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[Board Games] Saving the world from Monopoly and Life, one person at a time

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Posts

  • Hahnsoo1Hahnsoo1 Make Ready. We Hunt.Registered User regular
    TheMadjai wrote: »
    When was the last time anyone talked about Zombies!!!? I'm trying to start up a new gaming group (Ye Gods, why is this so hard?!?), and one of the people really wants to bring this game in. I actually own it, played it twice and hate it. I use the figures for minis in my D&D game that I run occasionally. It seems like a "game" only in the most basic definition of the word, as there is clearly ONE strategy to use and ONE way to use it.

    Am I wrong?
    Zombies!!! is horrible. So horrible. I'm sorry that this person is trying to justify the bad investment he/she made in such a terrible game. It's bad enough that I had to make a post about it (I usually just lurk in this thread).

    8i1dt37buh2m.png
  • ArcticLancerArcticLancer Best served chilled. Registered User regular
    So on a positive note, played Suburbia tonight for the first time. Was kind of blown away. Absolutely love it. We all did. It has just enough of a feeling of Sim City while still being a board game. You don't directly play solitaire, as everyone does have some impact on each other with particular buildings and intentional blocking. You also have a wide array of possibilities, and the private and public goals serve as potential anchors for all the players, guiding the general build direction of your own little district.
    I wound up winning with 100 points, and absolutely loved my little town. Freeway was my hero. :D

    Strongly considering picking this one up, as it has *A LOT* of common elements with what makes Core Worlds great, although with a bit less definition in cards/tiles, and a bit less play time.

  • poshnialloposhniallo Registered User regular
    Hahnsoo1 wrote: »
    TheMadjai wrote: »
    When was the last time anyone talked about Zombies!!!? I'm trying to start up a new gaming group (Ye Gods, why is this so hard?!?), and one of the people really wants to bring this game in. I actually own it, played it twice and hate it. I use the figures for minis in my D&D game that I run occasionally. It seems like a "game" only in the most basic definition of the word, as there is clearly ONE strategy to use and ONE way to use it.

    Am I wrong?
    Zombies!!! is horrible. So horrible. I'm sorry that this person is trying to justify the bad investment he/she made in such a terrible game. It's bad enough that I had to make a post about it (I usually just lurk in this thread).

    I think Zombies is the only game I refuse to play.

    Though I avoid Pandemic too.

    I figure I could take a bear.
  • poshnialloposhniallo Registered User regular
    So on a positive note, played Suburbia tonight for the first time. Was kind of blown away. Absolutely love it. We all did. It has just enough of a feeling of Sim City while still being a board game. You don't directly play solitaire, as everyone does have some impact on each other with particular buildings and intentional blocking. You also have a wide array of possibilities, and the private and public goals serve as potential anchors for all the players, guiding the general build direction of your own little district.
    I wound up winning with 100 points, and absolutely loved my little town. Freeway was my hero. :D

    Strongly considering picking this one up, as it has *A LOT* of common elements with what makes Core Worlds great, although with a bit less definition in cards/tiles, and a bit less play time.

    My friend just ordered:

    Talisman City
    Suburbia
    Marvel Legendary (for me)
    Sentinels of the Multiverse Enhanced+exps
    Elder Sign
    Letters from Whitechapel

    And Suburbia was the only one I didn't know of.

    So now I have that to look forward to as well.

    I figure I could take a bear.
  • admanbadmanb unionize your workplace Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited February 2013
    poshniallo wrote: »
    My friend just ordered:

    Talisman City
    Suburbia
    Marvel Legendary (for me)
    Sentinels of the Multiverse Enhanced+exps
    Elder Sign
    Letters from Whitechapel

    And Suburbia was the only one I didn't know of.

    So now I have that to look forward to as well.

    One of these things is not like the other~

    admanb on
  • admanbadmanb unionize your workplace Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    I'm afraid that post may have been too subtle: I would rather play Monopoly than Talisman.

  • admanbadmanb unionize your workplace Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    If a copy of Talisman was on fire next to an old, dry, wooden wall, in an orphanage full of sleeping children, I would not piss on it to put the fire out.

  • poshnialloposhniallo Registered User regular
    Monopoly is alright, especially with the proper rules.

    Never played Talisman, but I suspect playing it is more fun than arguing about it.

    I figure I could take a bear.
  • RiemannLivesRiemannLives Registered User regular
    we got to try out Archipelago Wednesday night. Was a 4 player game with some very picky players (one of em is a professional game designer, another has an absurd amount of experience with board games). But ones who in theory should like the game. I mean the game is a very long vaguely euro-looking economic game at first glance. That should totally be our thing.

    it wasn't. the worst thing was that there are a couple interesting ideas buried in all the bullshit and horrible game design. If it was just a terrible game we could just write off the experience and ignore it. But after chewing over the problems for quite a while after the game I think it is bad enough that it needs a real overhaul not just some tweaking and there are too many good games out there for me to spend time fixing someone else's.

    the biggest problem is of course the play length. Using the game-end cards where you need 7 of a thing (eg: markets) to end, it was pushing 4 hours. A game absolutely must have top not design, a lot of depth and great balance to be worthy of such an absurd game length.

    the single biggest problem is of course the asinine hidden victory point conditions. Unless everyone is just playing stupid (which, in a game this long, I suspect people often will as hour 3 rolls around with no end in sight and everyone just wants it to fucking stop) you are only going to be figuring out a couple of the victory conditions other players are holding. The total scores in the game are very, very low so even a single point is going to make the different between winning and losing. And it is pretty much guaranteed that about 1/4 of each players total score is going to be essentially random. And that 1/4 is probably going to be the entire difference between the player in first and the player in last. The entire margin of victory is just going to come down to some bullshit pointless time-filler decision someone made with no strategic thought because it turns out one of the players had the card that gives out VPs for that.

    Even with open victory point conditions (which is a variant in the book) the rebellion mechanic becomes a big problem. If you are not in the lead your best move, by far, is to drive the game to rebellion. Even if you are just in 2nd place that is the optimal play. It forces the lead player to spend resources reducing unrest in order to defend their lead, nets you resources (because most things that generate unrest are good for you, like taxation) and even if the game ends you weren't winning anyway so everyone losing is preferable.

    It also shares a problem with Arkham Horror: far too much of the game is determined by the order of a random deck of cards. The Barbarian card is by itself fucking insane. Just off the charts good. But if that card happened to be available early and the assassin didn't come out late that would just wreck the game. In our game, the barbarian didn't come out till fairly late AND the assassin came out the very next turn (and was used to kill the barbarian of course) and it still just about took one player out of the game (he got burned into last place). Even if you do the sensible thing and tear up that card as soon as you open the box, too much relies on the order of that deck. Which of course means you are going to get people who got lucky on their card order saying "no way man the cards work just fine" without thinking about what is possible instead of what they personally experienced.

    and it is more than a little weird that this statement is a perfectly accurate description of one of the main game mechanics: "on the rebellion chart the little black dude is chasing the little white dude and if the black dude ever catches him everyone loses". there is a lot of weird tone-deafness in Archipelago. o_O

    Attacked by tweeeeeeees!
  • FlimflammeryFlimflammery There's always money in the banana stand... Oxford, UKRegistered User regular
    poshniallo wrote: »
    Never played Talisman, but I suspect playing it is more fun than arguing about it.

    Hmm. Not sure you're right there. It's ok if you heavily, heavily house rule it, but otherwise I would rather have a good argument any time.

  • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
    edited February 2013
    I'm afraid to throw out my copy of Zombies!!! for fear that someone might find it and play it.

    So I keep it as a cursed relic, like the One True Ring or the soulstone in Diablo. It gnaws at my soul but my burden prevents the evil from escaping into the world.

    MrBody on
  • Hahnsoo1Hahnsoo1 Make Ready. We Hunt.Registered User regular
    MrBody wrote: »
    I'm afraid to throw out my copy of Zombies!!! for fear that someone might find it and play it.

    So I keep it as a cursed relic, like the One True Ring or the demon stone in Diablo. It gnaws at my soul but my burden prevents the evil from escaping into the world.
    I may have burned my copy out of spite, with the approval of my friends (but I kept the zombie meeples for other games).

    8i1dt37buh2m.png
  • PikaPuffPikaPuff Registered User regular
    edited February 2013
    we got to try out Archipelago Wednesday night. [complaints]
    Lol I read this whole thing thinking you were talking about agricola. I spent the whole post thinking "wait I thought people loved agricola." :bz:

    PikaPuff on
    jCyyTSo.png
  • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
    Hahnsoo1 wrote: »
    MrBody wrote: »
    I'm afraid to throw out my copy of Zombies!!! for fear that someone might find it and play it.

    So I keep it as a cursed relic, like the One True Ring or the demon stone in Diablo. It gnaws at my soul but my burden prevents the evil from escaping into the world.
    I may have burned my copy out of spite, with the approval of my friends (but I kept the zombie meeples for other games).

    Zombies!!! cannot be destroyed by mere fire. Those black wisps you see? That isn't smoke. It's the game's black soul escaping.

  • Hahnsoo1Hahnsoo1 Make Ready. We Hunt.Registered User regular
    edited February 2013
    MrBody wrote: »
    Hahnsoo1 wrote: »
    MrBody wrote: »
    I'm afraid to throw out my copy of Zombies!!! for fear that someone might find it and play it.

    So I keep it as a cursed relic, like the One True Ring or the demon stone in Diablo. It gnaws at my soul but my burden prevents the evil from escaping into the world.
    I may have burned my copy out of spite, with the approval of my friends (but I kept the zombie meeples for other games).

    Zombies!!! cannot be destroyed by mere fire. Those black wisps you see? That isn't smoke. It's the game's black soul escaping.
    Oh Jesus. What have I done??

    EDIT: Speaking of Fire, I'm quite fond of the persistent campaign/XP system rules for Space Alert, so I've decided to try my hand at creating a campaign system for Flashpoint: Fire Rescue. I did look at the Ladder 11 rules at boardgamegeek, but it wasn't to my liking. I'm imagining less cards, for example, and a campaign structure that starts with Rookies (a Family Rules game) and progresses to Experienced rules with XP unlocks for the various roles. I'm probably going to playtest it with my work gaming group, since they seem to be fond of the Space Alert persistent campaign that we are running at lunchtimes.

    Hahnsoo1 on
    8i1dt37buh2m.png
  • The MantizThe Mantiz BONK! DenmarkRegistered User regular
    Ha! I just had a weird game of Dungeon Petz. One of my regular board game buddies was introduced to the game a few weeks ago, and he just couldn't stop talking about it. He was deeply fasinated by the whole card mechanic, and how it gives the petz so different personalities. He was almost begging me to bring it to the table today.
    The only thing that bothered him about the game was that he lost the first time, because he thinks that his farmer upbringing has an effect on his skills in Dungeon Petz.

    So this time he was certain that he was going to kick my ass, and his taunting was worse than usual because we played with two of his friends who were very new to board games, and saw him as a rugged veteran. :P
    He then proceeds to buy a lv. 3 baby robot in the first round even though he doesn't have a decent cage yet. This robot is so hard to care for that all he can do is try to keep it caged and feed for the next few rounds. It does give him some good points in the contests, and I think this is the reason he decides to keep it. Because for some reason he keeps this baby robot for the rest of the fucking game, and he doesn't have the ressources to care for any more petz. Meanwhile I'm selling petz left and right, and end up with a +50 point lead. ;-)

    Yes he had ONE pet for the entire game and he couldn't even sell it in the last round O_o

    3DS - 2878-9572-9277
  • YogoYogo Registered User regular
    poshniallo wrote: »
    Monopoly is alright, especially with the proper rules.

    Never played Talisman, but I suspect playing it is more fun than arguing about it.

    Problem with Talisman is that it quickly ends up being a random chance feast of attempting to do anything. The dice control your movements totally and if you are attempting to get to a city/specific square, then you have to keep going past it until you hit the right spot.

    Furthermore, the penalty of dying/getting killed by a monster/player is so high that it can destroy the rest of the game for you. Unlike Munchkin, there is no easy way to get your loot/stats back besides endless grinding. That's part of the reason why my group dislikes Talisman so much. It is just one big game of grinding instead of being an adventure.

  • descdesc Goretexing to death Registered User regular
    webguy20 wrote: »
    Finished my 5th game of Risk Legacy this week. It is easily one of the most fun games I've played in a while. At the end of the 4th game we got to open a couple packets and our board is well on its way to being unique. I can't wait for the next board game night.

    Yesssss

    I suggest drawing little notes or pictures on the board to commemorate significant events.

  • webguy20webguy20 I spend too much time on the Internet Registered User regular
    desc wrote: »
    webguy20 wrote: »
    Finished my 5th game of Risk Legacy this week. It is easily one of the most fun games I've played in a while. At the end of the 4th game we got to open a couple packets and our board is well on its way to being unique. I can't wait for the next board game night.

    Yesssss

    I suggest drawing little notes or pictures on the board to commemorate significant events.

    Oh that's a good idea. We had a massacre our 5th game. There is a major city, fortification AND a bunker on North Africa. It is a beast. Two different players tried to take it from a guy. Each probably lost 12-15 troops against the defenders 6. The combined bonuses ended up being +2/+1 on the defense dice. Combined with a couple missiles and it was a bloodbath.

    Steam ID: Webguy20
    Origin ID: Discgolfer27
    Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
  • jergarmarjergarmar hollow man crew goes pew pew pewRegistered User regular
    we got to try out Archipelago Wednesday night. Was a 4 player game with some very picky players (one of em is a professional game designer, another has an absurd amount of experience with board games). But ones who in theory should like the game. I mean the game is a very long vaguely euro-looking economic game at first glance. That should totally be our thing.

    it wasn't. the worst thing was that there are a couple interesting ideas buried in all the bullshit and horrible game design. If it was just a terrible game we could just write off the experience and ignore it. But after chewing over the problems for quite a while after the game I think it is bad enough that it needs a real overhaul not just some tweaking and there are too many good games out there for me to spend time fixing someone else's.

    the biggest problem is of course the play length. Using the game-end cards where you need 7 of a thing (eg: markets) to end, it was pushing 4 hours. A game absolutely must have top not design, a lot of depth and great balance to be worthy of such an absurd game length.

    the single biggest problem is of course the asinine hidden victory point conditions. Unless everyone is just playing stupid (which, in a game this long, I suspect people often will as hour 3 rolls around with no end in sight and everyone just wants it to fucking stop) you are only going to be figuring out a couple of the victory conditions other players are holding. The total scores in the game are very, very low so even a single point is going to make the different between winning and losing. And it is pretty much guaranteed that about 1/4 of each players total score is going to be essentially random. And that 1/4 is probably going to be the entire difference between the player in first and the player in last. The entire margin of victory is just going to come down to some bullshit pointless time-filler decision someone made with no strategic thought because it turns out one of the players had the card that gives out VPs for that.

    Even with open victory point conditions (which is a variant in the book) the rebellion mechanic becomes a big problem. If you are not in the lead your best move, by far, is to drive the game to rebellion. Even if you are just in 2nd place that is the optimal play. It forces the lead player to spend resources reducing unrest in order to defend their lead, nets you resources (because most things that generate unrest are good for you, like taxation) and even if the game ends you weren't winning anyway so everyone losing is preferable.

    It also shares a problem with Arkham Horror: far too much of the game is determined by the order of a random deck of cards. The Barbarian card is by itself fucking insane. Just off the charts good. But if that card happened to be available early and the assassin didn't come out late that would just wreck the game. In our game, the barbarian didn't come out till fairly late AND the assassin came out the very next turn (and was used to kill the barbarian of course) and it still just about took one player out of the game (he got burned into last place). Even if you do the sensible thing and tear up that card as soon as you open the box, too much relies on the order of that deck. Which of course means you are going to get people who got lucky on their card order saying "no way man the cards work just fine" without thinking about what is possible instead of what they personally experienced.

    and it is more than a little weird that this statement is a perfectly accurate description of one of the main game mechanics: "on the rebellion chart the little black dude is chasing the little white dude and if the black dude ever catches him everyone loses". there is a lot of weird tone-deafness in Archipelago. o_O

    This makes me sad. It came from the guy that did Earth Reborn, so I want it to be good. I want it to be a "maybe someday" game. You mentioned that it was a picky group, but it's hard to get around the issues you mention, especially the hidden VP conditions. I suppose it gets a consolation prize for trying something different. My only retort is that I think some (most?) people are going to feel that "everybody loses" is somehow worse than "I ended up only a few points from winning". But, again, it's group-dependent and thus is a strike against the game.

    Though I rolled my eyes at your "tone-deafness" quote. It seems silly to me, like complaining about the racial overtones of an Oreo cookie.

    When I was a child, I had a fever...
    jswidget.php?username=jergarmar&numitems=7&text=none&images=small&show=hot10&imagesonly=1&imagepos=right&inline=1&domains%5B%5D=boardgame&imagewidget=1
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    Battle.net: TheGerm#1430 (Hearthstone, Destiny 2)
  • Lord_AsmodeusLord_Asmodeus goeticSobriquet: Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered User regular
    I have 36 hours to decide if I really really want this Rivet Wars kickstarter deal. And now it's 500$ worth of stuff on top of it all. Stupid decisions, why must you be so hard to make!

    Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
  • Custom SpecialCustom Special I know I am, I'm sure I am, I'm Sounders 'til I die!Registered User regular
    I am so happy I was able to get a copy of Excape. It's really fun.

    Had a game a couple nights ago with 4 of us, 2 guys and 2 girls. My buddy and I started off terribly, while the ladies were off to the races. The girls were almost half way around the board, while my buddy and I had moved a total of about 5 spaces between us (after moving back a couple). The all of a sudden the girls started getting greedy on rolls and picking up a few moves back as the continue on. The two guys pass the girls.
    The final round of the game was my wife three spaces from winning, me two spaces from winning, my buddy 4 from winning, and the other girl 4 from winning. My wife rolled and knocked my buddy off of 4, leaving two players to roll better than me to knock me off the 2 before I win (which did not happen).
    So I go off the board, then my wife would have been next and would also have gone off. It started really slow, but it was easily one of the most intense finales to a game I've had in a while.

    A+, would roll again.

    XBL: F4ll0utBP | STEAM | PSN : CustomSpecial | Bnet: F4ll0ut#1636
  • TrynantTrynant Maniac Brawler Rank 20.100 and full WildRegistered User regular
    edited February 2013
    we got to try out Archipelago Wednesday night. Was a 4 player game with some very picky players (one of em is a professional game designer, another has an absurd amount of experience with board games). But ones who in theory should like the game. I mean the game is a very long vaguely euro-looking economic game at first glance. That should totally be our thing.

    it wasn't. the worst thing was that there are a couple interesting ideas buried in all the bullshit and horrible game design. If it was just a terrible game we could just write off the experience and ignore it. But after chewing over the problems for quite a while after the game I think it is bad enough that it needs a real overhaul not just some tweaking and there are too many good games out there for me to spend time fixing someone else's.

    the biggest problem is of course the play length. Using the game-end cards where you need 7 of a thing (eg: markets) to end, it was pushing 4 hours. A game absolutely must have top not design, a lot of depth and great balance to be worthy of such an absurd game length.

    the single biggest problem is of course the asinine hidden victory point conditions. Unless everyone is just playing stupid (which, in a game this long, I suspect people often will as hour 3 rolls around with no end in sight and everyone just wants it to fucking stop) you are only going to be figuring out a couple of the victory conditions other players are holding. The total scores in the game are very, very low so even a single point is going to make the different between winning and losing. And it is pretty much guaranteed that about 1/4 of each players total score is going to be essentially random. And that 1/4 is probably going to be the entire difference between the player in first and the player in last. The entire margin of victory is just going to come down to some bullshit pointless time-filler decision someone made with no strategic thought because it turns out one of the players had the card that gives out VPs for that.

    Even with open victory point conditions (which is a variant in the book) the rebellion mechanic becomes a big problem. If you are not in the lead your best move, by far, is to drive the game to rebellion. Even if you are just in 2nd place that is the optimal play. It forces the lead player to spend resources reducing unrest in order to defend their lead, nets you resources (because most things that generate unrest are good for you, like taxation) and even if the game ends you weren't winning anyway so everyone losing is preferable.

    It also shares a problem with Arkham Horror: far too much of the game is determined by the order of a random deck of cards. The Barbarian card is by itself fucking insane. Just off the charts good. But if that card happened to be available early and the assassin didn't come out late that would just wreck the game. In our game, the barbarian didn't come out till fairly late AND the assassin came out the very next turn (and was used to kill the barbarian of course) and it still just about took one player out of the game (he got burned into last place). Even if you do the sensible thing and tear up that card as soon as you open the box, too much relies on the order of that deck. Which of course means you are going to get people who got lucky on their card order saying "no way man the cards work just fine" without thinking about what is possible instead of what they personally experienced.

    and it is more than a little weird that this statement is a perfectly accurate description of one of the main game mechanics: "on the rebellion chart the little black dude is chasing the little white dude and if the black dude ever catches him everyone loses". there is a lot of weird tone-deafness in Archipelago. o_O

    Crazily enough, Archipelago is one of my favorite games! As such, I would like to contend some of the points you made.
    • Firstly,
      the biggest problem is of course the play length.
      the single biggest problem is of course the asinine hidden victory point conditions.
      That is not how you use superlatives.
    • Play length. The game comes with three sets of objectives, and reading on what you said about your end-game condition, your grouped picked the longest variant possible. That's like, the worst thing you could have done for your first game of it. The short game with four players takes about 90 minutes, and yes the long game with that same group will push four hours.
    • Victory conditions. Figuring out who has what card is a huge part of the game and one of skills that you develop with continued plays. Players who can figure out who's holding what cards and utilize this knowledge (but most importantly make sure they're ontop of the open scoring card) will get in the lead. This is something, sadly, that a player gets better with after repeated plays, and there are plenty of games that deliver an in-depth satisfying first play rather than needing two or three plays for it to really get going.
    • Rebellion mechanic. This is probably the most contested part of the game, and honestly probably the biggest barrier to enjoyment for people to get over when playing Archipelago. I think the best way to look at it is like a very brutal, Agricola-like harvesting mechanic. It taxes player's resources who are in the lead, unless they go out of their way to build chapels which may very well be a worthwhile investment for crises anyways. Still, if people can't get over the rebellion threat then Archipelago will not work for them. I like the threat of the rebels, but I can understand this being a 'not for everyone situation.'
    • Cards. Although you do end up paying whoever owns the card, most of the cards are usable by any player, with a few exceptions (Barbarian is one of them). As far as balance though, I honestly don't see the Barbarian being immediately imbalanced (although undeniably very strong). Considering you have to occupy the region you're burning and pay a coin for each resource being burnt, you basically have to be burning something you could be using on your own anyways (unless the player is using a town to block you out) AND you're basically going to be overextending yourself as you move meeples to burn more stuff. Maybe it's broken, but is that something you can really say for sure after one play?

    I can't argue with the game being tone-deaf. Archipelago is very much not politically correct :/

    As for why I like Archipelago so much (some of it probably comes from being a huge fan of the designer's previous games...), I think ultimately I like the marriage of theme to mechanics and the amount of direct interaction that goes on compared to most euros. I like that you can openly trade with other players, even to bribe someone for turn order priority. I like that all these crazy cards are happening (and that they represent the evolution of the archipelago but come with a risk of crises as the islands change with the new cards), throwing a wrench into what would be a static design. I really like how tiles are being lain out, with meeples moving back and forth on them. It gives the game a spatial element and a sense of there really being an place you're manipulating that I frankly don't find with many euros at all. I like the guessing game of victory/end-game conditions, and playing off the hints and tells the other players are giving. I like the three different sets of objectives that allow for a short, medium or long game (and I really wouldn't play the long game until I've had at least a few plays under my belt of short variants).

    In other words, I pretty much like everything Archipelago has to offer. Except the stuff like there being a Slavery card. Say no to Slavery :/

    Really though, it seems that everything I liked about the game seems to be everything you dislike, and I wouldn't want to press that the game is for everybody (it's not). I'm sorry your play didn't work out for you, thankfully there are some other euros out that are very elegant and well-designed. Particularly for this year, CO2, The Great Zimbabwe, Tzolk'in and Myrmes stand out in my mind.

    Trynant on
  • RiemannLivesRiemannLives Registered User regular
    PikaPuff wrote: »
    we got to try out Archipelago Wednesday night. [complaints]
    Lol I read this whole thing thinking you were talking about agricola. I spent the whole post thinking "wait I thought people loved agricola." :bz:

    hehehe, I am no longer a fan of Agricola with Minor Improvement or Occupation cards. But its a damn good game if you just dont use those (and Farmers of the Moor is nice).

    Attacked by tweeeeeeees!
  • TheLawinatorTheLawinator Registered User regular
    What is the thread opinion on Galaxy Trucker?

    My SteamID Gamertag and PSN: TheLawinator
  • The MantizThe Mantiz BONK! DenmarkRegistered User regular
    What is the thread opinion on Galaxy Trucker?

    Everyone loves GT. And if they don't, they are horrible people. ;)

    3DS - 2878-9572-9277
  • LeumasWhiteLeumasWhite New ZealandRegistered User regular
    The Mantiz wrote: »
    What is the thread opinion on Galaxy Trucker?

    Everyone loves GT. And if they don't, they are horrible people. ;)

    Truth! Galaxy Trucker and Agricola are basically our go-to club games.

    QPPHj1J.jpg
  • DarkewolfeDarkewolfe Registered User regular
    I have 36 hours to decide if I really really want this Rivet Wars kickstarter deal. And now it's 500$ worth of stuff on top of it all. Stupid decisions, why must you be so hard to make!

    My first look seemed like Rivet Wars wasn't very good, and anyone particularly into it was going for the mini's. Is that still true, or is it looking better?

    What is this I don't even.
  • Lord_AsmodeusLord_Asmodeus goeticSobriquet: Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered User regular
    I don't know if they've changed it particularly in the two weeks or so since I last looked at it, but I would largely be in it for the minis, and there's a really really good deal for them at this point.

    Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
  • FairchildFairchild Rabbit used short words that were easy to understand, like "Hello Pooh, how about Lunch ?" Registered User regular
    PikaPuff wrote: »
    we got to try out Archipelago Wednesday night. [complaints]
    Lol I read this whole thing thinking you were talking about agricola. I spent the whole post thinking "wait I thought people loved agricola." :bz:

    hehehe, I am no longer a fan of Agricola with Minor Improvement or Occupation cards. But its a damn good game if you just dont use those (and Farmers of the Moor is nice).

    AGRICOLA without Minor Improvement or Occupation cards ??!! What are you, some kind of dirty Communist hippie or something ?

  • tzeentchlingtzeentchling Doctor of Rocks OaklandRegistered User regular
    edited February 2013
    There is very little that is more frustrating than knowing exactly who the two spies are in The Resistance, and being unable to convince the rest of the table to go along with the correct people for the last mission.

    tzeentchling on
  • PMAversPMAvers Registered User regular
    edited February 2013
    Darkewolfe wrote: »
    I have 36 hours to decide if I really really want this Rivet Wars kickstarter deal. And now it's 500$ worth of stuff on top of it all. Stupid decisions, why must you be so hard to make!

    My first look seemed like Rivet Wars wasn't very good, and anyone particularly into it was going for the mini's. Is that still true, or is it looking better?

    I'm definitely still in it for the game, and they just announced the other day turrets (they get set up in No Man's Land and have a plug socket, requires a infantry model to be next to it to operate, though) and the air expansion.
    RW-KS-Goals-355k-Plugs.jpg
    RW-KS-BattleofBrighton.jpg

    Air units have a cross-shaped hex and move on the gaps between the grid-spaces.

    rw_air_mockup_b.jpg
    was a rough mock-up.

    If memory serves, fighters can attack things only in front of them, and bombers can attack things in the squares "under" it.

    PMAvers on
    persona4celestia.jpg
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  • XaviarXaviar Registered User regular
    Got Mansions of Madness to the table for the first time today. Probably the best-received game I've introduced yet. Definitely the only game with a playtime over 30 minutes that's gotten a unanimous vote for an immediate second play. Even the one guys wife, who mostly just plays games to appease him seemed to enjoy it. And the group is clambering for more plays in the near future. Which makes me feel warm and fuzzy because it was kind of an impulse buy..

  • RiemannLivesRiemannLives Registered User regular
    edited February 2013
    Fairchild wrote: »
    PikaPuff wrote: »
    we got to try out Archipelago Wednesday night. [complaints]
    Lol I read this whole thing thinking you were talking about agricola. I spent the whole post thinking "wait I thought people loved agricola." :bz:

    hehehe, I am no longer a fan of Agricola with Minor Improvement or Occupation cards. But its a damn good game if you just dont use those (and Farmers of the Moor is nice).

    AGRICOLA without Minor Improvement or Occupation cards ??!! What are you, some kind of dirty Communist hippie or something ?

    Handing out cards at random makes the game just broken. Might as well just have everyone show off their hands at the start because the winner is already determined and you can save everyone several hours.

    Now you can fix the situation but keep the cards with a draft or other non-random mechanism but that adds quite a bit of playtime to an already pretty long game.

    Also when you play with no cards at all the total playtime of the game goes down dramaticially. And in particular down-time goes down a lot. Not having to deal with the cards just speeds up the turns so much. it makes Agricola into a sub 2 hour game (maybe less).

    RiemannLives on
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  • ArcticLancerArcticLancer Best served chilled. Registered User regular
    I'm not sure if I'm allowed to toot my own horn in any particular fashion, but I thought it should be known that my copy of Zombicide can currently be found on ebay, and comes with a bunch of extra stuff. So there's that. Support your fellow gamer!

    Out of curiosity, on a similar topic, am I the only one who finds the aesthetic of Rivet Wars pretty bleh? Seems ... not standard for CMON style/quality.

  • jergarmarjergarmar hollow man crew goes pew pew pewRegistered User regular
    Fairchild wrote: »
    PikaPuff wrote: »
    we got to try out Archipelago Wednesday night. [complaints]
    Lol I read this whole thing thinking you were talking about agricola. I spent the whole post thinking "wait I thought people loved agricola." :bz:

    hehehe, I am no longer a fan of Agricola with Minor Improvement or Occupation cards. But its a damn good game if you just dont use those (and Farmers of the Moor is nice).

    AGRICOLA without Minor Improvement or Occupation cards ??!! What are you, some kind of dirty Communist hippie or something ?

    Handing out cards at random makes the game just broken. Might as well just have everyone show off their hands at the start because the winner is already determined and you can save everyone several hours.

    Now you can fix the situation but keep the cards with a draft or other non-random mechanism but that adds quite a bit of playtime to an already pretty long game.

    Also when you play with no cards at all the total playtime of the game goes down dramaticially. And in particular down-time goes down a lot. Not having to deal with the cards just speeds up the turns so much. it makes Agricola into a sub 2 hour game (maybe less).

    Yeah, you mentioned this a couple of pages back, and sold me on it. I have a couple of friends with the game, and I recommend it to them, too. It really is a great way to get a good game played more.

    When I was a child, I had a fever...
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  • VanguardVanguard But now the dream is over. And the insect is awake.Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    Descent

    I played this for the first time the other night with one of my groups. Eight hours later, when everyone was leaving my apartment after the third game, I can say this was a big success.

    I pitched it as D&D or Diablo the board game, and that's more or less what it is. The classes all seem very well thought out, with each having unique offerings to the group. The only class which wasn't a big hit was the Thief. His starting skill, which allows him to search three squares away doesn't seem as useful as some of the character's skills, which add defense dice, pump your attacks, or summon familiars.

    I played the Overlord every time and lost every time, but this is one of those games where losing is just as fun as winning. The rules are not terribly complex and if you have experience with MTG you'll pick up on the nuances of them very quickly. The only thing we did wrong was Stun, I think.

    My only criticism is that it seems slightly tilted in the hereo's favor. I don't think it's broken, but learning the optimal times to play cards, how to position monsters, and how to focus on your objectives will take some time.

    I'm looking forward to playing this again in the very near future. I might actually be introducing it to another group later today.

  • VanguardVanguard But now the dream is over. And the insect is awake.Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    As an aside, does anyone have experience with Merchants and Marauders? I've seen nothing but glowing reviews, though almost everyone footnotes that statement as, "not perfect, but the best pirate game on the market."

  • EndaroEndaro Registered User regular
    Vanguard wrote: »
    Descent

    I played this for the first time the other night with one of my groups. Eight hours later, when everyone was leaving my apartment after the third game, I can say this was a big success.

    I pitched it as D&D or Diablo the board game, and that's more or less what it is. The classes all seem very well thought out, with each having unique offerings to the group. The only class which wasn't a big hit was the Thief. His starting skill, which allows him to search three squares away doesn't seem as useful as some of the character's skills, which add defense dice, pump your attacks, or summon familiars.

    I played the Overlord every time and lost every time, but this is one of those games where losing is just as fun as winning. The rules are not terribly complex and if you have experience with MTG you'll pick up on the nuances of them very quickly. The only thing we did wrong was Stun, I think.

    My only criticism is that it seems slightly tilted in the hereo's favor. I don't think it's broken, but learning the optimal times to play cards, how to position monsters, and how to focus on your objectives will take some time.

    I'm looking forward to playing this again in the very near future. I might actually be introducing it to another group later today.

    Stun is certainly a common mistake among people, and it's possible you misinterpreted some other rules as well along the way. It's common with that game. With that said, the game will appear to favor the heroes, but it really doesn't in the long run. The intro quest is given to them, and most of the other Act 1 quests lean to heroes, but I think that's largely to get people in the game. It makes sense to have the larger team win more. However, Castle Daerian is incredibly difficult for the heroes and Act 2 really switches things up. All of your monsters get instantly upgraded to their Act 2 variations (typically more attack and defense dice, as well as health), while the only change for the heroes is the treasure deck switched to Act 2.

    In a way the whole campaign is a game of attrition against the heroes. Some quests can't really be beaten while also searching every treasure, and every skipped treasure is slowly reducing the heroes potential power. Its money they can never go back for. Similarly, when they win, they don't gain nearly as much power as the Overlord in her victories. Typically once the heroes start losing, it only gets worse for them over time. Watch for that!

    We eventually quit the campaign, unfortunately. We had a three person team, Leoric of the Book (Necromancer), Syndrael (Beserker), and Avric Albright (Disciple). I was Avric, who unfortunately boiled down to just being the healer in the group (which I did really well with all the upgrades!), so I just followed more important people around and kept them alive. Syndrael chose skills wisely, and early in the campaign got a good set of armor and the best Act 1 weapon, a mean axe. A skill gave her 16 health on top of her extra armor die, her ability to sprint or recover fatigue through her character ability, and an axe that could kill pretty much everything in one hit. She even got a skill that gave her one surge per round, allowing her to one shot shadow dragons! This meant if we could get her where we needed to be, we did great. It also meant the Overlord, wisely, focused on the weaker heroes and continually killed the Necromancer. She eventually quit out of frustration and we haven't played since. Would play again if we could find the way though! Maybe try the Ranger next time...

  • DarkewolfeDarkewolfe Registered User regular
    One of our biggest complaints with Descent was the healbot. There is no way to play without a healer, and no way to play without the healer getting insanely bored.

    What is this I don't even.
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