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Broken Loose posted:The upside to only having experience with Munchkin is that literally any game worth recommending is better than it; it only gets more awesome from here! But you lost all your friends in that big argument that broke out over a game of Munchkin and now you don't have anyone to play board games with 
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Nov 4, 2012 00:40
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zerox147o posted:Friends have been digging Munchkin. Playing with the base game atm, anyone got a good recommendation on which expansions are worth picking up or is it entirely based on whatever flavor the group happens to like the most? Just pick up expansions your group thinks will look good. They don't really change the game much.
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Nov 4, 2012 00:56
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Flavor it is. We are well aware of the game not being amazing, but enjoy it for the degree to which we can gently caress each other over with minimal time/effort. Will stick to adding other games and expansions unless someone sees a set they can't live without. Day 6 without power, board games getting a workout.
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Nov 4, 2012 05:42
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Played through the new version of Merchant. The new version is still about finding good trade routes but they toss in an extra layer of strategy with "fame" points. Fame generates money at the end of the game (30 rounds) so it's a good idea to accumulate as many as possible while still plotting the ideal routes through the galaxy. It's also possible to accumulate negative fame (e.g. dropping off seedy passengers or using a stealth field to enter the black market) and these reduce your money at the end of the game. There's only one ship which you upgrade over the course of the game. Hazards don't cost money, instead they test your piloting, shooting, or shield skills which you increase by leveling up or purchasing upgrades. Cargo costs 40c per space, your drive takes up its own slot, special tech has up to four slots, and you can have an infinite number of miscellaneous items. You now have the option of assigning a navigation number or if you roll a 1 you can assign it to throttle which gives you an additional die to roll. Your skills come into play by helping you complete objectives which earn you fame and special abilities. Alien races also produce technology that give special abilities e.g. "zen paintjob" which gives you +2d6 * 10c when you drop off a passenger but you lose 3 fame at the end of the game because your ship is gaudy as poo poo. The round tracker also counts two things: drilling and passengers. Every odd numbered turn generates a new passenger so picking people up is actually a lucrative business this time around. At asteroids you can drop off a drill platform if you purchased a drill license and at every even numbered turn you make 10c per drilling platform. There are a ton of optional rules including a quick game variant that begins at round 16, decks out your ship from the start, and everyone automatically discovers a race. We only played a standard game so I didn't get to explore the Classic side or this deck of cards that contained a variety of events on it. I am interested in playing a classic game because organizing everything is a helluva lot easier than the 80s game. They also made it so factory goods are affected by demand, which was always something that bugged me because it was common in the classic game for standard items to be worth more than the upgraded good. Being a Fantasy Flight game the production design is lavish and gorgeous. You can look at a chit and immediately know what aliens buy/sell. I'm surprised to admit that I hate money tokens over paper money and we substituted poker chips immediately. Everything is clearly labeled and documented which was the biggest weakness of the classic version. Out of all the new rules, the one I like the most is that artifacts can be purchased instead of found solely through asteroids: in the original game this could lead to one person have a super megaship and the entire game is lopsided. Based on the standard game alone I think this product is incredibly worth the purchase. Even my friend, who spent $300 on a sealed version of MoV and claims it to be his favorite game ever, loved this version. We still favor the classic version so far but we're not going to rule out the new game. al-azad fucked around with this message at 05:49 on Nov 4, 2012 |
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Nov 4, 2012 05:44
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I just got back from my first game of Merchant of Venus (older version, I believe, since their was no Fame). I thought it was an otherwise fine strategy game, completely hampered by its archaic 'roll and move' mechanic. Does the new version fix this in anyways? Because it was a really frustrating trying to get anywhere while repeatedly not being able to roll above a 7 on 3d6.
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Nov 4, 2012 06:07
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Paper Kaiju posted:I just got back from my first game of Merchant of Venus (older version, I believe, since their was no Fame). I thought it was an otherwise fine strategy game, completely hampered by its archaic 'roll and move' mechanic. Does the new version fix this in anyways? Because it was a really frustrating trying to get anywhere while repeatedly not being able to roll above a 7 on 3d6. This is offset by buying drives and taking advantage of telegates. It's entirely possible to move halfway across the map in a single move if you deck your ship out. The standard game is designed for speed and it does give extra options for ship movement. There's a cheap expendable item called "hard burn" which gives you +10 movement and there are a few artifacts or character abilities that give extra movement. You still have to be aware of your direction but I found it easier overall to get where I was supposed to go.
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Nov 4, 2012 07:21
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Paper money and weighty metal coins are the only way to for currency 
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Nov 4, 2012 08:09
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I got Trajan a few weeks ago and we've played it about 6 times with 2-players only. It's fun although we don't like it as much as Castles of Burgundy which we still play almost nightly. The Mancala mechanic which I was most excited to try gets a little stale, but it's cool to see it used this way. All the mini-games that you play to score VP are simple, but deciding where to focus your attention feels pretty strategic and enjoyable. I imagine the game being more challenging and tense with 3 or 4 players, but it'll be awhile till I get to try that out. We'll probably bust it out once a week or so, but it isn't going to pass Burgundy as our favorite game right now.
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Nov 4, 2012 08:51
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zerox147o posted:Flavor it is. We are well aware of the game not being amazing, but enjoy it for the degree to which we can gently caress each other over with minimal time/effort. Will stick to adding other games and expansions unless someone sees a set they can't live without. Day 6 without power, board games getting a workout. If you want a similar game to Munchkin, in that it is a dungeon crawler and you are kind of co-operating while still trying to screw over your buddies, AND it's a card game (look, it's Munchkin without the bad, not funny humor and with stronger mechanics) then I can recommend Cutthroat Caverns. Fun game, and the expansions each make it a stronger game. If you particularly like the cartoony fantasy nature of Munchkin, but want to try something more like a real board game, then I'd recommend Small World. This is a good game, with conflict as strong as you want it, and with proper, balanced rules (it isn't really the bad humor that causes the denizens of this thread to hate Munchkin, it's the weak mechanics and the strong influence of luck over decision making) and will appeal to the sort of people who enjoy that fantasy setting. It has expansions that are all very good, with different degrees of change to the base game included - complete reworkings of the board to just a few extra races. Funso Banjo fucked around with this message at 11:19 on Nov 4, 2012 |
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Nov 4, 2012 11:08
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Funso Banjo posted:If you want a similar game to Munchkin, in that it is a dungeon crawler and you are kind of co-operating while still trying to screw over your buddies, AND it's a card game (look, it's Munchkin without the bad, not funny humor and with stronger mechanics) then I can recommend Cutthroat Caverns. Fun game, and the expansions each make it a stronger game. I have to second this. I really enjoy Cutthroat Caverns, and I didn't realize til now how similar it is to Munchkin (the superior part I knew). He's also right about the expansions, though the base set is plenty fine just to try out the game and see if you like it.
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Nov 4, 2012 11:18
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Nov 4, 2012 12:09
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I'd suggest taking a look at Intrigue. It's a microscopic game, with like about five rules total, and it consist solely of being an rear end in a top hat towards rest of the table.
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Nov 4, 2012 12:14
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I nearly pissed myself laughing at this
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Nov 4, 2012 12:37
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Lichtenstein posted:I'd suggest taking a look at Intrigue. It's a microscopic game, with like about five rules total, and it consist solely of being an rear end in a top hat towards rest of the table. We got about ten minutes into this game before my wife silently left the room and slammed the door. It's the only thing, game or other, that's ever made her do something like that.
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Nov 4, 2012 14:34
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wafflesnsegways posted:We got about ten minutes into this game before my wife silently left the room and slammed the door. It's the only thing, game or other, that's ever made her do something like that. Adversarial games can be tough on a marriage.
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Nov 4, 2012 14:53
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wafflesnsegways posted:We got about ten minutes into this game before my wife silently left the room and slammed the door. It's the only thing, game or other, that's ever made her do something like that. That is actually a pretty good recommendation in my eyes. I think settlers or carcassonne has gotten the most play this week, and you can only see someone win without being able to stop them so many times before wanting to play something based solely on "gently caress you" mechanics. It is amusing that the mention of someone playing munchkin, not that they even think its great or better than anything else, generates such rage. Sorry we didn't feel like teaching new people dominion.
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Nov 4, 2012 16:19
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zerox147o posted:It is amusing that the mention of someone playing munchkin, not that they even think its great or better than anything else, generates such rage. Munchkin is a fun way to spend 30 minutes. Unfortunately, games last three hours. It's basically impossible to win unless the other players don't dogpile you. The end game thus degenerates into a chain of dogpiles on anyone who gets close to winning, until eventually either you can't dogpile any more or you choose to let someone win. The game also gets hugely overextended when played by people who have played before, as going for the win first is a guarantee that you'll lose. In short: Munchkin games take forever to play and are decided either by pure luck or a mass kingmaking event. The attitude this forum has towards it is brought on by PTSD.
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Nov 4, 2012 17:49
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Jedit posted:Munchkin is a fun way to spend 30 minutes. Unfortunately, games last three hours. It's basically impossible to win unless the other players don't dogpile you. The end game thus degenerates into a chain of dogpiles on anyone who gets close to winning, until eventually either you can't dogpile any more or you choose to let someone win. The game also gets hugely overextended when played by people who have played before, as going for the win first is a guarantee that you'll lose.
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Nov 4, 2012 17:54
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al-azad posted:This is offset by buying drives and taking advantage of telegates. It's entirely possible to move halfway across the map in a single move if you deck your ship out. I actually bought the best drive in the game, and had the mulligan drive relic, and I was still not able to get around the board at a reasonable pace due to ridiculously low rolls and having to take the long way around gates I couldn't get through. At the end, I felt the same way as after my last game of Stone Age, that my loss was due solely to dice and not to any decision that I made, which is unacceptable for a game that took over 4 hours to play.
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Nov 4, 2012 17:56
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Yeah if you're looking for a game that will reward strong strategy and great tactics, don't look at Merchant of Venus. It's far more of a risk management, pick up and deliver than anything else. I happen to like it quite a bit, but I don't care if I win or lose, I just like the experience. We played the "standard" (ie new) version of MoV yesterday with four and yes it took five hours. I think with four experienced non-AP players you could easily finish under three hours, but getting it down to an hour and a half is going to be tough. The set up is hellacious as well, although I'm getting more storage boxes to cut down on the time. I enjoyed it, but like I say I'm not playing to win because the game is too random for that. I'm just playing to make reasonable choices and see if I can recover from bad luck.
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Nov 4, 2012 18:20
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Pierzak posted:You forgot cheating. Every munchin exp is fun for the first 1-2 plays, then you've seen all the jokes and the only thing left is cheating. It was fun enough for a day that people who haven't played a board game since monopoly were interested in expansions/exploring the rest of the shelf. Good enough.
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Nov 4, 2012 18:24
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Pierzak posted:You forgot cheating. Every munchin exp is fun for the first 1-2 plays, then you've seen all the jokes and the only thing left is cheating. When people were still willing to play Munchkin, we took the joke role in the book that basically anything is allowed seriously. It actually makes the game better, because when people are palming victory points off the pile when no one is looking, the game ends much faster.
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Nov 4, 2012 19:42
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Lorini posted:Yeah if you're looking for a game that will reward strong strategy and great tactics, don't look at Merchant of Venus. It's far more of a risk management, pick up and deliver than anything else. I happen to like it quite a bit, but I don't care if I win or lose, I just like the experience. I think a good rule of thumb is 45-60 minutes per person. For storage I bought a bunch of cheap ring boxes and store each alien's goods and markers inside and I have a plastic case for holding all distributable material (money, factories, and so on). And yes, the game is all about risk management. It was made in the 80s so luck plays a role but bad luck can be mitigated with good planning. I believe people who dislike the classic game will like the standard game because they streamline the board management aspects. For example, there's no individual demand you have to track, instead alien races have a high/low/average sell price which cycles whenever you trade. They also add a lot more options and technology for making money or increasing your speed. There's fewer downtime and generally more options so players (shouldn't) be as indecisive as they are in a classic game. MoV is one of those games I play for the experience as well. I can't really think of many games like it, either. Most space games focus on the management of an empire or an army. MoV is the only one I've seen that's played on an individual level in a randomly generated world.
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Nov 4, 2012 19:49
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I played 1989: Dawn of Freedom for the first time yesterday. The game was pretty fun, easy for a Twilight Struggle veteran to pick up. 1989 introduces the Power Struggle, a mini-game that occurs whenever a Scoring card is played, and basically determines whether or not the pro-democracy player has a chance at overthrowing the communist regime in that country. (Countries play the same role as continents did in TS.) If the communists are overthrown (or decide to surrender) in that country, the scoring card is removed from play, although the country does get scored again in Final Scoring, so there's still value in denying the opponent domination or control of the country. In fact, my doing so led to a narrow victory for the Communists at the end of the game. One of the more interesting tweaks was in the Support Check mechanism. Support Check basically combines the Coup and Realignment actions into one: you play a card for points to use on Support Checks. Any card played will generate two Support Check actions. The card's point value goes into the die roll modifier, like a Coup. The control status of adjacent areas is also factored into the die roll modifier, like a Realignment. Unlike a Realignment, however, you do not get any bonuses for control of the area being targeted by the Support Check, and the roll is not opposed. If you liked Twilight Struggle I think 1989 is definitely worth considering. I probably won't pick it up myself, but mostly because the friend who I'm most likely to play it with already owns it.
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Nov 4, 2012 19:53
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Anyone else going to try and play 1960: The making of the president on Tuesday?
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Nov 4, 2012 20:07
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nimby posted:Anyone else going to try and play 1960: The making of the president on Tuesday?
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Nov 4, 2012 20:50
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Tekopo posted:What's special about Tuesday? Euro goon spotted. Tuesday is US Presidential Election.
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Nov 4, 2012 20:55
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Tekopo posted:What's special about Tuesday? I don't tend to play 1960 anymore because of how the deck is managed. As for 1989, I like it and own it, but I feel that having something as important as country control relying on a dice roll doesn't feel right. I do like power struggles and support checks otherwise. I think that's mitigated by the fact that country control is only going to flip if the Democrat has already won the Power Struggle, which in turn is influenced (but not necessarily determined) by who's in control of more areas in that country. Also, it might be that we're bad at TS/1989, but losing countries won't necessarily kill the Communist either; I'd lost all but Romania and Bulgaria, and I still wound up winning the game in Final Scoring.
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Nov 4, 2012 21:00
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I have gotten to play my recently acquired copy of The Great Zimbabwe about half a dozen times in the past week, and if that isn't telling I will say that I really like this game; it may possibly be worth the absurd price! The game is about shipping more and more goods to build better and better monuments, with the caveat every new type of craftsmen for goods you take in , the more points you will need to win as opposed to a less industrious player who has a much lower victory point requirement. The game's placement of buildings actually has a spatial element; The Great Zimbabwe is played on modular boards. Building placement can greatly affect who can build what craftsmen and which monuments can get goods for a reasonable price. The modular board layouts guarantee that the game doesn't get formulaic; one board's strategies can greatly differ from another board's strategies. The game's rules are not that complex, but the way the mechanics tie together causes the game to be really in-depth ('easy to learn, hard to master' and such). Playtime can vary between player counts--a two-player game can be as short as half and hour ~ forty-five minutes, but a five-player game is more around two-hours (but a little more interesting in its interactions). So from my first few plays, I really like The Great Zimbabwe. Highly recommend this one to Splotter fans and to anyone with some cash to burn who likes Euros at all.
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Nov 4, 2012 21:20
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zerox147o posted:Friends have been digging Munchkin. Playing with the base game atm, anyone got a good recommendation on which expansions are worth picking up or is it entirely based on whatever flavor the group happens to like the most?
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Nov 4, 2012 21:38
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Farmer Crack-rear end posted:I think that's mitigated by the fact that country control is only going to flip if the Democrat has already won the Power Struggle, which in turn is influenced (but not necessarily determined) by who's in control of more areas in that country.
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Nov 4, 2012 21:48
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Well it comes to that time again, and looking to hopefully get some money in my pocket for christmas, as well as sell some boardgames to some needy goons, I'm selling: http://myworld.ebay.com/zombieman246/ Twilight Imperium 3 Zombie State: Diplomacy of the Dead Game of Thrones LCG (Including first 6 booster packs) Horus Heresy Rune Wars Call of Cthulhu LCG (including Order of the Silver Twilight Lodge deluxe expansion) Middle Earth Quest 
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Nov 5, 2012 05:00
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I finally played Space Alert. Everyone has really covered its praises to death so I don't really feel that I have to say too much regarding them, but I think it's worth stating just how great of a job the game does with forcing you to feel like poo poo. Every new Threat card you see, every time the main cannons take damage, and every time you scramble to get the cards you need during a data transfer you have these wonderful "in character" moments of dread that I simply haven't felt in any other game, be it euro or ameritrash, and it does this all through the mechanics themselves. The CD's voice isn't going out of its way to freak you out, it's just calmly relaying that there's a serious threat in zone white four turns from now, but the implications of that send your group into a mad frenzy. Space Alert is the first time I've ever used the word "experience" to positively describe a game, instead of sarcastically mocking it. I do think that there's one issue that gets sorta lost in reviews (especially ones posted here). Well, maybe not an issue, but a miscommunication sorta. Every time I hear people talk about Space Alert they go on about how cool it is that it's "the most stressful 10 minutes of your life," and it is and it's wonderful, but what they fail to mention is that there's also a 10 minute (or longer if your group is busy throwing blame around) resolution phase, and a tutorial that can take an hour or longer. Now, I love both the resolution phase and the tutorial - the former for the wind down it provides, and the latter for the amazing sense of dread it invokes every time you learn a new mechanic (the collective "we're hosed" groan when we read that you place cards face down after the first test run was amazing) - but when everything I've read about the game hyping it up keeps harping on that magical 10 minute number it's disappointing to sit down and realize that you'll be spending the next hour or two learning. Again, the actual learning is fun, but I just don't want anyone to do what my group did and sit down expecting to play a complete first game within 20 minutes and, well, not.
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Nov 5, 2012 05:20
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Countblanc posted:place cards face down I never read that part, makes my space station even more impossible to defend. My memory is horrid.
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Nov 5, 2012 05:30
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Harlock posted:Just tread lightly when you get into expansions. My gaming group has the base game + 3 expansions. When you play the game with all 3.. you can have games that take upwards of 4-7 hours to finish because there's so many cards to screw people over with and just general inventory to take care of with your own hand. If you get more than one expansion, I would just suggest not to combine them, just play Game + 1 expansion at a time. Another reason for this is you pick up "Usable by Dwarf Only" items, but now 7/8 of the deck is sci-fi and Cthulhu and Penny Arcade jokes or whatever. So what are the odds you'll actually draw the Dwarf race? The bottom line is the players are weaker, but with very few exceptions the monsters and the cards for screwing people over don't scale the same way; they're as strong as ever.
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Nov 5, 2012 05:40
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Zombie #246 posted:Well it comes to that time again, and looking to hopefully get some money in my pocket for christmas, as well as sell some boardgames to some needy goons, I'm selling: I only see TI, Zombie State, GoT, and CoC up. Have you just not posted the others yet?
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Nov 5, 2012 07:34
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I ordered The Resistance, and the Space Alert expansion. Is there anything I should know and/or consider/keep in mind before going into these?
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Nov 5, 2012 07:45
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I got to play Vinhos for the first time yesterday. I was interested in trying this one as seeing that it's pretty much one of the most complicated Euro's you can get this side of Splotter. Overall I enjoyed it, with some caveats. The good stuff is that the game is indeed meaty, and that it's not nearly as impenetrable as its BGG page would make you believe (someone posted a tutorial that has more parts than the loving rulebook has pages). If I could compare this game to another in complexity, I would say Vinhos is around the level of Caylus or Le Havre, if only slightly more obtuse. Sure, that's a lot of learning, but I had much more trouble learning how 18XX games work or reading through some heavier wargame rulebooks. Vinhos makes sense after a couple of turns. It has interesting decisions, lots of cool mechanisms, and a fairly impressive sense of theme with its mechanics (albeit that theme is making wine...not exactly "thrilling"). The not-so-good stuff, and this may be a YMMV thing, but strangely enough I felt the game was over too fast. Vinhos feels like a game that should be about 50% longer than it turned out to be. The really great Euros give you a strong sense of building something, be it the greatest buildings and castle parts in Caylus or the best So overall, Vinhos first-play was good, not great. I would recommend it to someone who has enjoyed the likes of Caylus and Le Havre and wants more. I can see Vinhos becoming a rather exciting game after repeated plays, after the first game where everyone is still learning the strategies and not getting caught off-guard by the abrupt ending.
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Nov 5, 2012 17:04
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Valiant Pudding posted:What do you all think about Lords of Waterdeep? I am a big fan of Lords of Waterdeep. It is a great entry level worker placement game with one of the best box inserts of any game I have played. It makes it great for bringing to different places and playing with all sorts of people. For people who have played a lot of different worker placements, it might seem relatively shallow, but my group prefers it to Agricola due to the accessibility. My opinion is that if you own Lords of Waterdeep and Dungeon Lords, you are covered in the worker placement area for a while. If you want something deeper and more complex, Dungeon Lords is great. Otherwise, Lords of Waterdeep is a great accessible alternative.
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Nov 5, 2012 17:19
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