AstaerethIn the belly of the beastRegistered Userregular
Played half a Dark Souls game tonight. It's weird; slavishly faithful to the combat but eschewing the exploration elements, the atmosphere, and the need for white-kunckled, repetitious self-control that the games rely on. Perhaps it just took us a while to draw decent equipment, but buffing to the point where we could take on the mini-boss meant grinding through the first map three times. Each time the encounters are basically the same, except for your dice rolls and sometimes which player acts first. We sped through it the way you rush through the later runs in a Time Stories module, feeling more like we were performing chores than really having fun.
Perhaps the second half of the game, where the encounters are tougher and they add a Daily Double, will work out better.
Finally got Agricola to the table tonight with my wife. She was willing to play any game I wanted since it's my birthday Saturday. I know she hates to learn new games late at night but I figured it's just the two of us, how hard could it be?
The first two harvests nearly kicked our butts. We adjusted some of our actions after I reread the rules and saw it was 2 food per family member! Spent the next 3 rounds scrambling to get set up for food. She got stuck for a bit, but I had started sheep and was able to get animals going for food.
In the end it turned out alright. She had 13 points and I had 16. We both lost 7 points for unused squares.
It feels so tight and unforgiving but so rewarding when you manage to get a food engine going and then can focus on something else. Looking forward to playing again!
Played half a Dark Souls game tonight. It's weird; slavishly faithful to the combat but eschewing the exploration elements, the atmosphere, and the need for white-kunckled, repetitious self-control that the games rely on. Perhaps it just took us a while to draw decent equipment, but buffing to the point where we could take on the mini-boss meant grinding through the first map three times. Each time the encounters are basically the same, except for your dice rolls and sometimes which player acts first. We sped through it the way you rush through the later runs in a Time Stories module, feeling more like we were performing chores than really having fun.
Perhaps the second half of the game, where the encounters are tougher and they add a Daily Double, will work out better.
It pains me that I have all these board games and no time/anyone to play them. Maybe I'll bring them all with me when I get shipped off to a nursing home. I'll have lots of people to play with, and are memories will suck so much that we can replay scenarios again and again! A win-win!
Need a voice actor? Hire me at bengrayVO.com
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051 Steam ID Twitch Page
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WearingglassesOf the friendly neighborhood varietyRegistered Userregular
Board game day round up:
Samurai Spirit - We technically could have saved two villages, but one dude would always die in the last round.
"So. Again we are defeated. The farmers have won. Not us."
Scythe - I won with just a single dollar over Rusviet as the Crimeans with $70 against $69. Which was scary because the Rusviet player was faffing about for the first five turns until she "got" it.
Viticulture - I managed to use my teaching spiel! Which was either too good, or I'm actually not good at the game, because I was dead last in the end.
The guys liked Viticulture more than Scythe, because Viticulture was more "simpler and/or straightforward", and with Scythe, one dude basically put it as "if you're putting mechs in a game, at least make combat less anemic".
Family game. I thought about doing cards but it was talking me way too long to set up the game already and I didn't know why there were three different sets of cards.
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AstaerethIn the belly of the beastRegistered Userregular
Played half a Dark Souls game tonight. It's weird; slavishly faithful to the combat but eschewing the exploration elements, the atmosphere, and the need for white-kunckled, repetitious self-control that the games rely on. Perhaps it just took us a while to draw decent equipment, but buffing to the point where we could take on the mini-boss meant grinding through the first map three times. Each time the encounters are basically the same, except for your dice rolls and sometimes which player acts first. We sped through it the way you rush through the later runs in a Time Stories module, feeling more like we were performing chores than really having fun.
Perhaps the second half of the game, where the encounters are tougher and they add a Daily Double, will work out better.
Family game. I thought about doing cards but it was talking me way too long to set up the game already and I didn't know why there were three different sets of cards.
The family game is a little easier to learn, true. Definitely use the cards next time though. The family game is unfailingly brutal because you don't have anything that might help you. With the cards you have opportunities to make some aspects easier and get some engines going etc.
Edit: not to suggest that the game will not still be harsh using the cards
Family game. I thought about doing cards but it was talking me way too long to set up the game already and I didn't know why there were three different sets of cards.
I'm not sure how the newest printing does it, but the older (Z-Man) printings had three decks of cards, one for new players, one for intermediate, and an expert deck. I think they were coded 'E', 'I', and 'K', if I remember correctly. You could just throw all the cards together into one deck, but some of the advanced cards had some fairly complicated interactions.
Generally having everyone stick to the same deck makes for a more balanced game, and more interesting. Pulling from multiple decks can lead to someone getting too much power out of one action type and lead to mono-dimensional play.
Played half a Dark Souls game tonight. It's weird; slavishly faithful to the combat but eschewing the exploration elements, the atmosphere, and the need for white-kunckled, repetitious self-control that the games rely on. Perhaps it just took us a while to draw decent equipment, but buffing to the point where we could take on the mini-boss meant grinding through the first map three times. Each time the encounters are basically the same, except for your dice rolls and sometimes which player acts first. We sped through it the way you rush through the later runs in a Time Stories module, feeling more like we were performing chores than really having fun.
Perhaps the second half of the game, where the encounters are tougher and they add a Daily Double, will work out better.
I haven't played it but man dark souls does not sound like a game I want to play
That review is pretty accurate, I think.
Seems completely incorrect to me. He's not only insane to say the game works better as a solo game but 100% wrong to boot based on his own flawed critiques. In a solo game you'll repeatedly get stuff you can't use which AND you're forced to grind more which are his main complaints. That almost never happens in a 4 player game.
I'd really like to see one negative review where the reviewer demonstrated they even had a half a grasp of the dang rules because I haven't seen one yet.
What do you think is flawed about his critique? He seems to have some legitimate issues with game, but again i haven't play it. What indicated to you that he didn't have a grasp on the rules?
I don't have even a vague interest in playing it, I'm just curious really. Your response is basically "grrrrr no it's great that guy is DUMB" so far, and I'm interested in what you think is incorrect there.
Yeah, Magic Pink, you need to articulate why that review is wrong in more detail because saying "that review is wrong, what a dumb guy" doesn't really help anyone on the fence get a more informed view of the game.
Family game. I thought about doing cards but it was talking me way too long to set up the game already and I didn't know why there were three different sets of cards.
I'm not sure how the newest printing does it, but the older (Z-Man) printings had three decks of cards, one for new players, one for intermediate, and an expert deck. I think they were coded 'E', 'I', and 'K', if I remember correctly. You could just throw all the cards together into one deck, but some of the advanced cards had some fairly complicated interactions.
So which deck is which? I have E, I, K.
Definitely using cards next time.
Family game. I thought about doing cards but it was talking me way too long to set up the game already and I didn't know why there were three different sets of cards.
I'm not sure how the newest printing does it, but the older (Z-Man) printings had three decks of cards, one for new players, one for intermediate, and an expert deck. I think they were coded 'E', 'I', and 'K', if I remember correctly. You could just throw all the cards together into one deck, but some of the advanced cards had some fairly complicated interactions.
So which deck is which? I have E, I, K.
Definitely using cards next time.
The decks are
E for Easy
I for Interactive
and K for Komplex (why not C? I have no idea!)
Easy is relatively self explanatory, but it is easy because they generally focus on one particular action and have straight forward prerequisites. Easy to get into play, easy to use.
Interactive are cards that focus on well, interaction. They tend to care more often on what other players are doing, can hijack other people's resource acquisition, can cause cards to be passed, etc. It's a fun deck.
Komplex cards are complicated. They tend to be harder to get into play, tend to have more indirect effects.
The decks are NOT balanced against one another. E cards tend to just be more powerful than K cards, another reason why they are E cards, they make the game easier. So, don't mix and match them and use them to basically "salt for taste."
Akrotiri appears to finally be available again, if any 2p fans have been wanting a copy. If it's anything like every other Z-Man game that's not Pandemic lately it will be available for a week and then OOP for another year so grab it while the grabbing is good
Got to play Captain Sonar with 6 tonight, it was amazing and frustrating and fun and crazy. So good. Then played Formula D which I've wanted to get to the table for a long time but I don't think my group likes it as much as I do.
Played a couple games with my buddy's copy of the new Cthulhu Wars stuff. He won twice, but in the second game I misplayed Sleeper badly since it's been so long. Opener is MUCH stronger with neutral monster and spellbook options, and Azathoth was hilarious.
In the first game as Windwalker I got slammed with the fucking Servitors because I grabbed the Shamblers first, and it was kind of crippling! It was even worse in game 2 when Crawling Chaos got hit with them and then got attacked. I kinda don't like them since they're such a direct, persistent debuff that is impossible to remove and can afflict you for the whole game.
Shamblers were amazing. We saw very little reason to take Shub or Yog in the neutral forms though, since they're almost useless until you get the spellbook, which means a lot of investment. That will bear more experimentation for sure; neutral GOOs radically change your playstyle if you go for their spellbooks.
Does anyone know anything about the Games Workshop version of Cosmic Encounter? How does it compare to Fantasy Flight's version?
I've seen one for sale and if it seems to be cheap I'll grab it. Cosmic is cool because it is a good old game and it'd be nice to literally have an old version. And it would be handy to trick my wargaming friends into playing a boardgame. "Try it, it's from Games Workshop..."
I'm fine with it being a smaller game than the FF version but if it is flawed or bad I'll pass.
Finally got Agricola to the table tonight with my wife. She was willing to play any game I wanted since it's my birthday Saturday. I know she hates to learn new games late at night but I figured it's just the two of us, how hard could it be?
The first two harvests nearly kicked our butts. We adjusted some of our actions after I reread the rules and saw it was 2 food per family member! Spent the next 3 rounds scrambling to get set up for food. She got stuck for a bit, but I had started sheep and was able to get animals going for food.
In the end it turned out alright. She had 13 points and I had 16. We both lost 7 points for unused squares.
It feels so tight and unforgiving but so rewarding when you manage to get a food engine going and then can focus on something else. Looking forward to playing again!
Yeah, Agricola is never too far removed from being Don't Starve: The Board Game, If There Wasn't Already A Don't Starve Video Game About More Things Than Not Starving To Confuse The Issue. It is super in-your-face with all the demands it makes from your poor overstressed peasants. If you like rising to that challenge it's still pretty legendary in that regard and for good reason.
In contrast, A Feast For Odin (from the same designer with the same kind of big deck of occupation/improvement cards) is almost ridiculously lackadasical about not starving, in the long game especially. Yeah, starving is disaster point and you need to make some kind of effort to provide a good mix of food, but it's got a big action board and there are so many ways to not starve! The only problem is that actions and food you spend on not starving are actions and food you're not using to get points. You start out 86 points in the hole for Odin but it's also kind of lackadaisical about that. You can not starve and pull yourself out of that point hole just fine, but if you're not lighting a fire under yourself to A-always B-be C-collecting points, you can find yourself completely satisfied with what you've done and also in dead last.
Played half a Dark Souls game tonight. It's weird; slavishly faithful to the combat but eschewing the exploration elements, the atmosphere, and the need for white-kunckled, repetitious self-control that the games rely on. Perhaps it just took us a while to draw decent equipment, but buffing to the point where we could take on the mini-boss meant grinding through the first map three times. Each time the encounters are basically the same, except for your dice rolls and sometimes which player acts first. We sped through it the way you rush through the later runs in a Time Stories module, feeling more like we were performing chores than really having fun.
Perhaps the second half of the game, where the encounters are tougher and they add a Daily Double, will work out better.
I haven't played it but man dark souls does not sound like a game I want to play
That review is pretty accurate, I think.
Seems completely incorrect to me. He's not only insane to say the game works better as a solo game but 100% wrong to boot based on his own flawed critiques. In a solo game you'll repeatedly get stuff you can't use which AND you're forced to grind more which are his main complaints. That almost never happens in a 4 player game.
I'd really like to see one negative review where the reviewer demonstrated they even had a half a grasp of the dang rules because I haven't seen one yet.
Considered by themselves they're not too useful, but all together you have the metacommentary of "this game's rules do not adequately dispel common misconceptions". ...which admittedly is still not too useful for most purposes.
Played half a Dark Souls game tonight. It's weird; slavishly faithful to the combat but eschewing the exploration elements, the atmosphere, and the need for white-kunckled, repetitious self-control that the games rely on. Perhaps it just took us a while to draw decent equipment, but buffing to the point where we could take on the mini-boss meant grinding through the first map three times. Each time the encounters are basically the same, except for your dice rolls and sometimes which player acts first. We sped through it the way you rush through the later runs in a Time Stories module, feeling more like we were performing chores than really having fun.
Perhaps the second half of the game, where the encounters are tougher and they add a Daily Double, will work out better.
I haven't played it but man dark souls does not sound like a game I want to play
That review is pretty accurate, I think.
Seems completely incorrect to me. He's not only insane to say the game works better as a solo game but 100% wrong to boot based on his own flawed critiques. In a solo game you'll repeatedly get stuff you can't use which AND you're forced to grind more which are his main complaints. That almost never happens in a 4 player game.
I'd really like to see one negative review where the reviewer demonstrated they even had a half a grasp of the dang rules because I haven't seen one yet.
In a solo game certain considerations are different, for the same reason grinding by yourself in a video game can be satisfying but grinding in a group can be frustrating. Solo it's always your turn and you can walk through a combat encounter a lot faster, without articulating the rules out loud. You're not under the same social pressure to make a repetitive task entertaining, and you get one turn for every monster turn (instead one for every four, in a four-person game). There are a lot of reasons why it would feel better to solo this.
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FairchildRabbit used short words that were easy to understand, like "Hello Pooh, how about Lunch ?"Registered Userregular
Family game. I thought about doing cards but it was talking me way too long to set up the game already and I didn't know why there were three different sets of cards.
I'm not sure how the newest printing does it, but the older (Z-Man) printings had three decks of cards, one for new players, one for intermediate, and an expert deck. I think they were coded 'E', 'I', and 'K', if I remember correctly. You could just throw all the cards together into one deck, but some of the advanced cards had some fairly complicated interactions.
So which deck is which? I have E, I, K.
Definitely using cards next time.
The decks are
E for Easy
I for Interactive
and K for Komplex (why not C? I have no idea!)
Easy is relatively self explanatory, but it is easy because they generally focus on one particular action and have straight forward prerequisites. Easy to get into play, easy to use.
Interactive are cards that focus on well, interaction. They tend to care more often on what other players are doing, can hijack other people's resource acquisition, can cause cards to be passed, etc. It's a fun deck.
Komplex cards are complicated. They tend to be harder to get into play, tend to have more indirect effects.
The decks are NOT balanced against one another. E cards tend to just be more powerful than K cards, another reason why they are E cards, they make the game easier. So, don't mix and match them and use them to basically "salt for taste."
Interesting, I've never played without the cards, which should give you at least one skill to help alleviate feeding your family. They should also give you a couple of VP-producing paths to follow in addition to what the base game provides. I would never play without them, they add so much needed color and variation.
WearingglassesOf the friendly neighborhood varietyRegistered Userregular
Argh, my Scythe victories have become tainted, for we have been doing production complete wrong. Winning with what turned out to be wrong rules is annoying.
Argh, my Scythe victories have become tainted, for we have been doing production complete wrong. Winning with what turned out to be wrong rules is annoying.
Amazing missed rule:
In the late game, if you're running out of bottom actions to do, you can do them anyway for the gold bonus as long as you have the resources for it.
3DS Friendcode 5413-1311-3767
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mysticjuicer[he/him] I'm a muscle wizardand I cast P U N C HRegistered Userregular
E - einfach - easy
I - interactive - interactive
K - kompliziert - complex
My YouTube Channel! Featuring silly little Guilty Gear Strive videos and other stuff!
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mysticjuicer[he/him] I'm a muscle wizardand I cast P U N C HRegistered Userregular
Also I really love the brutality of agricola without cards. I find the amount of cards you get hard to manage, and dislike when a game feels won or lost because of the cards given out. Granted I haven't played Agricola more than like 4 times, and we've never drafted cards because it tends to be long enough already.
My YouTube Channel! Featuring silly little Guilty Gear Strive videos and other stuff!
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YamiNoSenshiA point called ZIn the complex planeRegistered Userregular
I went to Origins 2017 and all I got was this write-up
Game we played:
1. Cowboy Bebop prototype - This was the most prototypey of prototypes. Cardboard bits cut out with scissors, artless cards on paper sleeves with Magic lands to give them shape. But it was actually pretty fun! It was a co-op hand management, movement game. A little like a tiny Pandemic with a bit of - of all things - Concordia. Each person has a set of three objectives tied to an episode of the show, and a personal deck with resources and skills pertinent to their character (Spike, Jet, Faye, or Ed). You don't have enough resources in your deck to do you objectives, so you're forced to work with the other players. You have to complete your objectives while also hunting bounties to keep your supplies up. It was a fun balance between moving yourself and the spacecraft around and completing player objectives and making sure you don't run out of resources. The only problem was it was a little too easy, but it's very early in development and the bones of a good game are there.
2. Great Western Trail - I doubt I can add much to this beyond what everyone already knows. All I will say is, in a game about buying cows, I won by buying only two cows and that in the last round of the game.
3. Rick & Morty Anatomy Park - A pretty fun game that's coming out soon. It's a tile laying game about building a park in Reuben's guts, with each tile giving you points based on certain conditions. In addition to putting down tiles from your hand, you can also move them around to help you get more points from your time. If you're a fan of the show, give it a look. If not, there's probably barely not enough to be worth it.
4. Dwarven Smithy - A Kickstarter game that's based around hand and tableau management. It's one of those search the deck for resources game, but with a timing element that you often have to wait until your next turn to use the things you just put out. I didn't like it because, due to the low amount of some resources in the deck, you can very easily get screwed out of building the recipe cards in your hand without having any ability to do something about it. Not a fan.
5. A Feast For Odin - This seemed like it would have been really fun if the guy teaching us had any clue what he was doing. He taught the rules wrong, gave us wrong advice, and doubled down when we looked up the rules and tried to correct him. Also it's like $100 retail so I guess I'll never know.
6. BarrenPark - A new tile laying Patchwork like game. Another terrible event in that, despite what it said on the event page, they did not teach us the rules and only had two spots for a four person game. It was a pretty solid tile buying and laying, tetris style fill in your grid kinda game, but nothing to write home about. Not really enough to it to warrant a purchase.
7. Yokohama - Oh man, this was a good one. You're putting tiny workers down on a randomly placed set of cards, then using your boss to move around and do actions. It's kinda area control, kinda worker placement, and kinda engine building. A good solid game definitely worth checking out. Too bad you can't get the deluxe version anymore, as those wooden bits were fantastic.
8. Unfair - A market based tableau building game with some extra bits nailed on. I liked the theme and it seems like it could be a lot of fun, but like the name it can be very unfair and it's pretty easy for one played to get screwed through no fault of their own. It was me. I was the screwed player. I was saltier than a brined turkey.
9. Kingsburgh - An older dice placement game, but still fun and solid. Not gonna say much about an eight year old game, but definitely worth a look if you like that style.
10. Dresden Files Co-op game - It's like Legendary, but without the deck building aspect. Or the actually drawing more cards aspect. Or the making decisions aspect. It was blatantly clear on every turn what to do, and the ending still came down to a roll of the dice. Even if you love the theme, I'd give it a hard pass.
Other Experiences:
Blue Peg Pink Peg meetup - This was the first year they did this, and it was a blast. Maybe 30-40 people or so, but the hosts were all over the place, talking to people, playing games. I had some good conversations with Patrick and Christina and played a few rounds of Happy Salmon with Rob. We had a blast.
Secret Cabal meetup - This was a disaster. The bar was crowded like a standing room only concert. I could barely move, couldn't talk to anyone, and the bartenders were ignoring us. Like, we were leaning on the bar in very obvious "I would like to order a drink" posture that always works, and the bartenders would look at me and literally turn their backs on me. It was awful. Left after a little bit to actually get some food and drink.
North Market - On nom nom tasty food.
Origins After Dark - We only went on Saturday night and it was mostly dead. But it was a nice cool, quiet place to eat and drink with some friends.
Lessons Learned:
1. Sign up for fewer events. I wish we had signed up for fewer ticketed events and instead just left ourselves time to play games with strangers.
2. Snacks - We were smart enough to bring water bottles but we should have also packed some cheap, filling snacks for when a game went long or we needed a quick pick me up without paying $6 for trail mix at the convention center.
3. It's cold - It may be 90 degrees outside, but the inside of the convention center is freezing. Wear long pants and even bring a sweatshirt. Not sure how they get a space that big so cold in the height of summer, but man it was like 60 in there.
Argh, my Scythe victories have become tainted, for we have been doing production complete wrong. Winning with what turned out to be wrong rules is annoying.
Amazing missed rule:
In the late game, if you're running out of bottom actions to do, you can do them anyway for the gold bonus as long as you have the resources for it.
I kept missing the extra coins players get if they're not going first. I think there's still like a 60% chance I'll miss it on any given play.
5. A Feast For Odin - This seemed like it would have been really fun if the guy teaching us had any clue what he was doing. He taught the rules wrong, gave us wrong advice, and doubled down when we looked up the rules and tried to correct him. Also it's like $100 retail so I guess I'll never know.
WOW that sucks. A Feast For Odin is probably one of my top 5 best games ever. That dude was a schmoe.
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
5. A Feast For Odin - This seemed like it would have been really fun if the guy teaching us had any clue what he was doing. He taught the rules wrong, gave us wrong advice, and doubled down when we looked up the rules and tried to correct him. Also it's like $100 retail so I guess I'll never know.
WOW that sucks. A Feast For Odin is probably one of my top 5 best games ever. That dude was a schmoe.
I don't think it's quite top five best ever, at least not for me, but it's a rather good game and should've been a good time with a capable host.
5. A Feast For Odin - This seemed like it would have been really fun if the guy teaching us had any clue what he was doing. He taught the rules wrong, gave us wrong advice, and doubled down when we looked up the rules and tried to correct him. Also it's like $100 retail so I guess I'll never know.
WOW that sucks. A Feast For Odin is probably one of my top 5 best games ever. That dude was a schmoe.
I don't think it's quite top five best ever, at least not for me, but it's a rather good game and should've been a good time with a capable host.
That's why I said my top 5 best games ever.
Although I do admit it loses a full point from me because that whale meat tile is super icky.
Magic Pink on
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
5. A Feast For Odin - This seemed like it would have been really fun if the guy teaching us had any clue what he was doing. He taught the rules wrong, gave us wrong advice, and doubled down when we looked up the rules and tried to correct him. Also it's like $100 retail so I guess I'll never know.
WOW that sucks. A Feast For Odin is probably one of my top 5 best games ever. That dude was a schmoe.
I don't think it's quite top five best ever, at least not for me, but it's a rather good game and should've been a good time with a capable host.
That's why I said my top 5 best games ever.
Although I do admit it loses a full point from me because that whale meat tile is super icky.
Right, but your tastes are idiosyncratic so I figured another voice talking it up wouldn't hurt for forming a balanced opinion. 8-)
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YamiNoSenshiA point called ZIn the complex planeRegistered Userregular
5. A Feast For Odin - This seemed like it would have been really fun if the guy teaching us had any clue what he was doing. He taught the rules wrong, gave us wrong advice, and doubled down when we looked up the rules and tried to correct him. Also it's like $100 retail so I guess I'll never know.
WOW that sucks. A Feast For Odin is probably one of my top 5 best games ever. That dude was a schmoe.
Here's a quick list of what I remember him getting wrong
1. He told us to hold back some of our workers from the action phase. There didn't seem to be any use for them after that.
2. Told us we could use every profession card forever, even the single use one.
3. Passed the first player marker around instead of being last person to place.
4. Told us we could move stuff around on our player boards after we place it.
5. Had no idea of the restrictions on placing tiles on various boards.
6. Told us to leave all the food on the table after the feast phase.
7. Had no idea what half the action spaces, especially upgrade spaces, did.
8. I'm pretty sure he was wrong about how mountain tiles come out.
9. Had no idea how hunting and raiding worked.
We would have left in disgust halfway through but the other people there wanted to press on, but my wife and I were incredibly disappointed.
Oh, I forgot to mention I got personally disappointed by Stephen Buonocore three times in two days. So that was cool.
5. A Feast For Odin - This seemed like it would have been really fun if the guy teaching us had any clue what he was doing. He taught the rules wrong, gave us wrong advice, and doubled down when we looked up the rules and tried to correct him. Also it's like $100 retail so I guess I'll never know.
WOW that sucks. A Feast For Odin is probably one of my top 5 best games ever. That dude was a schmoe.
I don't think it's quite top five best ever, at least not for me, but it's a rather good game and should've been a good time with a capable host.
That's why I said my top 5 best games ever.
Although I do admit it loses a full point from me because that whale meat tile is super icky.
please watch what you say in this thread. Some of us (me) will buy games impulsively
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Perhaps the second half of the game, where the encounters are tougher and they add a Daily Double, will work out better.
The first two harvests nearly kicked our butts. We adjusted some of our actions after I reread the rules and saw it was 2 food per family member! Spent the next 3 rounds scrambling to get set up for food. She got stuck for a bit, but I had started sheep and was able to get animals going for food.
In the end it turned out alright. She had 13 points and I had 16. We both lost 7 points for unused squares.
It feels so tight and unforgiving but so rewarding when you manage to get a food engine going and then can focus on something else. Looking forward to playing again!
http://www.miniaturemarket.com/reviewcorner/dark-souls-review/
I haven't played it but man dark souls does not sound like a game I want to play
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
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Samurai Spirit - We technically could have saved two villages, but one dude would always die in the last round. Scythe - I won with just a single dollar over Rusviet as the Crimeans with $70 against $69. Which was scary because the Rusviet player was faffing about for the first five turns until she "got" it.
Viticulture - I managed to use my teaching spiel! Which was either too good, or I'm actually not good at the game, because I was dead last in the end.
The guys liked Viticulture more than Scythe, because Viticulture was more "simpler and/or straightforward", and with Scythe, one dude basically put it as "if you're putting mechs in a game, at least make combat less anemic".
Family game. I thought about doing cards but it was talking me way too long to set up the game already and I didn't know why there were three different sets of cards.
That review is pretty accurate, I think.
The family game is a little easier to learn, true. Definitely use the cards next time though. The family game is unfailingly brutal because you don't have anything that might help you. With the cards you have opportunities to make some aspects easier and get some engines going etc.
Edit: not to suggest that the game will not still be harsh using the cards
I'm not sure how the newest printing does it, but the older (Z-Man) printings had three decks of cards, one for new players, one for intermediate, and an expert deck. I think they were coded 'E', 'I', and 'K', if I remember correctly. You could just throw all the cards together into one deck, but some of the advanced cards had some fairly complicated interactions.
If you want to play with more than one deck, the best way to do it is to have people draw a certain number from each deck.
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Seems completely incorrect to me. He's not only insane to say the game works better as a solo game but 100% wrong to boot based on his own flawed critiques. In a solo game you'll repeatedly get stuff you can't use which AND you're forced to grind more which are his main complaints. That almost never happens in a 4 player game.
I'd really like to see one negative review where the reviewer demonstrated they even had a half a grasp of the dang rules because I haven't seen one yet.
I don't have even a vague interest in playing it, I'm just curious really. Your response is basically "grrrrr no it's great that guy is DUMB" so far, and I'm interested in what you think is incorrect there.
So which deck is which? I have E, I, K.
Definitely using cards next time.
The decks are
E for Easy
I for Interactive
and K for Komplex (why not C? I have no idea!)
Easy is relatively self explanatory, but it is easy because they generally focus on one particular action and have straight forward prerequisites. Easy to get into play, easy to use.
Interactive are cards that focus on well, interaction. They tend to care more often on what other players are doing, can hijack other people's resource acquisition, can cause cards to be passed, etc. It's a fun deck.
Komplex cards are complicated. They tend to be harder to get into play, tend to have more indirect effects.
The decks are NOT balanced against one another. E cards tend to just be more powerful than K cards, another reason why they are E cards, they make the game easier. So, don't mix and match them and use them to basically "salt for taste."
An artifact from the original German, I believe.
No, if you're going to combine the best way is to draft. But that adds time and skills you will definitely not have at this stage.
In the first game as Windwalker I got slammed with the fucking Servitors because I grabbed the Shamblers first, and it was kind of crippling! It was even worse in game 2 when Crawling Chaos got hit with them and then got attacked. I kinda don't like them since they're such a direct, persistent debuff that is impossible to remove and can afflict you for the whole game.
Shamblers were amazing. We saw very little reason to take Shub or Yog in the neutral forms though, since they're almost useless until you get the spellbook, which means a lot of investment. That will bear more experimentation for sure; neutral GOOs radically change your playstyle if you go for their spellbooks.
I've seen one for sale and if it seems to be cheap I'll grab it. Cosmic is cool because it is a good old game and it'd be nice to literally have an old version. And it would be handy to trick my wargaming friends into playing a boardgame. "Try it, it's from Games Workshop..."
I'm fine with it being a smaller game than the FF version but if it is flawed or bad I'll pass.
Yeah, Agricola is never too far removed from being Don't Starve: The Board Game, If There Wasn't Already A Don't Starve Video Game About More Things Than Not Starving To Confuse The Issue. It is super in-your-face with all the demands it makes from your poor overstressed peasants. If you like rising to that challenge it's still pretty legendary in that regard and for good reason.
In contrast, A Feast For Odin (from the same designer with the same kind of big deck of occupation/improvement cards) is almost ridiculously lackadasical about not starving, in the long game especially. Yeah, starving is disaster point and you need to make some kind of effort to provide a good mix of food, but it's got a big action board and there are so many ways to not starve! The only problem is that actions and food you spend on not starving are actions and food you're not using to get points. You start out 86 points in the hole for Odin but it's also kind of lackadaisical about that. You can not starve and pull yourself out of that point hole just fine, but if you're not lighting a fire under yourself to A-always B-be C-collecting points, you can find yourself completely satisfied with what you've done and also in dead last.
Considered by themselves they're not too useful, but all together you have the metacommentary of "this game's rules do not adequately dispel common misconceptions". ...which admittedly is still not too useful for most purposes.
In a solo game certain considerations are different, for the same reason grinding by yourself in a video game can be satisfying but grinding in a group can be frustrating. Solo it's always your turn and you can walk through a combat encounter a lot faster, without articulating the rules out loud. You're not under the same social pressure to make a repetitive task entertaining, and you get one turn for every monster turn (instead one for every four, in a four-person game). There are a lot of reasons why it would feel better to solo this.
Interesting, I've never played without the cards, which should give you at least one skill to help alleviate feeding your family. They should also give you a couple of VP-producing paths to follow in addition to what the base game provides. I would never play without them, they add so much needed color and variation.
Amazing missed rule:
In the late game, if you're running out of bottom actions to do, you can do them anyway for the gold bonus as long as you have the resources for it.
I - interactive - interactive
K - kompliziert - complex
Game we played:
1. Cowboy Bebop prototype - This was the most prototypey of prototypes. Cardboard bits cut out with scissors, artless cards on paper sleeves with Magic lands to give them shape. But it was actually pretty fun! It was a co-op hand management, movement game. A little like a tiny Pandemic with a bit of - of all things - Concordia. Each person has a set of three objectives tied to an episode of the show, and a personal deck with resources and skills pertinent to their character (Spike, Jet, Faye, or Ed). You don't have enough resources in your deck to do you objectives, so you're forced to work with the other players. You have to complete your objectives while also hunting bounties to keep your supplies up. It was a fun balance between moving yourself and the spacecraft around and completing player objectives and making sure you don't run out of resources. The only problem was it was a little too easy, but it's very early in development and the bones of a good game are there.
2. Great Western Trail - I doubt I can add much to this beyond what everyone already knows. All I will say is, in a game about buying cows, I won by buying only two cows and that in the last round of the game.
3. Rick & Morty Anatomy Park - A pretty fun game that's coming out soon. It's a tile laying game about building a park in Reuben's guts, with each tile giving you points based on certain conditions. In addition to putting down tiles from your hand, you can also move them around to help you get more points from your time. If you're a fan of the show, give it a look. If not, there's probably barely not enough to be worth it.
4. Dwarven Smithy - A Kickstarter game that's based around hand and tableau management. It's one of those search the deck for resources game, but with a timing element that you often have to wait until your next turn to use the things you just put out. I didn't like it because, due to the low amount of some resources in the deck, you can very easily get screwed out of building the recipe cards in your hand without having any ability to do something about it. Not a fan.
5. A Feast For Odin - This seemed like it would have been really fun if the guy teaching us had any clue what he was doing. He taught the rules wrong, gave us wrong advice, and doubled down when we looked up the rules and tried to correct him. Also it's like $100 retail so I guess I'll never know.
6. BarrenPark - A new tile laying Patchwork like game. Another terrible event in that, despite what it said on the event page, they did not teach us the rules and only had two spots for a four person game. It was a pretty solid tile buying and laying, tetris style fill in your grid kinda game, but nothing to write home about. Not really enough to it to warrant a purchase.
7. Yokohama - Oh man, this was a good one. You're putting tiny workers down on a randomly placed set of cards, then using your boss to move around and do actions. It's kinda area control, kinda worker placement, and kinda engine building. A good solid game definitely worth checking out. Too bad you can't get the deluxe version anymore, as those wooden bits were fantastic.
8. Unfair - A market based tableau building game with some extra bits nailed on. I liked the theme and it seems like it could be a lot of fun, but like the name it can be very unfair and it's pretty easy for one played to get screwed through no fault of their own. It was me. I was the screwed player. I was saltier than a brined turkey.
9. Kingsburgh - An older dice placement game, but still fun and solid. Not gonna say much about an eight year old game, but definitely worth a look if you like that style.
10. Dresden Files Co-op game - It's like Legendary, but without the deck building aspect. Or the actually drawing more cards aspect. Or the making decisions aspect. It was blatantly clear on every turn what to do, and the ending still came down to a roll of the dice. Even if you love the theme, I'd give it a hard pass.
Other Experiences:
Blue Peg Pink Peg meetup - This was the first year they did this, and it was a blast. Maybe 30-40 people or so, but the hosts were all over the place, talking to people, playing games. I had some good conversations with Patrick and Christina and played a few rounds of Happy Salmon with Rob. We had a blast.
Secret Cabal meetup - This was a disaster. The bar was crowded like a standing room only concert. I could barely move, couldn't talk to anyone, and the bartenders were ignoring us. Like, we were leaning on the bar in very obvious "I would like to order a drink" posture that always works, and the bartenders would look at me and literally turn their backs on me. It was awful. Left after a little bit to actually get some food and drink.
North Market - On nom nom tasty food.
Origins After Dark - We only went on Saturday night and it was mostly dead. But it was a nice cool, quiet place to eat and drink with some friends.
Lessons Learned:
1. Sign up for fewer events. I wish we had signed up for fewer ticketed events and instead just left ourselves time to play games with strangers.
2. Snacks - We were smart enough to bring water bottles but we should have also packed some cheap, filling snacks for when a game went long or we needed a quick pick me up without paying $6 for trail mix at the convention center.
3. It's cold - It may be 90 degrees outside, but the inside of the convention center is freezing. Wear long pants and even bring a sweatshirt. Not sure how they get a space that big so cold in the height of summer, but man it was like 60 in there.
I kept missing the extra coins players get if they're not going first. I think there's still like a 60% chance I'll miss it on any given play.
WOW that sucks. A Feast For Odin is probably one of my top 5 best games ever. That dude was a schmoe.
I don't think it's quite top five best ever, at least not for me, but it's a rather good game and should've been a good time with a capable host.
That's why I said my top 5 best games ever.
Although I do admit it loses a full point from me because that whale meat tile is super icky.
Right, but your tastes are idiosyncratic so I figured another voice talking it up wouldn't hurt for forming a balanced opinion. 8-)
Here's a quick list of what I remember him getting wrong
1. He told us to hold back some of our workers from the action phase. There didn't seem to be any use for them after that.
2. Told us we could use every profession card forever, even the single use one.
3. Passed the first player marker around instead of being last person to place.
4. Told us we could move stuff around on our player boards after we place it.
5. Had no idea of the restrictions on placing tiles on various boards.
6. Told us to leave all the food on the table after the feast phase.
7. Had no idea what half the action spaces, especially upgrade spaces, did.
8. I'm pretty sure he was wrong about how mountain tiles come out.
9. Had no idea how hunting and raiding worked.
We would have left in disgust halfway through but the other people there wanted to press on, but my wife and I were incredibly disappointed.
Oh, I forgot to mention I got personally disappointed by Stephen Buonocore three times in two days. So that was cool.
please watch what you say in this thread. Some of us (me) will buy games impulsively
Selling Board Games for Medical Bills
EM, let's run away from work with our boxes and never return.