|
Terrible OP for one reason: Trains are the most important kind of game. If 18xx is too much start with cube rails  good op
|
#
¿
Dec 30, 2021 03:56
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 16, 2024 21:11 |
|
|
Spirit Island is the trains game of games that aren't about trains.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 30, 2021 16:45
|
|
|
I haven't gotten to play an 18xx f2f in over a year 
|
|
#
¿
Dec 30, 2021 16:46
|
|
|
bagrada posted:Hear me out - Spirit Island 2, now with competitive gaming, where one faction is the spirits trying to chase off the settlers, and the other faction is the settlers trying to build trains around the island. I have the rough outline done for a game that started with "what if 18xx but COIN" and it ends up being the Red River and North-West rebellions of 1869-70 and 1885 where one faction is playing ChEx style cube rails, one has Cuba Libre style police and troops, and then the last two are insurgents who can make resources by running trade routes in areas that don't have rail access. Oh, and all factions can buy shares in the railroads. I think the idea still has teeth but I haven't worked on it in a while.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 30, 2021 19:05
|
|
|
SettingSun posted:I've played hundreds of SI games and I've barely touched any of the scenarios. There's just so much game in trying different spirit combos and adversary difficulty levels. In the latest expansion they codified rules for mixing two adversaries together and welp there goes all my time. I have seen people swear both of those off forever. You should try the second wave scenario. It's great fun.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 30, 2021 19:54
|
|
|
Agreed on TFM being merely ok. I've played it maybe 5x now and every time it feels like a chaotic, jumbled mess with way too much extraneous information and red herring side material. If you just pay attention to the main activities it's perfectly fine but drat those designers sure wanted to cram everything in there. It's a great example of an inelegant game.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 6, 2022 23:11
|
|
|
the holy poopacy posted:I know they're worth a lot, but they seem to balanced out by the opportunity cost of grabbing them early. Wood + ship + explore basically sets you back an entire turn if you're going for the middle islands, and then there are a lot of extra blank spaces to cover that you'll need the extra income just to make up from (the same is true of the home board, but the bonuses are generally more convenient to the income spaces, and filling in the income makes it easier & more rewarding to cover up all the -1s that you need to cover anyhow.) I completely ignore my home board a lot of the time. The trick with the islands is that the necessary boats have lots of utility. If I build a boat early, that's a gain in points and it opens up other options that I can then leverage towards filling up that island and can allow me to capitalize on action spaces that my opponents are unable to use. Once the bonus tiles start pouring in, they get very good, fast. So if I am first to get a longboat and then get a big island, I can use the longboat to get blue tiles to fill up that island and I have less concern with my non-longboat-having opponents taking the action spaces at the centre of my economy.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 7, 2022 19:44
|
|
|
For gloomhaven we use an app to manage monster attacks but then health and status tracking we do with dice and chits. The book keeping isn't so bad if you're distributing the workload around the room, and the communication between me operating the app and my friends managing the analogue stuff means that everyone has access to the information. (in other words, player A says "this monster attacks this person," then player B says "ok 5 damage," then player B goes "I retaliate for 3" and player C goes "ok that monster has 3 health left" )
|
|
#
¿
Jan 26, 2022 19:23
|
|
|
When I take a longer turn it's usually me coming to terms with the fact that I don't have a path to victory anymore. That should happen at most once per game.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 4, 2022 19:27
|
|
|
Kerro posted:I think I'm addicted to Spirit Island. I had already played it a ton since I got it several years ago - probably in the 50-100 games range or maybe more, but now that I'm routinely playing against level 6+ adversaries it feels almost like I've discovered the 'actual' game. Kinda like how hardcore MMO players only consider the endgame content to be relevant, it's like there's a whole other level of game that I'm just scratching the surface of now. It's crazy to me that the game has that much depth, and crazy that there are players doing two level 6 adversaries simultaneously while I'm still working out how to reliably play each spirit against a single level 6. It also goes against my normal gaming habits which is to play a steady rotation of different games, but with SI I feel I could just play game after game after game. I think I need help. Have you played the multiple waves mode? That adds another strategic axis too
|
|
#
¿
Feb 9, 2022 04:05
|
|
|
Kerro posted:I haven't yet. For some reason the scenarios just haven't interested me - and I've been playing a lot with people on the SI discord and they never seem to do scenario games. If I ever run out of interest in just playing different spirits against different adversaries perhaps I'll give that a shot! Well give it a read at least! It's the least "scenario" of the scenarios. It might be to your liking. The longest streak of spirit island I've played was because we got hooked on that play mode. We never managed to win 4 in a row.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 9, 2022 05:40
|
|
|
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: Use a sharp knife for all of that.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 12, 2022 05:30
|
|
|
Jagged Earth is great and you should be getting it more or less as soon as you've figured out the base game
|
|
#
¿
Feb 18, 2022 21:35
|
|
|
I've enjoyed Founders of Gloomhaven every time I've played it, which is 3 or 4 now, but drat it has a lot of fiddly, easy-to-forget rules. I can't remember which one we punted last time we played it, but read the placement rules like 4x before you start.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 1, 2022 22:15
|
|
|
Mayveena posted:I can't get it to the table sadly. I really like it but no one else seems to. It's in a slot for me where I'll be happy to play it if someone else requests or suggests it but it will never ever be my choice. Since 2020 my board game time has really become a scarce resource, too, and in that environment it doesn't stand a chance against tier-1 favourites, and it's too fiddly for many groups (not that I have many groups).
|
|
#
¿
Mar 1, 2022 22:46
|
|
|
I know a few playgroups of people who know I'm into board games but who I know for other reasons, and several of them were like "we bought this game Scythe but we can't figure it out" It has an extremely attractive box and it often gets pride of place in local game stores for that reason.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 7, 2022 05:56
|
|
|
Mayveena posted:Buying it and liking it are two different things right? I can see why people buy it but once they play a few times I don't see how they like it Well yeah but many groups will own 2-3 games and that's it - they like what they have. Scythe is a pretty solid game on the wider scale of games, even if there are hundreds of games better than it, there are so many more that are worse. E.g. if your choice is Scythe or Talisman, what do you pick?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 7, 2022 06:30
|
|
.
|
I started with 1846 and I turned out ok
|
|
#
¿
Mar 13, 2022 03:59
|
|
|
A personal pan pizza for odin
|
|
#
¿
Apr 16, 2022 17:26
|
|
|
Dominion may have actually been the physical game I've played most recently
|
|
#
¿
Apr 22, 2022 23:59
|
|
|
I like Founders but most of the times I've played it I've forgotten at least one placement rule in a way that screwed the outcome
|
|
#
¿
Apr 24, 2022 18:07
|
|
|
I know people who aren't able to emotionally handle player conflict well in games where there are mixes of conflict and non-conflict paths. E.g. one in particular will get pissed if you block her in a worker placement game, but if it's a full conflict game like Root she'll be just fine. poo poo, in a full-conflict game she's outright bloodthirsty. She's also fine with co-op games: it's just when the game has this particular space she has a tendency to get mad, maybe because blocking actions feel more personal or something idk. It sounds to me as if "Wife" in that case is a person who isn't able to deal with in-game conflict in that context, and her vocabulary for describing what happened isn't sufficient. There isn't a concise word for "was playing against the spirit of the game," and in her mind the spirit of the game is "experience generator." I bet she's probably the kind of player who is happiest with the kind of extremely random games that this thread loathes.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 26, 2022 17:17
|
|
|
Mayveena posted:(not speaking as an IK here). "Loathes" is strong I think. This thread is for people who are in or interested in games as a hobby right? And as you say there are people who play these types of random generation style games that are playing solely to see what happens. It's kind of like many photography forums. People who discuss cameras in those forums don't necessarily loath camera phones, but they aren't the focus and if folks bring up camera phones (in a non camera phone specific thread) then what they are saying may be dismissed. And that can happen in this thread as well which I believe (personally not as an IK) is expected behavior. hm? I wasn't really making any judgment on game design, just hypothesizing about different tastes.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 26, 2022 18:19
|
|
|
I've found that when I'm doing that "thinking out loud" teaching strategy that it also fetters my ability to plan optimally, so it makes me a worse player and leads to a more even game.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 27, 2022 15:30
|
|
|
The next f2f game i have planned - maybe next weekend - is gonna be Root
|
|
#
¿
Apr 29, 2022 15:16
|
|
|
KVeezy3 posted:Hello thread, idiot to the genre here, and read the OP but still have a question: I've done Sushi Go, Coup, The Resistance, and Splendor with language learners with no problems.
|
|
#
¿
May 9, 2022 18:40
|
|
|
coincidentally my copy of Marauders just today arrived
|
|
#
¿
May 11, 2022 02:32
|
|
|
I really think a big part of the problem with 1882 is that shortly after the design got announced by the publisher the designer outed himself as a turd, which soured lots of people on the game itself. I know a bunch of people who played it in beta before AAG picked it up and it had much better reviews then.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 27, 2022 15:48
|
|
|
T-Bone posted:Have you played with the new privates yet? Definitely going to give them a go next time I get 46 back to the table: They're designed to work with C&O I think but the one time I played with them i scooped Boomtown up with PRR and then aggressively clogged the centre of the board with tokens and won because everyone else had poo poo routes.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 7, 2022 23:30
|
|
|
I might end up pnping those new spirits.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 22, 2022 05:03
|
|
|
Jaipur can be played on a coach airplane tray table
|
|
#
¿
Aug 2, 2022 23:24
|
|
|
Tekopo posted:I love the little thematic touches on Spirit Island: like how the innate powers of Lure paint a story of a bunch of people just leaving their towns and cities deserted, others trying to stop them from entering the dark foreboding interior of the island, but no one can stop them, and then those people just disappear into the jungle, never to be heard from again. It’s kind of frightening to think about, to be honest. But it’s why I love the game. Each spirit tells a unique story and it’s all done with simple mechanisms. this makes me want to play Lure/Nightmares next time I get to play
|
|
#
¿
Aug 10, 2022 23:38
|
|
|
Podima posted:I was looking at my shelf of games today and realized that I still have my giant Bang! bullet that I haven't actually pulled out for a group in years. Has anyone else given it a try lately? I played Bang! a couple years ago and it was such a terrible experience that I've sworn never to play it again.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 11, 2022 00:10
|
|
|
TheDiceMustRoll posted:we liked bang until we played with a First Nations person and then realized there was an "INDIANS!" card. For mine it was that I was the 8th player in an 8th player game, and every second person was a non-gaming person and took forever to do their turn, and then I was elimiated before my actual turn. The game took 40 minutes before I "played" and 90 minutes after that.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 11, 2022 17:43
|
|
|
Tekopo posted:Branch and Claw was, as far as I can remember, removed from the base game even though they were technically done at the same time in terms of development. It's relatively minor for SI/Branch and Claw, but for Eminent Domain the issue is much more egregious, where the base game is boring and uninteresting and the game only becomes complete when you add the expansion. Spirit Island probably works well here because internally it's so modular and has so many optional components. On one hand, it doesn't do much damage to the game to remove one function from the base game box because there are scenarios, settlers etc that we're already adding and removing, and most people slowly add these things as they're learning to play. Some of the Jagged Earth stuff might not get touched in the first 10 plays anyway. On the other, the base game without these things has so much replayability already that it doesn't feel like you're missing anything. I know that Merchants and Marauders isn't a thread favourite, but its expansion was one of the most interesting and best executed I've seen from the design perspective. It has been a long time since I've played it so i don't remember all of the details, but it didn't just add a new board or a bunch of maguffins that you need to contend with. Instead, it nudged every dimension of the game (a couple new ships, a weather mechanic, new things to visit on the map, new ship management functions) bit with the sum effect of adding a new dimension to the game that didn't feel intrusive. It, too, is a modular expansion where any of the expansion content can be added or not. All of it is on-flavour for the base game, none of it feels intrusive, and none of it interrupts the core game flow. I'd say that if you like the base M&M game you should get that expansion for sure, and if you're familiar with the base game and find design interesting, it would be worth playing once.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 15, 2022 14:19
|
|
|
Tekopo posted:I've played M&M and it was fine at the time. I think when it was released there were some issue with the base game in terms of how balanced the various paths to victory were, but it always felt more like an experience generator (and I don't mean that in a disparaging sense) than a competitive board game. Having played it quite a bit, it certainly feels like an experience generator flavour-wise, but it's not like Talisman or Betrayal or whatever. M&M is definitely a game where the better players will win most of the time. It does a good job of threading that needle. Most of the meaningful decisions follow from reading the board state and choosing pathways. You can still get smoked by a card, but imo that seems fine given the setting and theme - you can't predict a hurricane coming anyway, right - and so dealing with the cards there is a lot like staring at the turn and the river in poker - it can only set you back to the extent that you put yourself in a position to be set back. For my own tastes it's like a top-tier in a bad class kind of thing - if I'm asked what I want to play, I'll never choose it, but I'll choose it well above a lot of other "heavily thematic" and "ok now you turn over a card" games out there. And just to loop around to my initial point, M&M is merely an OK game, but the expansion is a great expansion box for an OK game.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 15, 2022 14:50
|
|
|
My purchases have nearly completely stopped, though I'm still finishing off some preorders that I did in days of yore. I think GMT just sent "Musket and Pike Dual Pack" to me.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 19, 2022 15:23
|
|
|
I have high treason. I played it only once but it was good.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 27, 2022 19:53
|
|
|
Another thing with inis is that the victory margins exist on three variables instead of a single track, and that leader is much more difficult to assess, or at least the relationship between leader at a given moment and likely winner. Very small shifts in board state can cause large shifts in relative scoring. This means that "bash the leader" never eclipses the question of what I can do to become the leader.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 30, 2022 17:08
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 16, 2024 21:11 |
|
|
62 is a bit of a mess but I like some of the component parts, particularly the way that towns/halts are handled.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 22, 2022 01:46
|
|