Does Glorantha have any kind of variation to the setup? That was my biggest complaint with Cthulhu Wars. Every game started and played out exactly the same, only differing on combat die rolls. It was like Axis & Allies where everyone followed the same exact optimal game plan (Hastur could be run by a script for the first two-thirds of the game), only worse because combat was so rare compared to A&A.
I love Raiders of the North Sea. In general that designer does a great job of making worker placement games more interactive and more fun, and making denial a more visible, explicit goal (I find it's usually implicit in Euro games, since it's such a staple of the genre)
The artists they use are fantastic as well
If Raiders has denial, I'm having trouble seeing it. Its the most free-flowing worker placement game I've ever experienced, due to the whole give/take double move. Do you mean the actual raids being the denial portion, since they can't be repeated?
The raids is what I was talking about, yes, but the worker spaces too — you can deny them the spaces they want if they have the wrong worker colour, or at least deny them the correct order of place/take, forcing them to sacrifice something or be inefficient. It's great. You rarely feel TOTALLY blocked out, but you can definitely be made inefficient
Does Glorantha have any kind of variation to the setup? That was my biggest complaint with Cthulhu Wars. Every game started and played out exactly the same, only differing on combat die rolls. It was like Axis & Allies where everyone followed the same exact optimal game plan (Hastur could be run by a script for the first two-thirds of the game), only worse because combat was so rare compared to A&A.
The setup is very minimal (usually one building somewhere) and players can just throw buildings anywhere on the board, regardless of unit presence. Since buildings are so cheap but also gain you VP, you will end up with very different boards pretty easily, I think. It's fairly fluid.
There are also probably strategies based on building in Hell or Heaven due to the restricted access points, which is fun
I can't think of any reason where attacking Cthulhu turn 1 would be a good play and could possibly work out. There must have been something your group was playing wrong.
Not only is the prisoner's dilemma wonky (if I hear one more person saying Jol-Nar are balanced in Twilight Imperium because "everyone just gang up on them in the beginning!"), but even if you went with it, Cthulhu makes the least sense to gang up on and knock out.
He has the lowest win rate of the base factions.
He has the weakest late game.
He has the strongest combat ability early game.
He's vital to the ecosystem because he's usually the only player who can attack and blunt H
or Nyarlathotep before those 2 late game powerhouses get rolling.
Crippling Cthulthu early is like knowing you're going to have a deer infestation, and choosing to hunt the local wolves first. If I knew everyone else at the table would be on board with taking one player out of the game first turn, I would always choose Crawling Chaos hands down.
All the expansion factions are abominations and should never be played
Hm. Thank you! And yeah the result of our games was often Nyarl or more often H
I can't think of any reason where attacking Cthulhu turn 1 would be a good play and could possibly work out. There must have been something your group was playing wrong.
Not only is the prisoner's dilemma wonky (if I hear one more person saying Jol-Nar are balanced in Twilight Imperium because "everyone just gang up on them in the beginning!"), but even if you went with it, Cthulhu makes the least sense to gang up on and knock out.
He has the lowest win rate of the base factions.
He has the weakest late game.
He has the strongest combat ability early game.
He's vital to the ecosystem because he's usually the only player who can attack and blunt Hastur or Nyarlathotep before those 2 late game powerhouses get rolling.
Crippling Cthulthu early is like knowing you're going to have a deer infestation, and choosing to hunt the local wolves first. If I knew everyone else at the table would be on board with taking one player out of the game first turn, I would always choose Crawling Chaos hands down.
All the expansion factions are abominations and should never be played
Have you been using the Cthulhu errata? It makes a huge difference. Dreams costing 2 and emerging from submerge costing 0 are very significant buffs.
The last time I used Cthulhu, I was winning so dramatically that everyone decided to throw the game before I got my 6th spellbook, ensuring that we all lost and disgusting humanity was able to survive. A moral victory, at least.
I can't think of any reason where attacking Cthulhu turn 1 would be a good play and could possibly work out. There must have been something your group was playing wrong.
Not only is the prisoner's dilemma wonky (if I hear one more person saying Jol-Nar are balanced in Twilight Imperium because "everyone just gang up on them in the beginning!"), but even if you went with it, Cthulhu makes the least sense to gang up on and knock out.
He has the lowest win rate of the base factions.
He has the weakest late game.
He has the strongest combat ability early game.
He's vital to the ecosystem because he's usually the only player who can attack and blunt Hastur or Nyarlathotep before those 2 late game powerhouses get rolling.
Crippling Cthulthu early is like knowing you're going to have a deer infestation, and choosing to hunt the local wolves first. If I knew everyone else at the table would be on board with taking one player out of the game first turn, I would always choose Crawling Chaos hands down.
All the expansion factions are abominations and should never be played
Have you been using the Cthulhu errata? It makes a huge difference. Dreams costing 2 and emerging from submerge costing 0 are very significant buffs.
The last time I used Cthulhu, I was winning so dramatically that everyone decided to throw the game before I got my 6th spellbook, ensuring that we all lost and disgusting humanity was able to survive. A moral victory, at least.
Played half of the new Exit: Theft on the Mississippi game. No spoilers that you don't see immediately upon opening it.
Took us 90 minutes to get halfway through it before taking a break for another night. Usually we get through their normal 3 circle games in 90-120 minutes. So, longer?
It's got the same setup as Murder on the Orient Express where in addition to the puzzles, you're solving a whodunnit that you have to answer at the end.
So far it's looking to be their best since Orient Express. No ridiculous puzzles so far like Pharaoh or Catacombs. Will report back if anything changes in the next half.
(what's up with the helper app taking forever to become available? The English version has been out in stores for nearly 2 months and neither this nor Stormy Flight helper apps are available yet, only the German ones. Can't even blame COVID for that since there's no logistics to screw up plus this has been a trend for over a year now)
Does Glorantha have any kind of variation to the setup? That was my biggest complaint with Cthulhu Wars. Every game started and played out exactly the same, only differing on combat die rolls. It was like Axis & Allies where everyone followed the same exact optimal game plan (Hastur could be run by a script for the first two-thirds of the game), only worse because combat was so rare compared to A&A.
The setup is very minimal (usually one building somewhere) and players can just throw buildings anywhere on the board, regardless of unit presence. Since buildings are so cheap but also gain you VP, you will end up with very different boards pretty easily, I think. It's fairly fluid.
There are also probably strategies based on building in Hell or Heaven due to the restricted access points, which is fun
Ah, just read the manual. So there's "runes" which are a random deck of bonus stuff you get, so that randomizes games a bit.
But shoot. I was planning on running a forum game and also playing, which worked with Cthulhu Wars but not with this level of hidden information
Played half of the new Exit: Theft on the Mississippi game. No spoilers that you don't see immediately upon opening it.
Took us 90 minutes to get halfway through it before taking a break for another night. Usually we get through their normal 3 circle games in 90-120 minutes. So, longer?
It's got the same setup as Murder on the Orient Express where in addition to the puzzles, you're solving a whodunnit that you have to answer at the end.
So far it's looking to be their best since Orient Express. No ridiculous puzzles so far like Pharaoh or Catacombs. Will report back if anything changes in the next half.
(what's up with the helper app taking forever to become available? The English version has been out in stores for nearly 2 months and neither this nor Stormy Flight helper apps are available yet, only the German ones. Can't even blame COVID for that since there's no logistics to screw up plus this has been a trend for over a year now)
90 minutes to get through an EXIT game?! Are these longer than their usual ones? I'm running low on escape room style games and it's not looking like PAXU will allow me to refresh my selection this year. I'd love a longer version.
We played through Escape the Room: Dr Gravely on vacation with the family, and finished it in about 45-50 minutes. They had some wonderful physical puzzles! I am a bit disappoint with how linear it was though. There were 6 of us around the table and generally 5 of us were sitting while one person solved the current puzzle. I enjoy how the Unlock games kinda flood you with cards to look at so everyone gets pieces of knowledge and can look at a new card and go "ah ha!" because they remember a card they looked at 10 minutes ago that fits. Escape the Room was more, "Here's a puzzle, now after you solve that here's another puzzle" and so on. Nothing was bridged from one area to the next.
We did a physical escape room too that was pretty disappointing. It was a small room 30 minute timer, and we solved it in under 16 minutes. Kinda felt overpriced at that point with how quickly we finished it. Probably would have been under 15 but we had trouble with a lock (old pirate era style handcuffs and you had to turn the key many, many times before it would unlock, and no direction indicator or indication that you were close to unlocking it, so we went back and forth for a while).
Does Glorantha have any kind of variation to the setup? That was my biggest complaint with Cthulhu Wars. Every game started and played out exactly the same, only differing on combat die rolls. It was like Axis & Allies where everyone followed the same exact optimal game plan (Hastur could be run by a script for the first two-thirds of the game), only worse because combat was so rare compared to A&A.
CW has lots of optional set up. Several factions have different places they can start, Cthulhu has 3 different version of Cthulhu to use plus there's all the different maps.
We did a physical escape room too that was pretty disappointing. It was a small room 30 minute timer, and we solved it in under 16 minutes. Kinda felt overpriced at that point with how quickly we finished it.
One of our local rooms has a format that I think is brilliant: You have 60 minutes in the room, and you are trying to find as many hidden coins as possible. Bundles of coins are hidden behind major puzzles, and other individual coins are simply hidden around the room. There's more than it's possible to do in 60 minutes, so you always get a full hour of gameplay, and can compare your score in terms of how many coins you found.
Played half of the new Exit: Theft on the Mississippi game. No spoilers that you don't see immediately upon opening it.
Took us 90 minutes to get halfway through it before taking a break for another night. Usually we get through their normal 3 circle games in 90-120 minutes. So, longer?
It's got the same setup as Murder on the Orient Express where in addition to the puzzles, you're solving a whodunnit that you have to answer at the end.
So far it's looking to be their best since Orient Express. No ridiculous puzzles so far like Pharaoh or Catacombs. Will report back if anything changes in the next half.
(what's up with the helper app taking forever to become available? The English version has been out in stores for nearly 2 months and neither this nor Stormy Flight helper apps are available yet, only the German ones. Can't even blame COVID for that since there's no logistics to screw up plus this has been a trend for over a year now)
90 minutes to get through an EXIT game?! Are these longer than their usual ones? I'm running low on escape room style games and it's not looking like PAXU will allow me to refresh my selection this year. I'd love a longer version.
We played through Escape the Room: Dr Gravely on vacation with the family, and finished it in about 45-50 minutes. They had some wonderful physical puzzles! I am a bit disappoint with how linear it was though. There were 6 of us around the table and generally 5 of us were sitting while one person solved the current puzzle. I enjoy how the Unlock games kinda flood you with cards to look at so everyone gets pieces of knowledge and can look at a new card and go "ah ha!" because they remember a card they looked at 10 minutes ago that fits. Escape the Room was more, "Here's a puzzle, now after you solve that here's another puzzle" and so on. Nothing was bridged from one area to the next.
We did a physical escape room too that was pretty disappointing. It was a small room 30 minute timer, and we solved it in under 16 minutes. Kinda felt overpriced at that point with how quickly we finished it. Probably would have been under 15 but we had trouble with a lock (old pirate era style handcuffs and you had to turn the key many, many times before it would unlock, and no direction indicator or indication that you were close to unlocking it, so we went back and forth for a while).
Ton of Escape Rooms of overpriced. The most ridiculous right now are the virtual escape rooms held over Zoom by a host. They want $35 per person. That's insane.
Played half of the new Exit: Theft on the Mississippi game. No spoilers that you don't see immediately upon opening it.
Took us 90 minutes to get halfway through it before taking a break for another night. Usually we get through their normal 3 circle games in 90-120 minutes. So, longer?
It's got the same setup as Murder on the Orient Express where in addition to the puzzles, you're solving a whodunnit that you have to answer at the end.
So far it's looking to be their best since Orient Express. No ridiculous puzzles so far like Pharaoh or Catacombs. Will report back if anything changes in the next half.
(what's up with the helper app taking forever to become available? The English version has been out in stores for nearly 2 months and neither this nor Stormy Flight helper apps are available yet, only the German ones. Can't even blame COVID for that since there's no logistics to screw up plus this has been a trend for over a year now)
90 minutes to get through an EXIT game?! Are these longer than their usual ones? I'm running low on escape room style games and it's not looking like PAXU will allow me to refresh my selection this year. I'd love a longer version.
We played through Escape the Room: Dr Gravely on vacation with the family, and finished it in about 45-50 minutes. They had some wonderful physical puzzles! I am a bit disappoint with how linear it was though. There were 6 of us around the table and generally 5 of us were sitting while one person solved the current puzzle. I enjoy how the Unlock games kinda flood you with cards to look at so everyone gets pieces of knowledge and can look at a new card and go "ah ha!" because they remember a card they looked at 10 minutes ago that fits. Escape the Room was more, "Here's a puzzle, now after you solve that here's another puzzle" and so on. Nothing was bridged from one area to the next.
We did a physical escape room too that was pretty disappointing. It was a small room 30 minute timer, and we solved it in under 16 minutes. Kinda felt overpriced at that point with how quickly we finished it. Probably would have been under 15 but we had trouble with a lock (old pirate era style handcuffs and you had to turn the key many, many times before it would unlock, and no direction indicator or indication that you were close to unlocking it, so we went back and forth for a while).
Most get completed by us in 60-120 minutes. The 2 difficulty Exits are 50-90. Their "double feature" Catacombs one was 3-4 hours (that was their worst one though).
So we completed Theft on the Mississippi tonight. Overall it was excellent, in their top 3 next to Abandoned Cabin and Orient Express.
There was one puzzle that bordered on dumb, in that it seemed like the physical components didn't quite mesh the way they were meant to.
Another significant problem was colors. None of us had any color blindness, but holy CRAP did we run into a bunch of trouble trying to tell the colors apart in this one. Brownish orange and orangish brown. Grey and white? Wait, is this grey or black? Blue or purple? One of them was so bad, I honestly think there was a misprint between the clue and the puzzle. We've never run into a color problem with the series before but wow. Huge disclaimer to anyone with the slightest bit of color blindness.
(actually, I think I remember a similar misprint in Catacombs)
One final note. They've been following a trend of ramping up the need to destroy the game. We used the get by on scanning and printing the cards/books out. They've been setting out to do away with that. Up until now it was still possible - if a major pain in the ass - to avoid destroying it. It is IMPOSSIBLE to get away with that in Theft on the Mississippi. The game is going to get destroyed.
Played half of the new Exit: Theft on the Mississippi game. No spoilers that you don't see immediately upon opening it.
Took us 90 minutes to get halfway through it before taking a break for another night. Usually we get through their normal 3 circle games in 90-120 minutes. So, longer?
It's got the same setup as Murder on the Orient Express where in addition to the puzzles, you're solving a whodunnit that you have to answer at the end.
So far it's looking to be their best since Orient Express. No ridiculous puzzles so far like Pharaoh or Catacombs. Will report back if anything changes in the next half.
(what's up with the helper app taking forever to become available? The English version has been out in stores for nearly 2 months and neither this nor Stormy Flight helper apps are available yet, only the German ones. Can't even blame COVID for that since there's no logistics to screw up plus this has been a trend for over a year now)
90 minutes to get through an EXIT game?! Are these longer than their usual ones? I'm running low on escape room style games and it's not looking like PAXU will allow me to refresh my selection this year. I'd love a longer version.
We played through Escape the Room: Dr Gravely on vacation with the family, and finished it in about 45-50 minutes. They had some wonderful physical puzzles! I am a bit disappoint with how linear it was though. There were 6 of us around the table and generally 5 of us were sitting while one person solved the current puzzle. I enjoy how the Unlock games kinda flood you with cards to look at so everyone gets pieces of knowledge and can look at a new card and go "ah ha!" because they remember a card they looked at 10 minutes ago that fits. Escape the Room was more, "Here's a puzzle, now after you solve that here's another puzzle" and so on. Nothing was bridged from one area to the next.
We did a physical escape room too that was pretty disappointing. It was a small room 30 minute timer, and we solved it in under 16 minutes. Kinda felt overpriced at that point with how quickly we finished it. Probably would have been under 15 but we had trouble with a lock (old pirate era style handcuffs and you had to turn the key many, many times before it would unlock, and no direction indicator or indication that you were close to unlocking it, so we went back and forth for a while).
Most get completed by us in 60-120 minutes. The 2 difficulty Exits are 50-90. Their "double feature" Catacombs one was 3-4 hours (that was their worst one though).
So we completed Theft on the Mississippi tonight. Overall it was excellent, in their top 3 next to Abandoned Cabin and Orient Express.
There was one puzzle that bordered on dumb, in that it seemed like the physical components didn't quite mesh the way they were meant to.
Another significant problem was colors. None of us had any color blindness, but holy CRAP did we run into a bunch of trouble trying to tell the colors apart in this one. Brownish orange and orangish brown. Grey and white? Wait, is this grey or black? Blue or purple? One of them was so bad, I honestly think there was a misprint between the clue and the puzzle. We've never run into a color problem with the series before but wow. Huge disclaimer to anyone with the slightest bit of color blindness.
(actually, I think I remember a similar misprint in Catacombs)
One final note. They've been following a trend of ramping up the need to destroy the game. We used the get by on scanning and printing the cards/books out. They've been setting out to do away with that. Up until now it was still possible - if a major pain in the ass - to avoid destroying it. It is IMPOSSIBLE to get away with that in Theft on the Mississippi. The game is going to get destroyed.
Man, what a shitty, wasteful practice. I can kind of see the appeal of permanently altering a legacy game, because it raises the stakes and there's a lot of game there. But a one-shot? Fuck that.
edit: Important clarification: The publishers are being shitty and wasteful, not the players!
Pandemic Legacy Season 0 spoilers (revealed in some new recent playtests/public trailers... picture from the new trailer in spoiler tags):
Apparently, you get a sheet of stickers with a bunch of hats, clothes, hair styles, facial hair, and bald heads, so you can completemy customize the look of your character on their ID card/passport thing. It's like clothing magnets or paper dolls.
Picked up an Unlock! three-pack in B&N last month. Played Insert Coin with my wife and then watched a small group of friends (literally two people and the two kids of one of them) also run though it on July 4th weekend. That one was a blast, but we're all gamers so that was expected. It was interesting watching them get stuck on most of the same snags we did. Both teams 4-starred.
Tonight the wife and I took down Sherlock Holmes and the Scarlet Thread of Murder. Outside of one very devious set of hidden numbers it went well although man does that time slip away fast while you're pouring over a bunch of cards. Ate a couple of penalties but still had about 5 minutes to go. Another 4-star run.
Other than Insert Coin, the main reason I bought this pack was because the Level 3 game is Alice in Wonderland themed and that's my wife's all-time favorite book. Will probably be another week or so before we can get to it but super looking forward to it. And in the meantime maybe I can watch someone else try to unravel the scarlet thread...
Ran the Alice scenario last night and chalked up another 4-star win (some codes were tricky and apparently my wife isn't great at spot-the-differences*). Still had 20+ minutes on the clock. Not sure why they give 90 for this one other than maybe the... let's say "dexterity element" in the final chapter — although now that I do the math** if it were only 60 we would've timed out so I'll take it.
*In the last chapter we "split up" to handle two tasks.
**Another useful skill for this one.
Ran a Monopoly night in celebration of one year of the games group. Monopoly: is ok. The game took far too long, nothing happened and we ran out of time. But, not the worst. I think it mostly comes down to the roll and move. Properties can be missed, its hard to get a set and even at the end there were still properties that no one had ever landed on.
Wow! My kids have played a LOT of Monopoly (I am ashamed) and even with 2-3 players they generally hit all the properties in 3-4 loops.
Wheeling and dealing to get sets is frustrating though.
Were you playing according to the rules or using optional and house rules for free parking and stuff?
Edit: It's also kinda like Risk where it can be fun to play to start with lots of people and multiple ways the game can progress, to a slog and take forever when down to 2-3 players.
All to the rules, so every property sold when someone landed on it. We'd had a few cycles but we also had a fair few triple doubles and landing on "go to jail" so the end of the board didn't get as much attention.
For some reason, my dad really wanted to play Monopoly the last time the family was gathered. He is not any sort of gamer at all, and will usually go sit in the other room when people are playing games.
So I bought the Park Place and Boardwalk equivalents, and crushed everyone beneath my capitalist heel.
Edit: now that I think about it, IIRC it was dog-themed, with the streets replaced by various breeds of dogs. So that should read "capitalist paw"
Fry on
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
I'm still hoping for a chance to play Monopoly Deal. I've heard really good things!
Since there's been some talk of escape room games recently, I thought I'd mention that I've been working on one and would welcome playtesters who like puzzles. Normally I use my local design group for testing, but for obvious reasons I can't use the same testers twice for this game! I would want groups of 2 or 3 players, and you need Tabletop Simulator. PM me if interested and we'll set up a time.
I'm still hoping for a chance to play Monopoly Deal. I've heard really good things!
... No really!
We played that too. Definitely fun. The game starts out small but the turns get more swing as the game goes on. So it is short and you're constantly looking for/watching against a potential knockout blow.
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CaptainPeacockBoard Game HoarderTop o' the LakeRegistered Userregular
I've played a LOT of Monopoly Deal.
It lost the shine really quickly. You're completely at the mercy of the deal. A lot of ways to never have a chance. Don't get dealt property? Don't get dealt money to protect the property you do get? Get dealt a bunch of Go cards so all you can do is keep drawing? Its pretty easy to get picked on in the game, as after the first two rounds it becomes obvious who is an easy target and who isn't.
It doesn't take much playing to pick up on optimal strategies, so once everyone is in the same level then the games very much start to resemble each other.
Don't get me wrong - there are some decisions to make here and there. I'd argue you have about as much total influence over the course of your game as Yahtzee. Some choices, but there's pretty much one obvious optimal move for any circumstance, and then see where luck takes you from there.
Cluck cluck, gibber gibber, my old man's a mushroom, etc.
All to the rules, so every property sold when someone landed on it. We'd had a few cycles but we also had a fair few triple doubles and landing on "go to jail" so the end of the board didn't get as much attention.
This is how the game should be played and is much better for it. It also eliminates the most common complaint of "it takes forever", which is weird to complain about when you choose the homebrewed rules that make it that way.
I would never suggest playing Monopoly, although I don't mind going along with it at family gatherings where it's among the limited options available. It's probably the most playable and best aged of the "classic" board games.
But I still don't get why it's so maligned as the worst of all time. I can name dozens worse. I would sit down to a monopoly marathon before I ever touched Catan, Cosmic, Munchkin, or Betrayal at House on the Hill again.
I'd play Catan over Monopoly, as the former actually contains decisions.
Cosmic Encounter or Munchkin versus Monopoly is a tougher call
I’ve never played cosmic encounter, what makes it so bad.
Between Munchkin and Monopoly I at least have childhood nostalgia for monopoly.
Cosmic Encounter turn basically involves the following:
Draw a card from the deck. This card tells you either who you are going to attack, or rarely allows you to choose someone.
You then choose which of their planets you will attack.
You choose how many ships to send.
You ask if others would like to ally with you.
They ask if others would like to ally with them.
You choose an attack power card.
They choose an attack power card.
Add up the attacks and see who is stronger.
Ships get sent to the void.
Outside of alien powers and diplomacy based on who is currently winning/losing, there's not a whole lot of "game" there. Especially since you can't choose who to attack each turn. It's all decided by the deck. Your ally last turn may be your target this turn. That guy may be winning, but his card hasn't come up and his alien power will allow him to ally himself with you if you try to win this battle and then he wins. Do you allow this or purposefully throw the fight?
So it can be interesting, but over time it can be kinda boring.
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Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
I'd play Catan over Monopoly, as the former actually contains decisions.
Cosmic Encounter or Munchkin versus Monopoly is a tougher call
I’ve never played cosmic encounter, what makes it so bad.
Between Munchkin and Monopoly I at least have childhood nostalgia for monopoly.
It's very similar to Munchkin in that it's a game of waiting for a perfect card draw and game position that lets you win. Mercifully it also has team victories where players can ally and win together, which is how most if not all games end
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
I think it's disingenuous to talk about how Cosmic Encounter works without considering the alien powers. They are the whole game; everything else is just there so that the alien powers have some knobs to twiddle.
I also consider the destiny deck (randomly choosing the target of an encounter) to be a huge factor in CE's favor, because it very effectively shuts down a lot of the bad feelings that would otherwise accompany the direct conflict. It opens the game up to a very different audience than it would otherwise court.
Cosmic Encounter is like Dominion to me in that there is a lot of joy in seeing the unique situation presented at the game setup, and figuring out the ramifications. If the game is reasonably short after that (and that's a big if) then I love the experience. A long game of CE is indeed a slog, though.
Most games of Munchkin end after people can't dogpile on the leader anymore. Most games of Cosmic Encounter end when people decide to play Kingmaker and let one of their friends win or try to go for an allied victory (if you allow that). I'd still take either game before I sit down to play any game of Monopoly. YES, even if you play by the actual rules... it doesn't matter. Roll-to-move suh-huh-HUCKS as a mechanic.
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ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
Cosmic Encounter will forever be a divisive game, and you just have to accept it. You can play it all you want, and you can find me at another table. As long as we're both having fun, that's good enough.
Most games of Munchkin end after people can't dogpile on the leader anymore. Most games of Cosmic Encounter end when people decide to play Kingmaker and let one of their friends win or try to go for an allied victory (if you allow that). I'd still take either game before I sit down to play any game of Monopoly. YES, even if you play by the actual rules... it doesn't matter. Roll-to-move suh-huh-HUCKS as a mechanic.
I'll take any roll to move game over munchkin any-day. Fuck munckin.
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The raids is what I was talking about, yes, but the worker spaces too — you can deny them the spaces they want if they have the wrong worker colour, or at least deny them the correct order of place/take, forcing them to sacrifice something or be inefficient. It's great. You rarely feel TOTALLY blocked out, but you can definitely be made inefficient
The setup is very minimal (usually one building somewhere) and players can just throw buildings anywhere on the board, regardless of unit presence. Since buildings are so cheap but also gain you VP, you will end up with very different boards pretty easily, I think. It's fairly fluid.
There are also probably strategies based on building in Hell or Heaven due to the restricted access points, which is fun
Hm. Thank you! And yeah the result of our games was often Nyarl or more often H
Have you been using the Cthulhu errata? It makes a huge difference. Dreams costing 2 and emerging from submerge costing 0 are very significant buffs.
The last time I used Cthulhu, I was winning so dramatically that everyone decided to throw the game before I got my 6th spellbook, ensuring that we all lost and disgusting humanity was able to survive. A moral victory, at least.
Would that all your win-shots ended so
Took us 90 minutes to get halfway through it before taking a break for another night. Usually we get through their normal 3 circle games in 90-120 minutes. So, longer?
It's got the same setup as Murder on the Orient Express where in addition to the puzzles, you're solving a whodunnit that you have to answer at the end.
So far it's looking to be their best since Orient Express. No ridiculous puzzles so far like Pharaoh or Catacombs. Will report back if anything changes in the next half.
(what's up with the helper app taking forever to become available? The English version has been out in stores for nearly 2 months and neither this nor Stormy Flight helper apps are available yet, only the German ones. Can't even blame COVID for that since there's no logistics to screw up plus this has been a trend for over a year now)
Ah, just read the manual. So there's "runes" which are a random deck of bonus stuff you get, so that randomizes games a bit.
But shoot. I was planning on running a forum game and also playing, which worked with Cthulhu Wars but not with this level of hidden information
90 minutes to get through an EXIT game?! Are these longer than their usual ones? I'm running low on escape room style games and it's not looking like PAXU will allow me to refresh my selection this year. I'd love a longer version.
We played through Escape the Room: Dr Gravely on vacation with the family, and finished it in about 45-50 minutes. They had some wonderful physical puzzles! I am a bit disappoint with how linear it was though. There were 6 of us around the table and generally 5 of us were sitting while one person solved the current puzzle. I enjoy how the Unlock games kinda flood you with cards to look at so everyone gets pieces of knowledge and can look at a new card and go "ah ha!" because they remember a card they looked at 10 minutes ago that fits. Escape the Room was more, "Here's a puzzle, now after you solve that here's another puzzle" and so on. Nothing was bridged from one area to the next.
We did a physical escape room too that was pretty disappointing. It was a small room 30 minute timer, and we solved it in under 16 minutes. Kinda felt overpriced at that point with how quickly we finished it. Probably would have been under 15 but we had trouble with a lock (old pirate era style handcuffs and you had to turn the key many, many times before it would unlock, and no direction indicator or indication that you were close to unlocking it, so we went back and forth for a while).
CW has lots of optional set up. Several factions have different places they can start, Cthulhu has 3 different version of Cthulhu to use plus there's all the different maps.
Ton of Escape Rooms of overpriced. The most ridiculous right now are the virtual escape rooms held over Zoom by a host. They want $35 per person. That's insane.
Most get completed by us in 60-120 minutes. The 2 difficulty Exits are 50-90. Their "double feature" Catacombs one was 3-4 hours (that was their worst one though).
So we completed Theft on the Mississippi tonight. Overall it was excellent, in their top 3 next to Abandoned Cabin and Orient Express.
There was one puzzle that bordered on dumb, in that it seemed like the physical components didn't quite mesh the way they were meant to.
Another significant problem was colors. None of us had any color blindness, but holy CRAP did we run into a bunch of trouble trying to tell the colors apart in this one. Brownish orange and orangish brown. Grey and white? Wait, is this grey or black? Blue or purple? One of them was so bad, I honestly think there was a misprint between the clue and the puzzle. We've never run into a color problem with the series before but wow. Huge disclaimer to anyone with the slightest bit of color blindness.
(actually, I think I remember a similar misprint in Catacombs)
One final note. They've been following a trend of ramping up the need to destroy the game. We used the get by on scanning and printing the cards/books out. They've been setting out to do away with that. Up until now it was still possible - if a major pain in the ass - to avoid destroying it. It is IMPOSSIBLE to get away with that in Theft on the Mississippi. The game is going to get destroyed.
Man, what a shitty, wasteful practice. I can kind of see the appeal of permanently altering a legacy game, because it raises the stakes and there's a lot of game there. But a one-shot? Fuck that.
edit: Important clarification: The publishers are being shitty and wasteful, not the players!
Ran the Alice scenario last night and chalked up another 4-star win (some codes were tricky and apparently my wife isn't great at spot-the-differences*). Still had 20+ minutes on the clock. Not sure why they give 90 for this one other than maybe the... let's say "dexterity element" in the final chapter — although now that I do the math** if it were only 60 we would've timed out so I'll take it.
*In the last chapter we "split up" to handle two tasks.
**Another useful skill for this one.
Wheeling and dealing to get sets is frustrating though.
Were you playing according to the rules or using optional and house rules for free parking and stuff?
Edit: It's also kinda like Risk where it can be fun to play to start with lots of people and multiple ways the game can progress, to a slog and take forever when down to 2-3 players.
So I bought the Park Place and Boardwalk equivalents, and crushed everyone beneath my capitalist heel.
Edit: now that I think about it, IIRC it was dog-themed, with the streets replaced by various breeds of dogs. So that should read "capitalist paw"
... No really!
It lost the shine really quickly. You're completely at the mercy of the deal. A lot of ways to never have a chance. Don't get dealt property? Don't get dealt money to protect the property you do get? Get dealt a bunch of Go cards so all you can do is keep drawing? Its pretty easy to get picked on in the game, as after the first two rounds it becomes obvious who is an easy target and who isn't.
It doesn't take much playing to pick up on optimal strategies, so once everyone is in the same level then the games very much start to resemble each other.
Don't get me wrong - there are some decisions to make here and there. I'd argue you have about as much total influence over the course of your game as Yahtzee. Some choices, but there's pretty much one obvious optimal move for any circumstance, and then see where luck takes you from there.
This is how the game should be played and is much better for it. It also eliminates the most common complaint of "it takes forever", which is weird to complain about when you choose the homebrewed rules that make it that way.
I would never suggest playing Monopoly, although I don't mind going along with it at family gatherings where it's among the limited options available. It's probably the most playable and best aged of the "classic" board games.
But I still don't get why it's so maligned as the worst of all time. I can name dozens worse. I would sit down to a monopoly marathon before I ever touched Catan, Cosmic, Munchkin, or Betrayal at House on the Hill again.
Cosmic Encounter or Munchkin versus Monopoly is a tougher call
Somehow this got in board games instead of painting & miniatures. =_=
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
I’ve never played cosmic encounter, what makes it so bad.
Between Munchkin and Monopoly I at least have childhood nostalgia for monopoly.
Cosmic Encounter turn basically involves the following:
Draw a card from the deck. This card tells you either who you are going to attack, or rarely allows you to choose someone.
You then choose which of their planets you will attack.
You choose how many ships to send.
You ask if others would like to ally with you.
They ask if others would like to ally with them.
You choose an attack power card.
They choose an attack power card.
Add up the attacks and see who is stronger.
Ships get sent to the void.
Outside of alien powers and diplomacy based on who is currently winning/losing, there's not a whole lot of "game" there. Especially since you can't choose who to attack each turn. It's all decided by the deck. Your ally last turn may be your target this turn. That guy may be winning, but his card hasn't come up and his alien power will allow him to ally himself with you if you try to win this battle and then he wins. Do you allow this or purposefully throw the fight?
So it can be interesting, but over time it can be kinda boring.
It's very similar to Munchkin in that it's a game of waiting for a perfect card draw and game position that lets you win. Mercifully it also has team victories where players can ally and win together, which is how most if not all games end
I also consider the destiny deck (randomly choosing the target of an encounter) to be a huge factor in CE's favor, because it very effectively shuts down a lot of the bad feelings that would otherwise accompany the direct conflict. It opens the game up to a very different audience than it would otherwise court.
Cosmic Encounter is like Dominion to me in that there is a lot of joy in seeing the unique situation presented at the game setup, and figuring out the ramifications. If the game is reasonably short after that (and that's a big if) then I love the experience. A long game of CE is indeed a slog, though.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
I'll take any roll to move game over munchkin any-day. Fuck munckin.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981