Custom SpecialI know I am, I'm sure I am,I'm Sounders 'til I die!Registered Userregular
edited December 2021
Had a game night on Friday, only ended up playing Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition. Slow going to get started since we were all learning it together (outside of some prior TM familiarity), but once we got going it was really fun. Some cool cards and lots of different strategies you can try, I think we all focused on different areas generally but still finished within 5-10 points of each other which seems good!
Powerpuppiesdrinking coffee in themountain cabinRegistered Userregular
Been playing dune:imperium
We like it a lot but i think we're ready to start houseruling it. It's actively irritating to have a row of shitty cards for purchase and pass on the entire deckbuilding section of a turn when you can afford things. The game is still fun, but you really notice how much that one moment sucks
We like it a lot but i think we're ready to start houseruling it. It's actively irritating to have a row of shitty cards for purchase and pass on the entire deckbuilding section of a turn when you can afford things. The game is still fun, but you really notice how much that one moment sucks
The solo app as well as a popular house rule variant on BGG introduce churn to the cards.
I sold a lot of my games this weekend at an event. Nobody bought Oath.. Actually...a lot of people were trying to sell their copies of Oath. Someone convinced me to give it another chance.
I made $200, then got someone to buy someone else'sSiderial Confluence.. You're welcome, whoever you are.
I sold a lot of my games this weekend at an event. Nobody bought Oath.. Actually...a lot of people were trying to sell their copies of Oath. Someone convinced me to give it another chance.
I made $200, then got someone to buy someone else'sSiderial Confluence.. You're welcome, whoever you are.
Oath has been on my radar for the solo potential. It seems very polarizing.
Switch Friend Code: SW-6732-9515-9697
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Powerpuppiesdrinking coffee in themountain cabinRegistered Userregular
edited December 2021
I liked Oath okay but it's pretty long for what it is
edit:DrArch which churn rule were you thinking? My top two most desired experiments are "whenever you buy a card, you may trash that card" and "whenever you buy two cards, you may trash a card"
I used the money to get not just get Chinatown to add to my increasingly prized negotiation pile, but also The King is Dead to replace Inis. I have never not have a group struggle with the draft. Selling Inis broke my heart but damn is it unplayable for me.)
I almost got Beyond the Sun but I'm deliberately avoiding multiplayer solitaire Euros in my old age.
Who played fun things at PAXU? I did not attend, but my publisher reports that all four of my titles were sold out by the end of the show, so I'm pretty happy.
I liked Oath okay but it's pretty long for what it is
edit:DrArch which churn rule were you thinking? My top two most desired experiments are "whenever you buy a card, you may trash that card" and "whenever you buy two cards, you may trash a card"
The Solo app has two cards in the solo deck that cause you to trash and replace a few cards from the Imperium row.
Another rule is to roll a die on a player's reveal turn if they don't take a card. 1-5 on the die removes that card from the row.
- We played our first game of Oath (owner had played it a few times before). We quite enjoyed it as we all came very close to winning. Still need to figure out how things actually work, I've absolutely no feeling for combat (it seems like if somebody hunkers down as a defender and builds up a huge army, there is no way to chip away at their defenses at all?)
- We played a game of Roborally (I'm the owner) as some of them had never played it before. First turn was a clown car of everybody taking the exact same route and getting on an express transport belt, pushing each other into a bottomless pit. Only had four figures, but we improvised another so our fifth player could join. Funnily enough, the one player who isn't an IT person (he's a musician) was winning for most of the game. (I caught up to him just before the final checkpoint).
- Two rounds of Burgle Bros 2. We succeeded the first time (one player arrived late, so this was the game we played first and last.) I sat out the final game, which we lost. We liked the first one a lot and this one seems to be just as good.
- And finally two rounds of Spaceteam while we were waiting for dinner. Really hectic game. Not a game we're going to play often but a bit of fun.
Steam/Origin: davydizzy
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admanbunionize your workplaceSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
- We played our first game of Oath (owner had played it a few times before). We quite enjoyed it as we all came very close to winning. Still need to figure out how things actually work, I've absolutely no feeling for combat (it seems like if somebody hunkers down as a defender and builds up a huge army, there is no way to chip away at their defenses at all?)
Mmm... kind of? You only kill troops by winning combats, but it's pretty hard to defend so heavily that winning isn't possible. Was there a circumstance that made it seem unfeasible?
It's generally pretty easy to arrange a combat so that you can win it, but the question is whether you'll get enough out of it to justify the investment of actions and sacrificed troops.
- We played our first game of Oath (owner had played it a few times before). We quite enjoyed it as we all came very close to winning. Still need to figure out how things actually work, I've absolutely no feeling for combat (it seems like if somebody hunkers down as a defender and builds up a huge army, there is no way to chip away at their defenses at all?)
Mmm... kind of? You only kill troops by winning combats, but it's pretty hard to defend so heavily that winning isn't possible. Was there a circumstance that made it seem unfeasible?
It's generally pretty easy to arrange a combat so that you can win it, but the question is whether you'll get enough out of it to justify the investment of actions and sacrificed troops.
Was near the end of the game and I had not been focusing on combat, but secrets (for my vision) while the person who was about to win just had a lucky influx of money/troops to bunker down. It just mostly felt counterintuitive that 4 armies were focusing on 1 opponent (to prevent him from winning), but none of them were large enough to beat him in 1 go, so they all ended up not even fighting.
- We played our first game of Oath (owner had played it a few times before). We quite enjoyed it as we all came very close to winning. Still need to figure out how things actually work, I've absolutely no feeling for combat (it seems like if somebody hunkers down as a defender and builds up a huge army, there is no way to chip away at their defenses at all?)
Mmm... kind of? You only kill troops by winning combats, but it's pretty hard to defend so heavily that winning isn't possible. Was there a circumstance that made it seem unfeasible?
It's generally pretty easy to arrange a combat so that you can win it, but the question is whether you'll get enough out of it to justify the investment of actions and sacrificed troops.
Was near the end of the game and I had not been focusing on combat, but secrets (for my vision) while the person who was about to win just had a lucky influx of money/troops to bunker down. It just mostly felt counterintuitive that 4 armies were focusing on 1 opponent (to prevent him from winning), but none of them were large enough to beat him in 1 go, so they all ended up not even fighting.
Here's how Oath works in my experience: Defense is very strong because it suffers no attrition. The only way to lose warbands on defense (aside from certain relics) is by losing battles, so a huge defensive force that doesn't lose battles is very hard to dislodge. Usually the problem is when the defender has a good combat relic or strong battle card.
However, the supply penalty for having a large force is incredibly debilitating. This makes it much easier for your opponents to find other ways to disrupt your victory by outbidding on banners or using the Conspiracy vision, picking up other relics, or stealing territory. It's easiest for a rebel to disrupt a citizen or Chancellor, since your easiest path to disrupt the win is threaten your own vision win, and have them unable to respond with low supply.
This is much trickier when the person who's bunkered up is a rebel with a vision, because visions have the highest priority. You only have one turn around the table to disrupt them. This is also why it's harder for rebels to have big forces than it is for citizens or the Chancellor, I think, in terms of design. So when a rebel is bunkered up and has an uncrackable force, you need to coordinate — trade favor or secrets using cards that allow trades, give up territory to let people stack up battle cards for a successful attack, Chancellor and citizens giving one person a huge army that's bigger than the maximum rebel army size, conquering territory that the defender has with good battle cards, etc.
Once you coordinate to kingbreak the rebel, they're stuck with that low supply, and their board position is much weaker. If they're so bunkered that you can't crack them or you're all too weak or fractious to coordinate, then the rebel has done a good job outplaying you, I suppose! And of course, if you do successfully kingbreak, whoever benefited most from those trades and agreements is probably well positioned to take a shot at the win...
Evil Multifarious on
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CaptainPeacockBoard Game HoarderTop o' the LakeRegistered Userregular
Well this blows. So my table arrived and it is indeed slightly damaged. The boxes were palletized and the driver and I could see the large box at the base had a damaged corner on it. So we took everything off the pallet and inspected the corner. The block of styrofoam was pulverized but the wood on the sides looked ok and undamaged. So I signed for it.
It was only after I took out the cupholders that I saw inside one of the side railings something didn't look right. There was a slated wood piece in there that the other corners didn't have. Then I saw that the whole side block where the leg screws into had been smashed in. This damage was hidden behind the pulverized styrofoam block and under the cupholder that came pre-installed.
This of course has fucked me because I was supposed to notate any damage on the delivery slip when I signed for it. It appeared to be fine, so I just signed for it. Delivery happened at the worst possible moment, because it had started raining and my garage had just been packed to the gills full of shit that morning by other people while I was busy working. I really didn't have room to disassemble it completely to look at everything for damages.
Cluck cluck, gibber gibber, my old man's a mushroom, etc.
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Powerpuppiesdrinking coffee in themountain cabinRegistered Userregular
We tried out The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine last night. It's a light, quick game but surprisingly head-scratchy. It's a co-operative trick-taking game where you have a number of randomly-dealt objectives with some control over who has to take which trick, sometimes, and very limited communication abilities between players about what's in their hand. We managed to get through I think 7 rounds before we finally lost one - which we lost on the first trick of the round. There's not a ton of depth or anything there as it's really just "Deal out the deck of cards, here's the targets for this round (e.g. 'someone has to get the blue 5, then someone else has to get the red 2, then someone needs to green 4, and at any time someone has to take the blue 2', where 'someone' is a different player for each) - go" but there's a lot of trying to guess what cards are in people's hands and trying to figure out how to make the right person win the current trick so that they can start the next trick in order to put down the card that another person needs to win type stuff. Would recommend.
Re: the busted up table: I don't guess there's, like, a customer support number, given it's a kickstarter thing? I know you said they warned you to inspect it before signing but damage hidden below a pre-installed cup-holder seems like someone should cut you a break.
So far I'm enjoying The Crew's sequel (Mission Deep Sea) more than the original. I love the variety they have introduced with the configurable missions, and I never know what to expect in the next one. Some combos are very head-scratchy but extremely rewarding to pull off.
Downsides: There are some rough edges when dealing with that much randomization. In particular it is possible (though not likely) that you can get mutually inconsistent goals and need to redeal, the difficulty curve is not as smooth, and the mission narrative is weaker. But I will take all these as fair exchanges for the upsides.
So far I'm enjoying The Crew's sequel (Mission Deep Sea) more than the original. I love the variety they have introduced with the configurable missions, and I never know what to expect in the next one. Some combos are very head-scratchy but extremely rewarding to pull off.
Downsides: There are some rough edges when dealing with that much randomization. In particular it is possible (though not likely) that you can get mutually inconsistent goals and need to redeal, the difficulty curve is not as smooth, and the mission narrative is weaker. But I will take all these as fair exchanges for the upsides.
Yeah my group has been having the same experience. We cleared all 50 missions of the original without a ton of problems but the last few in Deep Sea (we're in the mid-20s of IIRC 32) have really taken some effort.
I've enjoyed the Crew myself and debated picking up the sequel, but not sure if I want to have both.
On the note of trick taking games, I've played all sorts (I really like them) that have some fun themes and mechanics. However one of the best, and most popular with everyone I've introduced it to is a simple one called Wizard. I've not had anyone dislike it yet, and that includes some people that don't like other trick taking games. It's really great to introduce to people that are not familiar with our "normal" board/card games and maybe their experience is more just with things like euchre and hearts and such.
It's 2-6 players, competitive, no teams/partners. It uses a normal 52 card deck plus 8 cards (4 wizards and 4 jesters). A wizard (the first one played in a particular trick) always wins, no matter what other cards are played, and a jester always loses. Otherwise it plays just like others, with a trump suit and following suit with prior cards played and all that. The scoring comes in from bidding at the start of each round/hand. The first round everyone is dealt 1 card, second round 2, and so on until in the final round every card is dealt and no trump suit that round. You get your hand, look at your cards and everyone goes around deciding how many tricks they think they will get. You get 20 points for hitting your bid, and an extra 10 for every trick. However you only get the +10 per trick if you hit your bid. You miss and you lose 10 points for every trick you are over/under your bid.
Anyways, kind of basic for the kind of trick taking games we can find a lot of times, but it's always a ton of fun!
It is a development of a family of trick taking cards games that go by a thousand different names.
I know it as Oh Hell. That key ingredient of the dealer not being able to bid to take the total tricks bid to the tricks available is just such a delight. It is such a simple way to add incredible tension to the trick taking process
It is a development of a family of trick taking cards games that go by a thousand different names.
I know it as Oh Hell. That key ingredient of the dealer not being able to bid to take the total tricks bid to the tricks available is just such a delight. It is such a simple way to add incredible tension to the trick taking process
We've so far been playing by the "default" rules which are that each person, starting to the dealers left, says their bid. I think I may switch that to everyone makes a bid in secret to reveal at the same time. It might make it interesting for people to not really know what others are bidding when they make their bid.
My in-laws favourite card game is Elimination which sounds like a very similar thing. They start with a 7 card round and reduce each round rather than increasing though. Gives a good feeling of acceleration across the game.
I've enjoyed the Crew myself and debated picking up the sequel, but not sure if I want to have both.
On the note of trick taking games, I've played all sorts (I really like them) that have some fun themes and mechanics. However one of the best, and most popular with everyone I've introduced it to is a simple one called Wizard. I've not had anyone dislike it yet, and that includes some people that don't like other trick taking games. It's really great to introduce to people that are not familiar with our "normal" board/card games and maybe their experience is more just with things like euchre and hearts and such.
It's 2-6 players, competitive, no teams/partners. It uses a normal 52 card deck plus 8 cards (4 wizards and 4 jesters). A wizard (the first one played in a particular trick) always wins, no matter what other cards are played, and a jester always loses. Otherwise it plays just like others, with a trump suit and following suit with prior cards played and all that. The scoring comes in from bidding at the start of each round/hand. The first round everyone is dealt 1 card, second round 2, and so on until in the final round every card is dealt and no trump suit that round. You get your hand, look at your cards and everyone goes around deciding how many tricks they think they will get. You get 20 points for hitting your bid, and an extra 10 for every trick. However you only get the +10 per trick if you hit your bid. You miss and you lose 10 points for every trick you are over/under your bid.
Anyways, kind of basic for the kind of trick taking games we can find a lot of times, but it's always a ton of fun!
I always do the math for the family when we place this game so I changed the scoring to just be 2 and +1, because it's the same thing, but easier to write out.
I've enjoyed the Crew myself and debated picking up the sequel, but not sure if I want to have both.
On the note of trick taking games, I've played all sorts (I really like them) that have some fun themes and mechanics. However one of the best, and most popular with everyone I've introduced it to is a simple one called Wizard. I've not had anyone dislike it yet, and that includes some people that don't like other trick taking games. It's really great to introduce to people that are not familiar with our "normal" board/card games and maybe their experience is more just with things like euchre and hearts and such.
It's 2-6 players, competitive, no teams/partners. It uses a normal 52 card deck plus 8 cards (4 wizards and 4 jesters). A wizard (the first one played in a particular trick) always wins, no matter what other cards are played, and a jester always loses. Otherwise it plays just like others, with a trump suit and following suit with prior cards played and all that. The scoring comes in from bidding at the start of each round/hand. The first round everyone is dealt 1 card, second round 2, and so on until in the final round every card is dealt and no trump suit that round. You get your hand, look at your cards and everyone goes around deciding how many tricks they think they will get. You get 20 points for hitting your bid, and an extra 10 for every trick. However you only get the +10 per trick if you hit your bid. You miss and you lose 10 points for every trick you are over/under your bid.
Anyways, kind of basic for the kind of trick taking games we can find a lot of times, but it's always a ton of fun!
Ah yeah, we play a similar game over in here in the netherlands we call it "Farmersbridge" but we just use the regular 52 card deck no wizards or jesters. you just bid on the amount of tricks, and you get 5 points if correct + 1 for each trick you bid for, or you get negative points for the number of tricks you were off. and we go from 1 card up to max (13 with 4 players, 10 with 5) and then we descend back down to one card. and also we knock on wood and get our bids in at the same time.
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Powerpuppiesdrinking coffee in themountain cabinRegistered Userregular
There are a lot of scoring variants and they change the play experience a lot. I really like the game if the scoring works for me
It is a development of a family of trick taking cards games that go by a thousand different names.
I know it as Oh Hell. That key ingredient of the dealer not being able to bid to take the total tricks bid to the tricks available is just such a delight. It is such a simple way to add incredible tension to the trick taking process
We've so far been playing by the "default" rules which are that each person, starting to the dealers left, says their bid. I think I may switch that to everyone makes a bid in secret to reveal at the same time. It might make it interesting for people to not really know what others are bidding when they make their bid.
They sell wizard bidding disc things to play this way, if you wanna get fancy with it. Wizard is a great game.
Full Rules for my families version of Oh Hell (which, as it is the version of the game I play, is clearly the best and most superior version)
Standard 52 card deck, the game is played over 10 rounds
First round is 10 cards dealt to each player, future rounds are each 1 card less.
After the cards are dealt Trump suit is is determined by turning over the top card.
Starting with the player to the left of the dealer players bid how many tricks they think they will take, zero is an allowable bid. The dealer bids last and cannot make a bid that would take the total tricks bid equal to the total number of tricks available (the total amount of tricks bid will always be either higher or lower than what is available)
Player to the left of the dealer leads the first play of the round, play proceeds clockwise, suit must be followed if possible. Highest value of the led suit wins the trick or highest trump. Winner of the trick leads next play.
At the end of the round players score 10 points +1 per trick taken if they got exactly their bid. Otherwise they get zero points.
Dealer responsibility then switches one place clockwise (i.e. the player who led the first card of the round becomes the dealer for the next round.
The tension and despair this seemingly simple set of rules generate. The swearing. It is truly one of life's great joys.
- You still get one point per trick even if you miss your bid.
- Trumps are in a set order across rounds. Starting with seven card rounds of Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades and No Trumps. Then repeat with six card rounds, five card rounds… etc down to the last round being one card, no trumps.
Also it’s called Nomination, not Elimination like I first said.
It is a development of a family of trick taking cards games that go by a thousand different names.
I know it as Oh Hell. That key ingredient of the dealer not being able to bid to take the total tricks bid to the tricks available is just such a delight. It is such a simple way to add incredible tension to the trick taking process
We've so far been playing by the "default" rules which are that each person, starting to the dealers left, says their bid. I think I may switch that to everyone makes a bid in secret to reveal at the same time. It might make it interesting for people to not really know what others are bidding when they make their bid.
They sell wizard bidding disc things to play this way, if you wanna get fancy with it. Wizard is a great game.
I have definitely debated about grabbing these. Even if I don't play with that variant, the amount of time's I get asked "what did I bid again" during a game is enough that it gets annoying, haha.
The scoring is:
- if you get fewer tricks than you bid, you get zero
- otherwise, you get 10 times your bid
- if you took more tricks than you bid, you get one "bag" for each over (track these as single points)
- when you reach ten "bags", that's minus 100 points
Also, you go from one card upwards. This helps people learn the game while the scoring is low and it's relatively easy to work out how many tricks you will take, and leaves the exciting, high value rounds for the thrilling conclusion
Fry on
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CaptainPeacockBoard Game HoarderTop o' the LakeRegistered Userregular
So, didn't hear back from the table company yet on the shipping damage. I activated the warranty and provided pictures as the pre-coded instructions said to. Even emailed them separately just in case that helped. That was all yesterday afternoon. Kinda wondering how long I give them before I void the warranty trying to fix the damage myself
Cluck cluck, gibber gibber, my old man's a mushroom, etc.
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
Are lots of people getting deliveries? Might just be busy.
CaptainPeacockBoard Game HoarderTop o' the LakeRegistered Userregular
I think I'm out of luck. On their website, they claim that by law they cannot assist with any damage claims that were not specifically noted on the bill of lading.
Cluck cluck, gibber gibber, my old man's a mushroom, etc.
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We like it a lot but i think we're ready to start houseruling it. It's actively irritating to have a row of shitty cards for purchase and pass on the entire deckbuilding section of a turn when you can afford things. The game is still fun, but you really notice how much that one moment sucks
The solo app as well as a popular house rule variant on BGG introduce churn to the cards.
I made $200, then got someone to buy someone else's Siderial Confluence.. You're welcome, whoever you are.
Oath has been on my radar for the solo potential. It seems very polarizing.
edit:DrArch which churn rule were you thinking? My top two most desired experiments are "whenever you buy a card, you may trash that card" and "whenever you buy two cards, you may trash a card"
I almost got Beyond the Sun but I'm deliberately avoiding multiplayer solitaire Euros in my old age.
The Solo app has two cards in the solo deck that cause you to trash and replace a few cards from the Imperium row.
Another rule is to roll a die on a player's reveal turn if they don't take a card. 1-5 on the die removes that card from the row.
- We played our first game of Oath (owner had played it a few times before). We quite enjoyed it as we all came very close to winning. Still need to figure out how things actually work, I've absolutely no feeling for combat (it seems like if somebody hunkers down as a defender and builds up a huge army, there is no way to chip away at their defenses at all?)
- We played a game of Roborally (I'm the owner) as some of them had never played it before. First turn was a clown car of everybody taking the exact same route and getting on an express transport belt, pushing each other into a bottomless pit. Only had four figures, but we improvised another so our fifth player could join. Funnily enough, the one player who isn't an IT person (he's a musician) was winning for most of the game. (I caught up to him just before the final checkpoint).
- Two rounds of Burgle Bros 2. We succeeded the first time (one player arrived late, so this was the game we played first and last.) I sat out the final game, which we lost. We liked the first one a lot and this one seems to be just as good.
- And finally two rounds of Spaceteam while we were waiting for dinner. Really hectic game. Not a game we're going to play often but a bit of fun.
Mmm... kind of? You only kill troops by winning combats, but it's pretty hard to defend so heavily that winning isn't possible. Was there a circumstance that made it seem unfeasible?
It's generally pretty easy to arrange a combat so that you can win it, but the question is whether you'll get enough out of it to justify the investment of actions and sacrificed troops.
I really hope it hasn't incurred any shipping damage 😕
Mine did arrive with a crack in the base in September. I'm still waiting on a replacement, but I'm in no hurry.
They did call me to give advice on inspecting not just the outer boxes but also to open and inspect the goods before signing for delivery
1 Minute - The Wyrmwood guys ruin Ginny Di's table.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Anyone know if they ever cleaned up the issues with digital Game of Thrones or Blood Rage?
Was near the end of the game and I had not been focusing on combat, but secrets (for my vision) while the person who was about to win just had a lucky influx of money/troops to bunker down. It just mostly felt counterintuitive that 4 armies were focusing on 1 opponent (to prevent him from winning), but none of them were large enough to beat him in 1 go, so they all ended up not even fighting.
Here's how Oath works in my experience: Defense is very strong because it suffers no attrition. The only way to lose warbands on defense (aside from certain relics) is by losing battles, so a huge defensive force that doesn't lose battles is very hard to dislodge. Usually the problem is when the defender has a good combat relic or strong battle card.
However, the supply penalty for having a large force is incredibly debilitating. This makes it much easier for your opponents to find other ways to disrupt your victory by outbidding on banners or using the Conspiracy vision, picking up other relics, or stealing territory. It's easiest for a rebel to disrupt a citizen or Chancellor, since your easiest path to disrupt the win is threaten your own vision win, and have them unable to respond with low supply.
This is much trickier when the person who's bunkered up is a rebel with a vision, because visions have the highest priority. You only have one turn around the table to disrupt them. This is also why it's harder for rebels to have big forces than it is for citizens or the Chancellor, I think, in terms of design. So when a rebel is bunkered up and has an uncrackable force, you need to coordinate — trade favor or secrets using cards that allow trades, give up territory to let people stack up battle cards for a successful attack, Chancellor and citizens giving one person a huge army that's bigger than the maximum rebel army size, conquering territory that the defender has with good battle cards, etc.
Once you coordinate to kingbreak the rebel, they're stuck with that low supply, and their board position is much weaker. If they're so bunkered that you can't crack them or you're all too weak or fractious to coordinate, then the rebel has done a good job outplaying you, I suppose! And of course, if you do successfully kingbreak, whoever benefited most from those trades and agreements is probably well positioned to take a shot at the win...
It was only after I took out the cupholders that I saw inside one of the side railings something didn't look right. There was a slated wood piece in there that the other corners didn't have. Then I saw that the whole side block where the leg screws into had been smashed in. This damage was hidden behind the pulverized styrofoam block and under the cupholder that came pre-installed.
This of course has fucked me because I was supposed to notate any damage on the delivery slip when I signed for it. It appeared to be fine, so I just signed for it. Delivery happened at the worst possible moment, because it had started raining and my garage had just been packed to the gills full of shit that morning by other people while I was busy working. I really didn't have room to disassemble it completely to look at everything for damages.
Re: the busted up table: I don't guess there's, like, a customer support number, given it's a kickstarter thing? I know you said they warned you to inspect it before signing but damage hidden below a pre-installed cup-holder seems like someone should cut you a break.
Downsides: There are some rough edges when dealing with that much randomization. In particular it is possible (though not likely) that you can get mutually inconsistent goals and need to redeal, the difficulty curve is not as smooth, and the mission narrative is weaker. But I will take all these as fair exchanges for the upsides.
Yeah my group has been having the same experience. We cleared all 50 missions of the original without a ton of problems but the last few in Deep Sea (we're in the mid-20s of IIRC 32) have really taken some effort.
On the note of trick taking games, I've played all sorts (I really like them) that have some fun themes and mechanics. However one of the best, and most popular with everyone I've introduced it to is a simple one called Wizard. I've not had anyone dislike it yet, and that includes some people that don't like other trick taking games. It's really great to introduce to people that are not familiar with our "normal" board/card games and maybe their experience is more just with things like euchre and hearts and such.
It's 2-6 players, competitive, no teams/partners. It uses a normal 52 card deck plus 8 cards (4 wizards and 4 jesters). A wizard (the first one played in a particular trick) always wins, no matter what other cards are played, and a jester always loses. Otherwise it plays just like others, with a trump suit and following suit with prior cards played and all that. The scoring comes in from bidding at the start of each round/hand. The first round everyone is dealt 1 card, second round 2, and so on until in the final round every card is dealt and no trump suit that round. You get your hand, look at your cards and everyone goes around deciding how many tricks they think they will get. You get 20 points for hitting your bid, and an extra 10 for every trick. However you only get the +10 per trick if you hit your bid. You miss and you lose 10 points for every trick you are over/under your bid.
Anyways, kind of basic for the kind of trick taking games we can find a lot of times, but it's always a ton of fun!
Steam ID
It is a development of a family of trick taking cards games that go by a thousand different names.
I know it as Oh Hell. That key ingredient of the dealer not being able to bid to take the total tricks bid to the tricks available is just such a delight. It is such a simple way to add incredible tension to the trick taking process
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.
We've so far been playing by the "default" rules which are that each person, starting to the dealers left, says their bid. I think I may switch that to everyone makes a bid in secret to reveal at the same time. It might make it interesting for people to not really know what others are bidding when they make their bid.
Steam ID
I always do the math for the family when we place this game so I changed the scoring to just be 2 and +1, because it's the same thing, but easier to write out.
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Ah yeah, we play a similar game over in here in the netherlands we call it "Farmersbridge" but we just use the regular 52 card deck no wizards or jesters. you just bid on the amount of tricks, and you get 5 points if correct + 1 for each trick you bid for, or you get negative points for the number of tricks you were off. and we go from 1 card up to max (13 with 4 players, 10 with 5) and then we descend back down to one card. and also we knock on wood and get our bids in at the same time.
They sell wizard bidding disc things to play this way, if you wanna get fancy with it. Wizard is a great game.
The tension and despair this seemingly simple set of rules generate. The swearing. It is truly one of life's great joys.
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.
- You still get one point per trick even if you miss your bid.
- Trumps are in a set order across rounds. Starting with seven card rounds of Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades and No Trumps. Then repeat with six card rounds, five card rounds… etc down to the last round being one card, no trumps.
Also it’s called Nomination, not Elimination like I first said.
I have definitely debated about grabbing these. Even if I don't play with that variant, the amount of time's I get asked "what did I bid again" during a game is enough that it gets annoying, haha.
Steam ID
- if you get fewer tricks than you bid, you get zero
- otherwise, you get 10 times your bid
- if you took more tricks than you bid, you get one "bag" for each over (track these as single points)
- when you reach ten "bags", that's minus 100 points
Also, you go from one card upwards. This helps people learn the game while the scoring is low and it's relatively easy to work out how many tricks you will take, and leaves the exciting, high value rounds for the thrilling conclusion