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Boardgames - The special love between a man and his little wooden tokens
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I'm leaning heavily towards Arkham because of the cooperativeness and all the expansions there are.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t0urRy-Kbs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPefl2X7BCM
Have you thought of BSG?
It's always the game I'd recommend.
I was thinking about it, and it seems like there should be some way of simulating this game in board-game format. Or is that just me having Utopian visions?
I suppose you could simulate it by having a phase where NPCs move toward the location/mark with the highest bounty. That would make for some neat outbidding play too. And different NPCs could have different minimum amounts before they think about taking it on - rogues and so on would be totally cheap, for example, and require very little before they go chasing it. Huh. The more I think about this, the better it looks in my head.
Meanwhile, each player could have a separate sheet for laying out their kingdom's buildings -- marketplaces generate X gold per turn, guilds allow you to hire heroes, etc.
The NPC element really just requires a well-defined "AI" for each kind of hero/creature, kinda like the Raiders in BSG have a list of priorities that they follow when activated. Add some appropriate dice-rolling to prevent the AI from becoming too complicated, and you've got yourself a game.
I have the WoW Board game. I like it, but it's definitely not for everyone. First of all, the game takes up a TREMENDOUS amount of table space. More than Arkham Horror. More than any other board game I've ever played. If you are going to play this game, be prepared to have a huge table or better yet, a large table and maybe some small "night table" sized tables for each player to have their character card on.
Secondly, while the game allows for PvP (or faction fighting faction) no one ever really does that because it doesn't serve much purpose and just wastes time when you could be leveling up your characters in preparation for fighting the Overlord. As a result, there is a ton of downtime for the side that isn't going. When we've played with both factions, we usually used that time to plan our next turn/moves, but even then, it takes forever. This problem is even worse with the more players you play with per side.
As a result, when my group plays WoW (which isn't that often anymore) we play a modified version where we only play one faction. Either we play Hordes or Alliance and play straight up against the game. We gave up playing with both factions. This makes the game a 3 player max game realistically. If you want, and I have, you could even play the game solo if you modify the rules a little (which can be easily found on BGG).
The game is fun, but it's all about character growth. You move around the map fighting monsters, but most of the fun is leveling up your character and equipping new abilities and weapons/armor. If Descent is a tactics dungeon-crawl game with very little character development, WoW is the other side of the coin with almost all the focus on character development and very little to no attention paid to actual battle tactics or dungeons layouts. You go to an area on the map and "fight" the monsters there. This changes with the addition of the WoW: The Burning Crusade (I don't own this so I can't really talk that much about it) which introduces small "dungeon" cards, but it is nothing like Descent's or Doom's layouts. If you were to combine the tactics and dungeon crawling of Descent with the character development and growth of WoW, you would have my ideal dungeon adventure/crawl game.
If you do buy the game, I would highly recommend also getting the Shadows of War expansion as well because it adds a lot more talents and abilities for the heroes, letting you customize your character a lot more.
Overall, it's a fun game that does a pretty decent job at capturing the essence of the MMO. There's a ton of downtime and if you don't like focussing mostly on building up your character, you probably won't enjoy it.
Feel free to ask me any questions or anything else. I'm glad to help out.
What about a 2d6 AI system for each kind of hero, with their most frequently performed actions towards the center of the bell curve? A rogue's AI might look like:
2-3 ~ Explore
4-5 ~ Prepare for expedition (Purchase healing potions, etc.)
6-8 ~ Pursue highest bounty (ANY KINGDOM)
9-11 ~ Rob nearest building
12 ~ Do nothing
Turn-threading would be absolutely necessary -- it could be divided as follows:
Phase 1: Accumulate gold
Phase 2: Build and Hire
Phase 3: Heroes Act
Phase 4: Monsters Act
I think this could work.
We really enjoyed it though. Questions...
1. Is there any way to remove doom counters from the Ancient One other than using the Elder Sign?
2. Doom Counters are only added if a portal is opened? Not if a monster surge happens or if that area has a sealed gate?
3. If I get sent to the Other Worlds in the Arkham Encounter phase, do I draw a Gate card in the Other World Encounter phase in the same turn?
4. I'm confused by "The Stars Are Right" card. It says to shuffle the Gate Deck and keep drawing until you get an encounter of the right color. I thought you kept drawing anyway until you got a properly colored card.
Also, what's the next expansion I should pick up?
2) Correct.
3) Yes. The Other World Encounter phase takes place entirely after the Arkham Encounter phase.
4) It says it like that because just saying "Shuffle the deck and draw a new card" would get people asking if they were supposed to get a new card of the right color. That's just how they decided to do it.
And I don't know on expansions. Innsmouth is awesome in the mythos, but I've never played with any of the expansions.
But why does that card even exist if you're going to be pulling new cards anyway until you get the right color?
Yeah, I've read pretty much all the mythos. I can imagine this game takes up WAAAAAY too much space after a bit.
Seems like kind of a needless card. Ah well, if that's all I have to complain about I'm not worried.
That game is full of suckness happening to the players, but they, that's Lovecraft for ya. It reminded me that I need to buy a Miskatonic University hoodie though.
I played it once and honestly was not impressed. The game is very well done and I can see why people would enjoy it, but it's just not for me. I would play it again just to see if it improves after a few play throughs.
Also, I've never play Agricola. I want to, though.
Yeah, I went on to read some reviews - and this one kind of pushed me over to the "pass" side. The game as designed definitely sounds repetitive and somewhat boring (just like the real WoW!) - but maybe w/ the coop variants it could be a better game. But I already have Arkham/BSG/Space Alert for some good coop action. It sounds like the WoW: Adventure Game is a more streamlined version of the Board Game. But I'm still not sure either one is as interesting as I first thought.
As far as Arkham expansions go, whichever one adds the "Old One will fuck you big time deck" is supposed to be pretty awesome. I think its the 2nd big box expansion. I have Dunwich and the Dark Pharaoh, but haven't played with Dunwich yet. Pharaoh is a small expansion that adds more events/item cards to the decks. Once you start getting a lot of expansions, you'll need to make something like this: http://boardgamegeek.com/image/419226
Yeah, that review does a pretty good job at going over all the faults of the game. If you read the comments posted, some people say that the game is more fun when you lower the number of players and make it a straight co-op game, and I agree with them. Overall, it's up to you.
Personally, I love the look of the game and I love the character progression, but unfortunately, that's not enough for me to play the game regularly and not nearly enough to get my friends to play it with me. Like I said in the other post, if you could combine the character building of WoW with the tactics and dungeon crawl aspect of Descent, it might take forever to play it, but that would be my ultimate dungeon crawl game.
They're all good, but Dunwich is generally considered the best to start with- gate surges are basically a core rule now, for example.
Innsmouth has the best new mechanic- with Dunwich, you can kind of ignore the Horror until you absolutely need to send some dudes to town. With Kingsport, you can keep it under control if you put one guy on Kingsport duty but he'll probably end up fairly bored since Kingsport is a fairly tranquil place. Innsmouth, though, you've got to keep under control or the jig is up. The bright side to Kingsport is that it is dilution proof; if you try to play with Dunwich and Innsmouth simultaneously they'll end up diluting each other. Kingsport also changes the Final Battle rules to something a lot less lame.
AH is one of those games that could really use a 3rd edition that...
1. vastly streamlines the rules (it's just a fiddly damn game)
2. speeds up play
I'd probably pay money for "Arkham Horror Lite." It's just a bit past my mostly casual board-gaming group's speed.
So I am suddenly tempted by many games now that I have a few fun 2-player games already. Arkham, BSG (could rope in 6 people total for that I think), what else ...
How's Fury of Dracula? I've read all the reviews and I really want to try it.
desc, your talk of Battlelore is really making me want to pick it up again. I have Command & Colours: Ancients and Memoir '44 - and have yet to play C&C, only got to play Memoir once. And yet, I still want to buy it. Does it really go for $80 in stores though? Cause at that price point, I may just have to grab Starcraft instead - its another one on my wishlist and it supports 2-6 players.
Oh, I do have a ZunTzu gamebox for Battlelore btw - so if you (or anyone else) ever wants to play it online let me know.
I wish I knew someone who had it so I could just play their copy. Bah.
[strike]UPDATE: Out of Stock! Sorry![/strike]
Anyone interested in Starcraft: The Board Game for ~$45? Was browsing BGG last night and someone had posted a great deal: Link
Game Here. $47 + tax w/ free shipping. Use this coupon code at checkout for 10% off: C4J8V4P (exp 8/24). If you are a B/N member, I think you save like $5 more? Total cost for me was ~$45.
I loved the PC game back in the day, but have never played the board game. All the talk about it here in this thread got me really interested tho. My brother in law is big into WWII conflict board games, will I have any trouble convincing him to play this with me? It seems just like a sci-fi themed war game...
Now I just gotta find the expansion cheap too somewhere, I read it really helps balance the game out.
He usually breaks down the game explanation pretty well
Fuck yeah! Thanks for this. Hell, for the money this saved on the original you can pick up the expansion new on ebay.
I haven't yet tried C&C:A but I've played some Mem44. I grabbed the air pack for it but haven't even used that yet. It's $60 or so on Amazon, which is what I did, as $80 is a bit silly. I am really sold on it though, I have to say.
I've never used zuntzu, but let me set up an account. I would definitely be up for some online BattleLore.
Cool. You don't need an account, just the software. Its like vassal but prettier - only works on windows however. It has built-in voice support, but I never tried it. I figure we always have the PA vent server if need be.
The Battlelore Call to Arms and Epic expansions 6.95 and 5.96 respectively. Seems pretty cheap. Also the Colosseum and Moai boardgames on clearance too.
Dammit. They are sold out of it now.
Wow... that went OOS really fast after I posted. Hope some people were able to get in on the deal. I came back to post I found a 15% off coupon too D:
Well if you find anything else let us know. I've just started building my collection and I've gotten 5 games so far this year. Looking to add more for a good price. Starcraft is on the list, but it's so expensive. I was definitely going to get this until my dream was crushed.
But seriously, thanks for posting it. That's awesome of you.
Azulan Saul Tigh
Back in stock now, hope you can grab a copy!
Edit:
I've been looking up Brood War prices and I found something strange... Amazon has 2 listings for the expansion:
#1 for ~$59 +tax (w/ free ship)
#2 for ~$49 +tax (w/ free ship)
Only difference I can see is the names are slightly different ("Starcraft: Brood War" vs "Starcraft - Brood War"). $50 seems to be about the average ebay price for a new copy. Think I'm gonna play the game a few times to make sure I like it before ordering the xpac.
This game is way too slow and dry for my group. Its fun for dracula because "omg they're so close to me!" but it sucks for everyone else because unless you step on just the right town? You don't know you're around them. We've played twice and we've only had ONE fight, and it ended with me escaping very easily.
It has been on my trade list since the first time I played it after buying it because reviews were so positive.
Got my copy. Now I just gotta wait a while to get the expansion. My girlfriend is going to kill me just for getting this, but when I show her it's practically 30 - 35 off the average price (hell local store in our area was selling it for $100) she probably will understand.
Oh well. She spent $35 on a purse... A PURSE! Does that entertain you and your friends for hours?