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A Strange Aeon posted:Super Giant Monster Showdown is probably the most thematic Kaiju game in existence. Whether you'll like it or not depends entirely on how wooly you like your games. I have this with the expansion, and it is pretty great for what it is. Though I havent pulled it out in years and years.
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Jul 23, 2012 23:17
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I went into Cool Stuff today and they have Mage Knight back in stock. A whole bunch of them, according to the staff. If you've been holding your breath for the reprint, it can now be yours. Also I picked up Travel Blog as a birthday present for a friend of mine. I haven't got a chance to play it with him yet, but I read the rulebook online and I can't wait to try it out. It's the type of game that you can play with non-gamers, and yet it's engaging, challenging, and intensely comptitive. Yet it's so simple! All you have to do is plan a travel route to your choice of destination and save the most money....without looking at the map. Each border crossing costs $10, but you get penalized $30 if you don't cross at least 2 (no picking the country right next door, we're paying you to TRAVEL) Later rounds add more destinations and longer trips, and for the last round you have to plan a Grand Tour where the object is to have the longest, most expensive trip. And did I mention that you pay another $10 penalty for each player to choose a destination before you? Travel Bloggers have to think fast if they want to be seen as influential opinion makers and not the writers of "Yet Another Cabo Trip Report". Such an elegant, and yet functionally educational game. It makes me excited and I hope it gets more love. Edit: don't know why I forgot to mention it's a Vlaada Chvatil game. You'd think he'd run out of amazing new ideas eventually, and yet here we are. St0rmD fucked around with this message at 13:45 on Jul 24, 2012 |
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Jul 23, 2012 23:56
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A few thoughts on games people have been mentioning lately in the thread: Galaxy Trucker is remarkably "female-who-doesn't-play-boardgames" friendly. It strikes some sort of Tetris/time-management nerve that seems to be common in casual female gamers. (I'm making a huge generalization from a small sample set, but anyways if you know someone who likes time-management type casual video games, Galaxy Trucker might be a good pick). My biggest complaint with Dixit is how much people like it. I've played with a few groups, and in every set there's multiple people asking me where to buy it. It's not my favorite kind of game, but it sets the bar unreasonably high in terms of non-gamer first-play satisfaction; now I'm going to be stuck playing it at gatherings forever. 7 Wonders should probably be in everyone's collection. It's held up well for us (though we make a point not to overplay it). It feels like a "Blizzard game" of board games - a reasonably basic design that's been implemented and polished really well. "Leaders" fixes a few problems and generally makes the game better - but is certainly not required.
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Jul 24, 2012 02:57
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So it appears as though I have been roped into a game of Twilight Imperium. I know there are dozens of files/references on BBG, but I have no idea which ones might actually be useful to a new player, just so I can get a bit of a leg up on the mechanics and not be asking questions over and over. Any help on those would be appreciated. Also, are there any tricky/unclear things I should be aware of before playing?
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Jul 24, 2012 03:33
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CloseFriend posted:I've been on a bit of a kaiju kick lately. I thought about buying Godzilla: Kaiju World Wars, but I've heard really bad things. I heard there exists a better kaiju game out there, but no matter how much I scour Google or Board Game Geek I can't find any other information. Anyone know? There's Monsterpocalypse. It's a collectible game, yes, but it's a dead collectible game, so you can find lots on ebay for decent prices. Alternatively, Team Covenant still sells really awesome custom 2 player starter sets; get one of those, and you're pretty well set.
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Jul 24, 2012 03:34
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enigmahfc posted:Also, are there any tricky/unclear things I should be aware of before playing? Apparently you can't use Trade Goods to buy votes unless you are the one race. In general though, go for Victory Points above all else. You might think it's cool to like, expand and cripple someone's fleet and whatnot, but if you are not doing that to get victory points, you will lose (unsurprisingly). If you are playing with the original role cards, take Imperium whenever you can, and if you can't do that, take Initiative so you can take Imperium next turn. After that it's up to you.
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Jul 24, 2012 03:38
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These Loving Eyes posted:I'm itching for a Magic the Gatheringish two-player card game without the collectible part. Besides Summoner Wars, what options do I have? If I do buy the Summoner Wars Master Set, what other decks/factions would you guys recommend buying if I want to get something extra? I really recommend Gosu. I just recently got into it thanks to boardgamearena.com, but it's a blast to play, there's no collect-ability, and it's pretty strategic.
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Jul 24, 2012 03:44
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GrandpaPants posted:Apparently you can't use Trade Goods to buy votes unless you are the one race. It's funny that you mention the Initiative->Imperium combo, because when I first played TI we nerfed Imperium down to one VP and yet it was still chosen by the speaker every time. See if you can't badger the group into using the new set of role cards, they're a lot more balanced/interesting. One little detail I like is that like Starcraft, if you retreat you can go to any adjacent system that's empty or friendly - even if it's actually farther on the path you're taking. I recall one game in which one player invaded another from Mecatol Rex. He decided to bring his whole fleet, whereupon his opponent retreated back over to Mecatol.
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Jul 24, 2012 04:09
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NGDBSS posted:This. War is only a means to an end. Almost every strategy game with a map I've ever seen has included a "you cannot retreat to the area that your opponent attacked from" clause. Diplomacy being the most prominent in my mind, but Game of Thrones does too. My one experience with TI was setting it up for like two hours, getting two hours into it (like two or three turns), and then we kinda gave up cause it was getting late. Seemed insanely complex.
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Jul 24, 2012 04:40
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Hm, pretty sure Starcraft doesn't let you retreat to the zone you're being attacked from. ...okay it's Napoleon's Triumph that definitely doesn't allow that, but I'm extrapolating to "why would the rules for any game allow this". e: gently caress, really? Beaten on this exact comment?
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Jul 24, 2012 04:41
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Any recommendations for an epic war game that plays decently with fewer players? I have a decent-sized regular group but most of them don't like highly competitive epic games. There are 3 of us who are really looking for a game that we could play together for 2-3 hours (or longer) strategizing, planning, building, scheming, battling, etc. We really like games like Game of Thrones and Eclipse, but with 3 players you're really at the bare minimum of playability for those games. We just recently got Twilight Struggle and enjoyed it immensely, but obviously only 2 players. Games with simultaneous turn elements like secret action selection or other backstab-enabling features are nice, and ideally something not too luck-heavy. Theme is largely irrelevant. And I guess it doesn't necessarily have to be a WAR game as long as it's got that epic competitive feel to it. Something closer to simpler rules with deep strategy instead of a billion fiddly bits would be preferred. Some games we're looking at: Wars of the Roses Britannia Runewars Wallenstein Tide of Iron How do these games play with 3? Any additional suggestions other than find a couple more friends? sighnoceros fucked around with this message at 05:33 on Jul 24, 2012 |
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Jul 24, 2012 05:30
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GOONS ARE MEAN
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NGDBSS posted:One little detail I like is that like Starcraft, if you retreat you can go to any adjacent system that's empty or friendly - even if it's actually farther on the path you're taking. I recall one game in which one player invaded another from Mecatol Rex. He decided to bring his whole fleet, whereupon his opponent retreated back over to Mecatol. You have to have a command counter already in place on the system you're retreating to. It usually makes retreats less than appealing.
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Jul 24, 2012 05:36
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Agronox posted:You have to have a command counter already in place on the system you're retreating to. It usually makes retreats less than appealing. @enigmahfc: Just to be clear, what expansions and variants are you playing with?
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Jul 24, 2012 05:51
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sighnoceros posted:Any recommendations for an epic war game that plays decently with fewer players? I have a decent-sized regular group but most of them don't like highly competitive epic games. There are 3 of us who are really looking for a game that we could play together for 2-3 hours (or longer) strategizing, planning, building, scheming, battling, etc. Get World in Flames, probably the most ambitious wargame I've ever seen (not that I've seen many). Plays good with one, because you're never going to convince someone to play/have room to play it/cut out the thousands of counters that are in the game (3200 i believe).  EDIT: There's also many many expansions for it which add more things, crazily enough. EDIT 2: Didn't see the fiddly part. Wouldn't be fiddly if you mounted the board on tin and magnetized the pieces as above!
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Jul 24, 2012 08:50
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xopods posted:I do like Vlaada, so I might eventually get Galaxy Trucker, but I'll see if I can get her turned on to Dungeon Petz first, and from there transition to Dungeon Lords. Galaxy Trucker is the most immediately accessible of Vlaada's games. Just basically explain how the ship building works physically and as far as the rules go, give an overview of what the different pieces do ("this is a laser, it shoots down bad guys and meteors") and then run through the game. People won't grok all the nuances before seeing the actual action phase of the game and after that they immediately get it. Well, they THINK they get it, build their "pro" ships and get absolutely creamed. And then it's time for my favourite Galaxy Trucker question: "which half of the ship do you want to keep?" EDIT: jmzero posted:7 Wonders should probably be in everyone's collection. It's held up well for us (though we make a point not to overplay it). It feels like a "Blizzard game" of board games - a reasonably basic design that's been implemented and polished really well. "Leaders" fixes a few problems and generally makes the game better - but is certainly not required. Agreed. I loving loooove me some 7 Wonders and never miss a chance to play it. Can't wait for the upcoming Cities expansion. Shaman Tank Spec fucked around with this message at 10:04 on Jul 24, 2012 |
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Jul 24, 2012 09:59
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enigmahfc posted:So it appears as though I have been roped into a game of Twilight Imperium. I know there are dozens of files/references on BBG, but I have no idea which ones might actually be useful to a new player, just so I can get a bit of a leg up on the mechanics and not be asking questions over and over. Any help on those would be appreciated. Also, are there any tricky/unclear things I should be aware of before playing? Common things newbies I teach sometimes have trouble with: Green value = resources, it is for building things Red Value on planets = Influence, used for some things and for voting The unit build limit on a planet equals the Resource value +2 from the space dock. This means you can build a total of 5 units on a 3-resource planet. This can be 5 dreadnoughts costing you 20 resources, or 4 fighters and a destroyer, costing you 3. The value of the build has nothing to do with the physical build limit. Action cards are played in sequence of turn order. If you and your opponent both want to play an action card on the same event (before a battle), the lowest initiative number goes first. Units in a sector that has been activated can not be moved out of it, not even by a carrier passing by and picking up the ground troops. They've already acted, they are stuck. Be stingy with your command counters, you only get 2 free ones each turn! The Transfer action is great for this. With it you activate 2 systems, but only spend 1 command counter from your command pool. Then you move units between them and build in one of them. So you can move previously built units out of your home system, then build a new fleet.
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Jul 24, 2012 10:34
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Der Shovel posted:And then it's time for my favourite Galaxy Trucker question: "which half of the ship do you want to keep?" 
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Jul 24, 2012 11:13
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My favourite ship on galaxy trucker in the final round ended up like this, from having the entirety of its plan filled:pre:
XXX YYY
XXX - YYY
XXX YYY
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ZZZ
ZZZ
ZZZ
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RRR
RRR
RRR
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Jul 24, 2012 12:02
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sighnoceros posted:Any recommendations for an epic war game that plays decently with fewer players? I have a decent-sized regular group but most of them don't like highly competitive epic games. There are 3 of us who are really looking for a game that we could play together for 2-3 hours (or longer) strategizing, planning, building, scheming, battling, etc. Dominant Species seems to fit the time range you're talking about (I'd say expect a 3-4 hour game on average), has epic'ness, lack of luck, wargameyness while not being fiddly counters or complicated rules. Thing is, it shines best with six player factions, but the game does scale and even if that's not enough has a 3-player variant where each player controls 2 player factions. This is my personal recommendation. While I haven't played the next one, Maria is supposed to be the best three-player game out there. Supposedly it is actually balanced for the whole three-player 'odd man out' mentality. It'd probably be a game sitting on my shelf right now if I consistently had a three player group for it. EDIT: How the gently caress could I forget. Through the Ages is very much a game that fits in the the time frame and other requisites you're talking about, although it may not be as back-stabbitty as you want. Still, it's one of the highest rated games on BGG for a good reason.
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Jul 24, 2012 12:12
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QPZIL posted:I really recommend Gosu. I just recently got into it thanks to boardgamearena.com, but it's a blast to play, there's no collect-ability, and it's pretty strategic. I have a copy of Gosu for trade or sale if anyone's interested.
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Jul 24, 2012 13:31
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Trynant posted:
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Jul 24, 2012 13:38
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I got in a discussion with one of the people I regularly play with, with me saying that in 6 player games of 7 Wonders you are less likely for all the science cards to end up in the same hand than for 3 players. Well, he ran the numbers. Y axis is the probability, X axis is the number of science cards you draw in your 7 card hand, green line is 6 player, blue line is 3 players. If 1/3 of the cards are science:  If 10/21 of the cards are science:  So yeah, with 3 players you are less likely to end up with all the science cards in a single hand, since you are more likely to have the average number of cards and less likely to have more/less than the average number of cards.
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Jul 24, 2012 13:40
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Thanks for all the card game recommendations so far. When I mentioned MtG, I meant games where you spawn monsters and whirl spells/events at each other, not games that actually imitate its mechanics. I'll definitely look into all games mentioned, but currently I feel like I'll probably go with Summoner Wars just to find out what's with all the fuzz.
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Jul 24, 2012 14:49
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These Loving Eyes posted:Thanks for all the card game recommendations so far. When I mentioned MtG, I meant games where you spawn monsters and whirl spells/events at each other, not games that actually imitate its mechanics. I'll definitely look into all games mentioned, but currently I feel like I'll probably go with Summoner Wars just to find out what's with all the fuzz. I didn't see it mentioned but the new version of Wiz-War is fun and you whirl spells at each other all day. It's got a poo poo load of cards but also minis, so don't know if that falls to far from "card game" for you.
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Jul 24, 2012 15:16
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These Loving Eyes posted:Thanks for all the card game recommendations so far. When I mentioned MtG, I meant games where you spawn monsters and whirl spells/events at each other, not games that actually imitate its mechanics. I'll definitely look into all games mentioned, but currently I feel like I'll probably go with Summoner Wars just to find out what's with all the fuzz. It's not a card game, but Chaos in the Old World is a pretty great "spawn stuff and dick over other players with cards" game. drat I love that game.
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Jul 24, 2012 15:21
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Pierzak posted:The answer is "Neither, because you built all your crew quarters on a "protected" column 7 like an idiot." The first (and only, so far) time we played with the Enterprise ship, my friend decided to blow all but one of his crewmembers on the really expensive abandoned ship. He was going to cut his losses and give up after that since he didn't have any cargo anyway and hadn't lost any parts yet, but he decided to press on for another turn or two. Next card was a Saboteur which rolled a 7-7 and cleanly split his ship in half.  I love the poo poo out of Galaxy Trucker.
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Jul 24, 2012 15:26
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Rudy Riot posted:I didn't see it mentioned but the new version of Wiz-War is fun and you whirl spells at each other all day. It's got a poo poo load of cards but also minis, so don't know if that falls to far from "card game" for you. If I remember correctly, Wiz War, along with Cosmic Encounter, were the two biggest inspirations for Magic.
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Jul 24, 2012 15:29
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These Loving Eyes posted:Thanks for all the card game recommendations so far. When I mentioned MtG, I meant games where you spawn monsters and whirl spells/events at each other, not games that actually imitate its mechanics. I'll definitely look into all games mentioned, but currently I feel like I'll probably go with Summoner Wars just to find out what's with all the fuzz. Also keep in mind Netrunner is coming out sometime this year.
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Jul 24, 2012 15:48
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sighnoceros posted:Wars of the Roses I haven't tried it with 3 (only played one game, with the full 4), but my understanding is that it's really intended to be played with exactly 4 although they have rules for 2 or 3. A big part of the game is that it's a semi-team game. There's still only one winner, but the four players are split into two pairs who get to vote together and share the points for winning votes. Basically, at the end of each turn, the single player with the most influence in each region earns points for the region, but the team with the most combined influence gets the votes, and both players on the team with the most total votes across the board score bonus points. You'd lose a lot of that if you played with three and didn't have the teams. I guess you'd just score regions and not have the vote thing at all, or something... not exactly sure how it works.
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Jul 24, 2012 16:11
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Tekopo posted:I got in a discussion with one of the people I regularly play with, with me saying that in 6 player games of 7 Wonders you are less likely for all the science cards to end up in the same hand than for 3 players. Well, he ran the numbers. Y axis is the probability, X axis is the number of science cards you draw in your 7 card hand, green line is 6 player, blue line is 3 players. That's some pretty awesome info, my regular group has recently started taking steps to deny me any science cards. Probably because I swept one game through science without building a single resource (this is only possible with the leaders expansion).
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Jul 24, 2012 16:18
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Paradoxish posted:The first (and only, so far) time we played with the Enterprise ship, my friend decided to blow all but one of his crewmembers on the really expensive abandoned ship. He was going to cut his losses and give up after that since he didn't have any cargo anyway and hadn't lost any parts yet, but he decided to press on for another turn or two. Next card was a Saboteur which rolled a 7-7 and cleanly split his ship in half. I had a friend take the Enterprise, load up on cargo on a shitload of planets, and get bisected by a meteor. All of his crew but 1 was in the saucer section. All of his cargo was in the drive section. Me: "Which half of your ship do you want to keep?" pause Him: "Yeah, gently caress 'em." Of course, having abandoned his crew to the asteroid belt, he was immediately left adrift in Open Space a single card before the end of the round. All of his engines were on the other half.
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Jul 24, 2012 16:54
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Acinonyx posted:So is anyone else playing Dungeon Command? I went to a demo and had enough fun that I bought both starters. 6 plays in, it's still really fun. I was skeptical of having no dice, but attacking works pretty much like Summoner Wars except you don't roll 1's and 2's. There are lots of interrupts and ways to get cover, along with enough varied terrain that it feels pretty tactical so far. A DnD friend bought a set just for the minis, so now I have extra cards and map pieces to play with. I'm going to try customizing the orders and creature pool. I'm enjoying how the terrain affects gameplay. You can set-up choke points or hide in the trees with ranged attackers to attack with near impunity. The treasure tokens on the battlefield are good motivation for conflict early and often. Plenty of tactical and strategic variation in the game. I've played 1v1, 1v1v1 and 2v2. I can definitely see where people would buy multiples of each faction to customize their warband and Order cards. One thing I find interesting is with the small damage dealers: it's such paltry damage, people almost never waste Order cards to defend. You can use the ranged attacks to "peck" the large creatures to death.
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Jul 24, 2012 19:24
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nimby posted:and everyone spends every trade good they can to have more votes than me. EDIT: Holy crap there were two more pages. Ignore this.
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Jul 24, 2012 19:59
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I (tried to) play Death Angel with two buds of mine today. I think the rules WOULD be solid if the manual actually explained them at all clearly. At least the artwork is pretty as per usual for FFG.
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Jul 25, 2012 07:18
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A Strange Aeon posted:If I remember correctly, Wiz War, along with Cosmic Encounter, were the two biggest inspirations for Magic. Yeah, I've heard Richard Garfield talk about that before. I remember the first gaming convention after Magic had come out and how it basically changed EVERYTHING. What a massive hit.
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Jul 25, 2012 08:28
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Tonight, I got to play my copy of Alien Frontiers: Factions and King of Tokyo. We played with all five players for AF. The factions and agenda cards make the base game much more interesting, but the added fifth player makes things a HUGE drag. There's lots of downtime between turns, so four seems to be the optimal number. Also, some of the faction powers seem incredibly overpowered compared to others. King of Tokyo was a nice light kaiju battle game. Lots of dice rolling but I didn't find too much of a problem with it. We played the five player game and turns go really quick, so there's very little downtime which was nice. Player elimination can happen pretty quick so it may leave a sour taste in the mouths of players who get eliminated really early. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but I don't think I'd ever buy it. I'd definitely play it if someone brought it though.
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Jul 25, 2012 09:19
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Are there any trick taking games like Gang of Four/Tichu for a large number of people? We're having a house warming party/casual game night soon and there will be around 8 to 10 of us. I have The Resistance, Time's Up, and Dixit, but I'm trying to think of anything else that could go over in a big group like that. Only a handful of us are "gamers" so that's why I'm keeping with the party games.
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Jul 25, 2012 09:45
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InfiniteJesters posted:I (tried to) play Death Angel with two buds of mine today. They keep coming out with micro expansions, but this game really just needs a coherent rulebook and a bigger box. I just got the Deathwing expansion, which replaces all the marines with different marines. Is Death Angel really that popular or is it just easy to design for?
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Jul 25, 2012 12:00
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Rudy Riot posted:Are there any trick taking games like Gang of Four/Tichu for a large number of people? I think The Great Dalmuti probably fits the bill.
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Jul 25, 2012 14:03
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Cactrot posted:That's some pretty awesome info, my regular group has recently started taking steps to deny me any science cards. Probably because I swept one game through science without building a single resource (this is only possible with the leaders expansion). Science is one of the reasons that I've started to consider Leaders absolutely essential for 7 Wonders play recently. Without it, I find it's very easy to predict which board will go for which build, and there's only a few different builds that will really garner the most points with Science reigning absolutely king if unchecked. With it, people are more likely to break out of their standard tactics and try something new or slightly unusual, while other builds begin to stand more of a chance of getting a leg up on the green. On the other hand, I admit it's balanced out a little by those times someone manages to get 'greens cost one less resource' and instantly leap up the science tree.
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