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sighnoceros posted:Are there any games out there that have a concept similar to Descent or Super Dungeon Explore where you're working together as a team to get through a dungeon in a fantasy setting but DOESN'T have an overlord? Lots of games have a "cooperate and try to beat the game while it pummels you" but I haven't seen one that does an automated fantasy-style dungeon. Wisely or not, I've got Mice and Mystics on pre-order. That's got a scripted system for mobs and a scenario book that outlines rooms as you enter them. Couldn't tell you how good it is, but I'll give it a write-up once it arrives and I give it a shot. Speaking of questionably wise decisions, I pulled the trigger on that Mage Knight reprint. I'm not sure if anyone in my group is up for it, and I'm not sure if I'll even get much opportunity to solo it, but I've missed out on it before, and I don't want to take that risk again. My plan is to get my girlfriend into M&M as an introduction into RPG-like mechanics, then bring out Mage Knight.
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Jul 20, 2012 05:43
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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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Crackbone posted:This is the thing people seem to be getting mad about : What I think annoys people more is that although the red figure has LOS to the green, a figure two squares up and one to the right wouldn't, despite being able to trace a line from one of their corners (the bottom left) to a different one of green's (the bottom right corner). But it seems completely reasonable to me that you need LOS to the nearer of the corners, in that it would give some system for cover that gives figures with less extreme angles an advantage.
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Aug 14, 2012 21:13
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jmzero posted:Great, your post there cost me like $80. Bloody mouse figures with little swords, and paying for abilities with cheese and I don't even know what the hell kind of game (Mice & Mistakes) this is. poo poo. Isn't the preorder price around $50?
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Aug 15, 2012 20:16
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Agronox posted:It's really impressive what DXV and Richard Garfield did: create new game mechanics out of whole cloth and also become the best instance of their genre on the very first try. I'll admit to not having played a lot of CCGs, but it's hard for me to believe that Magic is actually the best. Certainly the richest in terms of variety and the most ubiquitous, but mechanically, it's pretty clunky. Dominion, though, yeah.
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Aug 24, 2012 17:14
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bobvonunheil posted:Sometimes I bemoan BGG because I worry it is incapable of satire or irony, and consists almost exclusively of echo-chamber circle-jerking. Yeah, but whatever that quote about "stinkpalming" and "Amber" is, it's more than a little creepy. Though as far as nerdy forums go, BGG seems to be one of the less creepy and misogynistic I've encountered.
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Aug 30, 2012 16:36
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Cocks Cable posted:This man speaks the truth. RSP is the worst, but yet for some unknown reason, I can't help to read it daily while punching myself in the nuts. I have learned that boardgames attract a surprising amount of conservative and religious fans. I never scrolled down to the bottom of the forum list. I guess I stand corrected. Oh my. I figure that board gaming, as a hobby, tends to attract people who are more interested in family-oriented hobbies, and at the same time "family-oriented" is basically a conservative code word in America. I kinda figured there's a vague correlation there. But to be honest, the RSP subforum's threads seem to be mostly anti-conservative/GOP, even if they also include a lot of Christian content. Flip Yr Wig fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Aug 30, 2012 |
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Aug 30, 2012 18:47
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Pumpkin_Paine posted:A NOTE to all my fellow Mice and Mystics preorderers in here. PHG claimed they had shipped Monday, I sent an email asking for tracking and it is on the way. I should see mine Thursday. But I had to bug them for the track, although the response was speedy enough. Did it matter which deliverer you chose? Mine's being sent through USPS, and I figured that the tracking information was for other carriers.
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Oct 24, 2012 17:13
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Speaking of CitOW, I had a kinda disappointing game last night. It was a pretty exciting game that came down to the wire, as a good game should, and I even won. But, frustratingly, it was an illegitimate victory. I was Slaanesh, and in the first round, without noticing it myself, I moved my figures from Tilea straight into the Badlands, glossing over the Border Princes because the south part of it is pretty unclear. I didn't realize this until the middle of round 3, when Khorne decided to turn his attention to me. I was about to argue that he couldn't make the exact move I'd made, when I realized what I'd done. I pointed it out the the other players, but the whole south part of the map was largely determined by my early moves, and it was too far into the game to start over. I won in the last round, coming up from behind in the victory points by ruining at the last second, in the Badlands. It was my first victory in Chaos and I was pumped about it, until I remembered that I hadn't really earned it. Bummer.
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Oct 25, 2012 15:22
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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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So I got Seasons in the Dice Tower secret Santa the other day and gave it a play last night. It was kinda the wild card on my wish list, figuring I'd throw on one I didn't know much but was hearing a lot of hype about. I was digging the mechanics, how it finds a good application for 7 Wonders' drafting and makes a lighter but more-fun-for-it type of engine building. And the artwork is really attractive. But as much fun as I felt like I should be having, it fell short mostly because I was winning incredibly lopsidedly. About halfway in it became clear that I was sweeping it, and she was left with very, very few options, and that makes it hard for either person to enjoy it. I think it's because I'd gone through the rules twice already and intuited that the drafting was about engine building, while she figured that she might experiment with the cards on the first play-through. Hopefully when we play it again that disparity will even out. Is that a common problem people have had? Also, one of our beloved goddamn rats chewed up a card, but Asmodee seems to have their customer service down, so it ain't so bad.
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Nov 20, 2012 16:43
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Bobby The Rookie posted:Having never played it myself, from what I've observed, Confusion: Espionage and Deception in the Cold War is suitably Stratego-ish, I think. I was going to suggest this too, from a similar place of ignorance. But what might catch the kids attention is that, from what I understand, it's basically Stratego in reverse, which sounds very cool to me.
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Nov 27, 2012 05:10
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So I have a somewhat odd question. I'm getting a cousin that's getting into boardgames Ticket to Ride, as that seems to be a universally agreed upon good intro game, and I'm into it too. I don't own my own copy, which leads me to ask, can you play it straight out of the box? As memory serves, there aren't any chits to punch, and the only components are cars and cards. I figure we might want to play it at the family Christmas party, and don't want to waste any time that could bore a drunk and distractible family.
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Nov 28, 2012 15:20
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taser rates posted:It has the base game, both expansions, some new kind of gameplay cards and a mini-comic. Apparently there was some kind of production issue leading to the 2nd standalone expansion card backs not matching up with those of the base game and the first expansion, but everything matches in the Anniversary edition cards. So the question is if it's worth it to get the base game if you figure you'd get the expansions eventually anyway. And I've already spent so much on myself this shopping season too...
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Nov 29, 2012 23:26
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I've always held off on Power Grid because there are a couple people in my game group who are pretty good at doing arithmetic in their head, and some of us (including me) who are pure poo poo at it. And since I buy the games, I get to discriminate. It's too bad, too, because I like the looks of it, but know I'd get really frustrated with it. I'd like to give it a shot some day, but I'm not going to invest my money into it.
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Nov 30, 2012 01:06
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Swagger Dagger posted:Someone teach me about Wargames! I really can't say too much about wargames or ASL, but the ASL Starter Kits are going for totally reasonable prices on the BGG market.
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Dec 1, 2012 08:01
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Carados posted:While we're at it, what's the best roll and move? Has modern game design created an engaging roll and move? Formula D gets seems to have a pretty good consensus behind it. The theme (formula racing) doesn't entirely grab me, but after reading about the mechanics it did sound interesting.
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Dec 2, 2012 01:28
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Alright, I'm going to win a legit Chaos in the Old World victory someday. Last time I won (also, played), I accidentally cheated toward the beginning and we decided it was too late to undo it. This time we were introducing the game to a new player who really wanted to play as Khorne. Unfortunately, he really did not get the game or Khorne's strategy, despite the rest of us several times saying he really needs to be as expansive as possible. Since he never really left a couple of regions, and Tzeetch and Slaanesh were engaged in their own squabbling, I got left pretty much the entire populous regions to my own Nurgly self. And it didn't hurt that they were rife with nobles. If Khorne doesn't do his job, it's really easy for Nurgle to entrench himself and become very tricky to remove, especially once he gets a few tokens laid down. But since Khorne wasn't doing his job, I can't say I really earned that one. Also, nthing that thread title change.
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Dec 3, 2012 17:40
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A Strange Aeon posted:Didn't know people still played Puerto Rico. Speaking of, has that designer done anything else of note or was he a one hit wonder? People like Thurn und Taxis, right? That is by Seyfarth, right?
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Dec 6, 2012 06:17
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Let's see what I got for Christmas (not including things I got earlier in the shopping season for myself). Archipelago, which looks incredibly cool to me, and was probably one of the ones I was most hoping to get. I'm not sure how easily I'll be able to get it on the table; looks pretty heavy to me. 7 Wonders, which I like, and my group needed a 7 player filler game, but few other people in the group seem to agree with me. Hopefully the fact that it's at my house and we often have an awkward amount of people sitting at the table will convince them to break it out. Caylus, which was a surprise second gift from my Dice Tower secret Santa. I think my group is about done with Lords of Waterdeep and ready to graduate to it's heavier predecessor, which is just fine by me. I was done with LoW long before most of them. Since I'm going to be home alone for a little while this holiday season (thank god for working at a university), I'll get a chance to try out the rules and make playing them smoother, so that'll be nice. Also, I have a couple questions about Galaxy Trucker (which was a self-gift) that seems to be going over very well with my group. 1) Do only destroyed tiles go into the penalty box, or do discarded cargo and crew also go in? The rules seem to imply the former, but I can't actually see it say that specifically. 2) Do you reshuffle the cards back into the decks at the end of the round, or remove them from play? And not-quite-serious question 3) How exactly can you emphasize to your players to not take the game too seriously? It can be a real drag on the table when a player starts moping because they lost half their ship, and they seem to not really get the fun of the game.
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Dec 26, 2012 20:14
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EddieDean posted:For those who're interested in a mathematically sound strategy for Monopoly: Is this new-fangled speed die in every new box and a standard part of the rules? Because if I understand it right, it mostly eliminates (or at least impractically complicates) a curve-based strategy.
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Dec 27, 2012 14:53
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Picking up on the Ticket to Ride and non-hobby gamers conversation from a while back, I was very happy when my girlfriend's cousin and her husband were quite pleased with getting it as a present. But I was kinda hoping they already had it so I could keep it for myself and get them something else. What was interesting is that I was able to talk about Twilight Struggle with some of her family. None had played it, but apparently it's famous enough for some of them to know about it, and one of her cousins had even bought it as a present. The hobby is slowly creeping.
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Dec 31, 2012 03:29
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So after letting it sit on the shelf since it came out, I finally got in a play of Mice and Mystics, and I came away very, very disappointed. We played the first scenario with two players and quit in the middle of just the second tile (largely because we were very close to losing due to the timer). I've rarely felt less in control of a game and beholden to dice in a fundamentally unfun way. There seemed to be no good way to mitigate the rolls, and most of them were just cancelling each other out. Maybe it was just bad luck, but we came close to a wipe in the first encounter, and then immediately got a surge, before dropping into a very unbalanced fight the next tile. I'm also not at all sold on experience and ability-uses being the same resource, especially when you start with none and get it randomly. This sucks, because I'm really into the production and theme, and had been looking forward to this one for a long time. I hope we were missing something, but I'm not sure what it could have been. Should we have been searching during combat? Give ourselves a couple slices of cheese to start with so the abilities actually do something? I want to like this, but the game makes it pretty hard. Anyway, speaking of Earth Reborn, I haven't yet played but spent a couple hours learning Archipelago, and it looks awesome. Obviously I'll need to properly play it to tell, but seems like a good integration of diverse mechanics into well-produced whole. But I couldn't help notice how oddly anal the rules are about how you play. It insists on keeping the components in the box insert during play, if I recall even bolding it, and other trivial bookkeeping details. Are Boelinger's other games like that? I'm not exactly a complaining, but it seems odd.
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Jan 14, 2013 17:42
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Kiranamos posted:I guess Pandemic is being sorta redone: So when they re-release On the Brink, you'll need to purchase another accessory to make it compatible with the original release? That sounds like a rip-off to me.
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Jan 15, 2013 17:10
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Some Numbers posted:I played Archipelago for the first time last night with two other people. None of us had played before, so I took it upon myself to read the rulebook. I've had it sitting on my shelf since Christmas, since I returned to school this year and found I didn't have it in me to teach complicated-rear end games that will take forever to explain. But I taught it to myself last night and am really looking forward to getting it on the table soon! One question: what happens to fee money from Markets and Ports, that is, the price of using them beyond the price of the goods? The rules say to leave it on the action board, but I can't find anything about returning it to the bank. Does it stay there for the remainder of the game? Is the game's economy inherently deflationary? That would be an interesting twist, I guess. Also, re Catan. I was actively resisting my friends' attempts to bust it out until recently, when we tried a variant where players get tokens every turn they don't produce anything, and can cash three in for any one resource. It sped the game up and made it much more forgiving and fun. The problem is that it punishes numeric diversity, as the player who had the biggest number spread, despite getting resources more frequently, couldn't compete with players who could trade in for the resources they needed.. I guess the next time we try it out, we'll have it so that you can only trade in for a resource you could produce. Flip Yr Wig fucked around with this message at 21:57 on Oct 11, 2013 |
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Oct 11, 2013 21:52
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So I just placed an order through CSI including Memoir '44, which I got into after playing the Steam game for a while. Most likely I'd be playing it with my girlfriend, who's my main gaming partner. I'm not sure how taken she'll be with it, but she said she'd be willing to give it a shot. However, I just remembered about Battles of Westeros and that we're both big ASoIF fans, and perhaps that would have been a better buy, given the theme. Is there a significant difference in gameplay? Would it maybe make sense to go through the effort of returning Memoir in exchange for Battles? I could take either game, but I'd rather not open a game only to find I won't get to play it that often.
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Oct 22, 2013 18:55
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Paradoxish posted:SU&SD is way less geek culture than Tabletop, and less nerdy than a lot of other board game related video stuff. I don't even know how to explain the difference, but it's there. I can show my non-nerdy friends a SU&SD episode and they'll "get" the humor, even if it's nerdy as hell, because two nerds dressing up like wizards is just inherently silly. It doesn't rely on nerd culture in-jokes?
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Oct 26, 2013 18:23
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These Loving Eyes posted:I almost impulse-bought Space Cadets today, when I suddenly remembered that Broken Loose wrote a long rant concerning the said game in the earlier(?) thread. I tried searching for his original post, but couldn't find it. Was it about the game taking forever to teach and taking too long in general to be enjoyable? Works on paper but not in practice? SU&SD praised the game a while ago, but they never wrote a full review. It seems like such an awesome premise, but it's difficult to tell how the game actually plays in reality. Here's the post in question, if you want to read it again.
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Nov 5, 2013 21:56
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ETB posted:How does this compare to, say, Puerto Rico and its usage of brown "colonists"? Well, this card shows one of its main symbols. That, and the game is largely about balancing the population between white colonists and black natives. That is, those are the literal colors of the meeples involved. I'm not sure which is worse, but Archipelago is definitely more blatant. The thing is, I really want the game to go over with my group. I love all those interlocking systems and want to see how they actually balance in practice, and from everything I hear, it works. But when you combine heavy up-fronted rules and blatant, visual racism, it's kind of a hard sell, and so far, I haven't been able to sell it. Flip Yr Wig fucked around with this message at 20:27 on Nov 11, 2013 |
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Nov 11, 2013 20:23
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So if I want a fun, light-weight dice chucker, how should I choose between Castles of Burgundy and King of Tokyo. I think my collection could use a game to fill that role, but I don't know which to go with. Also, anyone played the iOS Space Hulk yet? No way I'll ever own a physical copy, and I've heard that Death Angel isn't all that good, so this seems like a likely purchase for me.
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Dec 8, 2013 20:36
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PRADA SLUT posted:Did something happen to Carcassonne that's driving the price up to like $70 on Amazon? If I understand correctly, it's changing it's US distributor, so maybe it's temporarily out of print? It's hard to imagine production of Carcassonne getting drastically lower any time soon. Edit: Z-Man seems to be selling Carc directly at a reasonable price. malkav11 posted:There's a little bit of dicerolling in Castles of Burgundy, but it mostly just limits your available moves. It's not a difficult game to pick up by any means and I think it's great fun, but in terms of lightweight dicechucking King of Tokyo is the only one that actually fits your stated criteria. Thanks. That makes sense. Flip Yr Wig fucked around with this message at 06:32 on Dec 9, 2013 |
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Dec 9, 2013 05:17
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Cheneybeast posted:Tell me about co-op games How about dungeon crawlers? Mice and Mystics wasn't built with 2 players in mind, but it works with them just fine and is good for newer players. I don't know how the D&D games handle 2p, but they're worth a look. Also, I haven't played it myself, and you might not be looking for a LCG, but the LOTR Card Game seems to be pretty popular here. Those are where I'd start with 2 player fantasy coops.
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Dec 9, 2013 18:35
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Speaking of Archipelago, how does its solo variant work? I know there's a solo expansion, but is there any reason to shell out for it? After having it for a year, I'm starting to think it won't hit the table unless I'm playing it myself.
Flip Yr Wig fucked around with this message at 22:48 on Dec 17, 2013 |
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Dec 17, 2013 22:46
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GrandpaPants posted:The problem with rushing it is that going Blue that early gives you absolutely 0 momentum in the beginning. We've only played a few games so far, but it seems like the Elephant is a decent way to get some early return on your investment in Blue, so that you have some combat flexibility. Are we wrong in seeing it as a pretty strong creature for its tier?
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Dec 20, 2013 18:11
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I got a rather embarrassing haul from my family this year. I shared my BGG wish list under the assumption I would get one, maybe two, but I think they went a bit overboard.  After the series of purchases I've been making for myself recently, I think my collection is going to remain at its current size for a while. Flip Yr Wig fucked around with this message at 20:33 on Dec 25, 2013 |
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Dec 25, 2013 20:30
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Crackbone posted:If you live in the US somebody paid a loving mint for Ladies and Gentlemen. It's been unavailable for months and the cheapest Amazon seller wants $80 for it. drat. Consider me doubly embarrassed. If I could convince my folks to return it, I would, but I got a feeling that would be bad form.
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Dec 25, 2013 23:18
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Flavivirus posted:Thanks for that, but what I really need is english cards for the secret objectives and evolution cards. I guess I could print proxies, just wondering if anyone's had any luck getting replacements from the publishers. You'll probably also find that Archipelago's rules PDF is an insanely fidgety file that doesn't seem to work well with any reader.
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Dec 27, 2013 20:30
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Indolent Bastard posted:
Man, I need something like this. Every time I try to bring Love Letter to the table while we wait for a friend or whatnot, my group scoffs at the campy theme. I have yet to play it, and I really want to. I even prefer to the original theming to this, but it seems any other theme would be better for my friends.
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Jan 17, 2014 06:55
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I finally got to play Love Letter, but in a somewhat weird situation. I was hanging out at a coffee shop waiting for some friends to show up. I was sipping on a beer when a couple walked over to the stack of mainstream games nearby, and I suggested we play Love Letter, which I had in my bag at the time. Turns out the game is a pretty good icebreaker. Later on got it to the table with my friends, and I think I'll be able to play it regularly now.
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Jan 18, 2014 23:38
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I'm not sure how hard the size restraint you're suggesting is, since you've left the door open to Dungeon Petz, so maybe Memoir 44 is an option for you? It has a pretty generic theme that most anyone can grok to, simple to teach, and has a lot of replayability. Of course, it's in a standard-size box, so that might be too big.
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Jan 20, 2014 17:22
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