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[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

This is the problem I'm facing. I really want to try games with a heavy narrative, like mansions of madness for example, but my game group is not used to story in games, or playing a role.

Are there good games to ease them into those types of narrative heavy games? I don't want to overwhelm them with tons of reading and dialogue.

Above and Below might be what you are after. The game mostly revolves around resource/set collection but there is a good amount of storytelling in the game.

 

[AstroLad]

Unseen Forces I think made the difficulty just right. I don't think we ever lost to the core game after we know how to play Elder Sign. I finally opened the mini POD expansion Grave Consequences and added to Gates and was really surprised and how well it integrated into the game. If you played Arkham Horror, it sort of like the Madness and Injury deck. It's a fun little addition that give the game more narrative that said it is a litttle pricey retail becaude you essentially just getting three small mini decks.

That's cool. For some reason I've always passed over Grave Consequences. Maybe because the star/BGG reviews are relatively middling? But maybe they're just that way b/c of the lack of content for the money (not a huge deal for me; all about quality anyway). Speaking of just-right difficulty...have you played Gates of Arkham? I actually think UF is still a bit too easy for the most part (though still a good improvement over base) but Gates puts you in AH/EH territory in terms of difficulty imo (then again, might not be what everyone is looking for). The new mechanic of face-down adventures is wonderful too. I'll put Grave Consequences into my next CSI order or pick it up next time I'm at Game Kastle though.

 

[Vard]

I ended up getting Steam Time and the Time Stories Egypt expansion from the MM sale, but I'm gifting both of those. I was close to getting in on the $39 Keyflower too, but by the time I checked out it was out of stock (and I placed my order like 5 minutes after the sale went live). It wasn't meant to be.

 

[Blizzard]

No one at Halloween game night brought or attempted betrayal at house on the hill, despite the host's one night permission. That game truly is 2spooky for us.

 

[BlewHedgehog]

No one at Halloween game night brought or attempted betrayal at house on the hill, despite the host's one night permission. That game truly is 2spooky for us.

Hopefully you have a bunch of other cool games to share about later. Betrayal was a hit among my friends when we discovered BGs a few years ago. We tried it again last weekend and it fell flat for everyone. The first half of the game is unfocused because no one knows who the adversary is yet. I've heard it's for powering up your character, but when I explored, I just found holes in the floor to fall into. Depending on whether you want a betrayer or not, Dead of Winter and A Touch of Evil are the games I'd prefer for a Halloween gathering.

After loving One Night Ultimate Werewolf to death for the last 2 years, I finally bit on a copy of Vampire. That was weird. I can't tell if the game is bad or if we just haven't wrapped our brains around the new roles yet. It seems difficult to win as the vampire team when so few roles do any card swapping. It was worth the price of admission for the Cupid role alone. My best friend of 14 years and I woke up together as lovers and immediately blew our cover by breaking down in laughter. There must be an easy way of incorporating Cupid into the Werewolf games...

Also, Potion Explosion! It keeps breaking when we try to take it out of the box, but it's soooo good!

 

[EmpressInYellow]

Hopefully you have a bunch of other cool games to share about later. Betrayal was a hit among my friends when we discovered BGs a few years ago. We tried it again last weekend and it fell flat for everyone. The first half of the game is unfocused because no one knows who the adversary is yet. I've heard it's for powering up your character, but when I explored, I just found holes in the floor to fall into.

That's pretty much what the first part is for, yeah - well, that and revealing more of the house, since it's possible/likely that you'll need access to certain rooms to win the haunt, and that can be a real pain in the ass if they haven't been revealed yet.

 

[Neverfade]

Finally got Orleans to the table. It exceeded my expectations by a fair bit. I'd say it's got a chance of making it into my top echelon of dry-ass-euros.

Bonus: Took so long to play it that I don't have to wait very long for the expansion.

 

[Blizzard]

Hopefully you have a bunch of other cool games to share about later. Betrayal was a hit among my friends when we discovered BGs a few years ago. We tried it again last weekend and it fell flat for everyone

Unfortunately I brought out one of my favorite games, Libertalia, but my girlfriend got really annoyed by a guy there and left early. I only played Libertalia and Mysterium before heading out myself.

The guy doesn't usually seem so competitive and annoying, and it was extra frustrating for some reason. He was making snarky comments or tangents when you would ask questions or try to explain cards.

*edit*
On the bright side, I'm still obsessed over Feast for Odin, and I'm reading good impressions of the solo mode even from people who don't often like solo. You play alternate turns with different color meeples which block you, so there's some neat strategy involved.

On the unbright side, I'm the only one into Feast for Odin in this thread. =P

 

[DTU]

I am obsessed with Star Wars: Destiny. So much fun.

 

[AbsolutBro]

Played Fury of Dracula for the first time and man that was fun. I was Dracula. I messed up pretty bad by not paying attention to starting cities and placing myself two spaces from Godalming. From there it was a scramble trying to get away. I looked into "Misdirection", but even with the Rules Reference I wasn't sure how it worked. Can I actually pick any City for my new location?

I basically opted not to use it, and managed to sneak away with "Escape as Bat", "Wolf Pack" and a few good moves. It didn't matter in the end when I got cornered by Dr. Seward who kept canceling my combat cards and eventually shot and knifed me to death. It was still really, really fun. I do wish it was easier for Dracula to get Event cards though. You basically only get them if they are on the bottom of the deck and the hunters are silly enough to Supply at night. My group just kept doing things like resting or suing "Leader" or whatnot.

Still, fun game and I look forward to getting it on the table again!

 

[EYEL1NER]

Unseen Forces I think made the difficulty just right. I don't think we ever lost to the core game after we know how to play Elder Sign. I finally opened the mini POD expansion Grave Consequences and added to Gates and was really surprised and how well it integrated into the game. If you played Arkham Horror, it sort of like the Madness and Injury deck. It's a fun little addition that give the game more narrative that said it is a litttle pricey retail becaude you essentially just getting three small mini decks.

I've lost to the core game, but won more than lost. I would have to check my stats on BGG though because I don't think I have played it all that many times, like maybe five at the most. But I haven't played it with any of the people that go to the local store and don't think any of them have probably played it before, so I don't really need to make the game harder for them. Hopefully they like it though and then maybe I can show Eldritch Horror to them and get that played at least once.
I actually didn't know Grave Consequances existed until a few days ago when I saw it on Amazon. It is a bit pricey on Amazon though and OOS at MM right now (and I was just thinking about putting together an order with MM too). I'll pick it up at some point soon.

One question for you (or Astro Lad, who also mentioned Unseen Forces in his post): Do you feel like splitting the entrance sheet into three separate stores really adds anything to the game? I understand that the locations can become closed, which is interesting and does add to the difficulty if you have now lost an easy way to heal or purchase items, but my first reaction to the idea of splitting them was negative. And can Elder Signs still be purchased for ten trophies?




I missed some good gaming sessions from being sick for over a week, and now I am sick again after less than a week of feeling better. So I don't know if I'll get to play it this upcoming Tuesday or not, but I finally read the rules and scenario book for Flick Em Up and want to try to introduce it at the store. I have both expansions but don't think either one has mechanics that need to be integrated immediately. I'm really hoping it is a hit but I've read a lot of negative reviews that were made somewhat recently, after the huge hype from GenCon last year died down.

 

[antiquegamer]

That's cool. For some reason I've always passed over Grave Consequences. Maybe because the star/BGG reviews are relatively middling? But maybe they're just that way b/c of the lack of content for the money (not a huge deal for me; all about quality anyway). Speaking of just-right difficulty...have you played Gates of Arkham? I actually think UF is still a bit too easy for the most part (though still a good improvement over base) but Gates puts you in AH/EH territory in terms of difficulty imo (then again, might not be what everyone is looking for). The new mechanic of face-down adventures is wonderful too. I'll put Grave Consequences into my next CSI order or pick it up next time I'm at Game Kastle though.

It's just right for core vanilla game is what I meant. I just play with Gates of Arkham and was pretty much got destroyed (but I was playing against Yog-Sototh).

Finally got Orleans to the table. It exceeded my expectations by a fair bit. I'd say it's got a chance of making it into my top echelon of dry-ass-euros.

Bonus: Took so long to play it that I don't have to wait very long for the expansion.

One of few games I blinked it with upgrade kit, inserts and even imported the expansion.

 

[AstroLad]

One question for you (or Astro Lad, who also mentioned Unseen Forces in his post): Do you feel like splitting the entrance sheet into three separate stores really adds anything to the game? I understand that the locations can become closed, which is interesting and does add to the difficulty if you have now lost an easy way to heal or purchase items, but my first reaction to the idea of splitting them was negative. And can Elder Signs still be purchased for ten trophies?

Yeah, I'd never play with the base-game sheet. Just too easy and beyond better balancing the new sheets add some interesting new options. You can't buy Elder Signs anymore -- another thing that just made the base game way too easy. Though there are still lots of helpful options of course. In the later expansions as you may know they almost completely nuked the entrance sheet, I think because they still thought the UF one was too easy.

 

[LunarKnite]

*edit*
On the bright side, I'm still obsessed over Feast for Odin, and I'm reading good impressions of the solo mode even from people who don't often like solo. You play alternate turns with different color meeples which block you, so there's some neat strategy involved.

On the unbright side, I'm the only one into Feast for Odin in this thread. =P

I've been enjoying reading your Feast for Odin musings. I'm about to get it Monday so hopefully I can join in then. Looks really great.

 

[Dimitri2401]

I'm seriously falling in love with Russian Railroads. It's a fantastic worker placement, quite mathy but very enjoyable, super fast and satisfying (the scores are getting crazier turns after turns).

I've already ordered the new mini-expansion (American Raildroads) on the HiG webstore and I canot wait to try German Railroads, I've heard great things about it.

And too bad I'm working a lot these days, I want to play more Keyflower and Bruxelles 1893...

 

[-tetsuo-]

Unfortunately I brought out one of my favorite games, Libertalia, but my girlfriend got really annoyed by a guy there and left early. I only played Libertalia and Mysterium before heading out myself.

The guy doesn't usually seem so competitive and annoying, and it was extra frustrating for some reason. He was making snarky comments or tangents when you would ask questions or try to explain cards.

*edit*
On the bright side, I'm still obsessed over Feast for Odin, and I'm reading good impressions of the solo mode even from people who don't often like solo. You play alternate turns with different color meeples which block you, so there's some neat strategy involved.

On the unbright side, I'm the only one into Feast for Odin in this thread. =P

I would get Feast for Odin, but I need to show some form of restraint lol

Yesterday we got to play 2 games of Millennium Blades...... and one of Forbidden Stars. Great day lol

 

[Megalosaro]

I was supposed to play elderived sign last night. BUT by time we started we were all too drunk to decipher the rules.

We ended up playing munchkin. IT took us three hours to play one game because we were all cross trolling too much

 

[LunarKnite]

So I've been thinking about something. I know dice-builders are pretty new on the market, but has there been any that use other dice besides D6's?

 

[Protome]

Had a board game day with my friend to play a few of the things he picked up at Essen Spiel so massive post incoming (with pictures!)

Ogoola Karuta - A quick little App-powered game where you place a bunch of cards with poem excerpts on them onto a table and the app reads out one by one the excerpt preceded by the line before it. First person to grab that card gets it as a point if you grab the wrong card you have to discard a card you previously picked up, reducing your points. It's smart and fun and naturally you can be better at it than other players by knowing a decent amount of poetry. I came a close second just because I'm really good at piecing together writing styles. It was kinda the perfect game to warm everyone up before we played other stuff (although we didn't really play anything heavy anyway.)

Around The World In 80 Days - Super simple race game where players are trying to get around the world (to square 80) before the other players. You spend money to move spaces and there are like 4 or so different types of spaces you can land on that generally let you increase/decrease your money. To land on the final tile you need to have <£10 and get rid of the three "Rumour" cards that you start with. It was a lot more fun than I expected and despite one player rushing ahead right away and being in first place almost the entire game we had a surprise win too so that's always nice.

The Last Friday - A Letters from Whitechapel style hidden movement game (to the point where the board and the player markers are incredibly similar...) only one player is playing a Slasher movie style serial killer and the rest are playing camp goers who are being killed. It's split up into multiple chapters where the rules change, one is the killer hunting down and killing the camp goers while they try to find keys to the cabins on the map to get in and hide another is the camp goers trying to hunt down the killer to get revenge. I think it'd be a lot of fun if you just played one or two chapters rather than try to go through a whole game. We tried to play the full thing and got bored and moved on to something else because if you play the full thing entire chapters feel completely pointless and a waste of time which sucks. Given we are all massive Letters from Whitechapel fans it was a bit of a bummer.

Then we took a break to play the new Jackbox collection which is unrelated to this topic but it's fantastic.

Insider - An Oink game, if you've read my posts in here before you might know that I love A Fake Artist Goes To New York (which we also played) and it started my love for Oink's products. Insider is a hidden roles game where one player is the Master another the Insider and everyone else is Common. Everyone closes their eyes except the Master and they take a card off the top of the card deck which has a list of items on it. The back of each card has a number between 1-6, the number of the card which is now at the top of the deck signifies which item you care about. The Master then closes their eyes and the Insider opens theirs to see what the word is too. Everyone closes again, the Master places the card back and everyone opens their eyes. A timer is started (a nice little sandtimer comes with it) and everyone asks Yes or No questions to the Master to try and guess the word. The Insider has to try and lead the questioning towards the answer without giving away that they are the Insider. It was a lot of fun although we found it incredibly difficult when playing as the Insider except for one round where one player accidentally guessed the word two questions in and we assumed he was the Insider when in fact he was just very lucky.

Hop! - Surprise best game of the day. Hop! is a dexterity game where players take turns throwing a Rainbow emblazoned hoop to another player (of their choice) who has to catch it with their index finger. If they land the throw they move up on the board, if they miss it they lose a balloon and when you lose all your balloons the game ends for everyone. Also every time players make a throw everyone not involved gets to make a secret vote as to whether or not they think players will succeed. If you vote correctly you get a dove if you don't you get a crow. 3 doves moves you up, 3 crows pops a balloon.

Oh also there are cards. Everyone draws a card before they throw. The cards make the game impossibly hard and silly fun by introducing things like "The catcher can only use their pinky to catch" or "An assistant must move the thrower's arm for them" and so on. It's stupid, it's aimed at kids but we all had a blast with it. Also it looks gorgeous.

Bonus game that I didn't actually play but my friend brought me back from Essen: Cattack! No. 1.
Two teams of two (there are also variations for 2 or 3 players) have to coach their teams of cats to victory in a Volleyball game. It's adorable.

So yeah, it was a bunch of light games and a ton of fun. In other news I hope my copy of Inis ships soon.

 

[Blizzard]

Are there any worker placement games that give you more workers as the game goes on, without you doing anything? I know Lords of Waterdeep gives everyone a single extra worker, but I can't think of any others.

 

[zulux21]

decent cool stuff sale with actual board games on sale

http://www.coolstuffinc.com/page/2663


13 Days: The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962 22.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/226323

America 24.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/227418

Aquasphere 17.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/211761

Bear Valley 12.49
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/226268

Captains of Industry 14.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/199223

City Hall 12.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/199222

Dead of Winter - The Long Night 34.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/225229

Elder Sign: Grave Consequences Expansion 8.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/227277

Eminant Domain 16.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/138974

Eminent Domain: Escalation 9.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/190907

Eminent Domain: Exotica 9.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/220824

High Noon Saloon Board Game 5.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/138700

Hit Z Road 24.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/227805

King of Tokyo Second Edition 19.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/229124

Loony Quest 18.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/228595

New Bedford 21.49
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/228702

New Bedford: Rising Tide 9.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/228706

Scoville: Labs Expansion 12.49
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/218465

Sentinels of the Multiverse: 5th Anniversary Foil Hero Collection 19.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/228707

Spectral Rails Board Game 4.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/139399

Star Wars Armada: CR90 Corellian Corvette Expansion Pack 9.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/210101

Star Wars Armada: Imperial Fighter Squadrons Expansion Pack 9.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/210106

Star Wars Armada: Nebulon-B Frigate Expansion Pack 9.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/210102

Star Wars Armada: Rebel Fighter Squadrons Expansion Pack 9.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/210105

Star Wars Armada: Victory-Class Star Destroyer Expansion Pack 14.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/210100

Star Wars Imperial Assault: Twin Shadows Expansion 19.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/213756

Steam Works 16.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/215945

Take It Easy! Board Game 12.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/136117

Village Port Expansion 17.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/210762

VS System: The ALIEN Battles Expansion 16.49
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/228556

X-Wing: The Force Awakens Core Set 14.99
http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/219440

taken from board game geek

 

[super-famicom]

Hmm, I've been interested in Eminent Domain. For those of you who played it, how is it?

 

[Karkador]

Are there any worker placement games that give you more workers as the game goes on, without you doing anything? I know Lords of Waterdeep gives everyone a single extra worker, but I can't think of any others.

That part of Waterdeep always felt a bit off to me, like it was something written in the rules last minute to address some issue it had.

I haven't thought of one, either. Games usually make you earn that one way or another (even if it's just using an action for free to get it).

 

[Karkador]

Hmm, I've been interested in Eminent Domain. For those of you who played it, how is it?

I like it. It's not really an "interactive" deck builder (as some might claim), but choosing the card you add to your deck being intertwined with the turn you and your opponents can take (Puerto Rico style) is a fun way to play. I recommend the Exotica expansion for more options in the game.

 

[Rudimental]

Are there any worker placement games that give you more workers as the game goes on, without you doing anything? I know Lords of Waterdeep gives everyone a single extra worker, but I can't think of any others.

Don't know if this meets your 'without doing anything' criterion, but in Spyrium, when you reach 8 and 20 VP on the track you get bonuses. At 8, you choose either a free worker or money, and at 20 you get the other one you didn't choose. So, not quite without you doing anything, but less like paying or doing something particular to get the worker.

 

[toddhunter]

Are there any worker placement games that give you more workers as the game goes on, without you doing anything? I know Lords of Waterdeep gives everyone a single extra worker, but I can't think of any others.

In Stone Age the first player automatically gets a new worker.

 

[emag]

In Hansa Teutonica, you place additional workers from your supply when an opponent displaces your existing workers on the board. I don't know if I'd call HT a worker placement game, though (it's more route building and area control).

In Stone Age the first player automatically gets a new worker.

 

[Mr E.]

That part of Waterdeep always felt a bit off to me, like it was something written in the rules last minute to address some issue it had.

I haven't thought of one, either. Games usually make you earn that one way or another (even if it's just using an action for free to get it).

I think they add workers at that stage due to the fact that there should be more buildings out at that stage so it would help tighten the board back up.

Key Flower gives you new workers each round too.

 

[-tetsuo-]

Mechs vs Minions comes in today. Hopefully I will be able to get in there.

 

[SumGamer]

Looks like its time to get King of Tokyo then.

 

[Iced]

Played one game of Cry Havoc this weekend. Not sure how I feel about it yet. The game took a very long time to finish because we had to keep referring to the manual and faq I printed off for clarity on the rules, and a lot of the time we had to just go with what we thought was right without knowing for sure.

I can see how it might be really fun after a couple of plays, but I have a feeling it will be difficult to get back to the table.

 

[Blizzard]

Don't know if this meets your 'without doing anything' criterion, but in Spyrium, when you reach 8 and 20 VP on the track you get bonuses. At 8, you choose either a free worker or money, and at 20 you get the other one you didn't choose. So, not quite without you doing anything, but less like paying or doing something particular to get the worker.

In Stone Age the first player automatically gets a new worker.

In Hansa Teutonica, you place additional workers from your supply when an opponent displaces your existing workers on the board. I don't know if I'd call HT a worker placement game, though (it's more route building and area control.

Interesting, thanks. I had never seen the specific mechanic in Feast for Odin where each round, every player gets a new worker. You have to pay 1 more food or silver at the end of the round due to your new worker, though.

For one thing, you don't have the player(s) who inevitably rush maxing out their workers, and everyone else worrying whether they should have done that.

For another thing, it really creates an interesting feeling. At least to me, the first four rounds or so feel like they fly by. "Wow, we're going to finish this game so quickly. We're pros!" And then, suddenly, you have a few rounds where there are a million workers, and you have to make tough decisions, and you realize, "OK this is hard and takes a while after all, so much thinking."


I'm going to hopefully try the solo game today and report on that, and then stop spamming my thoughts about it. Instead I'll just quietly obsess.

 

[Karkador]

I actually played a fair amount of games this weekend, the most I've played in some months. One of my gaming buddies was in Germany for Essen, and picked up a number of things, including older games that are just hard to find here in the US.

So we played some of those, and some other stuff as well:


Manhattan: This was the first game of the day. This is an area control game involving stacking some plastic skyscraper pieces across different grids. Very simple to play, but it gets pretty interesting as the board closes up and things go a lot more vertical. The taller you go, the harder it is to take control of the building; but then you neglect spreading yourself out. The is a game maybe slightly older than Catan, even, and visually some of the ugliest dreck out of the 90s - but surprisingly fun nonetheless. I love games that just do one or two things really well.


Tigris & Euphrates: Everybody at the table was either new to it, or hadn't played it in years. It's a highly interactive eurogame (and that's an honest statement)....practically a wargame at times, but with the tight Knizia design to it. The game went a bit quick, I think, because people were more busy just working on their own little corner of the board, learning the mechanics, and didn't really fight too much over things until the latter half. It got pretty crazy near the end, though. Our scores were pretty bad (the winner had 5 points, two runner-ups at 4), but everybody agreed the game was good. This is really a fantastic game that the cult of the new completely overlooks.


Chariot Race: It's a Matt Leacock game, so I'm willing to try it. This is similar to his Roll Through the Ages, but funneling all of the progress of that game into a race like Formula D or Thunder Alley. I thought the game would go pretty quick, but unfortunately a lot of these types of racing games, while fun, just drag on and on. To make things a bit more interesting, though, you attack each other as well as race, so there's some question about whether you'll even make it to the end of the race (and the good thing about eliminated players is the rounds go faster!). For what it's worth, I won at the finish line because the runner up destroyed himself just as he was going to come destroy me.


Star Trek: 5 Year Mission: Sometimes, to be polite, you have to play a bad-looking game somebody else at a game night brings with them. After learning it, it's a decent(ish?) game, I guess, but so random it hardly feels like something you can be "good" at. The Star Trek theme feels stapled on (not even pasted). I'm not a ST fan, but the theming looks like it's caught in the middle of trying to please fans of different generations. So pictures on cards will have a literal split in the picture frame with two images from two different shows, in case you hate one of them.

Coal Baron Card Game: Never played Coal Baron, but this was a worker placement game in card form. I'm not too eager to play a straight worker placement game these days, but the way you played workers kept it interesting (your worker cards have # values, and you have to beat a previous worker by exactly 1 to go there). The rest was boilerplate Eurogame stuff, through and through. It wasn't bad at all, but I want something more interesting in this genre, like Keyflower or Tourney, even Tzolkin. Props to the publisher (Pegasus Spiele) for including a nice insert with dividers in the box.

 

[joelseph]

Scored a nice haul off a local FB group

 

[Karkador]

Keyflower for $20, niiiice

 

[super-famicom]

Keyflower for $20, niiiice

That is an amazing price. I paid double that for my copy. Worth it, though.

 

[joelseph]

I'm swimming in Netrunner cards. Up to 6 base games now.

 

[LunarKnite]

Just got A Feast for Odin. So excited to crack that open! Also got Cry Havoc and Ming Dynasty to round out for free shipping from Cardhaus. It's been a goal of mine to get a collection of Chinese-themed board games. The two I really want to get my hands on are In the Year of the Dragon and Confucius.

Hmm, I've been interested in Eminent Domain. For those of you who played it, how is it?

For some reason, trying to play Eminent Domain, or even the small Eminent Domain: Microcosm, screws me up. Maybe it's the rulebook isn't very clear on how to play, but I always seem to get tripped up on the flow of the game. The times I have played it, I could see how cool it is, as it does mix Puerto Rico role selection with deck-building pretty well.

 

[Karkador]

Well, Eminent Domain: Microcosm's included rulesheet is actually incomplete and neglects to explain how the game works. That one might actually be more complicated to figure out

Regular ED's rules are better, but maybe it's a case where the rules read very simply, with few exceptions or small rules, and you're like "that's it?"

 

[LunarKnite]

Well, Eminent Domain: Microcosm's included rulesheet is actually incomplete and neglects to explain how the game works. That one might actually be more complicated to figure out

Regular ED's rules are better, but maybe it's a case where the rules read very simply, with few exceptions or small rules, and you're like "that's it?"

That might be why... I haven't looked at regular ED's rulebook in a while, so I might just be remembering only Microcosm.

 

[SapphiCine]

Someone gave me secondhand Eminent Domain: Microcosm as a gift last year. After trying to decipher the rules I thought it a cruel gift.

 

[Karkador]

It's a pretty good game once you figure it out, not at all hard to play or explain, but it requires going to BGG and finding a real rules summary. It's bizarre that they approved that rulesheet.

 

[Phthisis]

Hmm, I've been interested in Eminent Domain. For those of you who played it, how is it?

Eh... I owned it for a while, played it a bunch. It's really abstract and the design really grows stale after a while. I got rid of it. Have not played with the expansions, however.

 

[Palmer_v1]

That part of Waterdeep always felt a bit off to me, like it was something written in the rules last minute to address some issue it had.

I haven't thought of one, either. Games usually make you earn that one way or another (even if it's just using an action for free to get it).

I always assumed the point of it was to keep placement competetive when you're normally adding multiple extra worker spaces via buildings. If you didn't get more workers, there would be a lot less competetion for spots, which also devalues the benefits of going first(or taking the action that makes you first).

 

[Dimitri2401]

Keyflower for $20, niiiice

Amazing price for an amazing game!

 

[LunarKnite]

Just played my first game (solo) of A Feast for Odin. I ended up doing a short game, which is only 6 rounds, so the score is lower than it could have been possibly, but I still did pretty bad. I ended up getting a stone house and an expansion island with all the negative points filled up, but still had 51 negative points on my home board.

I felt like I was pretty lucky with my occupations, as I drew a few and they all seemed to work well with rolling dice/hunting. I think I used a too many actions in the beginning that used 3 of my workers though.

This game is a monster. The occupation you start with helps, but it's really quite hard to figure out the best course of action with so many available. Having played Fields of Arle last night, I don't know which I like better right now. But it definitely has a steeper learning curve than Arle to score points. (I regularly score 80-90 in Arle solo)

 

[Karkador]

Eh... I owned it for a while, played it a bunch. It's really abstract and the design really grows stale after a while. I got rid of it. Have not played with the expansions, however.

Exotica adds a fair amount of new things to do, though the game is really meant to be about as quick as Race for the Galaxy. On the point of it being really abstract, what are you comparing it to? Just about any deck builder I've played is the same (or worse) at that.

 

[Blizzard]

Just played my first game (solo) of A Feast for Odin. I ended up doing a short game, which is only 6 rounds, so the score is lower than it could have been possibly, but I still did pretty bad. I ended up getting a stone house and an expansion island with all the negative points filled up, but still had 51 negative points on my home board.

I felt like I was pretty lucky with my occupations, as I drew a few and they all seemed to work well with rolling dice/hunting. I think I used a too many actions in the beginning that used 3 of my workers though.

This game is a monster. The occupation you start with helps, but it's really quite hard to figure out the best course of action with so many available. Having played Fields of Arle last night, I don't know which I like better right now. But it definitely has a steeper learning curve than Arle to score points. (I regularly score 80-90 in Arle solo)

I love the learning process and am refusing to look at the strategy suggestions Frank Neenan posted on BGG for those who are struggling to reach 100 points. I want to figure it out myself.

For those who don't know, the solo game in Feast for Odin has an interesting mechanic as a worker placement game. You use two colors of workers, alternating each round. Your workers from the previous round stay on the board, blocking your choices for the current round, so it's very similar to a 2-player game.

Definitely give the long game a shot once you understand the rules. We haven't even used decks B and C for the occupations.

 

[LunarKnite]

I love the learning process and am refusing to look at the strategy suggestions Frank Neenan posted on BGG for those who are struggling to reach 100 points. I want to figure it out myself.

For those who don't know, the solo game in Feast for Odin has an interesting mechanic as a worker placement game. You use two colors of workers, alternating each round. Your workers from the previous round stay on the board, blocking your choices for the current round, so it's very similar to a 2-player game.

Definitely give the long game a shot once you understand the rules. We haven't even used decks B and C for the occupations.

Right after I played that game, I went and played a long game. It actually took right around an hour to reset and play and set-up for the next game. =P

I did better, doubled my points, but still only 38. Had way too many red tiles at the end. I started with the tutor card that lets you draw occupation cards for a silver. Which was nice, as I used much less 3-worker actions, but ended up using quite a few 4-worker actions in order to play those cards.

I'm finding the solo game to be really good at simulating a 2-player game. There are times where my previous turn doesn't really matter for what I'm going to do on my current turn, and then others where I wish the space was open. I don't think I'll use the B or C decks until I get at least 80+ with the A deck.

 

[Affeinvasion]

I got champions of Midgard for my birthday and played it 3 player on Saturday. I thought it was pretty great. Easy to understand but lots of meaningful choices. I also like how the building up of coins on the monster cards helps the preparation to voyage feel like a race.

Clearly there is no shortage of viking themed worker placement games.