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[Board Games] Cardboard Action at a Distance

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Posts

  • BogartBogart Streetwise Hercules Registered User, Moderator mod
    Asmodee tell me the missing pieces from the Eldritch Horror expansion I bought a couple of years ago and only got round to opening the other day are being sent my way. Good job, Asmodee!

  • captainkcaptaink TexasRegistered User regular
    I played The Manhattan Project once years ago and quite liked it. I'm looking at getting it but it seems to go in and out of stock. There seems to be a Manhattan project family of games with Energy Empire and Minutes to Midnight, and maybe some expansions?

    Does anyone have experience with the others? Is there a clear favorite. I don't really have a worker placement game in my collection so I'm looking for something that isn't Viticulture or Lords of Waterdeep (my friend has those).

  • jergarmarjergarmar hollow man crew goes pew pew pewRegistered User regular
    psyck0 wrote: »
    Oh my god what HAPPENED! The hazards of phone posting I guess. I'm just going to leave it like that because I am still laughing.

    My mental picture was you rocking back and forth, hugging your knees, and muttering about the glut of amazing games available to play right now.

    "Just put the subject in a quiet room with a box or two of miniatures. They have a calming effect. Then slowly introduce games on an increasing scale of complexity, while monitoring heart rate. Under no circumstances should the subject be exposed to Kickstarter during this period."

    When I was a child, I had a fever...
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    Battle.net: TheGerm#1430 (Hearthstone, Destiny 2)
  • AstaerethAstaereth In the belly of the beastRegistered User regular
    edited June 2019
    Recent plays:

    I thought Cryptid was a functional deduction game, but that it wasn’t really special in any way. The theme didn’t seem to matter at all, which is dumb. Why say the terrain is mountain, swamp, desert and not something more fantastical? Why not assign each clue a monster component so you can at least have the satisfaction of saying “I’ve deduced that the creature is... a winged, lion, with a scorpion tail... and it’s right here!”

    Next we played Conan, a players versus the DM deal. It seemed tremendously unbalanced until we learned we were playing wrong (in our defense, the rules are very poorly written and it was very easy to miss stuff), so overall it was probably only a little unbalanced (in favor of the heroes). Pro: I liked the gem energy system as a way of choosing and buffing actions. Con: The game has a weird aspect of like, the map is up to your interpretation? How many movement points does it take to exit or enter a village hut? Buried in one of the examples it says it takes an extra point because of “the flap” at the door of the hut, none of which are visually obvious. The game is also like, “Height differentials matter between spaces. Which spaces are higher than others? I dunno, just eyeball it and guess.” Not a great experience overall.

    Last night I played Root for the second time, this time trying to learn the Vagabond. It was everybody else’s first time, and it turns out that when nobody knows what they’re doing, the cats can just run away with it. Root strikes me as a game whose balance only works when everybody is playing decently. I’d still like to play it more, but my own group has to get through Betrayal Legacy first...

    Astaereth on
    ACsTqqK.jpg
  • ArcticLancerArcticLancer Best served chilled. Registered User regular
    Astaereth wrote: »
    Recent plays:

    I thought Cryptid was a functional deduction game, but that it wasn’t really special in any way. The theme didn’t seem to matter at all, which is dumb. Why say the terrain is mountain, swamp, desert and not something more fantastical? Why not assign each clue a monster component so you can at least have the satisfaction of saying “I’ve deduced that the creature is... a winged, lion, with a scorpion tail... and it’s right here!”

    Next we played Conan, a players versus the DM deal. It seemed tremendously unbalanced until we learned we were playing wrong (in our defense, the rules are very poorly written and it was very easy to miss stuff), so overall it was probably only a little unbalanced (in favor of the heroes). Pro: I liked the gem energy system as a way of choosing and buffing actions. Con: The game has a weird aspect of like, the map is up to your interpretation? How many movement points does it take to exit or enter a village hut? Buried in one of the examples it says it takes an extra point because of “the flap” at the door of the hut, none of which are visually obvious. The game is also like, “Height differentials matter between spaces. Which spaces are higher than others? I dunno, just eyeball it and guess.” Not a great experience overall.

    Last night I played Root for the second time, this time trying to learn the Vagabond. It was everybody else’s first time, and it turns out that when nobody knows what they’re doing, the cats can someone will just run away with it. Root strikes me as a game whose balance only works when everybody is playing decently. I’d still like to play it more, but my own group has to get through Betrayal Legacy first...

    Fixed that for you. ;P

    I like your notes on Cryptid. I also played it once a while back and "functional" is exactly the word I'd use too. But I hadn't considered anything like the cute sorts of ways to add theme you suggest. I'm not going to claim they'd totally change the game, but making it a bit less bland and rote would have definitely helped my opinion of it.

  • FairchildFairchild Rabbit used short words that were easy to understand, like "Hello Pooh, how about Lunch ?" Registered User regular
    Next we played Conan, a players versus the DM deal. It seemed tremendously unbalanced until we learned we were playing wrong (in our defense, the rules are very poorly written and it was very easy to miss stuff), so overall it was probably only a little unbalanced (in favor of the heroes). Pro: I liked the gem energy system as a way of choosing and buffing actions. Con: The game has a weird aspect of like, the map is up to your interpretation? How many movement points does it take to exit or enter a village hut? Buried in one of the examples it says it takes an extra point because of “the flap” at the door of the hut, none of which are visually obvious. The game is also like, “Height differentials matter between spaces. Which spaces are higher than others? I dunno, just eyeball it and guess.” Not a great experience overall.

    They "fixed" a lot of this in GOTHAM CITY. I don't mind the "figure out the terrain yourself" part of the game, as an old-line wargamer I'm very used to doing this, particularly because writing LOS and Elevation rules is teh suck. But GOTHAM adds a set of visual cues to help figure out heights, which doesn't work as well as it should but it's better than nothing.

  • Raw ConcreteRaw Concrete Registered User regular
    I played Cryptid 3 times last weekend with 2 adults and 2 kids. We ended up choosing a legendary cryptid from the Wikipedia page to search for (i.e. 'This time we're hunting Chupacabra') to add some flavor. The terrain part didn't occur to me, since most cryptids are 'located' in pretty typical -- just remote -- terrain rather than weird biomes. The theme is pretty painted on of course, so I would have loved to see more as well.

    For our gang it went over well, but the kids were doubtful at first. At the end of the first game, the older of the two kids said "You tricked me! I didn't think this would be fun!"

    Oh, come and shake me 'till I'm dry
  • GlaziusGlazius Registered User regular
    Mr. G wrote: »
    Uh oh, I bought Feast for Odin and the expansion

    Uh oh, it seems really really good

    Uh oh, now you need to buy a bigger table?

    Odin is a game that tries very hard to justify its price for stuff but as with many such games... dat sprawl.

  • CaptainPeacockCaptainPeacock Board Game Hoarder Top o' the LakeRegistered User regular
    Cover me in Odin.

    Cluck cluck, gibber gibber, my old man's a mushroom, etc.
  • GlaziusGlazius Registered User regular
    Cover me in Odin.

    Oh, that won't work. You'll move about a bit and all the runes and oils will go sluicing off the boards and how will we remember where you put them?

  • CaptainPeacockCaptainPeacock Board Game Hoarder Top o' the LakeRegistered User regular
    That's the real game.

    Cluck cluck, gibber gibber, my old man's a mushroom, etc.
  • Mojo_JojoMojo_Jojo We are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourse Registered User regular
    That Die Macher reprint on Kickstarter seems like very poor value

    Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
  • wonderpugwonderpug Registered User regular
    Astaereth wrote: »
    Last night I played Root for the second time, this time trying to learn the Vagabond. It was everybody else’s first time, and it turns out that when nobody knows what they’re doing, the cats can just run away with it.

    Funny, that's how I felt about Vagabond in my group's first game. At one point in the second half I had to point out that I was very close to winning (despite not being the point leader). For every other faction you could look at the board and get a sense for how they were doing, but for Vagabond you have to keep an eye on the player mat, and I don't think it's intuitive to think of tiny equipment tokens as being a measure of power.

  • Mr. GMr. G Registered User regular
    the Vagabond is conceptually neat, but I think they're probably the weakest part of Root, I find that games without them are better and more engaging

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  • ArcticLancerArcticLancer Best served chilled. Registered User regular
    Mojo_Jojo wrote: »
    That Die Macher reprint on Kickstarter seems like very poor value
    Why?

  • Mojo_JojoMojo_Jojo We are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourse Registered User regular
    Mojo_Jojo wrote: »
    That Die Macher reprint on Kickstarter seems like very poor value
    Why?

    $70 (+10/20$ shipping) is quite a bit above what you'd typically pay for a game with that level of stuff in a box. Especially one where any design costs should have been long sunk.

    Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    Blame the tariffs.

  • CaptainPeacockCaptainPeacock Board Game Hoarder Top o' the LakeRegistered User regular
    On theme alone, I'm excited for Die Tavernen Im Tiefen Thal. Running a pretend tavern? Sign me up.

    Cluck cluck, gibber gibber, my old man's a mushroom, etc.
  • azith28azith28 Registered User regular

    So we got a little info on the upcoming next thing from the 7th continent guys:
    enhanced engine of 7th continent, in a dark fantasy world, coming to KS in 2020:

    msi6qy1t8mzu.jpeg

    Stercus, Stercus, Stercus, Morituri Sum
  • Ah_PookAh_Pook Registered User regular
    Neat. They're reprinting 7th Continent too for cheaper minus the Kickstarter exclusive stuff.

    I've got a free copy of 7th Continent coming to me also which I'm pretty jazzed about.

  • HedgethornHedgethorn Associate Professor of Historical Hobby Horses In the Lions' DenRegistered User regular
    I never played Vast, but from what I know of the game a digital adaptation might be the superior way to implement it. At least the rules explanation might be able to be minimized.

  • SageinaRageSageinaRage Registered User regular
    I own Vast, and I think the rules are ultimately not that complex, but they are poorly explained. They need to break it down more at the start in terms of 1) what is your goal, 2) what are the actions you can take, and 3) what are your interactions with the other player types.

    sig.gif
  • azith28azith28 Registered User regular
    Ah_Pook wrote: »
    Neat. They're reprinting 7th Continent too for cheaper minus the Kickstarter exclusive stuff.

    I've got a free copy of 7th Continent coming to me also which I'm pretty jazzed about.

    That kinda irritates me a bit cause i got a full second copy of the KS to ebay once it got rare. granted its got bells and whistles the cheaper one doesnt...but might make it harder to profit.

    Stercus, Stercus, Stercus, Morituri Sum
  • Ah_PookAh_Pook Registered User regular
    azith28 wrote: »
    Ah_Pook wrote: »
    Neat. They're reprinting 7th Continent too for cheaper minus the Kickstarter exclusive stuff.

    I've got a free copy of 7th Continent coming to me also which I'm pretty jazzed about.

    That kinda irritates me a bit cause i got a full second copy of the KS to ebay once it got rare. granted its got bells and whistles the cheaper one doesnt...but might make it harder to profit.

    You can sell it right now on eBay for $4-500 looks like. Not sure what you paid for it or wanted to get for it, but strike while the irons hot I think.

  • DashuiDashui Registered User regular
    azith28 wrote: »
    So we got a little info on the upcoming next thing from the 7th continent guys:
    enhanced engine of 7th continent, in a dark fantasy world, coming to KS in 2020:

    msi6qy1t8mzu.jpeg

    I need this. I'm getting Riven vibes from that shot.

    Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
  • HamHamJHamHamJ Registered User regular
    captaink wrote: »
    I played The Manhattan Project once years ago and quite liked it. I'm looking at getting it but it seems to go in and out of stock. There seems to be a Manhattan project family of games with Energy Empire and Minutes to Midnight, and maybe some expansions?

    Does anyone have experience with the others? Is there a clear favorite. I don't really have a worker placement game in my collection so I'm looking for something that isn't Viticulture or Lords of Waterdeep (my friend has those).

    Energy Empire improves a lot on the original, imho.

    While racing light mechs, your Urbanmech comes in second place, but only because it ran out of ammo.
  • Mr. GMr. G Registered User regular
    Oh jeez Pax Pamir 2E seems like it is extremely good

    Cole Wehrle is unbelievably good at taking complex design and sanding it down to just the bare essentials to still keep the depth but leave it streamlined and as user friendly as it can be

    6F32U1X.png
  • jergarmarjergarmar hollow man crew goes pew pew pewRegistered User regular
    Mr. G wrote: »
    Oh jeez Pax Pamir 2E seems like it is extremely good

    Cole Wehrle is unbelievably good at taking complex design and sanding it down to just the bare essentials to still keep the depth but leave it streamlined and as user friendly as it can be

    And it's funny, I don't know the comparative popularities of the Pax games, but I had no idea Pax Pamir had enough "support" to get a 2nd edition. Totally surprised (and pleased) me.

    When I was a child, I had a fever...
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  • Ah_PookAh_Pook Registered User regular
    Probably more to do with the huge success of Root and the really nice looking production/Kickstarter exclusive release, than the relative popularity of Pax games.

  • admanbadmanb unionize your workplace Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    Pamir 2E hits the combined audience of Root fans that turned into Cole Werhle fans, existing Cole Wehrle fans from games like John Company, and Sierra Madre Games fans.

  • Vann DirasVann Diras Registered User regular
    Has anybody played escape the dark castle? I’m thinking of backing the new game on Kickstarter, but thought I’d see if the first game has some major issues or anything

    The art seems real cool, and I’m often down for “story generator” board games, provided there’s enough “play” in the game and not just flipping a card over, rolling dice, flip next card, etc

  • JonBobJonBob Registered User regular
    A TV adaptation of Ticket to Ride is in the works!

    I look forward to exploring the rich backstories of Blue Top Hat Man, Red Scarf Lady, and Green Newsie.

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  • DirtmuncherDirtmuncher Registered User regular
    JonBob wrote: »
    A TV adaptation of Ticket to Ride is in the works!

    I look forward to exploring the rich backstories of Blue Top Hat Man, Red Scarf Lady, and Green Newsie.

    Isn't it called rail away?
    Ow it's a Dutch program
    https://www.netinnederland.nl/en/media/rail-away.html
    https://youtu.be/Vm3UF2CCncs

    steam_sig.png
  • Ah_PookAh_Pook Registered User regular
    Oooh QE is fulfilling their Kickstarter. I'm pretty hyped about this one.

  • 38thDoe38thDoe lets never be stupid again wait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered User regular
    My wife tells me blue top hat man is named Vanderbot Junior.

    38thDoE on steam
    🦀🦑🦀🦑🦀🦑🦀🦑🦀🦑🦀🦑🦀
    
  • BloodySlothBloodySloth Registered User regular
    edited June 2019
    My wonderful wife got me a game for my birthday, and we got a couple of rounds in with various friends tonight:
    pic4579028.jpg

    It's fun! It feels introductory to the hidden movement one-vs-many type game, without feeling too basic. It's pretty light, feels thematic, and it ends in a big knockdown, drag out fight with the monster, which I think gives it one up, at least in principle, against a game like Fury of Dracula (which I love but could still be more accurately titled "Dracula Runs Away").

    The art is fairly spare on the cards, but it captures the aesthetic (and especially the color palette) of the movie really well, and the spareness actually lends it an old game feeling, which helps with the setting, too.

    Anyway the two games we played had a lot of different dramatic moments and played out quite differently, even though the humans won both games.

    BloodySloth on
  • Mr. GMr. G Registered User regular
    edited June 2019
    My local shop had their annual garage sale, where people bring in games they wanna sell setting their own prices and the store opens up for people to come through and here's what I came away with

    - Fury of Dracula (third edition)
    - King of Tokyo
    - Twilight Struggle
    - Vast

    for about a hundred bucks

    how'd I do?

    Mr. G on
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  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    edited June 2019
    You did good, you did good.

    For Twilight Struggle I recommend finding your friend who is most down with playing “learning games” because you first game or two or three are going to end suddenly or get really lopsided because of cards showing up that no one knew about

    Amazing game once both players are comfortable with the deck though

    Inquisitor on
  • PowerpuppiesPowerpuppies drinking coffee in the mountain cabinRegistered User regular
    my other advice for twilight struggle is to play fast

    sig.gif
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