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I went out today and bought Lords of Waterdeep and Level 7 [Escape] today. LoW is exactly what I was looking for. It was quick to get into, went really well and I didn't have to refer to the rules except to see how to start and end the game. It was a close game and came down to the wire, with me finishing a quest on the last agent to take the win. Thanks for the recommendation and information. I'm curious about Level 7. It looked neat from a flavor standpoint and my gf thought it would be fun in an X-Files kind of way. After reading through the rules, it looks a lot more fiddly than LoW is but it does allow for a solo variant which might be fun when my gf is working tomorrow. All in all, I'm happy with the haul, but it doesn't quite dry my bitter tears from leaving Netrunner and Mage Knight at home 9 hours away.
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# ? Nov 16, 2012 02:39 |
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# ? Mar 29, 2024 01:54 |
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Winson_Paine posted:Bear in mind the rules over there are different so if someone likes Talisman or Monopoly or whatever there would need to be DIPLOMACY but other than that we thought outreach might be fun or interesting. So like English Channel supports North Sea -> Belgium?
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# ? Nov 16, 2012 02:58 |
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Winson_Paine posted:Bear in mind the rules over there are different so if someone likes Talisman or Monopoly or whatever there would need to be DIPLOMACY but other than that we thought outreach might be fun or interesting. Ugh. Our punishment for somebody liking Monopoly or Talisman is that we need to play Diplomacy? That's, like, mean, man.
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# ? Nov 16, 2012 03:04 |
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Winson_Paine posted:HEY HEY BOARD GAMERS I'd be up for doing this, if no one else is. I think this is a great idea.
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# ? Nov 16, 2012 03:17 |
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Nemesis Of Moles posted:I'd be up for doing this, if no one else is. I think this is a great idea. I think BL should. It'd be great to see him probated with every rant he levels at someone asking about a roll-n-move. I don't think he could physically stop himself.
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# ? Nov 16, 2012 03:37 |
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I think I'd be perfect for it but there are folks who specifically don't want me to do it. I'd still probably do it in spite of them.
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# ? Nov 16, 2012 03:39 |
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There's been a lot of interest in Twilight Struggle recently, so I'm starting up a tournament next week. Sign-ups and discussion in a separate thread FebrezeNinja fucked around with this message at 14:24 on Nov 16, 2012 |
# ? Nov 16, 2012 06:05 |
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Broken Loose posted:Using hidden powers in the FFG version of Cosmic makes it impossible to lose as The Masochist, amongst other "beer and pretzels" completely random, boring, and loving busted scenarios. I know this was a few days ago but just catching up on threads. My group still plays with my 20-year-old Mayfair Cosmic/More Cosmic set. We usually play a relatively simple power distribution variation like "draw 3: keep 1, drop 1, pass 1 right", or when masochistic we can skew toward things like "draw 3: drop 1, pass 1 each left and right" (where I inevitably draw Mesmer, Silencer, and Zombie). One power always has to be revealed but the others can be hidden until used. Also, we play that cards can always be played retroactively, even after a putative game end, but you can't go "back in time" before the current action. I have no idea what the win ratio by player is, but I will never forget games like
Cosmic played this way is completely ridiculous, prone to rules arguments and timing bitching, and is completely unbalanced. Sometimes it drags, sometimes someone gets a set of nigh-invincible powers, and sometimes our variants are just plain stupid (e.g., Mexican Sweat Cosmic, where everyone but you knew what your revealed power was, and we adjudicated how powers worked without active player declarations...we reshuffled and started a new game about 15 minutes into that one). But two things allow the game to transcend these faults and become sublime. First, by default we usually avoid joint victories (unless the game has been dragging or someone thinks they have a good screwjob to pull on their would-be co-victor), which prevents boring steamroller team games and pits everyone against everyone. Second, we all have the mindset that winning the game is secondary to pulling off the best possible shaftjob on someone else. I can honestly say that I've never had more fun playing boardgames than playing Cosmic with the right groups of people. And best of all, a game takes maybe 60-90 minutes on average so we can get through 3-4 games a session.
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# ? Nov 16, 2012 07:04 |
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We can probably get a few people to write in the A/T thread: I'd be up for doing it so that we can get someone that knows wargames along as well, and I would promise to be diplomatic about roll and moves, munchkin and the like.
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# ? Nov 16, 2012 09:16 |
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Tekopo posted:We can probably get a few people to write in the A/T thread: I'd be up for doing it so that we can get someone that knows wargames along as well, and I would promise to be diplomatic about roll and moves, munchkin and the like. Should probably leave proper wargame stuff out of it. Let them get a handle on the regular boardgame stuff to start. Include wargame bits in there, it will turn into a Warhammer thread, painting mini's will start to take over, arguments about what makes a boardgame will pop up and whether d&d is a boardgame. It'll turn into something else. If it goes well and there's significant interest, then you could aleays create a seperate A/T about wargames, where you could include that stuff.
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# ? Nov 16, 2012 09:42 |
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Why would it turn into a warhammer thread if we start talking about wargames? They are two completely different genres which have their own conventions. We can put a disclaimer up on the OP that this is not a thread about minitures/warhams ect. so it shouldn't be much of a problem. I think there are plenty of people that would be interested in finding out about wargames as well as regular boardgames so although we shouldn't make the former the focus of the thread, if questions about them get asked, we should respond. Also, how would we define it? There are several games that aren't-quite-a-wargame like TS.
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# ? Nov 16, 2012 11:04 |
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Tekopo posted:Also, how would we define it? There are several games that aren't-quite-a-wargame like TS. Historical Simulation. Most wargames fall into this category usually due to the setting and attempt at historical accuarcy and simulation.
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# ? Nov 16, 2012 11:59 |
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homullus posted:Ugh. Our punishment for somebody liking Monopoly or Talisman is that we need to play Diplomacy? That's, like, mean, man. What's mean about it? The first time someone asks about landing on Free Parking, Winson has instructed us to degenerate the thread into a hatefest where brother slays brother, husband slays wife and the family dog rapes the hamster. This is not an opportunity that arises very often. (NB: strictly speaking Winson may not have meant to say that, but if he didn't, he's not playing Diplomacy right.)
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# ? Nov 16, 2012 12:16 |
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PaybackJack posted:Historical Simulation. Most wargames fall into this category usually due to the setting and attempt at historical accuarcy and simulation. I still don't buy the slippery slope argument that wargames will lead to warhams/D&D/The Coming of the Anti-
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# ? Nov 16, 2012 13:40 |
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I'm considering picking up a copy of RftG: Rebel vs. Imperium (to be played without takeovers, they don't sound like they are very popular). I don't own RftG: the Gathering Storm though, as I'm not interested in solo mode and so it seems a bit expensive for how many cards it adds. Without the Gathering Storm will Rebel vs. Imperium work as an addition to the base game or will it just be unbalancing?
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# ? Nov 16, 2012 14:06 |
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Jedit posted:What's mean about it? The first time someone asks about landing on Free Parking, Winson has instructed us to degenerate the thread into a hatefest where brother slays brother, husband slays wife and the family dog rapes the hamster. This is not an opportunity that arises very often. On the other hand, if Diplomacy were played correctly in that scenario, the dog would end up slaying the wife before the husband got the chance and then all bets are off. Someone might even answer the Free Parking question in the confused mess that follows.
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# ? Nov 16, 2012 14:14 |
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Ebethron posted:I'm considering picking up a copy of RftG: Rebel vs. Imperium (to be played without takeovers, they don't sound like they are very popular). I don't own RftG: the Gathering Storm though, as I'm not interested in solo mode and so it seems a bit expensive for how many cards it adds. Without the Gathering Storm will Rebel vs. Imperium work as an addition to the base game or will it just be unbalancing? Each of those cards in The Gathering Storm is worth its weight in gold.
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# ? Nov 16, 2012 16:09 |
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Tippis posted:On the other hand, if Diplomacy were played correctly in that scenario, the dog would end up slaying the wife before the husband got the chance and then all bets are off. Someone might even answer the Free Parking question in the confused mess that follows. I don't understand. If the dog slays the wife and the husband answers the Free Parking question, who rapes the hamster?
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# ? Nov 16, 2012 16:09 |
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Jedit posted:I don't understand. If the dog slays the wife and the husband answers the Free Parking question, who rapes the hamster? The brothers. Both of them. They run trains on the hamster.
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# ? Nov 16, 2012 16:10 |
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Beelzebozo posted:The brothers. Both of them. They run trains on the hamster.
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# ? Nov 16, 2012 16:13 |
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Finally got Space Alert on the table after it was sitting on the shelf for a couple months (freak confluence of factors preventing us from playing CDs or downloading MP3s). Overall fairly good response from the players, but they were getting pretty frustrated because they didn't all follow the rules when we first went over them, so we had to start over and re-explain them. I would have gone through the tutorial more directly, but we had 9 people over that night, and they insisted that we play both our games at the same table, which can make rules explanations (not to mention listening to the audio track) kinda difficult. I didn't want to be the stick in the mud and break up our friends, but I think the game would have gone a lot more smoothly. Definitely looking forward to going at it again now that we have a better sense of what needs doing and what we're loving up (refueling at the proper time, mostly). On the other end of the table they had a game of Wiz War go on for far longer than I've ever had it, and it actually looked like it was fun. It seemed that they had a high-level of player interaction happening, rather than just individual mad-dashes for the treasures.
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# ? Nov 16, 2012 17:22 |
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SinetheGuy posted:On the other end of the table they had a game of Wiz War go on for far longer than I've ever had it, and it actually looked like it was fun. It seemed that they had a high-level of player interaction happening, rather than just individual mad-dashes for the treasures. Gonna post my Wiz War Deathmatch Variant again because it dramatically improves the game and more people deserve to know. - Play to 3 victory points - Wizards have 10 health. - If a wizard dies, he drops all items, and all spells are cancelled, as usual. On his next turn, he is back again on his start location at 10 health! - While holding a chest, extra move granted by energy cards is halved (round down). - Optional "get your hands off my loving chests dickwad" rule: You cannot pick up a chest that has been returned to base unless it is your own. But there has been so much hilarity caused by grabbing other people's scored chests that I am loathe to take this out.
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# ? Nov 16, 2012 17:44 |
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Kiranamos posted:Each of those cards in The Gathering Storm is worth its weight in gold. And even with that being true, the real reason to get Gathering Storm is the goals. Race isn't as solitaire as people make it out to be, but goals make it even less so.
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# ? Nov 16, 2012 18:00 |
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Tekopo posted:Yes, but this isn't something that's unique to wargames even within the realm of board games. I guess I misunderstood I thought you were talking about separating the Wargames/Historical Simulation group from more casual crowd of abstracted concepts of realism. I see now that you meant separating Wargamers from Warhammer-ers. Poopy Palpy posted:And even with that being true, the real reason to get Gathering Storm is the goals. Race isn't as solitaire as people make it out to be, but goals make it even less so. Before Broken Loose comes in a shits on this with his giant rant about RFTG, I completely agree. The goals really do make the game a lot more interesting, certainly less random, and provide a clear path(or goal!) for players to aim for instead of exploring until you hit a good 6 point development and hoping to get the cards to support it. PaybackJack fucked around with this message at 18:21 on Nov 16, 2012 |
# ? Nov 16, 2012 18:19 |
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Jedit posted:What's mean about it? The first time someone asks about landing on Free Parking, Winson has instructed us to degenerate the thread into a hatefest where brother slays brother, husband slays wife and the family dog rapes the hamster. This is not an opportunity that arises very often. Strictly speaking, I had forgotten Diplomacy existed as a board game when I wrote that in spite of playing it in college. Possibly I have burned the memories out with a red hot iron.
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# ? Nov 16, 2012 18:20 |
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It seems to me like enough people are interested in this potential Ask thread collaboration along the lines that Tekopo suggested might work. In other news, I got another play of Archipelago in, this time a short game with five players. There is one thing I can see as potentially fiddly yet am not too worried about, and that's the Evolution Phase where as you refresh a row of cards there's a chance that multiple domestic crises can occur (each new card draw can have that chance). Now, a domestic crisis requires knocking down all the meeples on the board and then everyone has to negotiate and make sacrifices to raise some or all of them up again. With five players, the chance of these crises happening multiple times increases dramatically from the two-player game. Now there are two things that make this less of a pain than you'd think. First off, knocking down and raising up those meeples is not really required like it is in the main crisis phase, because everything resets right after the Evolution Phase. All you need is some way of keeping track of how many meeples are rebelling after everyone has paid up (a spare meeple on the population track could work for example). Second off, this is not a trivial part of the game. Every domestic crisis has the potential threat of causing all the players to lose (every rebelled meeple makes the rebellion marker go up by one, and if the rebellion marker every exceeds the number of meeples on the board, game over). As a result of these two deterrents, crises during the Evolution Phase become less 'oh poo poo not another knock down of a billion meeples' and more 'oh poo poo we're running out of resources and tokens to actually stave off these loving rebels.' It's actually quite brutal! Overall? My initial impression of the game was "pretty good!" and is rising to "really good!" I'm going to try to get this played again tomorrow and hopefully reach a more final conclusion towards Archipelago.
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# ? Nov 17, 2012 05:19 |
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Finally got a copy of Space Alert. It did not disappoint. This poo poo is stressful as hell sometimes.
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# ? Nov 17, 2012 07:16 |
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Tekopo posted:
I think it provides an accurate hook for these who could be interested in our sort of games. Or, alternatively, just call it Grognard Station and write a long and hateful rant about how multifaceted warfare is, extending beyond military action. If you really don't like the "Historical Simulation" name, how about writing up a sub-type of "Political Simulation" games, explaining that while for purists it is often technically not a wargame, but it's usually associated with wargaming ghetto due to being long, boring and spergy.
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# ? Nov 17, 2012 10:18 |
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Tekopo posted:Yes, but this isn't something that's unique to wargames even within the realm of board games. I totally agree with this. RPG stuff is generally seen as a separate hobby, and I don't ever run into people that confuse the two, except maybe D&D players. Even games like Descent have an important distinction in that the players or overlord can win and end the game by meeting defined goals. Miniature wargames and tactical wargames are trickier to separate, but about as similar as Magic the Gathering and Dominion. I've used games like CC:E, UF, CoH, and C&C to persuade Warhammer guys to think twice before spending hundreds on minis because boardgames tend to be cheaper with more interesting gameplay. Conversely, I don't know of any ASL style gamer who has decided to up and start painting space elves, though I would love to see 40k players deal with some proper grognards entering their community like little bearded landmines.
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# ? Nov 17, 2012 11:10 |
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So, after going a few rounds, we've finally got Space Alert down to the point where we're not dying every mission. We've only done the first actual mission, but we've been kicking the tutorials' asses. Do the missions get harder as you go down the line? We noticed the first mission was a small step up from Advanced Sim 3, but we're looking for a real challenge. Also, bonus if you have a lot of beer lying around: every time communications go down, players drink until they go back up, This discourages gesturing and communicating during the black out.
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# ? Nov 17, 2012 23:38 |
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That's what the advanced threats are for. And if those are too easy (unlikely) then the expansion.
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# ? Nov 17, 2012 23:42 |
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Archipelago is getting better and better. I played two short-version three-player games today. I complained earlier that the short game feels like there's a longer game meant to be there but it got cut in half. I take that complaint back. The game is very rich even in a short play; it's simply that there is more pressure to figure out the scoring conditions players are hiding and try to gain as many points from such. There's a ton of things you can do and very little actions you have to spend doing what you need. I feel that the longer games would let you develop out the Archipelago, making it a more comprehensive play through the game but at the same time still maintaining a sense of pressure as I can definitely see the longer one plays the more dangerous rebellions get. My favorite part of this game is the element of trying to read into peoples strategies to try and out-score them or at least place for points in the game element they are scoring before someone's end game condition triggers (for instance trying to build at least one chapel if you suspect another player is holding the card that scores them). That's not to say there isn't plenty of worker placement, economic engines, and little wooden cubes. The game has all of that. A brilliant moment came when one player snagged first for turn order, used one of my special action cards (giving me a little money) to sell all of his expensive goods at once (giving him a lot of money), and then used his worker placement pawn to build the final market he needed to end the game on his terms. Not only was the open objective to have the most money, but I was holding the secret objective to have the most money; giving him lead. I miscalculated actually; when I saw that player building markets I thought that was his scoring condition and not his end game condition. I was wrong! It's great to have that kind of quick, game-ending play plus the guessing-game potential of figuring out the opponent's strategy versus yours. In short, Archipelago is a quality worker-placement game and much, much more. I think the only euro I would rate higher is Dominant Species and possibly The Great Zimbabwe, and even then only DS if I'm playing a 6 player game.
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# ? Nov 18, 2012 01:47 |
Trynant posted:Archipelago Stop talking about this drat game, I need to save money for the holidays In all seriousness, though, how weighty is this game? I have a tendency to gravitate away from heavier games since I hate explaining them (reading the rules, I already know I am going to hate explaining this game) and non-gamers tend to have a tenuous grasp on some game mechanics. I imagine it is not something that can be taught that easily, like Catan or Carcassone or something, but I'm leaning more towards Agricola? Am I correct in this assessment? Also, how prone is this game to analysis paralysis? The counterbalance on the neophyte vs experienced gamer is that the experienced gamer has a bad tendency to waste everyone's time going in mental circles trying to figure out the best possible move when the difference between their choices are pretty minimal/circumstantial.
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# ? Nov 18, 2012 02:02 |
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GrandpaPants posted:In all seriousness, though, how weighty is this game? I have a tendency to gravitate away from heavier games since I hate explaining them (reading the rules, I already know I am going to hate explaining this game) and non-gamers tend to have a tenuous grasp on some game mechanics. I imagine it is not something that can be taught that easily, like Catan or Carcassone or something, but I'm leaning more towards Agricola? Am I correct in this assessment? Yeah I'd say it's about Agricola-level, although I found that Archipelago is one of those games where it's actually pretty easy to learn if you teach the game as you go through setup and the first turn. Don't explain the victory conditions until you finish setup, since you don't hand out the secret objectives until everyone has settled on their first hex. I'd even go as far to say that the game works well if you have each player do a different action so you can teach them one-by-one. Normally I wouldn't say this is a family game (certainly not Catan/Carcassonne simple), but you have a fair chance to teach this to a family if you take the rules step by step. quote:Also, how prone is this game to analysis paralysis? The counterbalance on the neophyte vs experienced gamer is that the experienced gamer has a bad tendency to waste everyone's time going in mental circles trying to figure out the best possible move when the difference between their choices are pretty minimal/circumstantial. I haven't had too much trouble with AP yet. The thing I think that is a deterrent to AP is that there's a lot of table-talk involved since negotiations are open. For whatever reason, this has made me not think to hard about my optimal strategy and worry more about what secret objective someone else might be holding onto. As far as neophyte vs. experienced gamer; I'd say Archipelago is more like Mage Knight in that the game goes faster with experienced players as they start to understand what a good move to make might be rather than being blinded by what at first seems a lot to grasp. Another thing about Archipelago that kind of deters AP is that you don't know exactly what things you need to win. With all but one of the scoring conditions being kept secret, optimal play in terms of the ideal meeple to place somewhere not really possible. Could Archipelago be prone to AP? Probably. Is it more prone to AP than other games? I don't think so.
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# ? Nov 18, 2012 02:17 |
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King of Tokyo remains outstanding fun for everyone in the whole world ever. Spartacus Blood and Treachery was a game I played today. Very dumb, stupid, random, but my god is it a whole world of fun. Very much like KoT where you're hurling lots of dice, but with two whole segments dedicated to Being A Prick and backstabbing and poo poo. Then you get to cut off the backstabbers head in the arena. Lotta fun.
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# ? Nov 18, 2012 06:36 |
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I finally got to play Chaos in the Old World tonight. Everything seemed to go pretty well except one thing seemed broken. Is there no way that heroes can be killed/removed? We got to the point where there were so many heroes on the board that we had to start substituting other tokens and that just didn't seem right. Otherwise it went great and was a ton of fun.
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# ? Nov 18, 2012 09:10 |
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Doug posted:I finally got to play Chaos in the Old World tonight. Everything seemed to go pretty well except one thing seemed broken. Is there no way that heroes can be killed/removed? We got to the point where there were so many heroes on the board that we had to start substituting other tokens and that just didn't seem right. Otherwise it went great and was a ton of fun. You don't make substitute hero tokens, I believe. If there are too many heroes you take an existing one of your choice off the board and place it in the desired spot. Usually the card that causes the heroes to appear will also have conditions that dictate how heroes are removed (eg the "least threatening" player might get to choose one to remove each turn)
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# ? Nov 18, 2012 09:14 |
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An average game of CitOW lasts about six rounds, so a hero will kill on average about three figures (not counting the last one right before the game ends). There can be at most four heroes, so even if the heroes all come out, they'll kill on average 12 dudes. And most games don't see all the heroes come out. You've just got to
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# ? Nov 18, 2012 09:49 |
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DontMockMySmock posted:An average game of CitOW lasts about six rounds, so a hero will kill on average about three figures (not counting the last one right before the game ends). There can be at most four heroes, so even if the heroes all come out, they'll kill on average 12 dudes. And most games don't see all the heroes come out. That seems a little more reasonable. I think by the end of the game we had 7 or 8 heroes out and I Brittonia had 3 by itself..it was a little silly.
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# ? Nov 18, 2012 09:57 |
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# ? Mar 29, 2024 01:54 |
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I picked up Merchant of Venus on the day is dropped in the local shop. The game drags so hard it's painful even with just 2 people. We're going to try the classic variation in a few weeks after the holiday madness is over. I hope it redeems the game. I Picked up smash up the same day, not as simple or "'filler game'ish" as I had hoped. Nothing I would give it negative marks for except maybe the turn duration when you get a bunch of free actions/minions depending on deck composition. I can't wait to fill out the box with expansion decks.I'm Still wearing out that lords of water deep board that game much like dominion and 7 wonders refuses to die. On the wargaming side of things I've been doubling down on eastern front goodness with No Retreat! and Conflict of Heroes:Storm of Steel. My copy of Liberia: Descent Into Hell came in and I'm kind of excited to get it to the table/disgusted with myself for wanting to. It's like the wargame equivalent of cards against humanity. Canibalism, transvestites, Pat Robertson(yes really), the Moonies, child soldiers (who are better units than adult soldiers), voodoo, Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi, and more war crimes than ww2 all in a box about the size of a dvd case(AND HISTORICAL). I don't even know if my war gaming partner will play it with me. 4outof5 fucked around with this message at 10:02 on Nov 18, 2012 |
# ? Nov 18, 2012 09:59 |