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Admiralty Flag posted: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. I won my first game of twilight struggle in turn one when the AI held a scoring card unplayed as an unforced error, so “OK” is a bit generous in my mind. RFTG app is great, and you can play the AI used in the app for free with permission from rio grande right here.
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Dec 30, 2021 20:37
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Jedit posted:How ingenious, they found a way to add minis to Innovation. No, the innovation was when they added minis to Ingenious.
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Dec 31, 2021 10:59
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FulsomFrank posted:Splotter is incredible so here's hoping this isn't their first confirmed flop. This post is Duck Dealer and Cannes erasure.
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Jan 19, 2022 22:24
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I mean they’ve been on a hell of a roll for a while so sight unseen purchase seems reasonable, but I’d always heard that a lot of the understandable skittishness they feel about overprinting is due to the bath they took on Duck Dealer.
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Jan 19, 2022 22:48
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taser rates posted:Duck Dealer is underappreciated imo, still haven't played my copy of Cannes yet though. Honestly, I would love to give it a try because delivery logistics is my gaming sweet spot but if you’re talking about Splotter flops that’s the one that ended up on clearance. Cannes was just no fun the one time I played it, but it was long ago and I had way less critical awareness about games so I couldn’t tell you anything besides “it wasn’t very fun.”
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Jan 19, 2022 23:50
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SettingSun posted:Is Hyperborea out of print? Talk a bit ago has me interested but there only seems to be a single copy on Amazon and Miniature Market doesn't even have a page for it. I remember Hyperborea being on clearance for a while, so there’s a good chance they’ve finally moved all their stock. Thats just supposition on my part, but it looks like there’s plenty of like new copies still on the geek for like $20-$30 each.
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Jan 21, 2022 17:03
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I’ll defer to those with greater knowledge than I but I know there are several 18xx games that feature a big mandatory effect that can slow down development mid game that are still well considered.
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Feb 9, 2022 19:39
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Fat Samurai posted:That’s not a warning, that’s marketing. It’s the marketing equivalent of bright colors on a frog except it turns out humans will take that as a challenge. I would encourage everyone to try it on BGA! The rules burden is fairly light, and the interface reasonable enough that you can get right to the truly opaque part of it. I’m one of those train game people and I played this three times thinking I could figure it out, and it was just baffling.
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Mar 30, 2022 07:51
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Aramoro posted:I found Blood Rage fairly unsatisfying as a game. The Loki issues are there but just in general the game kinda washed over me. Innis is just a better game all round. I'm in the middle of a first game of Blood Rage on BGA at the moment and it's leaving me cold. I understand the arguments in favor of Loki being balanced, but the fact does remain that I lucked into a couple of Loki cards that combine well (steal rage and gain glory by losing fights), and now I'm playing an entirely different game than the other two players, who are stuck fighting each other while I just gleefully stand between the two of them. Sure, we could have drafted to lose that randomness, but honestly I'm starting to get tired of drafting being used as a bandage for balancing. It's like how having an auction in a game smooths over imbalanced pricing (eg. 1830) but it increases the chance that you lose through decisions that you didn't know you made until much later while increasing the amount of contextless decisions players have to make while learning a game. One of the things that I really liked about Chaos in the Old World as a game for newbies is that you begin with your starting lineup fairly set, and with a cheat sheet telling you what you're good at to start and what you'll want to do to win.
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Mar 30, 2022 19:08
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St0rmD posted:I feel like that's just something that's going to happen in a lot of wargames. Small World is good and combats that issue somewhat by keeping the victory point counters face down, so unless you're really good at counting, you're never quite sure who exactly is winning or by how much. On the other hand, once you play it a lot you'll likely identify some of the stronger races and powers in the game and develop a metagame around that at your table, so it's not infinitely replayable. Buying the expansions extends this a bit but not indefinitely. I would argue that a good wargame combats the issues in ways that doesn't involve playing memory, but I soured on Small World pretty quickly when I realized the actual board state was just a clunky stock market that measures payouts on choosing the right race/power combo. Instead, I would recommend Maria, which balances three nicely by having one player essentially be the minor partner to the other two players, where they need to tweak both sides just enough that they rise to the top of the three way stalemate. It's great because it makes everyone's role clear - two players are destined to go against each other, so the kingmaker is always clearly identified and so they can be negotiated with in good faith. *edit* I now realize I'm placing a flag in the ground of Once Seen Always Known, but I'm fully on the side of our Idiot King in this regard
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Mar 31, 2022 03:32
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Elman posted:What's a good 4-6 player game? I was thinking of picking up Mysterium or Funemployed but I'm open to suggestions. While I'd prefer something relatively light, a heavier game might be fine if it's not too time consuming. Relatively light 4-6 player games are almost exclusively card games for me: bohnanza, No thanks!, For Sale, and 6 nimit! are the four that I pretty much always carry with me I’m a single cut down box.
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Mar 31, 2022 21:41
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armorer posted:Absolutely. Some (most?) would argue it should only be played with 8 people. If you’re playing real time, absolutely. But: Radioactive Toy posted:More people should try Captain Sonar's turn-based mode instead of the real time mode. They're obviously different experiences and the real-time mode is good but I prefer the tense back and forth of turn-based.
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Apr 5, 2022 16:43
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Kiranamos posted:We need a serious distraction. Has anyone enjoyed a game of Munchkin, Fluxx, or Exploding Kittens recently? That ought to do it. Spirit island is overrated. It’s a great lifestyle game but a little impenetrable unless you’re willing to devote the time to it.
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Apr 21, 2022 23:57
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Mayveena posted:My favorite bad game is Founders of Gloomhaven but everyone else hates it. Also I love love love Urban Sprawl, also known as the Great Chad Jensen Disappointment it seems. I legit think that Urban Sprawl is great, and everyone I’ve played it with has enjoyed it, but it only emerges when I’m very certain about the other persons tastes. I happily played Sneaks and Snitches multiple times.
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Apr 24, 2022 23:39
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Infinitum posted:I'm getting Ark Nova + Great Western Trail 2nd Edition to the table this weekend (And probably Paint the Roses which arrived today) Is this going to be a learning game of Great Western Trail? I'm curious because I just finished one on Board Game Arena - I ended up really enjoying the game, but I'm seriously debating if I would ever be able to get it to the table in person. The amount of interlocking systems combined with different levels of patience for introductory rules explanations might not fly with my group. This is actually one of the things I've really come to enjoy about BGA - rules enforcement, UI guidance for options, and hover tooltips makes it easier to accommodate people who prefer to just dive in without a full rules rundown and trust they will pick up the details later. I'm usually the type who reads through the rulebook until I've worked out a full teaching routine for the game, so it's been liberating to just dive in and start pulling levers.
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Apr 29, 2022 18:59
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Funso Banjo posted:I guess I'm the opposite. The idea of not knowing the rules and trusting others, even an infallible machine, to do all that bookkeeping without me being able to follow exactly what is going on. It's kind of weirdly anxiety inducing. Honestly, that makes sense to me. One of the things I really like about board games as a physical object is not just the tangible aspects, but also the transparency of mechanics - things happen because you make them happen, both literally and figuratively. Losing that makes it something different - some of my usual play group simply don’t participate in virtual game nights because it doesn’t work for them. It is definitely affected by the different implementations though - while there are some guidelines, the fact that BGA in particular has a volunteer development force means that the amount of pause in game logic for interaction, visual cues, and descriptions of underlying game logic can vary wildly.
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Apr 30, 2022 14:48
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Bottom Liner posted:Also played a good bit of Undaunted Normandy and I’m impressed with the skirmish game feel it accomplishes with very simple deck building and combat rules. The attrition/wound system is great, as is the initiate trade off for powerful cards and the fog of war cards cluttering your deck. Haven’t played North Africa or Reinforcements yet, but looking through the rules and scenarios they seem to complete what is already a solid foundation. Undaunted was the first time in years my war game buddy and I have played through the full box scenarios in any of our games. It really is just a fantastically tight little game in a an affordable package.
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May 3, 2022 23:40
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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. Valley of the Kings would have been good for this but new version is big. If you could still find the old run, that would work well. Bohnanza is a classic that I feel is overlooked nowadays (probably due to the amount of crap expansions), but it still holds up whenever I get it to the table. More fillerish, but No Thanks, 6 nimmt, and For Sale are small, easy to grasp, and still hold up to repeat play. The Eyes Have It posted:I played through The Crew with two, the dummy player works well IMO but it is a somewhat different experience than playing with e.g. three people. Agreed, it's a different game but my partner and I really enjoyed playing it this way, and didn't feel like we had a compromised experience.
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May 5, 2022 03:41
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armorer posted:I think the decks between the players are supposed to be face up. That at least gives you a choice between two known things and the unknown middle deck, but there's still a ton of randomness. With those decks face down as well though there would be incredibly little actual decision space. Correct, when they're face up it becomes about properly timing hate drafting against your neighbors. It's...fine? I didn't hate my time with it but it's not going to replace 7 wonders or Sushi Go Party for my group.
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May 5, 2022 16:16
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Mayveena posted:Thanks Mr Squishy I haven't had my caffeine requirement met yet this morning and was too lazy to do that great job you've done in explaining the situation. One thing I've thought about off and on is creating a new Publisher/Manufacturer trade group that actually supports Publishers and Manufacturers instead of simply charging them money and having their annual gala style meetings. Publishing board games has become very challenging and according to those I know in the business, GAMA has been of zero help. If folks know otherwise, say so please. It’s also worth noting that bounding into comics is a notorious comicsgate outlet, so thanks as well for explaining it in a way where we don’t have to give clicks to a site that is breaking news about “Disney’s pro-groomer agenda.”
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May 9, 2022 17:05
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Viper915 posted:Barenpark would need someone to read/explain the rulebook, but it's not very complicated and the game and components are entirely language independent. For Sale is part of my trio of most common recommendations, along with No Thanks! and 6 Nimit! for this very reason: language free components combine with light games that still have interesting decisions, can be explained in thirty seconds, and are cheap and small footprint. They’re the most versatile games in my collection, aside from some party games. Otherwise, look at some of the German publishers that handle their own distribution (eg. Queen). They components are often language free, and they include rules translations for 5-6 languages as a matter of expedience, so it can be worth the investigation.
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May 9, 2022 19:41
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Infinitum posted:I too hate laughing with my friends I too feel like the quality of a game is directly rated to how many friends I have with me. Edit: I mean it please come play time agent with me
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May 17, 2022 01:40
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!Klams posted:All awesome suggestions, thank you! If you think Ares Project looks dry, I would stay away from Space Empires 4x - the techs that do anything but increase your numbers are gated behind optional rules, and even those are few and not particularly noteworthy. I enjoy what the game does with rush strategies vs economy, but it’s pretty flavorless.
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Jun 22, 2022 16:24
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Blamestorm posted:I can see how that might happen but no, at least in my group the red cards tend to get used pretty fast. I agree they sometimes feel like the roughest part of the game in that the person who focuses on acquiring the most of them tends to win, in my experience. The expansion may influence this, I don’t know. I’m willing to cut it a lot of slack in this respect compared with Root simply because of the shorter game time, we knock it over in less than 45 minutes typically which I think the red cards play a role in. And if someone is going after reds with bard, they aren’t getting deeds, and deeds are a decent easy way to track who’s winning.
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Sep 30, 2022 21:12
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Major Isoor posted:Yeah, they always seemed like a cool idea to me. I think they also did a wild west one too, from memory? (Probably plays almost identically to Lost Worlds, really) Check out Wild Blue Yonder, it’s not a 1:1 but it’s a good quick playing dogfighting card game.
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Nov 22, 2022 23:32
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The hollandspiele sale has become a Christmas tradition for my family to gift to me, as is giving games as thanksgiving presents to play during the holidays. This is to say that we already opened Ticket to Ride Legacy as the family game, and I have Doubt is our Product, Heading Forward, and Eyelet on the way, so…I probably shouldn’t expect more games for Christmas.
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Dec 1, 2023 22:42
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Chill la Chill posted:That would only make it too easy. I never actually got witches’ brew. If you’re a box consolidator, always check your Queen games for strays. I think I’ve packed at least three games into every Queen box I’ve kept, those things are voluminous.
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Dec 4, 2023 23:39
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Anonymous Robot posted:Do you ever play this with 2? That’s my most likely scenario, so I’d be interested to hear what you think. Not OP but two player is my preferred way to play, it really scratches the itch of being not strictly deterministic with all the randomness coming from the players. I’ve got about 15 plays with the same person head to head and we’ve never been able to get the rest of the group into it, but it’s worth it in my book.
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Jan 2, 2024 20:20
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armorer posted:The explosion in usage of TTS also largely corresponded with the start of Covid lockdowns. My Covid lockdown group started with VASSAL, and I continue to be mad that TTS got enough uptake at large that we ended up moving to it as our default “not BGA” platform
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Jan 3, 2024 23:34
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