platypotamus
Member
OMG there's a digital twilight struggle coming out?!
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New Board Gaming |OT2| On Tables, Off Topic
- Thread starter Karkador
- Start date
Does anyone have a recommendation for ordering a bunch of cheap white D6 dice on Amazon? I looked at a few different options, and each one seems to have horrible reviews about goo, painted-on dots, or other defects.
I'd be content with < 30, but if I get more it's no big deal as long as the price is reasonable (preferably < $10).
I'd be content with < 30, but if I get more it's no big deal as long as the price is reasonable (preferably < $10).
I'd say go for Chessex. The main complaint about this one is that they were smaller than people expected (they apparently didn't look at the size, 12mm). If you want something bigger (or rather, more of a common dice size), they have 16mm varieties in all sorts of colors (but they're gonna run more expensive)
The only thing I'd say is to probably avoid opaque, mixed-color dice, because it seems like those have a higher chance of being botched and off-balance.
Also, I've seen (and ordered) more casino-style dice (with the minimally rounded edges), and they're okay, but I feel like the rounder dice are easier to roll.
Dollar Tree has these: http://www.dollartree.com/Game-Dice-10-ct-Packs/p325869/index.pro
They're pretty good for a buck and have actual pips. I own a couple packs and they work just fine for me.
-tetsuo-
Unlimited Capacity
Yea Playdek is bringing it to everything, basically. Cross platform and all that good stuff. Supposed to be out within a couple months last I heard.
Hey cool thanks, that'd work for me. I'll check out a nearby store.
After watching Joel Eddys review I ended up ordering Ashes.
73$ including shipping from Plaid Hat to Denmark was a pretty good price. Especially considering you get an extra promo hero when ordering straight from Plaid Hat.
Game looks like a ton of fun, and seems to fix the main problem with many card games, when you have a turn where you can do nothing.
73$ including shipping from Plaid Hat to Denmark was a pretty good price. Especially considering you get an extra promo hero when ordering straight from Plaid Hat.
Game looks like a ton of fun, and seems to fix the main problem with many card games, when you have a turn where you can do nothing.
Had the first game night in almost two months with my cousins.
First we played Castles of Mad King Ludwig. It took forever to explain the game to them and they complained a lot about how complex and intimidating the game seemed. Two turns in almost everyone got it. I ended up in second place after one of them had a huge stack of bonus cards.
Then we played Tokaido which they had just bought. The game's owner kinda knew how to play but not anyone else, and no one was interested in listening to the explanation.
In the end my cousin's preteen kid won.
Afterwards we played 4P Fearsome Floors, everyone liked it because they enjoyed planning and destroying each other. Red had two of his tokens out of the dungeon early on. Green and Blue planned a crazy move that destroyed 6-7 pieces putting Green out of the game.
At this point Red had only one token, Blue had only one token (and no chance of winning), and I (Yellow) had 3 tokens. So it was between me and Red, and I had 3 pieces. Unfortunately I misplaced on my pieces and it cost me the game
Then we played 5-6P 7 Wonders that they had just gotten into. I found for the first that you were supposed to pick A or B sides randomly! It was so annoying and I'm glad that my gaming group didn't do that.
Everyone was expecting me to win since I was explaining the game even to people who had played it before, but I didn't win either of the 3 games we played.
We ended the night by playing a few games of Splendor and Machi Koro, both of which I won the first game of. With Machi Koro I randomly decided not to buy the 2 dice upgrade the game I won, which made the other players copy me in the subsequent games thinking it was some sort of secret strategy.
First we played Castles of Mad King Ludwig. It took forever to explain the game to them and they complained a lot about how complex and intimidating the game seemed. Two turns in almost everyone got it. I ended up in second place after one of them had a huge stack of bonus cards.
Then we played Tokaido which they had just bought. The game's owner kinda knew how to play but not anyone else, and no one was interested in listening to the explanation.
In the end my cousin's preteen kid won.
Afterwards we played 4P Fearsome Floors, everyone liked it because they enjoyed planning and destroying each other. Red had two of his tokens out of the dungeon early on. Green and Blue planned a crazy move that destroyed 6-7 pieces putting Green out of the game.
At this point Red had only one token, Blue had only one token (and no chance of winning), and I (Yellow) had 3 tokens. So it was between me and Red, and I had 3 pieces. Unfortunately I misplaced on my pieces and it cost me the game
Then we played 5-6P 7 Wonders that they had just gotten into. I found for the first that you were supposed to pick A or B sides randomly! It was so annoying and I'm glad that my gaming group didn't do that.
Everyone was expecting me to win since I was explaining the game even to people who had played it before, but I didn't win either of the 3 games we played.
We ended the night by playing a few games of Splendor and Machi Koro, both of which I won the first game of. With Machi Koro I randomly decided not to buy the 2 dice upgrade the game I won, which made the other players copy me in the subsequent games thinking it was some sort of secret strategy.
I don't know who to believe about Machi Koro.
Opinions are either a) it's fun the first couple times but then it gets boring when you realize there is ONE WINNING STRATEGY or b) every game is different and it can get bloody when you watch everyone's strategies and try to work around them.
Some people fall in between but the overwhelming majority seem to be at opposite ends of the spectrum. Apparently there's nothing for it but to buy the damn thing and see where I fall :/.
Opinions are either a) it's fun the first couple times but then it gets boring when you realize there is ONE WINNING STRATEGY or b) every game is different and it can get bloody when you watch everyone's strategies and try to work around them.
Some people fall in between but the overwhelming majority seem to be at opposite ends of the spectrum. Apparently there's nothing for it but to buy the damn thing and see where I fall :/.
piratepwnsninja
Member
I feel the Harbor expansion and using the variant that comes with it helps tremendously with the one winning strategy formula. Since you don't know what is going to be available all the time, you have to adapt a lot more during the course of the game.
I didn't play it enough to judge for myself, but so far I'm enjoying it. My cousins had the Harbor expansion, but we've yet to play with it since we haven't played the base game enough.
One guy said something similar about Splendor, that he found a game breaking strategy. I still don't think he managed to beat us not even once.
super-famicom
Member
I'm in the One Winning Strategy camp. Going for furniture factory and loading up on mines/forests has always been OP in the games I've played. I did post before about the 10 card variant, which the Harbor Expansion introduced.
I had that happen to me and a friend using the harbor expansion. We hardly ever play the game now. I think I've detailed the experience in previous posts, but my main issues are (primarily from playing with only one other person):
1. Even with the set of 10 random cards, it was typically too easy to get to the two cog cards (mines and forests if I recall correctly) which seem statistically more likely than anything else to produce massive income. Especially if combined with the card that gives bonuses for cog cards, this is even better. In contrast, I've gone long periods of time without ever rolling 10+ to trigger some of the alternate strategy cards. Bad luck? Maybe. Fun? No.
2. If a player gets ahead early with some red cards, it can be VERY difficult for other players to get the 2-dice unlock. This might only be an issue with the Sushi Bar card, but I think I've seen it multiple times. One time it might have even happened with 4+ players -- because you have a 1/6 chance of triggering it, and it steals SO MUCH money (more than any other restaurant?), you can have bad luck and keep losing money, so it takes many turns before you ever get a chance to avoid it by using two dice. Meanwhile, it's just not fun to spend every turn going "I gain 1 coin. [I possibly lose 3.] Pass."
3. Sometimes the 10-card set has only expensive or mediocre cards, which again leads to the situation where a player who gets ahead early can continue to dominate while the other player(s) have very little income.
super-famicom
Member
I haven't faced many problems with the 10 card variant, but the upcoming Millionaire's Row expansion is supposedly an improvement as it adds a lot of new cards into the mix. Someone on BGG said it was pretty good.
That's the most detailed explanation I've seen of someone's issues. Sorry it sounds like I missed it before. I want to like the game because of the lovely and charming art direction and theme; I guess a lot of people were in the same boat.
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
Here's an odd question...
I'm looking to hit up yard sales, CL, etc for a table for gaming. Any suggestions on size that will fit and play most games that don't eat up all the floor space in the world?
I'm looking to hit up yard sales, CL, etc for a table for gaming. Any suggestions on size that will fit and play most games that don't eat up all the floor space in the world?
It's pretty ghetto, but my friend just bought a piece of plywood and puts it over his small little four-seat dining table whenever we bust out a larger game.
So my favorite game at Gen Con was Vlaada's new game, Codenames.
It is a pretty simple game where you lay out 25 cards with words on them and split into a blue and red team. Each team has a leader who knows which cards are blue, which are red, which are neutral, and which one is the black card. The leaders take turns giving one word clues + a number that says how many cards that clue relates to. You want your team to pick your color words and avoid all the others. The black card loses you the game instantly, so you definitely want to avoid that.
This leads to some really fun moments of saying a clue and then realizing your friends are going to associate it in a completely different way, and not being able to say anything as they spiral towards disaster. For example, in one game the blue team had "ground and "monument", but the red team had "plot". My friend who is a writer gave the clue "graveyard 2" to get them to pick the blue words, but never even considering how well "plot" also worked for that, because she so strongly thought of plot in the context of a story.
It is a super simple game, but actually has a lot of strategy as you try to figure out clues that can hit a bunch of your words at once, without them hitting the other team's much. After a few games as the leader I came to the strategy of starting with super loose, wide ranging clues that apply to 3 or 4 words, that probably aren't going to work, but later in the game give my team good ammunition for breaking ties. Even if they don't get "point" in the round when I say "Intersection 3" they can gravitate towards point later on in the game when I say "direction 3". The game also has what is probably one of my favorite moments in board games (that is also in games like Witness and Mysterium), where the communication restriction finally drops after a team has won and you get to grill your friend about what the hell they were thinking when they gave some ridiculous clue.
It also takes like 15 minutes a game so you can get a bunch of games in and rotate the leader role to everyone. Being the leader is probably more fun, but I don't think being a team member is at all boring or anything like that. Really really fun.
It is a pretty simple game where you lay out 25 cards with words on them and split into a blue and red team. Each team has a leader who knows which cards are blue, which are red, which are neutral, and which one is the black card. The leaders take turns giving one word clues + a number that says how many cards that clue relates to. You want your team to pick your color words and avoid all the others. The black card loses you the game instantly, so you definitely want to avoid that.
This leads to some really fun moments of saying a clue and then realizing your friends are going to associate it in a completely different way, and not being able to say anything as they spiral towards disaster. For example, in one game the blue team had "ground and "monument", but the red team had "plot". My friend who is a writer gave the clue "graveyard 2" to get them to pick the blue words, but never even considering how well "plot" also worked for that, because she so strongly thought of plot in the context of a story.
It is a super simple game, but actually has a lot of strategy as you try to figure out clues that can hit a bunch of your words at once, without them hitting the other team's much. After a few games as the leader I came to the strategy of starting with super loose, wide ranging clues that apply to 3 or 4 words, that probably aren't going to work, but later in the game give my team good ammunition for breaking ties. Even if they don't get "point" in the round when I say "Intersection 3" they can gravitate towards point later on in the game when I say "direction 3". The game also has what is probably one of my favorite moments in board games (that is also in games like Witness and Mysterium), where the communication restriction finally drops after a team has won and you get to grill your friend about what the hell they were thinking when they gave some ridiculous clue.
It also takes like 15 minutes a game so you can get a bunch of games in and rotate the leader role to everyone. Being the leader is probably more fun, but I don't think being a team member is at all boring or anything like that. Really really fun.
Treachery levels are very high. I like Rex. It won't be as long as TI3 but it won't be short either. There is a lot of potential for alliances and backstabbing.
I'm still interested in that expansion, though I should probably preorder it before the price goes up on Amazon.
Codenames was definitely fun. Glad we got it the first day. We had 6 people, and we'd rotate leaders 1 spot each time, and split the table.
Since you've played it, we had a minor dispute when I was a leader. My team was down to two words, and the other team was down to 2-3 themselves. I needed to get them to say Centaur and Wave. There weren't really any major conflicted words, but I couldn't think of a way. I finally said "Four, Two". Centaur is obvious, and I was hoping they would notice that only two words left had 4 letters, Wave and King. King was Neutral so I didn't care if they guessed wrong on a 50/50.
So, is using the characteristics of a word rather than it's meaning, "cheating"?
Other examples would be if you had 3 words with K, and no others, or if you wanted to say Rhymes 3 because you had mat hat and bat.
super-famicom
Member
Last I checked, it was only available by one seller for $15.99 +8.25 shipping. Shipping is too pricey for me, but I hope more sellers (and Amazon themselves) offer it, especially with Prime shipping.
It does have a great art style and a nice box. It may come down to me disliking certain mechanic(s), and some balance issues, who knows. I think my friend did win with a different 2-player strategy once, so it could still happen.
Ack, I didn't even notice the shipping! I have Prime and somehow thought it said free shipping. I'll hold off for now then and preorder Mysterium instead.
Speaking of Mysterium, has anyone played it yet? I saw some people picked it up at Gencon. Good experiences?
When we played we started out by saying the rule that your clues had to be about the meaning of the word. So no rhyming or anything like that. It probably says that in the rules somewhere but that might be on the page that is just like "these are all just, like, suggestions, play how you want man". I think it is just however you want to play it. We never played it without that rule, but just thinking about it I could see rhyming and that kind of thing getting around the way there is a ton of cross meanings between the words in the set, which is part of the fun.
We also played you couldn't spell out your clue, so you can't tell "hole" from "whole".
That's really hard to say as it's so incredibly dependent on the space you are working with.
I really wanted to get a table that was close to 4' x 6' - we had the space for it but honestly there weren't many tables available that were 4' wide. We saw a couple - one was too short, the other neither of is liked the style.
We ended up with one that is 38" x 72" I think. The only time it got a little tight was 5 player Caverna, but there was still space for a player in the sixth chair.
A lot of people seem to like poker tables, or even round tables, but I've seen too many pictures of them loaded to the gills on larger games with no where to expand.
BomberMouse
Member
It's usually much cheaper, cardhaus is also cheaper than CSI.
Mr. Lemming
Member
The rules explicitly forbid clues about the characteristics of the word rather than the meaning. The rules are actually pretty comprehensive about what is allowed and not, but basically they wrap it up to whatever the other spymaster will allow.
Spelling was explicitly mentioned, I think? My team understandably had me spell out Four, as opposed to For or Fore.
Definitely a good game though. I can see it brought out for a lot of groups.
I must have missed it then. I did have to pull the other spymaster aside to see if BDUs were okay to use, since it's technically an acronym, but not one that you ever hear spelled out in normal conversation. The jerk told me no cause he didn't know what it was. I used Fatigues 2 instead, for Pants and Uniform.
I have so many different topics on my mind today, sorry for all the posts.
In addition to Mysterium impressions, does anyone have comments on the Cyclades expansions from experience? Titans seems to be the highest rated in general, and I almost certainly want it. Is it worth it to get Hades as well, just to have another game style option?
In addition to Mysterium impressions, does anyone have comments on the Cyclades expansions from experience? Titans seems to be the highest rated in general, and I almost certainly want it. Is it worth it to get Hades as well, just to have another game style option?
I got excited, then reality hit me. $73 to Denmark? $98 to Finland. I wonder why the $25 extra difference. Easy to pass at that price though.
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
Anyone own Space Empires 4x? I want to get a copy, but it's impossible to find at a normal price. I have read that I could just buy the expansion and find a custom board to play the original game. Is this true?
Why is that annoying? It's a way to make the game more exciting and different. I've always picked randomly and it's never been an issue.
Plenty of copies up on the geek. Second chance games has a brand new copy but not sure of shipping charges from UK.
http://www.secondchancegames.com/gamesearch.asp?GameText=Space+empires
super-famicom
Member
Cowboy Bebop? Interested to see what they do with it.
OK...two questions.
First, how does everyone store their games? I'm already beyond the space I have on my game shelf, and still have a number of planned purchases. Is there an Ikea shelf that works better than others?
Second...I've got an unopened copy of Arkwright that I'd like to do a trade for. Question is, I've never done a BST outside of GAF...is there a 'safe' forum for such a thing? (Or, does anyone here want to trade for it?).
First, how does everyone store their games? I'm already beyond the space I have on my game shelf, and still have a number of planned purchases. Is there an Ikea shelf that works better than others?
Second...I've got an unopened copy of Arkwright that I'd like to do a trade for. Question is, I've never done a BST outside of GAF...is there a 'safe' forum for such a thing? (Or, does anyone here want to trade for it?).
As far as IKEA goes, Expedit was the most popular -- its now discontinued and slightly updated to the Kallax line.
As for trading boardgames, Boardgamegeek is by far your best bet.
Ouch that is steep, and that difference in price makes zero sense.
ZackieChan
Member
Since I'm a digital nomad who travels all the time, I need to pack light. Picked up a couple of small games at GenCon - Star Realms and Eminent Domain: Microcosm.
Really enjoyed the games of Star Realms I played there. Anyone played the Eminent Domain card game?
Really enjoyed the games of Star Realms I played there. Anyone played the Eminent Domain card game?
BlewHedgehog
Member
I have so many different topics on my mind today, sorry for all the posts.
In addition to Mysterium impressions, does anyone have comments on the Cyclades expansions from experience? Titans seems to be the highest rated in general, and I almost certainly want it. Is it worth it to get Hades as well, just to have another game style option?
Unfortunately, my copy of Hades remains unopened as my group has fallen so madly in love with Titans. It drastically alters the pacing and decision-making of the game. If Cyclades needs a breath of fresh air, you can be sure it's good. If nothing else, you could probably hold off on Hades while Titans gets savored.
You didn't ask for it, but if you haven't played Kemet, I recommend you spend some of that Hades money there. Same family, but it will give you another, more diverse option to play from time to time. It has my favorite components ever.
Thanks for the input! Do you think Cyclades vs. Titans would both be played for the different styles, or does Titans basically replace it after I try the base game once?
*edit* Kemet looks HUUUGE and isn't really recommended for 2 players, but I bookmarked it just in case.
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
Ended up getting both the base game and the expansion for $75 shipped from a guy on BGG. Not cheap, but not overly expensive for what it is.
Great designer. Although I don't own SE his war games are great. That price is a steal for what I would pay in UK.
That's a fair price for game + expansion. It's GMT - it'll get reprinted, just might take a while with the P500 system.
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
Yeah, some reading told me that SE4X would eventually be printed again, but I'm not into sitting and waiting like that.
Question for you guys...
Sleeves on your cards for games? I bought a bunch to sleeve all of Ascension, but of course it means storage is a bitch. I like sleeves for obvious protection reasons, but is it an absolute necessity for games that you aren't bringing out to cons and parties and shit?
Question for you guys...
Sleeves on your cards for games? I bought a bunch to sleeve all of Ascension, but of course it means storage is a bitch. I like sleeves for obvious protection reasons, but is it an absolute necessity for games that you aren't bringing out to cons and parties and shit?
Personally, I always sleeve, but it's dependent on the game you are playing as well as the card quality, if the stock's really solid there's no need to sleeve.
Just played this again with the harbor expansion tonight and I had the worst luck ever. We ran with 5 people but I never got off the ground and consistently rolled 4/5/6 so after the 5th or 6th turn of a 30+ turn game I would just roll a die and pass. We also crazily enough rolled three 1s the entire game so everyone had slow starts because nobody could take advantage of the beginning wheat fields. I made 2 purchases over 2 coins that game which were an early sushi bar and a midgame fishing boat.
I still like the 10-card variant more but it also meant that there is a chance for a lack of early options to buy that help most people get started in the original.
I already don't like pure luck based games but the purchase options MK has to increase your odds really take the edge off of it. I think if the city hall bonus also added in a minor airport bonus of 1 coin instead of 10 it would help fix the RNG issues though. (Airport provides 10 coins if you don't build something that turn)
I would say b) is more appropriate because even though the cog strat won this game too, it was only because someone else stalled the wheat strat with a business center just long enough for cog to catch up, especially with all the 5s I was rolling to help out his forests. (Wheat needed 2 more buildings to win and cog had only built 2 at the time).
Overall, if dice rolling luck games are your thing, it's a great addition. But if they aren't, like me, then it's still something you can have fun with, but not a priority purchase.
Personally I like the feel of normal cards, but I will sleeve based on the amount of gameplay it gets. Like I saw what happened to the new copy of Colt Express at last year's BGGCon and definitely sleeved my new copy ASAP because I expected to play that a lot. It also depends on how many cards because fuck if I'm sleeving all my Pathfinder ACG cards. I considered doing it just for the character decks only, but having to sleeve cards acquired and unsleeve banished ones would be just as bad, plus in practice they don't really see that much play because you're constantly changing cards out of the deck.