WearingglassesOf the friendly neighborhood varietyRegistered Userregular
So no minifigs, all cardboard chits... cards will likely be the same, I guess(?) since the printing process has already been laid down. I don't know what's in a regular Gloomhaven box.
So no minifigs, all cardboard chits... cards will likely be the same, I guess(?) since the printing process has already been laid down. I don't know what's in a regular Gloomhaven box.
A ton of cards, chits, map panels, and only 18 minifigs. Cutting them is fine but won't reduce raw tonnage that much.
Honestly the best way to cut weight would be a companion app.
AC:NH Chris from Glosta SW-5173-3598-2899 DA-4749-1014-4697 @vyolynce@mastodon.social
+1
HedgethornAssociate Professor of Historical Hobby HorsesIn the Lions' DenRegistered Userregular
I'm guessing this will contain far fewer monsters and items to streamline things. Probably only 4-6 heros and a handful of map tiles.
Doing that would substantially limit the number of cards and box space required.
+2
Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
MC: 1 core, 2 hero packs (one of which not officially announced), 1 scenario pack, 1 campaign box of some kind.
I personally feel the sweet spot with Netrunner was definitely the end of Spin Cycle (2nd cycle) through Lunar (3rd) and SanSan (4th). I think Mumbad was still popular, but a lot of support was lost around that time. This really makes me think that 3-4 cycles in rotation at a given time is ideal, which makes sense considering that represents theoretically 2 years of product.
But again, it's not a perfect thing. LCGs don't have a secondary market -- until things go out of print.
I still maintain that I won't sell my games, because their "complete" nature means I can always play them and not chase them. But at the same time, there are a lot of cards to sift through.
What ultimately drove me away from keeping up with various LCGs isn't the LCG model, but the way that FFG handles the LCG model.
It often feels as though they playtest a set of cards and then break those cards up not just in to one cycle, but in to several.
The result is that you can't actually pick and choose just the cards that work well together; you have to buy everything.
And even then, you can often find potentially interesting strategies or synergies that are waiting on key pieces to be printed before they become practical or viable.
Combine this with consistently mediocre support for organized play and the whole model tastes like ashes.
The premise of the LCG model is that players should be able to buy just the parts of the game that they want to buy.
Let me do that.
Played the first scenario of Arkham Horror card game with Mrs. Jam last night. We died horribly in the hallway having learned the lesson about getting your assets out ( :eyebrows: ) before it all goes to shit and you’re drowning in ghouls. We had plenty of time left on the doom timer so next time will spend more time preparing and less sprinting for clues.
We’ll call that a learning game and take a do-over rather than pressing on, but good fun. Much more manageable for an evening game than the monster that is 7th Continent (though I still love it).
So, I’ve got a bunch of vinyl playmats, sized for things like X-wing (3x3), Armada (3x6), sailing games (2x4ish?), etc.
Anyone know a good storage solution for them? When I need to take them somewhere, I roll them up and use a yoga mat carrier. I’m looking for something that keeps them from getting creased, but also lets me go through them easily to find the one I want.
If you have closet space, you could get some of those plastic clothes hangers with clips that you might find at a place like Target or Walmart, and hang your mats.
Got our early game of February in last night, and it was an interesting one! We aren't using the radio operator role, opting instead of supply cube distribution from the farmer and administrator, and directing cards to the builder from the administrator and instructor. Builder can drop a supply center with 3 cards and 2 cubes now.
Early game looked REALLY good. Mostly even distribution of cities drawn, and of the ones that had two drawn, they were cities that started with 3 supply cubes. It was so wonderful with the draws, that the first round we didn't even really know what to do, other than go after the objectives. Unfortunately, the builder (who I play), only drew one card of each color, so wasn't going to be much help there. So we went after connecting new cities and went to Chicago. Got through 5 turns before the first epidemic. No problem, it's Istanbul. Only lost 2 cubes, and only one Istanbul card in the discard, so with all the cards in there it's so unlikely to be drawn I'm sure we're fine.
PLAGUE in Istanbul!
Ok, bad draw, but that's just 1 city.
PLAGUE in Istanbul! - Who checked that discard pile?! There were two Istanbul cards in there!
It's ok, we've got players in place to get 2 supply centers built this round. We're doing well. We connect Atlanta and build supply centers in New York (using 4 New York cards and another blue!) and Tripoli (using 4 black, because the builder drops 2 supply in Istanbul to keep that from getting worse). We're getting really low on supply cubes, and there's plague in Lagos. There's a chance we can get a third yellow card to our builder, but he'd have to spend 4 actions just to get to yellow, meaning almost 2 full rounds of play before we get that built and win. There's multiple cities with no supply, just waiting to get infected with the plague. Wait! I've got Istanbul! I can move to Istanbul, then ferry over to any of the yellow cities and we win on my turn! We just need to finish the player's turn before mine. Epidemic. Lagos outbreaks to Sao Paolo. One more plague cube and game over. One more card to infect.
New York! It has 1 supply cube!
I move to Istanbul, ferry to Sao Paolo because that's where we need a supply center to recon, JUST in case permanent supply centers become a thing. We win!
Open box 34. Permanent supply centers!
Can't wait for March. Recon in Sao Paolo will likely be the goal.
So, I’ve got a bunch of vinyl playmats, sized for things like X-wing (3x3), Armada (3x6), sailing games (2x4ish?), etc.
Anyone know a good storage solution for them? When I need to take them somewhere, I roll them up and use a yoga mat carrier. I’m looking for something that keeps them from getting creased, but also lets me go through them easily to find the one I want.
I use tubes with a sticker.
+1
Custom SpecialI know I am, I'm sure I am,I'm Sounders 'til I die!Registered Userregular
@Elvenshae I think baseball bat tubes are supposed to work great for that.
What about a puzzle saver/transport mat? If you can find one large enough.
It has a core you wrap them around, and once unrolled you could easily flip through them to find the one you need.
Arkham Horror Card Game attempt two, I died and Mrs. Jam ran away...
We’ll press on so spent our few XP on some new cards. Please say this opening scenario is meant to be pretty damn tough? On standard difficulty. My wife is really enjoying the system and narrative, but I can see her losing interest if we just lose constantly.
Probably going to try Easy difficultly for the next game.
Arkham Horror Card Game attempt two, I died and Mrs. Jam ran away...
We’ll press on so spent our few XP on some new cards. Please say this opening scenario is meant to be pretty damn tough? On standard difficulty. My wife is really enjoying the system and narrative, but I can see her losing interest if we just lose constantly.
Probably going to try Easy difficultly for the next game.
Its hard to say. I haven't played the base game scenarios in a while but depending on the investigators paired it can vary. I did an Agnes/Wendy game and we basically spent the whole scenario having to evade enemies then ran out the door as soon as we could. Other options like a roland/Daisy has each player being more specialized and possibly better equipped to handle fighting/investigating. Assuming you're playing with just a core game? The basic deckbuilding options in the first box don't really open up until you get 2 core, but the starter decks listed are reasonable
The 2nd scenario is one of the best they've made though.
The 3rd is... Hard. Its intent is to expose you to the notion that the game progresses narratively even if you get a "bad" ending
Arkham Horror Card Game attempt two, I died and Mrs. Jam ran away...
We’ll press on so spent our few XP on some new cards. Please say this opening scenario is meant to be pretty damn tough? On standard difficulty. My wife is really enjoying the system and narrative, but I can see her losing interest if we just lose constantly.
Probably going to try Easy difficultly for the next game.
Standard difficulty is fairly hard in general.
I also think that game is harder for two players than for three or four.
The Great Heartland Hauling Co. is good stuff in a really small box. Can't remember if it's in print currently...
Hear Star Wars: Outer Rim is similar to Firefly but faster (and Star Wars!). Cinque Terre is beautiful, simple, and quick.
The Great Heartland Hauling Co. is good stuff in a really small box. Can't remember if it's in print currently...
This is a solid choice. It's hard to say what "in print" means in general in this hobby, and Dice Hate Me games are a difficult prediction since their acquisition, but I know there are some still in the sales channel (I saw a copy in my local game store last week).
I played Terraforming Mars for the first time yesterday. I was disappointed. I definitely enjoyed the theme, but at the end of the game there was a fairly large point discrepancy between the players, and we all agreed that there wasn't really anything we could have done differently to change things.
I was more limited by my available cards than I was in terms of the resources available to me. So it's disappointing to see how the game ended and not really be able to understand what other people did to get their points and not be able to determine how I could have played differently to be more successful either. I've never encountered this in any of the strategy games I've played, from Caverna to Anachrony to Gaia Project, it's always been clear to me that if I did X instead of Y things might have turned out differently.
So Terraforming felt far more luck driven in terms of what cards you got than anything else. If the build quality of the pieces wasn't so godawful I'd be willing to try it again to see if there's anything I could have learned, but all things considered I think I have other games I'd rather play.
ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
It's actually a bit worse than that because of the thematic-but-gameplay-arbitrary restrictions on when you can play some cards. Your hand might actually contain literally dead cards thanks to the current early/mid/end state of the game.
There's a lot of reasons I don't like that game, but breaking up the monster deck into multiple decks designed around those states would have been the easiest improvement. Also ditching any cards that involved attacking other players, because it's the worst kind of interaction to add to your mostly solitaire game.
I still have Steam as my go-to delivery game, partly because of the two excellent ways to play (i.e. "bidding-based" rules, and the easier "action-tile-based" rules that I mostly play), and partly because there's no cards or even reading. It even satisfies that "build up a network" itch that I sometimes get (contact your doctor to see if Steam is right for you).
BUT it's an older game, and I might be just holding onto it because "it seems fine" and I haven't played anything newer or better. It was pretty popular at one time, so I'm wondering if there's any consensus around something that does what it does, but better. (Train theme not necessary.)
When I was a child, I had a fever... My BoardGameGeek profile
Battle.net: TheGerm#1430 (Hearthstone, Destiny 2)
It's actually a bit worse than that because of the thematic-but-gameplay-arbitrary restrictions on when you can play some cards. Your hand might actually contain literally dead cards thanks to the current early/mid/end state of the game.
There's a lot of reasons I don't like that game, but breaking up the monster deck into multiple decks designed around those states would have been the easiest improvement. Also ditching any cards that involved attacking other players, because it's the worst kind of interaction to add to your mostly solitaire game.
Yeah so true. I played with a beginner corporation, which gave me 10 cards to start, and 8 of those 10 cards I couldn't play until at like 10%+ oxygen or -14 degrees or higher. So right off the bat there wasn't really much I could do. By the end of the game I only had 2 cards in my hand so I was getting almost everything I was dealt onto the table. It just didn't really matter.
Ive never played the game without drafting so I don't know what's it's like if you just do the take your starting Corp route, but drafting is intended to better distribute the cards and let you kind of mold a strat
ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
Hot take: Drafting is bad because it just makes the game take longer and adds almost no increase in interesting decisions or better card distribution. TM is so narrow that it's a rarity for a hand to have more than one valid option, and all drafting does is make you ask, "Okay, so are any of these better for the next guy than they are for me?" and lets you hate-draft with almost arbitrary ease. You're just as unlikely to see cards that would benefit you since you need to see them in your opening hand to have a chance to take them, meaning luck is just as much a factor, but now with the most minor mitigation that you MIGHT get a card that's good for you if someone else gets a card that's even better for them. Oh boy.
I can't speak to what the expansions add, but by any account I've heard they improve the game. This even comes from a friend or two who hate the game but have effectively been forced to play it, so ... You can spend more money on a game you don't like to make it less bad, I guess?
Arkham Horror Card Game attempt two, I died and Mrs. Jam ran away...
We’ll press on so spent our few XP on some new cards. Please say this opening scenario is meant to be pretty damn tough? On standard difficulty. My wife is really enjoying the system and narrative, but I can see her losing interest if we just lose constantly.
Probably going to try Easy difficultly for the next game.
As someone who played through the base campaign with 2 fairly casual players (only 1 core set, didn't wrack brains for combos), we found easy difficulty to be juuuuuuuust right. Same with Carnival of Horrors (we just barely won with one investigator dying the final turn).
We thought normal difficulty was absurd to the point of not being fun.
That is basically all wrong. Drafting and paying for cards is where most of the skill of the game is. The number one mistake new players make is wasting money keeping cards they don't play or paying too much to have future options over doing more now. Getting better at Terraforming Mars is all about being more ruthless about discarding cards and not letting the promise of some future perfect play distract you from what you need to be doing right now, but then also knowing when you should gamble.
Attack cards are an important way to force some tension into the timing so just stalling until the last moment you can is not always the best option. Also keeping plants under control.
While racing light mechs, your Urbanmech comes in second place, but only because it ran out of ammo.
+1
ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
edited October 2019
Yes. You draft one or two cards you want and two or three cards your opponents want. That's what I said.
It's not about being better at the game - the card distribution is just shit and luck gets to play more of a part than it should on how much of the game you even get to play. You get all the randomness and dead draw of Race for the Galaxy where those cards don't even help you pay for the ones you want, and the game takes 3-4 times longer. Oh boy.
The Great Heartland Hauling Co. is good stuff in a really small box. Can't remember if it's in print currently...
This is a solid choice. It's hard to say what "in print" means in general in this hobby, and Dice Hate Me games are a difficult prediction since their acquisition, but I know there are some still in the sales channel (I saw a copy in my local game store last week).
I believe I've seen this one in the wild. Plus its available on Amazon so Im going with "Yes, its still in print"
Yes. You draft one or two cards you want and two or three cards your opponents want. That's what I said.
It's not about being better at the game - the card distribution is just shit and luck gets to play more of a part than it should on how much of the game you even get to play. You get all the randomness and dead draw of Race for the Galaxy where those cards don't even help you pay for the ones you want, and the game takes 3-4 times longer. Oh boy.
Yeah, I've given up on Terraforming Mars. The narrative was neat for the first couple games, but it's too much stuff taking too much time for too little decision making (there's usually one clear best choice every draft turn, either to help you or deny someone else). Race for the Galaxy (which I'm still not crazy about) has more decisions, more player interaction, and takes one-third the time. The gameplay in TM beyond the draft is on autopilot, with most of the time spent adjusting fiddly cubes rather than strategizing.
"How about that instead?" while pointing at RftG has become my standard game night reply when someone asks about Terraforming Mars.
(I haven't played Gloomhaven, and it at least looks like it's trying to do something unique and ambitious, so I can confidently nominate Terraforming Mars for most overrated board game of the last five years, possibly the decade)
(Runner up is Codenames)
MrBody on
0
38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
Have you guys played Awkward Guests?
Its essentially clue, but instead of who what where you need to know who what why. The who is still 6 people but the what is 20 possible weapons, and the why is one of three motives that needs to be supported by three pieces of evidence. Each weapon has two signs, for example the shovel shows bruises and traces of dirt, the Knife shows defensive wounds and heavy bleeding. On harder difficulties there can be an accomplice.
Everyone draws six evidence cards, they will say things like which signs were not found, where the suspects were seen, which areas of the map people didn't pass through and such. On your turn you ask about two of rooms/suspects and people put down their cards face down with a strength value token on top. You can take anyone's cards by giving them an equal strength of your cards. If no one gives you cards you get to draw 3 from the deck so everyone has an incentive to trade to you. Then the next person asks. You can trade them the cards they just gave to you back if they ask about the same areas. Jerk Move! Fun though.
Once everyone has asked, people can guess, but a wrong guess is elimination just like Clue.
Then everyone discards down to 3 cards and draws 3 more. This is a good chance to bury evidence so no one else can see it.
Not a fan of the straight-on headshots, but I know those hearken back to Marvel's history. But I do love everything else about her being a natural protector aspect. And that shot of Sam Winston as Captain America is awesome.
Have you guys played Awkward Guests?
Its essentially clue, but instead of who what where you need to know who what why. The who is still 6 people but the what is 20 possible weapons, and the why is one of three motives that needs to be supported by three pieces of evidence. Each weapon has two signs, for example the shovel shows bruises and traces of dirt, the Knife shows defensive wounds and heavy bleeding. On harder difficulties there can be an accomplice.
Everyone draws six evidence cards, they will say things like which signs were not found, where the suspects were seen, which areas of the map people didn't pass through and such. On your turn you ask about two of rooms/suspects and people put down their cards face down with a strength value token on top. You can take anyone's cards by giving them an equal strength of your cards. If no one gives you cards you get to draw 3 from the deck so everyone has an incentive to trade to you. Then the next person asks. You can trade them the cards they just gave to you back if they ask about the same areas. Jerk Move! Fun though.
Once everyone has asked, people can guess, but a wrong guess is elimination just like Clue.
Then everyone discards down to 3 cards and draws 3 more. This is a good chance to bury evidence so no one else can see it.
This played in about an hour and was really fun.
Oh my, a murder has taken place at my dinner party. How most awkward.
MrBody on
0
ChaosHatHop, hop, hop, HA!Trick of the lightRegistered Userregular
Arkham Horror Card Game attempt two, I died and Mrs. Jam ran away...
We’ll press on so spent our few XP on some new cards. Please say this opening scenario is meant to be pretty damn tough? On standard difficulty. My wife is really enjoying the system and narrative, but I can see her losing interest if we just lose constantly.
Probably going to try Easy difficultly for the next game.
Its hard to say. I haven't played the base game scenarios in a while but depending on the investigators paired it can vary. I did an Agnes/Wendy game and we basically spent the whole scenario having to evade enemies then ran out the door as soon as we could. Other options like a roland/Daisy has each player being more specialized and possibly better equipped to handle fighting/investigating. Assuming you're playing with just a core game? The basic deckbuilding options in the first box don't really open up until you get 2 core, but the starter decks listed are reasonable
The 2nd scenario is one of the best they've made though.
The 3rd is... Hard. Its intent is to expose you to the notion that the game progresses narratively even if you get a "bad" ending
Are you saying The Midnight Masks is the best scenario in the entire game? Like it's good but I'm not sure it's in my top 5.
1st was just a short tutorial.
2nd was the only "real" scanerio
3rd was very confined where you spend most of the time hitting dead ends or getting stuck
Carnival of Horrors blew them all out of the water (literally!).
Posts
A ton of cards, chits, map panels, and only 18 minifigs. Cutting them is fine but won't reduce raw tonnage that much.
Honestly the best way to cut weight would be a companion app.
Doing that would substantially limit the number of cards and box space required.
Four heroes, 24 scenarios and compatibility are the three confirmed things right now. I'm most surprised about that last one
What ultimately drove me away from keeping up with various LCGs isn't the LCG model, but the way that FFG handles the LCG model.
It often feels as though they playtest a set of cards and then break those cards up not just in to one cycle, but in to several.
The result is that you can't actually pick and choose just the cards that work well together; you have to buy everything.
And even then, you can often find potentially interesting strategies or synergies that are waiting on key pieces to be printed before they become practical or viable.
Combine this with consistently mediocre support for organized play and the whole model tastes like ashes.
The premise of the LCG model is that players should be able to buy just the parts of the game that they want to buy.
Let me do that.
Interesting. New heroes maybe?
Yep
We’ll call that a learning game and take a do-over rather than pressing on, but good fun. Much more manageable for an evening game than the monster that is 7th Continent (though I still love it).
Anyone know a good storage solution for them? When I need to take them somewhere, I roll them up and use a yoga mat carrier. I’m looking for something that keeps them from getting creased, but also lets me go through them easily to find the one I want.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Early game looked REALLY good. Mostly even distribution of cities drawn, and of the ones that had two drawn, they were cities that started with 3 supply cubes. It was so wonderful with the draws, that the first round we didn't even really know what to do, other than go after the objectives. Unfortunately, the builder (who I play), only drew one card of each color, so wasn't going to be much help there. So we went after connecting new cities and went to Chicago. Got through 5 turns before the first epidemic. No problem, it's Istanbul. Only lost 2 cubes, and only one Istanbul card in the discard, so with all the cards in there it's so unlikely to be drawn I'm sure we're fine.
PLAGUE in Istanbul!
Ok, bad draw, but that's just 1 city.
PLAGUE in Istanbul! - Who checked that discard pile?! There were two Istanbul cards in there!
It's ok, we've got players in place to get 2 supply centers built this round. We're doing well. We connect Atlanta and build supply centers in New York (using 4 New York cards and another blue!) and Tripoli (using 4 black, because the builder drops 2 supply in Istanbul to keep that from getting worse). We're getting really low on supply cubes, and there's plague in Lagos. There's a chance we can get a third yellow card to our builder, but he'd have to spend 4 actions just to get to yellow, meaning almost 2 full rounds of play before we get that built and win. There's multiple cities with no supply, just waiting to get infected with the plague. Wait! I've got Istanbul! I can move to Istanbul, then ferry over to any of the yellow cities and we win on my turn! We just need to finish the player's turn before mine. Epidemic. Lagos outbreaks to Sao Paolo. One more plague cube and game over. One more card to infect.
New York! It has 1 supply cube!
I move to Istanbul, ferry to Sao Paolo because that's where we need a supply center to recon, JUST in case permanent supply centers become a thing. We win!
Open box 34. Permanent supply centers!
Can't wait for March. Recon in Sao Paolo will likely be the goal.
I use tubes with a sticker.
It has a core you wrap them around, and once unrolled you could easily flip through them to find the one you need.
We’ll press on so spent our few XP on some new cards. Please say this opening scenario is meant to be pretty damn tough? On standard difficulty. My wife is really enjoying the system and narrative, but I can see her losing interest if we just lose constantly.
Probably going to try Easy difficultly for the next game.
Its hard to say. I haven't played the base game scenarios in a while but depending on the investigators paired it can vary. I did an Agnes/Wendy game and we basically spent the whole scenario having to evade enemies then ran out the door as soon as we could. Other options like a roland/Daisy has each player being more specialized and possibly better equipped to handle fighting/investigating. Assuming you're playing with just a core game? The basic deckbuilding options in the first box don't really open up until you get 2 core, but the starter decks listed are reasonable
The 2nd scenario is one of the best they've made though.
The 3rd is... Hard. Its intent is to expose you to the notion that the game progresses narratively even if you get a "bad" ending
Standard difficulty is fairly hard in general.
I also think that game is harder for two players than for three or four.
The Great Heartland Hauling Co. is good stuff in a really small box. Can't remember if it's in print currently...
Hear Star Wars: Outer Rim is similar to Firefly but faster (and Star Wars!).
Cinque Terre is beautiful, simple, and quick.
Merchant of Venus
This is a solid choice. It's hard to say what "in print" means in general in this hobby, and Dice Hate Me games are a difficult prediction since their acquisition, but I know there are some still in the sales channel (I saw a copy in my local game store last week).
I was more limited by my available cards than I was in terms of the resources available to me. So it's disappointing to see how the game ended and not really be able to understand what other people did to get their points and not be able to determine how I could have played differently to be more successful either. I've never encountered this in any of the strategy games I've played, from Caverna to Anachrony to Gaia Project, it's always been clear to me that if I did X instead of Y things might have turned out differently.
So Terraforming felt far more luck driven in terms of what cards you got than anything else. If the build quality of the pieces wasn't so godawful I'd be willing to try it again to see if there's anything I could have learned, but all things considered I think I have other games I'd rather play.
There's a lot of reasons I don't like that game, but breaking up the monster deck into multiple decks designed around those states would have been the easiest improvement. Also ditching any cards that involved attacking other players, because it's the worst kind of interaction to add to your mostly solitaire game.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
I still have Steam as my go-to delivery game, partly because of the two excellent ways to play (i.e. "bidding-based" rules, and the easier "action-tile-based" rules that I mostly play), and partly because there's no cards or even reading. It even satisfies that "build up a network" itch that I sometimes get (contact your doctor to see if Steam is right for you).
BUT it's an older game, and I might be just holding onto it because "it seems fine" and I haven't played anything newer or better. It was pretty popular at one time, so I'm wondering if there's any consensus around something that does what it does, but better. (Train theme not necessary.)
My BoardGameGeek profile
Battle.net: TheGerm#1430 (Hearthstone, Destiny 2)
Yeah so true. I played with a beginner corporation, which gave me 10 cards to start, and 8 of those 10 cards I couldn't play until at like 10%+ oxygen or -14 degrees or higher. So right off the bat there wasn't really much I could do. By the end of the game I only had 2 cards in my hand so I was getting almost everything I was dealt onto the table. It just didn't really matter.
I can't speak to what the expansions add, but by any account I've heard they improve the game. This even comes from a friend or two who hate the game but have effectively been forced to play it, so ... You can spend more money on a game you don't like to make it less bad, I guess?
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
As someone who played through the base campaign with 2 fairly casual players (only 1 core set, didn't wrack brains for combos), we found easy difficulty to be juuuuuuuust right. Same with Carnival of Horrors (we just barely won with one investigator dying the final turn).
We thought normal difficulty was absurd to the point of not being fun.
Attack cards are an important way to force some tension into the timing so just stalling until the last moment you can is not always the best option. Also keeping plants under control.
It's not about being better at the game - the card distribution is just shit and luck gets to play more of a part than it should on how much of the game you even get to play. You get all the randomness and dead draw of Race for the Galaxy where those cards don't even help you pay for the ones you want, and the game takes 3-4 times longer. Oh boy.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
Yeah, I've given up on Terraforming Mars. The narrative was neat for the first couple games, but it's too much stuff taking too much time for too little decision making (there's usually one clear best choice every draft turn, either to help you or deny someone else). Race for the Galaxy (which I'm still not crazy about) has more decisions, more player interaction, and takes one-third the time. The gameplay in TM beyond the draft is on autopilot, with most of the time spent adjusting fiddly cubes rather than strategizing.
"How about that instead?" while pointing at RftG has become my standard game night reply when someone asks about Terraforming Mars.
(I haven't played Gloomhaven, and it at least looks like it's trying to do something unique and ambitious, so I can confidently nominate Terraforming Mars for most overrated board game of the last five years, possibly the decade)
(Runner up is Codenames)
Its essentially clue, but instead of who what where you need to know who what why. The who is still 6 people but the what is 20 possible weapons, and the why is one of three motives that needs to be supported by three pieces of evidence. Each weapon has two signs, for example the shovel shows bruises and traces of dirt, the Knife shows defensive wounds and heavy bleeding. On harder difficulties there can be an accomplice.
Everyone draws six evidence cards, they will say things like which signs were not found, where the suspects were seen, which areas of the map people didn't pass through and such. On your turn you ask about two of rooms/suspects and people put down their cards face down with a strength value token on top. You can take anyone's cards by giving them an equal strength of your cards. If no one gives you cards you get to draw 3 from the deck so everyone has an incentive to trade to you. Then the next person asks. You can trade them the cards they just gave to you back if they ask about the same areas. Jerk Move! Fun though.
Once everyone has asked, people can guess, but a wrong guess is elimination just like Clue.
Then everyone discards down to 3 cards and draws 3 more. This is a good chance to bury evidence so no one else can see it.
This played in about an hour and was really fun.
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/10/8/metamorphosis/
Not a fan of the straight-on headshots, but I know those hearken back to Marvel's history. But I do love everything else about her being a natural protector aspect. And that shot of Sam Winston as Captain America is awesome.
Oh my, a murder has taken place at my dinner party. How most awkward.
Are you saying The Midnight Masks is the best scenario in the entire game? Like it's good but I'm not sure it's in my top 5.
1st was just a short tutorial.
2nd was the only "real" scanerio
3rd was very confined where you spend most of the time hitting dead ends or getting stuck
Carnival of Horrors blew them all out of the water (literally!).