Shut Up & Sit Down has another video out. They reviewed Bargain Quest.
They need to stop this pace! I just bought 878 Vikings on their recommendation. Now they're forcing me to get this other game? How dare they!
I'd warn you that Bargain Quest is quite light. You might have the specific audience for it, but I found that I didn't. I didn't find it short or interesting enough for a game of its weight. Like Quinns, if I wanted a light drafting game, I'd much sooner break out Sushi Go.
Welp, I'm going to have to take everyone's word for it that Xenoshyft is fun, because the app crashes so often to the point of being totally unplayable. I have yet to make it through even 2 rounds of the tutorial or solo game without it crashing.
Isn't no crashing supposed to be Apple's thing? Every given iPad model is the exact same specs and OS...
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ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
What a coincidence everyone started talking about the Escape or Exit series.
Last weekend I visited the folks for mother's day, and instead of our annual start of summer Fireball Island game, we booked a live Escape the Room session that just opened up at a nearby mall (malls seem to be shifting away from shops and more into activity centers, with bowling alleys, trampolines, bouncy castles, indoor go karts).
It was fun, but it's hard to tell with the live ones if you're supposed to ransack the room for clues first or if you're supposed to follow a string of clues from the initial one. We spent the first half hour trying to get somewhere from the initial clue, but it turned out we just had to ransack and get more clues. Got rolling after that though, and finished it with 70 seconds left on the clock.
Personal experience - you know you got a good place if they want you to branch out. I find the rooms that only have you doing one thing at once terribly dull, and can be really bad for groups since it's easy for people to straight up not be able to participate.
Bought The Abandoned Cabin from the Exit series and played the next night. Really fun, with one of the revealed solutions eliciting a "whoooooooah!" from everyone. Although we had to call bullshit on the Moon puzzle. Will probably buy a bunch more and save them for casual nights with the folks and their friends. One caveat is I wish it was more clear on what puzzles you can solve and which you need to wait for more cards on. I think a full half of our time was wasted trying to use the "strange objects" on everything before it was possible to.
(you totally don't need to cut up and destroy your copy of Abandoned Cabin. Just have a scanner on standby when you play and print a copy of the one or two cutout parts when they come up)
Can you spoiler tag what the moon puzzle was? It's been a while.
"The moon rises in M-A-Y", and then the moon card has words in 4 rows with 1 line of gibberish. The word "red" can be seen within the gibberish line. We tried all sorts of stuff. Couldn't find "may" anywhere in the letters. Tried stuff with the color red. Tried the strange object "green rectangle cardboard thingie with a view hole in it" to see if the revealed letters spelled out anything.
And the solution turns out to be you had to count the total number of letter Ms, As, and Ys in the whole thing. There is not any indication of what you have to do with M-A-Y.
I brought the thing into a meetup group and watched 2 different groups play through it. None of them got the puzzle.
There was one more puzzle that was borderline, forget the symbol.
"Take away yellow from the skull.
Add red to the button.
Take away blue from the ball."
The orange skull was obvious.
The riddle card with the round purple object looked SO like a button, like a purple version of this:
Since that must be the button, we were looking everywhere for a "ball".
There was no "ball" though, and adding red to the color purple made no sense.
Eventually I stopped looking for shapes and started looking for colors. Since you were adding red to the 2nd one to get a new color, it had to be either yellow or blue. So after pouring over every picture, I found a bright yellow object. Squinting to look closer, I saw it was a sewing button.
"Oh...so then what's the 'ball'?"
It took another minute to realize that they meant this to be a ball. It looks nothing like a ball and everything like a button
Really the only reason to suspect it was that taking blue away from purple made sense. Without that color I never would have guessed this was meant to be a ball.
Oddly, I remember neither of these as you've described them, but I think maybe we had problems on the same puzzle? The one we get held up on was
where you had to count the number of things in the painting on the wall (Does the painting have a date in May on the plaque?), and then use that to do the little word search number thing? I only remember it so well, but I remember being disgruntled that the image of what you were supposed to circle didn't line up with how you were actually supposed to circle things, and that really fucked us up.
As far as Unlock, I've done two. The first one was pretty good (I think it was the cartoony evil lab box), and the second one put me off the series entirely (Nautilus). In particular, that rusted sign puzzle using a word I have to figure less than 1% of the population knows can go straight in the garbage can. >_>
What was the word? I completed Nautilus, and I don't remember. I think Nautilus was supposed to be one of the difficult ones, anyway?
I wish I could tell you, but I can't remember. Trust me, on numerous occasions I've tried looking it up. What I can say is
It started with "six" and is the rhythm scheme like iambic pentameter, but revolving around six beats instead of five.
six beats instead of five is hexameter. just sayin.
That may be the case, and maybe I'm wrong about the definition, as that definitely wasn't it.
What a coincidence everyone started talking about the Escape or Exit series.
Last weekend I visited the folks for mother's day, and instead of our annual start of summer Fireball Island game, we booked a live Escape the Room session that just opened up at a nearby mall (malls seem to be shifting away from shops and more into activity centers, with bowling alleys, trampolines, bouncy castles, indoor go karts).
It was fun, but it's hard to tell with the live ones if you're supposed to ransack the room for clues first or if you're supposed to follow a string of clues from the initial one. We spent the first half hour trying to get somewhere from the initial clue, but it turned out we just had to ransack and get more clues. Got rolling after that though, and finished it with 70 seconds left on the clock.
Personal experience - you know you got a good place if they want you to branch out. I find the rooms that only have you doing one thing at once terribly dull, and can be really bad for groups since it's easy for people to straight up not be able to participate.
Bought The Abandoned Cabin from the Exit series and played the next night. Really fun, with one of the revealed solutions eliciting a "whoooooooah!" from everyone. Although we had to call bullshit on the Moon puzzle. Will probably buy a bunch more and save them for casual nights with the folks and their friends. One caveat is I wish it was more clear on what puzzles you can solve and which you need to wait for more cards on. I think a full half of our time was wasted trying to use the "strange objects" on everything before it was possible to.
(you totally don't need to cut up and destroy your copy of Abandoned Cabin. Just have a scanner on standby when you play and print a copy of the one or two cutout parts when they come up)
Can you spoiler tag what the moon puzzle was? It's been a while.
"The moon rises in M-A-Y", and then the moon card has words in 4 rows with 1 line of gibberish. The word "red" can be seen within the gibberish line. We tried all sorts of stuff. Couldn't find "may" anywhere in the letters. Tried stuff with the color red. Tried the strange object "green rectangle cardboard thingie with a view hole in it" to see if the revealed letters spelled out anything.
And the solution turns out to be you had to count the total number of letter Ms, As, and Ys in the whole thing. There is not any indication of what you have to do with M-A-Y.
I brought the thing into a meetup group and watched 2 different groups play through it. None of them got the puzzle.
There was one more puzzle that was borderline, forget the symbol.
"Take away yellow from the skull.
Add red to the button.
Take away blue from the ball."
The orange skull was obvious.
The riddle card with the round purple object looked SO like a button, like a purple version of this:
Since that must be the button, we were looking everywhere for a "ball".
There was no "ball" though, and adding red to the color purple made no sense.
Eventually I stopped looking for shapes and started looking for colors. Since you were adding red to the 2nd one to get a new color, it had to be either yellow or blue. So after pouring over every picture, I found a bright yellow object. Squinting to look closer, I saw it was a sewing button.
"Oh...so then what's the 'ball'?"
It took another minute to realize that they meant this to be a ball. It looks nothing like a ball and everything like a button
Really the only reason to suspect it was that taking blue away from purple made sense. Without that color I never would have guessed this was meant to be a ball.
Oddly, I remember neither of these as you've described them, but I think maybe we had problems on the same puzzle? The one we get held up on was
where you had to count the number of things in the painting on the wall (Does the painting have a date in May on the plaque?), and then use that to do the little word search number thing? I only remember it so well, but I remember being disgruntled that the image of what you were supposed to circle didn't line up with how you were actually supposed to circle things, and that really fucked us up.
As far as Unlock, I've done two. The first one was pretty good (I think it was the cartoony evil lab box), and the second one put me off the series entirely (Nautilus). In particular, that rusted sign puzzle using a word I have to figure less than 1% of the population knows can go straight in the garbage can. >_>
What was the word? I completed Nautilus, and I don't remember. I think Nautilus was supposed to be one of the difficult ones, anyway?
I wish I could tell you, but I can't remember. Trust me, on numerous occasions I've tried looking it up. What I can say is
It started with "six" and is the rhythm scheme like iambic pentameter, but revolving around six beats instead of five.
Is it "sextant"? A nautical navigational tool that uses star positions? I seem to vaguely recall one of the puzzles involving that word. I thought that word was common knowledge?
EDIT: No, it's not. I just looked up a walkthrough. I have no idea where that word was, but I don't ever remember using it for anything in the beginning of the puzzle.
Reading the walkthrough, Nautilus definitely was one of the harder ones, but me and my partner managed to get through it okay. I dunno, we do a lot of escape rooms and I do a lot of word puzzles. *shrugs*
Honestly, you might have done what we did, which was basically say "Literally no other number makes sense for this. Someone fucking google this word." <_<
ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
Oh, unrelated and while I remember, our cafe got a demo copy of Menara the other week, and I got to play it last night. It's a very fun dexterity game. I may have been on the BGG page earlier today and have it on good authority someone here is interested in the game. ;P
Going to be picking up a bunch of Exit/Escape/Unlock games. Are there any ones I should avoid?
I may have talked some assorted shit about different parts of different ones, but I've still enjoyed the 4 Exit boxes I've played (original 3 plus the island one). Unlock I had much less experience with, and I think it's safer to do as others have noted and just save Nautilus until you've played most of the others.
So Paradox is getting into the board games...game. Crusader Kings is on Kickstarter, with EU, Cities Skyline, and Hearts of Iron on the way. No Stellaris is kind of a bummer.
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38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
Be warned, that's how I ended up with the $100 pile of crap that is Dark Souls: The Board Game. Strip away the IP and determine if the gameplay will still hold before you buy.
3DS Friendcode 5413-1311-3767
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Zavianuniversal peace sounds better than forever warRegistered Userregular
Be warned, that's how I ended up with the $100 pile of crap that is Dark Souls: The Board Game. Strip away the IP and determine if the gameplay will still hold before you buy.
It does seem very linear compared to the actual game which is a giant sandbox basically, like the end goal is Jerusalem with preset battles along the way. I like how they have trait tokens and translated the basic mechanics, but yeah it would definitely need post-launch expansions for replayability like different religions and character cards, missions and even new map boards with more zoomed in maps IMO
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38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
I'd rather a cheaper game with less different minis or less minis.
Last night I won a game of Inis with three deeds, thanks to a double-deed turn with Bard and Master Craftsman. It wasn't as unstoppable as I thought, as I had to sacrifice a lot of board presence to get it all set up, but it was pretty brutal.
I made to sure to encourage another player to Geis my girlfriend, which she was very displeased with, but it let me get those second and third deeds, so
Last night I won a game of Inis with three deeds, thanks to a double-deed turn with Bard and Master Craftsman. It wasn't as unstoppable as I thought, as I had to sacrifice a lot of board presence to get it all set up, but it was pretty brutal.
I made to sure to encourage another player to Geis my girlfriend, which she was very displeased with, but it let me get those second and third deeds, so
Last night I won a game of Inis with three deeds, thanks to a double-deed turn with Bard and Master Craftsman. It wasn't as unstoppable as I thought, as I had to sacrifice a lot of board presence to get it all set up, but it was pretty brutal.
I made to sure to encourage another player to Geis my girlfriend, which she was very displeased with, but it let me get those second and third deeds, so
I won with 4 guys on the table. Dope.
This is a great summation of why I love Inis.
I definitely need to get Inis to the table more.
3DS Friendcode 5413-1311-3767
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ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
Oh, Inis~
So, uh, I had lunch with my girlfriend, missed my bus by about 2 minutes, so had an hour to kill. Went across the street to the game cafe and played Menara again solitaire. It's still a delight. Then I bought it because apparently copies made it onto the shelves since Thursday. :P
It's not an all-the-time game, but I think it'll be a pretty good alternative to Telestrations for when we play games with the better half's friends. Also, if you don't knock the tower down while playing, you typically have something that looks really, genuinely cool by the time you're finished. Big thumbs up~
We played Flamme Rouge for the first time ever. We were all familiar with the basic tactics of the Tour de France, so we immediately understood the challenge the game provides you with. We were so impressed by how well they translated cycling to boardgames that we just had to sit down and take it all in for a bit.
That was such a great game. I still can't believe it even existst.
Playing solo Gaia Project with two factions is brain melting. Probably I'll try the automa next time. I have a hard enough time keeping one faction straight and figuring out what they're trying to do, let alone two. Also not being able to think about what you're going to do in the other players turn makes it take basically twice as long. Still fun though!
38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
A friend brought over Champions of Midgard last week and we tried it out two player. It seems closest to Lords of Waterdeep, but instead of buying cubes you buy dice. And your dice don't 100% get killed while doing quests, they have a good chance to live on. The harder quests require boat trips which need dice and food, you can get food by buying it, hunting for it with your dice (cannot lose dice here) or trading for it. There are random buildings that are permanent for the game. There is also a shame mechanic where if someone doesn't kill a troll every turn everyone gets shame for stacking negative victory points. If you are the one who kills the troll you can give your shame to someone else.
Yesterday we played The Mind which finally came in. (Co-op: Play cards 1-100 in numerical order without talking)Everyone seemed to love it, so well worth the 13$ or whatever. That level 5 though. I should probably try and print the English instructions from somewhere.
My friends also brought over Dropmix which I guess counts as a board game? Its a "DJ" "boardgame" where you play cards according to what an app says and make music. You need to play the right card in the right slot as soon as possible. The cards trigger parts of a song. Its hard to explain. Was fairly entertaining.
Yesterday we played The Mind which finally came in. (Co-op: Play cards 1-100 in numerical order without talking)Everyone seemed to love it, so well worth the 13$ or whatever. That level 5 though. I should probably try and print the English instructions from somewhere..
They're on BGG. How many were you playing with? I've yet to successfully won with any player count, though I've gotten to the penultimate round multiple times.
38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
We were playing with 4.
Couldn't find the rules by browsing, but google helped. (BGG needs better organization)
This is particularly hilarious in the rules:
New challenge: if the team successfully completes all the levels in the stack
(and is dancing joyfully on cloud nine), play goes on immediately in blind mode.
The team starts again at level 1 with all its remaining lives and throwing stars,
but this time all the cards are played face down on the deck in the centre of the
table. At the end of the level this stack is turned over and the sequence of cards
is checked. If a player has made a mistake, this costs one life. The remaining
rules are unchanged. How many levels can the team complete blind?
Dropmix is great! Sounds like you played "Party Mode".
There's a versus mode called "Clash" where you play 2 cards a turn and try to be the first to 21 by scoring in various ways (playing cards, bonus points for playing a color that's not already on the board, owning the full mix, and getting points from special white FX cards). You can build decks with the various sets to be more competitive as well.
There's a dropmix thread in SE if folks are interested further.
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KetarCome on upstairswe're having a partyRegistered Userregular
KniziaQuest 2018 continued yesterday with our first play of Through the Desert. A couple of our players didn't really grasp things fully right away, and bunched their caravan leaders a little too close together to do as much as they should have. The game still ended fairly close though - my wife and I both at 59 points, one friend at 55, another at 50 and one at 46. I enjoyed it, but it should get better with more plays as people develop strategies beyond just racing for 3 point tiles and closing off small corners of the map. We started to see a little bit of people using same colored caravans to block opponents from areas they wanted to get to, but I suspect we'll see a lot more strategic play with repetition. The game plays pretty quickly (about 30 minutes with 5 players) so it should be good for at least 2 plays in a typical session.
Fun game though, and it was nice to play one of his without any auctions after our last few.
Listening to SUSD talk about the new version of Container really brings home the accessibility of Tabletop Simulator.
I have never liked Tabletop Simulator or Tabletopia. But I'm going to force myself to learn the controls for Empyreal.
Some games are either so bulky or have such a high price point that TTS totally makes sense. The counter to that is I know more people that would try a board game in person than I know online.
I just learned that the Xenoshyft app autosaves every phase, so you can continue after it crashes. I still have yet to make it through 1 1/2 rounds where the whole thing doesn't crash...
Good lord how the hell are you supposed to beat this thing? I've only made it past round 3 of 9 one time after fifteen attempts. It just seems mathematically impossible. You're hopelessly boned by the end of round 2 and there really aren't many decisions to make at that point so I have no clue what I'm supposed to do differently. There's about 3 bugs that are game over if you don't have their counter, you can only afford 1 counter, and you don't know which bugs are coming up.
And this is on easy! Ghost Stories has nothing on this game's ridiculous difficulty.
I just learned that the Xenoshyft app autosaves every phase, so you can continue after it crashes. I still have yet to make it through 1 1/2 rounds where the whole thing doesn't crash...
Good lord how the hell are you supposed to beat this thing? I've only made it past round 3 of 9 one time after fifteen attempts. It just seems mathematically impossible. You're hopelessly boned by the end of round 2 and there really aren't many decisions to make at that point so I have no clue what I'm supposed to do differently. There's about 3 bugs that are game over if you don't have their counter, you can only afford 1 counter, and you don't know which bugs are coming up.
And this is on easy! Ghost Stories has nothing on this game's ridiculous difficulty.
I'd need to see what you're doing vs what cards are available for purchase to be able to offer advice, but yes, the game's difficulty does not feel very good. The base has some number of HP, but your survival can feel binary: if anything gets through, you're probably either dead or about to be. On the other hand, if you're doing well enough that you're retaining troops in lane from one round to the next, you're probably crushing the game and are going to have an easy victory.
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ChaosHatHop, hop, hop, HA!Trick of the lightRegistered Userregular
honestly it doesnt need more tiles, so i guess i just dont want an expansion for it at all. the first one was kinda alright but not essential, but this weirdness... at this point just make a new game i think? im not at all the target audience for expansions just in a general sense though so hey.
I just learned that the Xenoshyft app autosaves every phase, so you can continue after it crashes. I still have yet to make it through 1 1/2 rounds where the whole thing doesn't crash...
Good lord how the hell are you supposed to beat this thing? I've only made it past round 3 of 9 one time after fifteen attempts. It just seems mathematically impossible. You're hopelessly boned by the end of round 2 and there really aren't many decisions to make at that point so I have no clue what I'm supposed to do differently. There's about 3 bugs that are game over if you don't have their counter, you can only afford 1 counter, and you don't know which bugs are coming up.
And this is on easy! Ghost Stories has nothing on this game's ridiculous difficulty.
I'd need to see what you're doing vs what cards are available for purchase to be able to offer advice, but yes, the game's difficulty does not feel very good. The base has some number of HP, but your survival can feel binary: if anything gets through, you're probably either dead or about to be. On the other hand, if you're doing well enough that you're retaining troops in lane from one round to the next, you're probably crushing the game and are going to have an easy victory.
Are the available cards supposed to change? They've all been the same every game I've tried, no matter the division I'm playing.
Ranger is the only available wave 1 trooper. Equipment is pulsar armor, booster injection, medical shuttle, titan armor, void mine, med pack, MKII assault rifle, scout drones, templar armor.
Command Center seems by far the best division no contest. You get your choice of two 3 value cards; the other cards just give you a forced two 2 value cards.
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AstaerethIn the belly of the beastRegistered Userregular
This weekend I introduced my family to the magic of Eldritch Horror.
We only got through half a game (in part because it took a while to pare the set down by removing all the expansion stuff—something that is at least doable, if tedious, for most of the cards and components by removing stuff tagged with expansion symbols... except for the monsters, which have no symbols! Wtf, FF?)
But my parents really enjoyed it and want to play more.
The problem is my brother, who doesn’t seem to like cooperative discussion, downtime between turns, or reading. He wants something faster and more exciting, I guess. Anybody have any ideas for good games with little to no downtime?
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ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
This weekend I introduced my family to the magic of Eldritch Horror.
We only got through half a game (in part because it took a while to pare the set down by removing all the expansion stuff—something that is at least doable, if tedious, for most of the cards and components by removing stuff tagged with expansion symbols... except for the monsters, which have no symbols! Wtf, FF?)
But my parents really enjoyed it and want to play more.
The problem is my brother, who doesn’t seem to like cooperative discussion, downtime between turns, or reading. He wants something faster and more exciting, I guess. Anybody have any ideas for good games with little to no downtime?
Hali-Gali.
...
It's literally the first thing I thought of. There are probably somewhat better suggestions. :P
Anybody have any ideas for good games with little to no downtime?
Are there any other criteria to consider? What was it about Eldritch Horror that your parents enjoyed? The co-op? The theme?
There are plenty of great games that have simultaneous play, which seems like it would work for your brother's needs. Escape? Steam Park? NMBR 9? Pictomania? Galaxy Trucker? I could go on for a long time, so narrowing the needs would be a good idea.
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jergarmarhollow man crewgoes pew pew pewRegistered Userregular
This weekend I introduced my family to the magic of Eldritch Horror.
We only got through half a game (in part because it took a while to pare the set down by removing all the expansion stuff—something that is at least doable, if tedious, for most of the cards and components by removing stuff tagged with expansion symbols... except for the monsters, which have no symbols! Wtf, FF?)
But my parents really enjoyed it and want to play more.
The problem is my brother, who doesn’t seem to like cooperative discussion, downtime between turns, or reading. He wants something faster and more exciting, I guess. Anybody have any ideas for good games with little to no downtime?
This sounds pretty familiar to me, with some of my family members. My first thought was that your brother would like a good "take that" or silly confrontational game. Like what about Smash Up or Small World or even RoboRally?
EDIT: Ooh, or Mission: Red Planet?
jergarmar on
When I was a child, I had a fever... My BoardGameGeek profile
Battle.net: TheGerm#1430 (Hearthstone, Destiny 2)
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I'd warn you that Bargain Quest is quite light. You might have the specific audience for it, but I found that I didn't. I didn't find it short or interesting enough for a game of its weight. Like Quinns, if I wanted a light drafting game, I'd much sooner break out Sushi Go.
Isn't no crashing supposed to be Apple's thing? Every given iPad model is the exact same specs and OS...
Honestly, you might have done what we did, which was basically say "Literally no other number makes sense for this. Someone fucking google this word." <_<
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
So Paradox is getting into the board games...game. Crusader Kings is on Kickstarter, with EU, Cities Skyline, and Hearts of Iron on the way. No Stellaris is kind of a bummer.
Be warned, that's how I ended up with the $100 pile of crap that is Dark Souls: The Board Game. Strip away the IP and determine if the gameplay will still hold before you buy.
It does seem very linear compared to the actual game which is a giant sandbox basically, like the end goal is Jerusalem with preset battles along the way. I like how they have trait tokens and translated the basic mechanics, but yeah it would definitely need post-launch expansions for replayability like different religions and character cards, missions and even new map boards with more zoomed in maps IMO
I made to sure to encourage another player to Geis my girlfriend, which she was very displeased with, but it let me get those second and third deeds, so
I won with 4 guys on the table. Dope.
This is a great summation of why I love Inis.
I definitely need to get Inis to the table more.
So, uh, I had lunch with my girlfriend, missed my bus by about 2 minutes, so had an hour to kill. Went across the street to the game cafe and played Menara again solitaire. It's still a delight. Then I bought it because apparently copies made it onto the shelves since Thursday. :P
It's not an all-the-time game, but I think it'll be a pretty good alternative to Telestrations for when we play games with the better half's friends. Also, if you don't knock the tower down while playing, you typically have something that looks really, genuinely cool by the time you're finished. Big thumbs up~
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
That was such a great game. I still can't believe it even existst.
Yesterday we played The Mind which finally came in. (Co-op: Play cards 1-100 in numerical order without talking)Everyone seemed to love it, so well worth the 13$ or whatever. That level 5 though. I should probably try and print the English instructions from somewhere.
My friends also brought over Dropmix which I guess counts as a board game? Its a "DJ" "boardgame" where you play cards according to what an app says and make music. You need to play the right card in the right slot as soon as possible. The cards trigger parts of a song. Its hard to explain. Was fairly entertaining.
They're on BGG. How many were you playing with? I've yet to successfully won with any player count, though I've gotten to the penultimate round multiple times.
Couldn't find the rules by browsing, but google helped. (BGG needs better organization)
This is particularly hilarious in the rules:
There's a versus mode called "Clash" where you play 2 cards a turn and try to be the first to 21 by scoring in various ways (playing cards, bonus points for playing a color that's not already on the board, owning the full mix, and getting points from special white FX cards). You can build decks with the various sets to be more competitive as well.
There's a dropmix thread in SE if folks are interested further.
Fun game though, and it was nice to play one of his without any auctions after our last few.
I have never liked Tabletop Simulator or Tabletopia. But I'm going to force myself to learn the controls for Empyreal.
Some games are either so bulky or have such a high price point that TTS totally makes sense. The counter to that is I know more people that would try a board game in person than I know online.
Good lord how the hell are you supposed to beat this thing? I've only made it past round 3 of 9 one time after fifteen attempts. It just seems mathematically impossible. You're hopelessly boned by the end of round 2 and there really aren't many decisions to make at that point so I have no clue what I'm supposed to do differently. There's about 3 bugs that are game over if you don't have their counter, you can only afford 1 counter, and you don't know which bugs are coming up.
And this is on easy! Ghost Stories has nothing on this game's ridiculous difficulty.
I'd need to see what you're doing vs what cards are available for purchase to be able to offer advice, but yes, the game's difficulty does not feel very good. The base has some number of HP, but your survival can feel binary: if anything gets through, you're probably either dead or about to be. On the other hand, if you're doing well enough that you're retaining troops in lane from one round to the next, you're probably crushing the game and are going to have an easy victory.
things i personally want from a roll for the galaxy expansion: more tiles, not a bunch of weird new rules and bits
things this expansion looks to add: the total opposite of that
The devs are hardass about tiles. They don't want the color ratio balance changed.
also the TTA app is real good
Are the available cards supposed to change? They've all been the same every game I've tried, no matter the division I'm playing.
Ranger is the only available wave 1 trooper. Equipment is pulsar armor, booster injection, medical shuttle, titan armor, void mine, med pack, MKII assault rifle, scout drones, templar armor.
Command Center seems by far the best division no contest. You get your choice of two 3 value cards; the other cards just give you a forced two 2 value cards.
We only got through half a game (in part because it took a while to pare the set down by removing all the expansion stuff—something that is at least doable, if tedious, for most of the cards and components by removing stuff tagged with expansion symbols... except for the monsters, which have no symbols! Wtf, FF?)
But my parents really enjoyed it and want to play more.
The problem is my brother, who doesn’t seem to like cooperative discussion, downtime between turns, or reading. He wants something faster and more exciting, I guess. Anybody have any ideas for good games with little to no downtime?
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It's literally the first thing I thought of. There are probably somewhat better suggestions. :P
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
There are plenty of great games that have simultaneous play, which seems like it would work for your brother's needs. Escape? Steam Park? NMBR 9? Pictomania? Galaxy Trucker? I could go on for a long time, so narrowing the needs would be a good idea.
This sounds pretty familiar to me, with some of my family members. My first thought was that your brother would like a good "take that" or silly confrontational game. Like what about Smash Up or Small World or even RoboRally?
EDIT: Ooh, or Mission: Red Planet?
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