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I said this in a PM with a couple of notes on the OP(s), but it bears public repeating: that is some quality work you did to kick off the thread, Magnetic North But why did you leave Cosmic Encounter off the recommended list? *ducks* (My shameful secret: I love CE, not as a game, but as a shaft-your-buddy experience.)
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Dec 30, 2021 18:00
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HouseOfLeaves99 posted:For the new thread and for a refresher for myself, what are the best games for solo play? A general suggestion: any co-op game subject to "quarterbacking", like Pandemic/Jaws of the Lion/etc., is a good choice; just play 2+ pawns/characters/etc. by yourself. You miss out on the social aspect of course. Another alternative is AI opposition. Twilight Struggle and Lords of Waterdeep have OK AIs, for a couple of examples. I've heard Race for the Galaxy has an excellent one. This of course requires purchasing the app.
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Dec 30, 2021 20:05
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I played Castles of Burgundy for the first time last night. I liked it a lot, noted the recommendation on BGG that it's best at 2, and so am thinking about getting a copy to play with my wife. Any recommendations on must-have expansions?
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Jan 14, 2022 02:24
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Thanks all for the recs about CoB!
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Jan 14, 2022 04:38
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I'm struck by the nature theme running through your games and thought Parks. It really shines at 3+ but is perfectly fine at 2, if you don't mind an American Euro.
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Jan 17, 2022 00:22
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After wrangling with myself/eyes bigger than stomach/FOMO/analysis paralysis, I finally settled on Spirit Island as the next game to get for the Flag household. (Yes, we're behind the times; the next-place competitor was Castles of Burgundy.) I tried a solo two-spirit game to learn it before it hit the table with my wife. It's been a while since I've been so thoroughly impressed. I can't wait to play it again. I'm tempted to blow off plans I have either tomorrow or Sunday to play it.
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Jan 22, 2022 02:34
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jng2058 posted:I like Lords of Waterdeep. The Intrigue Cards give you more interaction than just cutting someone off at the pass as does having to pay another player to use the building they built. I also like the D&D theme, but that's a matter for taste. That said, I think the base game is the best version of the game, the expansions give too much leeway to get what you want even if other players are trying to block you. Agreed 100% all around. Of special note, I like the mechanism of grabbing first player giving you just enough reward in intrigue cards to be a suboptimal play on its own, but not excessively so, if you have a need to move up in the turn order. I do like to remove the card for the Lord who gets bonus points for erecting buildings, as they are too easy for people to block even by chance.
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Jan 23, 2022 18:47
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Bottom Liner posted:gently caress off already loser
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Jan 25, 2022 03:24
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Slimy Hog posted:Can we take this to QCS or something? I'm not liking this pages-long derail about Prada slut and crypto. I think this is sort of a trick question because automation can (not necessarily does) improve any solo-only game. My recent new favorite solo-only game is Spirit Island, but it only counts because my wife hasn't had time to play it since I got it, so I've been two-handing it solo.  What a great game!Thinking about it, out of my two hundred or so of all sorts good and bad, I don't think I own any one-player games.
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Jan 25, 2022 23:24
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As the Broken Token organizers are out (see the second post of the thread for more info if, like me, you were unaware), who in general is the go-to organizer recommendation? And, specifically, who's got the best organizer for (no surprise to anyone who's seen my recent posts) Spirit Island with expansions? e: USA if it matters Admiralty Flag fucked around with this message at 22:16 on Jan 27, 2022 |
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Jan 27, 2022 22:00
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Orange DeviI posted:Cosmic encounter is a bad game mechanics wise, but god is it still my favorite beer and pretzels loving around game. It's so luck based that really anyone can win, and also so overtly luck based that you can not care about losing. It's entirely carried by the aliens, the funny background blurbs, and the stupid bullshit cards though. I'll always play it if someone pulls it out of the cupboard but putting it at #1 doesn't really make me think your list is a list of mechanically sound and fun board games CE has historically been my favorite game. I'll admit a bad game by most technical benchmarks but it's unparalleled as an experience generator. I still remember excellent shaft jobs that both other people and I pulled from decades ago. I've fallen deeply in love with Spirit Island but I doubt I'd remember specific games in the future, let alone as fondly as I remember specific games of CE. One problem is that doing things like "get three powers; drop one, keep one, pass one left" can sometimes lead to really fun combinations but on occasion to slogs. What the game needs is a way to short-circuit crap rounds but I'm not sure I'm smart enough to figure out a good way to do that. Maybe if you irrevocably vote to cancel the round before anyone has three outer bases, you get a free flare draw, and if there's a supermajority of votes to cancel the round before a third outer base the round ends with no winner? Everyone who didn't vote to cancel the round gets a flare in their opening hand in the next round?
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Jan 30, 2022 22:28
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Lawlicaust posted:There’s some good Etsy shops out there like Tower Rex or Laser Ox. I’ve ordered from both and the quality is as good or better than Broken Token ever was. (Was re: Broken Token behavior I learned of through OP) Magnetic North posted:I'm very happy that the OP helped at least one goon. It was all worth it.
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Feb 4, 2022 00:55
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nrook posted:However, this does mean that I have a difficult time with games where a player can be knocked out of contention without being able to resign. On some level, the design of such games is unserious for leaving players in that position. One of the reasons why I think Power Grid is such a good game is, unless you've just not been paying attention throughout the whole game, it's very difficult to get into a position where you don't pose some sort of threat to somebody in the endgame, and people who do flame out in the endgame do so not because of blind luck but because they didn't think ahead or miscalculated a position (if you play with hidden money, which you should, I think). In most games I've played, most everyone is (in a meaningful, not theoretical) sense still in until the literal last couple minutes of the game. (The unfortunate practical exception is bad luck on which plants come up for auction and even that is mitigated by phase 3's greater selection.)
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Feb 4, 2022 23:20
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AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:Are there any boardgames out there that handle having a big event happen mid-game that is designed to slow all of the players down/throw a wrench in their plans/cause some damage without being overbearing and lovely? Without going into spoilers, Pandemic Legacy Seasons 1&2 sort of do this (waiting until the summer for my daughter to visit to play 0, which probably does this as well) -- includes big gameplay shifts but also usually new mechanisms to handle those shifts. Not sure if co-op examples are applicable. Another game that comes to mind that might be relevant is (IIRC title) Brittania, an Avalon Hill bookcase game IIRC. 3-5 players control various cultures in Britain, and these cultures go through ebbs and flows. E.g., one of the initial cultures is the late Romans and they automatically die out by turn 3 or 4, but the player who had the late Romans takes over a new culture and continues, having earned VPs/accomplishments based on how the late Romans did under their control. Sorry, it's been like 25 years since I've looked at the game and never actually played it, but it might have ideas. One last thought -- you might want to make the decision point about transitioning technology a gameplay decision. You can muddle along with Bronze Age tech if you're close to thresholds/engaged in several skirmishes/can't afford the temporary hit of going into collapse to come out into the Iron Age, but that'll just delay your advancement into the next stage of civilization/tech/trade/etc.
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Feb 9, 2022 18:27
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Elman posted:We played our first month of Pandemic Legacy s1 and it was great fun, we'll definitely keep going. I wanna ask a component question though. Gonna spoil it since it's a Legacy game, but it's definitely not a spoiler: Sorry, but they're crappy in my experience. At least Pandemic S2's scratch cards are better!
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Feb 12, 2022 02:39
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Quick question -- in the past I've seen some people who have "octopus-like" rubber bands for their game boxes -- they look like three overlapping rubber band loops connected at a central disk. Has anyone seen these/know what they're called? I use large rubber bands when storing games around the house but when traveling with games I'm thinking something more secure than double-banding them might be in order, but I don't know what they're called or where to find them. Any help would be appreciated!
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Feb 14, 2022 17:03
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Magnetic North posted:There are likely many brands, and these are sold out, but BGG normally carries something similar to what you describe: Mayveena posted:Are you talking about these? https://boardgamegeekstore.com/products/geekon-box-bands Thanks to both of you for quick responses! I went with Mayveena's cheaper option.
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Feb 14, 2022 18:05
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I just wanted to interject here while we're on the topic and say that I just love Spirit Island. However, it might be problematic for my marriage. My wife isn't as good as I am, and it takes every bit of willpower I have not to quarterback the game, which is truly obnoxious when I do it so I try so very hard not to...but the invaders are despoiling our pristine shores and killing the Dahan...please just see that you can stop that build chain with a push, don't make me say it...
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Feb 19, 2022 02:19
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canyoneer posted:I just started playing Spirit Island in the app and I'm getting clobbered. Doing small board, one spirit, low complexity. I won a single game with Vital Strength of the Earth and got wrecked in a few attempts each with Lightning or River Surges. Solo can be more difficult than 2-handed because of higher variability -- the initial explore has (assuming base game, I.e., no disease token) a 50% chance of building (in) a city leading to a likely unblockable ravage -- but you won't get two unblockable ravages with two spirits most likely, etc. There's more slack with two spirits plus greater synergy...River can cast Boon of Vigor and solve Lightning's Energy problems, at least for a little while. I find River to be one of the easier spirits to play solo just because it has such good disruption tools but you could have gotten unlucky explorations. Are you pushing explorers before they have a chance to build towns? Lightning can be more difficult solo because its energy track takes so long to ramp up. Try a two-handed game and see how things go. If you need more help, of course feel free to ask here, but boardgamegeek has a generally good user group who will help you out too in more detail than is appropriate for this board, have sample play throughs on their forums, etc. Just don't get intimidated by the people who are complaining that combining England level 6 with scenarios on the thematic maps isn't giving them enough of a challenge; most of those are bullshitters anyway.
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Feb 22, 2022 18:30
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Hempuli posted:The mention of GPT-3-generated boardgame descriptions earlier made me want to generate boardgames (although my algorithm is much cruder): I think I backed some of those on Kickstarter out of reflex
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Feb 22, 2022 23:48
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Mayveena posted:I like Viticulture, it's cool but games of that complexity aren't long term keeps for me so when I could flip it I did.
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Mar 5, 2022 23:26
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I'm a big fan of Pan Am too as a nice light Euro-style game. I find it plays best at 3, but is still fun at 2 & 4. For solo gaming, I've become obsessed with Spirit Island. It's a co-op game, so you can play single-handed all the way up to four-handed (or six-handed if you get the Jagged Earth expansion, I suppose). A deep, very replayable game without unnecessary cruft or complexity (not to say it isn't complex, just that the complexity serves a purpose for fun) -- and it's fun with other people playing it too.
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Mar 10, 2022 23:53
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And I am immediately 12 years old again
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Mar 12, 2022 01:24
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There was that Star Trek 3P game, which even though I saw it on consignment for $25 I skipped because I knew getting it to the table with exactly 3 was a fool's errand (plus I didn't have my phone with me for some reason, so I couldn't check its rating on the 'Geek).
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Mar 25, 2022 17:59
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I've called for the threadbanning of Prada Slut before, but that was while they were on a roll. I would be satisfied with strong moderation when they misbehave, preferably with the ramp that's surely been earned by prior probes and warnings ITT. However, one thing gives me pause: nordichammer posted:Can you expound on the moderation/reporting process? There have been many lovely occurances in the recent past, so some clarification would be helpful. Mayveena posted:Yep and that could happen again. I’m following the directions of Leperfish and they don’t want a lot of whining. I’m only a mod in this thread, I’ve been given marching orders and part of that is to keep the conversation board game focused and less people focused. I don’t anticipate doing a lot of throttling. We all need to keep this about the hobby we love. So I'm just putting 2+2 together here, but your understanding of direction given is that calling out problematic behavior is whining? And that the endorsed response to that is getting punished? We're supposed to countenance what we find to be problematic, even offensive, views in silence and hope that a report does something? Hopefully things will change with a dedicated IK (congratulations on getting tapped for what must be a thankless job, by the way; I've always thought you one of the nicest and most open posters in this thread), but shared experience seems to weigh toward the report button having done little to correct the (fortunately relatively rare) issues ITT.
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Mar 26, 2022 03:58
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Let me contribute to the thread. mellonbread is doing a detailed walkthrough of the Gale Force 9 remake of Dune (2019) starting in this Fatal and Friends post (click on "their posts" for the other six or so posts done so far; more to come): https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3898332&perpage=40&noseen=1&userid=222188&pagenumber=7#post522323271
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Mar 26, 2022 04:16
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Radioactive Toy posted:We recently got back into Spirit Island. We'll even play it at 4 players because two friends also enjoy it as much as we do. Still a great game even though most wouldn't recommend it over 2. Just got back from a meetup where we taught two groups of newbies how to play SI in groups of 3 (had a couple of no-shows). It was well-received, of course. One guy even had SI but hadn't punched it yet due to its complexity (and I'm sure other games hitting the table). I think everyone senses the possibilities and hope to schedule another meetup for it soon.
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Mar 27, 2022 01:24
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I recently played Concordia at a Meetup and enjoyed it. Amazon is running a promo where if you buy something that is listed as "sold by Amazon" and you have it delivered to a locker/hub, you can use the code 10OFFPICKUP to get $10 off a purchase of $20+. So I decided to order Concordia (already $20 off MSRP + $10 more). I'll get xpacs through my FLGS to make up for my sin of feeding the Amazon beast. Speaking of which: The catch is I'm in a 2 player household until mid-May. Any suggestions on which board/map set to get for 2P? Also, BGG seems to concur that Salsa is the best xpac for Concordia. Anyone confirm/deny?
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Apr 2, 2022 00:50
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Fat Samurai posted:Whats a good rec for 8 players? We’re renting a house for Easter, and I’d like to pack a couple of games. With expansions Cosmic Encounter will play 8  , or play Diplomacy and fill the role of referee! I was going to say Avalon but then reread your post. I think there's a lot of interaction in Avalon if you're pushing for each decision, but you know your group. My memory is failing -- does 7 Wonders + Cities play 8? I've never tried it, it seems possible, but can't remember if it's explicitly recommended. I think Captain Sonar is a good recommendation as is Codenanes. Different games of course, you know your group best. Dune with expansions will play 8 but probably not a good idea for a beginner group.
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Apr 3, 2022 16:33
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Power Grid handles 3-6 players, has only a few tokens, and the cards aren't really cards in that they don't form a hand -- you bid on the power plants and up to three of them sit in front of you in a relatively static manner. Not too many fiddle tokens either. Distracted players might be a problem during auction phases though.
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Apr 11, 2022 00:02
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Funso Banjo posted:To be fair, the second post of the OP is just a gigantic list of things to be pissed off about in board games. It kind of sets the tone. (I tried to link to the original quote by FB but it recursively linked to a post by Leperflesh.) Magnetic North posted:There is a reason I elected to include that section and it's not for drama or to impose my own morals. For years and years I saw people in the last thread say, "Aw man, I didn't know that Phil Eklund was the worst human being on the planet. I sure wish I hadn't given him my money." So, I took the opportunity to try and afford people the information to make the decisions for themselves. A few other things, like the Broken Token felt like they warranted inclusion, so it grew from there. Whether directing someone's own money under capitalism is an effective form of protest is a big and worthwhile question but is completely outside of the purview of a thread about the consumption of luxury goods. The important thing is: it's their money, they can direct it as they see fit, and this information may assist them in that. Does every issue brought up in the second post rise to the level of sexual assault? Of course not. But it's nice to have the reference so that people can be aware of these issues when spending their money and try to avoid what they might individually feel are the worst ethical pitfalls.
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Apr 21, 2022 20:52
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Mighty Eris posted:Spirit island is overrated. It’s a great lifestyle game but a little impenetrable unless you’re willing to devote the time to it. Mayveena posted:I will agree with this. We've tried it three times and lost every time. Both of you are dead to me. (First let me say that the core of your opinions is objectively correct; I can't say that you're wrong if you don't like it. I will also agree that SI requires more work and focus than your average game; its BGG complexity is 4.04/5.00 IIRC, jumping to something like 4.5/5 with the expansions. But I find it worth the effort. It rewards the work you put into it. It has real and engaging options for scaling difficulty, which many co-op games lack; e.g., in Pandemic, your only two real choices to increase difficulty are to include more epidemic cards or decrease the number of beneficial event cards. I've never found a game quite like SI and I wonder if I'll ever fall out of love with it. I love playing it solo 2-handing spirits, playing it with my wife, teaching it to newbies, etc. My only complaint about the game is that sometimes I can lose to a 'bad beat', where I get three perfectly synchronized bad event cards in a row at the same time as, say, wetlands has come up thrice in a row [stage 1 wetlands/stage 2 coastal lands/stage 2 wetlands], and because of all that building and ravaging the island gets just the wrong sort of blighted island card, and all that just puts me too far behind the 8-ball; however, to be fair, sometimes a game is just a blowout against the invaders when everything goes right and that's not as fun as a tense game either. But even without someone stacking the deck to smooth out extremes or somehow putting rules on when cards can come up those outliers are a price I'm willing to pay for such a great game.)
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Apr 22, 2022 00:30
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Lawlicaust posted:YMMV since you aren't in North America but I generally buy a Giant Box of Mayday premium sleeves every year during their holiday sale. Depending on card size you can get them about 50% off during the sale and I have several dozen games sleeved in them with no issues. Sorry, but I’ve never heard of this. I’m guessing holiday sale = December? What should I look for in case I decide to, e.g., sleeve my entire Dominion collection as a Christmas miracle?
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Apr 22, 2022 21:57
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I distinctly remember once when I was younger my father getting viscerally upset with my mother. We (or they; I can't remember if I was old enough to be included yet) were playing Scrabble, and whenever a line to get to (e.g.) a triple word score appeared, if she couldn't make use of it, she would block it off with a garbage word, even if she had a better play point-wise available to her. From what I remember of their argument, in his mind, she was ruining the experience of the game by preventing elegant plays, while she was making sure he didn't outscore her. (Of course, he didn't view all games the same way. Once he had taught me the rules of chess, he never let me win. It was frustrating but only made me want to do better, and made those times I beat him all the sweeter.)
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Apr 26, 2022 17:40
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Azran posted:The other day I talked at length on the discord about Argentina's budding board game dev scene. …Thanks for reading.
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May 1, 2022 14:01
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Orange DeviI posted:Anyone else getting the cosmic encounter campaign game? I just got back from a weekend trip where I played Cosmic Encounter with my old gaming group. My only regret was that thanks to two relative newbies the games were slower, plus we were delayed by a tornado warning (!), filled a lot of potential playing time with catching up and bullshitting, had six players, and had to end relatively early, so we only had time for two rounds. I stand by my assessment that while it may not be the greatest game ever, it's an amazing experience generator. I'll be getting it so long as it's not solely a campaign game (which the few early reviews I've seen don't seem to say it is).
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May 2, 2022 23:14
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Jarvisi posted:Anyone have any ideas for smallish semi easy to learn games? I'm going out on a trip in a couple of weeks with some friends and I need something. How many people? (If the answer is 3-5 then yes the Crew is a great recommendation, whether in quality, ease of learning, or portability.)
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May 4, 2022 23:04
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KVeezy3 posted:Hello thread, idiot to the genre here, and read the OP but still have a question: I love 7 Wonders, but the "no necessary in-game text" is misleading -- all the cards have icons, and there's usually a scramble for the rulebook among the more infrequent players to remember what the more obscure icons mean. I eventually sleeved my cards with a paper slip explaining them so they'd be easily playable even by the occasional player. Azul is totally language-independent outside of the initial teach, which is easy. The issue there is that after an hour or so it sort of drags; I don't find it fun to play over and over again like I do (say) 7 Wonders. Carcassonne (base set only; don't know about expansions) falls into the same category -- no in-game text. It's older and problematic because of randomness, but Catan has simple and limited in-game text, though more than others mentioned.
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May 9, 2022 18:54
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Leperflesh posted:Just to be sure, you're talking about the original, unrevised version from the 1980s, since that's the one I was mentioning? Because I know there was a balance change to the game, IIRC some time in the 90s or early aughts. I saw 1942 in the original post and didn't notice "Spring" before it, and was in strong agreement but wouldn't call it mathematically solved. In A&A 1942, even with the suggested balance adjustments, it's extremely difficult for the USSR to hold out. However, in the first mass release "Classic A&A" in 1984 (the Milton Bradley Gamemaster series release), it's virtually impossible for the Axis to win against competently played Allies and would call it "inductively" solved, if not mathematically solved (because nothing stops an extremely long improbable string of high rolls). By balance change, are you referring to the second edition rules from 1986? Those just prevented England from creating a full-fledged Asia defense in India by limiting the number of units produced at new factories to the IPC value of the territory (plus some other minor changes). Or are you referring to something like A&A Revised (2004)? As far as I know (and I'm no expert; I haven't even played all editions of the game), the only ways to prevent the automatic neutralization of Germany are by increasing the distance between America and Europe as well as making unescorted transports defenseless. Otherwise, you can't stop the flood of US (and a few UK) troops that either sacrifice themselves to kill German units or hold Russian territory.
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May 11, 2022 21:54
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Impermanent posted:You won't regret it, spirit island has surpassed every other game I've bought since getting in to the hobby in terms of play time I fully agree about this assessment. I've only been playing since Januaryish and it's already become my all-time favorite game.
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Jun 15, 2022 18:20
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