The way turns are planned and resolve on GoT reminded me a bit of FFG's StarCraft game, which is OOP (so unhelpful here) but I love it. A big 4X game that actually plays deceptively quickly. Two players can knock out a game in less than an hour, and unlike most 4Xs it doesn't feel like a weaker experience that way.
Isn't Starcraft less streamlined than Forbidden Stars? How the HECK are you playing that in an under an hour?!
With two players the map is pretty small and it essentially plays like a skirmish. There are only four planets to squabble over and you each start controlling one. It's pretty good at forcing immediate conflict even at high player counts, though. I haven't played Forbidden Stars, so I couldn't speak to that.
Edit: I should note, just to clarify further, that while I don't think it's a weaker game at small player counts, it's obviously a much smaller game, and the playtime ramps up pretty quickly as you add more players.
If I want politics and alliances and marriages in a medieval setting I will play Fief over GoT.
If I want a bit epic strategy game I will play Twilight Imperium over GoT.
If I want a six player game with interesting mechanics that embody the theme of a book I will play Dune over GoT.
If I want the mechanics in a reasonable time frame I will play Battle for Rokugan over GoT.
If I want an interesting area control game I will play any one of like a dozen different games including any COIN game or Inis over GoT.
It just had no place or role in my collection so I sold it.
But none of those let you quote current pop culture references during play!
But seriously, DoD does breathe new life into the game. I had completely written off the base game too. DoD solves the 2 major issues I had that it was too long and that the cutthroat diplomacy never materialized. I can't quite comment on how balanced the houses are yet, but nothing as outright broken as Balon Greyjoy this time.
It's also much shorter than Dune, succeeding where Rex flopped so badly.
I wouldn't buy the base game AND the expansion, but if the base game was lying around I would definitely pick up the expansion.
AC:NH Chris from Glosta SW-5173-3598-2899 DA-4749-1014-4697 @vyolynce@mastodon.social
+1
ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
Oh yeah, no, we're looking at some dark times ahead for sure. I don't feel so bad off as someone who has an established collection that's more in a state of pruning and grooming than growing. But my heart goes out to anyone closer to the entry gates of this hobby, and really, truly for anyone in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign.
Oh, also worth thinking about: Now more than ever is the time to support your favourite local brick and mortar. I know Amazon has great prices and all, but they're not going to be even slightly phased by this. Plenty of others will have their livelihoods shaken, and it's absolutely worth paying $10-20 more for a game that helps your community long-term.
Whats an example of a similar but better game to the GOT board game? I've only played it twice. The IRL game was ok but we only had 5 players and not everyone was super on board at the time. Game went ok, fairly clunky.
The PbP game i played was absolutely awesome and I would do another PbP of it again anytime. I really dug the whole "everyone places secret orders at the same time then they resolve one by one in turn order" part, the battle cards augmenting combats, the bidding on the tracks for various benefits and such. As a PbP the whole "game is long and clunky" doesn't really play into it because all PbP games are long and clunky.
With a full compliment of committed players i find the game to be totally worthwhile and fun, but I realize that A) that won't always be a possibility and that fun is somewhat hidden behind some imbalance and clunkiness issues. If there is a better version/alternative out there I'm definitely interested.
I have this memory of a game that SU&SD reviewed, on a map of Japan, with pseudo-programmed actions, that I remember thinking was cool. Anyone know what game that was?
When I was a child, I had a fever... My BoardGameGeek profile
Battle.net: TheGerm#1430 (Hearthstone, Destiny 2)
0
ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
Off the cuff without looking at their review history, I'd hazard Shogun as a guess.
38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
Shogun? I actually just played that on Monday. You program 10 actions and a bid and you only get to know the turn order for the first five actions. The next five are shown as you get to them. Its area control with a dice tower(cube tower?) It was a fun game with very bland art, ancient Japanese Warlord business cards, and a brutal mechanic which makes it near impossible to get going again if you ever fall behind. If someone steals a province from you, you instantly lose the card and if that was a card you assigned to an action, oops that doesn't happen. If that was your collect rice action then you could lose 3-4 more provinces during winter to revolts.
So at my work we have played a lot of the GoT board game. Including the two expansions being discussed.
As a whole, I do enjoy the game. It is kinda clunky and can certainly outstay it's welcome, but it definitely has some good parts. I genuinely like the order token mechanic, it opens up a huge tactical decision space (AP beware!) as well as the ability to stab someone in the back really, really hard (like, so hard, please don't play this with people that can't cope with that). The other mechanics in the game just add to that complexity. Should I be spending time raising troops, expanding borders or grabbing influence tokens to situate myself better later on?
In terms of the diplomacy (or lack thereof) we actually play it over multiple lunch times, with a lot of conniving and alliancing being done in between. I actually think this makes the game better, as you would not be able to be as devious while you area all sat at the table.
The asymmetry does in fact extend beyond the starting locations, with each player having a set of faction specific cards which they use in battles. These are often themed delightfully well and by and large change up how you need to approach playing as and against each faction.
The bad is that it is definitely a ponderous game, especially at the full 8 players with the new expansion (which definitely increases play time, I don't see how it doesn't!?). Which highlights my main issue with the game, if you get beaten down early it can end up being impossible to come back. Sitting around for hours as a neutered faction is duullllllll as fuck. Mother of dragons expansion does at least let you leave the table early, by turning your faction into a vassal, but that just becomes player elimination rather than duldrum.
The Feast for Crows expansion is definitely worth the admission. It throws 4 players into instant conflict, pretty much doing away with the first 2 or 3 turns of posturing that the base game requires. It also totally changes the victory conditions for the game (mission cards instead of grabbing castles on the board), which increase your strategic options hugely. At this point it's the only way I'd personally suggest to play the game.
Whats an example of a similar but better game to the GOT board game? I've only played it twice. The IRL game was ok but we only had 5 players and not everyone was super on board at the time. Game went ok, fairly clunky.
The PbP game i played was absolutely awesome and I would do another PbP of it again anytime. I really dug the whole "everyone places secret orders at the same time then they resolve one by one in turn order" part, the battle cards augmenting combats, the bidding on the tracks for various benefits and such. As a PbP the whole "game is long and clunky" doesn't really play into it because all PbP games are long and clunky.
With a full compliment of committed players i find the game to be totally worthwhile and fun, but I realize that A) that won't always be a possibility and that fun is somewhat hidden behind some imbalance and clunkiness issues. If there is a better version/alternative out there I'm definitely interested.
I have this memory of a game that SU&SD reviewed, on a map of Japan, with pseudo-programmed actions, that I remember thinking was cool. Anyone know what game that was?
Woo we found a copy of the dunwich legacy Arkham expansion that was hiding in the store convention inventory while they were reboxing everything to get ready for con season so I don't have to wait for it to be back in print to start falling deeper down this rabbit hole!
Damn. I didn't realize there were starting to be supply issues with Arkham Horror LCG content. Not that I'm any closer to actually start playing it than I've been for ... the last year. :<
As I understand it according to our manager who deals with the ordering, the small packs are basically always being printed but they seem to cycle through printing the deluxe expansions. Dunwich was listed as "on the boat" for the past month or two and just showed back up for ordering direct from ffg so it's not like they're out of print for a long time. It was more just timing on my part for getting into it being the low point of the first expansion availability
I think Forbidden Stars has the queued order system as well, but with the added twist that the order they're placed in has an effect. I've only played it once but it's a very good game and a crying shame we'll never see an expansion. Hopefully they TI the theme and release it again.
I think Forbidden Stars has the queued order system as well, but with the added twist that the order they're placed in has an effect. I've only played it once but it's a very good game and a crying shame we'll never see an expansion. Hopefully they TI the theme and release it again.
The original designer is working on a completely unlicensed spiritual successor!
I think Forbidden Stars has the queued order system as well, but with the added twist that the order they're placed in has an effect. I've only played it once but it's a very good game and a crying shame we'll never see an expansion. Hopefully they TI the theme and release it again.
Yeah it's a blind last in first out stack on each territory. On your turn you choose an area which has one of your tokens, reveal it and then do the action
It's super fun as it gives a really elegant blocking system (throw a token on top of another player's stack and then refuse to play it until their plan has collapsed) and also it highlights the stupidity of man as you realise you've played your tokens to the stack in the wrong order
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
Woot. 7th Continent expansions (Kickstarter rewards) are about to be shipped to me. So excited....at least until i realize my gaming group is about to go on hiatus for several months due to an impending baby drop. Still excited tho. So many new things!
Edit: Holy crap. ebay is already selling the full Kickstarter bundle for 500-700 bucks. and I decided on a whim to order a second copy. This might be a KS investment that returns 300-400%....nice.
Woot. 7th Continent expansions (Kickstarter rewards) are about to be shipped to me. So excited....at least until i realize my gaming group is about to go on hiatus for several months due to an impending baby drop. Still excited tho. So many new things!
Edit: Holy crap. ebay is already selling the full Kickstarter bundle for 500-700 bucks. and I decided on a whim to order a second copy. This might be a KS investment that returns 300-400%....nice.
That's one kickstarter I was really sad I missed. Not only is it the type of game I love but its one of the few games my fiancé actually gets into too. I was able to pick up the base game off ebay for a great price early on but now the price for all the expansion stuff has skyrocketed and it sounds like they may not run another KS.
Woot. 7th Continent expansions (Kickstarter rewards) are about to be shipped to me. So excited....at least until i realize my gaming group is about to go on hiatus for several months due to an impending baby drop. Still excited tho. So many new things!
Edit: Holy crap. ebay is already selling the full Kickstarter bundle for 500-700 bucks. and I decided on a whim to order a second copy. This might be a KS investment that returns 300-400%....nice.
That's one kickstarter I was really sad I missed. Not only is it the type of game I love but its one of the few games my fiancé actually gets into too. I was able to pick up the base game off ebay for a great price early on but now the price for all the expansion stuff has skyrocketed and it sounds like they may not run another KS.
Watch the website. They were suppose to be getting a bunch of base copies to sell when the shipments went out, I think ebay is mostly people including the KS bonuses and old expansions
I got in on wave 2. I'm pretty excited!
I think my wife would get into it, and it would be a pretty easy game to play at work since it is on the shorter end of things sessions can be "saved"
Woot. 7th Continent expansions (Kickstarter rewards) are about to be shipped to me. So excited....at least until i realize my gaming group is about to go on hiatus for several months due to an impending baby drop. Still excited tho. So many new things!
Edit: Holy crap. ebay is already selling the full Kickstarter bundle for 500-700 bucks. and I decided on a whim to order a second copy. This might be a KS investment that returns 300-400%....nice.
That's one kickstarter I was really sad I missed. Not only is it the type of game I love but its one of the few games my fiancé actually gets into too. I was able to pick up the base game off ebay for a great price early on but now the price for all the expansion stuff has skyrocketed and it sounds like they may not run another KS.
Watch the website. They were suppose to be getting a bunch of base copies to sell when the shipments went out, I think ebay is mostly people including the KS bonuses and old expansions
Thanks. I'll keep my eyes out. Though base is what I have, its expansion stuff I need.
I got in on wave 2. I'm pretty excited!
I think my wife would get into it, and it would be a pretty easy game to play at work since it is on the shorter end of things.
I got in on wave 2. I'm pretty excited!
I think my wife would get into it, and it would be a pretty easy game to play at work since it is on the shorter end of things.
Uhh. 7th Continent is a 'shorter' game?
I've got some bad news for you.
I was to understand the sessions themselves weren't too bad, and there's a process for saving your place.
Edit: but yeah, I know the curses can take a while. I'll amend my last post.
The bad is that it is definitely a ponderous game, especially at the full 8 players with the new expansion (which definitely increases play time, I don't see how it doesn't!?). Which highlights my main issue with the game, if you get beaten down early it can end up being impossible to come back. Sitting around for hours as a neutered faction is duullllllll as fuck. Mother of dragons expansion does at least let you leave the table early, by turning your faction into a vassal, but that just becomes player elimination rather than duldrum.
The Feast for Crows expansion is definitely worth the admission. It throws 4 players into instant conflict, pretty much doing away with the first 2 or 3 turns of posturing that the base game requires. It also totally changes the victory conditions for the game (mission cards instead of grabbing castles on the board), which increase your strategic options hugely. At this point it's the only way I'd personally suggest to play the game.
Dance of Dragons setup also does away with the early posturing. It does make the game go faster, pound for pound. It's definitely a shorter playtime for the same number of players, or even one more player. I would guess it would break even or even still be shorter at +2 players.
I venture it would even be shorter than an 8 player game of Bohnanza!
MrBody on
0
AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
... I may be asking a friend to 3d print an organizer for Twilight Imperium 4 I found on BGG...
Shame that Brad is associated with Keyforge, not L5R in the article, but oh well.
When they say it eats everything, they mean everything - the table is 4 pages long.
Man. Imagine being part of a 96-player scenario?!
Mmmm that's a little annoying since it's something I'll probably never do. Really it's something that most people will only do like, once or twice ever so you could use that development time towards something else, especially since they already did the raid group gimmick.
In theory the blob encounter will scale down like labyrinths. It might lose a lot of it's charm and the feeling of being an epic blob growing as it devours as a 1-4 player but it will technically exist as a standalone or side quest for the game. I asked my friends who are going if they can try to get me a copy of the scenario. Everyone who participates gets a copy of it early.
I'd like to get our store to run one if we can snag it, when we did the last invocation there were probably about 30 people so I'm sure we could set something up to approximate the epic
AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
Also so far FFG's been really good at selling the special scenarios as full-on product. Like, I'm a little bummed because I got the Arkham Nights 2018 set to make sure I got the plot thingy included, only to find it was re-released in the standalone pack. It wasn't a bad thing, just means I have an extra of that scenario!
Question for the thread: is it possible to have a horror board game that’s genuinely scary? Have you ever experienced one?
Roleplaying game: yes, boardgame: no.
I have been scared playing Call of Cthulhu and Ten Candles.
I made one of my players so scared and anxious playing Shadowrun that we had to stop because his stomach was physically hurting him.
Clearly somebody never played Atmosfear
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
+6
WearingglassesOf the friendly neighborhood varietyRegistered Userregular
Action report!
It's been a good long while since our group got together, so this night was a good one. Only got three games, but they were pretty great for five people:
Bohnanza - always a good starter game. Takes only a round to grok most of the subtler stuff, so wheeling and dealing comes up fast. Scores are super close that the third field is actually a misplay for our group now.
Keyflower - we were pretty rusty on this, but it's a real good brainburner. We lost pretty badly to the player who snuck out with the transport doubler and the transport scoring tiles. We need to keep playing this one more.
Lords of Waterdeep - I'm just starting to notice that there's a not insignificant factor in having the quests come up right during your turn. It's pretty hard to mitigate if the others get their engines running earlier. Also, picking who to slap a mandatory quest is harder than it looks.
I'll be getting Concordia Venus within the week! This should be good.
Question for the thread: is it possible to have a horror board game that’s genuinely scary? Have you ever experienced one?
I'd describe the tension in Arkham in the scenarios I've played so far as one of increasing desperation and hopelessness and existential dread. The writing is definitely describing horrific things but it's really how the game mechanics build up impending doom and a feeling of always being one turn from something terrible happening that give the scary text any impact. I assume it's hard to pull off multiple times in this format but they even successfully pulled off a jump scare in one of the scenarios through manipulating my expectations of the game structure, but even that is less a terrifying thing than an "oh shit!"
Posts
With two players the map is pretty small and it essentially plays like a skirmish. There are only four planets to squabble over and you each start controlling one. It's pretty good at forcing immediate conflict even at high player counts, though. I haven't played Forbidden Stars, so I couldn't speak to that.
Edit: I should note, just to clarify further, that while I don't think it's a weaker game at small player counts, it's obviously a much smaller game, and the playtime ramps up pretty quickly as you add more players.
But none of those let you quote current pop culture references during play!
But seriously, DoD does breathe new life into the game. I had completely written off the base game too. DoD solves the 2 major issues I had that it was too long and that the cutthroat diplomacy never materialized. I can't quite comment on how balanced the houses are yet, but nothing as outright broken as Balon Greyjoy this time.
It's also much shorter than Dune, succeeding where Rex flopped so badly.
I wouldn't buy the base game AND the expansion, but if the base game was lying around I would definitely pick up the expansion.
Oh, also worth thinking about: Now more than ever is the time to support your favourite local brick and mortar. I know Amazon has great prices and all, but they're not going to be even slightly phased by this. Plenty of others will have their livelihoods shaken, and it's absolutely worth paying $10-20 more for a game that helps your community long-term.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
I have this memory of a game that SU&SD reviewed, on a map of Japan, with pseudo-programmed actions, that I remember thinking was cool. Anyone know what game that was?
My BoardGameGeek profile
Battle.net: TheGerm#1430 (Hearthstone, Destiny 2)
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
As a whole, I do enjoy the game. It is kinda clunky and can certainly outstay it's welcome, but it definitely has some good parts. I genuinely like the order token mechanic, it opens up a huge tactical decision space (AP beware!) as well as the ability to stab someone in the back really, really hard (like, so hard, please don't play this with people that can't cope with that). The other mechanics in the game just add to that complexity. Should I be spending time raising troops, expanding borders or grabbing influence tokens to situate myself better later on?
In terms of the diplomacy (or lack thereof) we actually play it over multiple lunch times, with a lot of conniving and alliancing being done in between. I actually think this makes the game better, as you would not be able to be as devious while you area all sat at the table.
The asymmetry does in fact extend beyond the starting locations, with each player having a set of faction specific cards which they use in battles. These are often themed delightfully well and by and large change up how you need to approach playing as and against each faction.
The bad is that it is definitely a ponderous game, especially at the full 8 players with the new expansion (which definitely increases play time, I don't see how it doesn't!?). Which highlights my main issue with the game, if you get beaten down early it can end up being impossible to come back. Sitting around for hours as a neutered faction is duullllllll as fuck. Mother of dragons expansion does at least let you leave the table early, by turning your faction into a vassal, but that just becomes player elimination rather than duldrum.
The Feast for Crows expansion is definitely worth the admission. It throws 4 players into instant conflict, pretty much doing away with the first 2 or 3 turns of posturing that the base game requires. It also totally changes the victory conditions for the game (mission cards instead of grabbing castles on the board), which increase your strategic options hugely. At this point it's the only way I'd personally suggest to play the game.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/pablocampy
In terms of the Shy pluto campaign:
We deployed all the comm relay ships.. and the card's like bad shit happened! But you won't see just what until next game!
And I'm like... damnit.
Battle for Rokugan ?
My BoardGameGeek profile
Battle.net: TheGerm#1430 (Hearthstone, Destiny 2)
Have fun! Dunwich is the only campaign I've run all the way through (till an untimely death), and I had a BLAST.
In other news, I succumbed to peer pressure and FOMO, and bought Wingspan.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
The original designer is working on a completely unlicensed spiritual successor!
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2139220/forbidden-stars-redux
Yeah it's a blind last in first out stack on each territory. On your turn you choose an area which has one of your tokens, reveal it and then do the action
It's super fun as it gives a really elegant blocking system (throw a token on top of another player's stack and then refuse to play it until their plan has collapsed) and also it highlights the stupidity of man as you realise you've played your tokens to the stack in the wrong order
Edit: Holy crap. ebay is already selling the full Kickstarter bundle for 500-700 bucks. and I decided on a whim to order a second copy. This might be a KS investment that returns 300-400%....nice.
That's one kickstarter I was really sad I missed. Not only is it the type of game I love but its one of the few games my fiancé actually gets into too. I was able to pick up the base game off ebay for a great price early on but now the price for all the expansion stuff has skyrocketed and it sounds like they may not run another KS.
Watch the website. They were suppose to be getting a bunch of base copies to sell when the shipments went out, I think ebay is mostly people including the KS bonuses and old expansions
I think my wife would get into it, and it would be a pretty easy game to play at work since it is on the shorter end of things sessions can be "saved"
Thanks. I'll keep my eyes out. Though base is what I have, its expansion stuff I need.
Uhh. 7th Continent is a 'shorter' game?
I've got some bad news for you.
I was to understand the sessions themselves weren't too bad, and there's a process for saving your place.
Edit: but yeah, I know the curses can take a while. I'll amend my last post.
Dance of Dragons setup also does away with the early posturing. It does make the game go faster, pound for pound. It's definitely a shorter playtime for the same number of players, or even one more player. I would guess it would break even or even still be shorter at +2 players.
I venture it would even be shorter than an 8 player game of Bohnanza!
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2902772
FFG is doing another multi-team scenario for GenCon/Arkham Nights!
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/5/17/the-blob-that-ate-everything
Shame that Brad is associated with Keyforge, not L5R in the article, but oh well.
When they say it eats everything, they mean everything - the table is 4 pages long.
Man. Imagine being part of a 96-player scenario?!
Mmmm that's a little annoying since it's something I'll probably never do. Really it's something that most people will only do like, once or twice ever so you could use that development time towards something else, especially since they already did the raid group gimmick.
Taking advantage of a couple more of the advantages having a app provided it has some clever puzzles
I'd like to get our store to run one if we can snag it, when we did the last invocation there were probably about 30 people so I'm sure we could set something up to approximate the epic
I also like the lighter/campier tone.
Roleplaying game: yes, boardgame: no.
I have been scared playing Call of Cthulhu and Ten Candles.
I made one of my players so scared and anxious playing Shadowrun that we had to stop because his stomach was physically hurting him.
Clearly somebody never played Atmosfear
It's been a good long while since our group got together, so this night was a good one. Only got three games, but they were pretty great for five people:
Bohnanza - always a good starter game. Takes only a round to grok most of the subtler stuff, so wheeling and dealing comes up fast. Scores are super close that the third field is actually a misplay for our group now.
Keyflower - we were pretty rusty on this, but it's a real good brainburner. We lost pretty badly to the player who snuck out with the transport doubler and the transport scoring tiles. We need to keep playing this one more.
Lords of Waterdeep - I'm just starting to notice that there's a not insignificant factor in having the quests come up right during your turn. It's pretty hard to mitigate if the others get their engines running earlier. Also, picking who to slap a mandatory quest is harder than it looks.
I'll be getting Concordia Venus within the week! This should be good.
I'd describe the tension in Arkham in the scenarios I've played so far as one of increasing desperation and hopelessness and existential dread. The writing is definitely describing horrific things but it's really how the game mechanics build up impending doom and a feeling of always being one turn from something terrible happening that give the scary text any impact. I assume it's hard to pull off multiple times in this format but they even successfully pulled off a jump scare in one of the scenarios through manipulating my expectations of the game structure, but even that is less a terrifying thing than an "oh shit!"