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[Polioliolio]

Thanks. I get the impression a lot of this game's support comes from nostalgia, or that it's a nostalgic experience first. Having never played it, I might not 'get' it.

I think what caught my attention was the large board and the way the map tiles get filled in as you play.


That TMNT game already is putting itself into a bad category.. Hero packs? GTFO with that shit. Reminds me a lot of the Ghost Busters game and kickstarter. A chance to make money off exclusive minis more than an interesting board game. I agree that kickstarter should be for people who need it, too. People who don't have money to start a big project. It's totally not cool that corporations and companies who have already found success use it as a preorder machine.

Worse yet is the microtransaction style of design which is encouraged with stretch goals.
That just turns me off so hard. I just want to buy a complete game. Sigh.


Oh, has there been any news about Angryjoe's street fighter/mortal kombat/DBZ mashup?
He mentioned an official announcement would be coming but i haven't seen anything about it since then.

 

[Taborcarn]

I've started playing The Voyages of Marco Polo on Yucata.de and it's great. Now just to wait for it to come back in stock in the U.S. (Other than the last few copies on Amazon that are going for over MSRP)

 

[nicoga3000]

Any thoughts on Dungeonquest?

Sounded up my alley, but then watched the hilarious Dice Tower review. Man, Tom really hates the game.

Makes me worried that I wouldn't love it after all and it would be a waste of money. If there are any fans in here, can you try to sell me on it?

Alternatively, are there any Dungeony sort of games that might give the feel of Gauntlet or other dungeon related video games? I've been playing Dragon's Dogma on PC and have a hankering for some dungeon crawling. Preferably something that can be played in 1-2 hours and isn't a D&D style campaign. I saw something called Cave Troll that looked kind of neat, but I'm not sure if that would hit the spot.

Anyway, hook me up with your Dungeon crawling suggestions!

If you want straight up single run dungeon crawl, the D&D adventure boardgames are nice. You can play a campaign and upgrade your heroes in the newest one, but the first 3 are designed to be single run adventures. They tend to take 45-90 minutes depending on how many heroes, the scenario, and luck.

The new Runebound looks like it might fit your bill, but I admittedly haven't tried it yet. It's an adventure RPG game that you start at level 1 every run of. You may have to watch some videos before you make a decision on that.

And on the TMNT thing...I think the idea seems neat, but I have no connection to TMNT. Even though I grew up with it, I'm in no way drawn to it. I'm more into Descent, but the fact that you need a badguy role isn't super enticing for me.

 

[Faiz]

Having now played a ton of Viticulture I'm bummed I didn't back the Scythe Kickstarter. Not that I won't be able to get everything still just looks like I'm gonna be paying more for it. Oh well!

 

[SCHUEY F1]

Played a few games of Pandemic: Contagion. Not too bad and the games go pretty quick.

 

[EYEL1NER]

Played a few games of Pandemic: Contagion. Not too bad and the games go pretty quick.

Nice. I haven't tried it (Hell, haven't even gotten to play Pandemic: The Cure, despite owning it for quite a while at this point) but the comparisons I saw made to Smash Up had me interested in getting it.

 

[JavyOO7]

Played a few games of Pandemic: Contagion. Not too bad and the games go pretty quick.

Too bad my buddies haven't got that yet and I would like to try it out. That and the Pandemic dice game seem okay too.

 

[SCHUEY F1]

Nice. I haven't tried it (Hell, haven't even gotten to play Pandemic: The Cure, despite owning it for quite a while at this point) but the comparisons I saw made to Smash Up had me interested in getting it.

Too bad my buddies haven't got that yet and I would like to try it out. That and the Pandemic dice game seem okay too.

It is a nice change from the coop Pandemic. The petri dishes are cool too.

 

[Nezumi]

Just backed Karmaka. I try to stay away from Kickstarter because there are just too many things that I find cool and would love to spend money on but every now and then I do a little check and something catches my eye. I think what I fell in love with here is the art (and part of me backed it mostly just because one of the stretch goals were two art prints) but the gameplay also seems good. The idea of finding a balance between trying to screw your opponents but not screw them so bad that it comes back to bite you in the ass, sounds really interesting.

This is my second Kickstarter after Kodama, which I also backed mostly because I absolutely adored the art design (there seems to be a pattern here).

Also, I started reading "Rules of Play", because I'm actually developing an interest in game design. Any other good suggestions on books regarding game theory? Doesn't have to be design in particular, history or stuff like that would also be interesting.

 

[BomberMouse]

Having now played a ton of Viticulture I'm bummed I didn't back the Scythe Kickstarter. Not that I won't be able to get everything still just looks like I'm gonna be paying more for it. Oh well!

They will probably still sell those on their website. They usually do.

 

[SCHUEY F1]

My wife gets so frustrated at Eldritch Horror. Game can be quite difficult.

 

[Dryk]

Having now played a ton of Viticulture I'm bummed I didn't back the Scythe Kickstarter. Not that I won't be able to get everything still just looks like I'm gonna be paying more for it. Oh well!

I like Stegmaier's attitude. I was reading the Tuscany rulebook recently and there's actually little textboxes explaining the problems each module was designed to address.

 

[antiquegamer]

My wife gets so frustrated at Eldritch Horror. Game can be quite difficult.

You can always pull out those Mythos with tentacles, they can make the game frustrating.

 

[woo and indeed hoo]

Just backed Karmaka. I try to stay away from Kickstarter because there are just too many things that I find cool and would love to spend money on but every now and then I do a little check and something catches my eye. I think what I fell in love with here is the art (and part of me backed it mostly just because one of the stretch goals were two art prints) but the gameplay also seems good. The idea of finding a balance between trying to screw your opponents but not screw them so bad that it comes back to bite you in the ass, sounds really interesting.

This is my second Kickstarter after Kodama, which I also backed mostly because I absolutely adored the art design (there seems to be a pattern here).

Also, I started reading "Rules of Play", because I'm actually developing an interest in game design. Any other good suggestions on books regarding game theory? Doesn't have to be design in particular, history or stuff like that would also be interesting.

That is a pattern I can easily empathise with. I have not backed any Kickstarter projects of any type but I have bought several games primarily because of its visual aesthetics. It is a huge part of a game's appeal to me.

 

[Karkador]

Question for those of you who have COIN games:

If Cuba Libre's reprint is shipping in March, was I supposed to be signed up in the P500 to have any hope of getting a copy, or will other retailers be stocking it?

I want to jump into one of these games, and I hear that's a good entry point.

 

[Lyng]

FWIW they are coming out with a strictly 2 player COIN game. Algerian Independence setting. Called "Colonial Twilight". Of course with GMT who knows when it will come out (SEpt-Dec 16 right now).

Yeah I read that The setting of LoD interests me more though and I like the fact that the factions you control work so great together in LoD.

 

[fenners]

Question for those of you who have COIN games:

If Cuba Libre's reprint is shipping in March, was I supposed to be signed up in the P500 to have any hope of getting a copy, or will other retailers be stocking it?

I want to jump into one of these games, and I hear that's a good entry point.

It'll almost certainly show up at retailers like CSI.

 

[joelseph]

Back from my gaming weekend.

Filler game I played the most: Pompeii

Party game I played the most: Codenames

Favorite gaming moment: A 5 player late night Spyfall session where we were playing with the roles and everyone was way into it and everyone was asking or answering appropriately. Probably could have gone all night.

Biggest letdown: Dark Moon at 7 players. Few weren't into it and it drug on. It was a huge letdown for me because Dark Moon has been one of my favorites recently.

Biggest beating: Flick 'em Up. A good Crokinole player played against me at Flick 'em Up and absolutely destroyed me!

 

[Ohnonono]

Played a non-solo game of Combat Commander Europe Sat. Night. It took about twice as long as it should because of rules stuff, but I have a very firm grasp now and I think they game will move much faster. That said it was a ton of fun. It is a chaotic war game, and I get why it could turn off really hardcore people who want to simulate reality, but in what seemed like a very simple scenario we ended up with a huge fire blocking a road and spreading into a building, a Nazi unit with a flamethrower jumping in behind enemy lines and a unit bunkering themselves in a room in order to stubbornly hold on to an objective. I think I have used every rule in the book at this point and it plays so smoothly. Fantastic game that deserves all the praise.

 

[SCHUEY F1]

You can always pull out those Mythos with tentacles, they can make the game frustrating.

Definitely need to do that.

 

[woo and indeed hoo]

I played Cthulhu Gloom on Sunday. I am not a fan of Lovecraftian themes but I found it inoffensive here. I really enjoyed the game though which is the important thing. The transparent cards so one could stack layers was a delight. We did not bother with 'telling the tale' aspect of the game as we were learning the others aspects of the game but I hope we play it again soon. A nice surprise I am happy to say.

We also played another game of Port Royal with the expansion [but not the contracts]. The base game is one of our most played games but we really like the addition of the extra roles and ships. Once we have those fully down we shall delve into the contracts. Hopefully by then I shall have been able to get my head properly round the crappy instructions.

 

[Phthisis]

Was at a local Seattle wargame/gaming convention this weekend. Got to play a lot of really fun stuff for the first time.

Kemet (with black tile expansion) - First time playing this, really fun. I like the open-ended "tech tree" of which tiles you select to augment your powers. A really fun sandbox.

Pax Pamir - I picked this up on a whim during the con because I'm a big fan of Phil Eklund's designs, and I had heard good things (and I really was captured by the theme). One of my friends taught it to me and we played about half a game. Fascinating fascinating experience. I really can't wait to get this to the table again.

7 Wonders Duel - Just a fantastic, refined, polished game. Everything that is great about 7 Wonders adapted for two players (and possibly even more strategic, given the open nature of the information available to both opponents). And surprised at how fast it plays.

I also got maybe the best game of Fief I've ever played in. The finish was epic.

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

Scored big at my FLGS tonight. They had Freedom The Underground Railroad for 50% off. I also had $20 in credit and so I got the game for $15.

 

[Polioliolio]

What do you guys think of Pocket Neon City Rumble? The kickstarter is up now.

Looks like Pocket Fighter. Artwork is endearing enough to get me interested.

 

[uzit88]

Hey guys, could anyone recommend a co-op fantasy adventure board games ? We just finished our (Girlfriend and I) first board game Legend of Andor.

We are both massive RPG players in video games and want to try it out on in the board game world !

Thanks !

 

[Dryk]

Got to play Mysterium and For Sale for the first time tonight. For Sale is nifty, Mysterium might go a bit better now that we know how it works but we found the rules pretty hard to deal with. Still, the guy that brought it brought it in shrink so that's pretty par for the course.

 

[Slathe]

Hey guys, could anyone recommend a co-op fantasy adventure board games ? We just finished our (Girlfriend and I) first board game Legend of Andor.

We are both massive RPG players in video games and want to try it out on in the board game world !

Thanks !

If you don't mind card games, Warhammer Quest Adventure Card Game is great.

Otherwise, try Defenders of the Realm.

 

[Karkador]

If you don't mind card games, Warhammer Quest Adventure Card Game is great.

I'd say this is your next stop, too.

 

[nicoga3000]

Hey guys, could anyone recommend a co-op fantasy adventure board games ? We just finished our (Girlfriend and I) first board game Legend of Andor.

We are both massive RPG players in video games and want to try it out on in the board game world !

Thanks !

There's always my go to recommendation of Shadows of Brimstone. It's an RPG with characters that you build and grow over multiple sessions. You collect gear and items, earn XP to level up and grow your skills and stats, and explore mines and otherworlds to battle monsters. Each session is typically a quest/mine exploration and a town/level-up phase. There isn't a huge overarching story to it, but there's a fan add-on called Hexcrawl that makes up for that and provides a series of interconnected events that can change the way you interact with towns and such.

Descent 2.0 is a one vs many take on the RPG/dungeon crawl mechanic. You still grow your characters through XP and gear, but instead of cooperating in a dungeon, one person is playing an overlord and controlling the monsters and events that occur within the dungeon. My understanding is that it has more story development than something like SoB from above.

The D&D Adventure Boardgames may fit your bill. Temple of Elemental Evil introduces a campaign/leveling mechanic where you earn gold and can spend it to level up. You earn new powers, extra re-rolls, etc. The older games in that series (Castle Ravenloft, Legend of Drizzt, and Wrath of Ashardalon) have very similar mechanics but do not share the campaign/character growth system. Note that everyone has very different experiences and opinions of these games. They CAN be brutal at times. I am playing with a slight modification where I shuffle all non-item treasure cards into my encounter deck. It makes encounters MUCH less brutal. I also have a rule that if a monster misses, he does no damage (some monsters do 1 point of damage even if they miss, which to me is stupid). That's one of the benefits to the D&D system is that it's easy to make slight tweaks to the rules without breaking the game.

Mage Knight is an amazing RPG game, but it's very tough to learn and tends to be classified as fiddly. I disagree, but I've played a number of games of it and have come to sort of understand the mechanics. It tends to play really long, though. Also, your progress is not persistent - it's a one and done sort of game. Every time is different and unique which lends itself to a lot of replay value.

A few others people mention a lot are Mice and Mystics, Super Dungeon Explore, and Myth. I would also check out Runebound (3e) as it has a single chunk RPG thing going for it. I haven't played any of the four games I mention in this paragraph, but I've heard decent things about all of them.

 

[Draxal]

Hey guys, could anyone recommend a co-op fantasy adventure board games ? We just finished our (Girlfriend and I) first board game Legend of Andor.

We are both massive RPG players in video games and want to try it out on in the board game world !

Thanks !

Does it have to be a fantasy adventure? I just don't think they work as well as the video game experience, and I tried alot of them. The attempts to replicate that experience just end up being clunky.

A coop campaign game that is getting alot of love on neogaf and other places is Pandemic Legacy, but obviously it's not fantasy based.

 

[RobotNinjaHornets]

I needed to buy a replacement keyboard yesterday as I broke my old one

I ended up getting Codenames and Flick 'Em Up at the same time

I have a problem D:

 

[uzit88]

There's always my go to recommendation of Shadows of Brimstone. It's an RPG with characters that you build and grow over multiple sessions. You collect gear and items, earn XP to level up and grow your skills and stats, and explore mines and otherworlds to battle monsters. Each session is typically a quest/mine exploration and a town/level-up phase. There isn't a huge overarching story to it, but there's a fan add-on called Hexcrawl that makes up for that and provides a series of interconnected events that can change the way you interact with towns and such.

Descent 2.0 is a one vs many take on the RPG/dungeon crawl mechanic. You still grow your characters through XP and gear, but instead of cooperating in a dungeon, one person is playing an overlord and controlling the monsters and events that occur within the dungeon. My understanding is that it has more story development than something like SoB from above.

The D&D Adventure Boardgames may fit your bill. Temple of Elemental Evil introduces a campaign/leveling mechanic where you earn gold and can spend it to level up. You earn new powers, extra re-rolls, etc. The older games in that series (Castle Ravenloft, Legend of Drizzt, and Wrath of Ashardalon) have very similar mechanics but do not share the campaign/character growth system. Note that everyone has very different experiences and opinions of these games. They CAN be brutal at times. I am playing with a slight modification where I shuffle all non-item treasure cards into my encounter deck. It makes encounters MUCH less brutal. I also have a rule that if a monster misses, he does no damage (some monsters do 1 point of damage even if they miss, which to me is stupid). That's one of the benefits to the D&D system is that it's easy to make slight tweaks to the rules without breaking the game.

Mage Knight is an amazing RPG game, but it's very tough to learn and tends to be classified as fiddly. I disagree, but I've played a number of games of it and have come to sort of understand the mechanics. It tends to play really long, though. Also, your progress is not persistent - it's a one and done sort of game. Every time is different and unique which lends itself to a lot of replay value.

A few others people mention a lot are Mice and Mystics, Super Dungeon Explore, and Myth. I would also check out Runebound (3e) as it has a single chunk RPG thing going for it. I haven't played any of the four games I mention in this paragraph, but I've heard decent things about all of them.

Thank you for the reply buddy. Descent and Temple of Elemntal Evil is two I really want try, espcially the latter. These could possibly be my next pick up.

Does it have to be a fantasy adventure? I just don't think they work as well as the video game experience, and I tried alot of them. The attempts to replicate that experience just end up being clunky.

A coop campaign game that is getting alot of love on neogaf and other places is Pandemic Legacy, but obviously it's not fantasy based.

For me it has to be XD my girfriend is more willing to explore outside of this and tbh I am okay to do so too. Any you recoemnd let me know, we massive on co-op games

 

[Ohnonono]

Tonight is C&C: Ancients night! Combat Commander has been really fun but sometimes nothing beats the amazing simplicity of Ancients. Thinking about picking up my first expansion and can't decide which way to go with it.

 

[SCHUEY F1]

Yay, Viticulture arrives today. Love opening new board games!

 

[Dreavus]

Bit of a Wall of text inc. but I wanted to get some thoughts down!

Finally got a chance to open up Pixel Tactics Deluxe and play a few games this weekend. We stuck with just Pixel Tactics 1 (even though the Kickstarter came with games 1 - 5 and more) and there is plenty to get used to in that first little deck.

I really love how each card can be used as a regular troop or as a big scary leader. I am a huge sucker for asymmetrical game design and this game definitely pulls it off even when playing with identical decks, because your leader choice has such a big impact on your overall strategy. The leader powers for the most part all seem to be equally overpowered, although there are a few standouts that seem easily countered or just not that strong (for example Seth's "your opponent plays with their hand revealed" combined with just average stats has me thinking he'll get easily strong-armed out of a match by a stat-monster leader on the other side.)

My first match happened to be a horrible match-up, actually. I chose the "Summoner" leader which lets me place guys for free, but my opponent happened to choose the "Alchemist" leader who hurts everyone on my side for 1 damage every time his turn ends. This directly incentivized me to NOT dump my hand onto the field, which is what my leader was good at! I'm hoping that kind of trumping doesn't happen too often, but I suppose we're bound to get an interaction like that with so many different leader possibilities.

Other than that though, the other games were all great matches. (I figure it's a good match when you need to look up the tie breaker rules because you have both killed eachother's leader in the same round, lol) Very close games and no other big blowouts.

I was originally planning on stepping directly into drafting, because goddamn do I love drafting and also because of the sheer number of different cards I've got access to in this box. However, I think the "premades" will be more than enough to start with, especially when learning the game with others. There are a lot of options for how each card can be played so having identical decks helps both players learn the game quicker I think.

 

[nicoga3000]

Thank you for the reply buddy. Descent and Temple of Elemntal Evil is two I really want try, espcially the latter. These could possibly be my next pick up.

For me it has to be XD my girfriend is more willing to explore outside of this and tbh I am okay to do so too. Any you recoemnd let me know, we massive on co-op games

ToEE looks like it may grow to be my favorite of the D&D Adventure games. I love the prospects of leveling up and bringing a hero through the scenarios. Also, the minis are awesome!

Descent has a cooperative variant out there if that's your thing. I'm tempted to pick up a copy of base 2.0 so I can try the automated OL variant. I am a huge sucker for that style of game.

 

[Rudimental]

Pax Pamir - I picked this up on a whim during the con because I'm a big fan of Phil Eklund's designs, and I had heard good things (and I really was captured by the theme). One of my friends taught it to me and we played about half a game. Fascinating fascinating experience. I really can't wait to get this to the table again.

I've only played one 2p game, and damn it is brutal at 2p. Also can't wait to get a game with my group with more people. So much depth and so many tricks there. Co-incidentally, I just got a slip today to go pick up my copy of Neanderthal from the post-office, which was sent before Christmas, TIA.

 

[Phthisis]

I've only played one 2p game, and damn it is brutal at 2p. Also can't wait to get a game with my group with more people. So much depth and so many tricks there. Co-incidentally, I just got a slip today to go pick up my copy of Neanderthal from the post-office, which was sent before Christmas, TIA.

Yeah, I am absolutely in love with all the different choices and ways you can play the game. Such a sandbox.

I have Greenland 1e, and I've only played it once (with two people who didn't enjoy it). Thinking about picking up the 2e since the cards are now, y'know, readable. Would love to know how Neanderthal is, too.

 

[antiquegamer]

Set up and played first game of B-sieged and my first impression is pretty much mirror others and Dice Tower review, the game just have way too much randomness. I don't mind dice chucking game and enjoy random event especially in co-operative game but when everything you do in this game is pretty much decided by random draw or dice from upgrading your characters to getting resources or even moving the catapult you pretty much at the mercy of what you get. You wasted a lot of your game turn just trying to get resources, the space in the game are always at a premium and with strict turn order, one wrong placement and your entire next turn is pretty much doom. I lasted to the end of summer season but then half of my team died because they didn't have enough foods and that pretty much ended the game. (Either way we probably would not have survived the next round even if I were to house rule away the instant death when you can't consume two foods). To keep it thematic and less brutal, lost of morale would be better than just instant killed on your heroes in my opinion. You might said well that was my fault for not getting enough foods, I did have foods but the event card caused all the foods to go down to 1 with no way to mitigate it.

I am going to give it another go but I don't think it will change my impression.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Read someone say the developers have a faq coming for the game, with also some missing rules that didn't make the rulebook. Course they probably realized they fucked up and are making these changes on their own

 

[Dragoshi1]

Anyone get Epic the Card game by the makers of Star Realms? Ordered it after seeing the kickass art(and the dinosaur, sandworm, and dragon cards look awesome).

 

[antiquegamer]

Anyone get Epic the Card game by the makers of Star Realms? Ordered it after seeing the kickass art(and the dinosaur, sandworm, and dragon cards look awesome).

I did and we hated it. It's essentially Magic the Gathering drafting game, problem is unless you do full on draft the game can be extremely swings. After couple games, my daughter comments was why don't we just play Magic.

That said we haven't try all the variants and perhaps the game is better but from our limited plays we didn't have the urge to want to play some more.

 

[Dragoshi1]

I did and we hated it. It's essentially Magic the Gathering drafting game, problem is unless you do full on draft the game can be extremely swings. After couple games, my daughter comments was why don't we just play Magic.

That said we haven't try all the variants and perhaps the game is better vut from our limited plays we didn't have the urge to want to play some more.

Are different factions OP?

I'm planning to divvy em up by faction only. Just a game for me and my bro to play when bored.

 

[antiquegamer]

Are different factions OP?

I'm planning to divvy em up by faction only. Just a game for me and my bro to play when bored.

Well, the thing is a lot of cards in the game are overpower (intentionally) since there is no mana requirement to cast (just gold coin which you get one per turn) you can put out a 14/14 creature turn one if you happen to draw one. The game can be real swingy if one player get a lot of good cards and you have no way to counter it. We did pretty much just deal out random cards when we played (Seal deck format) I think perhaps a faction might be more balance (there are four pre-constructed deck, but I don't know how balance they are as we never tried it). There is also Elder gods format with pre-constructed deck that combine two factions.

Artworks and cards are beautiful and you can also do a fun drafting format if you are into that style of Magic gameplay. Don't let my negative impression turn you off, it might be the type of game you and your brother enjoy. The game is essentially Magic on steroid. It plays quick and fast, and I think can be fun but the swingy nature of the few games we played just turn us off. After my daughter told me, why don't we just play Magic, it's pretty much signal that the game will not hit the table again at my house as she is currently my only opponent. (She did have more win against me so it's not because she was loosing).

 

[Rootbeer]

The TMNT game has reached quite a few stretch goals.

It's just seven thousand away from unlocking 9 mouser figures. They just unlocked Splinter, too (yay!) More stretch goals to be announced maybe?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/idwgames/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-shadows-of-the-past-b

I am seriously considering backing it. There's very, very little IDW Turtle merch out there, let alone games.

 

[Taborcarn]

The game is essentially Magic on steroid. It plays quick and fast, and I think can be fun but the swingy nature of the few games we played just turn us off.

This is spot-on. The game is designed to be Magic without the filler, where hugely OP cards can be played turn one and even the weaker cards are free. The game can end in just a couple turns given the right conditions, but if that happens just shuffle and play again.

It's speed magic with a much lower cost to entry, but personally to scratch that kind of itch I prefer Ashes at the moment.

The TMNT game has reached quite a few stretch goals.

It's just seven thousand away from unlocking 9 mouser figures. They just unlocked Splinter, too (yay!) More stretch goals to be announced maybe?

Edit: Just re-read that he's a kickstarter "The Works Edition" exclusive. So I guess there will be copies out there without Splinter. Weird.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/idwgames/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-shadows-of-the-past-b

I am seriously considering backing it. There's very, very little IDW Turtle merch out there, let alone games.

Having Splinter be a stretch goal just seems silly. Like they were really going to release the game without him if they didn't hit that mark?

Edit: Just read that he is a kickstarter "The Works Edition" exclusive. So there will be versions out there that come without Splinter. Weird.

 

[Blizzard]

I visited a CoolStuffInc retail store on vacation recently. I did not visit the factory store, so there were only two walls of games to look at, but they still had a decent variety and decent prices.

Since they did not have the Race for the Galaxy expansion I was considering, I narrowed down to three options:

• Trickerion (magician-themed kickstarter game, supposed to have simultaneous actions with worker placement and minimal downtime).
• Dice City (dice allocation and city-building / card-activating game)
• Suburbia (tile-collecting, city-building economy game)

Trickerion had good ratings on BGG but scared me with the kickstarter aspect. Dice City sounded like it had more strategic options and balance, and fewer of the mean aspects and "I roll and buy nothing for 4 turns straight" of Machi Koro. However, it still looked similar to Machi Koro so I passed.

Suburbia for about $40 USD was the result, and I played it that evening with my girlfriend. The good news is that the game seems decent. The bad news is that she was quite annoyed that I won by a large margin (15-20 or more lead in population even with her getting a 15-population swing from goals), so who knows if I will get to play it much. At least I can play solitaire mode.

I had only a few rules questions, mostly about the end of the game:

1. The tile reference for many (most?) per-symbol tiles includes language like "including this Shipping Center tile. However, some (Bed & Breakfast, Office of Bureaucracy) do not. There seems to be space in the rules for the Office of Bureaucracy to mention it includes itself -- does it still include itself?
2. Per the rules, investments do not impact conditional effects on other tiles (investing in a residential tile does not increase per-residential yields on other tiles). The rules do not seem to be explicit about this for goals, however. I assume it works the same way, and three invested residential tiles would only count as "3 residential" for the Builder / Capitalist goals?
3. Per the "1 More Round" tile, it is not placed on the Real Estate Market. Does this mean that the Real Estate Market only contains 6 tiles from that point?
4. Why are (only) 4 tiles placed under the "1 More Round" shuffle section in Stack C? My understanding is that Stack C will contain 20 total tiles in a 2-player game (15 + 1 + 4). Imagine the "1 More Round" tile is flipped by the first player and only 4 tiles are underneath it. That means that once the current round finishes, only 1 tile is left on the stack. Once the final round starts, players 3 and 4 will have only 5 and 4 tiles available respectively.
5. It seems unusual for the first player marker to be so fancy (stickers) yet never change the entire game. It never changes, and only helps people get the same number of turns, correct?

 

[Rudimental]

Yeah, I am absolutely in love with all the different choices and ways you can play the game. Such a sandbox.

I have Greenland 1e, and I've only played it once (with two people who didn't enjoy it). Thinking about picking up the 2e since the cards are now, y'know, readable. Would love to know how Neanderthal is, too.

Not sure when I'll be able to get a game of Neanderthal, but I'll be sure to post about it here.

Just note that Phil's US distribution deal got abruptly cut towards the end of last year. This means that it isn't clear how much he can print and ship this year. It also means his games are effectively out of print in the US, and whatever is in stores is currently it, though you can still get Neanderthal from Germany through his website, and most of his games through the BGG marketplace.

 

[Karkador]

I got Pax Pamir and Pax Porfiriana, but I've been avoiding playing it 2P. Is it as good as with 3-4?

 

[Blizzard]

I visited a CoolStuffInc retail store on vacation recently. I did not visit the factory store, so there were only two walls of games to look at, but they still had a decent variety and decent prices.

Since they did not have the Race for the Galaxy expansion I was considering, I narrowed down to three options:

• Trickerion (magician-themed kickstarter game, supposed to have simultaneous actions with worker placement and minimal downtime).
• Dice City (dice allocation and city-building / card-activating game)
• Suburbia (tile-collecting, city-building economy game)

Trickerion had good ratings on BGG but scared me with the kickstarter aspect. Dice City sounded like it had more strategic options and balance, and fewer of the mean aspects and "I roll and buy nothing for 4 turns straight" of Machi Koro. However, it still looked similar to Machi Koro so I passed.

Suburbia for about $40 USD was the result, and I played it that evening with my girlfriend. The good news is that the game seems decent. The bad news is that she was quite annoyed that I won by a large margin (15-20 or more lead in population even with her getting a 15-population swing from goals), so who knows if I will get to play it much. At least I can play solitaire mode.

I had only a few rules questions, mostly about the end of the game:

1. The tile reference for many (most?) per-symbol tiles includes language like "including this Shipping Center tile. However, some (Bed & Breakfast, Office of Bureaucracy) do not. There seems to be space in the rules for the Office of Bureaucracy to mention it includes itself -- does it still include itself?
2. Per the rules, investments do not impact conditional effects on other tiles (investing in a residential tile does not increase per-residential yields on other tiles). The rules do not seem to be explicit about this for goals, however. I assume it works the same way, and three invested residential tiles would only count as "3 residential" for the Builder / Capitalist goals?
3. Per the "1 More Round" tile, it is not placed on the Real Estate Market. Does this mean that the Real Estate Market only contains 6 tiles from that point?
4. Why are (only) 4 tiles placed under the "1 More Round" shuffle section in Stack C? My understanding is that Stack C will contain 20 total tiles in a 2-player game (15 + 1 + 4). Imagine the "1 More Round" tile is flipped by the first player and only 4 tiles are underneath it. That means that once the current round finishes, only 1 tile is left on the stack. Once the final round starts, players 3 and 4 will have only 5 and 4 tiles available respectively.
5. It seems unusual for the first player marker to be so fancy (stickers) yet never change the entire game. It never changes, and only helps people get the same number of turns, correct?

Quoting since I buried myself as the last post on a 50-post page.

Also, the most satisfying part of Suburbia was building an invested lake completely surrounded by industrial buildings. My whole town was pretty cute. It had an office section, an industrial lake circle, parks throughout, and a dedicated residential section without any nasty airports or industrial areas nearby.

One strategy thing I figured out pretty early was that I wanted my income to keep climbing faster than my population did. My girlfriend invested in an early trailer park...things did not go well.