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[ultron87]

The Robber actually gives the village team a lot of info. They know they switched and what they now are and who is now the robber. If they switched with another village team card they should absolutely speak up and say who they switched with, as that sets up an easy trust between two players by the robber confirming with the other person what they are. If no one speaks up as the robber you end with two scenarios: either they switched with a wolf and now there's multiple liars from people who are werewolves and who now just think they are werewolves, or the robber is in the middle. If you combine that with the Seer (who should always look two of the center cards, imo) the village team starts off with a pretty solid base of information.

We usually just start by calling out each of the roles and giving people chances to claim them, since this either leads to the wolves fighting another player as they both claim to be a role or a story coming together that the other team then needs to figure out some way to logic their way out of. The really important thing with this game is that people can't be shy with the info they have or the roles they are. If you've played normal Werewolf before you might have that instinct to hide what you are, but that helps no one in this, since there isn't a second night coming up for you to get murdered on.

I agree that the Troublemaker is a little too random for a starting group. Though it leads to some really fun tricks where you can do stuff like pretend to have switched people to try and get werewolves to reveal themselves as they no longer think they are a werewolf.

It often still comes down to who you believe and who you don't, and I actually think who wins and loses kind of isn't important which might seem weird. The arguments and ridiculous logic chains that develop are really fun for me.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Random feel? Wut? The games aren't random at all. Unless you don't even try and bother to analyze who voted what and who was on which team before you pick people

? Games over after the vote what is there to analyze? And whatever roles dealt out, there's late uncertainty factor with the many roles and with card changing and swapping it becomes very randomized. A couple ppl at table might have a clue? Too bad their role was swapped around and the vote has a large luck factor suddenly

 

[Neverfade]

No one person has all the information sure, but that would be incredibly stupid of the game to do. Between the seer, the robber, the insomniac, the masons, and the werewolves/minions, there's enough information for people to deduce enough information to get the ball rolling.

 

[antiquegamer]

How is Pandemic? I saw it on clearance at Target and it looks interesting.

 

[ultron87]

Pandemic is wonderful. It is a great co-op game and is fantastic for introducing people to the hobby.

 

[Smiley90]

Opened Terra Mystica

holy shit that's a lot of differently coloured wooden..... things.... LOL

EDIT: ALL THE PUNCH-OUTS

ALL THE BOARDS

ALL THE WOODEN CUBES AND BLOCKS AND THINGS

HUGE MANUAL


I'll probably never play this game but oh my god this production value is amazing

 

[AstroLad]

How is Pandemic? I saw it on clearance at Target and it looks interesting.

Wow clearance? Fantastic game. You're reminding me of how I first got into this hobby which was a clearance RoboRally at a bookstore.

 

[HIGH DEF JEFF]

? Games over after the vote what is there to analyze? And whatever roles dealt out, there's late uncertainty factor with the many roles and with card changing and swapping it becomes very randomized. A couple ppl at table might have a clue? Too bad their role was swapped around and the vote has a large luck factor suddenly

When I first started up my monthly game night I bought all of the popular bluffing games. Resistance, Avalon, Coup, One Night Werewolf, Werewolf Inquisition, Ultimate Werewolf, Masquerade, Are you a Traitor?

At this point we have only played OG Resistance without the expansion cards. Everyone loves it. This Saturday I wanted to play one of the Werewolf games and One Night will not be the one we play. I really do not like the role swapping. I also do not like how the deduction begins..."Well I am "role" and I moved these two cards", "I am this role and I swapped my card with that card". I like games where you are given a role and you know what you are all the way through. Maybe thats too simple for some but I prefer to bluff with the knowledge of what i was dealt.

-EDIT-
Also..the swapping of roles doesnt fit a narrative. Maybe its silly but when we played Resistance we started making up shit about the missions we were going on. All with the knowledge of who we really are. With One Night there isn't really anyway to tell a story..I am a Troublemaker so I magically swapped what type of person you are.

 

[sasimirobot]

About one night werewolf, just played again the other night, great game! Our group has played enough and know all the bluffs and tells, we come to agreement more tan 75 percent of the time it seems. Maybe you guys are thinking too much? We always play drunk and the spirits are high, it's almost more of social observations than a game even.

 

[HIGH DEF JEFF]

About one night werewolf, just played again the other night, great game! Our group has played enough and know all the bluffs and tells, we come to agreement more tan 75 percent of the time it seems. Maybe you guys are thinking too much? We always play drunk and the spirits are high, it's almost more of social observations than a game even.

Like I said..I do not like the role swapping. Nothing against bluffing..I don't care if 3 people say they are the same role..as long as they have knowledge of what they are.
Because of that I'd rather just play regular Ultimate Werewolf.

 

[AstroLad]

I've tried so many but I think I really hate social deduction games. I just can't get comfortable with it. This is why I like Netrunner where you can basically bluff through your actions rather than having to sweet talk/convince people (though some subtle misdirection can help).

 

[HIGH DEF JEFF]

I've tried so many but I think I really hate social deduction games. I just can't get comfortable with it. This is why I like Netrunner where you can basically bluff through your actions rather than having to sweet talk/convince people (though some subtle misdirection can help).

My group, including me, are totally new to the bluffing games. Every month we were playing party games like Wits and Wagers and Telestrations. Somehow The Resistance just clicked for us when we tried it. It took 3 rounds for it to make sense for everyone..once everyone realized how simple the mechanics of the game were they could just have fun busting each others balls and accusing people of being the spy. I know that's probably everyones story of what happens when one of these games clicks but for me it was fun to see because I didn't think the knuckleheads I play with would get into it as much as they did.

 

[Pau]

I actually really like Masquerade and games where roles are swapped. I do a better job of keeping up with everyone's roles than I do in something like Resistance where I can't read anyone. Except for Karkador, who is always, always evil.

How is Pandemic? I saw it on clearance at Target and it looks interesting.

I cannot do well in this game. I have yet to lose a game of Space Hulk: Death Angel, but Pandemic destroys me. So does Forbidden Desert. Maybe I'm just terrible at co-op games that don't feature space marines.

 

[Smiley90]

I don't think I've lost a single game of Forbidden Island yet.

... I tend to be the guy that ruins coop games by planning too much though, so I purposely don't play them often.

 

[-tetsuo-]

Netrunner players chime in. I am playing one friend mostly off of one core set. He only plays Corp so I only over get to play runner. Was it a thing for the criminal faction to have trouble making comeback? It seems that once he gets set up (Haas-Biroid), there is almost nothing I can do? I can get a few runs in early and maybe score some agendas. But, once he starts putting up the ICE wall I can make maybe one or two runs and that burns through all of my money and resources. The very last game we played I played completely differently. I just sat back and stacked up Crypsis counters and money as best as I could to run at his remote when the time to score them was needed. It went down to his last card and both of us needed one agenda to win, but every single server was 3 stacked with ICE.

 

[BomberMouse]

So what's everyone favorite medium weight games of the last two years?

I've been eyeing Lewis and Clark, seem pretty fun but very AP prone.

 

[Smiley90]

So what's everyone favorite medium games of the last two years?

I've been eyeing Lewis and Clark, seem pretty fun but very AP prone.

Does 7 Wonders count as a medium game?

What's a medium game?

If it doesn't, then Lords of Waterdeep for sure. GREAT entry-level worker placement with some theme.

 

[Phthisis]

So what's everyone favorite medium games of the last two years?

I've been eyeing Lewis and Clark, seem pretty fun but very AP prone.

As someone who has sort of lost interest with your standard Euro game in the last couple months, I find Lewis & Clark to be quite good, even with the AP element. Once you get a few turns in, people start to understand how they're supposed to play and what the game expects of them, so it speeds up when everyone is familiar.

 

[BomberMouse]

Does 7 Wonders count as a medium game?

What's a medium game?

If it doesn't, then Lords of Waterdeep for sure. GREAT entry-level worker placement with some theme.

For me medium is like Agricola basic game or Suburbia. I guess 7 wonders is medium light, which is fine. It's from 2010 though.

As someone who has sort of lost interest with your standard Euro game in the last couple months, I find Lewis & Clark to be quite good, even with the AP element. Once you get a few turns in, people start to understand how they're supposed to play and what the game expects of them, so it speeds up when everyone is familiar.

Thanks, bought. I'm on the verge of buying it, specially since to be becoming harder to find.

 

[Phthisis]

Thanks, bought. I'm on the verge of buying it, specially since to be becoming harder to find.

Plus, DAT ART

 

[zulux21]

So what's everyone favorite medium games of the last two years?

I've been eyeing Lewis and Clark, seem pretty fun but very AP prone.

not exactly sure what a medium game is... so I will just list the games that have gotten the most play/enjoyment out of my group.
red dragon inn
marvel legendary
pathfinder the card game
hanabi

 

[BomberMouse]

I just realized, I meant medium weight, sorry. Sleep deprived me is dumb.

 

[Affeinvasion]

My favorites that I own from the past two years would be thunderstone advance, valley of the kings, and seasons. Even though I hesitate to call most deckbuilders medium weight, I think the theme of thunderstone and the strategic complexity of valley of the kings puts it in that category. Seasons is easily one of the best medium weight games ever, so that's a pretty easy choice.

 

[BomberMouse]

My favorites that I own from the past two years would be thunderstone advance, valley of the kings, and seasons. Even though I hesitate to call most deckbuilders medium weight, I think the theme of thunderstone and the strategic complexity of valley of the kings puts it in that category. Seasons is easily one of the best medium weight games ever, so that's a pretty easy choice.

Checking out seasons now. I never caught my interest in pictures, let's see if Rahdo changes my mind.

 

[Affeinvasion]

Checking out seasons now. I never caught my interest in pictures, let's see if Rahdo changes my mind.

He complains about how mean it is which completely boggles my mind until I remembered that he prefers the kinds of Euro games where you play solitaire for two hours and then compare scores.

 

[Apenheul]

Opened Terra Mystica

holy shit that's a lot of differently coloured wooden..... things.... LOL

EDIT: ALL THE PUNCH-OUTS

ALL THE BOARDS

ALL THE WOODEN CUBES AND BLOCKS AND THINGS

HUGE MANUAL


I'll probably never play this game but oh my god this production value is amazing

You will play this game because it's awesome, easy to learn and doesn't take long. The only reason my group doesn't play it often anymore is because we figured out the optimal strategy for one of the races and nobody knows how to counteract or do something better.

So what's everyone favorite medium weight games of the last two years?

That'd be Terra Mystica or Archipelago for me.

 

[Lyng]

So what's everyone favorite medium weight games of the last two years?

I've been eyeing Lewis and Clark, seem pretty fun but very AP prone.

I really enjoy Lewis and Clark. In fact so much that it is in my top 10.
However my favourite game of all time actually also fits in your category: Yedo. That game blew me away.

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

So what's everyone favorite medium weight games of the last two years?

I've been eyeing Lewis and Clark, seem pretty fun but very AP prone.

Not going to lie, Lewis and Clark can drag pretty bad. It's a good game with some neat mechanics but it can really lock even non AP prone people up. If you get it, I'd suggest just playing it with 3, maybe 4 max.

 

[BattleMonkey]

About one night werewolf, just played again the other night, great game! Our group has played enough and know all the bluffs and tells, we come to agreement more tan 75 percent of the time it seems. Maybe you guys are thinking too much? We always play drunk and the spirits are high, it's almost more of social observations than a game even.

We've all loved Avalon, Resistance, Coup, Masquerade, but One Night we just thought was the worst. Those are all just as simple and better games we think, One Night just feels kinda pointless when certain roles essentially remove any good deduction session you potentially can have.

 

[Slacker]

So what's everyone favorite medium weight games of the last two years?.

The Manhattan Project (worker placement/interaction) is definitely my favorite recent release. Quantum (area control/tactics) is really good too. And I've gotten a lot of use out of Carcassonne: South Seas (Carcassonne).

Edit: Oh and speaking of Carcassonne, the new Hills and Sheep expansion is quite good too. Edit again: And I've had fun playing Mice & Mystics with the kids.

 

[Neverfade]

RE: Favorite medium-ish games of past couple years:

Istanbul and Concordia for 2014 for sure. Both are fantastic.

Last year's best was definitely Kemet for me.

 

[Phthisis]

He complains about how mean it is which completely boggles my mind until I remembered that he prefers the kinds of Euro games where you play solitaire for two hours and then compare scores.

He also does a lot of paid Kickstarter previews where he never says anything negative about the games he features, so his credibility is absolute zero with me. Stopped watching him.

 

[AstroLad]

Netrunner players chime in. I am playing one friend mostly off of one core set. He only plays Corp so I only over get to play runner. Was it a thing for the criminal faction to have trouble making comeback? It seems that once he gets set up (Haas-Biroid), there is almost nothing I can do? I can get a few runs in early and maybe score some agendas. But, once he starts putting up the ICE wall I can make maybe one or two runs and that burns through all of my money and resources. The very last game we played I played completely differently. I just sat back and stacked up Crypsis counters and money as best as I could to run at his remote when the time to score them was needed. It went down to his last card and both of us needed one agenda to win, but every single server was 3 stacked with ICE.

Netrunner thread might have more thoughts for you but Criminals generally and especially core criminals are all about early aggression. Siphon can completely cripple a Corp, especially one with a decent amount of Big Ice like HB. And Sneakdoor Gabe gives you multiple ways to get into HQ. If you are splashing cards, I'd add at least a Corroder and some Maker's Eyes. Datasuckers are also incredible for Gabe. You can even go Datasucker + Parasites and kill that Big Ice. Or go Datasucker + Yog & Mimic and have really efficient breakers along with Corroder. Crim is all about snowballing that early aggression. If you're able to get into HQ, get 3 with Gabe + Desperado, and a couple datasuckers you can use the Corp is mostly screwed at that point.

But even if you are not deckbuilding at all early attacks are still the key. Don't overpay for single accesses from R&D unless you really need to or are getting lots of bonus effects like datasuckers. Crypsis is good for early flexibility but you probably don't want to be using him late against someone who has deep servers because he's just so inefficient. Exploit any openings you can get early but when centrals get pricier don't feel like you have to just be running every turn. It's not bad to stack up that money sometimes.

 

[antiquegamer]

Thanks for input on Pandemic. I think Target was looking for the next Ticket to Ride and Catan. They also like to do random clearing that depends on store and dept. manager.

They have couple other games on clearance but they look terrible Indy car game, the Simpson and DC hero game.

 

[AstroLad]

He complains about how mean it is which completely boggles my mind until I remembered that he prefers the kinds of Euro games where you play solitaire for two hours and then compare scores.

Are you kidding me? That is actually one of my biggest complaints with the game is that the level of abstractness and player independence is just a bit too much for my taste. It really is a pretty legit cube-pusher. There are a handful of gotcha cards but meanness isn't even close to a key theme. It's all about creating a cube engine basically. The art is incredible too.

 

[Affeinvasion]

Are you kidding me? That is actually one of my biggest complaints with the game is that the level of abstractness and player independence is just a bit too much for my taste. It really is a pretty legit cube-pusher. There are a handful of gotcha cards but meanness isn't even close to a key theme. It's all about creating a cube engine basically. The art is incredible too.

Absolutely. He notes that the theme is pasted on which doesn't bother him, but having 1 out of every 5 cards be an "attack" card is too mean for him. I guess I've just played too much cosmic encounter and Spartacus. I just can't even fathom seasons as being a mean player interaction game.

 

[Neverfade]

Rahdo drives me crazy. Nice guy, but he's the epitome of 'Yes, we got that rule you've mentioned 20 times, get the fuck on with it'.

Also Brink sucked.

 

[ultron87]

My big complaint with Seasons would be that it does that thing where you draft cards at the start and can be totally screwed from before Turn 1 even starts. I totally love card drafting, but that isn't the way to do it.

 

[blindrocket]

Betrayal at house on the hill is back in stock at CSI but no longer with a discount.

 

[BomberMouse]

Wow, I thought most people liked rahdo here since I saw him mentioned a few pages ago.

I think he is ok. Sadly there's nothing better out there with Scott Nicholson long gone from reviews. UFBRT being another retired favorite. Tom is just the worst and relies too heavily on high fantasy which I despise.

 

[AstroLad]

Wow, I thought most people liked rahdo here since I saw him mentioned a few pages ago.

I think he is ok. Sadly there's nothing better out there with Scott Nicholson long gone from reviews. UFBRT being another retired favorite. Tom is just the worst and relies too heavily on high fantasy which I despise.

haha scott was so entertaining. still remember getting over the hump on learning agricola from his video. that was back when i had almost no experience in board games and the rulebook was just gibberish to me.

I don't really watch any video reviews but yeah tom does have very specific taste (big dice tower podcast fan though). he really doesn't try to be impartial like some reviewers which might be a good thing if your tastes align. if i'm really on the fence i'll rely on BGG reviews and hope there's more than one.

 

[Neverfade]

MiWi walkthroughs: the best to ever do it.

Unfortunately his turn out is nil compared to content giants like Tom or Rahdo.

 

[BomberMouse]

haha scott was so entertaining. still remember getting over the hump on learning agricola from his video. that was back when i had almost no experience in board games and the rulebook was just gibberish to me.

I don't really watch any video reviews but yeah tom does have very specific taste (big dice tower podcast fan though). he really doesn't try to be impartial like some reviewers which might be a good thing if your tastes align. if i'm really on the fence i'll rely on BGG reviews and hope there's more than one.

I also learned Agricola from Scott's video, he was GOAT. Have to take a look at his games one day.

I do like that Tom is very upfront about his tastes, they just don't align with me and when I watch his reviews I feel like I learn very little. They are short at least, 30+ min reviews are ridic.

 

[Affeinvasion]

I also learned Agricola from Scott's video, he was GOAT. Have to take a look at his games one day.

I do like that Tom is very upfront about his tastes, they just don't align with me and when I watch his reviews I feel like I learn very little. They are short at least, 30+ min reviews are ridic.

What about Ryan Metzler? I think he's very good.

 

[BomberMouse]

What about Ryan Metzler? I think he's very good.

I usually ignored him along with the board game boy (?) and the other collaborators. Will take a look.

 

[Affeinvasion]

I usually ignored him along with the board game boy (?) and the other collaborators. Will take a look.

Not generally a bad idea but Ryan is the best of the bunch.

 

[Phthisis]

I prefer Ricky Royal and Joel Eddy myself. The former because of his delightfully soothing British narration and the latter because he seems like a cool dude and he keeps it real.

 

[XShagrath]

What about Ryan Metzler? I think he's very good.

I find Ryan's videos very pleasant, and his tastes (very euro-centric) tend to mesh with mine very well. I also like Joel with Drive Thru Reviews.

 

[-tetsuo-]

Netrunner thread might have more thoughts for you but Criminals generally and especially core criminals are all about early aggression. Siphon can completely cripple a Corp, especially one with a decent amount of Big Ice like HB. And Sneakdoor Gabe gives you multiple ways to get into HQ. If you are splashing cards, I'd add at least a Corroder and some Maker's Eyes. Datasuckers are also incredible for Gabe. You can even go Datasucker + Parasites and kill that Big Ice. Or go Datasucker + Yog & Mimic and have really efficient breakers along with Corroder. Crim is all about snowballing that early aggression. If you're able to get into HQ, get 3 with Gabe + Desperado, and a couple datasuckers you can use the Corp is mostly screwed at that point.

But even if you are not deckbuilding at all early attacks are still the key. Don't overpay for single accesses from R&D unless you really need to or are getting lots of bonus effects like datasuckers. Crypsis is good for early flexibility but you probably don't want to be using him late against someone who has deep servers because he's just so inefficient. Exploit any openings you can get early but when centrals get pricier don't feel like you have to just be running every turn. It's not bad to stack up that money sometimes.

I think I figured out what my main problem is. Like I said, I could get in there early pretty much every game and get some credits with Gabe but once the ice started stacking up, it was pretty much over. I changed my style, built up resources until he started dropping Agendas behind ICE and taking them but I ran out of steam. I ran out of steam because, besides Femme, the criminal core icebreakers suck.. Crypsis is good, but he is very, very inefficient late game. He is my only way past code gates. Well, I looked at Gordian blade and was like wow wtf is this not in my deck. Same with corroder.

I have datasuckers in there already because they kind of seems like a no brainer. I will go back and do some more editing. My Icebreakers were just way too expensive to have any kind of sustainability.

 

[AstroLad]

yep exactly. if you have datasuckers you can even run yog over gordian. yog + mimic + 3x datasuckers is brutal.