And nothing of value was lost. PATV just cluttered up my youtube feeds since the same videos would get posted there plus on their home channel a few days apart. The PA Report had taken on an almost intolerable social justice warrior slant, complete with the editorial crew openly mocking anyone who asks legitimate questions. It's "review" of the new King of Fighters I think didn't mention anything about gameplay hardly at all, and instead spent 2 pages focusing entirely on sexism and racism in fighting games. Ok? That's not a review.
Although PATV did bring Extra Credits to my attention, and it's fantastic series on the Punic Wars. So at least it accomplished that much.
Well that's certainly an opinion. I would say they cut off any remaining reason for me to bother with the homepage. At least they keep the forums running...
Edit: That's a dour top of the page. Hmmm...
We often make jokes at the expense of older games, such as Risk and Monopoly, for being terrible examples of board games. Anyone have any guilty pleasures? Games they love but know they probably shouldn't? I used to be really in to Risk when I was a kid and could probably still be convinced to try the classic version. I'm also fascinated by Diplomacy, despite the fact that no one seems to ever enjoy actually playing it.
Oh god played so much Coup tonight. Went over extremely well, although I might try that variant I saw on BGG where the Contessa can block assassination attempts on any player, not just yourself. Would give the card more to do, since it kind of sucks that she doesn't do anything normally.
More realizing little things that make Eldritch Horror such an improvement over Arkham:
Encounters are no longer a gun to your head. Arkham encounters would be 40% harmful, another 40% would end up automatically spawning a gate before forcing a -4 will check to keep the card from fucking your girlfriend, and maybe 10% would be helpful. It was way too big of a swing. You can argue it was supposed to be an atmosphere of dread, but I thought it was a bigger source of active punishment and frustration than it was worth.
In Eldritch, it's a much more reasonable spread of passing a skill test for something helpful or something detrimental, but not catastrophic. You actually look forward to encounters again. Plus, each location tells you what that spot's encounters do (spawn clues, defeat monsters, improve skills) and 90% of them actually do it unlike Arkham where only a small percentage of encounters would actually grant what the location told you. The game is much more about planning your routes (not getting stuck by monsters you can't beat on the way) than lucking out while dodging "fuck you" encounters. Detriments are more about being gradual and cumulative, allowing the end result to be more about planning.
And we still have yet to have a game that wasn't super close (after we removed the clairvoyance spell that is). Last game Cthulhu woke up right before we solved the final mystery. He just happened to spawn right next to us and everyone heroically threw themselves at him, kamikazing to take chunks of his health off because we only had one turn before he would have driven everyone insane. A wither spell, revolver, and crazed blessed axe wielding actress (AxetressTM) finally took him down.
One little quibble regarding the low number of ancient ones. I can sort of understand that, given how they have to make up unique cards for each ancient one, including 8 or so encounter cards for each one. After a bunch of plays though, we had never run into their encounter cards. In fact we never even when they're supposed to come up in the rules. So we did some research, and it turns out Cthulhu's only come into play for one of his mysteries (one of the four, with a 1 in 4 chance of never showing up in a game) and Yog's only come up after he wakes up (and since Yog seems to have the easiest mysteries, that might not happen often).
Seems odd that half the cards for each ancient one come up so infrequently. Especially since all those cards is the reason that there are so few ancient ones.
Am I the only one here who's played this so far? Seriously if you like Arkham Horror or loved it before giving up on it, there's no reason not to grab this thing immediately.
MrBody on
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tzeentchlingDoctor of RocksOaklandRegistered Userregular
Guiltiest pleasure game? Probably Stratego. Though I rarely ever get to play it anymore!
Oh god played so much Coup tonight. Went over extremely well, although I might try that variant I saw on BGG where the Contessa can block assassination attempts on any player, not just yourself. Would give the card more to do, since it kind of sucks that she doesn't do anything normally.
We have always played it as she can block any assassination. It very rarely happens (because people not you deserve to die) but is hilarious when it does.
It is still a shit card, if you get two of them you'd better get good at lying and at least bluff an ambassador.
You know, I sort of just lost a bit of respect for SU&SD when Quinns goes "We haven't played this the 10 times or so it takes to..." and then I tuned out the rest of the sentence. You haven't even played this game 10 times and you are already reviewing it? What?
Reviewers not playing games enough is my major pet peeve. It's the whole reason I started a blog I ever so slowly update because I insist on getting at least 10 plays of a game in before I write about it.
Tom Vassal recently said the exact same thing. Video game reviewers aren't any different, commiting their write-up after only a few hours playtime. Indepent reviewers have to play a lot of games all on their own. There are a lot of games out there and they do one fifteen to twenty minute video a week about one game. This standard you've set seems a bit unrealistic.
I definitely think that SUSD should have "boundless enthusiasm" as a motto, but it's a little weird if you're right that this pressure is moving into board gaming in the first place. There might be practical reasons why reviewers do that. Hell, it's understandable too: I'd never force my friends to play something 10+ times "for the review". I just don't think that standard fits the hobby very well. I've been burned on SUSD's boundless enthusiasm already, and now I just watch the reviews for the enthusiasm, not the recommendation.
This isn't video gaming. We're still talking about games that were released last year or the year before, and everyone here knows and has played (or wants to play) the old guard board games. Hell, my current wishlist includes Cosmic Encounter. With no digital downloads and of course the practical difficulty of organising 3+ people around the table to play The New Hotness, I'm not sure there's as many bleeding edge internet obsessives in this hobby as in videogames. There's a good few weeks of cooling off and buyer's remorse in board gaming.
You're probably right about the state of the reviewing business, but it's a weird disconnect with the state of the hobby itself.
We often make jokes at the expense of older games, such as Risk and Monopoly, for being terrible examples of board games. Anyone have any guilty pleasures? Games they love but know they probably shouldn't? I used to be really in to Risk when I was a kid and could probably still be convinced to try the classic version. I'm also fascinated by Diplomacy, despite the fact that no one seems to ever enjoy actually playing it.
I don't know if it would be considered a true "board game," but I'm still a huge fan of Connect Four.
I work with children with behavioral/physical/social/mental disabilities and a lot of board games are a little too complex for them. But Connect Four? Everyone knows how to immediately play it. It's quick, clear and challenging enough to illicit a humorous tension from two opponents.
Oh, by the way, Quinns and Paul talk in the podcast about the reviewer's problem of feeling out a game in 3-4 playthroughs. Then later on they talk about their differences in how they recommend things to people, while debating Mansions of Madness. Funnily enough, it hinges around replayability and bang-for-buck). Interesting accidental apologia.
AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
Due to the rules about Kickstarters in progress, I'm just going to mention that I'm really excited about the box inserts that are floating around (where they are using KS to just provide the capital for their initial shipment). While it sucks that there is some assembly required, it really looks high quality, flexible, and PERFECT for my needs. I'm probably going to pick up 2 artist case options for my Arkham horror and at least 3-4 of the FFG inserts for my Netrunner, Star Wars, Mansions of Madness and maaaaybe REX/BSG. I love that it was designed with sleeves in mind.
Due to the rules about Kickstarters in progress, I'm just going to mention that I'm really excited about the box inserts that are floating around (where they are using KS to just provide the capital for their initial shipment). While it sucks that there is some assembly required, it really looks high quality, flexible, and PERFECT for my needs. I'm probably going to pick up 2 artist case options for my Arkham horror and at least 3-4 of the FFG inserts for my Netrunner, Star Wars, Mansions of Madness and maaaaybe REX/BSG. I love that it was designed with sleeves in mind.
The Lyris one? Part of me wants one of the RDI ones but with more character slots so I could use it for BattleCON.
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
No, the Go7 one.
Hm. I'll check with a mod, see if I can link to their actual website and not the kickstarter, even though the content is mirrored.
Is Through the Ages really as good at BGG would make me seem? That game seems to get so much love, but it just looks so long and tedious. I would love to pick up a Civilization style game at some point, and it seems like there are plenty of options now, but this one is still the highest rated. I don't mind that theres not a map or anything, but the game looks so bland and theme-less. I watched Rahdo's runthrough of it, but he only played like two turns and I feel like the game probably gets more interesting as it goes on. Also, I heard its quite fiddly. I loath the fiddliness of Power Grid, so would that be an issue?
I haven't gotten to play many new games lately. Played some Attack Wing with my fiancee (she loves it!) and played Monza with my nephew. Monza is pretty much Formula D combined with Candyland -- a wonderful game for very small children that is also fun for adults (unlike Candyland). If you have a 3 or 4 year old, I highly recommend it!
I've finally gotten around to playing Lords of Waterdeep on my ipad. I can see how this is a great gateway game, but I just don't see the longterm appeal. The Manhattan Project or Village (other medium weight cube-pushers) are just superior games, both mechanically and thematically, and I don't understand why someone would choose to play this this instead of them. I guess the artwork may appeal more to some people, but once that wears off its just a bland, mildly entertaining light euro game. Of course, my impressions may change if I ever get the chance to play with real live people instead of bastard AI opponents. All that negative stuff aside, this is my go-to light euro ipad game for now (at least until one of the other aforementioned games is ported to ios).
So then, I've got a big bunch of boardgames that I'm looking to sell in the UK. What site would people recommend that I use to offload them. As far as I can tell ebay is a bit of a barren wilderness for selling proper/good boardgames.
So then, I've got a big bunch of boardgames that I'm looking to sell in the UK. What site would people recommend that I use to offload them. As far as I can tell ebay is a bit of a barren wilderness for selling proper/good boardgames.
Well first you should PM those of us living in the UK so we get first dibs at the list.
Start with me and I'll let you know who else lives here.
Is Through the Ages really as good at BGG would make me seem? That game seems to get so much love, but it just looks so long and tedious. I would love to pick up a Civilization style game at some point, and it seems like there are plenty of options now, but this one is still the highest rated. I don't mind that theres not a map or anything, but the game looks so bland and theme-less. I watched Rahdo's runthrough of it, but he only played like two turns and I feel like the game probably gets more interesting as it goes on. Also, I heard its quite fiddly. I loath the fiddliness of Power Grid, so would that be an issue?
Hells yes it would be an issue. TTA is an excellent game, but I would much, much rather play via BGO than with a physical copy.
Most Civ-style games are fiddly as hell, but TTA takes it to another level. I usually prefer Endeavor in that genre, mostly due to its quick playing time. Although I guess that's not really a Civ, now that I think about it; more like an Age of Empires, maybe?
ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
Okay, guys, couple of things ...
1: I need to update my recommendation blurb for the OP. I still love Core Worlds, but we never get to play it. I would recommend damn near anybody Suburbia though. It's easy to learn, easy to play, and generally rewarding in the sense that it's fun to build your own little slice of the game's "world" and for it to have a personality. "I build a residential district!" "I have a swath of airport terminals!" "With all these commercial properties, I AM THE EMBODIMENT OF CAPITALISM!" The goals are hit or miss depending on how much you care about the points and winning, but I think they offer a nice optional direction (again tying to the notion of "just enjoy building something.") to people so you aren't just trying to play each turn optimally.
2: My kickstarter copy of Euphoria arrived last week. We played a bit of one game on Friday night and it seems pretty legit - definitely simple to play, but complex enough that you can't connect all the dots just by looking at the board. There are a lot of fun mechanisms at work in this one, mostly focused on how your dice work. Also, anyone who thinks Alien Frontiers is an enjoyable dice-based worker placement game (and for the record, I do not) should give some SERIOUS CONSIDERATIONS to checking this one out.
As well, the components in this game are of insane quality. The basic resources are beautiful wooden tokens, and the advanced resources are actual metal (gold bricks), cast plastic (clay), and coloured glass beads (stone). The cards are exactly the right material and feel. The cardboard stock is firm and has no roughness. Just incredible on that part of production.
jergarmarhollow man crewgoes pew pew pewRegistered Userregular
Argh, Suburbia. Okay, there are some games, like Power Grid, that I don't like but I know why I don't like them. If I read a review about Power Grid, people will often say something like, "It's got a bunch of messy pieces that come together into a wonderful whole". Now, I don't LIKE games with a bunch of messy pieces, so I don't like Power Grid, but I can understand that some people like that kind of thing.
With Suburbia, I'm almost alone in my active dislike of that game. It's one of the ONLY games that I will refuse to play. I truly don't understand the appeal. No, that's not true -- the first 30 minutes of the game is full of appeal, but the fun gradually drains away until it's just miserable for me. But my wife loves it, other people love it, the thread loves it, Tom Vasel loves it, BGG loves it. There must be something wrong with me.
As a comparison, if I want to play a "one thing affects everybody/everything" game, I would choose Innovation. To be honest, I'm not very good at it, and I sometimes find it frustrating to keep track of. But the game flow is exactly opposite from Suburbia, in that it gets progressively more and more interesting and hilarious as the game goes on. The only way to keep an advantage is to demolish everyone and end the game quickly.
When I was a child, I had a fever... My BoardGameGeek profile
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2: My kickstarter copy of Euphoria arrived last week. We played a bit of one game on Friday night and it seems pretty legit - definitely simple to play, but complex enough that you can't connect all the dots just by looking at the board. There are a lot of fun mechanisms at work in this one, mostly focused on how your dice work. Also, anyone who thinks Alien Frontiers is an enjoyable dice-based worker placement game (and for the record, I do not) should give some SERIOUS CONSIDERATIONS to checking this one out.
As well, the components in this game are of insane quality. The basic resources are beautiful wooden tokens, and the advanced resources are actual metal (gold bricks), cast plastic (clay), and coloured glass beads (stone). The cards are exactly the right material and feel. The cardboard stock is firm and has no roughness. Just incredible on that part of production.
Jealous. My copy probably won't arrive until right before Xmas.
I really like summoner wars. I like how it's midway between a minis game and chess, and has the dueling wizard aesthetic. I like that it's reasonably fast to play, and pretty easy to teach. I'd like to build my collection outward, since I often need a game for more than two players. Any advice? I usually skew too heavyweight for my group of friends. I probably also need a game or two with less direct conflict.
I really like summoner wars. I like how it's midway between a minis game and chess, and has the dueling wizard aesthetic. I like that it's reasonably fast to play, and pretty easy to teach. I'd like to build my collection outward, since I often need a game for more than two players. Any advice? I usually skew too heavyweight for my group of friends. I probably also need a game or two with less direct conflict.
Dominion? I know it's got a bad rep around some parts, but it's easy to teach, fast to play, involves not very much direct conflict, and I really enjoy it. It's very much a game about figuring out the best strategy given the board, then executing that best strategy as well as you can given your draws and the moves your opponent makes.
Generalísimo de Fuerzas Armadas de la República Argentina
It is fun to play, easy to teach, and scales players from 2-6 plus more if you get the expansion.
Though it would probably be less fun if you could only ever play two, but teaching it to new people at a coffee shop might be an easy way to make new friends
I really like summoner wars. I like how it's midway between a minis game and chess, and has the dueling wizard aesthetic. I like that it's reasonably fast to play, and pretty easy to teach. I'd like to build my collection outward, since I often need a game for more than two players. Any advice? I usually skew too heavyweight for my group of friends. I probably also need a game or two with less direct conflict.
Dominion? I know it's got a bad rep around some parts, but it's easy to teach, fast to play, involves not very much direct conflict, and I really enjoy it. It's very much a game about figuring out the best strategy given the board, then executing that best strategy as well as you can given your draws and the moves your opponent makes.
It's a good recommendation. I picked that up a few years ago and liked it. It's a good choice because it's simple to learn and low conflict, but I've burned out on it.
I really like summoner wars. I like how it's midway between a minis game and chess, and has the dueling wizard aesthetic. I like that it's reasonably fast to play, and pretty easy to teach. I'd like to build my collection outward, since I often need a game for more than two players. Any advice? I usually skew too heavyweight for my group of friends. I probably also need a game or two with less direct conflict.
Dominion? I know it's got a bad rep around some parts, but it's easy to teach, fast to play, involves not very much direct conflict, and I really enjoy it. It's very much a game about figuring out the best strategy given the board, then executing that best strategy as well as you can given your draws and the moves your opponent makes.
It's a good recommendation. I picked that up a few years ago and liked it. It's a good choice because it's simple to learn and low conflict, but I've burned out on it.
Ah, fair enough. I would say that all of the expansions I've played have refreshed my experiences; I have played a lot of Dominion, but with four sets' worth of cards, I'm not yet burned out. So maybe an expansion would give it new life for you.
Generalísimo de Fuerzas Armadas de la República Argentina
It is fun to play, easy to teach, and scales players from 2-6 plus more if you get the expansion.
Though it would probably be less fun if you could only ever play two, but teaching it to new people at a coffee shop might be an easy way to make new friends
I'd buy King of Tokyo in a heartbeat if a friend of mine didn't already have it. Playing with more or less the same group, there's no point in having two copies.
It is fun to play, easy to teach, and scales players from 2-6 plus more if you get the expansion.
Though it would probably be less fun if you could only ever play two, but teaching it to new people at a coffee shop might be an easy way to make new friends
I'd add Escape: The Curse of the Temple as a recommendation. Real easy to learn, plays real quick since each game only lasts about 10 minutes, oh so much fun, and it's a great coop game. Plus the expansion adds more challenge to the already challenging game. Seriously my friends and have only won this game like 3 or 4 times out of the two dozen or so games we've played and none of us have cared cause it's that much fun.
I really like summoner wars. I like how it's midway between a minis game and chess, and has the dueling wizard aesthetic. I like that it's reasonably fast to play, and pretty easy to teach. I'd like to build my collection outward, since I often need a game for more than two players. Any advice? I usually skew too heavyweight for my group of friends. I probably also need a game or two with less direct conflict.
You know, I've heard Lords of Waterdeep described similarly before. You played it?
I'd add Escape: The Curse of the Temple as a recommendation. Real easy to learn, plays real quick since each game only lasts about 10 minutes, oh so much fun, and it's a great coop game. Plus the expansion adds more challenge to the already challenging game. Seriously my friends and have only won this game like 3 or 4 times out of the two dozen or so games we've played and none of us have cared cause it's that much fun.
Oh yeah, Escape is great! Neither my wife and I tend to like co-op games, and she never got into the timed co-op of Space Alert (which I thought was cool), but it's a huge hit with both of us. And to my further surprise, 2-player works great! It's even better with more, but my wife played this 3 times in a row with me, which she very rarely does.
EDIT: Oh, have you played the "Quest" second expansion? We own it, but my wife and I are still working our way through the first expansion. Impressions?
jergarmar on
When I was a child, I had a fever... My BoardGameGeek profile
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We don't talk about bridge enough in this thread! Bridge is a great game.
Also, anyone who opens 1st seat without enough points deserves what that guy got.
I've always wanted to try Whist or Spades. Do you need to bet for these type of games to be worthwhile? Or is the partner gameplay good enough without the added betting element?
Is Through the Ages really as good at BGG would make me seem? That game seems to get so much love, but it just looks so long and tedious. I would love to pick up a Civilization style game at some point, and it seems like there are plenty of options now, but this one is still the highest rated. I don't mind that theres not a map or anything, but the game looks so bland and theme-less. I watched Rahdo's runthrough of it, but he only played like two turns and I feel like the game probably gets more interesting as it goes on. Also, I heard its quite fiddly. I loath the fiddliness of Power Grid, so would that be an issue?
Hells yes it would be an issue. TTA is an excellent game, but I would much, much rather play via BGO than with a physical copy.
Most Civ-style games are fiddly as hell, but TTA takes it to another level. I usually prefer Endeavor in that genre, mostly due to its quick playing time. Although I guess that's not really a Civ, now that I think about it; more like an Age of Empires, maybe?
I never really thought of Endeavor as a Civ game either, although it does have some elements of it. The level of abstraction is much higher than TTA, even with the map. It is a great game though, which I always believed deserves more recognition than it got.
For TTA, even though it is fiddly as hell (scores of tiny tiny wooden discs) I actually like playing it IRL. I guess we make an occassion of it every time we play, since it usually takes about 4-6 hours a game. The last time, we actually played for 3 hours, realized we had made a crucial mistake (culling cards for the 2-player game rather than the 4-player game, which made it go much quicker but the sense of progression was off since most things left the board so quickly. It had been some time since we last played, and we misinterpreted the symbol on the card track) and proceeded to re-start the game. That's how much we enjoyed it, and the second game was pretty glorious. It ended with some decisive attacks by Napoleon, and Tesla getting key technologies in time to win with a final Wonder push.
I can understand how some people think it looks pretty dry and tedious, but we never feel it. There's always that "one more turn" feeling, and even at the Third Age (after 6 hours) we feel like we would have liked 1-2 more turns.
I really like summoner wars. I like how it's midway between a minis game and chess, and has the dueling wizard aesthetic. I like that it's reasonably fast to play, and pretty easy to teach. I'd like to build my collection outward, since I often need a game for more than two players. Any advice? I usually skew too heavyweight for my group of friends. I probably also need a game or two with less direct conflict.
If you want a good, medium weight coop, Forbidden Desert is perfect. Played this a lot during the Thanksgiving break with my friends and family, and no one seemed to have any issues. One of the best things about this game is that it can be easily taught during play, instead of having to explain everything at once. This game is also pretty cheap (think I got mine for $16)!
I'd like to second King of Tokyo too. That game is really great, though despite what some people say, it doesn't play well with only two. Lords of Waterdeep is a good choice for a medium gateway euro, though like I stated before, I think Village is better (unless they really dig the DnD theme of LoW).
We don't talk about bridge enough in this thread! Bridge is a great game.
Also, anyone who opens 1st seat without enough points deserves what that guy got.
I've always wanted to try Whist or Spades. Do you need to bet for these type of games to be worthwhile? Or is the partner gameplay good enough without the added betting element?
Bridge is definitely fun to play without betting; whist is kind of the historical antecedent of bridge (never actually tried it), and bridge is a lot more complicated than spades/hearts/similar trick taking games. The funnest way to play bridge is called "duplicate", where you play the same hand that a bunch of other teams have played and you are scored based on how well you do compared to other teams. The internet has facilitated this a lot - you used to have to go to a tournament.
Bridge is fun to play because of the way you're trying to communicate hidden information to your partner in a complicated language, along with emergent complexity in gameplay. I think everyone in the nerdy boardgame thread would probably enjoy bridge- it's a lot deeper and a lot more fun than you'd expect, almost like Chess or Go, but with asymmetric team play.
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Well that's certainly an opinion. I would say they cut off any remaining reason for me to bother with the homepage. At least they keep the forums running...
Edit: That's a dour top of the page. Hmmm...
We often make jokes at the expense of older games, such as Risk and Monopoly, for being terrible examples of board games. Anyone have any guilty pleasures? Games they love but know they probably shouldn't? I used to be really in to Risk when I was a kid and could probably still be convinced to try the classic version. I'm also fascinated by Diplomacy, despite the fact that no one seems to ever enjoy actually playing it.
But I enjoy that game, no strings attached.
Unrelated, Battlelore 2e rulebook is up.
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Encounters are no longer a gun to your head. Arkham encounters would be 40% harmful, another 40% would end up automatically spawning a gate before forcing a -4 will check to keep the card from fucking your girlfriend, and maybe 10% would be helpful. It was way too big of a swing. You can argue it was supposed to be an atmosphere of dread, but I thought it was a bigger source of active punishment and frustration than it was worth.
In Eldritch, it's a much more reasonable spread of passing a skill test for something helpful or something detrimental, but not catastrophic. You actually look forward to encounters again. Plus, each location tells you what that spot's encounters do (spawn clues, defeat monsters, improve skills) and 90% of them actually do it unlike Arkham where only a small percentage of encounters would actually grant what the location told you. The game is much more about planning your routes (not getting stuck by monsters you can't beat on the way) than lucking out while dodging "fuck you" encounters. Detriments are more about being gradual and cumulative, allowing the end result to be more about planning.
And we still have yet to have a game that wasn't super close (after we removed the clairvoyance spell that is). Last game Cthulhu woke up right before we solved the final mystery. He just happened to spawn right next to us and everyone heroically threw themselves at him, kamikazing to take chunks of his health off because we only had one turn before he would have driven everyone insane. A wither spell, revolver, and crazed blessed axe wielding actress (AxetressTM) finally took him down.
One little quibble regarding the low number of ancient ones. I can sort of understand that, given how they have to make up unique cards for each ancient one, including 8 or so encounter cards for each one. After a bunch of plays though, we had never run into their encounter cards. In fact we never even when they're supposed to come up in the rules. So we did some research, and it turns out Cthulhu's only come into play for one of his mysteries (one of the four, with a 1 in 4 chance of never showing up in a game) and Yog's only come up after he wakes up (and since Yog seems to have the easiest mysteries, that might not happen often).
Seems odd that half the cards for each ancient one come up so infrequently. Especially since all those cards is the reason that there are so few ancient ones.
Am I the only one here who's played this so far? Seriously if you like Arkham Horror or loved it before giving up on it, there's no reason not to grab this thing immediately.
We have always played it as she can block any assassination. It very rarely happens (because people not you deserve to die) but is hilarious when it does.
It is still a shit card, if you get two of them you'd better get good at lying and at least bluff an ambassador.
I definitely think that SUSD should have "boundless enthusiasm" as a motto, but it's a little weird if you're right that this pressure is moving into board gaming in the first place. There might be practical reasons why reviewers do that. Hell, it's understandable too: I'd never force my friends to play something 10+ times "for the review". I just don't think that standard fits the hobby very well. I've been burned on SUSD's boundless enthusiasm already, and now I just watch the reviews for the enthusiasm, not the recommendation.
This isn't video gaming. We're still talking about games that were released last year or the year before, and everyone here knows and has played (or wants to play) the old guard board games. Hell, my current wishlist includes Cosmic Encounter. With no digital downloads and of course the practical difficulty of organising 3+ people around the table to play The New Hotness, I'm not sure there's as many bleeding edge internet obsessives in this hobby as in videogames. There's a good few weeks of cooling off and buyer's remorse in board gaming.
You're probably right about the state of the reviewing business, but it's a weird disconnect with the state of the hobby itself.
hAmmONd IsnT A mAin TAnk
I don't know if it would be considered a true "board game," but I'm still a huge fan of Connect Four.
I work with children with behavioral/physical/social/mental disabilities and a lot of board games are a little too complex for them. But Connect Four? Everyone knows how to immediately play it. It's quick, clear and challenging enough to illicit a humorous tension from two opponents.
hAmmONd IsnT A mAin TAnk
The Lyris one? Part of me wants one of the RDI ones but with more character slots so I could use it for BattleCON.
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Hm. I'll check with a mod, see if I can link to their actual website and not the kickstarter, even though the content is mirrored.
Found it, just doing a search for Go7 on KS brings it up.
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http://www.lvl99games.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/ArgentRulesLoRes.pdf
Its a rough version that is missing art but should give a better idea of what will be in the box.
I haven't gotten to play many new games lately. Played some Attack Wing with my fiancee (she loves it!) and played Monza with my nephew. Monza is pretty much Formula D combined with Candyland -- a wonderful game for very small children that is also fun for adults (unlike Candyland). If you have a 3 or 4 year old, I highly recommend it!
I've finally gotten around to playing Lords of Waterdeep on my ipad. I can see how this is a great gateway game, but I just don't see the longterm appeal. The Manhattan Project or Village (other medium weight cube-pushers) are just superior games, both mechanically and thematically, and I don't understand why someone would choose to play this this instead of them. I guess the artwork may appeal more to some people, but once that wears off its just a bland, mildly entertaining light euro game. Of course, my impressions may change if I ever get the chance to play with real live people instead of bastard AI opponents. All that negative stuff aside, this is my go-to light euro ipad game for now (at least until one of the other aforementioned games is ported to ios).
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I made a game, it has penguins in it. It's pay what you like on Gumroad.
Currently Ebaying Nothing at all but I might do in the future.
Well first you should PM those of us living in the UK so we get first dibs at the list.
Start with me and I'll let you know who else lives here.
Hells yes it would be an issue. TTA is an excellent game, but I would much, much rather play via BGO than with a physical copy.
Most Civ-style games are fiddly as hell, but TTA takes it to another level. I usually prefer Endeavor in that genre, mostly due to its quick playing time. Although I guess that's not really a Civ, now that I think about it; more like an Age of Empires, maybe?
1: I need to update my recommendation blurb for the OP. I still love Core Worlds, but we never get to play it. I would recommend damn near anybody Suburbia though. It's easy to learn, easy to play, and generally rewarding in the sense that it's fun to build your own little slice of the game's "world" and for it to have a personality. "I build a residential district!" "I have a swath of airport terminals!" "With all these commercial properties, I AM THE EMBODIMENT OF CAPITALISM!" The goals are hit or miss depending on how much you care about the points and winning, but I think they offer a nice optional direction (again tying to the notion of "just enjoy building something.") to people so you aren't just trying to play each turn optimally.
2: My kickstarter copy of Euphoria arrived last week. We played a bit of one game on Friday night and it seems pretty legit - definitely simple to play, but complex enough that you can't connect all the dots just by looking at the board. There are a lot of fun mechanisms at work in this one, mostly focused on how your dice work. Also, anyone who thinks Alien Frontiers is an enjoyable dice-based worker placement game (and for the record, I do not) should give some SERIOUS CONSIDERATIONS to checking this one out.
As well, the components in this game are of insane quality. The basic resources are beautiful wooden tokens, and the advanced resources are actual metal (gold bricks), cast plastic (clay), and coloured glass beads (stone). The cards are exactly the right material and feel. The cardboard stock is firm and has no roughness. Just incredible on that part of production.
3: Ehhhhhhh ... I may have been one of the 13 winners of this delightful charity auction. More specifically, the 2nd one. It's all about the Child's Play for me.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
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With Suburbia, I'm almost alone in my active dislike of that game. It's one of the ONLY games that I will refuse to play. I truly don't understand the appeal. No, that's not true -- the first 30 minutes of the game is full of appeal, but the fun gradually drains away until it's just miserable for me. But my wife loves it, other people love it, the thread loves it, Tom Vasel loves it, BGG loves it. There must be something wrong with me.
As a comparison, if I want to play a "one thing affects everybody/everything" game, I would choose Innovation. To be honest, I'm not very good at it, and I sometimes find it frustrating to keep track of. But the game flow is exactly opposite from Suburbia, in that it gets progressively more and more interesting and hilarious as the game goes on. The only way to keep an advantage is to demolish everyone and end the game quickly.
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Jealous. My copy probably won't arrive until right before Xmas.
Dominion? I know it's got a bad rep around some parts, but it's easy to teach, fast to play, involves not very much direct conflict, and I really enjoy it. It's very much a game about figuring out the best strategy given the board, then executing that best strategy as well as you can given your draws and the moves your opponent makes.
It is fun to play, easy to teach, and scales players from 2-6 plus more if you get the expansion.
Though it would probably be less fun if you could only ever play two, but teaching it to new people at a coffee shop might be an easy way to make new friends
Ah, fair enough. I would say that all of the expansions I've played have refreshed my experiences; I have played a lot of Dominion, but with four sets' worth of cards, I'm not yet burned out. So maybe an expansion would give it new life for you.
I'd buy King of Tokyo in a heartbeat if a friend of mine didn't already have it. Playing with more or less the same group, there's no point in having two copies.
I'd add Escape: The Curse of the Temple as a recommendation. Real easy to learn, plays real quick since each game only lasts about 10 minutes, oh so much fun, and it's a great coop game. Plus the expansion adds more challenge to the already challenging game. Seriously my friends and have only won this game like 3 or 4 times out of the two dozen or so games we've played and none of us have cared cause it's that much fun.
Diplomacy is, however, a friendship-destroying apparatus, and that is why nobody plays it.
It goes deeper than that. Diplomacy has been a family destroying game.
Although it's got nothing on the game of bridge where a woman shot her husband.
Also, anyone who opens 1st seat without enough points deserves what that guy got.
The jury agreed with you, she was declared not guilty.
You know, I've heard Lords of Waterdeep described similarly before. You played it?
Oh yeah, Escape is great! Neither my wife and I tend to like co-op games, and she never got into the timed co-op of Space Alert (which I thought was cool), but it's a huge hit with both of us. And to my further surprise, 2-player works great! It's even better with more, but my wife played this 3 times in a row with me, which she very rarely does.
EDIT: Oh, have you played the "Quest" second expansion? We own it, but my wife and I are still working our way through the first expansion. Impressions?
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I've always wanted to try Whist or Spades. Do you need to bet for these type of games to be worthwhile? Or is the partner gameplay good enough without the added betting element?
I never really thought of Endeavor as a Civ game either, although it does have some elements of it. The level of abstraction is much higher than TTA, even with the map. It is a great game though, which I always believed deserves more recognition than it got.
For TTA, even though it is fiddly as hell (scores of tiny tiny wooden discs) I actually like playing it IRL. I guess we make an occassion of it every time we play, since it usually takes about 4-6 hours a game. The last time, we actually played for 3 hours, realized we had made a crucial mistake (culling cards for the 2-player game rather than the 4-player game, which made it go much quicker but the sense of progression was off since most things left the board so quickly. It had been some time since we last played, and we misinterpreted the symbol on the card track) and proceeded to re-start the game. That's how much we enjoyed it, and the second game was pretty glorious. It ended with some decisive attacks by Napoleon, and Tesla getting key technologies in time to win with a final Wonder push.
I can understand how some people think it looks pretty dry and tedious, but we never feel it. There's always that "one more turn" feeling, and even at the Third Age (after 6 hours) we feel like we would have liked 1-2 more turns.
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If you want a good, medium weight coop, Forbidden Desert is perfect. Played this a lot during the Thanksgiving break with my friends and family, and no one seemed to have any issues. One of the best things about this game is that it can be easily taught during play, instead of having to explain everything at once. This game is also pretty cheap (think I got mine for $16)!
I'd like to second King of Tokyo too. That game is really great, though despite what some people say, it doesn't play well with only two. Lords of Waterdeep is a good choice for a medium gateway euro, though like I stated before, I think Village is better (unless they really dig the DnD theme of LoW).
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Bridge is definitely fun to play without betting; whist is kind of the historical antecedent of bridge (never actually tried it), and bridge is a lot more complicated than spades/hearts/similar trick taking games. The funnest way to play bridge is called "duplicate", where you play the same hand that a bunch of other teams have played and you are scored based on how well you do compared to other teams. The internet has facilitated this a lot - you used to have to go to a tournament.
Bridge is fun to play because of the way you're trying to communicate hidden information to your partner in a complicated language, along with emergent complexity in gameplay. I think everyone in the nerdy boardgame thread would probably enjoy bridge- it's a lot deeper and a lot more fun than you'd expect, almost like Chess or Go, but with asymmetric team play.