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Elysium posted:Galaxy Trucker is not a hard game to explain. Just show them all the pieces and how to build a legal ship and go. Yeah. I feel like I've seen people complain about explaining Galaxy Trucker more than once, and I don't get it. I've had to explain the rules multiple times now and I don't think it's ever taken more than five minutes to get people building ships. New players aren't going to immediately get that looking at the cards is important and they'll probably forget what one or two components are for, but the rounds play so fast that they'll be building a new ship in no time anyway. Having your first ship be such a piece of crap that it gets completely blown away is a GT rite of passage, and hardly matters on the first round since it shouldn't be more than a couple of minutes until everyone else has landed. I'd honestly say that Galaxy Trucker is up there with some of the most straightforward games I've played when it comes to rules explanation. People seem to get the idea of connecting matching pipes to build a spaceship really quickly and that's pretty much all there is to it aside from a few specific special rules.
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Aug 10, 2012 02:28
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Paradoxish posted:Yeah. I feel like I've seen people complain about explaining Galaxy Trucker more than once, and I don't get it. I've had to explain the rules multiple times now and I don't think it's ever taken more than five minutes to get people building ships. New players aren't going to immediately get that looking at the cards is important and they'll probably forget what one or two components are for, but the rounds play so fast that they'll be building a new ship in no time anyway. Having your first ship be such a piece of crap that it gets completely blown away is a GT rite of passage, and hardly matters on the first round since it shouldn't be more than a couple of minutes until everyone else has landed. I had to explain Galaxy Trucker and the Big Expansion to a group last night (having not played the game in months) and it was a cinch, even with all the expansion parts. It's even easier if you use the mnemonics they say in the manual (every part is The Most Important Part in the Game and they want As Many As Possible). I also add the "rear end to rear end" mnemonic so players remember that connectors cannot connect to an open side of another tile. Explain the Gun/Engine gap at the same time, explain all the alien types at the same time (ask if they can tell which aliens do what based off the colors, and drill in the point that Alien Life Support allows an alien to live in an attached crew cabin), explain the variants last but group them with the matching pieces (so group the powered guns with the regular guns when showing tiles but explain powered thingies last). The whole thing should take no more than 5 minutes, 10 with expansion. And, if done right, it'll be entertaining and memorable like the Space Alert tutorial. Teach Space Alert enough times and you can teach anything.
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Aug 10, 2012 03:26
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Dark Cohomology posted:I need help choosing a board game. I have a 2-month-old son, so all of a sudden I find myself I have not tried Mage Knight. Here's an example of one of 2nd Edition Descent's quests: quote:A Fat Goblin In part two of the quest, you go try to save Fred. The kicker is the boss (goblin king) that's holding him hostage has more hitpoints for every crop the goblins stole in part one. This time the overlord doesn't get reinforcements and the heroes have to kill the goblin king. And the king has to escape with Fred for the overlord to win. Whether the OL wins or the Heroes win will determine which of 2 future related quests you get. nelson fucked around with this message at 04:59 on Aug 10, 2012 |
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Aug 10, 2012 04:34
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Mr. Glass posted:FYI, the 39.99 copies of Dominant Species that CSI is offering right now is the "3rd Printing", with a 2012 copyright notice. As far as I can tell, this is the same as the "3rd edition" but I could be wrong. For what it's worth, all of GMT's materials refer to the new edition as the "3rd printing"; I doubt CSI even had any 2nd print copies left by the time the 3rd print became available. I've got a copy coming on tuesday (along with Wiz-War and and Summoner Wars Master Set  ) so I can report back on it.Tried Le Havre for the first time tonite, came in 3rd with 168 behind 178 and 250-something. Game was about 2.5 hours but felt much shorter. I'm hoping DS has the same effect.
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Aug 10, 2012 04:40
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Finally got around to playing my new copy of Dominant Species, coincidentally enough. 4 players, all new at the game, and we managed to finish in about 3 and a half hours, and it was a lot of fun! I ended up as the birds, migrating all over the place as my food sources kept dying out. Lot of big swings in the points lead, especially at the end with the Ice Age card, but everyone seemed to like it, so I'm sure we'll start hammering out strategies as we play more.
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Aug 10, 2012 05:34
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I went to my university's board game club night and it was a blast! I've been wanting to play Tales of Arabia for years and, as the cosmic die would have it, this awesome dude brought it along! We also played The Resistance and Incan Gold. Both were lots of fun and laughs. But one qualm with the former is that the special ability cards make it too easy for a few players to monopolise the game. They can build up a network of trust and suddenly all the focus is on them - but what about us on the outside? It seemed a bit 'co-operative dictator' to me.
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Aug 10, 2012 05:55
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Broken Loose posted:So should I come into the Pathfinder thread and start posting about how much BESM rules? You should probably consider lightening up about people liking things you don't. As far as the rest of it goes, if someone wants to run it (I have gotten a PM on this for what I think is a volunteer with prize support and suchlike), all y'all can have the September Contest as whatever Board Game challenge you can think up. EDIT: Oh ho, FISH IN THE WATER already. I can sticky it for Sept. anyway. Winson_Paine fucked around with this message at 06:12 on Aug 10, 2012 |
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Aug 10, 2012 06:03
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So I was thinking about picking up Wiz-War next for the collection, and I had saved a post from a while ago in the last thread about some house rules one guy used. Can anyone comment on it? From reviews I've been reading a pretty common complaint that pops up is how the game may commonly feel more like a straight up sprint as an 'optimal strategy' to win instead of beating each other to death with the treasure being a valid option. (Having never played it myself and not being too familiar with what spells there are I dunno)quote:For players of Wiz-War, after much experimenting, my friends and I have stumbled upon the perfect rules tweaks to make the game Super Fun(tm): Has anyone ever tried this dudes rules? Or found success with any other house rules? Or just left it the way it is and didn't find the need to change anything really.
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Aug 10, 2012 10:32
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I've tried them! they are my rules I think you definitely need to change the rules as they are written in this game. If a guy draws a few extra energy cards, he will basically win by being able to outrun everyone, which can make the game fairly anticlimactic. Also player elimination is balls, much better to keep people in the game and just reward the one who makes the killing blow.
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Aug 10, 2012 11:59
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Ledhed posted:For what it's worth, all of GMT's materials refer to the new edition as the "3rd printing"; I doubt CSI even had any 2nd print copies left by the time the 3rd print became available. I've got a copy coming on tuesday (along with Wiz-War and and Summoner Wars Master Set Cracked my copy open when I got home, and it has all the updated art (looks way better than most of the photos I've seen online). Also sorted out all 450 wooden bits 
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Aug 10, 2012 14:08
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I can't wait for Sunday. There is a big group of people getting together to play Twilight Imperium. I really need to learn to be more aggressive, as in the last game, I was pretty much out of the running by the end of the first turn. I left some ships on my homeworld when I moved out and I should not have done that when the Virus was nearby.
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Aug 10, 2012 16:11
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Yomtom posted:So I was thinking about picking up Wiz-War next for the collection, and I had saved a post from a while ago in the last thread about some house rules one guy used. Can anyone comment on it? From reviews I've been reading a pretty common complaint that pops up is how the game may commonly feel more like a straight up sprint as an 'optimal strategy' to win instead of beating each other to death with the treasure being a valid option. (Having never played it myself and not being too familiar with what spells there are I dunno) I've seen them before, and they look like they would definitely improve the game. But for some reason I've never remembered to actually implement them, so I can't give an informed opinion on them.
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Aug 10, 2012 16:19
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My local store got Descent 2nd Edition in. I want to get it. I have a group who have quite liked games like Ravenloft. Two of them are into RPGs, the rest don't mind fantasy and co-op vs. overlord player type games. A friend who has played the new Descent says it's really fun: much smoother and simpler than the first edition, but still very satisfying. Talk me into it / out of it, goons.
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Aug 10, 2012 16:48
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I played Emienent Domain last night and had a good time with it. The mechanic of adding cards to your deck when you choose a role was an interesting twist. I'm curious though if this game has long-term re-playability or if once you learn how to optimize the two separate engines (colonize/warfare) that it's basically the same game every time. Anyone play it enough to have an opinion?
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Aug 10, 2012 17:07
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Der Shovel posted:My local store got Descent 2nd Edition in. I want to get it. Just started a campaign last week and it's very fun so far. Very much about positioning, though, so it has much more of a puzzle aspect than other one vs manys. Your group sounds like they'd dig it.
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Aug 10, 2012 17:12
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Der Shovel posted:My local store got Descent 2nd Edition in. I want to get it. It's the epitome of Fantasy Flight games: Great components, dripping with theme, not terribly well balanced, rulebook that needed a couple more passes. Make of that what you will.
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Aug 10, 2012 17:13
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Crackbone posted:It's the epitome of Fantasy Flight games: Great components, dripping with theme, not terribly well balanced, rulebook that needed a couple more passes. Make of that what you will. Yeah, I'm a huge Fantasy Flight fanboy and I can't disagree with this comment.
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Aug 10, 2012 17:16
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Der Shovel posted:My local store got Descent 2nd Edition in. I want to get it. I dunno, someone can talk me into it if they like. I loved Hero Quest and Advanced Hero Quest (and even Talisman, haw) back in the day and this looks like the sort of successor to that sort of thing. Is there a prevailing opinion? Like I have said before (and possibly by my stated previous tastes) I am no judge of board games, but this does look like it has good candy value and that is always a bonus. On a related note, this just looks ridiculously sexy to me but I have poor judgement when it comes to eye candy games and also it is spendy as hell.
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Aug 10, 2012 17:18
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Trane posted:I played Emienent Domain last night and had a good time with it. The mechanic of adding cards to your deck when you choose a role was an interesting twist. I'm curious though if this game has long-term re-playability or if once you learn how to optimize the two separate engines (colonize/warfare) that it's basically the same game every time. Anyone play it enough to have an opinion? I've played it about 4-5 times or so and didn't really feel the need to play beyond the first. I'm not a fan of deckbuilders in general, but this was just so boring to me, and I never felt much of an accomplishment when I did win because I knew that a lot of the reason why is because somebody upstream took a role that helped me a lot, usually a Warfare/Colonize, so that I could Warfare/Colonize as an action to get a planet instead of using a role to do the same. There's some luck on the planets as well, since your Survey may very well only allow you to get the top card of the planet pile, but if that card is a +1 Card planet or a Prestige world, that's way more beneficial than a planet with a symbol that doesn't help you at all. I've also never seen Production/Trade work out for anyone. And yet people keep suggesting to play it all the time  Edit: ^^^ The trick to collectable games is to wait until they're out in the market, then just scoop up bundles of commons on ebay for cheap. Wizkid games also tend to die, so you can also wait for it to complete its lifespan, then doing the aforementioned ebay scooping. GrandpaPants fucked around with this message at 17:24 on Aug 10, 2012 |
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Aug 10, 2012 17:21
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Winson_Paine posted:I dunno, someone can talk me into it if they like. I loved Hero Quest and Advanced Hero Quest (and even Talisman, haw) back in the day and this looks like the sort of successor to that sort of thing. Is there a prevailing opinion? Like I have said before (and possibly by my stated previous tastes) I am no judge of board games, but this does look like it has good candy value and that is always a bonus. If you loved HeroQuest, yeah, that's up your alley. I'd just say make sure you still love HeroQuest, and you're not just being nostalgic about it. Fantasy Flight basically stripped out most of the truly fiddly bits about a dungeoncrawler and made scenarios that require more than just "beat on monsters". On the flip side, the D&D adventure games are probably closer to Heroquest in their structure. Beat up on random monsters, random events, treasure decks to draw from, etc. It's totally co-op, and a lot of people think it's boring because of the automated monster AI and repetitive nature of encounters (place room, draw for monsters, repeat until end). Crackbone fucked around with this message at 17:53 on Aug 10, 2012 |
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Aug 10, 2012 17:29
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Der Shovel posted:My local store got Descent 2nd Edition in. I want to get it. Descent first edition was a game I loved to hate because it was stupidly complicated and required an encyclopedic understanding of the rules. Descent second edition is... shockingly good. Balance is hard to evaluate since my group has only made it through two quests and two play sessions, but it feels really good. The quests have been very close so far. The rules are sensible and not bloated. The changes to treasure and hero development are stellar. While Descent I was a game of abusing broken rules, Descent II is (at least currently) a game of tactics. You have fewer wacky and horrifically unbalanced options and far more constrained, reasonably equal options at any given time. The only downside is that it's very much a campaign game. Playing any of the missions as a one off would probably be pretty dull.
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Aug 10, 2012 17:34
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quote:when I did win because I knew that a lot of the reason why is because somebody upstream took a role that helped me a lot This is pretty much the point of the game. As before, it's more useful to think of Eminent Domain as a role selection game (where the goal is to position yourself to get the best value out of following other people's roles) than as a deck builder (though obviously it has some deck building). quote:I've also never seen Production/Trade work out for anyone. Produce/Trade works kind of like "Big Money" does in Dominion: not often is it the best starting strategy, but the threat of it keeps giant-engine-builders honest. If everyone is going for big tech, someone threatening to end the game with produce/trade can be very powerful (and I've seen it win this way a few times). And I'll agree that you can really be screwed by planet draws (and by card draws). The planet variance goes a long way in shuffling up the game and forcing players to adapt, but any naked randomness like that always creates the potential for ruined games. There are, at least, some attempts to mitigate this in the game (managing your survey count in the early game is tremendously important).
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Aug 10, 2012 17:47
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Winson_Paine posted:On a related note, this just looks ridiculously sexy to me but I have poor judgement when it comes to eye candy games and also it is spendy as hell. It is a really fun game. The mechanics are pretty easy to work and it is very tactical, but the randomness of the board can really hose someone. I like that they made combat just one way to get points so you can win by out questing your opponent rather than just blasting them out of space (it's pretty fun to blast them out of space). You have additional ships to bring in to play if some of your get destroyed which is nice for preventing a snowballing effect if you have a bad turn of combat. I wish the ships were painted, but I guess that's fixable if you can paint and are less lazy than I am. A guy in my gaming group is trying to sell a fully sleeved copy for $60 (he's broke and how many copies of a game do you need in a regular group?) if that's a good price. I'm not sure what it goes for online these days. edit: The map comment was about a particular game of 2v2 where my partner basically had his starting zone as a terrible, hard to get through tile and a black hole tile that straight up destroys most ships that fly into the space. I guess scouting before you enter isn't always a waste of time! We ended up winning and it was actually sort of hilarious because he's one of those guys that whatever the worst possible random event is, it happens to him. That game was still fun, but he was very frustrated for a first couple turns as the lousy federation jumped out to an early lead. Acinonyx fucked around with this message at 18:19 on Aug 10, 2012 |
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Aug 10, 2012 18:15
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Crackbone posted:If you loved HeroQuest, yeah, that's up your alley. I'd just say make sure you still love HeroQuest, and you're not just being nostalgic about it. Fantasy Flight basically stripped out most of the truly fiddly bits about a dungeoncrawler and made scenarios that require more than just "beat on monsters". Are you sure HeroQuest was the random one? I remember the old Milton Bradley one with the cardboard furniture; it had little ADVENTURE BOOKS and campaign packs and your guys could level up. I don't remember the monster placement being random, but maybe my memory is bad. Are there any others like it? EDIT: HQ (the MB one) had set maps and little campaign books that your men leveled up throught. AHQ had random generation and a lot od d12s Winson_Paine fucked around with this message at 18:48 on Aug 10, 2012 |
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Aug 10, 2012 18:32
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Winson_Paine posted:Are you sure HeroQuest was the random one? I remember the old Milton Bradley one with the cardboard furniture; it had little ADVENTURE BOOKS and campaign packs and your guys could level up. I don't remember the monster placement being random, but maybe my memory is bad. I don't think either one is a direct match, really. Descent 2nd ed is a very "tactical" game - you select Heroes, goals are given to Overlord/Heros, you play. You don't get treasure or upgrades during the game, only between scenarios. Almost no random happenings. D&D adventure games to me are more reminiscent of old Dungeon Crawlers - you select your party, and lay out random tiles, get random monsters, random happenings, and you can get treasure level ups during your session. The monster turn is all resolved using simple AI on the cards (if the monster is next to a hero, attack, otherwise move towards heroes). Off the top of my head there's other similar but not quite things as well: Claustrophobia is a dungeon crawler - a lot like Descent 2nd edition, but I'd say probably better overall. It's not quite as fancy as Descent but rules are tight and balanced, comes with some nice prepainted minis as well. Almost more race-oriented, because the heros really need to spend more time getting through the map than beating monsters. Gears of War is by Fantasy Flight, and pretty darn good. It's a lot like the D&D adventure games, in that it's coop and has scenarios/random tile layouts/monster AI, but I'd say it's an overall better game, and pretty straightforward for a FF game. Super Dungeon Explore is a Gauntlet-esque dungeon crawler, but it's got a bad case of the Animes and it's quite a bit clunkier/longer running than any of the other things I've mentioned. There's a TON more but those are some of the newer games in the genre. Crackbone fucked around with this message at 18:46 on Aug 10, 2012 |
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Aug 10, 2012 18:40
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jmzero posted:This is pretty much the point of the game. As before, it's more useful to think of Eminent Domain as a role selection game (where the goal is to position yourself to get the best value out of following other people's roles) than as a deck builder (though obviously it has some deck building). I realize that it's the point of the game, but it's not exactly something that I felt like I was actively planning for, and I'm generally not a fan of planning something based on the capriciousness of a person. I can know that someone who has a lot of Colonize cards has a higher probability of playing Colonize, but its usefulness to me is contingent on whether he drew enough Colonize cards to make the role worth it and whether I also have the necessary Colonize cards to make use of the coattail riding. There is nothing stopping that person from saying, oh I wanna do Research this turn, and then I'd be like, well dang. Mild annoyance and disappointment, but since it was out of my control, I can't really care much about it. It has the same sort of problem as Race for the Galaxy where I can make an educated guess as to what other people are going to do, but even guessing right doesn't make me feel like I played better, but that I just sort of stumbled into this fortuitous situation.
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Aug 10, 2012 19:04
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Crackbone posted:There's a TON more but those are some of the newer games in the genre. What are some more of these types of games? Always looking for a new one. I'd add Buffy the Vampire Slayer game, (good even if you don't know the theme), Space Crusade (a literal 40k themed HeroQuest), and Mutant Chronicles: Siege of the Citadel(awesome production and fun help or hurt your fellow good guys mechanic).
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Aug 10, 2012 19:06
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Yomtom posted:Has anyone ever tried this dudes rules? Or found success with any other house rules? Or just left it the way it is and didn't find the need to change anything really. My group has played with the treasure encumbrance rule, and it definitely makes the game less of a energy-based sprintfest.
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Aug 10, 2012 19:57
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Galaxy Trucker is one of those games that you can learn as you play. I think the instructions even tell you to play it instead of reading everything first. When you run into something, you explain it/read rules. Since building a ship is like a bunch of kids fighting in a sandbox, it'll hook them right from the start and it's incredibly easy to explain. Edit: Dammit, replying thinking I was at the end of new messages. Beaten. Philthy fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Aug 10, 2012 |
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Aug 10, 2012 20:18
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Philthy posted:Galaxy Trucker is one of those games that you can learn as you play. I think the instructions even tell you to play it instead of reading everything first. When you run into something, you explain it/read rules. The best part of Galaxy Trucker is it's a great game and makes great narratives.
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Aug 10, 2012 20:29
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A Strange Aeon posted:What are some more of these types of games? Always looking for a new one. Do you mean the SUPER OLD Space Crusade or did it get a re-release? That one was before my time and I was always kind of sad I never got a chance to play it. Played a hell of a lot of Space Hulk, tho.
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Aug 11, 2012 00:55
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Winson_Paine posted:Do you mean the SUPER OLD Space Crusade or did it get a re-release? That one was before my time and I was always kind of sad I never got a chance to play it. Played a hell of a lot of Space Hulk, tho. The old one...yeah, it was pretty hard to track down, but it's a great production. I don't think it was ever released in the US even. GW and Milton Bradley (I think this is the company) had some kind of deal, but they didn't want to try to market both HeroQuest and Space Crusade in the US for some reason. So US got HeroQuest only and Australia and UK got Space Crusade (and Hero Quest as well? not sure). My version is mostly complete, just missing some of the weapons for the marines, which isn't a big deal, but in practice is really annoying and prevents me from playing it as often as I'd like. But the campaign seems like it would be fun to play out, with the marine chapters competing against each other to get the most kills.
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Aug 11, 2012 02:26
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Winson_Paine posted:Are you sure HeroQuest was the random one? I remember the old Milton Bradley one with the cardboard furniture; it had little ADVENTURE BOOKS and campaign packs and your guys could level up. I don't remember the monster placement being random, but maybe my memory is bad. If you regularly play this type of thing with multiple people, go for Descent 2nd ed. It's fun, tactical, and is way better than the old Hero Quest stuff. If you are typically in a 2-player situation, I'll second Claustrophobia as the best in class. It's not so much of a dungeon crawl as it is the humans running through a gauntlet of demonic death as fast as possible to complete a hopeless objective. There are a half dozen or so scenarios in the main game and another 20 or so you can download, plus an expansion if those every become dull (they won't). The game is completely asymmetrical but very well balanced.
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Aug 11, 2012 04:31
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King Chicken posted:If you regularly play this type of thing with multiple people, go for Descent 2nd ed. It's fun, tactical, and is way better than the old Hero Quest stuff. Will Decent work with three? That is likely going to be our typical group for a little while, we are kind of in a slump at the moment and while we are mostly RPG types having a backup in the form of something RPGish but fun and tactical seems the way to go.
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Aug 11, 2012 05:46
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Winson_Paine posted:Will Decent work with three? That is likely going to be our typical group for a little while, we are kind of in a slump at the moment and while we are mostly RPG types having a backup in the form of something RPGish but fun and tactical seems the way to go. Very much so - Overlord vs. two hero players.
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Aug 11, 2012 05:51
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I want to add the part I like least about the new D&D games like Ravenloft and Ashardalon: when you level up is random and unlikely. You need to both have 5 XP (which are normally spent in 5 XP increments on canceling those evil Encounter cards) AND roll a natural 20. And you can only level up once. I've never had it happen where somebody both had the XP and the roll at the same time.
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Aug 11, 2012 06:01
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flashdim posted:Very much so - Overlord vs. two hero players.
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Aug 11, 2012 08:30
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Winson_Paine posted:Will Decent work with three? That is likely going to be our typical group for a little while, we are kind of in a slump at the moment and while we are mostly RPG types having a backup in the form of something RPGish but fun and tactical seems the way to go. (btw, do NOT thy that with Descent 1. That one works with 4 heroes only.) Pierzak fucked around with this message at 15:05 on Aug 11, 2012 |
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Aug 11, 2012 10:41
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Trynant posted:I feel I ought to mention that the couple of plays of Castles of Burgundy I had last week have definitely sold me on the game. CoB is a fantastic game. Get the extra boards from that one issue of Spielbox if you can. Stefan Feld is definitely right up there with Vlaada Chvatil for me as far as designers go. I tend to like my games a bit puzzly, and Feld definitely has that aspect down cold. Looking forward to getting Trajan when the reprint drops at the end of next week.
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Aug 11, 2012 14:33
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Cyclades looks totally amazing. Is it?
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Aug 11, 2012 15:41
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