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nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



GrandpaPants posted:

I like Hansa Teutonica, but every game I've seen has always been a bit of a clusterfuck to get to the +Action location. I also think that there needs to be a stronger incentive to go down the middle route as well, as the games I've played/seen seem to never use approximately 75% of the board. We could just suck, though, but more actions is super tempting.

Use the round merchant in the action route(s) to force people to compete you away at double the cost/gain. Then use those free traders to free up more merchants from your Liber Sophiae. Then go free your actions when you can fill up the route with traders from all over the board.

Played a 3-player game of it 2 weeks ago and I scored more points than my opponents combined :smug:

nimby fucked around with this message at 20:05 on Jul 2, 2012

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nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



Finally won a convincing victory in Dungeon Lords. I think my play improved upon realizing at the start of this game that you start with 3 food/gold, so there is no reason I should expect to start year two with 1/2 of each. I think snagging both a food and a gold production room made it a lot easier. I had to get a demon in year 2 to get rid of my evil vampires, was rapidly approaching absolute evil due to the year 1 combat spells, he didn't really fit into my scheme of things. Neither did that year 2 paladin, gently caress that guy.

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



Tekopo posted:

The pet he got in round 1 ended up lasting till round 5 at size 7 with 6 suffering on it and no one wanted to buy the poor, rusted, dented, un-oiled baby golem. Everyone had fun though (or so I hope)!

I had the same experience yesterday, only instead of food I drew 3 purple play cards. There's only 4 of them in there! I had the Dunguin set up in a nice anti-magic cage, ready to impress both at the exhibition and to sell it to Warlock, but nope, it suffered a lot instead and couldn't get sold :( I ended up at a meagre 18 points.

Then today in a 4-player Twilight Imperium game, me and the guy across of me were in the lead power-wise. He just conquered my left neighbour's home system, I took Mecatol while having war suns and all my cruisers everywhere. Then the guy to my right plays Ancient Artefact, and everyone spends every trade good they can to have more votes than me. I try to explain that if they blow up my fleet, I'm not going to be able to stop the other guy from winning. I get the typical response: "Eh, we'll see, I've got some tricks!" They succeed, I lose my fleet and the game ends up, predictably, with the other powerful guy winning. King-making sucks even worse when people refuse to believe they are doing it.

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



NGDBSS posted:

They were probably just hoping for some fireworks. When (if nowadays) I play that with my usual group, if someone has the capability of playing Ancient Artifact everyone (except potentially the poor sod on Mecatol) will enthusiastically vote for it. Either everyone gets free techs or you have hilarious explosions. Win-win if you ask me.

Oh, I know. I try to do it as well if I draw the card, or that action card that lets you choose a political card. It just really annoyed me that he threw it down on a critical turn and managed to convince my left neighbour to vote against his best interests, giving the game away to yet another player.

Now don't get me wrong, I still had fun, but it stings to lose an 8-hour game to accidental king-making :(

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



Nitis posted:

I'm not sure I understand this part. There should only be one racial or a couple action cards that allow these shenanigans. Was there a law that allowed TG to be spent as votes?

:gonk:

We've been playing it wrong for years. How do I explain this to my friends? We've always played it thinking that trade goods can always be exchanged for influence, even in voting. Oh god this changes everything. I thought we finally got the rules down ~8 games ago and made nearly no mistakes!

:gonk:

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



Agronox posted:

Wait, this is wrong? We've been playing it like you have. What'd I miss?

Nitis' comment made me check the rulebook, page 23 on voting:

Trade Good counters cannot be used to gain additional votes.


I feel bad for all the times we got someone screwed over by dumping trade goods on a crucial vote :(

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



enigmahfc posted:

So it appears as though I have been roped into a game of Twilight Imperium. I know there are dozens of files/references on BBG, but I have no idea which ones might actually be useful to a new player, just so I can get a bit of a leg up on the mechanics and not be asking questions over and over. Any help on those would be appreciated. Also, are there any tricky/unclear things I should be aware of before playing?

Common things newbies I teach sometimes have trouble with:

Green value = resources, it is for building things
Red Value on planets = Influence, used for some things and for voting

The unit build limit on a planet equals the Resource value +2 from the space dock. This means you can build a total of 5 units on a 3-resource planet. This can be 5 dreadnoughts costing you 20 resources, or 4 fighters and a destroyer, costing you 3. The value of the build has nothing to do with the physical build limit.

Action cards are played in sequence of turn order. If you and your opponent both want to play an action card on the same event (before a battle), the lowest initiative number goes first.

Units in a sector that has been activated can not be moved out of it, not even by a carrier passing by and picking up the ground troops. They've already acted, they are stuck.

Be stingy with your command counters, you only get 2 free ones each turn! The Transfer action is great for this. With it you activate 2 systems, but only spend 1 command counter from your command pool. Then you move units between them and build in one of them. So you can move previously built units out of your home system, then build a new fleet.

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



Tekopo posted:

I havn't played much Axis and Allies but I'm not a huge fan of it, although some of the games aren't too bad (such as D-Day). I think the main issue is that it relies too much on dice rolls and the actual strategy as such (at least in the base game) is pretty sparse. Also, there's only realistically one way that the game pans out, with germany either managing to destroy Russia or not.

It depends on what version. The last big one, the combination of 1940 Europe and Pacific is pretty good. There's enough income and units for most countries that small-scale battles aren't that common, at least if you choose to play it safe.

Japan is generally strong enough to start taking on Russia, so it doesn't always boil down to Germany vs Moscow. There's also a few other options, such as taking the British Isles or catching the USA off-guard.

But the size of the map and amount of coutnries does mean it takes about 45-60 minutes per full turn, so better make a whole afternoon/evening out of it.

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



Indolent Bastard posted:

Life boats exist everywhere, in space either on ships or space stations, in towns (or even single buildings) isolated by disasters either natural or supernatural, in the past where groups of people were pioneers and struck out into uncharted oceans and lands, really they are everywhere if you just look for them. Just my two cents.

For some reason I'm now imagining a boardgame version of Airplane!, which could be an amazing experience.

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



systran posted:

I (think I) lost my first game of Twilight Struggle last night in the middle of turn two.

I lost track of the Defcon counter and suddenly realized I had Olympics and Korean War in my hand when the counter was on 2. I had no space race plays left and no way of not playing at least one of those cards.

Yeah, you lost. Always play your Defcon decreasing events first or throw them into space, cause they will only gently caress you over if the other person has one or more of them as well. Also remember to never play Missile Envy as your Headline and don't play it as a regular event if Defcon is at 2. My buddy stole my Olympic Games during a headline Missile Envy, but he didn't anticipate a Cuban Missile Crisis putting us on Defcon 2 immediately.

As far as I could tell, placing influence from events/start of game can be anywhere you want in the designated continents. Unless I've been playing it wrong.

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



AgentF posted:

Anyone got any special tips about running a game of Dixit? It just arrived this morning and I'm meeting with friends later. The game seems to be pretty straight forward to me (the rulebook is really a rulesheet).

If you've played it a few times, start playing by themes. You can only use refences from movies or history, or (made-up) references to the bible.

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



Food Court Druid posted:

Warning: Do not play Jungle Speed if you like your hands un-mashed.

Play it as a drinking game. If you have to take cards, also take a drink!


Be sure to put away any fragile things in the room and close your curtains so the totem doesn't go flying through the windows.

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



I'm thinking of trying out a Trade houserule next time for Twilight Imperium, but I'm not sure if it'd make trade overpowered.

We like the Mercenaries that Trade III brings, but I also liked the original downside to fighting wars in that it cancelled trade routes between races. With III, however, you can invade a planet and then next Trade III you can build new trade routes so you get some new income immediately. There is no downside to attacking trade partners except perhaps a breach of trust, but in my group nobody really trusts anyone in games like this anyway.

So I was thinking about letting people getting 1 extra income to a trade route if they've had it for more than 1 turn, to simulate increased stability/trust. Missing out on the extra trade good would also provide a disincentive to attack partners, while returning an actual use to game effects that break trade routes. A 1-value trade route is now also more attractive as it turns into a 2 after a turn. Though the races with a 3 might now be less inclined to give them out, as it'll become a 4.


Is this a good/bad idea?

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



Tekopo posted:

You could retheme Arkham Horror to something completely different as well.

Arkham Horror is now a game about Golf Course caddies trying to kill off all the gophers.

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



Anyone else going to try and play 1960: The making of the president on Tuesday?

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



Last Friday I played another 4-player game of Twilight Imperium, cause me and my friends just love that game to death. This was my 6th or 7th game this year, I think. If only I knew more no-life boardgame nerds, I could play it every 2 weeks.

Some players had some very bad experiences in the past where they drew 1 poo poo planet, 1-2 red tiles and 3-4 empty tiles, so all they can do in the galaxy setup is gently caress with people while getting shat on in return. So we deal everyone their hand of tiles, then pick one and pass it on. This drafting gives people more control over their own neighbourhood while giving people more of an idea how the galaxy is going to look.

Anyway, I got the Jol-Nar as my race and during drafting I noticed no empty system wormholes, while I picked up both wormhole/planet combos. I also got 3 other tech-discount planets. I gambled a little and placed both A and B wormhole systems next to my home system in the 2nd ring, the other tech discount systems on the third. I had a total discount of 4 on green and 1 on blue techs, not counting my scientists. Starting from round 2, when I picked up Neural Computing, I managed to get 3 techs every turn for 1 to 3 resources total, it was hilarious. My only regret is that I couldn't get that law to pass that says that all discounts count for every colour, cause that would've let me research everything for free.

Low point of the game: In turn 3 my neighbours manage to lock down my fleet+space dock with an action card and vote down a law which then required everyone to exhaust a planet for each tech they had. Then in Turn 4 the aggressive Clan of Saar catch my now underpowered fleet with an invasion fleet and roll 12 hits out of 13 in the first turn. To add insult to injury, my war sun missed 2 shots :(

Hight point of the game: The Saar's neighbour did not like him pushing me around like that and staged an invasion of his home system, breaking a Non-Aggression Pact. Instead of being a Saar nomad and winning the game, the Saar player takes it personally and vows to destroy him, turning his fleet around and giving me the 2 turns of peace I needed to win the game.

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



PaybackJack posted:

The way we do the planet placement is that we roll for placement order and then roll again for starting placement. So we roll then each player builds the galaxy starting from Mecatol Rex outwards, once each player has place all their tiles, we roll again to see who gets to place their homeplanet first.

Hmm, I'm liking this approach. Should indeed eliminate nearly all of the luck factor in galaxy creation. Only concern I have is that one of my friends would probably try to make one really lovely area to start in while hoping he doesn't roll it.

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



When playing with 4 or 6, ditch the sympathizer and just use the official no-sympathizer variant:

8 fuel, 7 food, 9 morale and 10 population.
Revealed cylons draw 3 instead of 2.


Getting the sympathizer sucks because there's no secrecy about it.

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



DontMockMySmock posted:

For those goons who play Twilight Imperium, what's your opinion on the Lazax scenario from the second expansion?

I've been wanting to play it, but I've read about similar experiences as your own. I think I'm never going to be able to play it, because my group isn't a fan of preset galaxies :(

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



Red Robin Hood posted:

I've got a few games that aren't even out of the shrink wrap :negative:

It could be worse.

Boardgames could be sold through Steam.

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



Ugh, I need to start using a mental checklist for Dungeon Lords.

I had the trap-making room at the start of my dungeon, due to first-turn mining being locked out and being 2nd choice in picking rooms. No biggy, I am swimming in traps so I'm confident I can take out the heroes without losing it. Then I start working out how I'm going to kill everything before the last action round, because I've got everything I need.

Except the gold I need to pay for the taxes, that is. Completely forgot about the bureaucrats coming to take away my hard-mined money. If I hadn't forgotten, I wouldn't have bought the 2 traps for 2 gold and I could have won. Instead, because I was feeling pretty dumb and didn't want to hold up the game, I did some very, very quick calculations and decided I could beat the heroes if I shorted the tax-imp 1 gold. Which I couldn't, of course. I needed that 1 extra gold for the cursed ring :(

This game is so drat unforgiving, it's actually awesome. Because I made a pretty big blunder, I lost 3 points to unpaid taxes, 2 points for losing the room, 2 points for losing the tile, 3 points from the exclusive unconquered tiles title and I would have been able to attract and beat the paladin in year 2, considering I'd be getting loads of free traps.

At least I learned something that game. My cat is dangerously intrigued by the little imp figurines. Tried to paw them off my board 3 times.

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



Played Kingsburg yesterday. Reminds me a lot of Castles of Burgundy, but the dice can gently caress you over a bit more in this one. Ended up with less than half the point of the winner because I rolled 7 or lower 3 times and never really got anything going due to a lack of resources :( Probably didn't really help that none of us really knew what to expect going in, so our starts were pretty bad, most likely.

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



I played half a game of Betrayal at House on the Hill tonight. We were 15 minutes in when the guy drawing the 3rd Omen of the game rolls a 2, getting us into a sticky situation with a big spider. The traitor had a good roll and managed to kill me next time his turn was up while we had nearly no items or useful omens. The remaining heroes spent 4 turns or so exploring, hoping to find the items we needed to win, but then the guy to my left bumped my glass off the table which I foolishly tried to grab and I cut open my pinky.

I left after it stopped bleeding, cause it hurt like hell and I was dead anyway. I just "cheated" and checked the traitor's tome for that haunt... How the hell are you supposed to win that?

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



Tekopo posted:

I played Dungeon Lords for the first time ever today. I usually do fairly well in board games, but in this one i had a negative score. Such an awesome game.

Learn to play it better, then add in the text-card events and eventually items. You'll become skilled at the game but still end up with negative score.


Zombie #246 posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WD0gMu0LDU

A physics based real time boardgame engine!

I want this, but adapted to Twilight Imperium. Then I can get everyone a tablet to run it on and stop having half an hour of setup/cleanup.

nimby fucked around with this message at 12:17 on Dec 2, 2012

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



OmegaGoo posted:

We played some The Great Dalmuti. It's a trick-taking game where the winners tend to keep winning, but it works well as a party game.

But times when the last place person becomes the Great Dalmutti are memorable, though.

One time I got to take the first trick with a 3, then immediately finished by dropping all my other cards in a gigantic pile of 12s.

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



Why would you need to mark the selector cards? If you're going to add it to the other kingdom cards anyway, can't you take any of the 10?

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



When you sit upon the Throne of Games, you play or you die.

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



PROTOSTORM!!! posted:

Say a dude wants to get down on some axis and allies, if you have opinions on playing this particular game which version do you find the most satisfying to play? I've only ever played regular or possibly Europe. I didn't find out until a few days ago they got all these other versions like pacific {which seems interesting with it's heavier focus on naval warfare/management}.

It depends on how much time you have and what versions you have played.

Did you play the 2010 A&A Europe 1940? Or the 1999 release of A&A Europe?
1940 starts before Germany and Russia are at war, while the older version hinges on Germany rushing for Moscow.

If you've played the 1940 version, definitely get the 1940 Pacific box. You can combine both to form a 1940 Global game. Be warned that it may take about an hour per full turn at the start, when planning is vital and there's a lot of poo poo to do. The board is kinda gigantic: 70 inches wide by 32 inches high (178 x 81 cm). I find this Global game very satisfying, because the Axis have more time to plan their eventual attacks on the USA/USSR.

If you've only played the old versions of the game and want a world-spanning world war experience, you might be more interested in Axis & Allies 1942. It's on a smaller map and I'm pretty sure it plays a lot faster. I haven't played this version, so can't really comment more on it.

If you're ok with not going global and haven't played it yet, get A&A Europe 1940. It's pretty decent stand-alone, while Pacific 1940 is horribly unbalanced towards Japan without the USA's income on the European board to balance it out.

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



Best Game to spend all day on and later find out you've been playing something wrong

Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition.


I'm thinking of setting up a yearlong tournament for my friends, with a game every month (aiming at 10 games total) with 2 points to the winner, 1 to the runner-up and some bonus points for the losers like Most Lost Battles or Crappiest Dice as a consolation prize (and to keep it interesting).

Because what Twilight Imperium needs isn't another game mechanic, but a metagame mechanic.

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



Munchkin is very suitable as an example of how bad game mechanics will ruin a game.

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



I got Chaos in the Old World from my brother and his wife.

Now I just need to find a way to get them and my parents into playing a boardgame. Brother has some experience with carcasonne but hasn't much interest in other things, but I think I can make that work.

Then mom said that a goose board is wholesome family fun.

:negative:


I think I'd prefer monopoly.

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



Sometimes it gets quiet when something important needs to be done, like deciding how to stop someone from winning. This then evolves into a group agreement to do option A, the next player does B and then the third player does C, so the fourth guy can't win.

This makes it all the better when the fourth player then starts narrating his victory through option D.

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



The only one a few people in my group consider not-fun is the one that can steal the delivery of people who haven't acted yet. The rest are perhaps overpowered but fun.

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



Crackbone posted:

If you've got nice minis you don't need a good game to sell on KS.

And yeah, despite the creepy-as-gently caress cheesecake/dick lions, they are nice minis.

I like the "Life after the Watcher" thing, the guy sitting on the throne of arms. With a beheaded woman as book stand and a note: "will include optional shirt".

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



modig posted:

Played Kingsburg for the first time. The main elements are dice placement, resource gathering, building on a tech tree, predicting other players, and an orcs attack mechanic. The dice placement is pretty well done, it's balanced so that higher roles are generally better, but not WAY better, except rolls that let you use the queen seem very strong.

Played this again yesterday, I ended up second because I only got to use the queen twice while the winner got it three times. He was ahead of me by 2 points in the end :(

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



I think I finally understand Dungeon Lords.

I was overconfident and thought I could take the paladin, gambling that I'd get a good trap, but ended up with 3 tiles conquered in both year 1 and 2. Only captured the year 1 paladin and 1 adventerur in each year, but still managed to land 2nd place with 22 points.

But a friend is getting me Festival Season as a late Christmas present, so now I think I'm going to have to start over. Anyone here played with Festival Season yet? From what I read in the rulebook, it looks like an amazing addition, but the bards and the extra event and hero each year kinda scare me :ohdear:

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



Tekopo posted:

I played Dungeon Lords: Festival Season with three other people that had already played Dungeon Lords before. Man, the extras make the game even more awesome. Pets are awesome, the new orders are awesome, the new season is awesome, the new monsters are awesome and bards are really, really annoying, but I guess also awesome!

So it is everything I'm hoping/dreading it to be. Are there any "unbalanced" pets? I only saw a few online and their effects seem to vary a lot. Any new traps?

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



So if you're trying to stay below everyone else to get the easiest heroes, by overusing the propaganda room, you can potentially lose 10 imps? :catstare:

nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



Show them a weak and a strong party of heroes, just mention that the numbers are hit-points and that the clerics will heal the party. Then go over the actions, inform them that becoming more evil gets you more benefits, but you'll probably end up with the strong party of heroes at your doorstep. Then when you've gone over all the actions, do the 4 tutorial combat scenarios. When you have finished with this be sure to mention that the 2 fatigue was scenario-only! Get the magic cards out and explain how the real combat will feature these cards and that there is one 0 fatigue and four each of 1 and 2 fatigue cards. Go over the full combat turn again: Trap, Fast Magic, Monster(s), Slow Magic, Healing, Fatigue/Conquering.

I had a few people get caught up on the fatigue being variable, even after repeating it a few times.

Be sure to tell everyone that they're only trying to pass the Dungeon Lord License exam or whatever it is, so if they end up with positive score the first time they've done well!

Although I've actually only ever seen one person end up with a negative score and he was being a bit of a dunce. We told him he couldn't afford the golem cause he only had 1 trap and payday was coming, but he hired it anyway. While he was the only person recruiting that turn.

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nimby
Nov 4, 2009

The pinnacle of cloud computing.



Why would you play an 8-player game with newbies :psyduck:

Better to play two 4-player games, so they get to know everything and actually have fun doing things instead of having to wait an hour between actions as everyone's trying to figure everything out.

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