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[Gaming Truth]

Its just giving more event space for games and such. Which is nice but really they had lot of space being mismanaged at the con center already with tons of empty rooms given to events no one was doing.

honestly, there are only a few real gripes I have with GenCon (and possible solutions)
- Housing (dunno)
- Badge pickup (could be faster, I could stop being cheap and have it mailed to me)
- Saturday hell (if the dealers hall expanded into the tourney room, there'd be a lot more spacing. If they could also lower vendor fees, maybe more vendors would go, shortening lines.
- Food truck hell (if more trucks exist, open up the second location at the gov't center, it's original home. Heck, if you do this, there wouldn't be a need for a rotation)

Still by far the funnest con I go to. Tiny little suggestions.

 

[AstroLad]

GenCon definitely appears to be the best convention by far in the traditional convention sense. So many new games for sale and being demoed, interesting panels, heck even Netrunner Nationals are there (which I still find super odd because if you're there would you really want to dedicate a full day to Netrunner?). But it's also one that I don't mind following along with remotely. BGG and even FFG Worlds I feel like I'm missing out on all the gaming, but most of the good stuff from GenCon you can absorb online (even if you don't get the coolness of actually physically experiencing it, buying the new games, getting the promos, etc.). I also hate lines, which I know means I should pretty much never go to GenCon.

 

[joelseph]

Geekway is the best midwest Con. <3

 

[Femmeworth]

Received my Cardhaus order and they screwed up. :< I got another copy of Flash Point instead of the 2nd Story expansion.

 

[antiquegamer]

They should open the literal field of Lucas Oil to camping. Only way this is going to help alleviate the big issue.

I can picture bunch of us geeks setting up tents. Actually this is not a bad idea, they should just rent out lot like concert camping.

 

[Palmer_v1]

As if showering isn't already a bit of a problem for some people at Gencon.

 

[Blank!]

Saw Ghost Stories was a daily deal on amazon for $25.00... seemed a decent price and pulled the trigger. I hear it's really hard... what have I done....

 

[zulux21]

Saw Ghost Stories was a daily deal on amazon for $25.00... seemed a decent price and pulled the trigger. I hear it's really hard... what have I done....

it is hard, if you have troubles I can share my super easy mode rules (really just a couple tweaks that make things far closer to a 50/50 win percent with a new player lol)

 

[RaySpencer]

Is there a way to find out what are the best new games of 2015 on BGG? I would love to see a nice list of all the good new games this year.

 

[Femmeworth]

Is there a way to find out what are the best new games of 2015 on BGG? I would love to see a nice list of all the good new games this year.

Here's every game published this year (not necessarily in the U.S. I think) sorted by geek rating. https://boardgamegeek.com/search/bo...r=Femmeworth&playerrangetype=normal&B1=Submit

 

[RaySpencer]

Here's every game published this year (not necessarily in the U.S. I think) sorted by geek rating. https://boardgamegeek.com/search/bo...r=Femmeworth&playerrangetype=normal&B1=Submit

Awesome, not sure how you got that, but I appreciate it a lot!

 

[Blizzard]

Any Jaipur opinions? My girlfriend put it on her wishlist and I see it's 2-player only. We like games with variety and strategy that aren't super mean or luck-based. We've played Splendor, Tzolk'in, Dominion, and Lords of Waterdeep to name a few.

 

[platypotamus]

Jaipur is fantastic. It's pretty light. You collect sets and make trades (with the market, not directly with each other). Wife and I play it a bunch, and always enjoy it.

 

[Blizzard]

Jaipur is fantastic. It's pretty light. You collect sets and make trades (with the market, not directly with each other). Wife and I play it a bunch, and always enjoy it.

Thanks! I'm also considering 7 Wonder: Duel if anyone has input on that.

 

[Dryk]

Took me six months but I organised an event to play Dominant Species at. It went over really well! I won with the birds mostly by speciating a few times into a pair of wetlands (one of which I couldn't survive in) and moving all my dudes from there dropping them all over the map to scrounge points and rack up tundra position.

 

[Xater]

Jaipur is fantastic. It's pretty light. You collect sets and make trades (with the market, not directly with each other). Wife and I play it a bunch, and always enjoy it.

Love Jaipur as well. Also gonna post my patented Ultimate 2 Player Game List:

Jaipur
Hive
Patchwork

All small, easy to learn, and quick to play. Jaipur is the only one where there is a little luck involved.

 

[ClayKavalier]

My wife and I used to play board games occasionally with friends a few years ago, but we moved and hadn't played anything for about that long. A couple months ago we started playing games with another couple about once a week and we've gotten really into board games in general. Previously we owned Carcasonne and Ticket to Ride, we've gotten quite a few games in the last couple months.

Forbidden Island: This was the game that kicked it off, we saw it cheap at Target and thought "What the heck, we'll try something new." Had no clue what the game was like at all and it's the first co-op game either of us have ever played. We both thought that it was really cool, and took it with us to visit family on Thanksgiving and it was a hit.

Pandemic: We saw this at Target a couple weeks later and again bought it without knowing anything about it except that it's popular. We got bummed out when we Googled rules on the drive home and realized that it's very similar to Forbidden Island, but it's one of our favorite games now. Really fun to play with just the two of us or just in a group, a lot more tense than FI and the powers are a lot more interesting. Strikes a good difficultly balance too, we haven't lost a game of Forbidden Island (haven't tried the hardest setting though) and we've won about half of our games of Pandemic with one more than the minimum Epidemic cards.

Acquire: I played this a few times with friends when I was earning my bachelors and remembered loving it so I got a copy off Amazon. My favorite by far of what we own so far, you place tiles that represent hotels on a board and buy stocks in the different chains. You feel really insidious fucking people over, and it feels great to successfully get a bunch of an expensive stock for cheap by successfully working a merger in your favor.

King of Tokyo: This was a really pleasant surprise, we found it on sale and I didn't really want to get it because it looked like a kid's game, but my wife works at an elementary school and it wasn't too expensive so we figured she could take it to work if we didn't like it. The game is extremely fun, we played 4 games the night we opened it and a few nights later some friends came over to hang out and we ended up drinking and playing this the whole time.

Tokaido: Beautiful pieces, forgettable game. Luckily we didn't actually buy this one, friends did. I'm glad we got to play it but there doesn't seem to be any interesting strategies, and while you can screw over other players it just doesn't feel satisfying. Until the end of the game there's always more opportunities to gather different cards, and the art is so serene and calming that it feels sort of off to try to be cutthroat.

Evolution: This game is why I'm posting in the thread, I'm wondering what else is out there similar to this. I'd say it's easily the most complex game we've played so far and coming up with card combinations, eating people, and creating a self-sustaining ecosystem only to lose control when someone messes up a key component was all really fun.

Machi Koro: This is another one we got cheap. Seems like a kid's game, the strategy is pretty simple (maximize the expected outcome of each die roll) but it moves fast enough that it's still enjoyable. We'll take this one to the next family gathering and I'm sure it'll be popular like Forbidden Island.

and our most recent game which came in the mail today is Dominion, which I'm really excited to try tomorrow.

I think we're going to cool it on purchases for awhile (we have Takenoko coming in the mail tomorrow and haven't played some of the above games more than a few times) but we are on the lookout for games that are fun to play with just the two of us.

Like I said above, I'm also curious what other games are out there that are more complex along the lines of Evolution. I just remembered while typing this that we also own 7 Wonders, which we haven't had a chance to play yet (rules suggest playing a few 3+ player games before attempting it with 2, and the night we set aside to try it out with another couple was the night we just played King of Tokyo). It looks sort of like a board game version of Civ so I have high hopes for that. I've read good things about Tigris and Euphrates.

Also, I'm curious as to what a "eurogame" is. I see that term used all over the place but haven't seen a definition, and I've seen it used for games like Carcasonne, Ticket to Ride, and Puerto Rico, all of which seem to have very little in common to me.

 

[Xater]

Eurogames are light on theme and all about the mechanics.

 

[zulux21]

eurogames in general tend to have a lot of workers, and a lot of placement, low focus on luck and instead a focus on strategy (and you win by having the most points )

beyond that they are made is europe

american games tend to have more luck/chance to them.

wikipedia has a nice coverage on it

though I question the start of it with " that generally have simple rules, short to medium playing times" as I would consider apples to apples or hanabi to have simple rules, and short playing time would be 30 min or less for me, medium would be an hour or less, while long would be more than an hour but less than 4 and then it would turn into ecplise length

a lot of euro games have tons of mechanics and take forever to play. though to be fair after you have played a few the mechanics are easy to pick up as they are often very similar just with a few unique things here and there.

Eurogames are light on theme and all about the mechanics.

ah I totally forgot that part lol.
yup they are mechanics first and them a theme put on top. and sometimes that theme bothers the crap out of me for no good reason *shakes fist at Caverna* Dwarfs should not need to deal with the surface they belong in mines

 

[Dryk]

There's been a lot of blurring of the lines and cross-pollination in the last ten years or so between Eurogames and Ameritrash games so it's understandable that the terminology is confusing. Eurogames tend to focus on victory points or victory conditions because player-elimination or otherwise knocking people out of the race halfway through is a deadly sin. Both schools of design really have learnt a lot from each other and addressed their shortcomings in recent years though and the hobby is all the better for it.

The best way to tell what a game is though is to open the box for the first time then immediately look at your hand. If your hand is doing this:

You've got a Euro, but if it's doing this:

Then you've got Ameritrash

We got bummed out when we Googled rules on the drive home and realized that it's very similar to Forbidden Island, but it's one of our favorite games now.

Pandemic actually came first so that feeling was even worse for people that were around for it to release.

 

[zulux21]

because player-elimination or otherwise knocking people out of the race halfway through is a deadly sin. .

I'd much rather be just knocked out and be able to do something else than sit around and have to play a second half of a game I know I have no hope of winning :/

 

[Blizzard]

I'd much rather be just knocked out and be able to do something else than sit around and have to play a second half of a game I know I have no hope of winning :/

I think it depends on player personalities and social atmosphere. If someone enjoys talking to their friends, it's nice to keep everyone at the table so they can talk. Otherwise, one or two isolated people wandering off may not have fun.

On the other hand if everyone just cares about winning and doesn't want to talk, then they might feel as you do. I like winning, but I personally tend to dislike knockout games.

 

[Femmeworth]

Maybe getting the Extreme Danger expansion for Flash Point wasn't optimal. The miniatures aren't all that great, and they are not easy enough to read in terms of determining which role they represent. Maybe mine are defective but the colored bases don't fit on as well as they should. Haven't played the new boards and mechanics yet though. Was planning to save them until after I played with the 2nd Story expansion but I don't know when I will actually get it thanks to Cardhaus. I'm not that mad at them since the order was otherwise correct and mistakes happen. I was amused that they still use packing peanuts.

 

[Dryk]

I'd much rather be just knocked out and be able to do something else than sit around and have to play a second half of a game I know I have no hope of winning :/

That's why a lot of Euro designs tend to hide some of the information about who's winning until the game is already over because it increases the ambiguity. My friend thought she'd get a solid last in Dominant Species today but she actually ended up doing alright in the middle of the pack because she picked up a ton of end-game points.

In general though the design philosophy assumes that even if you have no chance of winning that the game that there'll still be something to keep you engaged. It's definitely not for everyone though and player elimination/no player elimination does depend heavily on what you're trying to achieve.

Maybe getting the Extreme Danger expansion for Flash Point wasn't optimal. The miniatures aren't all that great, and they are not easy enough to read in terms of determining which role they represent. Maybe mine are defective but the colored bases don't fit on as well as they should. Haven't played the new boards and mechanics yet though. Was planning to save them until after I played with the 2nd Story expansion but I don't know when I will actually get it thanks to Cardhaus.

Keep us posted with your thoughts. After heading through the rules Extreme Danger doesn't appeal to me a whole lot but if I end up getting a few expansion maps it might be nice to have a good box to hold them in.

 

[zulux21]

I think it depends on player personalities and social atmosphere. If someone enjoys talking to their friends, it's nice to keep everyone at the table so they can talk. Otherwise, one or two isolated people wandering off may not have fun.

On the other hand if everyone just cares about winning and doesn't want to talk, then they might feel as you do. I like winning, but I personally tend to dislike knockout games.

it really depends on the length. For games like red dragon inn/ king of tokyo it's fine. they are fast and fun to watch the rest.

for games like monopoly with house rules, not so much.

either way with my group we have far better response to knock out than being forced to play a losing game. with the knock out you still sit around and talk to people and are free to surf on your tablet without paying attention. with a game you are forced to play you are just miserable, wanting it to end, become antisocial and still often pull out a tablet and just slow the game down for everyone.

for me I logically should prefer non knock out games as I am often targeted to be knocked out first lol (side effect of usually being in the running at the end or winning all the time) but really I hate watching someone else not have fun while playing a game which happens way more often with eurogames for my group as someone is always that person who made a few bad choices at the start and short of the other players playing horribly they have no chance at all of ever catching up (side effect of little luck in eurogames. you get a bunch of equally skilled players they are great, your skills are across the board though typically at least one person doesn't have fun because they just lose)

That's why a lot of Euro designs tend to hide some of the information about who's winning until the game is already over because it increases the ambiguity. My friend thought she'd get a solid last in Dominant Species today but she actually ended up doing alright in the middle of the pack because she picked up a ton of end-game points.

In general though the design philosophy assumes that even if you have no chance of winning that the game that there'll still be something to keep you engaged. It's definitely not for everyone though and player elimination/no player elimination does depend heavily on what you're trying to achieve.

even with hidden info you can usually pretty easily tell who is doing well. It's part of the reason I am interested in trying out code of nine that I just got since that really hidden info and way harder to tell what is going on from what I have seen.

as for having something to keep you engaged... with games with a heavy focus on mechanics, unless those mechanics are working for you they won't be very engaging. I mean best I do is aim for random crap like running out of building markers in lords of waterdeep, but I typically aim for stuff like that from the start just because I can lol.

Maybe getting the Extreme Danger expansion for Flash Point wasn't optimal. The miniatures aren't all that great, and they are not easy enough to read in terms of determining which role they represent. Maybe mine are defective but the colored bases don't fit on as well as they should. Haven't played the new boards and mechanics yet though. Was planning to save them until after I played with the 2nd Story expansion but I don't know when I will actually get it thanks to Cardhaus. I'm not that mad at them since the order was otherwise correct and mistakes happen. I was amused that they still use packing peanuts.

I wish I could remember which one extreme danger was lol (I own all of the extra boards I think)
I do remember that 2nd story makes the game quite a bit harder as you have to deal with two areas instead of one big one and it effectively makes the fire truck useless if I recall right (it can only hit the bottom floor if I am thinking correctly)

 

[Dryk]

Extreme Danger is the lab/garage & attic/basement boards

even with hidden info you can usually pretty easily tell who is doing well. It's part of the reason I am interested in trying out code of nine that I just got since that really hidden info and way harder to tell what is going on from what I have seen.

Probably different experiences then. I haven't strayed too far in the heavy Euro end of the spectrum, though one of my friends basically lost a game of Age of Steam in the first round which was uncomfortable. Luckily her boyfriend propped her up (and through their cooperation he ended up winning the game). But I've also had really bad experiences with people getting kicked out of their first game of King of Tokyo before they got a good enough grip on it to want to stick around and watch how it turned out. I also got my arse handed to me in my first game of Ikusa and was still really invested in the outcome.

I think it depends a lot on the person and the game and it's a bit hard to nail down.

 

[Blizzard]

I played a game of either King of Tokyo or King of New York where somone killed 3+ players in a single round -- they did something like 8 damage to the entire table. It was painful.

I think I've also played a game of King of Tokyo where everyone died but 2-3 people, and then those last few kept slowly grinding and healing for ages.

 

[zulux21]

Probably different experiences then. I haven't strayed too far in the heavy Euro end of the spectrum, though one of my friends basically lost a game of Age of Steam in the first round which was uncomfortable. Luckily her boyfriend propped her up (and through their cooperation he ended up winning the game). But I've also had really bad experiences with people getting kicked out of their first game of King of Tokyo before they got a good enough grip on it to want to stick around and watch how it turned out. I also got my arse handed to me in my first game of Ikusa and was still really invested in the outcome.

I think it depends a lot on the person and the game and it's a bit hard to nail down.

true, major difference for me is the amount of time I have to wait to have fun again. Knock out games I play tend to be fast and you tend to only have to wait 15-30 min. The euro games after you know you are going to lose usually takes 1-2 hours, especially with max players @_@

as for going heavy into euro, I have played a lot of them at this point. In general if a game is going to be over 90 min I prefer it to be co op so I can work with people and win together (or more often lose together) instead of butt heads for that long.

 

[joelseph]

Doing a secret envelope deal with a FLGS. You buy something with them over Thanksgibing holiday and they give you a random sealed envelope. You bring it back to them sealed in December and you get whatever prize is inside. Discounts, coupons, promos, gift certificates... Kind of excited for the results.

 

[ClayKavalier]

it really depends on the length. For games like red dragon inn/ king of tokyo it's fine. they are fast and fun to watch the rest.

Yeah, I worried about that aspect of King of Tokyo, my wife and I had fun playing together but in a group I didn't want anyone to have to sit twiddling their thumbs for extended periods.

But the game moves so fast, especially with one fewer player, that that was never really an issue, and being able to be removed from the game adds some fun tension. We had some good vendettas going by the end of the night.

 

[emag]

Blood Rage and the Concordia: Salsa expansion (along with Coup: G53, but only because it was a steal on CSI) are on the truck en route to my home. I'm really looking forward to trying them out.

We brought out Chaos In the Old World again recently (with an incredibly close end) and two of us enjoyed it while the other two didn't. My hope is that Blood Rage will be liked by all, as it is a much faster and more streamlined game. My worry is that there will be one or two players with incredible card combinations and at least one player who feels left out.

We also recently tried Concordia with the advanced start variant listed from the historical notes (odd placement). It certainly changed the opening play (first player grabbed a Silk and Wheat in the same region, which is not possible in the regular start) but not as much as I'd hoped (everyone still played Architect/Diplomat first round, though I felt last player had significant incentive to Prefect [Magnus]). The advanced start probably isn't easily compatible with the expansion material, though. Just as well, because third player complained loudly and often about the imbalance from seating positions with the variant.

 

[antiquegamer]

Maybe my last impression of Warhammer Quest Card Game because at some point I may get annoying!

Set up and played last night finally got a victory with the Warrior Priest and Ironbreaker! Ended up getting some armor for the Ironbreaker that gave him +4 health and a Shield for the Warrior Priest that allowed him to use a success token to reduce an enemies attack value by 2. Focused a bit more on moving fast and healing, a little less on bashing skulls (though I still did plenty of that!) and I made it through. Dwarf ended up with 2 health left (not counting the armor so he was pretty good,) and the WP had one single health point left after the final attack, the only reason he had it is because he used the shield to reduce the final attack that would have killed him.

Holy shit this game. May play more tonight or may just spend some time deciding how to upgrade my guys for the next quest. The upgrade choices seem pretty meaningful so I want to make good choices in hope that I can keep up the wins!

Well, I would love if you keep your impression coming as I really enjoy reading other perspective on solo gaming. I finally got a chance to give full game a run this morning and well, holy shit you are right this is what I was looking for. It corrected everything that Mistfall got wrong. People might not like dice but it is what gave this type of game tension, I mean D&D is essentially base on dice rolling mechanic. Mistfall try to take dice out of the equation but without the card pools like LOTR LCG, to add to your deck you are essentially reduce to going for the same combo every turns. In Warhammer Quest the Adventure Card Game (FFG, they sure love long title), I thought that 4 actions mechanic would be limited and boring but playing it through the real quest, you really need to think about what action you should be taken. It is simple yet elegant way of implementing action selection and yet make each selection meaningful there was never a time I choose action just because I have nothing to do. I lost the first Quest, because of betting on a wrong action on the previous turn. (I have yet to play full campaign, I want to get couple games in before going full campaign)

I really like that the "exploration" yield something difference every game since you make a dungeon deck from random card pool but you have to weight that against taking out those pesky enemies. Also thinking that 25 health is plenty and the game would be easy but by the end of the first quest, I realized I was sadly mistaken. People on BGG, that claim the game is easy is probably not playing this correctly, there are so many things that easily overlook when you are new, like enemy spawns that cannot engage deal automatic damages to the leader, peril phase activation of the boss monster that also deal damages (and if you are at the end the peril track this keep going and not a one time event). Also the boss nemesis icon during dice rolling happen regardless if you engage it or not.

As for the thing you mention about why there are so many rule question on BGG, well I can understand why. Some of the cards, especially those in the dungeon deck are not really clear. Also timing is not really well define, especially with FGG new rule format where they want you to be able to get the game going fast by doing tutorial game and kept most of the other rules in the glossary.

Anyway loving the game and can't wait to get full campaign going and really excited about future possibility with expansions. I also think this game would be great with Warhammer 40K theme for sci-fi version. My gripe is with the tiny little cards that FFG love to use. Also hero dashboard should be large size card like Descend or Arkham style. I think it would reduce clutter if they would give you full dash board instead of three cards. I would do one card and use to token (or card to cover up the stat not use) and space to let you place your gear cards.

 

[ClayKavalier]

I know Dominion is really beloved, but honestly I'm not really feeling it.

It's really fun, but compared to some of the other games we've played recently it feels really slow. Halfway through you already have a really good sense of "OK, if I have enough coins to buy a province I will, otherwise I want these cards next." It seems way more strategy than tactics, and once you sort of decide how you want to go about getting the means to start buying victory cards it feels like going through the motions.

Granted we just played with the recommended cards for first time players so maybe playing with different cards will change my mind, but I'm a little disappointed after the first game, especially after seeing that a lot of people consider it one of the best board games.

 

[emag]

Once you understand the cards, Dominion is largely decided by what you choose as a strategy upon seeing the available kingdom cards. The rest of the game is largely playing out said strategy with a mild dose of luck and possibly some reactions to what the other player does (I think it's best as a 2P; it drags with 4P). It should play quickly, though.

 

[zulux21]

I know Dominion is really beloved, but honestly I'm not really feeling it.

It's really fun, but compared to some of the other games we've played recently it feels really slow. Halfway through you already have a really good sense of "OK, if I have enough coins to buy a province I will, otherwise I want these cards next." It seems way more strategy than tactics, and once you sort of decide how you want to go about getting the means to start buying victory cards it feels like going through the motions.

Granted we just played with the recommended cards for first time players so maybe playing with different cards will change my mind, but I'm a little disappointed after the first game, especially after seeing that a lot of people consider it one of the best board games.

You are likely like me and prefer more random chance in a game like that.
it's exactly as you said for me, you are just going through the motions. with dominion you can look at the starting cards and know exactly how you should play the rest of the game

if money x or greater buy Y
if money less than x buy z
when you have so much stuff by A

i mean it's not like the game is horrible, but it's by far one of my least favorite deck builders out there. More cards does help, I still need to try the game more set up like ascension and see how it goes as I have a feeling random stacks of cards will hold my interest quite a bit more.

 

[ClayKavalier]

Once you understand the cards, Dominion is largely decided by what you choose as a strategy upon seeing the available kingdom cards. The rest of the game is largely playing out said strategy with a mild dose of luck and possibly some reactions to what the other player does (I think it's best as a 2P; it drags with 4P). It should play quickly, though.

It does play quickly, but it's long enough to get bored IMO. Maybe if there were only 5 of each card instead of 10 or something like that.

You are likely like me and prefer more random chance in a game like that.
it's exactly as you said for me, you are just going through the motions. with dominion you can look at the starting cards and know exactly how you should play the rest of the game

if money x or greater buy Y
if money less than x buy z
when you have so much stuff by A

i mean it's not like the game is horrible, but it's by far one of my least favorite deck builders out there. More cards does help, I still need to try the game more set up like ascension and see how it goes as I have a feeling random stacks of cards will hold my interest quite a bit more.

Yup, that sums it up. I can appreciate the lack of luck, but there needs to be something to keep things interesting. Since both players draw from the same pool of cards and you can see what the other player is buying it's hard to surprise anyone. Maybe if each player had a couple cards exclusive to them, or there was some sort of asymmetric information somehow.

But yeah, I'm curious to play with a group but definitely not one of my favorites so far.

 

[Blizzard]

I know Dominion is really beloved, but honestly I'm not really feeling it.

It's really fun, but compared to some of the other games we've played recently it feels really slow. Halfway through you already have a really good sense of "OK, if I have enough coins to buy a province I will, otherwise I want these cards next." It seems way more strategy than tactics, and once you sort of decide how you want to go about getting the means to start buying victory cards it feels like going through the motions.

Granted we just played with the recommended cards for first time players so maybe playing with different cards will change my mind, but I'm a little disappointed after the first game, especially after seeing that a lot of people consider it one of the best board games.

As with any game it will depend on what you enjoy. As mentioned, it involves a lot of mechanical shuffling and quick play -- you typically know what options you want to do, and the strategy is choosing your paths and playing it out properly. Sometimes it does drag with the seaside cards if someone keeps chaining things, though.

Also make sure you play a couple of games with different (or random, using the randomizer deck) stacks. That's where the huge amount of variety comes in, all the combinations, especially combined with expansions. Another thing you can do is draw say, 12-14 random selections from the randomizer deck, and then take turns picking cards you like (or, take turns picking cards you don't like) until 10 have been selected. That allows for random draft but you can still tailor the cards to playstyles you both enjoy.

All that said, if you're 2-3 games in and still hate the mechanics, it might not be for you. Even if most people love something, there's always a minority that doesn't, so don't feel too bad. *edit* It's a fairly "pure" strategy game, and hidden information mostly involves what you draw into your hand.

 

[ClayKavalier]

I definitely don't hate the game, it's just that I was expecting to love it.

Another thing I didn't really like was that some of the cards are just clearly better than others. For example if you can afford it, Marketplace is a no-brainer (I think that's it anyway, it gives one coin, one card, one buy, one action). Having a deck full of those is objectively better than having them replaced with just about any other card. Similarly Moat loses its value if you know the other player doesn't have a lot of attacks. Again, just like zulux21 said you're never making interesting decisions, you very quickly make a mental list of what you'll do with different amounts of gold, and then you follow that formula.

Not sure why I'm dumping on it again when I started by saying I still like, I definitely do. It is fun trying to calculate which cards will give you the highest payouts per draw, and it's satisfying doing stuff like using Mine to clear out coppers to make way for silvers. The game is basically a contest to see who can perform expected outcome calculations more accurately.

That is really fun to me, it's just not exciting. If the game could throw in a few curveballs it could be great.

 

[Blizzard]

Maybe I like non-randomness. Another game I play in 2-player fairly often is Tzolk'in, and that has ZERO hidden information between players. The only randomness is which order building tiles will come out past the start of the game. It's highly rated on boardgamegeek as one might expect for non-randomness and worker placement, ha.

 

[Blank!]

I definitely don't hate the game, it's just that I was expecting to love it.

Another thing I didn't really like was that some of the cards are just clearly better than others. For example if you can afford it, Marketplace is a no-brainer (I think that's it anyway, it gives one coin, one card, one buy, one action). Having a deck full of those is objectively better than having them replaced with just about any other card. Similarly Moat loses its value if you know the other player doesn't have a lot of attacks. Again, just like zulux21 said you're never making interesting decisions, you very quickly make a mental list of what you'll do with different amounts of gold, and then you follow that formula.

Not sure why I'm dumping on it again when I started by saying I still like, I definitely do. It is fun trying to calculate which cards will give you the highest payouts per draw, and it's satisfying doing stuff like using Mine to clear out coppers to make way for silvers. The game is basically a contest to see who can perform expected outcome calculations more accurately.

That is really fun to me, it's just not exciting. If the game could throw in a few curveballs it could be great.

Our issue with base Dominion was also lack of player interaction. There's like 2 worth-while attack cards but otherwise, little player interaction. You can't really starve the other guy of resources either by buying the "good" cards first either. We do enjoy finding out who made the best "engine" but it gets a lot more tricky/thoughtful with expansions IMO.


Side note, but Market is not that great 5 cost card. Lab's are strictly superior for drawing and you'll likely make up at leas that +1 gold with the extra draw (or find another card that will). +Buy is something you don't need a lot of, especially early on. You'll probably want 1 or 2 markets at some point, but it's nothing something you should buy a ton of unless the other options are MUCH worse at the 5 point cost.

 

[Karkador]

eurogames in general tend to have a lot of workers, and a lot of placement, low focus on luck and instead a focus on strategy (and you win by having the most points )

beyond that they are made is europe

american games tend to have more luck/chance to them.

wikipedia has a nice coverage on it

though I question the start of it with " that generally have simple rules, short to medium playing times" as I would consider apples to apples or hanabi to have simple rules, and short playing time would be 30 min or less for me, medium would be an hour or less, while long would be more than an hour but less than 4 and then it would turn into ecplise length

a lot of euro games have tons of mechanics and take forever to play. though to be fair after you have played a few the mechanics are easy to pick up as they are often very similar just with a few unique things here and there.

There really isn't much of a singular defining characteristic of a "Eurogame" these days. There are a variety of games from Europe that rely on either luck, strategy, difficulty, theme, or playtime. I would really hesitate to make generalizations such as "they have a low focus on luck" when one of the most influential German games ever is essentially a dice game with negotiations.

Also, one of the games you cite (Hanabi) is from Europe.

 

[super-famicom]

Our issue with base Dominion was also lack of player interaction. There's like 2 worth-while attack cards but otherwise, little player interaction. You can't really starve the other guy of resources either by buying the "good" cards first either. We do enjoy finding out who made the best "engine" but it gets a lot more tricky/thoughtful with expansions IMO.


Side note, but Market is not that great 5 cost card. Lab's are strictly superior for drawing and you'll likely make up at leas that +1 gold with the extra draw (or find another card that will). +Buy is something you don't need a lot of, especially early on. You'll probably want 1 or 2 markets at some point, but it's nothing something you should buy a ton of unless the other options are MUCH worse at the 5 point cost.

Check out Arctic Scavengers, very thematic and more player interactions than Dominion. Starting in Round 3, at the end of each round you use your unused cards to battle for a scarce resource card. The bluffing mechanic in this skirmish is pretty fun. There are also cards you can use at any time to neutralize the effects of another player's card once they play it.

 

[zulux21]

There really isn't much of a singular defining characteristic of a "Eurogame" these days. There are a variety of games from Europe that rely on either luck, strategy, difficulty, theme, or playtime. I would really hesitate to make generalizations such as "they have a low focus on luck" when one of the most influential German games ever is essentially a dice game with negotiations.

Also, one of the games you cite (Hanabi) is from Europe.

to be fair I find eurogame and ameritrash to be absolutely horrible terms in general and in general try to avoid using them that much when describing games (I prefer talking about mechanics), but at least for eurogame it's very easy to use it to talk about a worker placement game where you goal is to maximize points because that was the vast majority of eurogames for a long time.

worker placement
game of chance
miniature rpg
thematic
ect are way better as things get blended more and more.

but alas as long as the great eurogame vs ameritrash war wages on the terms are likely not going to go anywhere

I mean yes hanabi is made in europe, but I wouldn't personally call it a eurogame because it doesn't fit into the idea of a eurogame. I mean I doubt most people would call mass effect a jrpg if it was made in japan instead of in america (but otherwise was exactly the same as it is aka see the great demon's souls debate lol).

 

[Karkador]

I mean yes hanabi is made in europe, but I wouldn't personally call it a eurogame because it doesn't fit into the idea of a eurogame. I mean I doubt most people would call mass effect a jrpg if it was made in japan instead of in america (but otherwise was exactly the same as it is aka see the great demon's souls debate lol).

So, make a stereotype of what a "eurogame" is, because it doesn't count when a European designer does something different?

If you'd like, I can give you a short list of several games from Europe that actually drive some interesting player interactions, and no workers to place!

I've never really understood designating "worker placement" as a game genre, anyway. Making choices that are limited in some way is the basic component of any game.

 

[zulux21]

So, make a stereotype of what a "eurogame" is, because it doesn't count when a European designer does something different?

If you'd like, I can give you a short list of several games from Europe that actually drive some interesting player interactions, and no workers to place!

I've never really understood designating "worker placement" as a game genre, anyway. Making choices that are limited in some way is the basic component of any game.

you can give a list, but it won't change anything. I don't give a crap if a game is made in america, europe or even on the bottom of the sea (well the last one would be a cool fact) if it is fun it is fun if it's not fun it isn't, it's creation location has absolutely zero impact on if I will find a game interesting. (though the creation location does tend to have an impact on how a game plays) and is never a thing I would ever bother looking up.

and no matter how you want to define eurogame it's going to be stupid either way

you either define it as a genre and thus games that come from europe but don't fit that genre don't fit something called eurogame (as i just said for hanabi)

or you absolutely pointlessly use it as a generic term for where it's a game that comes from europe which adds absolutely nothing of value at all especially if they are as vastly diverse as the point you are trying to make.

either way we should throw away the stupid term, but if it is going to be used it's far more useful to use it as a way to describe a genre of games.

as for why worker placement would be a genre.
because there is an entire class of games where you have workers... and you place them. (just like in video games you have a genre called first person shooters, because you shoot things from a first person perspective)
it has a mechanic of limited choice to it, but it's clearly a set designed mechanic that various games use in similar ways. (which much like a FPS can feel different from game to game but are still the same mechanic)

 

[Karkador]

you either define it as a genre and thus games that come from europe but don't fit that genre don't fit something called eurogame (as i just said for hanabi)

Games like Hanabi do fit the label of "Eurogame". The point I'm making is that people incorrectly generalize a large group of games that actually have a lot of variety.

or you absolutely pointlessly use it as a generic term for where it's a game that comes from europe which adds absolutely nothing of value at all especially if they are as vastly diverse as the point you are trying to make.

That's not true, either. There are a number of things the game's origin implies. Europe has an entire different set of game design circles, media, critical awards, manufacturing opportunities, and gaming audiences. But none of this is easily described as one characteristic.

 

[antiquegamer]

Thanks! I'm also considering 7 Wonder: Duel if anyone has input on that.

My daughter and I love it. I love 7 Wonders but no one in my house like to play it (beside me) so I pick up Duel to see if my daughter will play with me. Only problem is she beat me every games of Duel we played so far.

 

[ClayKavalier]

Side note, but Market is not that great 5 cost card. Lab's are strictly superior for drawing and you'll likely make up at leas that +1 gold with the extra draw (or find another card that will). +Buy is something you don't need a lot of, especially early on. You'll probably want 1 or 2 markets at some point, but it's nothing something you should buy a ton of unless the other options are MUCH worse at the 5 point cost.

We just played with the suggested cards for first-time players and we both thought it was a decent card. If you draw it you get a free replacement card and a gold, always useful to have in your hand. We haven't seen Lab yet.

We played again tonight with the "Interactions" set of cards, it was more fun. More attack cards, and a lot of the cards were just more interesting than the ones we used last night.

I completely agree on the lack of interaction though, a lot of the time it feels like we're just separately doing our own thing at the same table.


We played Machi Koro a couple more time and that game is surprisingly fun for being so simple. You roll a die and get paid based on the roll. At the beginning you get a single coin if anyone rolls a 1 or if you roll a 2 or 3 on your turn, and you buy cards that either increase your payouts or give you money for different rolls. You win by being the first to flip over 4 cards that everyone has, each of which grants you a permanent ability like allowing you to roll an additional die or letting you take another turn if you roll doubles.

The only bummer is that at the beginning it's pure luck and it's too easy for one person to permanently pull ahead. On two different games my wife was able to buy a couple cards that gave her three gold each for rolling a 4. She rolled a couple more 4s, bought more of that card with the gold, and rolled another couple 4s to win before I flipped over a single one of the win condition cards.

If you can avoid that though it's fun, there's always luck involved but you can decide whether you want to go for big payouts on a few specific rolls or make it so you're guaranteed a few coins per turn. It's really fast too. It's not super replayable and I doubt we'll pull it out again until the next time we have a game night, but I've really come around on it since my first impression and think it's worth checking out for anyone looking for a quick, easy to learn party game.

 

[Lyng]

Maybe my last impression of Warhammer Quest Card Game because at some point I may get annoying!

Set up and played last night finally got a victory with the Warrior Priest and Ironbreaker! Ended up getting some armor for the Ironbreaker that gave him +4 health and a Shield for the Warrior Priest that allowed him to use a success token to reduce an enemies attack value by 2. Focused a bit more on moving fast and healing, a little less on bashing skulls (though I still did plenty of that!) and I made it through. Dwarf ended up with 2 health left (not counting the armor so he was pretty good,) and the WP had one single health point left after the final attack, the only reason he had it is because he used the shield to reduce the final attack that would have killed him.

Holy shit this game. May play more tonight or may just spend some time deciding how to upgrade my guys for the next quest. The upgrade choices seem pretty meaningful so I want to make good choices in hope that I can keep up the wins!

Damn you man....Rushed out and bought the game yesterday because of your posts.
Hope to get it to the table soon.

 

[BlewHedgehog]

Played Codenames with some friends from work tonight. It's the first time it has gotten out with alcohol at the table and that shit was hysterical. One guy used his phone to keep a list of only our words, which made him virtually blind to the other words on the board (in addition to his drunkenness..

"Hint: animal, 3."
"Lion."
"Nope."
"Eagle."
"Nope."
"Shark."
"Fuck, we're dead."

One of many "what were you thinking?!" moments of the night.