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[Board Games] Cardboard Action at a Distance

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    StericaSterica Yes Registered User, Moderator mod
    Haha, turns out I bought the last copy of Root on Amazon. Well, normal priced copy, at any rate.

    If you’re paying $100 for a copy, then my deepest apologies.

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    InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    At this point between price fluctuations and knockoffs I just don’t buy boardgames off of Amazon anymore.

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    GvzbgulGvzbgul Registered User regular
    I'll use my FLGS or a localish online retailor as i hate Amazon.

    Theyre probably both getting theirs from Amazon though.

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    initiatefailureinitiatefailure Registered User regular
    Having now spent some time working at an LGS, any time someone tells me "x game is cheaper on Amazon" I immediately leap whatever counter is between them and me to attack

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    BogartBogart Streetwise Hercules Registered User, Moderator mod
    I try very hard to buy stuff from my local board game shop, but often they get two copies of a game and can't get any more so they're sold out instantly and they're terrible at ordering stuff on demand. I appreciate it's a tough business but if I literally can't buy the thing from you that I want to buy I can't give you my money.

    The last couple of games I've bought I ended up buying from other game stores with better online ordering, which is still much better than buying from Amazon I guess.

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    Mojo_JojoMojo_Jojo We are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourse Registered User regular
    Bogart wrote: »
    I try very hard to buy stuff from my local board game shop, but often they get two copies of a game and can't get any more so they're sold out instantly and they're terrible at ordering stuff on demand. I appreciate it's a tough business but if I literally can't buy the thing from you that I want to buy I can't give you my money.

    The last couple of games I've bought I ended up buying from other game stores with better online ordering, which is still much better than buying from Amazon I guess.

    Yeah, chaoscards are my go to for online ordering. They seem to be the online side of a physical store in Sheffield.

    In Cambridge the dedicated shop just closed down (probably because the Michellin star restaurant across the road closed and they lost all the passing trade), but there's a bookshop that has recently repurposed about half of its basement to boardgames. The staff are semi-knowledgeable so long as it's the mainstream stuff and if you can find an ex-cambridge student they get a 20% discount.

    Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
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    Jam WarriorJam Warrior Registered User regular
    edited June 2019
    I've tried supporting the local shop, but it's run by a grumpy old curmudgeon who has repeatedly failed to put in the orders he said he would leading to my stuff being massively delayed. I'm sorry mate, but loyalty only takes you so far, and I'm much more willing to pay a few extra quid than I am to wait a few extra weeks for my toys.

    Jam Warrior on
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    AetherAether Registered User regular
    Just finished up Case 1 of the expansion for Dectective: A Modern Board Game. It's interesting, I think that it's beginning to creep up on Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective for favourite crime game.

    I like that you need evidence to back up your theories if you want to get a good score. I like that you need to look stuff up on the internet. I love the Antares Website, especially the reskin for the LA Cases. The new evidence and stake out stuff is interesting, where you get the reports some amount of "working hours" away. It'll be interesting how the 3 case arc runs.

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    JonBobJonBob Registered User regular
    Bogart wrote: »
    I try very hard to buy stuff from my local board game shop, but often they get two copies of a game and can't get any more so they're sold out instantly and they're terrible at ordering stuff on demand. I appreciate it's a tough business but if I literally can't buy the thing from you that I want to buy I can't give you my money.
    I have the same issue with mine. I love the place and really really want it to succeed, but they just can't get their act together with respect to special orders. I don't expect the world, I just want orders placed with distributors the same day I request it, and proactive updates of status (in stock at distributor, backordered, expected in July, etc.).

    jswidget.php?username=JonBob&numitems=10&header=1&text=none&images=small&show=recentplays&imagesonly=1&imagepos=right&inline=1&domains%5B%5D=boardgame&imagewidget=1
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    FairchildFairchild Rabbit used short words that were easy to understand, like "Hello Pooh, how about Lunch ?" Registered User regular
    At first, the Comic Book Guy from THE SIMPSONS was funny, but as time went on he just became sadder and sadder because every comic book store and LGS owner I ever met acted just like him.

    Except one, our local comic book shop was owned by a very nice Asian lady for many years until cancer came for her.

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    MahnmutMahnmut Registered User regular
    Our local shop is actually CoolStuffInc.com, so they're obviously amazing at having stuff in stock or ordering it in. :cool:

    Steam/LoL: Jericho89
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    initiatefailureinitiatefailure Registered User regular
    edited June 2019
    I guess it's always different with the area. Someone came in the other day talking about how they moved from small town Mississippi and he was amazed at our size/prices/availability of things and pulled down a copy of betrayal marked at MSRP and said that his old shop sold that game for $80 and it blew my mind

    initiatefailure on
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    Ah_PookAh_Pook Registered User regular
    I'm buying Arkham Horror the card game, base plus Dunwich Legacy, sleeved and organized in the Broken Token organizer from a guy for $45. Anyone have thoughts on if a second core is actually necessary in the short term? Or other beginner tips I guess?

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    initiatefailureinitiatefailure Registered User regular
    I jumped on the second core right away to have real deckbuilding options- with one core only certain combinations of investigators could be built. The dunwich box might add enough player cards to mitigate that but I'm finding I still use a lot of core cards that it's great to have a playset of. But that said, see if you like it first obviously, and then it depends on budget. Is it the whole dunwich cycle or just the deluxe box? If it's the whole cycle you probably have enough to stay busy for a while and it's be a good time to grab a 2nd core. If it's just the deluxe box, I'd try to find the 6 mythos packs to be able to play the whole story cycle, it's a very cool experience I just finished for myself the other day.

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    crimsoncoyotecrimsoncoyote Registered User regular
    edited June 2019
    Mahnmut wrote: »
    Our local shop is actually CoolStuffInc.com, so they're obviously amazing at having stuff in stock or ordering it in. :cool:

    The physical coolstuff stores have always been great for me. They're one of the few things I miss after moving last year.

    crimsoncoyote on
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    AstaerethAstaereth In the belly of the beastRegistered User regular
    Ah_Pook wrote: »
    I'm buying Arkham Horror the card game, base plus Dunwich Legacy, sleeved and organized in the Broken Token organizer from a guy for $45. Anyone have thoughts on if a second core is actually necessary in the short term? Or other beginner tips I guess?

    Besides what initiatefailure said, I suggest you play with at least 3 investigators. It's possible to get through the base campaign and Dunwich with 2, but Dunwich especially makes that really, really hard, simply because you generally need somebody who is good at fighting, somebody who is good at clue finding, and somebody who is good at something else (evading, spellcasting, support, etc) and it's real hard to jam three specialties into two decks. There's a Dunwich scenario that's almost impossible with two (we eventually beat it through some serious rules lawyering loophole shit, but the process of grinding through it a good 5 or 6 times before that kind of killed my friend's enthusiasm for the game as a whole). Also I think we only managed 2 players through the rest of them in part because my friend abused the hell out of a specific card mechanic which he brought in from a one-off scenario (ie not included in the main campaigns).

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    ChaosHatChaosHat Hop, hop, hop, HA! Trick of the lightRegistered User regular
    I feel like the second core is necessary and I was very grateful you only need two cores compared to L5R or Netrunner. There are some clutch cards in there that are still used a lot even with all of the cycles. Also I feel like your deckbuilding options would just be uninteresting. I mean, Dunwich will alleviate that some, but it will be a lot of "okay I will basically take all the cards in my primary class that are any good."

    I would also recommend a chaos bag app, for me it is way easier to use although some people prefer the tactility.

    If you have any specific questions or rules issues just ask! Always happy to talk about AHLCG

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    ChaosHatChaosHat Hop, hop, hop, HA! Trick of the lightRegistered User regular
    edited June 2019
    Astaereth wrote: »
    Ah_Pook wrote: »
    I'm buying Arkham Horror the card game, base plus Dunwich Legacy, sleeved and organized in the Broken Token organizer from a guy for $45. Anyone have thoughts on if a second core is actually necessary in the short term? Or other beginner tips I guess?

    Besides what initiatefailure said, I suggest you play with at least 3 investigators. It's possible to get through the base campaign and Dunwich with 2, but Dunwich especially makes that really, really hard, simply because you generally need somebody who is good at fighting, somebody who is good at clue finding, and somebody who is good at something else (evading, spellcasting, support, etc) and it's real hard to jam three specialties into two decks. There's a Dunwich scenario that's almost impossible with two (we eventually beat it through some serious rules lawyering loophole shit, but the process of grinding through it a good 5 or 6 times before that kind of killed my friend's enthusiasm for the game as a whole). Also I think we only managed 2 players through the rest of them in part because my friend abused the hell out of a specific card mechanic which he brought in from a one-off scenario (ie not included in the main campaigns).

    I will disagree with this very much. I've successfully soloed all of the Night of the Zealot, Dunwich, and Carcosa, and the only other player count I've done is two (mostly two handed solo, but some with one other friend). The two main jobs are clue finding and monster handling (which can be evading or killing, both have their pros/cons). You can roll with two investigators that specialize, or two generalists. Spellcasting isn't a separate job, it's just a different way to do those two main ones. I don't even think there's enough stuff for someone to do as a support and it's definitely not necessary.

    Your player count WILL determine how much you can specialize in a single thing, or it may influence which investigators you choose, but I don't think the game is impossible at 1 or 2 players. I wouldn't even say it's all that hard or imposing.

    Which Dunwich scenario was that hard for you?

    ChaosHat on
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    initiatefailureinitiatefailure Registered User regular
    I just checked thunderstone quest on that bgg sleeve megathread... I need ~2300 sleeves now

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    A Half Eaten OreoA Half Eaten Oreo Registered User regular
    Astaereth wrote: »
    Ah_Pook wrote: »
    I'm buying Arkham Horror the card game, base plus Dunwich Legacy, sleeved and organized in the Broken Token organizer from a guy for $45. Anyone have thoughts on if a second core is actually necessary in the short term? Or other beginner tips I guess?

    Besides what initiatefailure said, I suggest you play with at least 3 investigators. It's possible to get through the base campaign and Dunwich with 2, but Dunwich especially makes that really, really hard, simply because you generally need somebody who is good at fighting, somebody who is good at clue finding, and somebody who is good at something else (evading, spellcasting, support, etc) and it's real hard to jam three specialties into two decks. There's a Dunwich scenario that's almost impossible with two (we eventually beat it through some serious rules lawyering loophole shit, but the process of grinding through it a good 5 or 6 times before that kind of killed my friend's enthusiasm for the game as a whole). Also I think we only managed 2 players through the rest of them in part because my friend abused the hell out of a specific card mechanic which he brought in from a one-off scenario (ie not included in the main campaigns).

    Which one? I wonder if we just played it wrong. We're currently doing Return to Dunwich, wonder if we'll run into this. We're doing Yorick/Norman. We had one death in our first Dunwich run and I don't think it was related to playing 2 player.
    Partner fell off the train.
    We have done everything except a few of the stand-alones as two players so far in normal, and haven't had too bad of a time. Hard did kick our ass. Two player does limit your Investigator selection as you don't have the space for a "utility" character. Tho we did beat Carcosa with Carolyn as main clue person. Forgotten Age is so far my least favorite, but I don't think I'd like it better with more players.

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    ChaosHatChaosHat Hop, hop, hop, HA! Trick of the lightRegistered User regular
    Astaereth wrote: »
    Ah_Pook wrote: »
    I'm buying Arkham Horror the card game, base plus Dunwich Legacy, sleeved and organized in the Broken Token organizer from a guy for $45. Anyone have thoughts on if a second core is actually necessary in the short term? Or other beginner tips I guess?

    Besides what initiatefailure said, I suggest you play with at least 3 investigators. It's possible to get through the base campaign and Dunwich with 2, but Dunwich especially makes that really, really hard, simply because you generally need somebody who is good at fighting, somebody who is good at clue finding, and somebody who is good at something else (evading, spellcasting, support, etc) and it's real hard to jam three specialties into two decks. There's a Dunwich scenario that's almost impossible with two (we eventually beat it through some serious rules lawyering loophole shit, but the process of grinding through it a good 5 or 6 times before that kind of killed my friend's enthusiasm for the game as a whole). Also I think we only managed 2 players through the rest of them in part because my friend abused the hell out of a specific card mechanic which he brought in from a one-off scenario (ie not included in the main campaigns).

    Which one? I wonder if we just played it wrong. We're currently doing Return to Dunwich, wonder if we'll run into this. We're doing Yorick/Norman. We had one death in our first Dunwich run and I don't think it was related to playing 2 player.
    Partner fell off the train.
    We have done everything except a few of the stand-alones as two players so far in normal, and haven't had too bad of a time. Hard did kick our ass. Two player does limit your Investigator selection as you don't have the space for a "utility" character. Tho we did beat Carcosa with Carolyn as main clue person. Forgotten Age is so far my least favorite, but I don't think I'd like it better with more players.

    TFA is both my least and most favorite campaign. Some scenarios are so good. Threads of Fate or Depths of Yoth or City of Archives are amazing. The Boundary Beyond or Heart of the Elders are so bad.

    Carolyn is also the closest to a pure support but she's a pretty solid cluever.

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    AstaerethAstaereth In the belly of the beastRegistered User regular
    ChaosHat wrote: »
    Astaereth wrote: »
    Ah_Pook wrote: »
    I'm buying Arkham Horror the card game, base plus Dunwich Legacy, sleeved and organized in the Broken Token organizer from a guy for $45. Anyone have thoughts on if a second core is actually necessary in the short term? Or other beginner tips I guess?

    Besides what initiatefailure said, I suggest you play with at least 3 investigators. It's possible to get through the base campaign and Dunwich with 2, but Dunwich especially makes that really, really hard, simply because you generally need somebody who is good at fighting, somebody who is good at clue finding, and somebody who is good at something else (evading, spellcasting, support, etc) and it's real hard to jam three specialties into two decks. There's a Dunwich scenario that's almost impossible with two (we eventually beat it through some serious rules lawyering loophole shit, but the process of grinding through it a good 5 or 6 times before that kind of killed my friend's enthusiasm for the game as a whole). Also I think we only managed 2 players through the rest of them in part because my friend abused the hell out of a specific card mechanic which he brought in from a one-off scenario (ie not included in the main campaigns).

    I will disagree with this very much. I've successfully soloed all of the Night of the Zealot, Dunwich, and Carcosa, and the only other player count I've done is two (mostly two handed solo, but some with one other friend). The two main jobs are clue finding and monster handling (which can be evading or killing, both have their pros/cons). You can roll with two investigators that specialize, or two generalists. Spellcasting isn't a separate job, it's just a different way to do those two main ones. I don't even think there's enough stuff for someone to do as a support and it's definitely not necessary.

    Your player count WILL determine how much you can specialize in a single thing, or it may influence which investigators you choose, but I don't think the game is impossible at 1 or 2 players. I wouldn't even say it's all that hard or imposing.

    Which Dunwich scenario was that hard for you?

    Dunwich spoiler:
    Whichever one featured giant, invisible, invincible monsters. We had a fighter who wasn’t allowed to fight them and a clue finder, and the supposed way to win was to find clues, evade the monsters (which neither of us was any good at), then kill them with a Lore check (again, not our strong suit). We tried it a bunch of times until we found some bullshit card we could use to auto-kill a couple of them via a technicality. But had we had a third person, preferably high in lore and great at evading for us, that would have gone a lot better.

    Evading in general is I think a really important skill for action economy, so that you’re not stuck killing monsters and can take additional actions.

    ACsTqqK.jpg
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    ChaosHatChaosHat Hop, hop, hop, HA! Trick of the lightRegistered User regular
    edited June 2019
    Evading IS strong and I think most players underrate it compared to killing but it does have a lot of downsides to mitigate the action economy:

    Ineffective if you need to stay/return to that location.
    Less effective on smaller maps.
    Less effective against hunters.
    A low evade person drawing it negates the action economy since you then have to engage first. This problem is worse in high player count games. You do not have to engage something to fight it.
    Similarly bad against aloof.
    Potentially reduced victory points.

    In addition, there are plenty of enemies who can still be killed in one shot. There are so far 161 total enemies (not counting weaknesses), 116 are non-elite. Of those, 41 are 2 or fewer health, which means they can pretty reliably be one shot with a weapon. There are 66 total enemies that have more than 2 health AND hunter (this is counting elites) so evade is a bandaid.

    Undimensioned and Unseen spoilers:
    This scenario can have some pretty random difficulty swings. If you're bringing a party that is bad at evade AND will tests that's kind of on you, but you should be able to gather clues to aid you on the attack tests with the item, and there are still other (very annoying) things to murder if you're a fighter. Not to say that it's unbeatable with that combo, not all scenarios are meant to be equally easy for all investigator combos. Also, it's perfectly acceptable to fail a scenario! You don't have to keep bashing your head against it. This is not like normal co-ops where the game is just over. Replaying to strive for the best ending is part of it. This scenario is also harder the better you did at the one before.

    But again, I have had some brutal luck on this one with some Whippoorwill spawns or getting very unlucky where the Broods move, but in general I don't find it impossible at two or one. I'm wondering if you missed something.

    ChaosHat on
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    A Half Eaten OreoA Half Eaten Oreo Registered User regular
    Evade does mean less victory points. Our duo is obsessed with XP. We are running 4 Delve too Deep and an Obol in our current Circle campaign.

    Evading also gets more dangerous post Forgotten Age with Alert. I like it for the action economy, but I still love playing the monster hunter. So far I’ve played multiple characters with both On the Hunt and Let me handle this, as core cards.

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    ChaosHatChaosHat Hop, hop, hop, HA! Trick of the lightRegistered User regular
    Monster hunting is fun, but evading everything feels like cheating when you do it right, like you're getting away with something. Granted when all your chickens come home to roost it will feel VERY BAD.

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    AstaerethAstaereth In the belly of the beastRegistered User regular
    Tbf I definitely do not accept the idea that we should move on after failing a scenario, so part of that might be my personal pecadillo.

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    ChaosHatChaosHat Hop, hop, hop, HA! Trick of the lightRegistered User regular
    The only time I redo is if it ends in investigator perma death or campaign over and I don't want to accept that. Sometimes I do!

    It was a difficult thing for me to come to terms with too, but honestly it can be really narratively satisfying too. Sometimes a person makes a heroic play so the other person escapes.

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    ChaosHatChaosHat Hop, hop, hop, HA! Trick of the lightRegistered User regular
    I forgot to ask @Astaereth what was the loophole card you ended up using? I wasn't familiar with any loopholes.

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    initiatefailureinitiatefailure Registered User regular
    edited June 2019
    Waylay maybe? Something else that says defeat and is not dealing damage?

    I got through that one on my recent run ok, but it's one of the scenarios that has a
    "you did not succeed but you get to keep moving forward" resolution

    initiatefailure on
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    AstaerethAstaereth In the belly of the beastRegistered User regular
    I believe it was Mind Wipe.

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    PMAversPMAvers Registered User regular
    Interesting post over on the AEG blog, talking about game mechanic theft in the board game industry.

    https://www.alderac.com/2019/06/07/ill-just-steal-it

    *looks at Sirlin*

    persona4celestia.jpg
    COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
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    GvzbgulGvzbgul Registered User regular
    I like the "stealing". There's very few outright copies as people will change certain things to make it not a 1:1 copy. Sometimes this results in the copiers adding new things that ruin the balance of the previous because they're just copying and haven't understood the game they're copying. Other times it results in genuine improvement, either the new theme matches better, or they've fixed up the rules.

    So long as they are improving or remixing I'm all for it.

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    ChaosHatChaosHat Hop, hop, hop, HA! Trick of the lightRegistered User regular
    Astaereth wrote: »
    I believe it was Mind Wipe.

    Wow I can't believe they aren't elite enemies. I think I always just assumed. That is definitely the best use of mind wipe I've ever seen. I mean, you also don't get the victory points but if you just want to cake walk a few of them you could do worse. Waylay or I'll see you in hell would also work.

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    SokpuppetSokpuppet You only yoyo once Registered User regular
    PMAvers wrote: »
    Interesting post over on the AEG blog, talking about game mechanic theft in the board game industry.

    https://www.alderac.com/2019/06/07/ill-just-steal-it

    *looks at Sirlin*

    It is certainly an interesting issue, but game mechanics are not subject to copyright law and so mechanic-plagiarism isn't theft by even the broadest possible definition.

    For that matter, contemporary copyright law is of extremely dubious morality; the DMCA was probably the largest single landslide of consumer protections in history and a close second to the Patriot Act in eroding American freedoms. You can thank the RIAA and their associated lobbyists & lawmakers.

    Where would deckbuilders be today if the publisher (publisher, remember; not the creator) of Dominion owned the intellectual property rights to the deck-builder mechanic?

    Where would gaming be today if Wizards of the Coast owned the rights to the core mechanics of Magic: The Gathering?
    Or Dungeons & Dragons?

    Any attempt by an organization to own an idea bears close scrutiny.

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    ArcticLancerArcticLancer Best served chilled. Registered User regular
    PMAvers wrote: »
    Interesting post over on the AEG blog, talking about game mechanic theft in the board game industry.

    https://www.alderac.com/2019/06/07/ill-just-steal-it

    *looks at Sirlin*
    eyeroll
    Can we not do this yet again? :|

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    FairchildFairchild Rabbit used short words that were easy to understand, like "Hello Pooh, how about Lunch ?" Registered User regular
    edited June 2019
    Where would gaming be today if Wizards of the Coast owned the rights to the core mechanics of Magic: The Gathering?
    Or Dungeons & Dragons?

    Actually, they already tried that when they trademarked "Tapping" your MAGIC cards. Other games can of course indicate that a card has been used by turning it sideways or whatever but published rules may not call that 'Tapping' without, in theory, legal consequences. I don't believe that their trademark has been successfully challenged.

    Fairchild on
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    ChaosHatChaosHat Hop, hop, hop, HA! Trick of the lightRegistered User regular
    I think to an extent that was unnecessary, and plenty of other card games aren't worse for it. L5R calls it bowing your cards, which is real thematic. Exhaust or whatever is also fine and can't be trademarked.

    They are not trademarking the concept of things sold in boosters, each player creating a deck before play, or turning cards sideways to indicate usage.

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    FryFry Registered User regular
    "I think it's wrong to make excuses for copying a game. Here are several excuses people make for it! We're doing it anyway," is sure a hell of a thing to post on your company blog.

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    ChaosHatChaosHat Hop, hop, hop, HA! Trick of the lightRegistered User regular
    Yeah that was the bizarre thing about it. The article opens up with "Hey we did this thing I consider stealing" which is worse than "this isn't stealing."

    I don't agree that it's stealing, but if you do then like...why?

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    Mr. GMr. G Registered User regular
    edited June 2019
    Got Cuba Libre, started setting it up to learn, and I’m really surprised how clean and intuitive it is

    When I hear big landmark heavy wargame, I think it’s gonna be homework, but it ultimately seems to be pretty simple design with a lot of depth in the interaction

    Plus that guided learning game? Beautiful! Everyone do that!

    Mr. G on
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