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[Blizzard]

I wasn't sure if I liked it after my first playthrough, but I really enjoyed it after that. The only thing we don't like a lot about it is the tie breaker because of the parrot since it's a very strong card.

Last time I played it I got 49 points on the third week, jumped from 5th to 2nd but still wasn't able to win.

I've played a bunch of Libertalia games, and it's perhaps one of the few games that I still sort of have fun even when I'm doing terribly. Of course I'm also always coordinating the cards, doubloons, etc. so maybe that's part of it.

It also feels surprisingly balanced to me. Sometimes you get a winner way ahead of other players, and sometimes people get hurt badly by tiebreakers, but I've also seen 3 players finish with 3 consecutive gold counts, like 64/65/66. I might have seen 2 players tie to win, too, but I'm not 100% sure on that. Everything has a tradeoff, so if you are going for one card, you might be missing gold from a different card. The last time there was a week where we might have been fighting over maps, or trying to stop the winning player from getting maps...but they got 3 treasure chests instead for 15 points that week and crushed us.

Colors are supposed to be handed out randomly, so you might have a high parrot one game and a low parrot the next game...plus, if you have a low parrot you may have other high cards to balance. PLUS, in any given game the parrot might be one of the 9 cards that does not get used.

Did you play with Monkey?

Oh man Monkey is great.

I got destroyed by the tiebreaker number the last time we played. Two players passed 5-6 curses down the table on the very last turn of the game. If I could have continued the monkey chain, we would have hit the #1 or #2 players who were way out ahead.

Instead, I had the lowest monkey, so I had to play something else. I got hit with -15 or -18 points from curses alone, and I think earned enough to get exactly 0 that turn. That was the closest I can remember someone ever coming to scoring negative points for a week.

The sad part was I was already one of the last place players, and it just cemented that while the rich got richer. :'( NEXT TIME.

 

[Karkador]

Finally got to play Pax Porfiriana.

Such an odd game, but quite a satisfying experience, as both an engine-building type of game, as well as a "screw with other players and try to cut a psychological path to victory" type of game. LOTS of game inside that little box.

 

[Neverfade]

Never payed PaxP, but I ordered a collector's edition since the game is fairly hard to find anyway, it's not particularly expensive, and I tend to enjoy these types of card games.

 

[Blizzard]

I went ahead and grabbed the harbor expansion for Machi Koro since my local game store was only like $2 more expensive than Amazon.

I love how it fits in the main box and there is still room for at least one more deck. The millionaire's row expansion should round the box out nicely.

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

Finally got to play Pax Porfiriana.

Such an odd game, but quite a satisfying experience, as both an engine-building type of game, as well as a "screw with other players and try to cut a psychological path to victory" type of game. LOTS of game inside that little box.

Never payed PaxP, but I ordered a collector's edition since the game is fairly hard to find anyway, it's not particularly expensive, and I tend to enjoy these types of card games.

Yeah, Pax Porfiriana is pretty cool. The card art is a mess but the gameplay is top notch. I like that despite being designed by a mad man, who normally designs dense games, it is oddly accessible.

 

[Karkador]

Yeah, Pax Porfiriana is pretty cool. The card art is a mess but the gameplay is top notch. I like that despite being designed by a mad man, who normally designs dense games, it is oddly accessible.

As a graphic designer, the card art was inspiring - if THAT got printed, surely I could get paid to do that kind of work.

But after getting familiar with the rules and the flow of the game, the cards are actually fairly functional and do make sense, even if they look like you're browsing Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia on drugs.

 

[Cerity]

Got my copy at Betrayal at the House on the Hill today and I'd forgotten how terrifying small figurines can look. My Madame Zostra/Vivian Lopez is rocking a pretty lethal lean and my Jenny LeClerc/Heather Granville is looking like an extra off the walking dead.

For future reference is there anywhere that sells better quality figurines? and better yet ones that I can paint myself?

 

[UpperCaseN]

I got an email about a sequel to Coup kickstarter, not just an expansion this time. I love me some Coup. This one has you make 5 decks from 25 possible roles, Dominion style. Seems like a great idea but I'm worried that this one will make the original Coup obsolete or redundant. Kind of like King of Tokyo and King of New York, I feel like owning both is self defeating

 

[Jables Swan]

I got an email about a sequel to Coup kickstarter, not just an expansion this time. I love me some Coup. This one has you make 5 decks from 25 possible roles, Dominion style. Seems like a great idea but I'm worried that this one will make the original Coup obsolete or redundant. Kind of like King of Tokyo and King of New York, I feel like owning both is self defeating

Coup is almost perfect. I think I'll stick with that.

 

[rSpooky]

Did you guys see this KickStarter?
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/781219801/the-titan-series

I might have to really think about this.. could be fun .. could be bad..

Though my wife and kids are already telling me to slow down on the boardgames, we have enough they say... NEVAH I say! ( OT : just picked up epic spellwars this weekend and zombicide season 2 two weeks ago)

 

[Mista Koo]

I got an email about a sequel to Coup kickstarter, not just an expansion this time. I love me some Coup. This one has you make 5 decks from 25 possible roles, Dominion style. Seems like a great idea but I'm worried that this one will make the original Coup obsolete or redundant. Kind of like King of Tokyo and King of New York, I feel like owning both is self defeating

The non-Resistance Universe version has been out for a while as Coup: Guatemala 1954. I've heard good and bad things.
I think the fact that it has a variable setup each time will make it a different game. You will have to "teach" the new roles to every one. Also since the cards are variable they are self-contained (no Assassin and Contessa for instance).

The art looks pretty bad to me. I'm fine with Coup's art, but this looks much worse.

Did you guys see this KickStarter?
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/781219801/the-titan-series

I might have to really think about this.. could be fun .. could be bad..

I hate how they're saying "world's greatest designers" when they're all North American. Also I never buy games solely based on the designer.

 

[BomberMouse]

I hate how they're saying "world's greatest designers" when they're all North American. Also I never buy games solely based on the designer.

Agreed on both fronts. Also https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/20436/stonehenge-anthology-board-game

 

[JSR_Cube]

I have backed almost 30 board game kickstarters but I am not touching that Titan Series one. The details are sketchy and the shipping sucks for the rest of the world. I don't doubt that they will make the games but so much of it is still a mystery to fork out money up front. I think they thought that just because they got a bunch of big name designers on the project that they would have a home run. It doesn't look that way so far.

 

[rSpooky]

thanks for your insight on this guys.

 

[Blizzard]

I finally got someone to try Machi Koro with me, just 1v1 thus far. We played one game of the base (I won) and one game with the harbor expansion (I lost).

I'm happy I got it, and it seemed fun enough even with 2 players.

I'm not 100% sure I will only play the expansion in the future, but I feel like it will definitely add more variety. The main thing is that with the base game, all cards are on the table so card purchase order might be similar each game once players learn the game, taking into account random dice of course. With the expansion, only 10 random, unique establishments can be purchased at any given time (some of them potentially being stacks of the same card), which means certain strategies might not even be available at first.

Also, there are more cards with the expansion. With the base game, at least one of the high-roller cards looked like a pretty bad deal because of how rare 11's and 12's are.

I got destroyed early in the second game because I kept rolling a 1, meaning my money got stolen, meaning it took a long time to even get 4 coins saved to start catching up.

 

[Karkador]

Why was your money getting stolen with a roll of a 1? I can't recall any cards that steal money on a 1.

Also, were you following the rule about which types of cards activate first? You're supposed to get your money stolen by red cards first, then get your payout from any green/blue cards of yours. Even if you get cleaned out by red cards, there's a chance you can still claim some money by the end of your turn.

 

[Blizzard]

Why was your money getting stolen with a roll of a 1? I can't recall any cards that steal money on a 1.

Also, were you following the rule about which types of cards activate first? You're supposed to get your money stolen by red cards first, then get your payout from any green/blue cards of yours. Even if you get cleaned out by red cards, there's a chance you can still claim some money by the end of your turn.

If I recall correctly, the harbor expansion's sushi bar steals 3 gold per card, so I would lose 3 (or even more if the other player stacked cards) per turn.

I was using the red-card-first rule, but even then, all I would get was 1 gold from the starting wheat field. Maybe the next turn I would get 2 coins from something else, and the third turn I could roll a 1 again to immediately lose 3 gold.

The sushi bar cost 4 gold and the other player grabbed one pretty early, so that I didn't have the 4-gold landmark to use 2 dice. I could have prevented myself from rolling 1's if I had that landmark, but it took a while to even save up to 4.

 

[joelseph]

Jeezuz Stooge. Seeing your TGM haul makes me weak in the knees. Tease us with all that new gaming goodness!

 

[Karkador]

Jeezuz Stooge. Seeing your TGM haul makes me weak in the knees. Tease us with all that new gaming goodness!

Seconded. Jealous!

 

[BomberMouse]

Link to Stooge's haul?

 

[joelseph]

Link to Stooge's haul?

https://www.facebook.com/pandasaurusgames

https://twitter.com/Pandasaurusgame

 

[BomberMouse]

Makes sense given they published string safari and machi koro. I'm looking forward to enjoy these imported games and complain about the terrible boxes.

Seriously, string safari is borderline offensive. Stooge plz.

EDIT: Oh, you got ars alchemia there and deep sea adventure, really looking forward for those two.

 

[Karkador]

Well, I assume none of those are at all guaranteed to come over here, but there's a chance?

The picture of the haul makes me wonder - if Western publishers are now traveling directly to the Japanese Game Market conventions and coming away with a huge haul of games (many of which were probably impulse-bought), is it at all convincing them that this style of small, inexpensive Japanese form factor is not only viable, but kind of addicting? Is it ringing any bells for how to push the hobby forward at home?

 

[joelseph]

Well, I assume none of those are at all guaranteed to come over here, but there's a chance?

The picture of the haul makes me wonder - if Western publishers are now traveling directly to the Japanese Game Market conventions and coming away with a huge haul of games (many of which were probably impulse-bought), is it at all convincing them that this style of small, inexpensive Japanese form factor is not only viable, but kind of addicting? Is it ringing any bells for how to push the hobby forward at home?

If WEM is pimping them the market will follow. I personally adore the style.

What's up with that Rhino game that sold out immediately from HABA?

 

[BattleMonkey]

Well, I assume none of those are at all guaranteed to come over here, but there's a chance?

The picture of the haul makes me wonder - if Western publishers are now traveling directly to the Japanese Game Market conventions and coming away with a huge haul of games (many of which were probably impulse-bought), is it at all convincing them that this style of small, inexpensive Japanese form factor is not only viable, but kind of addicting? Is it ringing any bells for how to push the hobby forward at home?

Don't think it's really going to push hobby forward, it's just filling in quick niche for companies in pumping out cheap games. AEG has been doing it for a while now, think others are picking up on it, but these games are also not really taking over either. If anything just seems to be a quick way for these companies to pump out new filler content. Wouldn't be surprised to see it take a similar approach as with anime, where the licensing costs will start going up once the Japanese realize the demand for their games if this continues, and this will end up hurting this venture.

 

[Karkador]

If WEM is pimping them the market will follow. I personally adore the style.

What's up with that Rhino game that sold out immediately from HABA?

I have the regular version of Rhino Hero. It's a silly kids dexterity/engineering game where you build this tower of folded cards, and depending on what card you play, you might also make the next player move the Rhino piece up onto a higher card on the tower, which can be downright evil and really make the whole thing start to lean and buckle. It's a fun little filler for adults, too.

Don't think it's really going to push hobby forward, it's just filling in quick niche for companies in pumping out cheap games. AEG has been doing it for a while now, think others are picking up on it, but these games are also not really taking over either. If anything just seems to be a quick way for these companies to pump out new filler content. Wouldn't be surprised to see it take a similar approach as with anime, where the licensing costs will start going up once the Japanese realize the demand for their games if this continues, and this will end up hurting this venture.

Well, I guess "push the hobby forward" is just my opinion, but I think there is a very apparent niche for these games (once again, look at how many Western publishers are flocking to the Game Markets to pick up a new crop of games to take to GenCon), but I don't know if Western publishers are really capitalizing on what's appealing about them.

With the exception of some Japanese companies that really have their shit together, most of these games were conceived as one-offs, produced at 500 or less, and I think it makes sense that the demand is there because it's a limited edition curiosity for gamers, with mechanics that are often not that interesting for anyone but gamers. Whether or not it's a good game doesn't really seem to hinder the demand that much, because it's something by and for the community.

I mean, Oink Games put out a gorgeous retheme of Modern Art a few years ago, very limited run, very much Out of Print, and it's still a highly-sought after game fetching crazy prices despite every other version of Modern Art being dog meat.

Frankly, I don't know if anyone has done it exceptionally well. Even AEG has largely done the "microgame genre" a disservice by wearing the fuck out of Love Letter, as if people really wanted 5 different versions of it.

 

[BlewHedgehog]

My friends and I finally played the copy of Tales of the Arabian Nights that's been on the shelf for a year and a half now. What a great game. One player hit on one of his skills right away and launched himself way into first place early, but it's so uncompetitive that no one seemed to mind. We were all too busy managing our own stories and making jokes about the new album dropping from Mad Jailer K.

A few in the group weren't as into the theme as myself. My roommate said at one point, "Man, I wish this were in space or something." You guys have experience with Agents of Smersh? Is liking Tales a good indicator that you will enjoy that one too? What else in this vein is out there?

 

[Mr. Luchador]

XiaNaphryz sent me, I'm a board game beginner looking for ideas and a hand to hold.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

I responded to that GMT email asking for testers a couple days ago for the updated Dominant Species app, but was turned down. Ah well!

Hopefully the updated version improves the AI enough to make it worth playing single player at least, given the online MP isn't coming until a later update.

 

[Karkador]

XiaNaphryz sent me, I'm a board game beginner looking for ideas and a hand to hold.

I'm sorry, we're being nerds in here right now.

What tabletop games have you played before? What did you like/dislike?

Welcome!

 

[TumblingHippo]

I like the military being less inherently confrontational than Through the Ages. That is, you don't choose a player to attack, it's more like a war against the game. Really, the whole game of Nations feels more like playing against the game than playing against the other players. I don't see that as bad necessarily, but it it might put some people off.

I am not sure how much I think Through the Ages necessarily has more depth though. I haven't played enough games of Nations yet to really compare them, but they seem pretty equivalent depth-wise.

Stuff like this feels a lot more digestible for me for a 2-hour or more long game, and is one of the things pushing me to get Nations instead. How far does the game go in terms of technology? Do we get into any modern tech?

For these kinds of card games, I feel like it'd be much cooler to eventually end up in modern times.

 

[Mr. Luchador]

I'm sorry, we're being nerds in here right now.

What tabletop games have you played before? What did you like/dislike?

Welcome!

Oh no, that's fine - keep being nerds! I've only really played your standard family board games (Monopoly, Bamboozle, etc). Recently we've had friends over and enjoyed Cards Against Humanity, and I think it's time we added some board games into the mix - so probably some easier to understand ones.

FallingEdge, XiaNaphryz & Josep have already provided some good recommendations in Resistance, Snake Oil, Coup & Dixit. So really, I'm just hanging out in the thread to see what else other people are enjoying.

 

[Karkador]

Yeah, I'd say Resistance or Avalon are an excellent start (they're the same game, different themes, but the latter has more extras in the box). Try to get more than 6 players for it, though.

Snake Oil is a great step up from CAH.

Settlers of Catan, if you want the modern Monopoly.

 

[Mr. Luchador]

Also, while it's not technically a 'board game' we're taking a friend to an 'Escape...' event for his 30th Birthday. Basically, you're locked in a room and have an hour to escape by working out clues and puzzles.

Has anyone done one of these before?

 

[Karkador]

Also, while it's not technically a 'board game' we're taking a friend to an 'Escape...' event for his 30th Birthday. Basically, you're locked in a room and have an hour to escape by working out clues and puzzles.

Has anyone done one of these before?

Where do you live?

We did one in NYC and it was a lot of fun, I really liked it.

 

[BomberMouse]

If WEM is pimping them the market will follow. I personally adore the style.

What's up with that Rhino game that sold out immediately from HABA?

I love the smaller games in smaller boxes. I loathe big box games despite owning a lot of them.

I think Fantasy Flight must be like the anti-company for me, huge overproduced games in the worst themes possible. Can't wait for more Japanese style games.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

Does anyone here still play Through the Ages regularly on boardgaming-online.com? Trying to find another regular game group there.

 

[Mr. Luchador]

Where do you live?

We did one in NYC and it was a lot of fun, I really liked it.

Newcastle, England where there's two different ones available. I saw a few that seemed crazy over in America involving Zombies and Murders trying to break into the room to get you haha

http://www.escape-newcastle.co.uk/
http://exit-newcastle.co.uk/

There's also a UK Blog that covers a lot of the live escape games too: http://exitgames.co.uk/

 

[joelseph]

XiaNaphryz sent me, I'm a board game beginner looking for ideas and a hand to hold.

Welcome wrestlegaf brother. Good people in here.

 

[platypotamus]

Stuff like this feels a lot more digestible for me for a 2-hour or more long game, and is one of the things pushing me to get Nations instead. How far does the game go in terms of technology? Do we get into any modern tech?

For these kinds of card games, I feel like it'd be much cooler to eventually end up in modern times.

You get to about late 1800s/early 1900s, which did disappoint me a little bit because I also like making it to the modern era. That said, the length of the game felt really pretty good, and I feel like sometimes TtA can seem to skip ahead in time a bit too quickly, so I dunno. I think it works.

 

[Mr. Luchador]

How many of you play Tabletop Simulator? I noticed there's a bunch of Workshop Content for some of the games that have been recommended. While I know this won't be the same as a physical copy, I'm interested in trying them out on Steam to get a feel for them.

Also I need more people to play with!

 

[jasonng]

Also, while it's not technically a 'board game' we're taking a friend to an 'Escape...' event for his 30th Birthday. Basically, you're locked in a room and have an hour to escape by working out clues and puzzles.

Has anyone done one of these before?

They're loads of fun and each room has a different theme so pick accordingly! The only advice I have is to try get the right amount of friends involved. Most Escape rooms, at least here in NYC, allow 6-10 people per room. It's not uncommon to split the group if it's too big or place you with another group if it's too small. I did it with 7 of my other friends and it was a blast. Going to do another one in June!

 

[Mr. Luchador]

They're loads of fun and each room has a different theme so pick accordingly! The only advice I have is to try get the right amount of friends involved. Most Escape rooms, at least here in NYC, allow 6-10 people per room. It's not uncommon to split the group if it's too big or place you with another group if it's too small. I did it with 7 of my other friends and it was a blast. Going to do another one in June!

We'll be going as a group of 6 and totally looking forward to it! No idea how many rooms Escape Newcastle has, but I'll report back in once we've done it (end of May).

 

[Jakoo]

Shut Up and Sit Down posted a pretty scathing review of Cards Against Humanity (a couple of years late?) that seems to be making waves.

These were my thoughts posted on Reddit, I wanted to hear this communities thoughts too:

CAH is a pretty blah game once you've played it more then 5 times, however, it's a bit of a reach to indite the people that do like it for whatever reason. In our group when it's (rarely) broken out, there is quite a bit of nuance that goes into it. When we play, it's not the most "offensive" card that automatically wins, because we've all heard the most offensive cards before and therefore the answer needs to be a bit more clever. At times, it's really the inoffensive cards that take the win because they are cleverly bounced against the Black Card.

This review just kind of feels like when cultural critics get on Mobile Games for being destructive to "real video games" and pop songs for being destructive to "real music". CAH can exist alongside proper board games, and the people that play and enjoy it don't have to be closeted racists/homophobes/etc.

 

[Mr. Luchador]

Shut Up and Sit Down posted a pretty scathing review of Cards Against Humanity (a couple of years late?) that seems to be making waves.

These were my thoughts posted on Reddit, I wanted to hear this communities thoughts too:

I guess it's the mindset of the people you're playing with. The few times we've played it the most surreal or absurd answers usually gets the most laugh, as that's the humour we like. Sometimes the shock card wins, but I often find when you're in a group where everyone is trying to be the most shocking it's pretty boring, as there's no real 'shock' value. Also nobody wants to admit that someone else is more shocking then they are, so it's always stifled laughs and murmurs of 'bastard'.

 

[BattleMonkey]

CAH is great with the right kind of people. But it's a game that you pull out once in a while.

It's not a game you can just play like every week or for a very long time. It's a good party game to pop out every few months when your with casual friends who are not uptight and especially with some booze in ya.

Hardcore gamers obviously have issues with it, like the analogy above about critics touching a mobile game. But much of CAH's audience is not going to touch your precious euros, get over it, people obviously are enjoying the hell out of it and a review is not going to change their minds.

 

[espher]

The group I usually play CAH with is all about the crude answers. I'm personally about the clever or 'too real' answers, and I have another group I play with that mostly goes for the same thing. I enjoy it way more when people go that way, though it's fun to have people not understand how I went for something subtle over the penis joke.

With that first group, we played it once a week for a while (over a lunch hour) and I'd say after the fifth week it started to lose its lustre for me. We now mix it up with The Resistance and that keeps both games feeling fresh.

I do want to add that I would certainly never break it out 'blind' - anyone that joins us that asks what it's about (e.g. if they see it or if we ask if they've played it) gets a very thorough description of the game and the nature of its content and if they don't want to play we play something else. This is a game you can only play in the right company.

Edit: Oh, and we also play very, very short games. An hour or less, and first to five.

 

[Karkador]

Of the three reviews, I think I side with Quinns, personally.

I've complained about the game before. I think it's boring, lacks creativity or intrigue for anyone involved. It's an exercise in getting some cynical chuckles out of a group, like you're all sitting around after elementary school telling "yo mama" jokes.

But I feel that complaining about things people like is a dead end. There are party games that are a lot better; games that get people laughing harder and shouting louder than any CAH I've ever been in, and it's pretty memorable stuff to look back on. I think its best to just put those out there for people and let them see it and experience it for themselves.

 

[BomberMouse]

I agree with the SU&SD review. As a game itself, it's terrible and the extra layer of unnecessary offensiveness is too much for me. For me it's an excuse for people to say terrible things that they are too afraid to say openly.

 

[Palmer_v1]

Telestrations is my favorite party game overall. Spyfall has been pretty solid as a very quick, easy, game for smaller groups too.

CAH isn't played until we're too drunk to be coherent, or there's a new person that hasn't played.

I also agree that the crude answers are least fun. I like when a card combo makes you do more of a double take. Multiple layers of joke. Definitely helps to have people that think alike.