I've gone to the FLGS 3 times this week and just stared at Thunderstone, Arkham Horror, and Lord of the Rings unable to decide which to get. Argh!!!!
Which LotR games? The Knizia co-op? I'd highly recommend either AH or Thunderstone over that.
Agreed. The co-op game is fun but a little simple and there are much better co-ops out there now. I'd probably also skip Arkham until there are some solid reports on Mansions of Madness. I also really like thunderstone.
Yeah the coop one where you are hobbits. I heard good things, but not in relation to AH or TS. I think AH is the most praised of the three as a coop game, but still can't decide.
Archpriest on
Switch: SW-2322-2047-3148 Steam: Archpriest -- Selling Board Games for Medical Bills- Ask if interested!
Edit: think about how weird this post would be to read for someone who wasn't that familiar with videogames or boardgames. coop games? what is that like chicken themed?
It is a card based dungeon crawl where each person tries to earn the most points by individually defeating monsters. You can't really work together in it.
Edit: Sounds like you may have confused Cutthroat Caverns and Thunderstone? Cutthroat caverns is a "Screw you" card based dungeon crawl game where you work as a team to kill a monster, while also screwing each other so you get the most points off the beast.
You're mostly off; it's a card based dungeon crawl where you run your own party (deck) through, attempting to collect more trophies than anyone else. Indirect competition, not co-op at all.
I thought it was a card based dungeon crawl where you work as a team vs random encounters? Or am I completely off?
You're right except for the "as a team" part.
Well, I could debate even the "random encounters" part. You choose which one you want to fight each time from the face up monsters when you enter, and you only fight a single monster at a time. When I picture a random encounter, that's not how I envision it (usually it's a group of monsters and you don't know who you're up against until the battle starts).
Oh you build your own party with cards? Still seems pretty cool and I've heard good things
Your deck represents your party and all their equipment. Each hand, you send a team out either to town to buy new stuff or to the dungeon to fight, so you're sending a subset of your party each time.
I really enjoy it, but this is not the game you're looking for if you want a coop. I think the base game comes with 11* types of heroes that each have 3 ranks that you level up.
Also know they are planning an alternate base game, like Dominion has with Intrigue, to come out sometime.
Space Alert is still my favorite co-op when I have my laptop with me and 4-5 players.
The flash mission generator and game resolution are must-haves IMO (the first because it's great when you're in a noisy environment, the second because it's simply hilarious watching your guys running around making the mistakes you made with sound effects)
But between Thunderstone, Arkham Horror, and LotR? AH for sure.
BTW, FFG's got their Holiday Sale going right now. Looks to be clearing out a lot of the old merchandise.
There's a few things I'm tempted to pick up for lulz, like some of the Diskwars stuff, or the $9 Confrontation starter set (originally selling for $69).
EDIT: Oh, hey, if anyone's interested, the Starcraft Brood Wars expansion's in there for $10.
PMAvers on
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
Just picked up the new Battles of Westeros expansion and I think I'm settled on Arkham Horror!! You guys think the base is good or should I grab an expansion for it?
Archpriest on
Switch: SW-2322-2047-3148 Steam: Archpriest -- Selling Board Games for Medical Bills- Ask if interested!
Yeah, don't even think about expansions for a while (although if you have a sale or something and want to pick some up for the future, King in Yellow is good.)
I tried to play Death Angel with 2 friends tonight. We have no idea how to play. For some reason we are just not understanding this game at all. Anyone want to explain the steps of the game in kindergarten mode?
I haven't played it, but I can at least offer a good rules summary from Headless Hollow.
Also, a thread from BGG where the OP had the same problem, and received this response:
I really wish I had time to do a video. My brother and I spent a 1/2 hour just getting it set up. The spawning rules are the worst organized.
1) After you deal out your marines, set up the event, location, and genestealer decks, you place the terrain cards on the formation based on the starting location card. The icons on the sides match the icons on the terrain cards; you place them up or down the number of spaces shown on the same side of the formation as they are on the starting location card.
2) The starting location card has 2 big numbers on each side in a "radar" style design. Place a pile of genestealer cards from the genestealer deck on the respective side of the starting location, face down. Those are the left and right blip piles.
3) On your starting location card, there are 2 colored triangles, Yellow and White. Yellow is a "Major Spawn" and White is a "Minor Spawn"
Let's use algebraic terms.
X = # in the yellow triangle on the starting location (Major Spawn)
and
Y = # in the white triangle on the starting location (Minor Spawn)
4) Draw an event card and ignore all but those two colored blocks (green, yellow, orange and red) There will also be a small yellow or white triangle on each, the key for each is on the starting location card as explained in the step above.
So if you have a yellow block and a red block, and there is a white triangle on the yellow block and a yellow triangle on the red block, put X genestealers face up on the terrain card with a red block and Y genestealers face up on the terrain card with the yellow block.
However, make sure you draw the genestealers from the blip pile that is on the same side as the terrain you are putting them on - think of it as them moving down the formation from their respective positions at the upper left and right of the Marines.
It's still dense, but keep reading that and looking at your setup until it clicks. It's more condensed than the rulebook that has you flipping all over the place.
Once you get that, it gets much, much easier to figure out what to do for the rest of the game.
and this:
Blips are placed in piles on each side of your location, one for the left side, one for the right side. The number of blips in each pile is the big numbers on the location card.
At the beginning of the game you draw an event card. Ignore everything on this initial card except for the two colored rectangles at the bottom. This tells you where Genestealers spawn. If it shows, for example, the Red and Green rectangles, find those particular terrain cards then pull a blip from the pile above it and place a genestealer next to it. If it has the arrow with the red flare then you place 2 Genestealers (for solo game).
The dice is mostly used for attacking and defending. When attacking, if you roll a skull you've taken out a Genestealer. When defending, if you roll OVER the number of Genestealers in the group attacking you then you've successfully defended. Otherwise spend a support token to reroll (if you're facing the group) or your Marine is taken out. Special abilities on your action cards may change how you use the dice... for example, the flamer works differently when attacking.
I'll do my best to explain Death Angel. But I can't remember set up, so you'll have to look that up.
First thing you do is each player chooses an action for the team(s). I assume you were doing a 3 player game, so each player should be controlling 2 teams.
You choose your actions simultaneously and secretively, but you are free to discuss what everyone should probably do. Then you take the actions in order from lowest number to highest number.
After this the Xenos attack. The player being attacked rolls the die and if it is less than the number of Xenos, that character dies.
Then you do the event deck. The person who played the lowest number (I could be wrong) takes the top card and reads it. If it is instinct he MUST make his choice before revealing the card to the team. There is no discussion here as to what that player should choose, they make it all on their own.
Then after the event is over you place the Xenos based on what the event deck shows.
I think that about covers it. Ask me more specific questions and I'll try my best to get into better detail.
I tried to play Death Angel with 2 friends tonight. We have no idea how to play. For some reason we are just not understanding this game at all. Anyone want to explain the steps of the game in kindergarten mode?
Setup summary summary, spoilered for potential huge:
Take the "void lock" card for your number of players. That's your starting location. Pick one card from each of the location piles that it mentions (1C, 2, 3, 4 or some such), that's where you'll be going. Keep them face down so you don't see them. Put the rest away, you'll never use them.
Everybody picks a color of marines. Doesn't really matter, they're all good.
Randomly shuffle said marines, and lay them out in a single file line under the Void Lock card. The top half should face left and the bottom half should face right.
Shuffle the Genestealer deck (the ones with the big nasty monsters with a symbol on them) and make a pile on the left and right sides of the void lock card. The bottom left and right corners of that card will have a number on them, that's how many genestealer cards go in each pile. Those are the "blip piles". If at any point one of these piles is empty, at the end of that phase you will Travel to the next location.
Look at the void lock card, it will have some tetris-looking symbols and numbers and arrows on each side. These match cards in the Terrain deck. Put them on the matching side in the appropriate position. For example, it might be the symbol that matches the "door" card, on the left side of the void lock card, with a number 3 and a down arrow. That means that you put the "door" terrain on the left side of the third marine from the top. And there might be a symbol of a long block with a 5 and an up arrow on the right side of the card, so you put the "corridor" location on the right hand side of the fifth marine from the bottom.
Finally, you draw the top card of the Event deck (they're kind of red). The only thing you will do with this card during setup is to make there be genestealers. It will have two "danger level" symbols at the bottom, and either a yellow or white triangle next to each one. If you refer back to the void lock card, it will have a yellow triangle with a big number in it, and a white triangle with a smaller number in it. This is how many genestealers spawn on an event card for the appropriate triangle. So let's say the card had a 4-red-bar symbol with a yellow triangle, and a 1-green-bar symbol with a white triangle. And the void lock card has a 3 in the yellow triangle and a 1 in the white triangle. Look on your board for any location cards with a 4-red-bar symbol, take 3 genestealers from the blip pile on that side of the void lock card, and deal them face up next to the appropriate location card. If there aren't enough genestealers in that pile then the Marines get lucky (this by design will never happen during setup.) Then look for any location cards with a 1-green-bar symbol, take 1 genestealer from the blip pile on that side of the void lock card, and deal it face up next to the appropriate location card.
You are now ready to begin getting killed by aliens.
Edit: really, really beat'd.
Rules I screwed up my first game:
- You can't use the same action card two turns in a row.
- The "current player" (the guy who played the lowest-numbered action card) secretly draws the event card that turn. If it says "instinct", he has to do what the card says without consulting the other players. This is a balancing factor against going first.
- A turn is made up of four phases - Players Pick Actions, Marines Do Stuff, Aliens Kill Marines, Something Terrible Happens. You check for a blip pile being empty at the end of each phase, not each turn.
Something that the Headless Hollow summary makes less clear is it refers to "engaged" genestealers. Any face-up genestealer on the board is engaged with a Marine by definition (since the board is made up of Marines!) So when you travel, you do not discard any face-up genestealers. You DO discard any cards left in a blip pile.
Speaking of Death Angel, my friend recently picked it up and we've played it a few times, and he left it at my place and I played a few solo games, one per the normal rules and once just me controlling all six squads.
Is it just me or was the difficulty of the game greatly, GREATLY, exaggerated? I mean, its not a cakewalk and you have to put thought into the actions you select but it seems to me that unless the event deck and the dice really conspire against you at the same time you aren't that likely to lose anyone and if you do you'll probably lose at most one guy before you can stabilize it.
In my last game I still had all 12 marines up and it was only because I hit two rough locations in a row (blips in stack = to the number of remaining marines (24 blips total argh) followed up the genestealer last location), some rough events (everyone change facing, now do it again, now they all flank!) and some bad die rolls (how did sword seargent die to the stack of 8 genestealers when he had 5-6 support tokens on him? argh diiiice!) that I lost dudes at all, but in the end the situation wasn't too hard to stabilize and win with still over half of the marines left.
It's pretty fun though, I guess I just let the hype get to me though. This game was billed to me as "Hah! Good luck winning any of your first ten games!" and less than ten games in we are winning consistently.
Maybe I am playing something wrong but I kind of doubt it as I did a really thorough reading of the rules, FFG's FAQ and BBG's common mistakes thread for the game.
Speaking of co-op dungeoncrawls (and I realize I'm a page late), Castle Ravenloft is really, really good. It looks like it's complex, but I've had some very casual gamers pick it up and start having fun on their first play.
Oh, and Fury of Dracula is pretty fun too, although it is only semi-coop (1 vs many). That is, if you don't mind that you need exactly one dracula and four hunters to play.
Ravenloft has tempted me, but my group and I already DnD so while they might like it, I'd probably just get the "Why don't we just play our DnD campaign"
Fury of Dracula sounds cool. Never heard of it, I'll look into it. Thanks!
Archpriest on
Switch: SW-2322-2047-3148 Steam: Archpriest -- Selling Board Games for Medical Bills- Ask if interested!
An Interview with Richard Launius about Arkham Horror
Shannon Appelcline: Why did you decide to use co-operative game play when you designed Arkham Horror?
Richard Launius: I actually stumbled into it. I thought the Cthulhu Mythos was a very rich storytelling world and at the time the only game experience available to it was through the role-playing game by Chaosium. I wanted to create a game that a group of people could play together without a gamemaster, or a single individual could play alone since much of my gaming at this time of my life was solitaire play. So, I started to bring the Lovecraft world into a board game with various locations and encounters that would challenge any number of players. The challenge was creating encounters that would act as a gamemaster in the game so the players could just focus on their play and their personal adventure.
SA: Were there any existing games or activities that influenced the co-operative elements in Arkham Horror?
RL: The primary cooperative elements were spawned from role-playing games, the most influential being Call of Cthulhu. I loved the idea of a group of players facing overwhelming horrors that slowly (and sometimes quickly) drive them toward the brink of insanity and sure death. Once the idea came to me that the board would act as the gamemaster in the game, the rest of the adventure elements begin to fall in place, and along with that more cooperative game play. I do want to give credit to the Charlie Krank, Lynn Willis, and Sandy Peterson at Chaosium as they tied many of the elements together in final development of the 1st Edition of Arkham Horror which prompted even more cooperative play related to the players collectively closing all of the gates for the victory.
SA: Is there anything in Fantasy Flight Games' new edition of Arkham Horror that you particularly liked?
RL: Fantasy Flight Games brought so much to the Arkham Horror design both in terms of the graphic look of the game, and from Kevin Wilson who is just a fantastic person and game designer. Kevin's changes to the monster movement, the sliding hero skills, and the further development of the Great Old Ones slumber and awakening abilities were amazing.
In my updating of the game from the first edition that Kevin was working from, I had already decided that I wanted a final battle with the Great Old Ones and had created it where different Great Old Ones could be used in the game, but Kevin really took this to the next level with slumber abilities effecting game play, not just the end game combat.
One of the other major changes that Kevin and Fantasy Flight brought to the game was prompted by Christian Peterson. Chris thought that we should do cards for all encounters (the original game used encounter charts) and while challenging at first because of the many locations, Kevin and I came up with the idea of placing multiple encounters on each card which has worked very well. The move to cards has enabled several expansions to introduce more story and challenges for the players.
SA: You've recently developed a new co-op game, Defenders of the Realm, released over 20 years after Arkham Horror. How do you feel like the genre has changed in those years?
RL: I am glad to see that the genre has grown over the years. For the most part I break cooperative games into 3 categories:
1) Cooperative Puzzle games like Pandemic or Space Alert. Cooperative puzzle games to me present one or more situations that must be resolved in specific time. Often these cooperative games lend themselves to an overlord or boss player directing the others on their turns. These type of games are challenging and interactive, but to me often the actions for each turn are more scripted than I prefer.
2) Cooperative Traitor games like Battlestar Galactica, Betrayal on House on a Hill, and Shadow over Camelot fall into this genre. Additionally the one against many fall into this category for me – games like Fury of Dracula, Middle Earth Quest, and Descent. While all are fun games, and the traitor aspect centers around cautious to paranoid cooperative activities, the true key to a successful gaming session is reliant on how devious the traitor player(s) or villain player manages the game.
3) Pure Cooperative like Arkham Horror, Castle Ravenloft, and Defenders of the Realm. Pure cooperative games rely on the players working for a common goal against a board and game system that will shift each game and while all of the three types of cooperative games are rich in theme and story, this is the cornerstone to play in a pure coop. For me, pure coops rely upon the world, theme, story and overall game experience to make the game both fun and challenging. They create an adventure in which the experience of playing it is more important than winning or losing.
While I enjoy playing all of the games listed above, and all 3 cooperative genres, it is the Pure Cooperative game that intrigues me the most. And as you know - this is just one person's opinion, I am not criticizing any of these 3 Coop genres.
SA: How do you design pure co-operative games of this sort?
RL: I've developed the following cooperative design guidelines when I design games:
1) Create a challenging AI in the game to force players to work together on strategy and not one player becoming the overlord directing all players on their turn (puzzle solving). This means that multiple good moves appear for every player on their turn, limiting the advice to multiple strategies.
2) The Board setup and play should have a number of random elements that constantly change from game to game making each experience different for the players, even though the game mechanics stay the same.
3) While I do not lean toward a traitor element or one against many in cooperative design, I do like the idea of victory for all granting a champion player - the best of the winners. This element, depending on the type of players can make for interesting game play, but it should always be an optional rule.
4) I believe cooperative games need to be strong in theme, a story coming out of the game that the players create as they play. This story should be something that the players enjoy from the game that goes far beyond winning or losing - and something that is remembers by them long after the game is over. Therefore all my designs always start with theme and work from that foundation.
5) The game should be highly expandable - the ability to add more story and more challenges to the game for the players, keeping it a fresh and fun experience is essential to a cooperative game since it does not have the intellect and changing strategies launched by an opposing player to challenge the cooperative gamers.
6) Last, but not least - the game must be fun.
After I work out all the details above, I build the game engine and play it, then change it, play it and change and play it again and again until I reach the level of challenge and story I think the game needs, using the mechanics I think work best with the theme to deliver the experience I believe cooperative players want in their games. At least the experience I want in the game and I am thankful others want that kind of game as well.
SA: Thanks very much for the insights into the past and present of co-operative games!
His description of three categories of cooperative games (and examples thereof) seems useful.
playing shitloads of citadels these days. Which is good because I love the game and hardly got a chance to play it back home (actually I don't think I ever did with the copy I bought)
Got to play Wasabi and For Sale yesterday, and a game of Catan today. Lots of fun was had ,except I got destroyed in Catan because we did Seafarers which I have never done (and don't think it adds much to the game).
Also, IMO, Fury of Dracula is total ass-butt. Nothing happens, nothing happens, you find dracula, he plays a card that easily escapes, nothing happens, nothing happens.
Nuns on the run, however, is FoD except there is one or two hunters vs a ton of people. This is way more fun and way less complicated than FoD.
Nuns on the run, however, is FoD except there is one or two hunters vs a ton of people. This is way more fun and way less complicated than FoD.
I'm not so sure about that. I have both, and I enjoy them a lot. But Nuns is surprisingly fiddly, and much more dice-dependent than Fury. I would agree though, that Nuns plays more tense for the most part as you're hoping that the dice won't give you away. Fury on the other hand has a steeper learning curve, but once you are comfortable with the game, the cat-and-mouse gameplay really works quite nicely.
Got to play Wasabi and For Sale yesterday, and a game of Catan today. Lots of fun was had ,except I got destroyed in Catan because we did Seafarers which I have never done (and don't think it adds much to the game).
Also, IMO, Fury of Dracula is total ass-butt. Nothing happens, nothing happens, you find dracula, he plays a card that easily escapes, nothing happens, nothing happens.
Nuns on the run, however, is FoD except there is one or two hunters vs a ton of people. This is way more fun and way less complicated than FoD.
Man, why'd you have to mention Wasabi? Now I want sushi.
antherem on
0
JacobyOHHHHH IT’S A SNAKECreature - SnakeRegistered Userregular
edited November 2010
Me and a friend of mine both had our birthdays recently. We're going to have a board gaming day tomorrow. I'm bringing over Pandemic so we can play "Epic Version".
Legendary difficulty. Virulent Strain. Mutation. Maybe even fully random roles.
We're just going to see how long it takes before we lose.
I picked up Forbidden Island this week and it is pretty great. Played three times with my folks over Thanksgiving, lost the first time when the helicopter landing sunk within fifteen minutes because we got careless (and I thought there were more Sandbag cards in the deck than there actually are), lost the second time with everything gone around us but the helicopter landing and the last temple we needed before the floodwaters rose, and won the last time. Good times and looking forward to sharing it with my group back home, which still plays Pandemic fairly regularly. Are they planning any Forbidden Island expansions, anyone know?
JustPlainPavek on
0
jakobaggerLO THY DREAD EMPIRE CHAOS IS RESTOREDRegistered Userregular
Got to play Wasabi and For Sale yesterday, and a game of Catan today. Lots of fun was had ,except I got destroyed in Catan because we did Seafarers which I have never done (and don't think it adds much to the game).
Seafarer makes the Sheep ressource less useless, which leads to a more balanced game.
Anthererm would have had first chance to build the fortress (worth 11 VP for him) had we let it go for another round, so his score is deceptively low there.
Nuns on the run, however, is FoD except there is one or two hunters vs a ton of people. This is way more fun and way less complicated than FoD.
I'm not so sure about that. I have both, and I enjoy them a lot. But Nuns is surprisingly fiddly, and much more dice-dependent than Fury. I would agree though, that Nuns plays more tense for the most part as you're hoping that the dice won't give you away. Fury on the other hand has a steeper learning curve, but once you are comfortable with the game, the cat-and-mouse gameplay really works quite nicely.
I dunno about FoD's "cat and mouse" play. The game seems so imbalanced towards Dracula. Its hard for Heroes to ever do anything to him. To get weapons, they have to give him the chance of getting awesome cards AND completely wiping his trail. Once they get to him, most of his combat mechanics allow him to easily escape. The only way to really find him is to spread hunters widely across the map and hope you stumble onto part of his trail, but then the hunters are so spread out its hard to rally and find him. I mean, the game is fun in theory. But after playing it a few times, with each game just being Dracula dragging out the clock (and even when you do manage to find him its so easy for him to escape), the fun didn't pan out.
Nuns is definitely more dice based, but I don't think I agree with fiddly. The great thing about Nuns is that every turn each player gets a chance to be detected/detect someone around them based on the noise/listen rolls.
Edit: And I don't mean to say that FoD is the worst game ever. I know people out there really like it. But it seems like the game is almost entirely based off who you play it with and it is very easy for the game to be really terrible.
Posts
Yeah the coop one where you are hobbits. I heard good things, but not in relation to AH or TS. I think AH is the most praised of the three as a coop game, but still can't decide.
Edit: think about how weird this post would be to read for someone who wasn't that familiar with videogames or boardgames. coop games? what is that like chicken themed?
I thought it was a card based dungeon crawl where you work as a team vs random encounters? Or am I completely off?
Edit: Sounds like you may have confused Cutthroat Caverns and Thunderstone? Cutthroat caverns is a "Screw you" card based dungeon crawl game where you work as a team to kill a monster, while also screwing each other so you get the most points off the beast.
edit: Preview is your friend!
You're right except for the "as a team" part.
Edit: yes, what they said.
Well, I could debate even the "random encounters" part. You choose which one you want to fight each time from the face up monsters when you enter, and you only fight a single monster at a time. When I picture a random encounter, that's not how I envision it (usually it's a group of monsters and you don't know who you're up against until the battle starts).
Your deck represents your party and all their equipment. Each hand, you send a team out either to town to buy new stuff or to the dungeon to fight, so you're sending a subset of your party each time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYZIVzssnjw
Also know they are planning an alternate base game, like Dominion has with Intrigue, to come out sometime.
edit: 11 not 8 "races"
The flash mission generator and game resolution are must-haves IMO (the first because it's great when you're in a noisy environment, the second because it's simply hilarious watching your guys running around making the mistakes you made with sound effects)
But between Thunderstone, Arkham Horror, and LotR? AH for sure.
Switch: US 1651-2551-4335 JP 6310-4664-2624
MH3U Monster Cheat Sheet / MH3U Veggie Elder Ticket Guide
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6q8b3v8gKQ
A quick look at the weekend. Battling Tops at 1:52, and a mysterious man in a butterfly mask.
http://vimeo.com/17143841
My RvB Profile
Glib Shark
There's a few things I'm tempted to pick up for lulz, like some of the Diskwars stuff, or the $9 Confrontation starter set (originally selling for $69).
EDIT: Oh, hey, if anyone's interested, the Starcraft Brood Wars expansion's in there for $10.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
LotR the Confrontation $20
StarCraft Broodwars expansion $10
And a bunch of WoW the Boardgame expansions and WoW the Adventure game base and characters. Site seems to be getting hammered at the moment, though.
The board needs waxing because my fingers hurt.
Switch: US 1651-2551-4335 JP 6310-4664-2624
MH3U Monster Cheat Sheet / MH3U Veggie Elder Ticket Guide
I haven't played it, but I can at least offer a good rules summary from Headless Hollow.
Also, a thread from BGG where the OP had the same problem, and received this response:
and this:
First thing you do is each player chooses an action for the team(s). I assume you were doing a 3 player game, so each player should be controlling 2 teams.
You choose your actions simultaneously and secretively, but you are free to discuss what everyone should probably do. Then you take the actions in order from lowest number to highest number.
After this the Xenos attack. The player being attacked rolls the die and if it is less than the number of Xenos, that character dies.
Then you do the event deck. The person who played the lowest number (I could be wrong) takes the top card and reads it. If it is instinct he MUST make his choice before revealing the card to the team. There is no discussion here as to what that player should choose, they make it all on their own.
Then after the event is over you place the Xenos based on what the event deck shows.
I think that about covers it. Ask me more specific questions and I'll try my best to get into better detail.
Headless Hollow rules summary
Setup summary summary, spoilered for potential huge:
Edit: really, really beat'd.
Rules I screwed up my first game:
- You can't use the same action card two turns in a row.
- The "current player" (the guy who played the lowest-numbered action card) secretly draws the event card that turn. If it says "instinct", he has to do what the card says without consulting the other players. This is a balancing factor against going first.
- A turn is made up of four phases - Players Pick Actions, Marines Do Stuff, Aliens Kill Marines, Something Terrible Happens. You check for a blip pile being empty at the end of each phase, not each turn.
Something that the Headless Hollow summary makes less clear is it refers to "engaged" genestealers. Any face-up genestealer on the board is engaged with a Marine by definition (since the board is made up of Marines!) So when you travel, you do not discard any face-up genestealers. You DO discard any cards left in a blip pile.
Is it just me or was the difficulty of the game greatly, GREATLY, exaggerated? I mean, its not a cakewalk and you have to put thought into the actions you select but it seems to me that unless the event deck and the dice really conspire against you at the same time you aren't that likely to lose anyone and if you do you'll probably lose at most one guy before you can stabilize it.
In my last game I still had all 12 marines up and it was only because I hit two rough locations in a row (blips in stack = to the number of remaining marines (24 blips total argh) followed up the genestealer last location), some rough events (everyone change facing, now do it again, now they all flank!) and some bad die rolls (how did sword seargent die to the stack of 8 genestealers when he had 5-6 support tokens on him? argh diiiice!) that I lost dudes at all, but in the end the situation wasn't too hard to stabilize and win with still over half of the marines left.
It's pretty fun though, I guess I just let the hype get to me though. This game was billed to me as "Hah! Good luck winning any of your first ten games!" and less than ten games in we are winning consistently.
Maybe I am playing something wrong but I kind of doubt it as I did a really thorough reading of the rules, FFG's FAQ and BBG's common mistakes thread for the game.
I don't believe we made any mistakes at all.
It just takes teamwork and things going well for you on dice rolls.
Our first game, the very first even was "Choose a marine. This marine dies."
Then 5 events later we got one that revived a dead marine and he was still the only one dead.
We ended the game, of 4 marine teams, with 3 dead. So 5 out of 8 is pretty good.
Oh, and Fury of Dracula is pretty fun too, although it is only semi-coop (1 vs many). That is, if you don't mind that you need exactly one dracula and four hunters to play.
Fury of Dracula sounds cool. Never heard of it, I'll look into it. Thanks!
Damn I am trying to save money FFG you and your beyond tempting sale
His description of three categories of cooperative games (and examples thereof) seems useful.
Also, IMO, Fury of Dracula is total ass-butt. Nothing happens, nothing happens, you find dracula, he plays a card that easily escapes, nothing happens, nothing happens.
Nuns on the run, however, is FoD except there is one or two hunters vs a ton of people. This is way more fun and way less complicated than FoD.
I'm not so sure about that. I have both, and I enjoy them a lot. But Nuns is surprisingly fiddly, and much more dice-dependent than Fury. I would agree though, that Nuns plays more tense for the most part as you're hoping that the dice won't give you away. Fury on the other hand has a steeper learning curve, but once you are comfortable with the game, the cat-and-mouse gameplay really works quite nicely.
Man, why'd you have to mention Wasabi? Now I want sushi.
Legendary difficulty. Virulent Strain. Mutation. Maybe even fully random roles.
We're just going to see how long it takes before we lose.
Switch: nin.codes/roldford
Seafarer makes the Sheep ressource less useless, which leads to a more balanced game.
Place: 1 Darian Total VPs: 48 Goods + Doubloons: 1 VPs in Chits: 14 VPs in Buildings: 22 VPs in Bonus: 12
Place: 2 jakobagger Total VPs: 43 Goods + Doubloons: 11 VPs in Chits: 19 VPs in Buildings: 20 VPs in Bonus: 4
Place: 3 Lykouragh Total VPs: 41 Goods + Doubloons: 4 VPs in Chits: 26 VPs in Buildings: 10 VPs in Bonus: 5
Place: 4 TheCowKing Total VPs: 35 Goods + Doubloons: 4 VPs in Chits: 23&nb sp; VPs in Buildings: 12 VPs in Bonus: 0
Place: 5 antherem Total VPs: 26 Goods + Doubloons: 8 VPs in Chits: 12 VPs in Buildings: 14 VPs in Bonus: 0
Good game, all.
I dunno about FoD's "cat and mouse" play. The game seems so imbalanced towards Dracula. Its hard for Heroes to ever do anything to him. To get weapons, they have to give him the chance of getting awesome cards AND completely wiping his trail. Once they get to him, most of his combat mechanics allow him to easily escape. The only way to really find him is to spread hunters widely across the map and hope you stumble onto part of his trail, but then the hunters are so spread out its hard to rally and find him. I mean, the game is fun in theory. But after playing it a few times, with each game just being Dracula dragging out the clock (and even when you do manage to find him its so easy for him to escape), the fun didn't pan out.
Nuns is definitely more dice based, but I don't think I agree with fiddly. The great thing about Nuns is that every turn each player gets a chance to be detected/detect someone around them based on the noise/listen rolls.
Edit: And I don't mean to say that FoD is the worst game ever. I know people out there really like it. But it seems like the game is almost entirely based off who you play it with and it is very easy for the game to be really terrible.