I finally played Star Realms. That's a lot of fun! It's not necessarily a short game, though. That surprised me. Even excluding the rules explanation, it was a long, tough fight.
In my experience games always end in under ten minutes. It's why you can overlook the heavy randomness. How long was it taking you?
I do remember one game that took solidly 30-40 minutes because the market flop by turn 2 was a bunch of very costly outposts (whatever the space stations are called), so it took a while to hump through this massive chunk of stations which were then all we had in our decks and thus a bunch of guard points to chew through on both sides every turn.
That game was a real bummer ... =_=
Yeah that happens sometimes. It's the biggest flaw with the "center row" family of deckbuilders by far.
AC:NH Chris from Glosta SW-5173-3598-2899 DA-4749-1014-4697 @vyolynce@mastodon.social
I finally got a score in Terra Mystica worth a shit against the lowest AI. Note that I was witches.
This was mostly because my neighbors were handing out Power like candy and the round bonuses were in my favor. My score was 109 and I didn't win, but its an improvement. I wonder if Gaia Project's economy is less suffocating.
3DS Friendcode 5413-1311-3767
+1
CaptainPeacockBoard Game HoarderTop o' the LakeRegistered Userregular
If anyone is going to the Megagame in Seattle today, I'll be there on Control! Hope you have a good time
@CaptainPeacock I'd love to hear about how it went, I've always thought megagames were a great white whale that I want to try.
Extraordinarily good fun. It was the second run ever of this game, Age of Flint. Think Stone Age with real people. The tribes each start with six people, but there are also hermit players that live on their own. The hermits must fend for themselves, but the tradeoff is that they get to communicate with the spirits. Yes, there are yet other players who are spirits! They are playing their own game, meddling in the lives of mortals in an attempt to boost their own power through worship. The unique part of this game is that teams are fluid. Players can leave and join tribes throughout the game. Tribes can split or even merge.
I ran the Exploration table, which was one of the actions a tribe member could take each round. Each tribe starts out only knowing the area around their village, so they need to send out explorers to expand their knowledge of the land and fill in their map. The tribe must be fed and their starting hunting grounds won't last forever... plus, there are things to find in the world that are more valuable than food.
In addition to exploring the land at my table, once a tribe finds something interesting they can send spies to investigate further: secret places, ancient temples, other villages. That is where we control members get to flex their creative muscles
It's so good! I played in it's first ever run at SHUX. And hung out with the designer and some controls after dinner. Great fun.
Well, matter of fact I'll be on the control team at SHUX this year. Maybe I'll see you there?
Cluck cluck, gibber gibber, my old man's a mushroom, etc.
+1
WearingglassesOf the friendly neighborhood varietyRegistered Userregular
edited April 2018
Is downtime the only reason (or at least the biggest) reason why most deckbuilding games are only up to four players?
Like, assuming you scale the available market accordingly, and everyone has a starter deck, does balance get too far out of whack if the four player max get stretched to five?
(I ask because I'm slightly convinced Scott Pilgrim can play up to five if people can tolerate the time between turns.)
I finally got a score in Terra Mystica worth a shit against the lowest AI. Note that I was witches.
This was mostly because my neighbors were handing out Power like candy and the round bonuses were in my favor. My score was 109 and I didn't win, but its an improvement. I wonder if Gaia Project's economy is less suffocating.
GP seemed to me to be terra Mystica, but better. I don't like terra Mystica though, so I might have missed something
+2
Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
Is downtime the only reason (or at least the biggest) reason why most deckbuilding games are only up to four players?
Like, assuming you scale the available market accordingly, and everyone has a starter deck, does balance get too far out of whack if the four player max get stretched to five?
(I ask because I'm slightly convinced Scott Pilgrim can play up to five if people can tolerate the time between turns.)
It's also about running out of cards so having additional players may mean that the last player is at a huge disadvantage
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
Do you find CW goes long? With 5 it's usually about 2.5 hours, 2 if someone gets a strong endgame and jumps ahead (which is rare because we curbstomp the leader very aggressively, sometimes too much so)
oh we don't have a copy
i was holding off buying one for both dollars and playtime reasons
maybe the second one is not a thing, but 2.5 hours is already a bit long for us now that one guy has kids and we don't get started until 7:30
core worlds is listed at 60-90 minutes and it took us 5 hours somehow wednesday night
Any game with negotiation or trading can really balloon with a group that is unwilling to give up on deals
I might institute a timer for our next game of Chinatown
I wandered into a comic store not far from my house today because they advertised games workshop stuff, and thought I could get some paint for some of my board game minis. Turns out they have a board game night every Thrusday. $5 cover, byob, they lock the door and just play something new every week, mostly co-op stuff. What a random happy occurrence.
ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
On the debate of Terra Mystica VS Gaia Project, I fall pretty firmly on the side of "Each has its pros and cons," and would never say one is strictly superior.
Terra Mystica is a lot more honest. Which is to say it's generally pretty apparent where each player is capable of being on the board and how you're each going to interact with each other. Gaia Project has some real fudge factor in that regard, and someone can span the board in 1 or 2 moves if they so desire. It's also generally much easier to assess each player's economy and income in TM, and it's less fiddly since it's not the easily displaced tracks of GP.
Gaia Project's technology and the tech board in general, is far more enticing than favors and the cult track. I do think there's a bit lost with the end round bonuses gone, but it is more than made up for with the new systems.
Aesthetically, Terra Mystica is also miles ahead, as the wooden bits just feel much nicer than the plastic ones, and the board looks a lot more pretty (especially at the end). GP wastes so much with empty space, and not terraforming means the board is a mash of colours instead of pleasantly breaking up as you play. It doesn't start pretty, and it ends even worse by the time you're done.
The faction design in Gaia Project is unquestionably superior to TM, with most everyone at least being appealing or interesting even if they're still not balanced. I do have to say though, I wish they hadn't drawn scrabble tiles at random to name all the factions other than Terrans. :P
I genuinely hope we get a 3rd game at some point that manages to bring the strengths of Terra Mystica's main board together with the strengths of Gaia Project's tech board, as each game so far feels like one half of the game is tacked on to the meatier side. That'll be the game that's actually better than the others if it ever comes to pass.
a used book store here randomly had a used copy of hansa teutonica for $19 sitting around, so yknow sometimes things happen and i buy two games in a weekend for no particular reason even though i already have way more games than i really need hey what can you do
edit: this was the same place that i bought Caylus used from like 4 years ago... got a pretty good track record going there wrt games with annoyed old white dudes on the cover
a used book store here randomly had a used copy of hansa teutonica for $19 sitting around, so yknow sometimes things happen and i buy two games in a weekend for no particular reason even though i already have way more games than i really need hey what can you do
edit: this was the same place that i bought Caylus used from like 4 years ago... got a pretty good track record going there wrt games with annoyed old white dudes on the cover
It's basically the mark of a quality euro game. :P
... I wish that statement was more ironic than it is.
a used book store here randomly had a used copy of hansa teutonica for $19 sitting around, so yknow sometimes things happen and i buy two games in a weekend for no particular reason even though i already have way more games than i really need hey what can you do
edit: this was the same place that i bought Caylus used from like 4 years ago... got a pretty good track record going there wrt games with annoyed old white dudes on the cover
It's basically the mark of a quality euro game. :P
... I wish that statement was more ironic than it is.
*Looks through collection*
Marco Polo...Great Western Trail...Istanbul...Troyes...Clans of Caledonia...
Got a few hours of solo 7th continent in. I am enjoying it! I'm impressed with the design of the interconnections between cards.
I just got home from my second session of 7th continent. 6.5 hours long and we only stopped cause its 1:30 am... (the hosting home owners have a kid).
Stercus, Stercus, Stercus, Morituri Sum
0
FairchildRabbit used short words that were easy to understand, like "Hello Pooh, how about Lunch ?"Registered Userregular
edited April 2018
Played an Intro. scenario to 7th CONTINENT today, we finally managed to escape the Tutorial Island. The method by which you escape is very obtuse, but at least it teaches you the level of puzzle that you need to beat in this game. I was Dr. Frankenstein and got his Monster combo going, which is quite clever. I imagine all of the characters have a similar gimmick ?
tzeentchlingDoctor of RocksOaklandRegistered Userregular
Managed to win a 6 player game of Sidereal Confluence yesterday! Was the 'Kit (bugs). Probably didn't use them to their best, but managed to be the person firing off the Eni Et converters the most, so managed to have the cubes I needed for the technology victory points. Still don't know how to wrap my head around all the parts of that game but it's fun.
I too did a solo run of 7th Continent last night. It plays well with 1! The first half-hour was a struggle, because it's one of those games where it feels like almost all the rules are always relevant at once. But once I got to the point where I didn't have to constantly refer to the manual it was addictive -- I didn't want to stop playing until I finally died (on what we're calling Tutorial Island, from running out of cards and then drawing a curse).
I keep feeling like I must be missing something with Terra Mystica because I found it really bland when I last played. Like, none of the factions felt SO different that it really mattered who you played, it seemed like you had a lot of options but they all moved you toward points so it hardly mattered, your first couple turns are basically pre-programmed, and by the time you have an economy going the game is like 75% over so you don't really get to benefit from it. Plus I HATED how flat and samey the map is. What is so engrossing that it's so widely beloved?
I keep feeling like I must be missing something with Terra Mystica because I found it really bland when I last played. Like, none of the factions felt SO different that it really mattered who you played, it seemed like you had a lot of options but they all moved you toward points so it hardly mattered, your first couple turns are basically pre-programmed, and by the time you have an economy going the game is like 75% over so you don't really get to benefit from it. Plus I HATED how flat and samey the map is. What is so engrossing that it's so widely beloved?
The factions are decently different.
However, i’m not a big fan as the game mostly felt like a solitaire experience of: take your faction unique power and do whatever the current turn bonus is to crank out max points, rinse repeat, with a slight eye to future turn bonuses, while everyone else does the same solitaire self optimization.
0
ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
edited April 2018
Personal experience with Terra Mystica:
It's a game of perfect information, so from the moment you sit down to play, you need to have a plan. You should know roughly what you're aiming to have accomplished each round, or at least what the most important things for you to focus on will be, and keep in mind what other players might also want to do at rough points and how much that's going to potentially fuck you up. Then once you start playing, you have to be ready to pivot and re-evaluate when someone inevitably does fuck your plan up. Even within that, most of the puzzle is trying to optimize the points you get rather than simply acquiring them. Where are you going to get the most power from your opponents actions? Where are you going to run into contested ground for expanding and is that going to thwart your next planned city? Can you let that action space slide for a round when you can better afford it, or is it definitely going to be gone before your next turn?
I find Terra Mystica much less multiplayer solitaire than most other wildly popular games right now because how well you do is directly factored into how well you can work with and around everyone else at the table. All boards are important, and neglecting one probably means the end for your chances winning. If you're playing the game reactively based on whatever the current board state is, and don't have some broad plan for the rest of the round, and probably the next one, I doubt you're getting much out of the game.
I understand it not being a game for everyone, and like most things you shouldn't feel awkward for not liking something popular. It is, however, worth exploring the game some and figuring out what it is you don't like, much as I've done with my often maligned comments towards Terraforming Mars and Scythe. If you heed this advice, I'll further recommend two things as you explore Terra Mystica - both are things that come in the expansion, but you need none of the components for them to be invoked. First, do pass-order-turn-order. That is to say, rather than clockwise from the first passer, passing order fully determines play order for the next round. The game is better for it, even if it's sutble. Second, limit the available factions, and bid for them. I think this is doubly important, because not only does it greatly close the overwhelming pool of options in faction selection, playing this part of the game intelligently is going to force you to consider how each faction available right now is going to play the game, and how those will all work with and against each other. This is definitely how the game should be played, and it's kinda criminal it's missing from the base rulebook. All you have to do is randomly draw factions equal to the number of players (or +1 if you don't want to be too limited), start with 30 points each, and then do a round-table bid for faction choice and 1st turn order (if you win the first bid, you choose your faction and where you want to go on the first turn, then rinse and repeat this process for the number of players in the game).
On the flip side, if you're someone who quite enjoys Terra Mystica, you might be on the lookout for the chance to play Food Chain Magnate or The Great Zimbabwe. Yes, I'm the asshole who just told you to keep your eyes peeled for two Splotter games, but they're both wonderful perfect information games that reward understanding the game and the other players at the table~
I guess TM, and by proximity, Gaia Project, aren't for me, then. Great Western Trail and hopefully, Clans of Caledonia, are the heaviest economic games I'm willing to go.
EDIT - I almost said Sidereal Confluence, a game I enjoy, but the weight of that game comes from negotiation, not the bits.
By the way, an expansion for Great Western Trail, Rails to the North, was announced! I thought the game was perfect and didn't need one. I can't see the details but it looks like it gives you more shit to do with your train!
Cantido on
3DS Friendcode 5413-1311-3767
0
AstaerethIn the belly of the beastRegistered Userregular
Trying to decide if I should solo 7th Continent or play with my family. Should I play it myself first to learn the rules? Is it not going to be fun to replay with them because I know all the cards, or is it random and surprising every time?
0
Powerpuppiesdrinking coffee in themountain cabinRegistered Userregular
i just can't abide games as long as TM that you can't realistically come back from a badly played first couple turns
from your description it sounds as if that is true of TM?
Trying to decide if I should solo 7th Continent or play with my family. Should I play it myself first to learn the rules? Is it not going to be fun to replay with them because I know all the cards, or is it random and surprising every time?
You can drop in or out during the same game without a problem. As for the randomness, the exploration cards will be randomized each time, successes or failures can have different results, multiple results can yield different results. Yes its possible i suppose to memorize the entire map of the island, but even if you do remember, that does not ensure victory. you can play with multiple curses to up the difficulty, and if you went all in with the kickstarter, the expansion will add a good bit of real estate and new things, and the mini expansion all have new stuff as well. One of the stretch goals was to add a 'traitor' aspect to the game (optional). I think its going to have a lot more replayability than most of my board games.
All this 7th Continent talk has inspired me to try and pick up our... 6 month (!) paused first game.
Man, adulting sucks.
All set out and awaiting kids to be asleep. I think I can remember the vague direction we were going in. From my memory we're pretty much at where the map says the temple is so we're either right about to hit the finale, or hopelessly lost.
Jam Warrior on
+1
ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
i just can't abide games as long as TM that you can't realistically come back from a badly played first couple turns
from your description it sounds as if that is true of TM?
It probably depends on the other players at the table, but there is definitely a degree by which you can "play poorly" enough to never have a chance. It's not a game with any amazing comeback mechanisms, but there are still "great moves" possible in the game. There's no randomness whatsoever and no in-built comeback mechanics, so yes, it's really about how well you play the game compared to the other people at the table.
Also, I'm sort of curious what other play times some of you are seeing, because when players know how to play the game it's solidly 100-150 minutes for us. Maybe I'm just accustomed to a different game length than the "norm"?
It is possible that my first (and so far only) experience with TM was one where 3/5 of us were brand new to the game, and one of the 2 who had played before is just, um, not great at thinkier games. So like, only me and 1 other player were playing anywhere near efficient to start. One other player had caught on about midway through, but by that point only 2 of us were reasonably capable of winning, and the other 2 were so far behind that they couldn't even really do anything to impact our engines. I'll probably give it another go; I may try out the mobile version.
I still think the game should start you with more stuff already on the board though. To me the worst part of the game was that the first couple of turns felt so very scripted based on your faction. Why not just start a turn or 2 later when everyone has at least SOMETHING going on?
I still think the game should start you with more stuff already on the board though. To me the worst part of the game was that the first couple of turns felt so very scripted based on your faction. Why not just start a turn or 2 later when everyone has at least SOMETHING going on?
I think the opening has sufficient variety in openings:
They're all just miserable and always leave me feeling like I'm starving.
All this 7th Continent talk has inspired me to try and pick up our... 6 month (!) paused first game.
Man, adulting sucks.
All set out and awaiting kids to be asleep. I think I can remember the vague direction we were going in. From my memory we're pretty much at where the map says the temple is so we're either right about to hit the finale, or hopelessly lost.
Oh my. I was right about being right be where we were headed. I was very wrong about it being nearly over.
Edit: And we're stopping for the night. I think we're on the right track but things got very vague once we'd reached the end of the map trail. On the way we managed to hunt our way back to an empty discard pile with some meat in the pack though, so that's nice.
I still think the game should start you with more stuff already on the board though. To me the worst part of the game was that the first couple of turns felt so very scripted based on your faction. Why not just start a turn or 2 later when everyone has at least SOMETHING going on?
I think the opening has sufficient variety in openings:
They're all just miserable and always leave me feeling like I'm starving.
Just to clarify: are they different from one faction to the next, or from one game to the next with the same faction? I can see the former, but not so much the latter.
I still think the game should start you with more stuff already on the board though. To me the worst part of the game was that the first couple of turns felt so very scripted based on your faction. Why not just start a turn or 2 later when everyone has at least SOMETHING going on?
I think the opening has sufficient variety in openings:
They're all just miserable and always leave me feeling like I'm starving.
Just to clarify: are they different from one faction to the next, or from one game to the next with the same faction? I can see the former, but not so much the latter.
Both, because TM is also about the timing of your economic decisions in order to create point'splosions. Your favorite opening may be worth more points if you delay it. I refer to the six Round Bonuses unique to each game.
In TM, intermediate players may change up their preferred, faction-specific openings according to the round bonus if the points and economic benefits are reasonable. My favorite example (because I only play Witches until I win with them digitally): dumping Dwellings everywhere. If the round 1 bonus is for dwellings and I nab the Shipping bonus, that's magnificent. Witches crank out Dwellings and get points for it. If the round 1 bonus is for one of the two final buildings instead, Witches may consider rushing straight to a Stronghold to activate their freebie Dwelling every round, at the expense of worker and money starvation (but more Power) on Round 2. If the round 1 bonus is for a Temple, Witches may forgo a ton of dwellings, build a Temple, and start making work of the early Temple bonuses and a priest for...fuck it I don't even know anymore.
And there're always the shitty chance of the first round bonus being an unreasonably early "make a Town" and everyone throws their hands up and does their own standard opening, preparing for a round bonus that will have more meaning for them. This is what Lancer means by having a plan.
EDIT - In theory, a bunch of beginner players can completely ignore the round bonuses and just fixate on the opening their faction likes best. Intermediate players can do this too, but that's because they are getting ready for a juicier round bonus later.
Advanced players are doing all this on top of the choices of their opponents.
I definitely retract my comment about the quality of Mayday card sleeves. I sleeved everything from 7th continent after I ordered 1000 of the standard sleeves and everything fit perfectly except one which was split. They feel good too.
Today I learned that posting in a BGG "Sessions" subforum is something that needs to get approval from other users, and apparently they are strict (or gate-keepery) about what they appove. Ah well, live and learn.
I've been playin Darklight: Memento Mori, another Warhammer Quest inspired game (similar to how Shadows of Brimstone is). It has been a lot of fun so far ... sessions play much quicker than SoB, although part of this is due to the fact that it does not have the rules / expansion bloat of SoB. The miniatures are 42mm and look pretty awesome. It won't replace SoB for me or my group, but it definitely will get play when I am looking for a quick dungeon delve.
Posts
Yeah that happens sometimes. It's the biggest flaw with the "center row" family of deckbuilders by far.
This was mostly because my neighbors were handing out Power like candy and the round bonuses were in my favor. My score was 109 and I didn't win, but its an improvement. I wonder if Gaia Project's economy is less suffocating.
Well, matter of fact I'll be on the control team at SHUX this year. Maybe I'll see you there?
Like, assuming you scale the available market accordingly, and everyone has a starter deck, does balance get too far out of whack if the four player max get stretched to five?
(I ask because I'm slightly convinced Scott Pilgrim can play up to five if people can tolerate the time between turns.)
It's also about running out of cards so having additional players may mean that the last player is at a huge disadvantage
I played Dominant Species for the first time yesterday. It took about 6 hours for three players. I will not be playing Dominant Species again.
Any game with negotiation or trading can really balloon with a group that is unwilling to give up on deals
I might institute a timer for our next game of Chinatown
Dominant Species should not take that long.
I think my first game was 2 hours for 3 people? Sub 3 hours at the very least. 6 is definitely waaaaay too long for that game though.
Terra Mystica is a lot more honest. Which is to say it's generally pretty apparent where each player is capable of being on the board and how you're each going to interact with each other. Gaia Project has some real fudge factor in that regard, and someone can span the board in 1 or 2 moves if they so desire. It's also generally much easier to assess each player's economy and income in TM, and it's less fiddly since it's not the easily displaced tracks of GP.
Gaia Project's technology and the tech board in general, is far more enticing than favors and the cult track. I do think there's a bit lost with the end round bonuses gone, but it is more than made up for with the new systems.
Aesthetically, Terra Mystica is also miles ahead, as the wooden bits just feel much nicer than the plastic ones, and the board looks a lot more pretty (especially at the end). GP wastes so much with empty space, and not terraforming means the board is a mash of colours instead of pleasantly breaking up as you play. It doesn't start pretty, and it ends even worse by the time you're done.
The faction design in Gaia Project is unquestionably superior to TM, with most everyone at least being appealing or interesting even if they're still not balanced. I do have to say though, I wish they hadn't drawn scrabble tiles at random to name all the factions other than Terrans. :P
I genuinely hope we get a 3rd game at some point that manages to bring the strengths of Terra Mystica's main board together with the strengths of Gaia Project's tech board, as each game so far feels like one half of the game is tacked on to the meatier side. That'll be the game that's actually better than the others if it ever comes to pass.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
edit: this was the same place that i bought Caylus used from like 4 years ago... got a pretty good track record going there wrt games with annoyed old white dudes on the cover
It's basically the mark of a quality euro game. :P
... I wish that statement was more ironic than it is.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
*Looks through collection*
Marco Polo...Great Western Trail...Istanbul...Troyes...Clans of Caledonia...
Shit.
I just got home from my second session of 7th continent. 6.5 hours long and we only stopped cause its 1:30 am... (the hosting home owners have a kid).
The factions are decently different.
However, i’m not a big fan as the game mostly felt like a solitaire experience of: take your faction unique power and do whatever the current turn bonus is to crank out max points, rinse repeat, with a slight eye to future turn bonuses, while everyone else does the same solitaire self optimization.
It's a game of perfect information, so from the moment you sit down to play, you need to have a plan. You should know roughly what you're aiming to have accomplished each round, or at least what the most important things for you to focus on will be, and keep in mind what other players might also want to do at rough points and how much that's going to potentially fuck you up. Then once you start playing, you have to be ready to pivot and re-evaluate when someone inevitably does fuck your plan up. Even within that, most of the puzzle is trying to optimize the points you get rather than simply acquiring them. Where are you going to get the most power from your opponents actions? Where are you going to run into contested ground for expanding and is that going to thwart your next planned city? Can you let that action space slide for a round when you can better afford it, or is it definitely going to be gone before your next turn?
I find Terra Mystica much less multiplayer solitaire than most other wildly popular games right now because how well you do is directly factored into how well you can work with and around everyone else at the table. All boards are important, and neglecting one probably means the end for your chances winning. If you're playing the game reactively based on whatever the current board state is, and don't have some broad plan for the rest of the round, and probably the next one, I doubt you're getting much out of the game.
I understand it not being a game for everyone, and like most things you shouldn't feel awkward for not liking something popular. It is, however, worth exploring the game some and figuring out what it is you don't like, much as I've done with my often maligned comments towards Terraforming Mars and Scythe. If you heed this advice, I'll further recommend two things as you explore Terra Mystica - both are things that come in the expansion, but you need none of the components for them to be invoked. First, do pass-order-turn-order. That is to say, rather than clockwise from the first passer, passing order fully determines play order for the next round. The game is better for it, even if it's sutble. Second, limit the available factions, and bid for them. I think this is doubly important, because not only does it greatly close the overwhelming pool of options in faction selection, playing this part of the game intelligently is going to force you to consider how each faction available right now is going to play the game, and how those will all work with and against each other. This is definitely how the game should be played, and it's kinda criminal it's missing from the base rulebook. All you have to do is randomly draw factions equal to the number of players (or +1 if you don't want to be too limited), start with 30 points each, and then do a round-table bid for faction choice and 1st turn order (if you win the first bid, you choose your faction and where you want to go on the first turn, then rinse and repeat this process for the number of players in the game).
On the flip side, if you're someone who quite enjoys Terra Mystica, you might be on the lookout for the chance to play Food Chain Magnate or The Great Zimbabwe. Yes, I'm the asshole who just told you to keep your eyes peeled for two Splotter games, but they're both wonderful perfect information games that reward understanding the game and the other players at the table~
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
EDIT - I almost said Sidereal Confluence, a game I enjoy, but the weight of that game comes from negotiation, not the bits.
By the way, an expansion for Great Western Trail, Rails to the North, was announced! I thought the game was perfect and didn't need one. I can't see the details but it looks like it gives you more shit to do with your train!
from your description it sounds as if that is true of TM?
You can drop in or out during the same game without a problem. As for the randomness, the exploration cards will be randomized each time, successes or failures can have different results, multiple results can yield different results. Yes its possible i suppose to memorize the entire map of the island, but even if you do remember, that does not ensure victory. you can play with multiple curses to up the difficulty, and if you went all in with the kickstarter, the expansion will add a good bit of real estate and new things, and the mini expansion all have new stuff as well. One of the stretch goals was to add a 'traitor' aspect to the game (optional). I think its going to have a lot more replayability than most of my board games.
Man, adulting sucks.
All set out and awaiting kids to be asleep. I think I can remember the vague direction we were going in. From my memory we're pretty much at where the map says the temple is so we're either right about to hit the finale, or hopelessly lost.
It probably depends on the other players at the table, but there is definitely a degree by which you can "play poorly" enough to never have a chance. It's not a game with any amazing comeback mechanisms, but there are still "great moves" possible in the game. There's no randomness whatsoever and no in-built comeback mechanics, so yes, it's really about how well you play the game compared to the other people at the table.
Also, I'm sort of curious what other play times some of you are seeing, because when players know how to play the game it's solidly 100-150 minutes for us. Maybe I'm just accustomed to a different game length than the "norm"?
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
I still think the game should start you with more stuff already on the board though. To me the worst part of the game was that the first couple of turns felt so very scripted based on your faction. Why not just start a turn or 2 later when everyone has at least SOMETHING going on?
I think the opening has sufficient variety in openings:
They're all just miserable and always leave me feeling like I'm starving.
Oh my. I was right about being right be where we were headed. I was very wrong about it being nearly over.
Edit: And we're stopping for the night. I think we're on the right track but things got very vague once we'd reached the end of the map trail. On the way we managed to hunt our way back to an empty discard pile with some meat in the pack though, so that's nice.
Just to clarify: are they different from one faction to the next, or from one game to the next with the same faction? I can see the former, but not so much the latter.
Both, because TM is also about the timing of your economic decisions in order to create point'splosions. Your favorite opening may be worth more points if you delay it. I refer to the six Round Bonuses unique to each game.
In TM, intermediate players may change up their preferred, faction-specific openings according to the round bonus if the points and economic benefits are reasonable. My favorite example (because I only play Witches until I win with them digitally): dumping Dwellings everywhere. If the round 1 bonus is for dwellings and I nab the Shipping bonus, that's magnificent. Witches crank out Dwellings and get points for it. If the round 1 bonus is for one of the two final buildings instead, Witches may consider rushing straight to a Stronghold to activate their freebie Dwelling every round, at the expense of worker and money starvation (but more Power) on Round 2. If the round 1 bonus is for a Temple, Witches may forgo a ton of dwellings, build a Temple, and start making work of the early Temple bonuses and a priest for...fuck it I don't even know anymore.
And there're always the shitty chance of the first round bonus being an unreasonably early "make a Town" and everyone throws their hands up and does their own standard opening, preparing for a round bonus that will have more meaning for them. This is what Lancer means by having a plan.
EDIT - In theory, a bunch of beginner players can completely ignore the round bonuses and just fixate on the opening their faction likes best. Intermediate players can do this too, but that's because they are getting ready for a juicier round bonus later.
Advanced players are doing all this on top of the choices of their opponents.
I dislike TM but I respect the hell out of it.
A PbP run in Tabletop Simulator!
Although if enough people who have TTS are interested, I'd totally be down for a live game on that.
Other TTS games I'd be down to play live with anyone:
Scythe
Blood Rage
Rising Sun
Android (another I was considering hosting PbP here)
Battle of Rogaku
Inis
Selling Board Games for Medical Bills
I've been playin Darklight: Memento Mori, another Warhammer Quest inspired game (similar to how Shadows of Brimstone is). It has been a lot of fun so far ... sessions play much quicker than SoB, although part of this is due to the fact that it does not have the rules / expansion bloat of SoB. The miniatures are 42mm and look pretty awesome. It won't replace SoB for me or my group, but it definitely will get play when I am looking for a quick dungeon delve.