Damn, we just had an event at a local store where they basically stayed open all night for some marathon gaming. This woulda been pretty great there.
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New Board Gaming |OT2| On Tables, Off Topic
- Thread starter Karkador
- Start date
Damn, we just had an event at a local store where they basically stayed open all night for some marathon gaming. This woulda been pretty great there.
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
Just posted this on the BGG Facebook page:
For fans of Mage Knight...
How do you go about teaching it to new players? I two separate groups of friends who are interested in Mage Knight. Both groups are gamers and both groups play MtG. I'm not really worried about all the complex actions and such, but the game IS very daunting (even from a solo perspective). It's super easy to forget all the rules and all the steps.
I'm thinking the first step is to play a few solo games to refresh myself on the rules and the flow of a turn. Each game I want to focus on doing things I wouldn't normally do to make sure I know how to handle a given situation. Once I feel 100% comfortable with the rules again, I'm curious how to go about the task of helping someone ELSE learn it.
Note that this would be the base game. I've still not even tried either expansion (and I can't find Krang for a good price).
Thoughts/tips/ideas/experiences?
Also, for MK fans...Any idea if Krang will ever get a reprint?
For fans of Mage Knight...
How do you go about teaching it to new players? I two separate groups of friends who are interested in Mage Knight. Both groups are gamers and both groups play MtG. I'm not really worried about all the complex actions and such, but the game IS very daunting (even from a solo perspective). It's super easy to forget all the rules and all the steps.
I'm thinking the first step is to play a few solo games to refresh myself on the rules and the flow of a turn. Each game I want to focus on doing things I wouldn't normally do to make sure I know how to handle a given situation. Once I feel 100% comfortable with the rules again, I'm curious how to go about the task of helping someone ELSE learn it.
Note that this would be the base game. I've still not even tried either expansion (and I can't find Krang for a good price).
Thoughts/tips/ideas/experiences?
Also, for MK fans...Any idea if Krang will ever get a reprint?
-tetsuo-
Unlimited Capacity
With mage knight you just kinda have to throw em to the wolves. There is absolutely no way for someone to do anything close to optimal in their first game. Not even first few games. I would set everything up and go through a few mock turns, then just lay stuff like leveling and upgrades etc as you go along. Also i tend to guide people, just like " best options you have this turn" kind of stuff. Also, make sure you are very, very, very solid on the rules. I also tell everyone that the game has a lot going on, and it gets better and better as you play and understand it.
And yes krang us supposed to be getting a reprint. The lost legion xpac is fantastic if you can get your hands on it.
And yes krang us supposed to be getting a reprint. The lost legion xpac is fantastic if you can get your hands on it.
BattleMonkey
Member
Know the rules as well as you can, and always just do the intro scenario for MK.
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
I have Shades and Lost Legion, just haven't opened them. I'm bad at the base game, so I figured why over complicate it right yet. I've never won a scenario even!
joeyjoejoeshabadoo
Member
I have the UK/Pennsylvania map as well as the Asia pack. The U.K. Map gets pretty heavy at times. Not only are you building routes you are also building technologies to unlock other routes. It's a fairly heavy version of TTR and I'd only really recommend it to people used to playing TTR and want something more out of it. That being said, I love it.
Asia is fun, it mainly for team play but the Legendary Asia map is interesting too and can be played without teams. I do enjoy this one, but out of the two I just prefer the UK map.
antiquegamer
Member
I only taught this to one other person (my son) and he got it pretty quickly but he also plays a lot of games (both digital and physical). As someone suggest you can do a quick intro scenario in the base box, it does a pretty good job of introducing all the tile and locations. For first game I would just do cooperative Conquest and just let people explore their options and let them just learn. I think the hardest thing to understand is the combat, the blocking and taking damage. Also, I don't know about playing with more than 3, this game is AP inducing and the down time between turn can be huge.
From what I read, all the expansions and base game (they are all OOP) are suppose to get reprint and available this past July but I have yet to see any at my local store. I got Krang from UK store (via Amazon) last year when they did a small reprint of him (either that or they found some dead stock somewhere. I hope the MK stuffs were not part of the shipments by WizKids that went up in the fire with the train derailment last month. I got the Shades of Tezla expansion and still waiting for them to send me replacement parts. It seems the new Star Trek version of Mage Knight (Frontiers) is running low it sold out on CSI and all my local stores only one small sport card store have one in stock. (I am debating of picking this up since the streamline combat and movement might make it easier to teach and I play more than just solo game).
I went on couple of MeetUP this weekend and played lot of games both old and new.
Orleans - this is definitely my new favorite game. I went to get my own copy and even imported the expansion from Germany. (US version supposedly to be available in November or December, according to Tasty Minstrel they just send the digital file to printing company).
Alien Frontiers - First time I played this game and I though it was good but just a tad too long, though dice rolling and placing mechanic is one of my favorites. I didn't realize the game is 6 years old and also OOP.
Imhotep - I also get to play Imhotep with more than 2 for the first time and it is definitely a much better game with 4 players. The group seems to like it as a filler game that is light yet can require some thinking.
I also introduce to No Thanks. Trick taking, bidding and bluffing games are definitely not my type of games but this was very enjoyable with the group I played with.
Smash Up - a guy show me a drafting variants and well it was pretty fun. I never care for Smash Up but this was a very nice interesting twist. He told me my Smash Up experience would be better with expansions. I don't know if I want to spend more money on game I don't really care for (also I got it for super cheap on one of the Amazon sales)
7 Wonders Duel - we played this while we waiting to rope more people into Lords of Waterdeep. A guy I played against said he hates 7 Wonders but he ended up liking the Duel version.
Scythe - I want to give this another go but the two games running were already full with 5 players) This is definitely the new hotness at the our MeetUp.
In my moment of weakness (or Madness) I pick up Tides of Madnesss and Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition at 20% off , it was better than even on line price. Thanks Asmodee / FFG for price control (sarcastic by the way). We didn't enjoy the 1st edition at all of MoM but my in-law and his daughter love story telling game so may be this is something we can play at our get together next week. Should be fun playing this in creepy cabin in the woods.
I haven't read much about the new Rails and Sails but we do have the UK / Pennsylvania expansion and we really enjoy this one. The more casual players seems to not care for the tech tree of UK map, but they really like collecting stocks in the Pennsylvania game (go figure, a set collection game with more set collecting).
Gaming Truth
Member
Go with the expansions. This reminds me, I should post a list of what I played at GenCon.
Rails and Sails is extremely heavy. The board seems extremely tight, mainly because of the dual nature of paths. The depot system is nearly luck-based. Hand/card-management is a nightmare because, though pretty, rails and sail cards look extremely alike, especially when you only have corners exposed because of a fanned hand (they botched the corner iconography).
In my demo game of six players, four of us were into it and two of us tried to tap out. It was funny, the boyfriend of a couple tried to "speak up for us" and end the game, even though no one was waiting and he was speaking for the four of us who wanted to keep going.
For the four who liked it, it was an especially cutthroat race. As a player who reads a gaming forum about board games, I pantsed the competition by eating the single/1-space tracks early. Apparently, a lot of routes run through these narrow passageways. Who woulda thunk? 😜
I'd play it again, but I definitely don't recommend anyone buying it for MSRP $80, when there are so many good expansions out there.
The YT board-game reviewers have been really down on Rails & Sails so it must be quite bad, because they're generally enthusiastic about almost everything short of utter crap. Already heard several of them say it's the first TTR expansion (out of ALL of them) that they didn't like. Guess it's a pass for me.
Xater -- I did see that Last Friday review and yeah was similarly disappointed but not surprised. I watched an interview with a guy from the company I think and he just didn't really seem very knowledgeable.
It's kind of a KS issue too of don't trust designers who've done no or only forgettable games. Like I saw a KS recently (funded and then some btw) and the guy had designed like one game I'd never heard of and "loved talking about beer & games" (I think maybe he had a podcast or something). wtf!?! KS is so, so bad.
Xater -- I did see that Last Friday review and yeah was similarly disappointed but not surprised. I watched an interview with a guy from the company I think and he just didn't really seem very knowledgeable.
It's kind of a KS issue too of don't trust designers who've done no or only forgettable games. Like I saw a KS recently (funded and then some btw) and the guy had designed like one game I'd never heard of and "loved talking about beer & games" (I think maybe he had a podcast or something). wtf!?! KS is so, so bad.
toddhunter
Member
Thanks for the impressions.
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
One of the best board games ever IMHO. It really does reward skilled and knowledgable play. But it is incredibly daunting. A lot of rules. Check out the official FAQ and read through it after you've read the rules. The section about commonly missed rules is very helpful.
I don't know about chicago area, but madison wi has two cons.
one is geek.kon a smaller con, but the local stores provide a lot of games for the game room, and since it is typically less than a month after gen con you get people bringing in some games from gen con.
it also has a dedicated board game conference Game Hole con in novemeber, but I haven't managed to go to it yet.
sorry I can't help more just know madison is only a few hours away from chicago
Power Grid The Card Game is looking good: https://opinionatedgamers.com/2016/07/12/dale-yu-essen-16-preview-of-power-grid-the-card-game/
As a Power Grid fan I was already interested but now I think I'll get it. It basically is Power Grid without the board and way quicker.
As a Power Grid fan I was already interested but now I think I'll get it. It basically is Power Grid without the board and way quicker.
Big list of cons here: https://boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Game_Conventions
Looks like a good amount of medium-size ones if you're just looking for open gaming: https://boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Game_Conventions
Castef
Banned
102 points? °_°
Oh, wow!
This usually happens during the first games, when players are looking for good combos and not actively ruining other player's combos...
Give it some time, maximum scores will lower...
Bought Terra Mystica last weekend. Sadly with all the explaining that comes with teaching a new game we didn't finish our first game. Still of course some questions arose.
The beginning seemed really slow and apparently didn't have much variation. Is that because we played the recommended first time layout? Because for a game that is restricted to six rounds it would be kind of disappointing when the entire first round always consist of the same actions.
How well does this play with only 2 people? From what I saw the mechanics seems to rely heavily on the getting power through neighbors aspect. Something that I can see being reduced drastically when only playing with two.
The beginning seemed really slow and apparently didn't have much variation. Is that because we played the recommended first time layout? Because for a game that is restricted to six rounds it would be kind of disappointing when the entire first round always consist of the same actions.
How well does this play with only 2 people? From what I saw the mechanics seems to rely heavily on the getting power through neighbors aspect. Something that I can see being reduced drastically when only playing with two.
Yep, I'm interested, too, even though I love Power Grid and have no problem with its playtime. But a "Mini Power Grid" sounds good to have when you want to fill the bag with other big games.
What is odd about it is that they went with removing the map instead of the auctions. Most people I meet who don't like Power Grid say it's because of the auctions.
Just like Robinson Crusoe Its a fantastic game with a horrible rulebook.
I actually love the auction part, but I also just think that auctioning is a great mechanism. The map can be very strategic or just filled with obvious decisions. That part is often hit or miss with me depending on what map I am playing on and how the other players play. So yeah a Power Grid Light just seems cool. Like you say, if you have that Power Grid itch, but kinda also want to play another big game on the same day.
There was one that started this year in the city but I didn't go and I'm not sure how it went.
The best Con in the Midwest is Geekway in St. Louis Missouri. Then you have Origins and GenCon. In Ohio and Indiana respectively. GrandCon in Michigan is pretty good too.
There is an upcoming designer convention in Itasca Illinois.
I'm actually looking for an excuse to go to Chicago specifically, and if I can arrange it to coincide with board gaming con, all the better.
Thanks, I'll check this out later!
EYEL1NER
Member
Just got back from game night. We played Exploding Kittens and Escape: Curse of the Temple. We also had One Night: Ultimate Werewolf (plus Daybreak) and Coup lined up to play, and I was excited about finally playing Coup (since I've owned it and Reformation for two years and haven't tried it), but no one showed up besides myself and two regulars. So it was just Kittens and Escape.
Exploding Kittens was what I expected. Not a bad game, just a simple small time waster. I'm glad I learned it though since I own it. I want to teach my wife and daughter because I think it would be a fun game to play after dinner for a couple rounds or so.
Escape was hectic, as expected also. Even after reading the rules earlier and watching two tutorials, I still got a rule wrong though. We weren't setting aside dice that we wanted to use later. Like rolling two keys and setting them aside to use when teamed up with someone else on a gem room? We weren't setting anything aside, just retooling repeatedly until we had nothing but cursed dice. I think in two games we only activated five gems total? So that made it hard. Plus there was only three of us; we definintly needed a full set of people going at it. I'll keep it on the backburner and try it again sometime soon.
Next week I'm taking in PitchCar. It'll be the first time playing it since buying it and all expansions earlier in the year. Hopefully people show up to play, but I'm doubtful. I'll come up with a good simple course though, without too much flashy stuff like jumps yet, and see how it goes over.
Exploding Kittens was what I expected. Not a bad game, just a simple small time waster. I'm glad I learned it though since I own it. I want to teach my wife and daughter because I think it would be a fun game to play after dinner for a couple rounds or so.
Escape was hectic, as expected also. Even after reading the rules earlier and watching two tutorials, I still got a rule wrong though. We weren't setting aside dice that we wanted to use later. Like rolling two keys and setting them aside to use when teamed up with someone else on a gem room? We weren't setting anything aside, just retooling repeatedly until we had nothing but cursed dice. I think in two games we only activated five gems total? So that made it hard. Plus there was only three of us; we definintly needed a full set of people going at it. I'll keep it on the backburner and try it again sometime soon.
Next week I'm taking in PitchCar. It'll be the first time playing it since buying it and all expansions earlier in the year. Hopefully people show up to play, but I'm doubtful. I'll come up with a good simple course though, without too much flashy stuff like jumps yet, and see how it goes over.
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
Finally got a game of Agility in with the wife. What a neat game. Really happy I Kickstarted it. The world needs more lightly complex introductory 2p games. I have Patchwork. Any other solid 2p games that aren't crazy complex or super competitive?
Escape & PitchCar are two of my favourite games, despite them being "light" overall, for how well they scale & grab attention with folk... The first game of both can be hard for sure, especially Escape, just for getting the rules/timing down internally. We've had a ton of fun with Escape over lunchtime at work. You'll have an easier time with PitchCar, I'd expect, and it just grabs attention when it's on the table, even with a straightforward layout (which you're right to start with). Don't worry about being "correct" with rules/positioning, just be consistent, keep the game moving, and make sure folk have fun.
It's been a hit with every single one of my kids' friends, regardless of their interest in games otherwise, heh.
cooltrainer
Member
I agree that there needs to be more 2p games that are in that medium-light category that is easy to play but has some depth to it. I'l have to check out Agility. Jaipur is pretty good. You collect and trade different goods that you can trade in for chips. The first chips are worth more points but you get bonuses for trading in more, so there is some tension there but the game is pretty light. I love Battle Line too but it can get kinda tense and thinky, Lost Cities feels similar to that but less strategic.
Mansions of Madness 2E is a lot of fun! We played on the easiest scenario, and we definitely cruised, but my group has rarely been so "into" the story of a game. The app aspect added a lot of mystery and fun, and I really appreciated the seemingly "randomness" of it all. Thumbs up!
For 2-player games, I've played Jaipur but the glaring orange and pink presentation is not my favorite. I prefer Biblios (which actually has an auction mechanic that works with 2 players, and can work up to 4) or 7 Wonders Duel (which may be more competitive than you want).
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
My wife and I aren't big into super competitive. Actively trying to crush your opponent isn't a theme I like.
Falling Sky is my favorite in the series (so far); it's immensely playable. When you're ready to take that next step up, Liberty or Death and A Distant Plain are both good ways to elevate the complexity of the system (depending on your taste in setting). That said, when Pendragon comes out, it's going to blow COIN players' minds, both veteran and novice. Cannot wait.
Me neither. We still don't mind 7 Wonders Duel, but I think Biblios is a bit nicer. Dominion + Prosperity can be fun if you don't play with attack cards.My wife and I aren't big into super competitive. Actively trying to crush your opponent isn't a theme I like.
-tetsuo-
Unlimited Capacity
Man we have been on a roll ordering some great games lately. First Scythe was a bug hit with us, then we git Arcadia Quest and loved that as well (even if it gets one of us Very upset). Now, even though we haven't played it, just opening and seeing and reading the rules of Millennium Blades is enough to let me know this is going to be hilarious to play. Majority of us were heavy in MtG, YGO etc.
Pendragon and A Distaint Plain both look cool. That said part of what makes FS so good is that the map is not overly huge and it is not overly complex. By the time I get into a new one though hopefully I will know the system well enough to take a step up. I am accidentally learning a lot of history playing this game. I look up the stuff on the cards and read about what they are based on. Very fun stuff.
http://boardgamegeekstore.com/ updated, they have Scythe Promo Pack 2 and a few other cool promos! That came with the Kickstarter copy (along with Promo Pack 1) but if you bought it retail like I did, jump on it. If you picked up Scythe at Gen Con, it came with Promo Pack 1 BTW.
You guys are gonna love Millennium Blades with that background. It's a really cool game!
You guys are gonna love Millennium Blades with that background. It's a really cool game!
-tetsuo-
Unlimited Capacity
We are just using the base gane and the first hero pack to start, then will probably add an NPC pack and some artist stuff when we get to Wulsburg. How rasy is the game, in general? We are typically not that interested in games that are too easy and all of us are generally pretty good at games.
I think it's easier than base zombicide was, but I wouldn't call it EASY.
We tend to randomize our characters and add extra necromancer to make it more difficult. Adding extra spawns or playing down a player would also work.
Only heard about this recently through Shut up and Sit Down, now im hyped for a UK distributor to have it in stock!
Castef
Banned
By the way, my game Potion Explosion has been included in the Game Informer list of the most notable games at Gen Con 2016.
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
By the way, my game Potion Explosion has been included in the Game Informer list of the most notable games at Gen Con 2016.
I thought I remember a GAF member posting about this being their game a while ago....
Castef
Banned
Yep, preordered. Getting great hype -- congrats!By the way, my game Potion Explosion has been included in the Game Informer list of the most notable games at Gen Con 2016.
Small picture of my new boardgame, Potion Explosion. It will be at the Essen fair and should be available worldwide right after the fair.
I had to dig up his first mention way back when. Grats on the success!
Why is GAF so damn talented?
By the way, my game Potion Explosion has been included in the Game Informer list of the most notable games at Gen Con 2016.
You are one of two games I bought at GenCon!
I haven't played it yet, but huge congrats! Do you ever make cons in the states?
We should meet at some point!