel free to adjust the numbers beyond what's provided for difficulty levels. It all works, you won't break the game or anything if you make Volkare a little weaker and/or the map smaller and junk if that helps.

You can just use Volkare instead of a city and other such tweaks too.

Meaning i could have 3 regular cities plus Volkare? That might be interesting

# ¿ Jun 7, 2015 00:26

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

Trip report from my solo game of Mage Knight! Did better than i thought i would be still ended up just short of conquering the last city because of lovely enemy draws. Maybe it's just because playing solo means you don't really have means to go everywhere and get everything but i feel like i left way to much stuff behind me as i went so i felt kinda underleveled and a bit underprepared by the end. Also i'm very sad i only managed to ever find one freaking monastery to burn down.

I kinda wish i had just taken a picture or somthing but at the end i just wanted to put everything up and go to bed so sorry :v:

# ¿ Jun 8, 2015 00:49

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

So Imperial Assault has been a big hit for my group and the question came up of how Descent actually stacks up. Is it worth picking up a copy to find out? Or would we be backtracking a bit in terms of quality? The fantasy setting woulden't be a problem but a "not nearly as good as Impass" would be.

# ¿ Jun 10, 2015 04:45

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

Blamestorm posted:

I acknowledge it's probably a commitment most people wouldn't want to make, but IMO Descent 2e's balance issues are greatly improved with the expansions, particularly the campaigns in Shadows of Nerekhall and Manor of Ravens. The base campaign and the default set of overlord cards definitely both have some rough edges.

edit: Also I think the balance issues hit hardest with any other number than four hero characters. I haven't played IA yet to see if that does better on this score, but I'd recommend always to play with four characters regardless of actual player count.

Does Descent increase health with a lower player number? That's how ImpAss gets around that limitation and after our very first campaign was with only 2 characters we decided that while it's still totally playable with only 2 it's way more interesting and fun with 4. Can you be a bit more specific with the balance problems and how the expansion makes them better? Basically do all my research for me :v:

# ¿ Jun 10, 2015 07:51

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# ¿ May 4, 2024 20:00

The Shame Boy: Jan 27, 2014; Dead weight, just like this post.

Stelas posted:

No, Descent 2 just reduces the number of enemies you're facing. ImpAss's preservation of action economy isn't present either, nor is ImpAss' heroes and overlord take turns alternately. This makes the game potentially very swingy.

I'll definitely second this, though. Nerekhall owned.

e: To put in a little more effort, the base game had many missions where the players could just utterly curbstomp the Overlord either due to favorable conditions or broken objectives or just the players being super powerful meatheads. There was no limit on how far you could stamina-move, which made for some absolutely crazy plays from the heroes, and when you combine that with missions where the boss starts 5 squares away and faces an immediate 4-hero damage spike they were sometimes basically impossible. You couldn't save up reinforcement points, so rather than deploying an entire squad at once you had to dripfeed a single monster onto the board each turn, making it much easier to lock the Overlord down.

All the maps were win-or-lose which often caused friction between players and overlord, especially when they'd taken ages to actually play, and ImpAss softened that by keeping rewards all the same. Meanwhile, if the players didn't save up money, they were inevitably going to die - but if they did, they were inevitably going to win. IA balanced that out, too.

Basically ImpAss had a ton of QOL fixes.

Thanks for the effortpost! So all this pretty much tells me that i should probably just stick to ImpAss then, maybe if i can find the game+it's expansions somewhere cheap i'll try it out but until then i'm blasting Stormtroopers instead of Orcs.

Although from what i did read up i do wish ImpAss at the very least had some of the cool looking traps and different interesting to look at enviroments(there's only so many times you can make forest/desert/in-door environments interesting)

# ¿ Jun 10, 2015 11:34

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

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