Yeah, I dunno. They've been very friendly and kind whenever I've talked to them at PAXU, and they do a decent job of board game reviews and first looks. They've each got their own tastes, which once you figure out makes it easier to understand if a game would be something you'd enjoy. Sure Tom's a little wacky with the wardrobe, but I think he leans into it now?
Wish I had anything more concrete, but a few years ago Tom was a big name guest at a local convention (Hal-Con for anyone curious; for whatever reason, at the time I wasn't able to attend). Everyone I know who interacted with him had nothing positive to say, which included most of the staff at the board game cafe I used to work at (thus including good friends and overall decent people both). There's a specific event tired to the convention where people are meant to get a chance to mingle with the invited guests, and Tom decided he didn't like it and just left. Another friend of mine has also pointed out that he/his family is definitely a quiver (it's a term for Christian families that basically want to out-populate non-Christians by having tons of kids). Again, it's not something you'll find him self-declaring or anything, but at this point I agree with the assessment.
*shrug* this all still winds up being heresay, but I'm very much inclined to believe the accounts of numerous people I trust. Combined with just how little I like most of their opinions and presentation and ... Big pass.
I'd be careful assigning labels to people they haven't given themselves.
He has 6 kids, and while it's more than the norm, it's nowhere near the 10+ a "quiver full" family could/would have. Some families do well with lots of kids too. My dad is one of six, and I have five, and neither my grandmother nor I would consider ourselves part of that group.
I am sad to hear that a bunch of people got negative impressions at the con. It's different from my experience, but that doesn't invalidate their experience. I'm not trying to defend him, just was curious why some don't care for him outside of not liking his review method or tastes.
Geez the day moved fast; sorry about that.
That's a fair call-out. I actually spent a bit more time looking into it afterwards and didn't realize Jack was their last child (in 2011). Obviously that leaves me with a bit of biting curiosity, but I'm not so much of an asshole I'd ever ask someone questions about their beliefs regarding their child of premature birth.
If I were to say something more positive, I think Zee is a more enjoyable personally and I generally favor his opinions, so if people were ever curious about the non-Tom aspects of the dice tower, I think he's worth more of an ear.
Totally unrelated, spending a bunch of time near Jurassic Park stuff the last few days really makes me want to take a stab at designing a park-builder. I've never been particularly drawn to either Dinosaur Island or Dinogenics, but I'm curious what people think of them and which might be more worth playing / a better design for the theme?
Dinosaur Island I thought was pretty underwhelming. It’s a combo of tile placement (can you optimize the fit of dino pens and concession stands) and then building an engine for attracting and satisfying patrons using upgrades and stuff. But then, I think the most interesting part of Jurassic Park isn’t building the park, it’s when the park breaks down and chaos happens.
If I were you I’d try it out, but also look more broadly at other building/planning sim games, like Suburbia and Castle of Mad King Ludwig.
I felt the same until I played with a friend who focused on letting her dinos eat as many patrons as she could and she won.
How many times do I have to repeat this? He had a video series on Youtube calling out games that were dangerous to Christianity. It's the final straw that made me quit watching him.
Do you have a link for this? Or an article discussing this?
Nope. I imagine if you google it you can find it pretty easily, assuming they're still up. Personally I'm not giving him the search hits. It's petty but that's my middle name. Also Erin.
I have tried twice today to find this video/article, and have not found it.
I can't understand your hurt from Tom and the others at Dice Tower, and I wish there was some way to reconcile it. I agree there are way too many "Christians" in name only, and that many do not act the way they should. I know I'm not perfect. I just hope that you and others can understand that there are people who don't represent the whole, as with any group. I doubt that Christians are in the majority on these boards, or even in this thread, but my post earlier was an attempt to politely try and steer away from comments that were already a bit insulting. I try not to let small things bother me, as with anything on the internet there are people of all sorts of opinions and beliefs and attitudes, and being offended easily won't get you very far. I've always enjoyed that these forums weren't like the rest of the internet. They felt safe. Recently they haven't, and it is disappointing. However, I understand, and I'm not going anywhere because I feel like withdrawing from the world isn't the right course. That's how we've gotten to the point of extremism in viewpoints, hatred, politics, and even "Christian" movies and board games that frankly aren't necessary but instead serve as an attempt to not "fall into" worldly things.
Anyway, now I'm way too long winded. I grew up with both regular and "Christian" games, mostly Bible trivia styled stuff. I wasn't allowed to play Magic. It didn't result in any crazy rebellion, but I played Magic and D&D in high school and through college and now I play all sorts of rpgs and board games. It's no big deal and I don't force anything like that on my children. However, it does still affect my purchase choice for particular themes. I'm not going to go out and burn copies of games I don't like, but I just won't buy them. I think having a preference for or not particular themes or mechanics is a valid thing.
+8
ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
Heh, so many games I've already played ...
Barenpark was cute for one play but felt like it offered very little to make additional games interesting. IIRC the one notable mechanism has recently been reimplemented in Bloomtown, so ...
I've played lots of suburbia, and enough castles. There might be something to finally marrying those two though. Hmmm.
Haven't looked into the latest Tiny Epic, but I've never been much for them.
Reviews of Dinosaur Island are roughly what I expected. Nobody played Dinogenics?
Yeah, I dunno. They've been very friendly and kind whenever I've talked to them at PAXU, and they do a decent job of board game reviews and first looks. They've each got their own tastes, which once you figure out makes it easier to understand if a game would be something you'd enjoy. Sure Tom's a little wacky with the wardrobe, but I think he leans into it now?
Wish I had anything more concrete, but a few years ago Tom was a big name guest at a local convention (Hal-Con for anyone curious; for whatever reason, at the time I wasn't able to attend). Everyone I know who interacted with him had nothing positive to say, which included most of the staff at the board game cafe I used to work at (thus including good friends and overall decent people both). There's a specific event tired to the convention where people are meant to get a chance to mingle with the invited guests, and Tom decided he didn't like it and just left. Another friend of mine has also pointed out that he/his family is definitely a quiver (it's a term for Christian families that basically want to out-populate non-Christians by having tons of kids). Again, it's not something you'll find him self-declaring or anything, but at this point I agree with the assessment.
*shrug* this all still winds up being heresay, but I'm very much inclined to believe the accounts of numerous people I trust. Combined with just how little I like most of their opinions and presentation and ... Big pass.
I'd be careful assigning labels to people they haven't given themselves.
He has 6 kids, and while it's more than the norm, it's nowhere near the 10+ a "quiver full" family could/would have. Some families do well with lots of kids too. My dad is one of six, and I have five, and neither my grandmother nor I would consider ourselves part of that group.
I am sad to hear that a bunch of people got negative impressions at the con. It's different from my experience, but that doesn't invalidate their experience. I'm not trying to defend him, just was curious why some don't care for him outside of not liking his review method or tastes.
Geez the day moved fast; sorry about that.
That's a fair call-out. I actually spent a bit more time looking into it afterwards and didn't realize Jack was their last child (in 2011). Obviously that leaves me with a bit of biting curiosity, but I'm not so much of an asshole I'd ever ask someone questions about their beliefs regarding their child of premature birth.
If I were to say something more positive, I think Zee is a more enjoyable personally and I generally favor his opinions, so if people were ever curious about the non-Tom aspects of the dice tower, I think he's worth more of an ear.
Totally unrelated, spending a bunch of time near Jurassic Park stuff the last few days really makes me want to take a stab at designing a park-builder. I've never been particularly drawn to either Dinosaur Island or Dinogenics, but I'm curious what people think of them and which might be more worth playing / a better design for the theme?
Dinosaur Island I thought was pretty underwhelming. It’s a combo of tile placement (can you optimize the fit of dino pens and concession stands) and then building an engine for attracting and satisfying patrons using upgrades and stuff. But then, I think the most interesting part of Jurassic Park isn’t building the park, it’s when the park breaks down and chaos happens.
If I were you I’d try it out, but also look more broadly at other building/planning sim games, like Suburbia and Castle of Mad King Ludwig.
I felt the same until I played with a friend who focused on letting her dinos eat as many patrons as she could and she won.
There's a LOT of levels to that game.
Yeah, depending on the objectives, you may just want to blitz for those objectives and let your visitor VP suffer. Since you will be behind on VP, you will always have first player advantage as well.
It's certainly not an ELEGANT game. There's a lot of moving parts that obfuscate a pretty basic mechanic. But I love the component quality and theme, and it has just the right mix of point salad + randomness for my tastes. The expansions help fill it out a bit, too.
How many times do I have to repeat this? He had a video series on Youtube calling out games that were dangerous to Christianity. It's the final straw that made me quit watching him.
Do you have a link for this? Or an article discussing this?
Nope. I imagine if you google it you can find it pretty easily, assuming they're still up. Personally I'm not giving him the search hits. It's petty but that's my middle name. Also Erin.
I have tried twice today to find this video/article, and have not found it.
I would just assume it was taken down then. That's great.
Having a preference or even lack of tolerance for certain themes is 100% okay. I absolutely have my own. But I don't have the clout Tom does and I certainly don't think a board game, no matter the theme, can be dangerous to anyone's religious belief.
I feel like we're balancing on a fine line of offensive here. Let's try to avoid that, maybe?
Personally I don't think its balancing on the line. If you replace Christian with another group (religious group, race, whatever) in a few of the comments I doubt it would fly as appropriate. I don't typically post but was disappointed at the conversation when I popped into the thread to say the least.
The difference is that Christians still have all the money and power in the world.
I guess I just don’t understand why making anyone feel unwanted is a good thing for the community. Comments about how Christians can't handle logic or that suggest they somehow deserve berating and ridicule because of their perceived dominance in western culture aren't very welcoming. Of course I'm not talking about comments specific to individuals as in Tom Vassal - that's different then the jabs at a whole group of people. Especially a group of people that very likely also includes members of this forum and thread.
But - I'll just hope that's enough comment on it and melt back into the wallpaper. *poof*
Dr. Face on
+1
AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
Yeah, I dunno. They've been very friendly and kind whenever I've talked to them at PAXU, and they do a decent job of board game reviews and first looks. They've each got their own tastes, which once you figure out makes it easier to understand if a game would be something you'd enjoy. Sure Tom's a little wacky with the wardrobe, but I think he leans into it now?
Wish I had anything more concrete, but a few years ago Tom was a big name guest at a local convention (Hal-Con for anyone curious; for whatever reason, at the time I wasn't able to attend). Everyone I know who interacted with him had nothing positive to say, which included most of the staff at the board game cafe I used to work at (thus including good friends and overall decent people both). There's a specific event tired to the convention where people are meant to get a chance to mingle with the invited guests, and Tom decided he didn't like it and just left. Another friend of mine has also pointed out that he/his family is definitely a quiver (it's a term for Christian families that basically want to out-populate non-Christians by having tons of kids). Again, it's not something you'll find him self-declaring or anything, but at this point I agree with the assessment.
*shrug* this all still winds up being heresay, but I'm very much inclined to believe the accounts of numerous people I trust. Combined with just how little I like most of their opinions and presentation and ... Big pass.
I'd be careful assigning labels to people they haven't given themselves.
He has 6 kids, and while it's more than the norm, it's nowhere near the 10+ a "quiver full" family could/would have. Some families do well with lots of kids too. My dad is one of six, and I have five, and neither my grandmother nor I would consider ourselves part of that group.
I am sad to hear that a bunch of people got negative impressions at the con. It's different from my experience, but that doesn't invalidate their experience. I'm not trying to defend him, just was curious why some don't care for him outside of not liking his review method or tastes.
Geez the day moved fast; sorry about that.
That's a fair call-out. I actually spent a bit more time looking into it afterwards and didn't realize Jack was their last child (in 2011). Obviously that leaves me with a bit of biting curiosity, but I'm not so much of an asshole I'd ever ask someone questions about their beliefs regarding their child of premature birth.
If I were to say something more positive, I think Zee is a more enjoyable personally and I generally favor his opinions, so if people were ever curious about the non-Tom aspects of the dice tower, I think he's worth more of an ear.
Totally unrelated, spending a bunch of time near Jurassic Park stuff the last few days really makes me want to take a stab at designing a park-builder. I've never been particularly drawn to either Dinosaur Island or Dinogenics, but I'm curious what people think of them and which might be more worth playing / a better design for the theme?
Dinosaur Island I thought was pretty underwhelming. It’s a combo of tile placement (can you optimize the fit of dino pens and concession stands) and then building an engine for attracting and satisfying patrons using upgrades and stuff. But then, I think the most interesting part of Jurassic Park isn’t building the park, it’s when the park breaks down and chaos happens.
If I were you I’d try it out, but also look more broadly at other building/planning sim games, like Suburbia and Castle of Mad King Ludwig.
I can't really recommend Dinosaur Island on the basis of fulfilling the Jurassic Park idea all that well, but I with a couple plays under my belt I can say it was a pretty tightly put together balancing act as far as I could tell. It's a good game, just not a flavor win.
There's not really a lot to it as far as the building aspect, either. Everything comes in standardized sizes and the game is more about making good choices in terms of actions than it is planning ahead.
Between Two Cities and Castle of Mad King Ludwig both feel more planning-y to me, from past experience.
I have been told that duelosaur island might be the better game but it was one we never got the chance to try despite saying we wanted to every staff party while I was at the LGS
AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
I think I got a bum set of sleeves.
So Runes & Regulations has a main game and an expansion. The expansion brings the game up to a possible 8 players, and in the process adds more of the base game cards to keep the distribution even. The kickstarter offered sleeves for both the main game and the expansion.
The rune sleeves, which are orange, seem really different from the base game and the expansion. I am sure once they are mixed together it won't matter much, but in the meantime it just feels.. off?
https://youtu.be/jQxpKAtvdT0
I tried this the other night with my brother and his family and man it is a ton of fun. I would never play it for money though holy shit. The pot gets wildly out of control real fast.
I'm going to give this a shot with Chips at a board game club. It seems real fun.
How many times do I have to repeat this? He had a video series on Youtube calling out games that were dangerous to Christianity. It's the final straw that made me quit watching him.
Do you have a link for this? Or an article discussing this?
Nope. I imagine if you google it you can find it pretty easily, assuming they're still up. Personally I'm not giving him the search hits. It's petty but that's my middle name. Also Erin.
I have tried twice today to find this video/article, and have not found it.
I would just assume it was taken down then.
Just assume?
0
Powerpuppiesdrinking coffee in themountain cabinRegistered Userregular
I feel like we're balancing on a fine line of offensive here.
I don't.
Maybe what some people find offensive is different from other people and, out of politeness, people should avoid certain terms and humor even if they don't see them as problematic. It's like using not cancer as an adjective even if you think it's harmless or funny.
If someone wants to misinterpret their religion so they can wield it like a club against people doing no wrong whatsoever they deserve to get called out for it.
Anyway, on board game topic. Villainous has been a pretty good tactic for getting my Disney loving wife into playing more games. Highly recommend.
I have been eying that one for quite a while now. Can you give a little more detail as to why she likes it? The kids' mother has expressed interest in it specifically but whenever we try to play just about anything, its just a constant refrain of "I dont know what I'm doing"
Honestly, my wife enjoys it more for the theme than the mechanics. She'll play dominion, Gloomhaven and other complex games if I ask her and carve out time but she enjoys playing Disney villains because she's familiar with them and the theme and gets a kick out of pretending to be one or having the events organically follow the movies.
Theme is one of the strong points of the game, each character feels different and while the actions available are the same, the goals and gameplay are radically different. Prince John feels different from Captain Hook who feels different from the Queen of Hearts and so on. This does mean that it can be somewhat hard to track who is winning because everyone is pursuing different goals but the game isn't that complicated on a turn to turn basis. You move to a spot, resolve the symbols on the spot you land and that's your turn. You do have a lot of options through and if you're dealing with analysis paralysis this game doesn't make it easy. They do provide a little guide for each character on what they should be doing to win as well as quick cheat sheet of all the other characters goals to help with this issue.
What I like about it is that each character is unique and feels replayable. Often after a game ends, I often don't want to swap villains because now I feel like I have a better grasp on how to play this character but I can also swap over to a new experience and try some one else out. The games are quick enough that you can play 2-3 rounds in a row without it overstaying its welcome and I like the variety so far.
I feel like we're balancing on a fine line of offensive here.
I don't.
Maybe what some people find offensive is different from other people and, out of politeness, people should avoid certain terms and humor even if they don't see them as problematic. It's like using not cancer as an adjective even if you think it's harmless or funny.
If someone wants to misinterpret their religion so they can wield it like a club against people doing no wrong whatsoever they deserve to get called out for it.
Anyway, on board game topic. Villainous has been a pretty good tactic for getting my Disney loving wife into playing more games. Highly recommend.
I have been eying that one for quite a while now. Can you give a little more detail as to why she likes it? The kids' mother has expressed interest in it specifically but whenever we try to play just about anything, its just a constant refrain of "I dont know what I'm doing"
Honestly, my wife enjoys it more for the theme than the mechanics. She'll play dominion, Gloomhaven and other complex games if I ask her and carve out time but she enjoys playing Disney villains because she's familiar with them and the theme and gets a kick out of pretending to be one or having the events organically follow the movies.
Theme is one of the strong points of the game, each character feels different and while the actions available are the same, the goals and gameplay are radically different. Prince John feels different from Captain Hook who feels different from the Queen of Hearts and so on. This does mean that it can be somewhat hard to track who is winning because everyone is pursuing different goals but the game isn't that complicated on a turn to turn basis. You move to a spot, resolve the symbols on the spot you land and that's your turn. You do have a lot of options through and if you're dealing with analysis paralysis this game doesn't make it easy. They do provide a little guide for each character on what they should be doing to win as well as quick cheat sheet of all the other characters goals to help with this issue.
What I like about it is that each character is unique and feels replayable. Often after a game ends, I often don't want to swap villains because now I feel like I have a better grasp on how to play this character but I can also swap over to a new experience and try some one else out. The games are quick enough that you can play 2-3 rounds in a row without it overstaying its welcome and I like the variety so far.
So Runes & Regulations has a main game and an expansion. The expansion brings the game up to a possible 8 players, and in the process adds more of the base game cards to keep the distribution even. The kickstarter offered sleeves for both the main game and the expansion.
The rune sleeves, which are orange, seem really different from the base game and the expansion. I am sure once they are mixed together it won't matter much, but in the meantime it just feels.. off?
I have a rule about not getting custom sleeves from kickstarters anymore, because there's always a quality control issue (e.g. sleeves being noticeably different sizes). If not actual quality issues (terrible feel, runny colors that get all over your hands, etc). And that on top of the issue of never being able to get matching sleeves as replacements for any sleeves that break, requiring the purchase of an entirely new set of sleeves anyway.
I remember Crossbows & Catapults as being totally rad
Wow I had completely forgot about this game and weapons and warriors. My brother and I played them all the time. I still remember every little thing about Key to the Kingdom, but didn't remember these even existed. I wonder if they are still boxed up in my parents attic...
How is The Last Bastion not just Ghost Stories again?
It is. There's just some minor balance tweaks I heard plus the re-skin.
When are we getting a decent castle siege game? There's like 6 of them and they've all been duds to one degree or another.
(I mean, besides Weapons & Warriors)
I really like Stronghold but the balance problems are very annoying, I think the designer didn't bother to check the math on battering rams to see if they were worth trying.
How is The Last Bastion not just Ghost Stories again?
It is. There's just some minor balance tweaks I heard plus the re-skin.
When are we getting a decent castle siege game? There's like 6 of them and they've all been duds to one degree or another.
(I mean, besides Weapons & Warriors)
I really like Stronghold but the balance problems are very annoying, I think the designer didn't bother to check the math on battering rams to see if they were worth trying.
Yeah that was one of the reasons Stronghold didn't impress us. That, and the defender felt like you were following a flowchart in reaction to the attacker, while the attacker was wonky to plan out the timing. Too often games were decided by the luck of the attacker's cube or catapult draw. The battering ram was either an all-in or nothing strategy (and made for a pretty boring game when you did go all in).
I did hear the Undead version fixed a lot of issues. Mostly by giving the defender more to do with random abilities similar to the attacker, plus a more clear cut victory condition rather than the silly VP mechanic of the original.
MrBody on
0
ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
It's worth noting, if people didn't know, that stronghold got a second edition that changed a lot of those early problems, and yeah, the new version of the expansion they're putting out is meant to do it even further. The game will certainly have spent a long time in the oven at that point, and should be worth another look by those who dismissed it years ago.
https://youtu.be/jQxpKAtvdT0
I tried this the other night with my brother and his family and man it is a ton of fun. I would never play it for money though holy shit. The pot gets wildly out of control real fast.
I'm going to give this a shot with Chips at a board game club. It seems real fun.
Let me know how it goes for you
Also, unrelated, the expansion for Quacks of Quedlinberg is dynamite.
So Runes & Regulations has a main game and an expansion. The expansion brings the game up to a possible 8 players, and in the process adds more of the base game cards to keep the distribution even. The kickstarter offered sleeves for both the main game and the expansion.
The rune sleeves, which are orange, seem really different from the base game and the expansion. I am sure once they are mixed together it won't matter much, but in the meantime it just feels.. off?
I have a rule about not getting custom sleeves from kickstarters anymore, because there's always a quality control issue (e.g. sleeves being noticeably different sizes). If not actual quality issues (terrible feel, runny colors that get all over your hands, etc). And that on top of the issue of never being able to get matching sleeves as replacements for any sleeves that break, requiring the purchase of an entirely new set of sleeves anyway.
To be fair, these are some of the nicest sleeves I've ever seen in terms of colors and finish. They are a bit more transparent than I'd like, but eh. Teeturtle has some good suppliers, it seems. Also, they threw in way more sleeves than they needed to, so if there is breakage I'm covered.
In other news, FFG just announced a Fallout Shelter board game. So that exists.
Come to think of it, the Lord of the Rings LCG had some pretty fun & thematic siege scenarios. Not to say easy.
I remember Torpedo Run
+7
ChaosHatHop, hop, hop, HA!Trick of the lightRegistered Userregular
Has anyone tried Marvel Champions?
It was fun but I'm not sure how I feel about it relative to Arkham. I feel like I just overall have a lot of issues/annoyances with how deck building is in Marvel, and the loss of campaign play and xp upgrade cards feels significant.
0
AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
It was fun but I'm not sure how I feel about it relative to Arkham. I feel like I just overall have a lot of issues/annoyances with how deck building is in Marvel, and the loss of campaign play and xp upgrade cards feels significant.
I still haven't opened the copy I got last weekend, but I'm fairly sure I'll have thoughts over the weekend.
AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
I quite enjoy it.
It's definitely simpler than AHLCG. The campaigns are coming later (you may note the 3 villains in the main box have a linked story).
What are the annoyances with deckbuilding that you have? It does kinda suck that you can only choose 1 aspect, but that'll get better as the card pool grows. I do love the idea that you can take any hero and pair them with any aspect, so every purchase theoretically can have value.
Ok I know youtube will show me questionable recommended videos and channels
But it showed me a wargaming magazine one and now I hate money https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsinXo11nqM
FYI the battlesystems terrain is pretty rad. I've been wanting to get Core Space to check it out, but it's more than I care to spend atm.
We demo'd it with them at UK Games EXPO last year, it is good fun and the excitement you get when people are physically opening chests to get their loot stays fun even after a couple of days of playing the same mission. It's also quite nice how the rules scale from relatively simple boardgame to mini-RPG in how they interact with the terrain; stuff can be just decoration and cover, or you can start smashing windows, flipping tables or moving boxes about the place.
We've not really had a chance to play a proper campaign yet though, which is a shame, but this might be where things slip for some people a little. Partly because the campaigns kind of need you to not really being playing out and out competitively - you're very much rivals, not enemies.
Given that the combat can be quite dangerous, even for more experienced characters if you're pushing the threat meter because you've got the gear to handle most Purge, if one side decides to out and out kill the other crew then people will die and the agressor will probably win the mission. But you might need to work together later on, and there's not an obvious solution to stop things snowballing (the team that went hyper aggressive first, will probably get some of the better loot even if they then fail the mission whilst the other team lost a crewman and that guy's high quality items).
So yeah, it's a good game, but one you're probably playing more for the experience and stories that come out of it, like an RPG rather than a tactical skirmish campaign game like Necronmunda or Kill Team.
Posts
I felt the same until I played with a friend who focused on letting her dinos eat as many patrons as she could and she won.
There's a LOT of levels to that game.
I have tried twice today to find this video/article, and have not found it.
I can't understand your hurt from Tom and the others at Dice Tower, and I wish there was some way to reconcile it. I agree there are way too many "Christians" in name only, and that many do not act the way they should. I know I'm not perfect. I just hope that you and others can understand that there are people who don't represent the whole, as with any group. I doubt that Christians are in the majority on these boards, or even in this thread, but my post earlier was an attempt to politely try and steer away from comments that were already a bit insulting. I try not to let small things bother me, as with anything on the internet there are people of all sorts of opinions and beliefs and attitudes, and being offended easily won't get you very far. I've always enjoyed that these forums weren't like the rest of the internet. They felt safe. Recently they haven't, and it is disappointing. However, I understand, and I'm not going anywhere because I feel like withdrawing from the world isn't the right course. That's how we've gotten to the point of extremism in viewpoints, hatred, politics, and even "Christian" movies and board games that frankly aren't necessary but instead serve as an attempt to not "fall into" worldly things.
Anyway, now I'm way too long winded. I grew up with both regular and "Christian" games, mostly Bible trivia styled stuff. I wasn't allowed to play Magic. It didn't result in any crazy rebellion, but I played Magic and D&D in high school and through college and now I play all sorts of rpgs and board games. It's no big deal and I don't force anything like that on my children. However, it does still affect my purchase choice for particular themes. I'm not going to go out and burn copies of games I don't like, but I just won't buy them. I think having a preference for or not particular themes or mechanics is a valid thing.
Barenpark was cute for one play but felt like it offered very little to make additional games interesting. IIRC the one notable mechanism has recently been reimplemented in Bloomtown, so ...
I've played lots of suburbia, and enough castles. There might be something to finally marrying those two though. Hmmm.
Haven't looked into the latest Tiny Epic, but I've never been much for them.
Reviews of Dinosaur Island are roughly what I expected. Nobody played Dinogenics?
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
It's certainly not an ELEGANT game. There's a lot of moving parts that obfuscate a pretty basic mechanic. But I love the component quality and theme, and it has just the right mix of point salad + randomness for my tastes. The expansions help fill it out a bit, too.
I would just assume it was taken down then. That's great.
Having a preference or even lack of tolerance for certain themes is 100% okay. I absolutely have my own. But I don't have the clout Tom does and I certainly don't think a board game, no matter the theme, can be dangerous to anyone's religious belief.
I guess I just don’t understand why making anyone feel unwanted is a good thing for the community. Comments about how Christians can't handle logic or that suggest they somehow deserve berating and ridicule because of their perceived dominance in western culture aren't very welcoming. Of course I'm not talking about comments specific to individuals as in Tom Vassal - that's different then the jabs at a whole group of people. Especially a group of people that very likely also includes members of this forum and thread.
But - I'll just hope that's enough comment on it and melt back into the wallpaper. *poof*
I can't really recommend Dinosaur Island on the basis of fulfilling the Jurassic Park idea all that well, but I with a couple plays under my belt I can say it was a pretty tightly put together balancing act as far as I could tell. It's a good game, just not a flavor win.
There's not really a lot to it as far as the building aspect, either. Everything comes in standardized sizes and the game is more about making good choices in terms of actions than it is planning ahead.
Between Two Cities and Castle of Mad King Ludwig both feel more planning-y to me, from past experience.
So Runes & Regulations has a main game and an expansion. The expansion brings the game up to a possible 8 players, and in the process adds more of the base game cards to keep the distribution even. The kickstarter offered sleeves for both the main game and the expansion.
The rune sleeves, which are orange, seem really different from the base game and the expansion. I am sure once they are mixed together it won't matter much, but in the meantime it just feels.. off?
I'm going to give this a shot with Chips at a board game club. It seems real fun.
Just assume?
It is. There's just some minor balance tweaks I heard plus the re-skin.
Gaaah. Megacity: Oceania is sitting in my cart.
It is staring at me with big puppy eyes like, "You'll play me a third time, right??"
This is rough.
When are we getting a decent castle siege game? There's like 6 of them and they've all been duds to one degree or another.
(I mean, besides Weapons & Warriors)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No3FVyXiskQ
Every time I mention this game to someone they act like I made it up.
OK fine I'm buying the damn thing
I have a rule about not getting custom sleeves from kickstarters anymore, because there's always a quality control issue (e.g. sleeves being noticeably different sizes). If not actual quality issues (terrible feel, runny colors that get all over your hands, etc). And that on top of the issue of never being able to get matching sleeves as replacements for any sleeves that break, requiring the purchase of an entirely new set of sleeves anyway.
Come to think of it, the Lord of the Rings LCG had some pretty fun & thematic siege scenarios. Not to say easy.
Steam - Talon Valdez :Blizz - Talonious#1860 : Xbox Live & LoL - Talonious Monk @TaloniousMonk Hail Satan
Wow I had completely forgot about this game and weapons and warriors. My brother and I played them all the time. I still remember every little thing about Key to the Kingdom, but didn't remember these even existed. I wonder if they are still boxed up in my parents attic...
I really like Stronghold but the balance problems are very annoying, I think the designer didn't bother to check the math on battering rams to see if they were worth trying.
Yeah that was one of the reasons Stronghold didn't impress us. That, and the defender felt like you were following a flowchart in reaction to the attacker, while the attacker was wonky to plan out the timing. Too often games were decided by the luck of the attacker's cube or catapult draw. The battering ram was either an all-in or nothing strategy (and made for a pretty boring game when you did go all in).
I did hear the Undead version fixed a lot of issues. Mostly by giving the defender more to do with random abilities similar to the attacker, plus a more clear cut victory condition rather than the silly VP mechanic of the original.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
Let me know how it goes for you
Also, unrelated, the expansion for Quacks of Quedlinberg is dynamite.
To be fair, these are some of the nicest sleeves I've ever seen in terms of colors and finish. They are a bit more transparent than I'd like, but eh. Teeturtle has some good suppliers, it seems. Also, they threw in way more sleeves than they needed to, so if there is breakage I'm covered.
In other news, FFG just announced a Fallout Shelter board game. So that exists.
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I remember Torpedo Run
It was fun but I'm not sure how I feel about it relative to Arkham. I feel like I just overall have a lot of issues/annoyances with how deck building is in Marvel, and the loss of campaign play and xp upgrade cards feels significant.
I still haven't opened the copy I got last weekend, but I'm fairly sure I'll have thoughts over the weekend.
It's definitely simpler than AHLCG. The campaigns are coming later (you may note the 3 villains in the main box have a linked story).
What are the annoyances with deckbuilding that you have? It does kinda suck that you can only choose 1 aspect, but that'll get better as the card pool grows. I do love the idea that you can take any hero and pair them with any aspect, so every purchase theoretically can have value.
We demo'd it with them at UK Games EXPO last year, it is good fun and the excitement you get when people are physically opening chests to get their loot stays fun even after a couple of days of playing the same mission. It's also quite nice how the rules scale from relatively simple boardgame to mini-RPG in how they interact with the terrain; stuff can be just decoration and cover, or you can start smashing windows, flipping tables or moving boxes about the place.
We've not really had a chance to play a proper campaign yet though, which is a shame, but this might be where things slip for some people a little. Partly because the campaigns kind of need you to not really being playing out and out competitively - you're very much rivals, not enemies.
Given that the combat can be quite dangerous, even for more experienced characters if you're pushing the threat meter because you've got the gear to handle most Purge, if one side decides to out and out kill the other crew then people will die and the agressor will probably win the mission. But you might need to work together later on, and there's not an obvious solution to stop things snowballing (the team that went hyper aggressive first, will probably get some of the better loot even if they then fail the mission whilst the other team lost a crewman and that guy's high quality items).
So yeah, it's a good game, but one you're probably playing more for the experience and stories that come out of it, like an RPG rather than a tactical skirmish campaign game like Necronmunda or Kill Team.