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[Board Games] Cardboard Action at a Distance

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Posts

  • PowerpuppiesPowerpuppies drinking coffee in the mountain cabinRegistered User regular
    Inquisitor wrote: »
    Do they have a new edition of Dune that fixes whatever caused the team imbalance of TI:Rex?

    TI:Rex is modified from the original Dune rules so I can’t really answer that question without more information about what you are referring to for Rex.

    Edit: also somewhat depends what version of Dune they are going for and how many advanced rules they are cooking in.

    Also finally grabbed myself a copy of Battleline, such a glorious, elegant little game. Now my debate is to bring it to work for games at lunch or keep it for myself.

    Speaking of, best boardgames for an hour long work lunch break? What do you all like?

    Edit 2: skimming the leaked dune rules it looks like a mix of the original rules, some of the advance rules, and some of the recommended balance changes from tournament players.

    For example default rules put max alliance size at 2 instead of 3 now.

    I complained that Rex seemed like garbage at the expert level, as the Lazax can give influence to allies before bidding, and receive all bids paid to them instead of the bank. Thus they can give all their money to their buddy before each option round, and their buddy can buy every card, giving the money spent back to the Lazax. The alliance gets all the cards and loses no money. Then every chance to discard a card, they take, losing one a fight or whatever to keep their hand empty for the next round of buying. Only by tremendously overpaying can the opposing players get any cards at all, and the payment goes directly to their enemies.

    Bonus points if the Lazax combines with Xxcha who can ban a card before each fight, so that first card you spent seven influence for doesn't help you.

    I may be getting the details wrong, but I brought this up here years ago asking if we were getting a rule wrong and I thought you personally responded "nope, that works differently in the original. Sounds broken. : ("

    So if they remade Dune again without making unnecessary changes that fry the balance, I might buy it!

    sig.gif
  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    Inquisitor wrote: »
    Do they have a new edition of Dune that fixes whatever caused the team imbalance of TI:Rex?

    TI:Rex is modified from the original Dune rules so I can’t really answer that question without more information about what you are referring to for Rex.

    Edit: also somewhat depends what version of Dune they are going for and how many advanced rules they are cooking in.

    Also finally grabbed myself a copy of Battleline, such a glorious, elegant little game. Now my debate is to bring it to work for games at lunch or keep it for myself.

    Speaking of, best boardgames for an hour long work lunch break? What do you all like?

    Edit 2: skimming the leaked dune rules it looks like a mix of the original rules, some of the advance rules, and some of the recommended balance changes from tournament players.

    For example default rules put max alliance size at 2 instead of 3 now.

    I complained that Rex seemed like garbage at the expert level, as the Lazax can give influence to allies before bidding, and receive all bids paid to them instead of the bank. Thus they can give all their money to their buddy before each option round, and their buddy can buy every card, giving the money spent back to the Lazax. The alliance gets all the cards and loses no money. Then every chance to discard a card, they take, losing one a fight or whatever to keep their hand empty for the next round of buying. Only by tremendously overpaying can the opposing players get any cards at all, and the payment goes directly to their enemies.

    Bonus points if the Lazax combines with Xxcha who can ban a card before each fight, so that first card you spent seven influence for doesn't help you.

    I may be getting the details wrong, but I brought this up here years ago asking if we were getting a rule wrong and I thought you personally responded "nope, that works differently in the original. Sounds broken. : ("

    So if they remade Dune again without making unnecessary changes that fry the balance, I might buy it!

    Hm, pretty sure you can basically do that in classic dune but it doesn’t really break the game because of hand limits, plenty of junk bidding cards, perfect atreides knowledge, having 15 turns to get cards instead of Rex’s 8 and so on.

    Not sure if you can do that in New Dune or not. Only skimmed the rulebook so far. In my opinion classic dune isn’t broken by the Emperor’s ability to feed people cards, but, like, the cards and whole game balance are different than Rex so maybe it breaks Rex.

  • PowerpuppiesPowerpuppies drinking coffee in the mountain cabinRegistered User regular
    edited August 2019
    yeah the problem wasn't the feeding but the starving. It's not like the Lazax get any cards this way anyway. But 4 or 5 cards a turn, with half or more of the money in the game to buy them with (and it's definitely more as you start to win) seemed mostly doable.

    can you choose to always lose 2 cards a combat in Dune? That pretty well cancels hand limits.

    Even the change in this edition of reducing default alliance limits to 2 would help a lot, in a 5 player game. In a 5p game where the dealmaking card came up in the 2nd round, it was hard for anyone to argue with "you and you ally with me, and we'll systematically mop up the other 2 and take 4 strongholds. It will be 3v2 and they'll almost never get a strategy card." Even when the second dealmaking card came up, those three people sort of said "well, i'll definitely win if we stay the course..."

    We were reluctant to give up and stop playing it, but one guy put his foot down and said "explain a plausible way Lazax-Xxcha loses, before we play it even one more time," and nobody was ever able to do that.

    Powerpuppies on
    sig.gif
  • FuselageFuselage Oosik Jumpship LoungeRegistered User regular
    My Kickstarter for Zombicide Invader came in Thursday, but I just got around to opening it today.

    It's... so much stuff. There's some fun characters in the Kickstarter bonus, too, like Deckard, Pris, and Roy from Bladerunner, Doc Brown and Marty McFly, Emily Blunt's character from Live Die Repeat, and of course Rick and Morty.

    They're all off brand and renamed, but it's incredibly obvious who they're supposed to be. I'll put some pictures up later.

    Mine gets in Monday. I'm excited for both of us! Some day when Project: Elite shows up we'll be swimming in sci fi minis.

    o4n72w5h9b5y.png
  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    yeah the problem wasn't the feeding but the starving. It's not like the Lazax get any cards this way anyway. But 4 or 5 cards a turn, with half or more of the money in the game to buy them with (and it's definitely more as you start to win) seemed mostly doable.

    can you choose to always lose 2 cards a combat in Dune? That pretty well cancels hand limits.

    Even the change in this edition of reducing default alliance limits to 2 would help a lot, in a 5 player game. In a 5p game where the dealmaking card came up in the 2nd round, it was hard for anyone to argue with "you and you ally with me, and we'll systematically mop up the other 2 and take 4 strongholds. It will be 3v2 and they'll almost never get a strategy card." Even when the second dealmaking card came up, those three people sort of said "well, i'll definitely win if we stay the course..."

    We were reluctant to give up and stop playing it, but one guy put his foot down and said "explain a plausible way Lazax-Xxcha loses, before we play it even one more time," and nobody was ever able to do that.

    I can’t speak to Rex specifically, in Dune having fights just to throw away cards tends to be a losing strategy as you are going to run out of troops and getting them back is painfully slow in Dune. I remember troops being able to come back faster in Rex.

  • PowerpuppiesPowerpuppies drinking coffee in the mountain cabinRegistered User regular
    nod

    well whatever the reason it sounds like this strategy is not broken in Dune, then we found it obviously broken in Rex, and who knows with the new one

    sig.gif
  • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
    yeah the problem wasn't the feeding but the starving. It's not like the Lazax get any cards this way anyway. But 4 or 5 cards a turn, with half or more of the money in the game to buy them with (and it's definitely more as you start to win) seemed mostly doable.

    can you choose to always lose 2 cards a combat in Dune? That pretty well cancels hand limits.

    Even the change in this edition of reducing default alliance limits to 2 would help a lot, in a 5 player game. In a 5p game where the dealmaking card came up in the 2nd round, it was hard for anyone to argue with "you and you ally with me, and we'll systematically mop up the other 2 and take 4 strongholds. It will be 3v2 and they'll almost never get a strategy card." Even when the second dealmaking card came up, those three people sort of said "well, i'll definitely win if we stay the course..."

    We were reluctant to give up and stop playing it, but one guy put his foot down and said "explain a plausible way Lazax-Xxcha loses, before we play it even one more time," and nobody was ever able to do that.

    Yeah, Lazax+Xxcha+whatever just can't plausibly lose. It's the same problem as Lannister not getting wiped out in Game of Thrones: it only happens if the table meta specifically sets out to thwart it which requires everyone to play against their own best interest.

    They screwed up so much balance from Dune. The smaller map plus double(!) movement meant that factions which relied on mobility (Guild, Fremen, Atredis/Harkonnen controlling space ports) were screwed over. Hacan/Guild was by far the weakest faction since they not only devalued mobility, but banned all money trading except for Lazax/Emperor, meaning that even if the Guild had a ton of money, they couldn't do anything with it since they had the worst leaders in the game and couldn't feed their allies. That money lending rule was also yet another indirect buff to the Emperor who did not need it. And on top of all that, they just flat out took away the Fremen/Sol elite unit but let the Emperor/Lazax keep his...for no reason at all.

    There's a ton of other stuff they changed to streamline and shorten the game which indirectly affected the balance but they did nothing to compensate the factions hurt by it or nerf the factions that were buffed by it.

    I do like the 2 player alliance limit new rule. But they did buff the Bene Gessrit Voice, which did NOT need to be any stronger. At all.

  • CaptainPeacockCaptainPeacock Board Game Hoarder Top o' the LakeRegistered User regular
    Just ordered Ganz Schön Clever for an upcoming trip. Haven't played it but I've heard nothing but good things.

    Cluck cluck, gibber gibber, my old man's a mushroom, etc.
  • ElvenshaeElvenshae Registered User regular
    Cross-posting from the Homeowners' thread, since this is basically y'all's fault ...

    I am inordinately proud of this. :D

    Four-corner shots:
    37pfwi3hu3qi.jpg2osl898xc14c.jpg
    kmjp4zwgtxfh.jpghz4xv2mspdb1.jpg

    ... turned into ...
    axxh14ddfcic.jpg43h8ahhx3juk.jpg
    lgbc2qtoa71q.jpgprcfwf8t8rw7.jpg

    Behr Platinum in Eggshell

    ... so we could install ...
    rbq2694nfwms.jpg8xbqdmnzo3zz.jpg

    ... which is naturally there to hold ...
    rlfu22y02wvb.jpg57iyj0gf0ai5.jpg
    ick4z9i2xxwc.jpg

  • Mojo_JojoMojo_Jojo We are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourse Registered User regular
    I just finished packing things into my newly assembled Founders of Gloomhaven insert

    *Lights cigarette post coitally*

    Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
  • TimFijiTimFiji Beast Lord Halfway2AnywhereRegistered User regular
    Elvenshae wrote: »
    Cross-posting from the Homeowners' thread, since this is basically y'all's fault ...

    I am inordinately proud of this. :D

    Four-corner shots:
    37pfwi3hu3qi.jpg2osl898xc14c.jpg
    kmjp4zwgtxfh.jpghz4xv2mspdb1.jpg

    ... turned into ...
    axxh14ddfcic.jpg43h8ahhx3juk.jpg
    lgbc2qtoa71q.jpgprcfwf8t8rw7.jpg

    Behr Platinum in Eggshell

    ... so we could install ...
    rbq2694nfwms.jpg8xbqdmnzo3zz.jpg

    ... which is naturally there to hold ...
    rlfu22y02wvb.jpg57iyj0gf0ai5.jpg
    ick4z9i2xxwc.jpg

    eh.. needs 3 more sets of shelves.

    Switch: SW-2322-2047-3148 Steam: Archpriest
      Selling Board Games for Medical Bills
    • ElvenshaeElvenshae Registered User regular
      The stuff on-top is basically too big to fit in the normal shelves.

      The bottom row is completely empty at the moment - that's where the kids are going to store the toys that are currently on the floor (awaiting construction of this) in the other room.

      Then, of course, there's all the kids games that make up most of the bottom two rows, and eventually they'll age out of those ... :D

    • FryFry Registered User regular
      But where's your crokinole board, Shae?

    • ElvenshaeElvenshae Registered User regular
      Fry wrote: »
      But where's your crokinole board, Shae?

      My friends have one.

    • webguy20webguy20 I spend too much time on the Internet Registered User regular
      I want to try crokinole. It looks like a lot of fun. I think it would scratch that shuffleboard itch.

      Steam ID: Webguy20
      Origin ID: Discgolfer27
      Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
    • FuselageFuselage Oosik Jumpship LoungeRegistered User regular
      I'm going to be printing out a big map of Waterdeep for a D&D adventure on a vinyl poster so it'll cover most of the game table, and that idea led to me thinking about doing the same for games like Diplomacy.

      Has anyone ever gotten a wild hair and printed a bigger version of their game boards for when they *had* to go big or go home?

      o4n72w5h9b5y.png
    • VyolynceVyolynce Registered User regular
      Fuselage wrote: »
      I'm going to be printing out a big map of Waterdeep for a D&D adventure on a vinyl poster so it'll cover most of the game table, and that idea led to me thinking about doing the same for games like Diplomacy.

      Has anyone ever gotten a wild hair and printed a bigger version of their game boards for when they *had* to go big or go home?

      Stonemeier Games made it an actual option for Scythe...

      nedhf8b6a4rj.jpgsig.gif
      AC:NH Chris from Glosta SW-5173-3598-2899 DA-4749-1014-4697 @vyolynce@mastodon.social
    • AstaerethAstaereth In the belly of the beastRegistered User regular
      Is it just me or is Iwari very, very bland? It looks nice but plays like a math problem. I was astonished to see it cost like $50 on Kickstarter, it’d be a meh at $15.

      ACsTqqK.jpg
    • ArcticLancerArcticLancer Best served chilled. Registered User regular
      edited August 2019
      Astaereth wrote: »
      Is it just me or is Iwari very, very bland? It looks nice but plays like a math problem. I was astonished to see it cost like $50 on Kickstarter, it’d be a meh at $15.
      Well, it's not just you as I remember looking at it and thinking "This doesn't seem very interesting ... I'm also very wary of this game leveraging some form of totem pole."

      ArcticLancer on
    • LykouraghLykouragh Registered User regular
      Just ordered Ganz Schön Clever for an upcoming trip. Haven't played it but I've heard nothing but good things.

      This is the only roll and write I've really enjoyed, it just makes you feel clever every move.

    • AstaerethAstaereth In the belly of the beastRegistered User regular
      Astaereth wrote: »
      Is it just me or is Iwari very, very bland? It looks nice but plays like a math problem. I was astonished to see it cost like $50 on Kickstarter, it’d be a meh at $15.
      Well, it's not just you as I remember looking at it and thinking "This doesn't seem very interesting ... I'm also very wary of this game leveraging some form of totem pole."

      It's unfortunate that a game that is basically completely abstract decided its theme should be "tribal race war." I dunno why that's so often the default for games.

      ACsTqqK.jpg
    • DirtmuncherDirtmuncher Registered User regular
      Fuselage wrote: »
      I'm going to be printing out a big map of Waterdeep for a D&D adventure on a vinyl poster so it'll cover most of the game table, and that idea led to me thinking about doing the same for games like Diplomacy.

      Has anyone ever gotten a wild hair and printed a bigger version of their game boards for when they *had* to go big or go home?

      The original dune map is pretty small. For my pnp I made it as big as the table.

      steam_sig.png
    • initiatefailureinitiatefailure Registered User regular
      edited August 2019
      Well it happened. We finally had a staff party where I played almost exclusively games I did not like.

      Played 3 games of we're doomed the first two I was immediately nuked and in the third game I actually got to play out the game. It was actually fine with a max size group in the last game and no one letting the autocracy players keep any money for nukes ever. It's like as feelbad a mechanic as couping except you also get to sit here for 12 minutes while the rest of us yell a bunch. The one saving grace was an event card that said any nuked country could rise from the depths as an Eldritch abomination and kill two players so revenge was had.

      We played like 5 rounds of just one which was fun. I quite liked the mechanics of cluevering and multiple people writing the same clue cancelling it out and it was easy to explain to the point of people walking over and jumping right in. I was then told it has won the spiel and I don't get it. I think it's good. But i just can't picture it as game of the year. It has the distinction of being the only game of the evening where I felt like I had any agency.

      Played a round of the magic themed resistance knock off ravnica Inquisition and well, I don't like social deduction that doesn't involve gameplay elements for deducing anything. The yell loudly for a few minutes then vote style of game is not my space. If I had my way, the only social deduction game would be The Thing (you know, if they'd have actually had the rights to make it)

      Then we broke the group up to try a couple gencon demos and we were the terror below group. It's tremors the game! It's probably fine now that we know it better but the read the rules while playing the first game caused one person to realize sooner than the rest of us that they could lead a wurm into attacking two of us off the board while we were low on weapons and then just win easily off the killing wirm bounty bonus points. At least the way it played out, the deliver eggs bounties were not reasonable objectives to go after and just killing wurms was the only right strategy.

      Then most of the crew filtered out and the 5 of us left played Arabian nights and holy hell I've never played something with more of an allusion of agency but actually nothing I chose to do impacted the game and the person who won just happened to hit their first 3 random encounters matching the starting skills they chose.

      initiatefailure on
    • ArcticLancerArcticLancer Best served chilled. Registered User regular
      Just One won the "family" category of Spiel, whatever it's called again. When you see the other nominations, it's a pretty clear winner IMO. <_<

    • initiatefailureinitiatefailure Registered User regular
      Just One won the "family" category of Spiel, whatever it's called again. When you see the other nominations, it's a pretty clear winner IMO. <_<

      Ok sure I have no idea what the other two games in it's category even are, though that might just be a haven't been published in NA yet effect like with Ganz Shan clever last year

    • AstaerethAstaereth In the belly of the beastRegistered User regular
      Arabian Nights is definitely a random story generator disguised as a game, but on the other hand, it is a pretty fucking great random story generator.

      ACsTqqK.jpg
    • CaptainPeacockCaptainPeacock Board Game Hoarder Top o' the LakeRegistered User regular
      I think 878 Vikings also has an extra-large map that can be purchased separately.

      Cluck cluck, gibber gibber, my old man's a mushroom, etc.
    • Custom SpecialCustom Special I know I am, I'm sure I am, I'm Sounders 'til I die!Registered User regular
      Just picked up Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid today. Traded a bunch of old stuff at Gamestop, walked next door into ThinkGeek with my gift card (who had 25% if you bought an overpriced reusable bag), walked out with Power Rangers, a pack of Pokemon cards for my daughter to open for fun, and a dollar and change left on my gift card.

      Real excited to get the game to the table this Friday with my regular group and I might try it 2p with my wife in the days ahead. All the gameplay I've been seeing looks like solid coop fun with a big brick of cheese on top (good cheese, not pandering cheese).

      XBL: F4ll0utBP | STEAM | PSN : CustomSpecial | Bnet: F4ll0ut#1636
    • tyrantula22tyrantula22 Registered User regular
      edited August 2019
      Just picked up Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid today. Traded a bunch of old stuff at Gamestop, walked next door into ThinkGeek with my gift card (who had 25% if you bought an overpriced reusable bag), walked out with Power Rangers, a pack of Pokemon cards for my daughter to open for fun, and a dollar and change left on my gift card.

      Real excited to get the game to the table this Friday with my regular group and I might try it 2p with my wife in the days ahead. All the gameplay I've been seeing looks like solid coop fun with a big brick of cheese on top (good cheese, not pandering cheese).

      One of my friends has it and I've got to play it once so far (with 3 players). It is a lot of fun, and I like how it differs from what's kind of the "normal" coop games. Usually it's I take a turn, then the board, then you, then the board, etc. But this feels different since you really have to work together and decide where to go/fight and how to spend your actions before more stuff comes out. The combat is interesting as well with how you use the cards and do you draw more but leave yourself "weaker", etc.

      tyrantula22 on
      Battletag: Tyrantula22#1623
      Steam ID
    • Jam WarriorJam Warrior Registered User regular
      Wow, that was a pretty shit game of TI. Ended up as the one person fighting on two fronts for half the game and as such got utterly slammed. 2 points total.

      Starting with only a single transporter feels like starting with the handbrake on compared to people who start with two. Someone else got War before me and I just felt a turn behind on expansion the whole game.

      MhCw7nZ.gif
    • KetarKetar Come on upstairs we're having a partyRegistered User regular
      Wow, that was a pretty shit game of TI. Ended up as the one person fighting on two fronts for half the game and as such got utterly slammed. 2 points total.

      Starting with only a single transporter feels like starting with the handbrake on compared to people who start with two. Someone else got War before me and I just felt a turn behind on expansion the whole game.

      Did they manage to delay playing Warfare long enough that you couldn't build a ship or two with transport capacity using the Warfare secondary and then move them to invade some planets?

      My preference would definitely be for races with two ships that can carry ground forces in their starting fleet, but it's usually possible to keep up a decent rate of expansion regardless thanks to the Warfare secondary.

    • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
      Which race was that? It's rare that a race starts with only a single capacity unit: carriers or dreads.

    • KetarKetar Come on upstairs we're having a partyRegistered User regular
      MrBody wrote: »
      Which race was that? It's rare that a race starts with only a single capacity unit: carriers or dreads.

      Arborec, Muaat, Creuss, Mentak, Naalu, Winnu, and Xxcha. That's just over 1/3 of all races that start with only a single ship capable of transporting other units.

    • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
      Ketar wrote: »
      MrBody wrote: »
      Which race was that? It's rare that a race starts with only a single capacity unit: carriers or dreads.

      Arborec, Muaat, Creuss, Mentak, Naalu, Winnu, and Xxcha. That's just over 1/3 of all races that start with only a single ship capable of transporting other units.

      Forgot that Creuss Mentak and Naalue were on that list.

      Arborec is sort of balanced by the fact that you can just build a 2nd forward ship so early.

      Muaat needs some sort of drawback for the warsun.

      It's the player's own fault if they ever pick Winnu or Xxcha.

    • PowerpuppiesPowerpuppies drinking coffee in the mountain cabinRegistered User regular
      Haha I had no idea Winnu or Xxcha were bad. Is it anything specific? This is v4, right?

      sig.gif
    • Jam WarriorJam Warrior Registered User regular
      3rd and Naalu. I didn’t play to their abilities very well but like I said, assaulted on both flanks simultaneously by otherwise unharried opponents, no race is doing well there.

      MhCw7nZ.gif
    • Mojo_JojoMojo_Jojo We are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourse Registered User regular
      3rd and Naalu. I didn’t play to their abilities very well but like I said, assaulted on both flanks simultaneously by otherwise unharried opponents, no race is doing well there.

      Regardless of 3rd or 4th edition, if the players aren't all providing pressure on their neighbours it's going to fuck somebody over.

      Once again I feel the twinges of desire for a game of TI stirring.

      Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
    • PowerpuppiesPowerpuppies drinking coffee in the mountain cabinRegistered User regular
      Mojo_Jojo wrote: »
      3rd and Naalu. I didn’t play to their abilities very well but like I said, assaulted on both flanks simultaneously by otherwise unharried opponents, no race is doing well there.

      Regardless of 3rd or 4th edition, if the players aren't all providing pressure on their neighbours it's going to fuck somebody over.

      Once again I feel the twinges of desire for a game of TI stirring.

      let's do it

      how expensive can it be to fly to europe

      sig.gif
    • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
      Mojo_Jojo wrote: »
      3rd and Naalu. I didn’t play to their abilities very well but like I said, assaulted on both flanks simultaneously by otherwise unharried opponents, no race is doing well there.

      Regardless of 3rd or 4th edition, if the players aren't all providing pressure on their neighbours it's going to fuck somebody over.

      Once again I feel the twinges of desire for a game of TI stirring.

      let's do it

      how expensive can it be to fly to europe

      As a bonus game, you can time which takes longer: the trans-Atlantic flight or the game of TI.

    • PowerpuppiesPowerpuppies drinking coffee in the mountain cabinRegistered User regular
      MrBody wrote: »
      Mojo_Jojo wrote: »
      3rd and Naalu. I didn’t play to their abilities very well but like I said, assaulted on both flanks simultaneously by otherwise unharried opponents, no race is doing well there.

      Regardless of 3rd or 4th edition, if the players aren't all providing pressure on their neighbours it's going to fuck somebody over.

      Once again I feel the twinges of desire for a game of TI stirring.

      let's do it

      how expensive can it be to fly to europe

      As a bonus game, you can time which takes longer: the trans-Atlantic flight or the game of TI.

      Who among you will cover my bet that the flight will be shorter

      sig.gif
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