Volfyirion looks good! We were asked to preview Mysthea at some point in the past, which ... wasn't great, so I'm not sure I trust Tabula's design pedigree exactly, but man, their art is gorgeous. And the investment at under $20 on this is small enough and I like deck-builders. Sold.
admanbunionize your workplaceSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
NEXT SEGMENT OF MY MASSIVE ESSAY
That covers the planned INs (except for a few that I will get to later for... reasons). Now for the unplanned ones:
Cockroach Poker: I had heard about this and bought it on a whim as I was going into the bar of a boardgame cafe. It immediately met expectations. Very fun little bluffing game that would make an excellent drinking game if, y'know, you're into that kind of thing.
Fox in the Forest: really good 1v1 trick-taking game with beautiful card art. Not much more to say about it -- the mechanics will be familiar to anyone who's played a trick-taking game and it adds just enough to make 1v1 a compelling experience.
13 Days: The Cuban Missile Crisis: this is the most random game I picked up on recommendation from Heavy Cardboard as filler, but it's real real good. It has that Twilight Struggle feel but it is FAST and TENSE. You're removing influence from the board as often as placing it to keep DEFCON down so the game ends up with a really interesting cycle of escalation and de-escalation that feels very appropriate to the crisis. Last night I won a game by baiting her into over-investing in politically escalating Cuba because I had guessed that we both chose the Agenda that escalates the political Defcon track, so when we revealed she was pushed to Defcon 1 and started a nuclear war. Which means I win!
Pax Renaissance: see previous post.
Now for the Pile of Shame, i.e. games I've played one or fewer times since the previous post.
Clank!, Orleans, Suburbia: Clank! is good and I'll definitely pull it out again. Orleans I played one learning game and I dunno... it just didn't click with me. I'll probably give it another try before moving on. Suburbia is a game I traded for because it was a good deal and it showed up at the same time as Castles of Burgundy. Being a big-ol-box of stuff while also kind of just being another tile-laying game means I haven't even thought about pulling it out and I may just try to move it.
7 Wonders: Duel, Patchwork: two-player games that haven't hit the table since I got Pax Renaissance and Fox in the Forest. We like Patchwork a lot and it will definitely show up again. Duel I was less thrilled with but I'm going to keep it for sure -- it's a small footprint game and I do like the 1v1 drafting mecahnic.
Clank! is glorous. I need to find a storage solution for all the expansions.
What games are like Great Western Trail? Its just so utterly perfect. The upcoming Gugong - The Forbidden City will be shipping to me soon, and I got it because it looks similar; interlocking minigames that turn into an economic empire.
3DS Friendcode 5413-1311-3767
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38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
There is a board game silent auction at my store and I think I'm going to try and get rid of some junk I've been holding for years.
Citadels - I get assassinated every time. Player Elimination is awful. Ascension - This was my first boardgame, bought it at PAXE 07 I think and well there are much better balanced deckbuilders. Vast Crystal Chronicles - Too complicated to teach for not enough payoff. Good ideas but I'm not enthusiastic about teaching it. Arkham Horror/Dunwich Horror/Black Goat - This takes too much room, takes too long to play, and apparently still sells decently well. I saw the boardgame shop move 3 boxes of this in the used section at 50$ each!! Monopoly 60th Anniversary Edition - Never played, will never play, maybe someone will want. Even if I only get 5-10 dollars for it, its more than I have now. Illuminati - Too complicated and not the most fun. Rules are poorly arranged.
Citadels and Illuminati seem to be going for decent amounts on amazon for no discernible reason. I should probably look into selling those some other way.
I picked up Splendor last night. I think my 5 year old could probably play this one and I think my group will like it.
I want to get Welcome To... but it appears to be out of stock everywhere.
I also kind of want to get Container and Brass:Birmingham which are also hard to find apparently.
If they are cheap at the auction I might get:
Castles of Burgundy Puerto Rico
Both old but no one in our group has them or has played castles.
Building buildings and activating things along a path kinda reminded me of Caylus, though I wouldn't say they feel particularly similar outside of that.
38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
Weird, I thought I checked the Roxley website and they didn't show it on their shop page.
I usually try to order it through the boardgame shop if possible. I know its more expensive.
There is someone at my meetup who owns Container and said they didn't like it enough to keep. Going to see if maybe I can get it away from them someday.
There is a board game silent auction at my store and I think I'm going to try and get rid of some junk I've been holding for years.
Citadels - I get assassinated every time. Player Elimination is awful.
[-snip-]
Our group found Citadels got a new lease of life when we picked up the expansion with alternative roles, primarily to replace the Assassin. It's still on low rotation, but gets enough play - and more fun with the expansion - to justify keeping it around.
Building buildings and activating things along a path kinda reminded me of Caylus, though I wouldn't say they feel particularly similar outside of that.
That's the thing about GWT -- it's a hybrid of a bunch of systems that are merged really well, so there's really no other one game it feels like.
I might say Concordia as one with a similar variety of interlocking minigames.
Trajan is the game i associate most with the description "a bunch of minigames", but again i wouldnt say its similar to Great Western Trail in any particular way
edit: unrelatedly, my kickstarter copy of The Estates arrived today and man it looks great and im excited to play it this weekend
For those interested GMT games has a 50% off sale currently happening using the code GMTSale2018. Their website is getting hammered took me about an hour of refreshing to get my cart updated but I snagged Space Empires and Space Empires: Replicators for $85 shipped, saved $62.
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admanbunionize your workplaceSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
For those interested GMT games has a 50% off sale currently happening using the code GMTSale2018. Their website is getting hammered took me about an hour of refreshing to get my cart updated but I snagged Space Empires and Space Empires: Replicators for $85 shipped saved $62.
FishmanPut your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain.Registered Userregular
My kickstarter copy of Endeavor: Age of Sail arrived a few days before I headed overseas and I didn't have time to go through a whole unboxing thing so I left it there waiting for my return and completely forgot about it until just now and it was exciting all over again.
I am very bad at Yomi but I think I really really like Yomi
I do not know how to get better
I think you'll find that the answer is in fact:
Yomi
(I am sorry I could not help myself.)
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38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
edited October 2018
Wife beat me at Splendor last night so now she loves it.
Friend is going to bring over Xia: Drift Galaxy tonight, and that sounds pretty interesting from what I've heard of it so I hope its fun.
Wife beat me at Splendor last night so now she loves it.
Friend is going to bring over Xia: Drift Galaxy tonight, and that sounds pretty interesting from what I've heard of it so I hope its fun.
I've played Xia once and thought it was all right; if Friend knows it better than you, expect them to win and just play to learn, though. It's the kind of game where knowing what you're trying to execute on before you get rolling helps substantially.
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mysticjuicer[he/him] I'm a muscle wizardand I cast P U N C HRegistered Userregular
I am very bad at Yomi but I think I really really like Yomi
I do not know how to get better
Hey @Mr. G ! Really glad you enjoyed your first taste of Yomi! :biggrin: What characters did you play, and play against? Any particularly exciting moments or big comebacks?
If you're looking to improve your play, here are some generic tips that apply broadly to most of the cast in most match-ups.
1. Block more. Blocking only loses to throws (most of the time) and you keep your block card unless you lose combat. This means that blocking (1) protects you from the most damaging types of combat losses, because for most characters the most damaging combos all start with an attack, and (2) it improves your hand quality, by getting you a larger hand with more options, as well as more easily allowing you to discard pairs/triples/quads for Aces.
2. Only dodge in the late or mid-game. Dodging is very card inefficient, so in the early game, you want to block instead to build up a hand full of good/flexible combat options. Typically you want to save your dodges so that you can follow them up with a double, triple, or quad-Ace super.
3. Only play combat options that lead into beneficial situations for you. For example, even if you knew with 100% certainty that your opponent was going to block or dodge on a certain turn, you should block if you have neither (1) a good combo off a successful throw, or (2) a good combo off a mix-up normal if you threw them to get knock-down this turn. Winning combat in Yomi is uncertain - you can't rely on doing it; but once you have won combat, unless they have and play a Joker, your follow-up damage is 100% certain. It's therefore important to maximize the value (i.e. damage) of your combat wins as much as possible.
My YouTube Channel! Featuring silly little Guilty Gear Strive videos and other stuff!
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admanbunionize your workplaceSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
Okay here's the end of that essay I started days ago:
Finally, the Still Want to Buy/Trade for list:
Tigris & Euphrates: I love this game and will own it one day, but as a kind-of-heavy and kind-of-weird area control game it's not going to make it to the table anytime soon when up against Root.
Concordia: I keep going back and forth on whether this is a game I really want or one I expect to whiff... on the one hand it has a lot of the elements of recent whiffs (kind of dry euros) but it seems to have a ton of elements I love in games: some deckbuilding, some conflicts for territory, economic conflicts, etc etc. The worst part of this game is the terrible box shape.
1846: me, two months ago: I need to revamp my collection so I have more games that can be played by a wider variety of people. Me, now: 4+ hour train game? Sign me up! Okay but for real... GMT is having their fall sale and this might be the MOST playable game I could get from them. I do have a group I think I can get to play this (playing it twice might be the hard part) and I want a heavy economic game.
Azul: back to the more reasonable options this is one I want for the accessible side of my collection. I've held off on pulling the trigger because I still have accessible games on my shelf of shame, but it's just a matter of time. It's so pretty.
Arboretum: see above accessibility + prettiness factor. Gonna wait for the reprint to hit stores though.
Skull: I want this game but I'm not going to buy it. Bear with me.
Skull is out of print which means a game that, while pretty, can be played with a standard deck of cards is priced at $40+. I'm not gonna pay that, but I also don't want to play it with a deck of cards. So what I've decided to do instead if collect sets of coasters from various breweries in the Seattle and Portland area and then commission local artists (likely friends and acquantainces) to sketch or paint skulls onto them.
Skull on the cheap: get beercoasters, give everyone 4 beercoasters. Have everyone mark the back of 1 of the 4 beercoasters. Play!!
I really like the craft brewery beercoasters skull idea!!
Dirtmuncher on
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mysticjuicer[he/him] I'm a muscle wizardand I cast P U N C HRegistered Userregular
edited October 2018
Oh, Mr G., if you and your group are interested in more advanced character-based advice, I've put together a list of resources on the Sirlin Games forums, which you can access here. However, ff you have an invested group of players locally, and you are all learning the game at sort of the same pace, I wouldn't actually use this. Fighting games and other two-player games like Yomi are often at their most fun when people are on a fairly similar level, so I would actually suggest avoiding guides and the like unless you find that someone is starting to consistently lag behind and their enjoyment is suffering as a result.
If there is someone who is significantly worse than the rest in your group, I would highly encourage you to share the lessons you've learned and any glaring weaknesses you may be exploiting. The great thing about the rock-paper-scissors nature of Yomi is that telling your opponent "I notice that you always respect and play around my AAA super when I power up for it, and that lets me throw you" just opens up a new level of mindgames: are they going to adapt their play to punish your throws now, or since you are now both aware of their tendency to turtle up, will they now expect you to throw less in those circumstances, since you expect them to play attacks to beat your throws?
Playing the same match-up against the same player over and over again actually makes it more fun and exciting, since you have more and more historical tendencies to base your decision making on. "They used to block really heavily in the early turns, but then recently they've started attacking my throws a lot, what will they do this time?"
Anyway, enough gushing from me. Hope you and your group continue to enjoy this lovely game!
Found an FFG article about the design process that is going into each of their unique games and thought it would be a good read for people since there have been a lot of questions since we first found out about this concept.
Does anyone have recommendations for good horror games? I have Betrayal at House on the Hill but I'm looking for more.
There's the million Cthulhu games, IMO Mansions of Madness is the horror-iest one. Maybe Dead of Winter? For a Halloween (but not so horror) theme I like Mysterium. Also depending on the crowd 10 candles is pretty cool.
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AstaerethIn the belly of the beastRegistered Userregular
Been a while since I swung through the thread, but if anyone will be going to Flying Frog Productions' "Dice Fest" in Seattle next weekend, you and I might just cross paths!
I'll be helping them out (likely running a Shadows of Brimstone game of some sort), having gotten a taste for running games at a more professional level across the last few Gencons.
I'll be working at their booth at Gencon next year as well, but obviously that's a ways off.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
Does anyone have recommendations for good horror games? I have Betrayal at House on the Hill but I'm looking for more.
I have been derelict in my duties this year. Traditionally I make it a point to make sure Ghost Stories gets played every week in October but so far we're 0-3. To be fair, last week we were all suffering from hurricane-related power outages but we still made it to Game Night...
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I made a game, it has penguins in it. It's pay what you like on Gumroad.
Currently Ebaying Nothing at all but I might do in the future.
That covers the planned INs (except for a few that I will get to later for... reasons). Now for the unplanned ones:
Cockroach Poker: I had heard about this and bought it on a whim as I was going into the bar of a boardgame cafe. It immediately met expectations. Very fun little bluffing game that would make an excellent drinking game if, y'know, you're into that kind of thing.
Fox in the Forest: really good 1v1 trick-taking game with beautiful card art. Not much more to say about it -- the mechanics will be familiar to anyone who's played a trick-taking game and it adds just enough to make 1v1 a compelling experience.
13 Days: The Cuban Missile Crisis: this is the most random game I picked up on recommendation from Heavy Cardboard as filler, but it's real real good. It has that Twilight Struggle feel but it is FAST and TENSE. You're removing influence from the board as often as placing it to keep DEFCON down so the game ends up with a really interesting cycle of escalation and de-escalation that feels very appropriate to the crisis. Last night I won a game by baiting her into over-investing in politically escalating Cuba because I had guessed that we both chose the Agenda that escalates the political Defcon track, so when we revealed she was pushed to Defcon 1 and started a nuclear war. Which means I win!
Pax Renaissance: see previous post.
Now for the Pile of Shame, i.e. games I've played one or fewer times since the previous post.
Clank!, Orleans, Suburbia: Clank! is good and I'll definitely pull it out again. Orleans I played one learning game and I dunno... it just didn't click with me. I'll probably give it another try before moving on. Suburbia is a game I traded for because it was a good deal and it showed up at the same time as Castles of Burgundy. Being a big-ol-box of stuff while also kind of just being another tile-laying game means I haven't even thought about pulling it out and I may just try to move it.
7 Wonders: Duel, Patchwork: two-player games that haven't hit the table since I got Pax Renaissance and Fox in the Forest. We like Patchwork a lot and it will definitely show up again. Duel I was less thrilled with but I'm going to keep it for sure -- it's a small footprint game and I do like the 1v1 drafting mecahnic.
What games are like Great Western Trail? Its just so utterly perfect. The upcoming Gugong - The Forbidden City will be shipping to me soon, and I got it because it looks similar; interlocking minigames that turn into an economic empire.
Citadels - I get assassinated every time. Player Elimination is awful.
Ascension - This was my first boardgame, bought it at PAXE 07 I think and well there are much better balanced deckbuilders.
Vast Crystal Chronicles - Too complicated to teach for not enough payoff. Good ideas but I'm not enthusiastic about teaching it.
Arkham Horror/Dunwich Horror/Black Goat - This takes too much room, takes too long to play, and apparently still sells decently well. I saw the boardgame shop move 3 boxes of this in the used section at 50$ each!!
Monopoly 60th Anniversary Edition - Never played, will never play, maybe someone will want. Even if I only get 5-10 dollars for it, its more than I have now.
Illuminati - Too complicated and not the most fun. Rules are poorly arranged.
Citadels and Illuminati seem to be going for decent amounts on amazon for no discernible reason. I should probably look into selling those some other way.
I picked up Splendor last night. I think my 5 year old could probably play this one and I think my group will like it.
I want to get Welcome To... but it appears to be out of stock everywhere.
I also kind of want to get Container and Brass:Birmingham which are also hard to find apparently.
If they are cheap at the auction I might get:
Castles of Burgundy
Puerto Rico
Both old but no one in our group has them or has played castles.
Container is less so.
I usually try to order it through the boardgame shop if possible. I know its more expensive.
There is someone at my meetup who owns Container and said they didn't like it enough to keep. Going to see if maybe I can get it away from them someday.
Our group found Citadels got a new lease of life when we picked up the expansion with alternative roles, primarily to replace the Assassin. It's still on low rotation, but gets enough play - and more fun with the expansion - to justify keeping it around.
That's the thing about GWT -- it's a hybrid of a bunch of systems that are merged really well, so there's really no other one game it feels like.
I might say Concordia as one with a similar variety of interlocking minigames.
edit: unrelatedly, my kickstarter copy of The Estates arrived today and man it looks great and im excited to play it this weekend
Origin: theRealElMucho
I grabbed 1846 and Colonial Twilight.
The Estates is fantastic.
GMT games can be decently pricey so a flat %50 off up to 20 purchases is nuts.
I am very bad at Yomi but I think I really really like Yomi
I do not know how to get better
Shines the Yomi signal for @mysticjuicer
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
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I think you'll find that the answer is in fact:
Yomi
(I am sorry I could not help myself.)
Friend is going to bring over Xia: Drift Galaxy tonight, and that sounds pretty interesting from what I've heard of it so I hope its fun.
I've played Xia once and thought it was all right; if Friend knows it better than you, expect them to win and just play to learn, though. It's the kind of game where knowing what you're trying to execute on before you get rolling helps substantially.
Hey @Mr. G ! Really glad you enjoyed your first taste of Yomi! :biggrin: What characters did you play, and play against? Any particularly exciting moments or big comebacks?
If you're looking to improve your play, here are some generic tips that apply broadly to most of the cast in most match-ups.
1. Block more. Blocking only loses to throws (most of the time) and you keep your block card unless you lose combat. This means that blocking (1) protects you from the most damaging types of combat losses, because for most characters the most damaging combos all start with an attack, and (2) it improves your hand quality, by getting you a larger hand with more options, as well as more easily allowing you to discard pairs/triples/quads for Aces.
2. Only dodge in the late or mid-game. Dodging is very card inefficient, so in the early game, you want to block instead to build up a hand full of good/flexible combat options. Typically you want to save your dodges so that you can follow them up with a double, triple, or quad-Ace super.
3. Only play combat options that lead into beneficial situations for you. For example, even if you knew with 100% certainty that your opponent was going to block or dodge on a certain turn, you should block if you have neither (1) a good combo off a successful throw, or (2) a good combo off a mix-up normal if you threw them to get knock-down this turn. Winning combat in Yomi is uncertain - you can't rely on doing it; but once you have won combat, unless they have and play a Joker, your follow-up damage is 100% certain. It's therefore important to maximize the value (i.e. damage) of your combat wins as much as possible.
Finally, the Still Want to Buy/Trade for list:
Tigris & Euphrates: I love this game and will own it one day, but as a kind-of-heavy and kind-of-weird area control game it's not going to make it to the table anytime soon when up against Root.
Concordia: I keep going back and forth on whether this is a game I really want or one I expect to whiff... on the one hand it has a lot of the elements of recent whiffs (kind of dry euros) but it seems to have a ton of elements I love in games: some deckbuilding, some conflicts for territory, economic conflicts, etc etc. The worst part of this game is the terrible box shape.
1846: me, two months ago: I need to revamp my collection so I have more games that can be played by a wider variety of people. Me, now: 4+ hour train game? Sign me up! Okay but for real... GMT is having their fall sale and this might be the MOST playable game I could get from them. I do have a group I think I can get to play this (playing it twice might be the hard part) and I want a heavy economic game.
Azul: back to the more reasonable options this is one I want for the accessible side of my collection. I've held off on pulling the trigger because I still have accessible games on my shelf of shame, but it's just a matter of time. It's so pretty.
Arboretum: see above accessibility + prettiness factor. Gonna wait for the reprint to hit stores though.
Skull: I want this game but I'm not going to buy it. Bear with me.
Skull is out of print which means a game that, while pretty, can be played with a standard deck of cards is priced at $40+. I'm not gonna pay that, but I also don't want to play it with a deck of cards. So what I've decided to do instead if collect sets of coasters from various breweries in the Seattle and Portland area and then commission local artists (likely friends and acquantainces) to sketch or paint skulls onto them.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
But honestly your plan sounds so cool you should still do that
I really like the craft brewery beercoasters skull idea!!
If there is someone who is significantly worse than the rest in your group, I would highly encourage you to share the lessons you've learned and any glaring weaknesses you may be exploiting. The great thing about the rock-paper-scissors nature of Yomi is that telling your opponent "I notice that you always respect and play around my AAA super when I power up for it, and that lets me throw you" just opens up a new level of mindgames: are they going to adapt their play to punish your throws now, or since you are now both aware of their tendency to turtle up, will they now expect you to throw less in those circumstances, since you expect them to play attacks to beat your throws?
Playing the same match-up against the same player over and over again actually makes it more fun and exciting, since you have more and more historical tendencies to base your decision making on. "They used to block really heavily in the early turns, but then recently they've started attacking my throws a lot, what will they do this time?"
Anyway, enough gushing from me. Hope you and your group continue to enjoy this lovely game!
Those coasters aren't built to last.
I tried spraying them with some kind of clear coat but then they got stuck to each other, ripping paint off.
Contact paper or laminating at a print shop should do it.
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/10/19/the-unique-story-of-unique-games/
What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable? ~ Mario Novak
I never fear death or dyin', I only fear never trying.
Define horror.
There's the million Cthulhu games, IMO Mansions of Madness is the horror-iest one. Maybe Dead of Winter? For a Halloween (but not so horror) theme I like Mysterium. Also depending on the crowd 10 candles is pretty cool.
Any of the FFG Lovecraft games (esp Eldritch Horror, Arkham Horror LCG, Mansions of Madness, and Elder Sign).
If you’re into zombies, there’s Dead of Winter and City of Horror.
Horror with an anime tinge, Tragedy Looper.
Surreal survival horror (and massive investment) Kingdom Death.
Gloom is pretty macabre.
The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31, a great game based on the classic of 80s horror.
I'll be helping them out (likely running a Shadows of Brimstone game of some sort), having gotten a taste for running games at a more professional level across the last few Gencons.
I'll be working at their booth at Gencon next year as well, but obviously that's a ways off.
I have been derelict in my duties this year. Traditionally I make it a point to make sure Ghost Stories gets played every week in October but so far we're 0-3. To be fair, last week we were all suffering from hurricane-related power outages but we still made it to Game Night...