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New Board Gaming |OT2| On Tables, Off Topic

fenners

Member
Nice write up. Smash Up is a great game and gets a lot of play in my house.

My daughter loves the idea of it, loves the cards + combos, especially the Pretty Pretty expansion (go figure), but it definitely takes too long in a 2 or 3 player game, going by the official rules. Likely going to drop the number of bases, and the number of VP, next time we play. The goal with her at this point isn't to have a long game of give & take, it's to have 45-60 minutes of fun card play at most, with a winner of some sorts at the end.

About game carrying, I like cloth grocery bags. They're usually pretty sturdy and can hold 2-3 "normal" games.

Yep, much the same here!

When I'm taking games to a con, particularly to trade, I'll stick 'em in boxes or plastic tubs & stick in some padding - like was mentioned earlier in the thread, game boxes can take way more damage than you think in the back of a car. But for just going to a buddy's, or to work? Those 'green' grocery bags work well enough on the back seat of the car :)
 

Gurrry

Member
I'd love to hear what you, or anyone, thinks of Big Book of Madness also. It has a lot of elements that appeal to me.

Ill be able to tell more info once I play it in person. But I did play it on TTS and loved it! Ill be in a 2 player game which seems harder than 3-4 but it will do!
 

Keasar

Member
2) battlecon devestation of indines

holy shit at #2. this game is amazing. if you like 2d fighters, this is your game. the game comes with 30 different characters and they truly are all different. not only does it come with the essentials for 1v1, it has a singleplayer/co-op dungeon crawl with it as well.

ive been playing mostly on table top sim to learn, but i cant wait til it gets here. it might replace ashes for me.

BattleCON is amazing. Still one of my all time favourite 1v1 games. Devastation comes with ton of options, ton of extras, 1v1, 1v2, boss mode, co-op dungeon crawl etc. etc. And it can be combined with everything else BattleCON for even more insane variety.

It was the game that sold me on Level99 as a great board game producer.
 
On Monday, I presented two games to some members of my group for the first time, Tragedy Looper and Hanabi. It was my first time playing either of these so it was interesting. Hanabi came out first because Tragedy Looper requires 4 people and we had exactly 5 people looking to get into a game. It was fun and had a lot of conversation going, probably more than the initial rules wanted to have.

Tragedy Looper was interesting. I wanted to play this game first but because of the aforementioned timing thing it didn't get played until hour 2 of the meetup (of 4). Since the meetup was in a bar, by the time we started getting into this game I was well into my 2nd beer, which MIGHT have affected my ability to initially explain the game, lol. In the end, the best way to get the players understanding how it worked was to play a real first day and let them see the consequences of failure, and then back up and remind them "Ok, so why do you think this event happened?" The game is all about figuring out a plot and then stopping it, so using the potential plot list, they could narrow down what they think the plot is about by referencing the events to the plot list. Once the gears started clicking, the group had more fun. I know at least two of the three players would be interested in playing again so that's a win for me.
 

Ohnonono

Member
Yay! Picked up the Wolfsburg expansion for Z:Black Plague from Miniature Market! I have played this game so much. Excited for more heroes and items. Hopefully the new enemies are cool too.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Random gaming pet peeve is Debbie Downers at game night. You know, the kind of person who after a light fun game says "well I'm never playing that again" (OK? Someone alert the New York Times) and goes on to whinge about the mechanics of a 10m game. Or complains about a game during play constantly, doubly so if losing. Part of the reason I moved away from having an open game night was that a single rando can completely compromise the experience. Not saying people shouldn't be like this, just that it's absolutely the antithesis of what I enjoy about game night, which is basically just playing whatever the fuck (except GOT Board Game) and having fun with the group regardless.
 

Ohnonono

Member
Random gaming pet peeve is Debbie Downers at game night. You know, the kind of person who after a light fun game says "well I'm never playing that again" (OK? Someone alert the New York Times) and goes on to whinge about the mechanics of a 10m game. Or complains about a game during play constantly, doubly so if losing. Part of the reason I moved away from having an open game night was that a single rando can completely compromise the experience. Not saying people shouldn't be like this, just that it's absolutely the antithesis of what I enjoy about game night, which is basically just playing whatever the fuck (except GOT Board Game) and having fun with the group regardless.

Oh man yeah. I feel like this can get even worse in miniatures games. Dudes around me are VERY competitive with Warmachine/Hordes and boy that game became no fun real quick.
 

-tetsuo-

Unlimited Capacity
Random gaming pet peeve is Debbie Downers at game night. You know, the kind of person who after a light fun game says "well I'm never playing that again" (OK? Someone alert the New York Times) and goes on to whinge about the mechanics of a 10m game. Or complains about a game during play constantly, doubly so if losing. Part of the reason I moved away from having an open game night was that a single rando can completely compromise the experience. Not saying people shouldn't be like this, just that it's absolutely the antithesis of what I enjoy about game night, which is basically just playing whatever the fuck (except GOT Board Game) and having fun with the group regardless.

One of our fiends has the weirdest taste. We try new stuff and he zones out during the rules if it is a game he has predetermined to not like. So we get a couple rounds in and he quits and we are left with a broken game. So annoying. We never know what to try with him.
 
Yea a friend does that sometimes, he wants to become a game designer, so during games all he does is go into long tirades about the negatives of the particular game, how it should be done, and so on. Instead of just playing and moving on, he will just keep going on about dislike for a particular game, which of course is annoying for those who do enjoy that particular game
 

Gurrry

Member
I havent played any board games with people like that, but ive played tons of video games with my cynical friends who do nothing but shit on the game as were playing together. It completely deflates the fun, leaves me with nothing to say, and I just get off party chat and go play it by myself.

Ill never get why people feel like they have to bring down all the fun and cant just enjoy playing games with friends together. Its made me really distance myself from some of my best friends growing up.
 
The worst thing that happens in my group is people exclaiming "I am SO confused!" about five seconds into rule explanations. That kind of crap just adds pressure to whoever is trying to introduce the game.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
The worst thing that happens in my group is people exclaiming "I am SO confused!" about five seconds into rule explanations. That kind of crap just adds pressure to whoever is trying to introduce the game.

Close cousin to "let's just play!" when you've just barely started explaining a complex game. This isn't tiddlywinks where you'll just figure it out just based on how the pieces look and the first 20 seconds of a rules explanation.
 

Blizzard

Banned
With respect -- remember that any of us may be the annoying person without even realizing it. There are many perspectives, backgrounds, personalities, and learning styles. You're unlikely to ever have a perfect combination.
 
Close cousin to "let's just play!" when you've just barely started explaining a complex game. This isn't tiddlywinks where you'll just figure it out just based on how the pieces look and the first 20 seconds of a rules explanation.
Although I can see some people functioning better when they dive in, make moves, and see how it affects their position in the game with explanations along the way. That's basically what happened whith me showing Tragedy Looper to people as I mentioned a few posts up.
 

Blizzard

Banned
Although I can see some people functioning better when they dive in, make moves, and see how it affects their position in the game with explanations along the way. That's basically what happened whith me showing Tragedy Looper to people as I mentioned a few posts up.
Playing an example round is a great way for some people to learn mechanics. Some people get REALLY confused and excluded if someone attempts to do a lecture presentation of the rules first.
 
With respect -- remember that any of us may be the annoying person without even realizing it. There are many perspectives, backgrounds, personalities, and learning styles. You're unlikely to ever have a perfect combination.

Except when everyone else at the table complains about the same person, it kinda all points to them being a nuisance rather than a person just imagining it.

Playing an example round is a great way for some people to learn mechanics. Some people get REALLY confused and excluded if someone attempts to do a lecture presentation of the rules first.

Some games just really aren't conductive to showing off a sample round, especially with more thematic games that are more evolving in nature and involve tons of moving parts/components. Many games even with a great explanation, don't really gel with people till they have played it for a while and it all just clicks. Some people though don't have the patience to wait for that moment.
 
Sometimes, but I still think dogpiling a person is clique-y and unhealthy for groups in general.

Having people not wanting to play in your group anymore or play certain games because of said individuals, it becomes a problem to the whole group when it falls apart. Already have had players drop out of regular game meet ups cause of trouble players. People stop having fun, then whats the point?

This has been an issue in past with folks bringing their girlfriends and such who were nothing but disruptive especially.
 
Had a player get upset at Last Night on Earth because I used the "This Could Be Our Last Night on Earth" card on him and another player.

For those unfamiliar, it's a card the Zombie players gets that is pretty specific: it requires a male and female character on the same space at the start of the turn. Some characters are immune to it (the priest and the nun, chiefly). All that happens is that those players don't get to activate that turn. Nothing super huge, and actually somewhat niche in use.

"That's why I hate this game and am never playing it again."

Like, really? All the games out there with 'skip your turn" mechanics and THIS is the one that pisses you off?

edit:
Close cousin to "let's just play!" when you've just barely started explaining a complex game. This isn't tiddlywinks where you'll just figure it out just based on how the pieces look and the first 20 seconds of a rules explanation.

oh god. I got so fed up with this one that I said "okay". When I did something I hadn't explained and the "let's play" player said something I just responded with "well, should have let me explain the rules". We started the game over after I got to explain the rules fully. I mean, this is a group that plays Twilight Imperium with no problems, you can't wait for me to read much simpler rules?
 

Blizzard

Banned
Having people not wanting to play in your group anymore or play certain games because of said individuals, it becomes a problem to the whole group when it falls apart. Already have had players drop out of regular game meet ups cause of trouble players. People stop having fun, then whats the point?

This has been an issue in past with folks bringing their girlfriends and such who were nothing but disruptive especially.
Right, but I'm just reminding that sometimes we can be the problem as well. Surely not everyone in this thread is an awesome game group member -- that'd be a pretty big coincidence. :p

The same thing can happen if you go full dictator. Someone brings their girlfriend, and everyone hates the girlfriend. So you officially ban the girlfriend, creating a scene -- the boyfriend stops going too. Maybe you're fine for a bit, but then another troublemaker comes up. The group burns that witch, but maybe a friend or two of theirs leaves also, and some other people leave because they feel like too much drama is happening and they just wanted to play games.

I'm just suggesting there is a balance. Groups can fall apart either way, and going for an "us vs them" attitude or "this is the way this game should always be taught" attitude can actually cause problems too.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Right, but I'm just reminding that sometimes we can be the problem as well. Surely not everyone in this thread is an awesome game group member -- that'd be a pretty big coincidence. :p

The same thing can happen if you go full dictator. Someone brings their girlfriend, and everyone hates the girlfriend. So you officially ban the girlfriend, creating a scene -- the boyfriend stops going too. Maybe you're fine for a bit, but then another troublemaker comes up. The group burns that witch, but maybe a friend or two of theirs leaves also, and some other people leave because they feel like too much drama is happening and they just wanted to play games.

I'm just suggesting there is a balance. Groups can fall apart either way, and going for an "us vs them" attitude or "this is the way this game should always be taught" attitude can actually cause problems too.
It's true you have to be open-minded. I mean overall I play with a really diverse group of people throughout all my board-gaming, and I pretty much take it upon myself to be an ambassador for games and get people into it. As a result, my wife and I have like five different couples we meet with every few months or so to do dinner and games with. There's never an issue with this at all because despite the variety of people involved everyone's just in it to have fun. I'll also (less often) play with just a gaming crowd from time to time and this is where you get the randos that tbh give gaming a bad name in that their apparent goal is to just constantly shit on either the game or other players and their plays. Even if this is their own personal preference, it's not one I respect and it's one I'll actively avoid. So I'm certainly not trying to call for dogpiling of any sort, but what I'm referring to is a specific type of spoilsport who actively ruins the fun for everyone else, and who nearly always scares people away, especially people newer to board gaming. This isn't intended to be about someone playing too slow, or having an aggressive playstyle, or preferring euros or whatever.
 
Close cousin to "let's just play!" when you've just barely started explaining a complex game. This isn't tiddlywinks where you'll just figure it out just based on how the pieces look and the first 20 seconds of a rules explanation.

I do find that some people actually learn better with the "let's just play" model of learning. I tend to give them the basic overview of the rules and explain on my turn what my options are and why I'm choosing to do what I do. That normally helps some people understand the rules and strategy of the game.

Some people are also just bad at explaining rules. I've got a bunch of guys in my groups that should never explain the rules of a game because they are just bad at it.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
I do find that some people actually learn better with the "let's just play" model of learning. I tend to give them the basic overview of the rules and explain on my turn what my options are and why I'm choosing to do what I do. That normally helps some people understand the rules and strategy of the game.

Some people are also just bad at explaining rules. I've got a bunch of guys in my groups that should never explain the rules of a game because they are just bad at it.

Pretty much I will defer to the person who's teaching the game. Certainly no matter what the teaching method there will usually be some degree of hands-on play, so I'm not at all suggesting that the "right" way to learn is to just have someone read the rules out loud. I'm more referring to the sort of veto person who tries to impose their will even though the teacher has decided that a rules explanation of some sort is needed before playing with the shiny pieces.
 
Really like Shadows of Brimstone. Only annoying thing is tracking money and xp and stat with pen and paper but there are tons of Print Studio cards people made for the game that look really good.

Only played first intro mission and I feel like the best experience would be to do campaign game. My only reservation is the limited enemies and game might get boring, the combat while nice and simple lack depth of other miniatures game may be it will change with more items and ability unlock and level up. All in all the game is quite fun. The mini were a pain to put together but they are nice enough.
 
Really like Shadows of Brimstone. Only annoying thing is tracking money and xp and stat with pen and paper but there are tons of Print Studio cards people made for the game that look really good.
We keep track of xp using an incremental counter app on my phone. Each tap ads 5xp and at the end of the mission, we just divide it among everyone -- it helps keep one person from running away in levels by killing everything.

In the Caverns of Cynder expansion, they have poker chips in 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 denominations that can be used for whatever.
 
Pretty much I will defer to the person who's teaching the game. Certainly no matter what the teaching method there will usually be some degree of hands-on play, so I'm not at all suggesting that the "right" way to learn is to just have someone read the rules out loud. I'm more referring to the sort of veto person who tries to impose their will even though the teacher has decided that a rules explanation of some sort is needed before playing with the shiny pieces.

Yeah for people learning the rules, they should really leave it up rule teacher.
 

Gurrry

Member
my copy of BattleCon Devastation of Indines came in today!

this game is so fucking awesome!

i need to come up with a good storage solution though.
 

espher

Member
BattleCON is amazing. Still one of my all time favourite 1v1 games. Devastation comes with ton of options, ton of extras, 1v1, 1v2, boss mode, co-op dungeon crawl etc. etc. And it can be combined with everything else BattleCON for even more insane variety.

It was the game that sold me on Level99 as a great board game producer.

I really need to check out Devastation. I think I got the first printing of War after I was surprisingly pleased with their Minigame Library, and it immediately clicked with me. I've heard way too many good things about Devastation, but that Canadian Dollar has me balking at purchasing anything (though I did back Millennium Blades). Maybe in 2017...

The extra modes and stuff are really appealing, though... haha.
 

nicoga3000

Saint Nic
Really like Shadows of Brimstone. Only annoying thing is tracking money and xp and stat with pen and paper but there are tons of Print Studio cards people made for the game that look really good.

Only played first intro mission and I feel like the best experience would be to do campaign game. My only reservation is the limited enemies and game might get boring, the combat while nice and simple lack depth of other miniatures game may be it will change with more items and ability unlock and level up. All in all the game is quite fun. The mini were a pain to put together but they are nice enough.

There are a lot of enemies once you start adding expansions and stuff. This picture is my stuff without a few of the newest retail releases (Town, Hydra, etc).

Regarding combat and stuff, it definitely has more going in the enemy packs. But the general out of box experience can be a bit shallow.

wxhmmlq.jpg
 

Xater

Member
I tried out the Pathfinder card game on iOS and is so not my thing. I suspected that though after I saw reviews of the board game back then.
 

Blizzard

Banned
Has anyone tried Burgle Bros? I finally ordered it from the creator's website.

I've seen mixed impressions but overall it sounds neat. One mechanic that confused people is that event cards are almost always bad, and they are intended as a punishment -- you can't do "meaningless" actions trying to stay in one spot, and staying can force you to take an event card.
 

Karkador

Banned
My friends sound like they've enjoyed Burgle Bros. It sounds like a Forbidden Island/Desert with more meat to it, but easy to get into. I'd like to play it sometime.
 

Blizzard

Banned
My friends sound like they've enjoyed Burgle Bros. It sounds like a Forbidden Island/Desert with more meat to it, but easy to get into. I'd like to play it sometime.
Warhammer Quest has been a bit of a disappointment. As I've described, I've never beaten even the first quest with 2 players or 4 players. That's even after reading up on strategy. After a while the randomness and crushing difficulty isn't even fun.

Given that, it may be a bad idea, but I still want to round out my collection with two other co-ops -- Burgle Bros (ordered) and Robinson Crusoe (once the Portal edition comes out). I just found out Robinson Crusoe had some free scenarios released! Maybe they'll get bundled with the new edition.
 

nicoga3000

Saint Nic
Warhammer Quest has been a bit of a disappointment. As I've described, I've never beaten even the first quest with 2 players or 4 players. That's even after reading up on strategy. After a while the randomness and crushing difficulty isn't even fun.

Given that, it may be a bad idea, but I still want to round out my collection with two other co-ops -- Burgle Bros (ordered) and Robinson Crusoe (once the Portal edition comes out). I just found out Robinson Crusoe had some free scenarios released! Maybe they'll get bundled with the new edition.

The digital version of WHQ is the only good way to play it anymore. We had a campaign for the boardgame years ago, but I remember how bad things could get. I missed a game night once and everyone got trapped in a room amd died because of a random event. I survived because I had other things to do that night, haha. Another time, a fire storm melted everyone's gold after a hugely rewarding quest.
 
The digital version of WHQ is the only good way to play it anymore. We had a campaign for the boardgame years ago, but I remember how bad things could get. I missed a game night once and everyone got trapped in a room amd died because of a random event. I survived because I had other things to do that night, haha. Another time, a fire storm melted everyone's gold after a hugely rewarding quest.

Think he might mean the new Warhammer Quest card game?
 

Karkador

Banned
This is probably gonna be the same thing you read in the guides for Warhammer Quest, but you have to squeeze as much as you can out of the mechanics.

  • Use any opportunity to hand out Aid tokens, as it can potentially be using one turn to make 3-4 turns useful.
  • Prioritize what enemies you attack, and try to leave them in the Shadows when you travel to new locations. You don't have to kill everything, and I think you get into needless trouble when you try to kill everything (there's no XP or loot to get from them, anyhow). You can also engage enemies away from other players, so they can focus on doing non-attack actions without risking damage.
  • Really try to figure out what the most efficient order of activation is when you do the monster's turns. The order does matter sometimes.
  • Explore a lot, as it gets you through the scenario (the goal of the game) and gets you useful equipment.
 

Blizzard

Banned
This is probably gonna be the same thing you read in the guides for Warhammer Quest, but you have to squeeze as much as you can out of the mechanics.

  • Use any opportunity to hand out Aid tokens, as it can potentially be using one turn to make 3-4 turns useful.
  • Prioritize what enemies you attack, and try to leave them in the Shadows when you travel to new locations. You don't have to kill everything, and I think you get into needless trouble when you try to kill everything (there's no XP or loot to get from them, anyhow). You can also engage enemies away from other players, so they can focus on doing non-attack actions without risking damage.
  • Really try to figure out what the most efficient order of activation is when you do the monster's turns. The order does matter sometimes.
  • Explore a lot, as it gets you through the scenario (the goal of the game) and gets you useful equipment.
Yup, we tried to do that in the 4-player version and even got lucky I felt (good locations, good equipment). We got the second-to-last location fully explored and tried to heal / ready / kill a few monsters before the final location would swamp us with enemies, but it still wasn't enough.

One tank had like 7 assist tokens but still got instantly killed in the last location because there are so many wounds. And we weren't even to the final peril level.
 
I bought FUSE on a lark in the Amazon sale since I needed a real-time game and it's intense, tough, but fun. Only done two-player so far but I'm hoping to try with more -- four will be easier mechanically but tougher on the communication front, so it should be a completely different experience.
 
I bought FUSE on a lark in the Amazon sale since I needed a real-time game and it's intense, tough, but fun. Only done two-player so far but I'm hoping to try with more -- four will be easier mechanically but tougher on the communication front, so it should be a completely different experience.

I really wanted to get it but missed out. Four player should be pretty crazy
 

Karkador

Banned
Yup, we tried to do that in the 4-player version and even got lucky I felt (good locations, good equipment). We got the second-to-last location fully explored and tried to heal / ready / kill a few monsters before the final location would swamp us with enemies, but it still wasn't enough.

One tank had like 7 assist tokens but still got instantly killed in the last location because there are so many wounds. And we weren't even to the final peril level.

Did you continue even after one character dies?
 

Blizzard

Banned
Did you continue even after one character dies?
Yep. The two tanks died first and the others were nearly dead, with 0 progress on the final location.

We could probably do some things BETTER if we tried it again, I'm just tired of losing so badly every time and I'd like a change of scenery if I'm playing co-op. :p I usually go competitive anyway.
 
Yep. The two tanks died first and the others were nearly dead, with 0 progress on the final location.

We could probably do some things BETTER if we tried it again, I'm just tired of losing so badly every time and I'd like a change of scenery if I'm playing co-op. :p I usually go competitive anyway.
I need to bring Warhammer Quest Adventures card game out again. I know the game is hard but I don't recall it was so crushing, especially with 4 characters. I can understand two characters can be difficult because of the lack of bodies to take in the enemies. Also there are limit on the aid tokens so you really should not have 7 on one characters.
 

Blizzard

Banned
I need to bring Warhammer Quest Adventures card game out again. I know the game is hard but I don't recall it was so crushing, especially with 4 characters. I can understand two characters can be difficult because of the lack of bodies to take in the enemies. Also there are limit on the aid tokens so you really should not have 7 on one characters.
Someone got lucky with an aid roll I think. The character already had maybe 2, and then they got 3-4 more I suppose? We were trying to stack because that person had an item that could burn the aid tokens to defend the person.

Unfortunately they died before they could use the item again. We do know about the 2-tokens-per-ability limit.
 

EYEL1NER

Member
So Tabletop Day is upon us again. No real plans here, I guess.
I've on,y been to one event so far and that was the 2014 event. I happened to be in the country and went to a store in Columbia to check it out. I ended up playing games for 15 hours straight that day. I was very tired and very hungry afterwards, but I was able to experience a lot of great games for the first time: King of Tokyo, Lords of Waterdeep, Alien Frontiers (instantly fell in love with that one), Takenoko, Quarriors, and more. It was just an all-around great day. Well, my wife was mighty upset when I returned home because I said I was only going to be gone for a while (I didn't know what to expect, I didn't even intend to game there; I planned on stopping in the store and then going to meet the local SCARAB gaming group for the first time at a library and if they seemed like good people, maybe continue gaming afterwards at someone house, so I said I would, be home by probably 9PM), but I got home at 4AM, so that being a great day still counts.

Anyway, last year I missed it but since I am back for good now, I have the opportunity to go again. This year a lot changed though. For one, they didn't have a way to advertise non-preferred store events on the TTD site until a couple days ago, so a lot of groups didnt advertise at all or won't even hold events. The promos are, for the most part, completely unappealing to me and are promos for games that I have almost zero interest in. The store I went to before is a preferred store and will have a huge event, but they are also doing a bunch of a MtG stuff and the only advertised thing that I would be interested in is King of Tokyo and KoNY tourneys for promos. The local store that I played Smash Up in last week isn't advertising any event and is doing MtG stuff. I thought about just loading up a bunch of games and going there but if the only people that are there are in the store to play Magic, it might be pretty lonely sitting somewhere out of the way with a stack of games in the floor next to me. Barnes and Noble are supposed to be hosting demos and events with promos, but as I said, the promos this year are not attractive to me.

So I don't know. They do have open gaming at that store in Columbia and I am sure that there will be a bunch of other people at that one looking to play all kinds of thing, but I just don't have any enthusiasm for tomorrow. I'll probably just stay home and look forward to learning Formula D on Tuesday. Here's hoping there are some great sales online, so I can buy more games instead of playing them. Although now that j think about it, I guess I could break out Legendary: Marvel tomorrow and try to learn it.
 
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