From what I can gather, Dominion and Puzzlestrike are pretty different even if they are both deckbuilding games. They talk about it quite a bit in that thread i linked. One of the major points that it resolves with is that "People that go into puzzle strike thinking its just dominiondifferent are going to be really dissapointed." but once again, I've never played puzzlestrike or a physical game of dominion.
For a little discussion:
How do you feel about Newblar's sentiment that he'd rather play a game thats good for novices rather than one that is very rewarding for high level play? Do your feelings on this subject translate over to video games/other hobbies? IE. Mario Kart where last place gets a lot of help vs Street Fighter, or something like long backpacking trips vs weekend tentcamping?
And rorus, what does it mean that they "will be" there? They were at a comiccon I went to and it was so dissapointed. It was basically "Hey, we make boardgames. But since were selling them, starcraft is 85 dollars. No convention discount."
It depends on how hard is it to teach them to play the game in the first place if you ask me. You can have a game with very simple rules (Go, Bridge) to reward high level of play; but if the game is complex to begin with, and the more experienced player isn't handicapped in some way (through luck or mechanics) then I'd probably wouldn't bother.
With regards to Puzzle Strike, I can't say I noticed the purple strategy before despite playing it regularly. Either my friends doesn't notice it either, or they think it'd be boring to play.. hm.
I bought Puzzle Strike some time back, and yeah, it really is kinda poorly balanced. Puzzle Strike is basically Dominion with:
1) A lifebar (Gem Pile) instead of a VP count
2) Damage dealers (Crash Gems) instead of VP cards
3) Different starting decks (characters)
#1 & #2 go together, and I actually like it on several levels. It makes Puzzle Strike easier to learn for new players than Dominion, since even if both players build a crappy deck it will just implode and then you can try again immediately. (Unlike Dominion where the learning game can be quite impenetrable and unforgiving, and thus drag on forever since nobody knows how to buy provinces). It feels more interactive to pass gems and count your gem pile on the go, rather than counting VP at the end (even if they're ultimately the same thing). I actually also like the idea of #3 - sometimes you want to play an asymmetric game.
Somewhere between #2 and #3 though, this problem comes up. Your starting deck has 3 character-only actions, most of them terminal (ie, no additional actions). Sometimes all of them are terminal! Crash Gems (and double Crash Gems) are also terminal, and you need crashes to win. So basically I am overflowing with terminal actions, I am not going to buy even more terminals unless there's a +2 Action on the table. Except that "+2 Actions" costs 5 all by iteslf. It has to! Since you know, your deck is overflowing with actions. And even if I could afford the deck space in for another terminal, I usually would be perfectly happy just getting another Crash Gem. For a deckbuilding game, I don't seem to have an incentive to actually buy the random chips in the bank. Unlike Dominion, I already know what I want to spend my actions on. There are some characters that are exceptions to this (most obviously Setsuki), but on a lot of matchups, on a lot of bank spreads, you just go through the motions and hope you get luckier than your opponent.
Now, I think Yomi is a veritable masterpiece, but that doesn't mean that Sirlin is going to get a pass on everything he does. Puzzle Strike is boardgame shovelware.
So, I have a copy of Mansions of Madness sitting here in front of me if anyone has any questions about anything specific!
How long is a typical play through? My group of gamers don't really like anything that goes over 2 hours.
How complicated are the rules? I'm the one who usually likes to get games like this, but I'm horrible at teaching people how to play.
Won't get a chance to play it until tomorrow, but from what I gather, play time should be right around 2 hours, depending on group size.
As for the rules, they're actually fairly simple if you're an Investigator--little more complicated if you're the Keeper.
As an Investigator, you get 3 actions per turn--2 Moves, and an Action (which can also be used as a move). You move around the mansion and explore rooms to try and find clues (to which you have pretty obvious hints of where they are). For combat, you draw a combat card until you get one that is the type of attack you're attempting (Melee or Ranged, for example).
Investigators don't know what their goal actually is during the majority of the game, or how they can lose--all they know is where their next clue is.
Once they gather all 3 clues, the Keeper reveals the objective card, which gives both his objective, and what the Investigator's have to do to stop him (or even that it is time for them to run away to win.)
There are some cool things like being able to push book cases in front of doors, or to hide, but it's all pretty easy.
Just like in AH, the players have their stats on cards in front of them, along with items which they use to fight monsters and other kinds of stuff.
There really isn't a lot to being an Investigator mechanically speaking. But after I teach my fiance to play tomorrow, I can tell you how easily she picked it up and all.
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Played War of the Ring for the first time today. That game is similar to Arkham Horror in that you have to dedicate a lot of time to understanding it but it pays off when you play a good game.
AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
edited March 2011
I just picked up Mansions of Madness too. HOLY STICKER SHOCK, BATMAN!
No, seriously, this is only a little cheaper than FFG's "Big Box" games. Granted, there is a metric fuckton of minis and panels inside it, but still.
Also, I cannot, CANNOT stress this enough: Make sure the investigators build the mansion correctly! This, and the keeper keeping his choices face-up, were the two biggest mistakes made in the game.
Played War of the Ring for the first time today. That game is similar to Arkham Horror in that you have to dedicate a lot of time to understanding it but it pays off when you play a good game.
Also Horus Heresy is very similar to it.
I love War of the Ring mainly because it lets me play a wargame with my fiance who typically has no interest in wargames, simply because she is a LotR fangirl. :P
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Played War of the Ring for the first time today. That game is similar to Arkham Horror in that you have to dedicate a lot of time to understanding it but it pays off when you play a good game.
Also Horus Heresy is very similar to it.
I love War of the Ring mainly because it lets me play a wargame with my fiance who typically has no interest in wargames, simply because she is a LotR fangirl. :P
One of the game's (numerous) strong points is how cool it sounds when you describe a game afterwards. "While all of the Nazgul were occupied in the siege of Rivendell, Frodo and Sam were able to sneak into Mordor unchallenged, only to be captured and eaten by Shelob at the top of Mount Doom."
It only took about an hour to play, and the single Investigator got horribly murdered, largely due to rolling like ten 10s (which are auto-fails).
Still had a good time though, and it was definitely thematic.
After running from a maniac, in and out of a dark room trying to get the lights to come on, Jenny Barnes ended up breaking her leg and hobbling out in search of the second clue, only to have the entire mansion come crashing down on her because she couldn't concentrate too well on the lights with an axe-wielding mad man chasing after her.
My fiance placed it above Arkham Horror, but still below War of the Ring for her. But then again, she had some pretty terrible luck, and she does like AH, so its not a bad rating.
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Just had an amazing game of Race for the Galaxy vs. Keldon's AI. First two expansions, goals active. Started with Alpha Centauri, got Pan-Galactic Research early. Followed up with the Terraforming Guild, Prospecting Guild and Mining League, along with the Mining Conglomerate and Mining Robots. I only ended up settling three planets, Dying Colony, Runaway Robots and Alien Toy Store. And got Galactic Federation in my final hand. And ended up with 4 goals.
ICv2 has learned that WizKids is preparing to launch a HeroClix Online game that will debut in the late spring or early summer. The PC-based game was created by the North Carolina-based Icarus Studios LLC, developers of the Fallen Earth MMO.
WizKids’ Lax Chandra told ICv2 that Magic Online was the model for what WizKids is trying to do with HeroClix Online: “We definitely don’t want to cannibalize sales with the online game. This is meant to be completely non-cannibalistic, as much as we can. Our goal is to bring back players. We want to recapture players who got married or whatever, stopped going to the stores, and stopped playing the game. We want to give them a way to play at home, play against someone online. We’re going to have rewards (in the online game) that drive players into the stores.”
The HeroClix Online Game will present a computerized version of the HeroClix tabletop game with screens and gameplay that duplicate as closely as possible what occurs in an actual HeroClix game.
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admanbunionize your workplaceSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
edited March 2011
I would make some joke about WizKids duplicating their business model of shotgun products that led to their last great success, but I'm pretty sure I made that joke in the last thread.
Mageknight DS was pretty good actually. So this one might be as well. Of course, if they follow the MtGO model of virtual booster packs with rarities, this is going to get ugly.
My fiance placed it above Arkham Horror, but still below War of the Ring for her. But then again, she had some pretty terrible luck, and she does like AH, so its not a bad rating.
Marry her...oh, you've got that covered. Carry on.
My fiance placed it above Arkham Horror, but still below War of the Ring for her. But then again, she had some pretty terrible luck, and she does like AH, so its not a bad rating.
Marry her...oh, you've got that covered. Carry on.
What does the replayability look like?
Honestly, there's a ton.
The first scenario for example, has 3 potential Objectives for the Keeper.
Kill 2 Investigators
Run out the Event Clock
Gather samples and summon a shoggoth and have it escape the mansion.
And beyond that, there are two other sets of variables that can also change independent of each other which determine the card layouts.
So, while the players might know which layout variables were selected, there really isn't a lot that gives away exactly what the Keeper is up to. And if you've got a good Keeper, they can easily trick you.
For example, even if you don't have the shoggoth objective, gathering samples is still useful if you're near the altar, because it gives you +5 threat, which is pretty nice, because that's plenty to heal your maniac to full or pull up a new one if he goes down. And at the same time, it does nothing to hinder your efforts to run out the event clock--in fact, if the investigators go chasing your sample-stealing maniac, they likely aren't advancing in their hunt for the clues, are they?
So yeah, you may end up knowing all the possible objectives/layouts for a particular scenario, but that's no different than knowing the potential objectives in Ticket to Ride--just because you know what might be going on doesn't mean it makes the game any less interesting.
If anything, I think both sides knowing the scenario would allow for more strategic play and bluffing, which is even more of a plus as far as I'm concerned.
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And rorus, what does it mean that they "will be" there? They were at a comiccon I went to and it was so dissapointed. It was basically "Hey, we make boardgames. But since were selling them, starcraft is 85 dollars. No convention discount."
A lot of companies last year had demos of products and I think they supplied the free gaming room with the loaner games. Not sure.
Like I said, I don't think FFG was there last year, so I have no idea what to expect. I'll settle for no discount if I can touch Eric Lang.
And rorus, what does it mean that they "will be" there? They were at a comiccon I went to and it was so dissapointed. It was basically "Hey, we make boardgames. But since were selling them, starcraft is 85 dollars. No convention discount."
A lot of companies last year had demos of products and I think they supplied the free gaming room with the loaner games. Not sure.
Like I said, I don't think FFG was there last year, so I have no idea what to expect. I'll settle for no discount if I can touch Eric Lang.
When FFG has shown up at Origins, they've had demos of upcoming stuff (I got to play Blue Moon City before release, which was cool) and they partnered with some store to sell their stuff. Usually not at any sort of convention discount, but there is the odd exception.
Yeah, it really depends on the convention. At GenCon, f'erex, they had their own booth selling product, a big demo-area inside the convention hall, and a normal room outside the convention hall for events.
There might not be much of a con discount, but they often had advance copies of stuff you wouldn't be able to get in stores for a couple months... so I'd say that counts as one.
My wallet is pre-trembling for this year's. Always end up with like two of their big bags worth of stuff by the end of the con.
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It only took about an hour to play, and the single Investigator got horribly murdered, largely due to rolling like ten 10s (which are auto-fails).
Still had a good time though, and it was definitely thematic.
After running from a maniac, in and out of a dark room trying to get the lights to come on, Jenny Barnes ended up breaking her leg and hobbling out in search of the second clue, only to have the entire mansion come crashing down on her because she couldn't concentrate too well on the lights with an axe-wielding mad man chasing after her.
My fiance placed it above Arkham Horror, but still below War of the Ring for her. But then again, she had some pretty terrible luck, and she does like AH, so its not a bad rating.
And where do you rank it relative to those two?
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FairchildRabbit used short words that were easy to understand, like "Hello Pooh, how about Lunch ?"Registered Userregular
edited March 2011
Played 7 WONDERS (http://www.rprod.com/en/7WONDERS.html) for the first time this week. A very successful attempt at the ever-elusive CIV LITE market, with a lot of depth despite its relatively simple mechanics. Great use of iconography on the cards, too. The RACE FOR THE GALAXY guys could stand to learn about simple, clear game icons from the 7W people.
AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
edited March 2011
Played my first game of Mansions of Madness. Really, REALLY fun, but I think I misread the cards, or screwed up something, because once I got out the monster I needed to win my objective, I was able to spend 4-5 threat and just blew all the way to the win condition without being stopped.
Edit: Oh fuck, did I ever misread the card. 1 movement per monster per turn.
Edit2: And I had a set of Mythos cards mixed in that I shouldn't have. Going upstairs is not the same symbol as going Downstairs!
Puerto Rico Board Game $31.63 shipped [amazon.com],
This addition to Rio Grande's collection.
List Price: $45
* One of the most popular Eurogames
* Brilliant mechanics
* Each player utilizes different roles to score the most victory points
* Great for game nights
* Everyone plays all the time
Amazon and others usually sell it for $35+
Sale ends 3/6/2011
It only took about an hour to play, and the single Investigator got horribly murdered, largely due to rolling like ten 10s (which are auto-fails).
Still had a good time though, and it was definitely thematic.
After running from a maniac, in and out of a dark room trying to get the lights to come on, Jenny Barnes ended up breaking her leg and hobbling out in search of the second clue, only to have the entire mansion come crashing down on her because she couldn't concentrate too well on the lights with an axe-wielding mad man chasing after her.
My fiance placed it above Arkham Horror, but still below War of the Ring for her. But then again, she had some pretty terrible luck, and she does like AH, so its not a bad rating.
And where do you rank it relative to those two?
It's hard to say after only just 1 play.
I am a huge fan of theme, and Mansions of Madness has more theme than any game I've played, rivaled only by War of the Ring.
WotR has such an amazing feeling, like you're actually playing out alternative realities in Tolkien's world. Whereas MoM is like.. an utterly amazing horror movie. Every card has flavor text, and no action is just "I rolled a 6", because pass or fail, there's something extra for the Keeper to read.
For me, it was WotR followed by AH. Now, at the moment, I think MoM definitely wedged itself in the middle there after the one play, simply based on potential.
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I saw a Heavy Gear Arena game the other day
I am kind of interested in it but I wanted to see if anyone has played it or so on since no one knew what it was like when I asked
Oh man, I had my first go at Space Alert last night. I am not a bad enough dude to map space.
I was handling internal threats and I just could not keep track of their round timing reasonably. And the game seems like it would be particularly nightmarish with 3 or fewer players, taking on all the tracking tasks themselves.
Played War of the Ring for the first time today. That game is similar to Arkham Horror in that you have to dedicate a lot of time to understanding it but it pays off when you play a good game.
Also Horus Heresy is very similar to it.
I love War of the Ring mainly because it lets me play a wargame with my fiance who typically has no interest in wargames, simply because she is a LotR fangirl. :P
One of the game's (numerous) strong points is how cool it sounds when you describe a game afterwards. "While all of the Nazgul were occupied in the siege of Rivendell, Frodo and Sam were able to sneak into Mordor unchallenged, only to be captured and eaten by Shelob at the top of Mount Doom."
ooh. War of the Rings has been on my Want It list forever, but I have a copy of Runewars STILL UNPLAYED A YEAR LATER, so I can't justify it.
Well I played Race for the Galaxy and really like it. The guy I played it with kept comparing it to puerto rico but I didn't see it all that much. The fan pc version is very nice but I wish the difficulty/number of players/expansions used could be changed.
TrynantManiac BrawlerRank 20.100 and full WildRegistered Userregular
edited March 2011
I am hugely biased towards games with little to no luck involved, and as such Caylus impressed me to no ends. No die-rolling, card drawing, or hell, even no hidden information. Only luck part is who goes first and even that is balanced out.
Complicated as hell, but I can see this becoming my favorite worker-placement game over the one's I've played (those being Agricola, Le Havre, and Puerto Rico if you count that as worker-placement).
Also, after playing a few matches over the past few days, can someone explain to me why there is so little love for Dungeon Twister (or at least, Dungeon Twister Prison)? Again, minimal luck, except this time paired with a tactical boardgame with a great fantasy theme? Moar plz.
Mageknight DS was pretty good actually. So this one might be as well. Of course, if they follow the MtGO model of virtual booster packs with rarities, this is going to get ugly.
Of course they will. And let's not lie - opening packs is fun.
I just got a new 360 with a big HDD, so I started downloading a ton of live arcade games that I owned but didn't keep installed. This led to buying some more, along with DLC.
So now I have a bunch of the boardgame or boardgame-esque Arcade games:
Ticket to Ride (with Europe expansion but not 1910 USA yet)
Catan
Carcassonne (I think I got an expansion, or maybe I'm just about to get one)
Panzer General
Anyone play any of these? I think I have a free month of Gold, so once I've got the hang of the basics, I'll go online. So far I've been playing a ton of Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride. I find TtR fine, it all makes sense, but the farmers in Carcassonne bewilder me. I keep finishing a game, feeling confident, and then somehow losing in the final add-up.
I have Catan on 360, and those computer players are the most petty assholes that have ever existed. I'll try to make a trade, and they're all like 'You're too far aheeeaaadddd.' But I look at the scores and I'm TIED for FOURTH. But I was in the lead at SOME point, and that's enough for them to never trade with me again. Never played it online though.
And yeah, the farmers are the hardest to get thing about Carcassonne, you've really got to examine every bit of green to figure out what you're connected to.
I find TtR fine, it all makes sense, but the farmers in Carcassonne bewilder me. I keep finishing a game, feeling confident, and then somehow losing in the final add-up.
There are actually two accepted ways of counting farmers in Carcassonne - it depends on which edition of the boardgame you get. Could you tell me how they are counted in the xbox version?
Farmers can make an enormous difference and they require the most insight (and luck) to play well. Gaining a majority with a farmer in a good position can swing a lot of points, so you should really pay attention to them.
I saw a Heavy Gear Arena game the other day
I am kind of interested in it but I wanted to see if anyone has played it or so on since no one knew what it was like when I asked
Let me try again
I jsut wanted to know if anyone has played it since I talked to a few people who had no interest or knew nothing about it here
Also, after playing a few matches over the past few days, can someone explain to me why there is so little love for Dungeon Twister (or at least, Dungeon Twister Prison)? Again, minimal luck, except this time paired with a tactical boardgame with a great fantasy theme? Moar plz.
I'm a big fan of it, but sadly don't pull out a 2p fantasy game too often; most gaming sessions are 3-5 players or Dominion.
I find TtR fine, it all makes sense, but the farmers in Carcassonne bewilder me. I keep finishing a game, feeling confident, and then somehow losing in the final add-up.
There are actually two accepted ways of counting farmers in Carcassonne - it depends on which edition of the boardgame you get. Could you tell me how they are counted in the xbox version?
Farmers can make an enormous difference and they require the most insight (and luck) to play well. Gaining a majority with a farmer in a good position can swing a lot of points, so you should really pay attention to them.
You can pick either ruleset for farming. One of them is for "fighting farmers" where you score per city and only the player with the most adjacent farmers to a city scores it. The other is "friendly farmers" where you score per field (I think they use the "most farmers in a field claims it" rule, like for claiming cities) and get points for each completed city that touches that field. I can't remember which designation is which, though.
FWIW, in person we always play with Friendly Farmers.
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Also, Fantasy Flight will be at PAX East! I don't think they were at the last PAX East. Huzzah!
For a little discussion:
How do you feel about Newblar's sentiment that he'd rather play a game thats good for novices rather than one that is very rewarding for high level play? Do your feelings on this subject translate over to video games/other hobbies? IE. Mario Kart where last place gets a lot of help vs Street Fighter, or something like long backpacking trips vs weekend tentcamping?
And rorus, what does it mean that they "will be" there? They were at a comiccon I went to and it was so dissapointed. It was basically "Hey, we make boardgames. But since were selling them, starcraft is 85 dollars. No convention discount."
With regards to Puzzle Strike, I can't say I noticed the purple strategy before despite playing it regularly. Either my friends doesn't notice it either, or they think it'd be boring to play.. hm.
1) A lifebar (Gem Pile) instead of a VP count
2) Damage dealers (Crash Gems) instead of VP cards
3) Different starting decks (characters)
#1 & #2 go together, and I actually like it on several levels. It makes Puzzle Strike easier to learn for new players than Dominion, since even if both players build a crappy deck it will just implode and then you can try again immediately. (Unlike Dominion where the learning game can be quite impenetrable and unforgiving, and thus drag on forever since nobody knows how to buy provinces). It feels more interactive to pass gems and count your gem pile on the go, rather than counting VP at the end (even if they're ultimately the same thing). I actually also like the idea of #3 - sometimes you want to play an asymmetric game.
Somewhere between #2 and #3 though, this problem comes up. Your starting deck has 3 character-only actions, most of them terminal (ie, no additional actions). Sometimes all of them are terminal! Crash Gems (and double Crash Gems) are also terminal, and you need crashes to win. So basically I am overflowing with terminal actions, I am not going to buy even more terminals unless there's a +2 Action on the table. Except that "+2 Actions" costs 5 all by iteslf. It has to! Since you know, your deck is overflowing with actions. And even if I could afford the deck space in for another terminal, I usually would be perfectly happy just getting another Crash Gem. For a deckbuilding game, I don't seem to have an incentive to actually buy the random chips in the bank. Unlike Dominion, I already know what I want to spend my actions on. There are some characters that are exceptions to this (most obviously Setsuki), but on a lot of matchups, on a lot of bank spreads, you just go through the motions and hope you get luckier than your opponent.
Now, I think Yomi is a veritable masterpiece, but that doesn't mean that Sirlin is going to get a pass on everything he does. Puzzle Strike is boardgame shovelware.
Won't get a chance to play it until tomorrow, but from what I gather, play time should be right around 2 hours, depending on group size.
As for the rules, they're actually fairly simple if you're an Investigator--little more complicated if you're the Keeper.
As an Investigator, you get 3 actions per turn--2 Moves, and an Action (which can also be used as a move). You move around the mansion and explore rooms to try and find clues (to which you have pretty obvious hints of where they are). For combat, you draw a combat card until you get one that is the type of attack you're attempting (Melee or Ranged, for example).
Investigators don't know what their goal actually is during the majority of the game, or how they can lose--all they know is where their next clue is.
Once they gather all 3 clues, the Keeper reveals the objective card, which gives both his objective, and what the Investigator's have to do to stop him (or even that it is time for them to run away to win.)
There are some cool things like being able to push book cases in front of doors, or to hide, but it's all pretty easy.
Just like in AH, the players have their stats on cards in front of them, along with items which they use to fight monsters and other kinds of stuff.
There really isn't a lot to being an Investigator mechanically speaking. But after I teach my fiance to play tomorrow, I can tell you how easily she picked it up and all.
Also Horus Heresy is very similar to it.
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No, seriously, this is only a little cheaper than FFG's "Big Box" games. Granted, there is a metric fuckton of minis and panels inside it, but still.
Also, I cannot, CANNOT stress this enough: Make sure the investigators build the mansion correctly! This, and the keeper keeping his choices face-up, were the two biggest mistakes made in the game.
I love War of the Ring mainly because it lets me play a wargame with my fiance who typically has no interest in wargames, simply because she is a LotR fangirl. :P
One of the game's (numerous) strong points is how cool it sounds when you describe a game afterwards. "While all of the Nazgul were occupied in the siege of Rivendell, Frodo and Sam were able to sneak into Mordor unchallenged, only to be captured and eaten by Shelob at the top of Mount Doom."
It only took about an hour to play, and the single Investigator got horribly murdered, largely due to rolling like ten 10s (which are auto-fails).
Still had a good time though, and it was definitely thematic.
After running from a maniac, in and out of a dark room trying to get the lights to come on, Jenny Barnes ended up breaking her leg and hobbling out in search of the second clue, only to have the entire mansion come crashing down on her because she couldn't concentrate too well on the lights with an axe-wielding mad man chasing after her.
My fiance placed it above Arkham Horror, but still below War of the Ring for her. But then again, she had some pretty terrible luck, and she does like AH, so its not a bad rating.
84 points.
Feeling pretty awesome now.
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Marry her...oh, you've got that covered. Carry on.
What does the replayability look like?
Honestly, there's a ton.
The first scenario for example, has 3 potential Objectives for the Keeper.
Kill 2 Investigators
Run out the Event Clock
Gather samples and summon a shoggoth and have it escape the mansion.
And beyond that, there are two other sets of variables that can also change independent of each other which determine the card layouts.
So, while the players might know which layout variables were selected, there really isn't a lot that gives away exactly what the Keeper is up to. And if you've got a good Keeper, they can easily trick you.
For example, even if you don't have the shoggoth objective, gathering samples is still useful if you're near the altar, because it gives you +5 threat, which is pretty nice, because that's plenty to heal your maniac to full or pull up a new one if he goes down. And at the same time, it does nothing to hinder your efforts to run out the event clock--in fact, if the investigators go chasing your sample-stealing maniac, they likely aren't advancing in their hunt for the clues, are they?
So yeah, you may end up knowing all the possible objectives/layouts for a particular scenario, but that's no different than knowing the potential objectives in Ticket to Ride--just because you know what might be going on doesn't mean it makes the game any less interesting.
If anything, I think both sides knowing the scenario would allow for more strategic play and bluffing, which is even more of a plus as far as I'm concerned.
Like I said, I don't think FFG was there last year, so I have no idea what to expect. I'll settle for no discount if I can touch Eric Lang.
When FFG has shown up at Origins, they've had demos of upcoming stuff (I got to play Blue Moon City before release, which was cool) and they partnered with some store to sell their stuff. Usually not at any sort of convention discount, but there is the odd exception.
There might not be much of a con discount, but they often had advance copies of stuff you wouldn't be able to get in stores for a couple months... so I'd say that counts as one.
My wallet is pre-trembling for this year's. Always end up with like two of their big bags worth of stuff by the end of the con.
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And where do you rank it relative to those two?
Edit: Oh fuck, did I ever misread the card. 1 movement per monster per turn.
Edit2: And I had a set of Mythos cards mixed in that I shouldn't have. Going upstairs is not the same symbol as going Downstairs!
It's hard to say after only just 1 play.
I am a huge fan of theme, and Mansions of Madness has more theme than any game I've played, rivaled only by War of the Ring.
WotR has such an amazing feeling, like you're actually playing out alternative realities in Tolkien's world. Whereas MoM is like.. an utterly amazing horror movie. Every card has flavor text, and no action is just "I rolled a 6", because pass or fail, there's something extra for the Keeper to read.
For me, it was WotR followed by AH. Now, at the moment, I think MoM definitely wedged itself in the middle there after the one play, simply based on potential.
I am kind of interested in it but I wanted to see if anyone has played it or so on since no one knew what it was like when I asked
I was handling internal threats and I just could not keep track of their round timing reasonably. And the game seems like it would be particularly nightmarish with 3 or fewer players, taking on all the tracking tasks themselves.
ooh. War of the Rings has been on my Want It list forever, but I have a copy of Runewars STILL UNPLAYED A YEAR LATER, so I can't justify it.
It looks really fun and theme-y, though.
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Complicated as hell, but I can see this becoming my favorite worker-placement game over the one's I've played (those being Agricola, Le Havre, and Puerto Rico if you count that as worker-placement).
Also, after playing a few matches over the past few days, can someone explain to me why there is so little love for Dungeon Twister (or at least, Dungeon Twister Prison)? Again, minimal luck, except this time paired with a tactical boardgame with a great fantasy theme? Moar plz.
Aces Wild is a pretty stellar game.
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Of course they will. And let's not lie - opening packs is fun.
Too bad HeroClix isn't.
So now I have a bunch of the boardgame or boardgame-esque Arcade games:
Ticket to Ride (with Europe expansion but not 1910 USA yet)
Catan
Carcassonne (I think I got an expansion, or maybe I'm just about to get one)
Panzer General
Anyone play any of these? I think I have a free month of Gold, so once I've got the hang of the basics, I'll go online. So far I've been playing a ton of Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride. I find TtR fine, it all makes sense, but the farmers in Carcassonne bewilder me. I keep finishing a game, feeling confident, and then somehow losing in the final add-up.
And yeah, the farmers are the hardest to get thing about Carcassonne, you've really got to examine every bit of green to figure out what you're connected to.
Farmers can make an enormous difference and they require the most insight (and luck) to play well. Gaining a majority with a farmer in a good position can swing a lot of points, so you should really pay attention to them.
Let me try again
I jsut wanted to know if anyone has played it since I talked to a few people who had no interest or knew nothing about it here
I'm a big fan of it, but sadly don't pull out a 2p fantasy game too often; most gaming sessions are 3-5 players or Dominion.
You can pick either ruleset for farming. One of them is for "fighting farmers" where you score per city and only the player with the most adjacent farmers to a city scores it. The other is "friendly farmers" where you score per field (I think they use the "most farmers in a field claims it" rule, like for claiming cities) and get points for each completed city that touches that field. I can't remember which designation is which, though.
FWIW, in person we always play with Friendly Farmers.