Man Earth Reborn is just a MASSIVE box of nonsense. Punching it and reading the rules (up through the first scenario, the rules are taught progressively through 9 scenarios and then you get to the "full game" which is a whole crazy scenario generation thing) left me giddy with anticipation. There are a crapton of interesting design ideas in there, and a veritable mountain of Cardboard. It all looks like a weirdo cartoon from the early 90s that would have had bitchin action figures come to insane boardgame life.
I'm sifting through the picks in the OP but would like some recommendations. Some friends and I are stuck in a hotel bored for a while. We've all played and thoroughly enjoyed Dominion and its variants. Could anyone suggest other deck builders in that vein? I'm hoping to swing by the local game store tomorrow and pick something up.
I'm sifting through the picks in the OP but would like some recommendations. Some friends and I are stuck in a hotel bored for a while. We've all played and thoroughly enjoyed Dominion and its variants. Could anyone suggest other deck builders in that vein? I'm hoping to swing by the local game store tomorrow and pick something up.
Thunderstone is the closest good Dominion-like in my opinion--fantasy theme and similar layout of buying from a fixed set, but adds some neat mechanics (you can buy heroes who level up, and descend into the earth to fight monsters, but only if you have enough torches to light your way).
If you want to branch out a little, there's Ascension (Dominion if Dominion's marketplace was a shifting, randomized set of cards).
I second Trains as well, it adds a board and speeds up the pace.
I like the Legendary Encounter games--that's cooperative Ascension with bad guys and a plot, based on Alien or Predator or Firefly or what have you.
I'm sifting through the picks in the OP but would like some recommendations. Some friends and I are stuck in a hotel bored for a while. We've all played and thoroughly enjoyed Dominion and its variants. Could anyone suggest other deck builders in that vein? I'm hoping to swing by the local game store tomorrow and pick something up.
If it is just 1v1 my favorite deckbuilder by far is A Few Acres of Snow, but it's got a LOT of extra stuff tacked on. It's basically a 1v1 area control game where the cards fuel the gameplay.
I also think that Ascension is a good deckbuilder if only played 1v1, anymore than that and the game dissolves pretty badly.
mysticjuicer[he/him] I'm a muscle wizardand I cast P U N C HRegistered Userregular
edited January 2018
Yeah, if you're looking for something to pick up and play that's Dominion-like, then Star Realms is my recommendation as well. On the other hand, if you ready to get a little nasty, pick up Valley of the Kings because that shit is rad! If 'thin-decking' is your jam, it's practically pornography.
I'm sifting through the picks in the OP but would like some recommendations. Some friends and I are stuck in a hotel bored for a while. We've all played and thoroughly enjoyed Dominion and its variants. Could anyone suggest other deck builders in that vein? I'm hoping to swing by the local game store tomorrow and pick something up.
Legendary is a great Marvel-themed deck builder. It's co-op instead of competitive, you are fighting to defeat a mastermind before they complete their scheme. Villains you defeat have victory points so you still have one player that 'wins'. Great with no expansions or lots of expansions. There's plenty of complexity, but since you only choose 5 heroes per game, it's pretty manageable.
Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle is similar but less complex. It builds up by having a base set of cards that are book 1, then releasing additional cards into the game for each book 2-7 (all in the base game). Lightly role-based as you move through the books, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville are good at different things, and you choose other specializations. Completely co-op, great to introduce someone to the deck-building genre.
Guys how do I get a copy of Gloomhaven without paying $150 extra on Amazon.
I've had a preorder in at my local game store for months, but they don't do guarantees and there's like 20 people on the list. I'm at a loss, I think I may just need to wait for the 19th and if the price doesn't drop, bite the bullet. Or show up at my game store when they open.
Spawnbroker on
Steam: Spawnbroker
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
Guys how do I get a copy of Gloomhaven without paying $150 extra on Amazon.
I've had a preorder in at my local game store for months, but they don't do guarantees and there's like 20 people on the list. I'm at a loss, I think I may just need to wait for the 19th and if the price doesn't drop, bite the bullet. Or show up at my game store when they open.
Isaac Childres doesn't seem to be allergic to money; I don't know there'll be another printing, but it doesn't seem terribly unlikely, either.
And honestly, as much as I like it and am glad my group's gotten back to it the last couple weeks, it's a game you can wait on because it's probably only going to improve with revisions. Has already, even.
Guys how do I get a copy of Gloomhaven without paying $150 extra on Amazon.
I've had a preorder in at my local game store for months, but they don't do guarantees and there's like 20 people on the list. I'm at a loss, I think I may just need to wait for the 19th and if the price doesn't drop, bite the bullet. Or show up at my game store when they open.
Isaac Childres doesn't seem to be allergic to money; I don't know there'll be another printing, but it doesn't seem terribly unlikely, either.
And honestly, as much as I like it and am glad my group's gotten back to it the last couple weeks, it's a game you can wait on because it's probably only going to improve with revisions. Has already, even.
At this point, I really don't want to wait any longer. I put in my order at the beginning of December and this was supposed to be my Christmas present, sooooo I'll probably end up paying more for it if I can't get it on the 19th.
Steam: Spawnbroker
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
Guys how do I get a copy of Gloomhaven without paying $150 extra on Amazon.
I've had a preorder in at my local game store for months, but they don't do guarantees and there's like 20 people on the list. I'm at a loss, I think I may just need to wait for the 19th and if the price doesn't drop, bite the bullet. Or show up at my game store when they open.
Isaac Childres doesn't seem to be allergic to money; I don't know there'll be another printing, but it doesn't seem terribly unlikely, either.
And honestly, as much as I like it and am glad my group's gotten back to it the last couple weeks, it's a game you can wait on because it's probably only going to improve with revisions. Has already, even.
At this point, I really don't want to wait any longer. I put in my order at the beginning of December and this was supposed to be my Christmas present, sooooo I'll probably end up paying more for it if I can't get it on the 19th.
Yeah, there I can relate and can't help you except to point out that the long-view situation on acquiring Gloomhaven is pretty favorable.
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
Would it be cheaper to make sure the other 20 people on the pre-order list have a series of unfortunate accidents? Flat tires, dead batteries, the like.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
So I got Fog of Love in the mail yesterday. I tried to pick it up from Walmart in person when I was in California but I'm not sure if they actually carry it in their stores. Anyway, I got it yesterday. I watched the Watch it Played video on YouTube and Rodney explained the rules well enough for us to skip over the tutorial cards and just play the game. We had a lot of fun playing and I'm looking forward to playing many more games with friends in the future. I kinda wish that I had a second copy so that if another couple is over hanging out at my place we could have two games going at the same time.
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Custom SpecialI know I am, I'm sure I am,I'm Sounders 'til I die!Registered Userregular
I'm sifting through the picks in the OP but would like some recommendations. Some friends and I are stuck in a hotel bored for a while. We've all played and thoroughly enjoyed Dominion and its variants. Could anyone suggest other deck builders in that vein? I'm hoping to swing by the local game store tomorrow and pick something up.
I'd like to give a big recommendation to Tyrants of the Underdark. It's a deck builder + dudes on a map/area control game. Very cool and a lot of things to do (besides play card-chain-solitaire). However, it's probably best picked up at some kind of discount. I think the MSRP is like $70, which is ridiculous (it has cool components, but not that cool). I think if it would've released for $15-20 cheaper it might have sold a ton better.
I thought I saw that Issac was saying he was pretty certain that there would be plenty of Gloomhaven available at retail without need to pre-order or to do anything crazy.
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HedgethornAssociate Professor of Historical Hobby HorsesIn the Lions' DenRegistered Userregular
edited January 2018
Gloomhaven hits retail on Jan. 19. The $250 price you see now on Amazon is sure to come down.
Your friendly local game store should have additional copies available through distributors after the first batch; I believe there are something like 30,000 copies are being printed, which is an enormous print run for a hobbyist game, especially one costing $140 MSRP. The small hole-in-the-wall shop in my small Wisconsin town has something like 20 copies coming from the distributor, over and above what were preordered.
I thought I saw that Issac was saying he was pretty certain that there would be plenty of Gloomhaven available at retail without need to pre-order or to do anything crazy.
By all accounts, he laughably underestimated how popular Gloomhaven's second printing was going to be. Or he didn't have enough money to print enough copies from the Kickstarter funding. I know that in some ways, Gloomhaven is a victim of its own success. Nobody expected a Kickstarter game without a major publisher to be The Next Big Thing. Most places I've seen have sold through all of their preorders and are turning people away if they didn't preorder months ago.
I'm surprised that they weren't picked up by a major publisher after the crazy demand for the first printing, that seems odd right? They're leaving money on the table because nobody can get copies. I guess he wanted to stay independent, but the downside of staying independent is not everyone who wants a copy of his game can actually get a copy.
Damn, that's a lot of copies Hedgethorn! I'm waiting until Friday and hopefully I can snag a copy, but reports I've been seeing from stores in my area are "lol good luck"
Over 100% markup on Amazon seems like it could be a target for game counterfeiters as mentioned a few pages back, personally I'd be wary of trying to get Gloomhaven there.
But then I have not one but two local friends who have picked up copies, and we're in the "trying to schedule a regular game day" puzzle.
I thought I saw that Issac was saying he was pretty certain that there would be plenty of Gloomhaven available at retail without need to pre-order or to do anything crazy.
There's been a lot of hype and online retailers are showing out of stock, might be he underestimated demand.
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admanbunionize your workplaceSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
Over 100% markup on Amazon seems like it could be a target for game counterfeiters as mentioned a few pages back, personally I'd be wary of trying to get Gloomhaven there.
But then I have not one but two local friends who have picked up copies, and we're in the "trying to schedule a regular game day" puzzle.
Counterfeiters work in quantity. Nothing below the S-tier of popularity is gonna be touched by counterfeiting.
My team took on — and took down — Season 2 September tonight.
Started with a mandatory objective we had no way to complete. Stumbled on to the answer while someone else was basically holding the necessary equipment.
Also, if you've never used the Monitor action to discard TWO Epidemics, you haven't lived. That felt so good.
Got Bears vs Babies for Christmas from @see317 for Secret Santa and my son Jeremy loves it! It's absolutely silly and all of the monster parts make everyone laugh. It stretches pretty well to 6 players which we did tonight.
I still haven't figured out how to play it well though. I think I need to provoke more quickly so they can't become too powerful.
I wanna talk about a game from last year called Sol: Last Days of a Star for a little bit, because it was a gift, and I hadn't heard of it, and I didn't know what to expect ... and it is quite excellent. I don't really like abstract games (Azul being an exception) and Sol isn't *really* one, but it has the feel of one. The mechanics are sort of weird and about assembling patterns and planning ahead for the movement of a base you can't control. But it does something that very few board games do; it tells a story. And not like a narrative, or a player story, but it's like a tiny piece of world building, like the script to a sci fi movie that doesn't exist, turned into a board game.
In summary, it's a story about ships escaping the orbit of a dying star, and the last desperate moves to just get that little burst of momentum when you're not even sure how long you have. The game captures its premise really well, while being a gorgeous looking game with plastic ships zooming around space. Mechanically it's sort of opaque and unusual, but man, we had a lot of fun figuring it out, and it'd only get better with time. I'd recommend checking it out.
I wanna talk about a game from last year called Sol: Last Days of a Star for a little bit, because it was a gift, and I hadn't heard of it, and I didn't know what to expect ... and it is quite excellent. I don't really like abstract games (Azul being an exception) and Sol isn't *really* one, but it has the feel of one. The mechanics are sort of weird and about assembling patterns and planning ahead for the movement of a base you can't control. But it does something that very few board games do, it tells a story. And not like a written story, or a player story, but it's like a tiny piece of world building, like the script to a sci fi movie that doesn't exist, turned into a board game.
In summary, it's a story about ships escaping the orbit of a dying star, and the last desperate moves to just get that little burst of momentum when you're not even sure how long you have. The game captures its premise really well, while being a gorgeous looking game with plastic ships zooming around space. Mechanically it's sort of opaque and unusual, but man, we had a lot of fun figuring it out, and it'd only get better with time. I'd recommend checking it out.
Finally got a group to play Pandemic Legacy season one!
Not really a spoiler, just a consequence of the Pandemic Legacy rules, but just to be safe:
We lost the CDC. In game one. A bad run of draws caused chain outbreaks in North America, including two outbreaks in Atlanta. So much for that starting research center.
Actual January spoiler:
We got hosed by the superbug. We spent some time shuffling yellow cards from the Researcher to the Scientist, and just before the turn where the Scientist would discover the yellow cure, surprise! Yellow disease can't be cured.
And while we were off dealing with the yellow, red, and black diseases, the run of bad luck mentioned in the other spoiler happened and we ran out of blue cubes. Boooo
Hopefully the additional funding for January part 2 will keep us afloat. We chose "starting research center in Paris" and "+1 hand size for the Scientist" as our upgrades. I lobbied for "starting research center in Sao Paolo" (already at panic level 1, but it's central to the yellow area which is going to be a problem for the foreseeable future) and "once per turn, Treat Disease in an adjacent city" for upgrades, but I was outvoted.
I'm sifting through the picks in the OP but would like some recommendations. Some friends and I are stuck in a hotel bored for a while. We've all played and thoroughly enjoyed Dominion and its variants. Could anyone suggest other deck builders in that vein? I'm hoping to swing by the local game store tomorrow and pick something up.
I'd like to give a big recommendation to Tyrants of the Underdark. It's a deck builder + dudes on a map/area control game. Very cool and a lot of things to do (besides play card-chain-solitaire). However, it's probably best picked up at some kind of discount. I think the MSRP is like $70, which is ridiculous (it has cool components, but not that cool). I think if it would've released for $15-20 cheaper it might have sold a ton better.
I’ve never heard of this but it sounds right up my alley. I’ll check it out!
Your choice of upgrade for the medic is real good. That's all I'll say.
Actually, now that you mention it, part of the reason we didn't pick that upgrade is because we were crazy people and didn't take the medic along for that game. We could well do that in the future, though!
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CaptainPeacockBoard Game HoarderTop o' the LakeRegistered Userregular
On my way to Game Knight in Portland for a long evening of dinner and boardgames!
Success! 8 people to start the evening, 3 die-hards left at the end.
Games played were:
5 rounds of Codenames as an intro to “modern” games for people who thought of Monopoly and Axis and Allies; also so we could eat dinner
Three rounds of One Night Ultimate Werewolf*
Two intro matches of X-Wing for some people who wanted to learn to play**
* We were looking for something that supported 8 that didn’t require much teaching. I stretched the truth and said I’d played it before. In reality, I’ve played a couple different Mafia-type games, but never this one. Still, read the rules and had people playing an intro game in 2 minutes thanks to the fantastic quick start rules. I didn’t play - I just acted as the caller for each game.
** They had the original core set for X-Wing available. First game was the basic Academy and Obsidian TIEs v Rookie X-wing (torps). Second match was Night Beast and Black Squadron (Marksmanship) vs Red Squadron (R2-D2, Torps). Guy flying the X-Wing didn’t go for the kill on a TIE when he had a chance, and ended up paying for it to lose the second match. He won the first one, though.
If I’d remembered, I’d’ve given the Rebel player the effect of Guidance Chips for his torps, but he did okay without them.
WearingglassesOf the friendly neighborhood varietyRegistered Userregular
Board game group, I need your collective genius: help me pick a birthday gift for a gaming buddy.
Target player count - six is ideal, but four is... okay, I guess.
Game length - more than 30 minutes, less than two hours.
Conflict - medium. Not overly direct, but he revels in gloating over opponents
Theme - not another marketplace/trading game, I guess? Plus points for humor
Bluffing - minimal
RNG - minimal, hopefully outcomes aren't solely dependent on dice.
What he's liked before - loved gloating in Tokaido, keen on deeper strategy based on mechanics (Scythe, Concordia, Keyflower) but it tires him quickly. He also loves games that give him the chance to make big plays that have a big impact in the game. Direct conflict stresses all of us as a group
Bonus requirement - Portability optional but welcome.
Maybe something like RoboRally (which just got a new edition, incidentally) or Cosmic Encounter? 6 is a player count that most non-party games just don't get to - but those two are a good mix of funny, competitive without feeling super attacky (you don't choose who you attack in Cosmic, so it's hard to get too beat up over it), and not overly long.
You'd need to pick up an expansion for Cosmic to hit 6, but they're pretty cheap.
FishmanPut your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain.Registered Userregular
6 players is always tricky, because I tend to find it's hard to keep mechanics fun and tight at those numbers.
That said, I'm going to plug Libertalia as a game that might fit the bill. It's one I deeply love at any player count, but it plays really well at any player count between 4-6, is quite fun as well as funny, filled with amusing pirates, and does have opportunity for big plays (even if they are a bit hard to really plan for). It's also pretty much a card game, even though it comes in a full box - I've taken it on holiday with me in a box 1/4 the size by leaving the (strictly-nice-to-have) main board behind and only bringing the player decks and treasure bag.
Anyway, as someone who traded away both Roborally and Cosmic Encounter (both of which I find quite slow at 6 players), I'd say it is well worth a look.
Posts
Dragonfire? Lite deck building plus D&D fighting monsters?
Marvel or DC deck builders have super heroes and fighting a big bad guy?
Thunderstone is the closest good Dominion-like in my opinion--fantasy theme and similar layout of buying from a fixed set, but adds some neat mechanics (you can buy heroes who level up, and descend into the earth to fight monsters, but only if you have enough torches to light your way).
If you want to branch out a little, there's Ascension (Dominion if Dominion's marketplace was a shifting, randomized set of cards).
I second Trains as well, it adds a board and speeds up the pace.
I like the Legendary Encounter games--that's cooperative Ascension with bad guys and a plot, based on Alien or Predator or Firefly or what have you.
If it is just 1v1 my favorite deckbuilder by far is A Few Acres of Snow, but it's got a LOT of extra stuff tacked on. It's basically a 1v1 area control game where the cards fuel the gameplay.
I also think that Ascension is a good deckbuilder if only played 1v1, anymore than that and the game dissolves pretty badly.
Legendary is a great Marvel-themed deck builder. It's co-op instead of competitive, you are fighting to defeat a mastermind before they complete their scheme. Villains you defeat have victory points so you still have one player that 'wins'. Great with no expansions or lots of expansions. There's plenty of complexity, but since you only choose 5 heroes per game, it's pretty manageable.
Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle is similar but less complex. It builds up by having a base set of cards that are book 1, then releasing additional cards into the game for each book 2-7 (all in the base game). Lightly role-based as you move through the books, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville are good at different things, and you choose other specializations. Completely co-op, great to introduce someone to the deck-building genre.
I've had a preorder in at my local game store for months, but they don't do guarantees and there's like 20 people on the list. I'm at a loss, I think I may just need to wait for the 19th and if the price doesn't drop, bite the bullet. Or show up at my game store when they open.
Isaac Childres doesn't seem to be allergic to money; I don't know there'll be another printing, but it doesn't seem terribly unlikely, either.
And honestly, as much as I like it and am glad my group's gotten back to it the last couple weeks, it's a game you can wait on because it's probably only going to improve with revisions. Has already, even.
At this point, I really don't want to wait any longer. I put in my order at the beginning of December and this was supposed to be my Christmas present, sooooo I'll probably end up paying more for it if I can't get it on the 19th.
Yeah, there I can relate and can't help you except to point out that the long-view situation on acquiring Gloomhaven is pretty favorable.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
I'd like to give a big recommendation to Tyrants of the Underdark. It's a deck builder + dudes on a map/area control game. Very cool and a lot of things to do (besides play card-chain-solitaire). However, it's probably best picked up at some kind of discount. I think the MSRP is like $70, which is ridiculous (it has cool components, but not that cool). I think if it would've released for $15-20 cheaper it might have sold a ton better.
Your friendly local game store should have additional copies available through distributors after the first batch; I believe there are something like 30,000 copies are being printed, which is an enormous print run for a hobbyist game, especially one costing $140 MSRP. The small hole-in-the-wall shop in my small Wisconsin town has something like 20 copies coming from the distributor, over and above what were preordered.
By all accounts, he laughably underestimated how popular Gloomhaven's second printing was going to be. Or he didn't have enough money to print enough copies from the Kickstarter funding. I know that in some ways, Gloomhaven is a victim of its own success. Nobody expected a Kickstarter game without a major publisher to be The Next Big Thing. Most places I've seen have sold through all of their preorders and are turning people away if they didn't preorder months ago.
I'm surprised that they weren't picked up by a major publisher after the crazy demand for the first printing, that seems odd right? They're leaving money on the table because nobody can get copies. I guess he wanted to stay independent, but the downside of staying independent is not everyone who wants a copy of his game can actually get a copy.
But then I have not one but two local friends who have picked up copies, and we're in the "trying to schedule a regular game day" puzzle.
There's been a lot of hype and online retailers are showing out of stock, might be he underestimated demand.
Counterfeiters work in quantity. Nothing below the S-tier of popularity is gonna be touched by counterfeiting.
https://www.miniaturemarket.com/cph0204.html
Edit: looks like they're already sold out.
Thanks for the heads up! I went ahead and preordered a copy, better than hoping to get lucky on Amazon.
Also, if you've never used the Monitor action to discard TWO Epidemics, you haven't lived. That felt so good.
I still haven't figured out how to play it well though. I think I need to provoke more quickly so they can't become too powerful.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
In summary, it's a story about ships escaping the orbit of a dying star, and the last desperate moves to just get that little burst of momentum when you're not even sure how long you have. The game captures its premise really well, while being a gorgeous looking game with plastic ships zooming around space. Mechanically it's sort of opaque and unusual, but man, we had a lot of fun figuring it out, and it'd only get better with time. I'd recommend checking it out.
I love this game!
Not really a spoiler, just a consequence of the Pandemic Legacy rules, but just to be safe:
Actual January spoiler:
And while we were off dealing with the yellow, red, and black diseases, the run of bad luck mentioned in the other spoiler happened and we ran out of blue cubes. Boooo
Hopefully the additional funding for January part 2 will keep us afloat. We chose "starting research center in Paris" and "+1 hand size for the Scientist" as our upgrades. I lobbied for "starting research center in Sao Paolo" (already at panic level 1, but it's central to the yellow area which is going to be a problem for the foreseeable future) and "once per turn, Treat Disease in an adjacent city" for upgrades, but I was outvoted.
I’ve never heard of this but it sounds right up my alley. I’ll check it out!
Actually, now that you mention it, part of the reason we didn't pick that upgrade is because we were crazy people and didn't take the medic along for that game. We could well do that in the future, though!
Seconded. This is a very good combo.
Success! 8 people to start the evening, 3 die-hards left at the end.
Games played were:
5 rounds of Codenames as an intro to “modern” games for people who thought of Monopoly and Axis and Allies; also so we could eat dinner
Three rounds of One Night Ultimate Werewolf*
Two intro matches of X-Wing for some people who wanted to learn to play**
* We were looking for something that supported 8 that didn’t require much teaching. I stretched the truth and said I’d played it before. In reality, I’ve played a couple different Mafia-type games, but never this one. Still, read the rules and had people playing an intro game in 2 minutes thanks to the fantastic quick start rules. I didn’t play - I just acted as the caller for each game.
** They had the original core set for X-Wing available. First game was the basic Academy and Obsidian TIEs v Rookie X-wing (torps). Second match was Night Beast and Black Squadron (Marksmanship) vs Red Squadron (R2-D2, Torps). Guy flying the X-Wing didn’t go for the kill on a TIE when he had a chance, and ended up paying for it to lose the second match. He won the first one, though.
If I’d remembered, I’d’ve given the Rebel player the effect of Guidance Chips for his torps, but he did okay without them.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Target player count - six is ideal, but four is... okay, I guess.
Game length - more than 30 minutes, less than two hours.
Conflict - medium. Not overly direct, but he revels in gloating over opponents
Theme - not another marketplace/trading game, I guess? Plus points for humor
Bluffing - minimal
RNG - minimal, hopefully outcomes aren't solely dependent on dice.
What he's liked before - loved gloating in Tokaido, keen on deeper strategy based on mechanics (Scythe, Concordia, Keyflower) but it tires him quickly. He also loves games that give him the chance to make big plays that have a big impact in the game. Direct conflict stresses all of us as a group
Bonus requirement - Portability optional but welcome.
You'd need to pick up an expansion for Cosmic to hit 6, but they're pretty cheap.
That said, I'm going to plug Libertalia as a game that might fit the bill. It's one I deeply love at any player count, but it plays really well at any player count between 4-6, is quite fun as well as funny, filled with amusing pirates, and does have opportunity for big plays (even if they are a bit hard to really plan for). It's also pretty much a card game, even though it comes in a full box - I've taken it on holiday with me in a box 1/4 the size by leaving the (strictly-nice-to-have) main board behind and only bringing the player decks and treasure bag.
Anyway, as someone who traded away both Roborally and Cosmic Encounter (both of which I find quite slow at 6 players), I'd say it is well worth a look.