|
Geektox posted:He's 12 years old. We haven't played very many TGs together but play videogames often. Right now his strategy in almost any game is brute force, in our Netrunner game for example he would draw through his entire deck looking for the card that could deal with the one threat he's scouted, and he does the same thing against video game bosses and what have you, making suicide runs until he gets lucky. You might want to look into the Command and Colors series-they're relatively low complexity wargames with a limited decision scope due to a card-based movement system. Memoir 44 is probably the simplest (base game, at least), but there is a fantasy version of the system (Battlelore). I haven't played the second edition of Battlelore yet so I can't vouch for it myself, but there's an iOS version that you could try out.
|
#
¿
Aug 17, 2016 17:04
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 08:32 |
|
|
GEMorris posted:Thanks for the power grid feedback. It's currently a favorite of my group and I have all the expansion maps, but I was wondering if there was something "bad" about it or if there were even better similar games. Sounds like we should try out Chicago express. While I do think Chicago express is the better overall game, you don't have to throw out power grid or anything - the lower level of direct aggression might be what some groups want. While Chicago express enforces interaction, it makes almost every move about either incentivizing a partnership to your benefit, or loving over people who've turned down your generous offer of partnership. You should absolutely get CE though, it's got a super interesting decision space with a lower rules overhead than PG.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 20, 2016 16:13
|
|
|
[quote="Gutter Owl" post="""]If you live in a humid climate, expect heavy wear, or just want to go the extra mile, you can use a clear matte sealant like Mod Podge. It's like $6 at Wal-Mart, plus you'll need like a lovely $1 paint brush that you can ruin. [/quote] This is what I did, and it's great-a couple hours work to put some coats on that will make sure the stickers never come off, and the matte finish goes well with the wooden blocks. It's a striking looking game already, and it deserves the best. Next let's talk about counter clipping...
|
|
#
¿
Sep 30, 2016 01:18
|
|
|
Mister Sinewave posted:Auctions are wonderful concepts in both theory and practice for other people to glow happily over engaging in. Auctions are a lazy mechanic that passes the onus of balanced pricing into the players and exaggerates skill differences disproportionately  .
|
|
#
¿
Jun 11, 2017 16:23
|
|
|
Rad Valtar posted:Hey Bottom Liner since you're the list guy do you have one for best solo games? Do wargames count?
|
|
#
¿
Jul 6, 2017 01:07
|
|
|
Tekopo posted:You fool! What have you done?! I just think more people need to hear the good word about Fields of Fire. With a reprint coming and the new rule book out, there's never been a better time to get into the system!
|
|
#
¿
Jul 6, 2017 01:38
|
|
|
just kidding all wargames are solo games
|
|
#
¿
Jul 6, 2017 01:42
|
|
|
ima let u finish in me posted:
Friedemann Friese always has interesting ideas and a fragile gamestate that missing one fiddly rule can bust. I'm actually a fan, but I wish he would get someone else to write his rules.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 22, 2017 15:54
|
|
|
Megasabin posted:How is Nippon? I've heard it described as Brass meets El Grande, which sounds amazing. It's been out since 2015 though, and I don't hear much about it I quite like it, although I wouldn’t describe it as such. It’s got area control, but the action selection is way different than brass. There’s a lot more granularity in developing and supporting your factory than in brass, but less interesting economic balancing. If you’re interested, there’s a free rules enforced implementation on board game arena, which is the only place I’ve played it.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 21, 2018 19:04
|
|
|
EBag posted:Like some others said, it's a game that rewards multiple plays and a developing meta. It's very sandboxey so the first few times you play people are probably not going to really know what to be doing, so obviously getting more actions will seem really strong. But once you get a better handle on the game, if you're spending all that time maxing out your actions and other players know what they're doing you're going to end up getting locked out of a lot of other ways to score points such as building a large network, picking up bonus tiles, or sending dudes to the high-scoring privilege city. If you see someone just focusing on actions, upgrade your movement action to unlock more discs and put discs down on the action routes, this will give you a big influx of extra dudes on the board for free and cost them more actions to restock. Or build trading posts in the action city and on adjacent routes, and next to other popular upgrade cities to very quickly rush the game towards a 20 point end so they can't capitalize on the extra upgrades. And along the same lines, randomizing power locations would ruin balance - actions and keys are important, but one is best early while the other only matters for scoring. Having them be close ensures that area is active throughout while also tempting skipping an action upgrade in favor of placing an office for points throughout. Actions are easy to overvalue - they let you do more, but if someone pursues them they’ve left the door open to upgrade how efficient your actions are through the other upgrades. HT is almost like an auction game in how it requires you to read the values other people are placing on routes, and while being able to do more is always good, paying too much to do so is (as stated above) a fine way to lose.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 6, 2018 18:21
|
|
|
Fellis posted:Also put an amazon price alert for Chicago Express and Paris connection if you are interested in those. They’ve had some crazy sales in the past, no idea if that will happen again. I got CE for like $25. Queen always overprints, and then dumps stock at super cut rates. I’ve seen Chicago express and Paris connection for $12 on Amazon pretty regularly, so definitely set an alert. They’re also both great games-Chicago express is a top ten of all time for me.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 11, 2018 20:42
|
|
|
PerniciousKnid posted:I think Chicago Express sounds interesting but my friends won't go for anything described as "cutthroat". Are there any "kinder" alternatives in the Winsome line? Not really, because that’s kind of their thing. Really, the best you will find will probably be “subtle”-it’s not directly sticking the knife in, but you’re still only winning by taking advantage of others. C.E. could work, Paris connection probably more so. Samarkand and trans America would probably work as well (I think these are all mass market versions of winsome games at least).
|
|
#
¿
Jun 13, 2018 04:51
|
|
|
For area control I would add König von Siam, which is immensely tight in a way that makes three the best player count, which I feel can be rare for area control. It’s been reimplemented as The King is Dead, which I haven’t personally played but hear good things about.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 14, 2018 01:15
|
|
|
Dancer posted:These "crayon rail games" sound neat. What's a nice one to start with? For what it's worth, I lean towards really heavy games. If you like heavy games, Iron Dragon is probably the heaviest, although none of them are really very heavy-more lengthy. Some of the other variants can be fun (I like the Martian rails global map), but ID is the one to get if you can only have one and don’t really care about where they’re set. I have a weak spot for the series, but that’s because I’m a child who likes to draw with crayons. They’re fun, but always play fast game variant and never play with more than four, three ideally.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 15, 2018 14:52
|
|
|
Southern Heel posted:OK, i will check out BattleLore - thanks for the tip on Kemet being more combat heavy. Does it work as well as Inis is meant to, for 2p? It’s worth noting that Abbadon, the sci-fi version of this system, is consistently $15-$20 on Amazon. Haven’t played it as I’ve already got like three different command and colors games, but if you’re price sensitive that’s an option.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 29, 2018 15:41
|
|
|
Morpheus posted:Rajas was a cool game, but I didn't really feel much from it besides the pretty art and such. Nothing really new in its mechanics that I didn't see better elsewhere. Just a really standard dice-placement euro. For me, it does at least one unique thing with its endgame condition. For those who aren’t familiar, the money track and the VP track start at opposite ends of the board and move towards each other, and the endgame is triggered when they meet. It makes it feel like a race and complicates the question of when to transition from money making to point grabbing, as money making is still valuable throughout the whole game. Other than that though, pretty standard mechanics. At least it’s free on yucata.de, so you can give it a try risk free.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 16, 2018 22:28
|
|
|
Bottom Liner posted:
It’s not going to scratch the same itch as Tash-Kalar, as it has a higher luck of the draw quotient due to the placement mechanic (a shared pawn that is moved based off of card play). It’s fine-it’s not super exciting, but it plays fast, is easy to teach, and plays quickly. If you’re space limited I’d pass, but it’s a great choice for when my partner and I are not feeling particularly thinky but still want to play something. It’s another one that’s available at Yucata.de if you want to try it out.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 26, 2018 22:13
|
|
|
Chill la Chill posted:You should try listening to SVWAG: https://www.spreaker.com/user/10238956 I feel like the (rare) times I post is mostly just to point out where you can play certain games online, but if you really just want to try it you can play it online at boite a jeux. Personally, I didn’t get the fuss about it, but tile placement generally isn’t my jam.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 26, 2019 21:28
|
|
|
cenotaph posted:Chicago Express is 10 times the game Power Grid is with vastly less fiddling. The only compelling thing about PG for me is the market. I've also won games leading the entire time. Literally haven't played it since we got CE and Imperial. I'd rather play an 18xx but they're obviously in a different weight class and time commitment. While I’m not going to disagree with your statement (Imperial and CE are both 10s for me), I think there’s still a niche for PG. PG is fiddly, but it’s not rules dense as long as one person is comfy with handling all the fiddling and giving new players an overview of what they’re doing, and how the market will fill. CE is simpler, but you can lose the game in one play, while PG is a little more forgiving while also not having the length of play that Imperial does. I don’t play PG much any more, as my group either leans towards small and fast or big and complicated, which puts a mid weight euro in and odd spot for us, but it still has a spot in my collection.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 26, 2019 22:35
|
|
|
al-azad posted:Yuck. Using Objectively the Greatest Area Majority Game of All Time(TM) El Grande as a template, the point differentials should be a fraction of each other e.g. if you have 1st/2nd/3rd then 2nd place is 2/3 of first and 3rd is 1/3 of first. Two second-places or three third places should get the same value as one first place. El grande also has variable point values for regions, which promotes brinksmanship struggles for the higher value regions by having second place finishes being such lower value. With equal value regions, higher scoring for two seconds over one first seems like it would lead to more diffused placements and more emergent player struggles. It’s a different game, but one that’s valid - more logistics, less chicken.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 26, 2019 16:31
|
|
|
Jedit posted:I took one look at Rages of the Ganjas and moved on. It didn't seem offensively bad or anything, it's just not exciting. It doesn’t do anything wrong, and I think the converging victory point and income tracks are neat. That’s also literally the only thing it has that’s not otherwise bog standard. I’ve played a decent amount of it online because free and asynchronous makes a lot of things easier to tolerate, but for me it’s kind of definitional as a damnit with faint praise item.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 15, 2019 06:17
|
|
|
Funzo posted:Does anyone have recommendations for family-friendly escape room games? We tried one of the Exit games, and accidentally got a higher difficulty ones. I think we got Forbidden Castle. It was ok, but we started too late at night I think, and the kids lost interest pretty quickly. Escape the Room: Mystery at Stargazers Manor has some fun tactile puzzles and was a pretty easy experience for our group that plays a good amount of escape room games. It doesn’t have anything that goes outside of what are kind of standard “puzzle vocabulary” style things like the Exit games do, so if innovation is important this is not as great a choice, but it was worth the $20 for our group.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 3, 2020 21:48
|
|
|
djfooboo posted:My group is hard and heavy on BoardgameArena and Yucata. Boiteajeux has some janky interface stuff but also some great games. It’s my third site I regularly play on aside from the two you mentioned. Also have to mention Boardgamecore, which only has four games but they’re all bangers (food chain magnate, antiquity, great Zimbabwe and wir sind das volk).
|
|
#
¿
Mar 20, 2020 05:24
|
|
|
SoftNum posted:(FWIW imo there's no reason to play puerto rico since rftg and san juan and 'grick and such exist.) That being said Puerto Rico has bad issues with seating order imbalance, and auctioning off seating order only exacerbates the bigger issue of varied skill levels affecting how the game plays out (if there is a lower skill player at the table, the person downstream from them will almost certainly win). But if you’re exploring with a consistent group over repeated plays, it still totally has a place IMO.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 12, 2020 21:10
|
|
|
Shadow225 posted:For another perspective, Concordia and Navegador are his only good games imo. However they are pretty similar to each other in terms of feel. They are different, but may or may not have space for both in the collection. While I can respect differences of opinion it strikes me as crazy to say that Imperial is not a good game. Even if you don’t like the game, it’s tightly designed and offers an experience unlike any other game I’ve played. Honestly, Concordia feels pretty different to me because it doesn’t have the rondel limit on turn order. Its definitely more accessible and a lot more varied game to game than navegador. I like navegador, but the market is pretty simple and the game to game play can feel a little samey if you dive deep. Haven’t played antike 2, but I’m not a huge fan of antike duelleum personally, so my view there would probably be biased.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 20, 2020 03:08
|
|
|
pospysyl posted:When teaching Modern Art, should you advise people not to buy their own paintings, or is that going too far into "telling people how to play" territory. I feel like auction games get horribly skewed by large experience differentials, so if you’re going to teach and play you should at least give them an idea of your heiuristics so they have something to build off of. As long as you’re not trying to lay down some sort of rules of play it’s a good move (eg. “usually it’s best to have other people buy your paintings” vs “NEVER buy your own paintings.”).
|
|
#
¿
May 12, 2020 03:32
|
|
|
Mayveena posted:Bruce Shelley!!!! Love him as a developer of board games. He worked with Tresham on 1830. The rumor is that Tresham got angry at the direction Bruce wanted to take the game and quit working on the game in the middle of it. One of the highlights of my board game life is playing 1830 with Bruce Shelley at Origins starting at midnight and going on til 4AM. It was heavenly!!! How do you hand out the privates in ‘46? I have a group that could go for pretty much anything but, they’d probably like the game more if they didn’t feel like they lost the game in the opening round. I’ve always wanted to get into 18xx but I haven’t had the ability to get a group together - Covid-19 has moved my usual group entirely online so if they’re learning a new interface anyways it might as well be Board18.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 9, 2020 19:59
|
|
|
Major Isoor posted:My copy of Hey, That's My Fish! finally arrived! I gave it a whirl and quite like it. My only question is, when a penguin is trapped/cut-off and therefore can't make a legal move, does it simply stay there (and therefore the tile it's on is wasted and doesn't get cashed-in) or can the penguin move/jump in the water as per the game description/theme, and get that tile as well? The latter - rulebook says that when you have no more legal moves, “He then removes his penguins from the game board and adds the ice floes they occupied to his collection.”
|
|
#
¿
Jul 25, 2020 15:21
|
|
|
Bellmaker posted:The Mark Derrick games are all pretty similar and appear to be being worked on, so hopefully 18Mex in the future too There was an 18Mex game sitting in active on 18xx.games earlier today so that’s a safe bet. As someone who has just started playing these recently, why should I bet excited for 18Mex?
|
|
#
¿
Jul 26, 2020 07:12
|
|
|
Bellmaker posted:18Mex has minors which fold into a major/national and give you a cert of them when they close, a tight map full of terrain decisions, and the NdeM (a presidency that can't start until the fifth 3T is bought). That sounds wild, but still understandable to a newer player. Damnit, I don’t want to spend more money but 18xx.games has made playing these games way too approachable to resist any longer.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 27, 2020 04:20
|
|
) You only get half your share value back and a 10% cert of the NdeM, but you can dodge one of the craziest train rushes in 18xx 
|
ketchup vs catsup posted:7 wonders is bad because at <5 players there are dozens of better games and at 5+ it sucks. It’s one of the meatiest pure drafting games which makes it hit a sweet spot for a lot of people. It’s not my favorite - I prefer drafting as a mechanic instead of the whole game at that level of complexity - but I see why it’s so popular.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 31, 2020 15:12
|
|
|
Mr. Squishy posted:I'll still judge you for playing Uno. What the gently caress? Uno? Playing Uno with my kid made me realize it actually has a very important purpose. Because you can’t choose who you target, you can learn how to disassociate in game aggression from personal aggression. Of course that was playing with a five year old and now she’s bored on Uno already so, yeah, that many games of Uno? On purpose?
|
|
#
¿
Aug 30, 2020 20:40
|
|
|
Lawlicaust posted:I haven't seen storage chat in the this thread in a while and I would love to get some good recommendations for some storage solutions. Here's my situation: There’s a good geek list of games that’ll fit into a 4x6 photo case. Michaels has periodic sales of briefcase style cases that have 20 of the cases contained within for $10-$15 bucks. You have to be okay with folding rule books sometimes, but I’ve broken down about 30 of my card games and they take up a lot less space now.
|
|
#
¿
May 19, 2021 03:33
|
|
|
Bottom Liner posted:I grabbed one of those cases but found that it didn’t actually save any space in the end. Wasn’t easier to carry either compared to small boxes in a tote. It’s great organization but poorly optimized space. It worked okay for me, but mainly in the sense that lots of little boxes presented a larger shelving challenge than one big box. Plus, I was able to fit two games into one 4x6 often enough that it was worth it for me (eg a couple mystery rummy games or both fox in the forest games in one case). Helps to have some bondage tape in those cases to keep everything organized. You’re right that it’s not a good tote though - I usually just grab the games I’m planning on playing and taking them with me in the 4x6 instead of hauling the whole briefcase.
|
|
#
¿
May 19, 2021 06:13
|
|
|
Infinitum posted:Real answer: Not really no. The parts are really cool - and that’s enough to get my six year old to play it. I also have isle of cats but thats a little more complex than she likes. Haven’t played barenpark, but I do have patchwork. One thing I will say is that people who don’t game regularly pick New York Zoo up quickly, which is valuable for a game that can play five people in under an hour without being total filler.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 1, 2021 17:34
|
|
|
gschmidl posted:I've played one of these, though not this one. It was mostly pretty good except for one total BS moment (but one that could've been in any 90s point and click). Assuming it was the corporate heist one - was it the chair? Because that’s what made my partner call bullshit. I’ve played this and the corporate heist one, and can’t say I much cared for them. It does a pretty decent job of emulating point and click, but doesn’t really add anything that makes use of the medium. At least they’re non-destructive, so you can always pass them on to someone else or sell it when you’re done.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 24, 2021 21:49
|
|
|
Brandfarlig posted:Can we talk about Feast for Odin again or am I just years too late? I finally got to try it now that it’s in alpha on BGA and whoops I accidentally ordered base + Norwegians don’t know how that happened.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 18, 2021 00:24
|
|
|
Looking for Hollandspiele recommendations, as I’m making a Christmas list. I have: Table battles, base This guiltily land Supply lines, both versions Meltwater I’m locked in on getting: Nicea Field of the cloth of gold I like wargames and train games, so nothing from the catalog is off the list. Any must buys?
|
|
#
¿
Nov 15, 2021 18:44
|
|
|
KongGeorgeVII posted:I can only speak for myself but it is a claustrophobic, tight, hex based wargame for 2 players that covers a very interesting, if grim and depressing topic. It is also a bit of an art piece, the message behind it about the futility of nationalism, unchecked military spending and nuclear war. Our very own Gutter Owl, yep. And yeah, it’s rare that a game works so well as both an art piece and a tight, quick two player abstract. My first game ended with a single civilian unit left alive, and I’ve been chasing that high since.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 16, 2021 10:22
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 08:32 |
|
|
FulsomFrank posted:Some of the visitors are just straight up amazing and some orders are very easy to fulfill. I think Tuscany "fixes" some of these issues, partially by making them visitors more difficult to get. That said, it might even exacerbate the issue by just reducing the quantity of them so that when/if someone gets an amazing one it stands out more. It reminds me of DXV’s insight into chapel when first designing Dominion - “This card is way too good to restrict access to it. I better make it a 2 cost so that anyone can buy it first turn.”
|
|
#
¿
Nov 29, 2021 23:39
|
|