Oh snap, UPS/Fedex/USPS? Hopefully my copy shows up soon.
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New Board Gaming |OT2| On Tables, Off Topic
- Thread starter Karkador
- Start date
Oh snap, UPS/Fedex/USPS? Hopefully my copy shows up soon.
BassForever
Member
Yeah I was watching reviews seems Galaxy is worth picking up might jump in on both late kickstarters for galaxy, expansion, and quest
EYEL1NER
Member
Nice. I'm still waiting on mine to ship. They went out West to East, like always, so mine is still sitting there waiting to make the journey to SC. I can't wait to play it though. What a great Kickstarter campaign it had too. Those highly detailed updates were nice to receive. Too bad it wound up being late.
BassForever
Member
Well fuck it I just jumped into the Tiny Epic Galaxy Beyond The Black for the deluxe with original game since it'll be cheaper with all content. Will jump into Quest Thursday. Pixel Tactics reawakened my love for novelty board/card games and hopefully I can get some irl friends to join me in this escapade.
EYEL1NER
Member
I don't have too much coming in anytime soon.
Robison Crusoe 2nd Edition is in some weird state right now where some FLGS have received it but most distributors are still waiting to take possession of copies. My MinMart preorder probably won't come in until next month.
On the KS front: Santorini will arrive soon but Fog of Love will miss its January date, Suler Hazard Quest was delayed, Fugitive was delayed, Millenium Blades Set Rotation was delayed, Endangered Orphans of Condyle above will miss its January target, and Pocket N3ON City Rumble is overdue for an update regarding where Davey is in the development stage (supposed to be an update anytime now, but I can't imagine there is any way that it will be out on time next month). I backed the Airborne Commander playmat project recently for a copy of the game plus the new playmat. They have copies of the game in-hand from the previous Kickstarter and were awaiting the Inked Playmats Black Friday workload to decrease so they could print the mats. I suppose they could turn around the mats quickly and get them out this month, but we'll see.
The TIE Striker and U-Wing are out this week for X-Wing, so I kind of want to order those, but can't be bothered to put together a $100 order anywhere just to get them cheap, so I might just go buy them at a local store.
A big thing that is showing up this week maybe is Catacombs third edition, with all expansions and stretch goals from the 3E Kickstarter. I got it in a GeekAuction and paid a bit more than I would like but those stretch goal items and exclusive parts fetch a pretty penny right now and the game itself can't be had anywhere cheap at the moment, so I got a good deal I guess. My newborn has been taking up all of my time and I haven't made it to the game store since the day before he was born three weeks ago, but maybe I can make it in for game night next week and take Catacombs in with me. It's close to Christmas so maybe the people who stopped attending because of school work have lighter work loads? Or maybe they are overburdened with finals right now, I have no idea what college is like. But maybe some people will be around, or at least the guy who turned down Flick Em Up a while back might like the look of Catacombs better.
Robison Crusoe 2nd Edition is in some weird state right now where some FLGS have received it but most distributors are still waiting to take possession of copies. My MinMart preorder probably won't come in until next month.
On the KS front: Santorini will arrive soon but Fog of Love will miss its January date, Suler Hazard Quest was delayed, Fugitive was delayed, Millenium Blades Set Rotation was delayed, Endangered Orphans of Condyle above will miss its January target, and Pocket N3ON City Rumble is overdue for an update regarding where Davey is in the development stage (supposed to be an update anytime now, but I can't imagine there is any way that it will be out on time next month). I backed the Airborne Commander playmat project recently for a copy of the game plus the new playmat. They have copies of the game in-hand from the previous Kickstarter and were awaiting the Inked Playmats Black Friday workload to decrease so they could print the mats. I suppose they could turn around the mats quickly and get them out this month, but we'll see.
The TIE Striker and U-Wing are out this week for X-Wing, so I kind of want to order those, but can't be bothered to put together a $100 order anywhere just to get them cheap, so I might just go buy them at a local store.
A big thing that is showing up this week maybe is Catacombs third edition, with all expansions and stretch goals from the 3E Kickstarter. I got it in a GeekAuction and paid a bit more than I would like but those stretch goal items and exclusive parts fetch a pretty penny right now and the game itself can't be had anywhere cheap at the moment, so I got a good deal I guess. My newborn has been taking up all of my time and I haven't made it to the game store since the day before he was born three weeks ago, but maybe I can make it in for game night next week and take Catacombs in with me. It's close to Christmas so maybe the people who stopped attending because of school work have lighter work loads? Or maybe they are overburdened with finals right now, I have no idea what college is like. But maybe some people will be around, or at least the guy who turned down Flick Em Up a while back might like the look of Catacombs better.
jstevenson
Sailor Stevenson
definitely seems like a lot of the game is in the cards beyond the starters, as you might expect from a CCG.
it seems very elegant though and back-and-forth, with tons of decision points that impact each game, as others have mentioned
toddhunter
Member
Australia on blast once again
I'm really looking forward to it... next year.I think Fog of Love will still make January/February. I'm just not sure if it will be 2022 or 2023.
Scythe has focus. It's an efficiency-based race game.
It just seems way to bloated then?
At first glance, Scythe seems like a big game. There are all the trappings of a huge 4X game and a compelling/epic theme. You even have a plethora of tech upgrades, several different types of units, various buildings, and a variety of resources. There are even secret objectives and a bonus scoring tile that changes every game.
However, a deeper delve shows that the rules are very clean and the actions straightforward. And the game plays quickly, often ending with 15 or 16 actions per player (there are only four basic actions, each of which should take only a few seconds to resolve). Players will generally have 0-2 battles and 1-2 encounters. After getting all the meeples out, they might actually produce once (or maybe not at all). The game immediately ends when a player earns six stars, and it's common to earn three in a turn (e.g., any three of two battles, an objective, and whatever the bottom row action provides).
What I'm trying to say is though Scythe isn't as lean as it could be, it's actually very easy to learn and fast to play, more like Dominion than Agricola.
Yeah it seems very much like a elegant play. What I mean is, isnt it way to much setup time for how fast the game plays?
(Full disclosure, I have it on my wishlist)
I don't think there's a lot of setup time for Scythe overall. It looks like a lot on the table, but really, you separate resources into piles (which you should have sorted from the last game, right?), give people their relevant boards, put down starting figures onto the board, shuffle some cards etc.
It's a big board, big fancy minis etc, and the upgraded tokens etc look impressive in photos... But there's not a lot of different things to set up as far as I can remember. Certainly faster than say, Eclipse...
I mean - take a look at the always awesome Universal Head summary for Scythe - it's got less than one column of text for setup. There's really not a lot to worry about.
Anyone gonna be picking up the new Doom board game? Only review I've seen for it so far is on Polygon: http://www.polygon.com/2016/12/13/13936778/doom-board-game-review-preview-fantasy-flight-games-2016
Dice Tower is going to be painting the miniatures sometime today. I don't own a dungeon crawler yet, and this one has me intrigued.
Dice Tower is going to be painting the miniatures sometime today. I don't own a dungeon crawler yet, and this one has me intrigued.
BassForever
Member
I plan to get it eventually, I own the old game and can recommend that version.
I am interested and want to get it (darn space). CSI says it comes out tomorrow.
But is it a dungeon crawler? It didn't think the missions were connected and just sort of a one vs many game with different objectives you could have.
Polygon review says the game has two six-mission campaigns. I honestly have no experience with games like this, so I'm not sure if you strictly have to play the campaign missions, or if it's a one versus many like you said.
BattleMonkey
Member
Even with full set, scope is a bit limited in game, though I think it's more closer to a chess like game of decision making. Compared to most ccg's, the game is more about decisions, less about big strategies and card synergies.
I like the mechanics as it feels solid, more structured game than Dicemasters.
Drive-Thru review seems to really like it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5YkKzjbGdM
He's generally pretty positive (I think he mostly covers games he has pre-existing interest in) but very analytical and thorough so definitely worth a look if you're interested in the game.
For the first two I would say they are quite fun games, especially for 2p casuals, but they are really paper thin (especially Love Letter). I prefer games like Lost Cities, 7W Duel, Battle Line/Schotten Totten to Jaipur even though I would say it's quite a good game if the theme or mechanics really get you. Love Letter -- super fun the first ten times, and if you need a lunch game for co-workers or family who can't even handle modest complexity it's not a bad way to go, but I just can't get remotely motivated to play it anymore.
Hive -- I hate perfect-information abstracts so that's probably one of my least favorite purchases ever (have since sold). But that's totally on me. As abstracts go it's highly respected if you're looking for something chess-like. Boring and painful to me, but again that's just because of my own mechanics preferences.
I don't know about Hive.
Love Letter is ok for a quick small-group game, but I prefer the Batman version for a slightly altered mechanic.
I've played a fair bit of Jaipur, but I'm really not a big fan. The color palette and visual design is kind of garish and pink. The mechanic of drawing coins is not very exciting or rewarding to me. The swingy nature of card flips can be annoying. We play 7 Wonders Duel much more often I feel like.
platypotamus
Member
No. Buy Jaipur and Love Letter.
I still need to do a Harry Potter mini-rant. But for now, since I just got this:
Citadels: Manigificent City mini-review
Overall, I'd say this is a worthy buy for $24-30 for anyone who doesn't have the original Citadels.
Negatives:
Positives:
Citadels: Manigificent City mini-review
Overall, I'd say this is a worthy buy for $24-30 for anyone who doesn't have the original Citadels.
Negatives:
- The plastic crown is awful. This is a game with simply beautiful presentation in other areas, and then there's this cheap-looking plastic crown with sharp edges and a scratchy base that could ruin tables or cards. I promptly tossed it and swapped in the beat-up wooden crown from my old Citadels copy.
- The box has a lot of empty space and is basically only as big as it is because of the large-format rules and a single cardboard punchsheet. This in itself is not a big deal, but there's no extra plastic bag included for the punchcards. It just feels cheap to not include a single extra bag when everything else is bagged, and I had to throw in a sandwich bag.
Positives:
- The presentation, as mentioned, is lovely. The high-res art files for the original game were lost, I think the development notes mention, so they redid everything. The cover is nice, the character cards have personality and don't feel pander-y (maybe 2 out of 27 show cleavage off the top of my head), and the city cards are just beautiful. They literally smelled nice, too. Game cards have a slight cross-hatching pattern on them (I don't know the right term) like traditional playing cards and it feels nice.
- Increasing box space does help in some ways. The rules can be bigger and clearer with nice visual design and examples. The character cards are jumbo-sized for easy handling.
- Even before you consider the new cards, gameplay has been improved in some subtle ways. The designer mentions that shorter games are popular now, so the game ends after 7 districts rather than 8. There are now cardboard tokens for every character. You can spread them on the table so everyone is reminded what characters are possibilities. No more "Who can I choose as the Thief again?". A minor change I liked is that instead of an assassinated player flipping over their card and skipping their turn, which I think happened in the original game, the assassinated player must now remain totally silent when their card is called. This gives away less information to the other players.
- I haven't played yet, but the new cards look promising. The designer mentioned some new cards enable building multiple districts at a time to speed things up. There's a king replacement you can use that draws cards rather than coins. A couple cards have unique mechanics involving the tokens -- you can put facedown warrants (2 fake, 1 real) on three players, and confiscate a building if the player who has the REAL warrant builds that round. A blackmailer can assign 1 fake, 1 real token to 2 players, and those players have to gamble whether they want to pay to play safely, or call the bluff and possibly lose something. Some of the new buildings might also be more interactive or offer the player(s) powers.
I own the original Hive and I think it's a solid game. It can drag if you or your opponent are prone to analysis paralysis. I own it for its portability - I can huck it in my luggage and play it wherever my fiancée and I end up, even if a table isn't available. I got Hive in a trade but the consensus is that the portable version of it is the way to go, because it comes with expansion pieces and is, well, more portable and cheaper. No reason to buy original Hive over portable unless you just want the larger tiles.
BassForever
Member
I assume if it works like the og doom board game
You can play any of those missions as a stand alone match or you can take advantage of some additional rules that allow you to string multiple missions into a campaign. IIRC for each kill a player had at the end of a stage you got points that you could spend on the next stage.
sasimirobot
Junior Member
I take it you have never visited the city. I might have to pick up 7 wonders duel since everyone seems to recommend it recently
Finally got around to actually playing the Arkham LCG...motivation isn't my strong suit these days. I've sleeved the one set but not my second copy. Wasn't exactly sure what parts to sleeve on number two but after seeing the setup I'm guessing just the character cards and maybe monsters I guess. Stuff like the agenda cards and rooms are just redundant. Havent really looked into using the second set any further yet. Anyway, watched a couple youtubes on game play and one during so I could figure shit out.
Also, this:
https://youtu.be/fHMc062I6Io
Which is a couple devs discussing how they made it. Definitely a very cool watch if you haven't seen it.
First thing I'd say is that game went fast. The damn agenda deck burns like gasoline in a fire. I was rolling solo with Roland and that probably wasn't the best idea. He got out of his room and down to the cellar where he perished in an unspeakable manner. I needed to pull a 4 but his intellect I think it was is only 3. I also had horrible draws...well awesome for combat but shit for investigating. The combat wasn't bad but my cards were geared to it anyway. Overall I had fun. Keeping track of what I'm doing is tough, may try a dry erase board or something.
Also, this:
https://youtu.be/fHMc062I6Io
Which is a couple devs discussing how they made it. Definitely a very cool watch if you haven't seen it.
First thing I'd say is that game went fast. The damn agenda deck burns like gasoline in a fire. I was rolling solo with Roland and that probably wasn't the best idea. He got out of his room and down to the cellar where he perished in an unspeakable manner. I needed to pull a 4 but his intellect I think it was is only 3. I also had horrible draws...well awesome for combat but shit for investigating. The combat wasn't bad but my cards were geared to it anyway. Overall I had fun. Keeping track of what I'm doing is tough, may try a dry erase board or something.
I haven't visited Jaipur, and I mean no offense to its citizens. I just don't personally enjoy the color combination.
I really do think 7 Wonders Duel is a neat, polished game. I'm giving my girlfriend the expansion for Christmas so we'll see how it affects things. You have to be okay with a nasty duel, though. It's no multiplayer solitaire like some games.
On an unrelated note, I finally hit 147 in a Feast for Odin solo game. Admittedly it was with knowing the cards ahead of time and picking an optimal mountain strip order (those were the scenario rules), but it was still a personal accomplishment. I even had 7 wasted tiles and only one -1. *edit* I would have had 150 but I had to take a Thing Penalty because I missed two adjacent tiles in the last around. It was easily avoidable if I had been paying attention, too.
Nappuccino
Member
I hate to ask here too, since this is the board game focused thread, but you all seem a bit more active and my CoC group is meeting tomorrow.
I'm trying to get a handle on the CoC character sheets. What do all of the percentages in parenthesis mean? Does every character have access to these skills in a basic way, but the occupational skills/hobby skills just make them better? If so, do they still get half and fifth percentages?
I guess I'm wondering how someone would, for instance, do a library check or fight without the skills picked.
I'm trying to get a handle on the CoC character sheets. What do all of the percentages in parenthesis mean? Does every character have access to these skills in a basic way, but the occupational skills/hobby skills just make them better? If so, do they still get half and fifth percentages?
I guess I'm wondering how someone would, for instance, do a library check or fight without the skills picked.
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
Completed Quest 1 officially in Black Plague. Silas died, but he needed to be a human decoy to keep the zombies at bay. He died a hero, though.
One gripe I have after that mission. The last few turns were basically me search whoring and making noise as I waited for my first Dragon Bile necessary to kill the abomination. Sort of anti-climactic.
Do expansions add any other ways to deal 3 damage?
One gripe I have after that mission. The last few turns were basically me search whoring and making noise as I waited for my first Dragon Bile necessary to kill the abomination. Sort of anti-climactic.
Do expansions add any other ways to deal 3 damage?
I forgot one other oddity about Citadels. It supports 8 players but only comes with 6 reference cards. This is apparently because printer sheets are typically multiples of 11 or something, though.
On the bright side, the players who DO get reference cards benefit from them being large one-sided cards instead of the old double-sided cards.
On the bright side, the players who DO get reference cards benefit from them being large one-sided cards instead of the old double-sided cards.
You really don't want to play Citadels with 8. Consider 6 reference cards a suggestion of the real upper limit of that game.
Yeah, that's my understanding of it. They are considered a novice. So if you are unskilled at Firearms and have to do a fifth (extreme test) is going to be super hard. Still a chance though
There are weapons which add +1 damage when throwing sixes, also in Wolfsburg you have some weapons capable of dealing 2 damage or more. (The Red weapons)
SapphiCine
Member
I think I'll enjoy Mage Knight more and have less analysis paralysis if I just remove the round limit. I rather don't like it in conjunction with all the random elements.
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
Once you've played more games, the round limit isn't as much of an issue. If you're still getting paralysis, play a few games without the dummy player. That gives you a time limit but one that you have more control over.
I'll probably snag Wolfsburg. A little more research shows that that expansion adds a good amount of content. I will probably grab some of the other small expansions, too. The guest artist characters seem...Expensive for what you get, though.
Don't trust Polygon, especially with board games.
There isn't story, XP, or special earned stuff only earned from mission to mission so it isn't a campaign. It is like Titanfall 1 saying it has a campaign but even worse. And the review from DriveThru says there is no storytelling and you should go for Imperial Assault or one of the many other dungeon crawlers for that experience
This no campaign reason is why I am really interested in it. Sort of a quick duke it out type of thing.
Correct. CoC works under the premise that most things you don't need to be proficient to "perform". But your chance for success is virtually nil.
Precisely why I'm interested too! Thanks for posting this!
Nappuccino
Member
Awesome, thanks again!
Get the abomination pack if you want, has some great mini's.
Megalosaro
Banned
Played Krosmasters last night. Duper close match.
Too close. I barely won
Too close. I barely won
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
Wulfsburg is a Prime Deal later tonight, so I'm going to snag that. Probably grab most of the expansions, too. I mean, why not?
I still need to do a Harry Potter mini-rant. But for now, since I just got this:
Citadels: Manigificent City mini-review
Overall, I'd say this is a worthy buy for $24-30 for anyone who doesn't have the original Citadels.
Negatives:
- The plastic crown is awful. This is a game with simply beautiful presentation in other areas, and then there's this cheap-looking plastic crown with sharp edges and a scratchy base that could ruin tables or cards. I promptly tossed it and swapped in the beat-up wooden crown from my old Citadels copy.
- The box has a lot of empty space and is basically only as big as it is because of the large-format rules and a single cardboard punchsheet. This in itself is not a big deal, but there's no extra plastic bag included for the punchcards. It just feels cheap to not include a single extra bag when everything else is bagged, and I had to throw in a sandwich bag.
Positives:
- The presentation, as mentioned, is lovely. The high-res art files for the original game were lost, I think the development notes mention, so they redid everything. The cover is nice, the character cards have personality and don't feel pander-y (maybe 2 out of 27 show cleavage off the top of my head), and the city cards are just beautiful. They literally smelled nice, too.
- Increasing box space does help in some ways. The rules can be bigger and clearer with nice visual design and examples. The character cards are jumbo-sized for easy handling.
- Even before you consider the new cards, gameplay has been improved in some subtle ways. The designer mentions that shorter games are popular now, so the game ends after 7 districts rather than 8. There are now cardboard tokens for every character. You can spread them on the table so everyone is reminded what characters are possibilities. No more "Who can I choose as the Thief again?". A minor change I liked is that instead of an assassinated player flipping over their card and skipping their turn, which I think happened in the original game, the assassinated player must now remain totally silent when their card is called. This gives away less information to the other players.
- I haven't played yet, but the new cards look promising. The designer mentioned some new cards enable building multiple districts at a time to speed things up. There's a king replacement you can use that draws cards rather than coins. A couple cards have unique mechanics involving the tokens -- you can put facedown warrants (2 fake, 1 real) on three players, and confiscate a building if the player who has the REAL warrant builds that round. A blackmailer can assign 1 fake, 1 real token to 2 players, and those players have to gamble whether they want to pay to play safely, or call the bluff and possibly lose something. Some of the new buildings might also be more interactive or offer the player(s) powers.
Thanks for the write up. I had no idea this existed! I'm cautiously interested, since Citadels was one of the first "board game-y game" that my group of friends and I got into years ago, just around the same time that Catan was getting big IIRC. We played the living hell out of it and it's been ages, so maybe now is the time to give the reprint a try. Really like those "shorter game" considerations too.
I remember Citadels being pretty fun with fewer players. I remember liking 3 player because you got to draft 2 roles during selection. But yeah I have to agree with the poster above, 8 is a nightmare.
Does this include original, dark city, plus newer roles? I really enjoyed some of those alternates, like the Emperor. I hated others with a passion, like the Witch (GOD that role is infuriating.)
Yes, this has all the Dark City characters. I assume it has all the Dark City buildings as well, though I didn't manually check.
SillyEskimo
Member
Go all in. The variety is what makes Zombicide fun IMI. Plus you get more stuff to make custom scenarios with.
I'm actually kind of disappointed in how few changes they made. Citadels is a top-50 game for me (and one of the few that's that old) but it has some serious flaws (imo) that they didn't seem to totally address. Going to 7 Districts is a good move, though it's not really paired with any other changes afaict so it's something you could just as easily do with the old set if you have it. Warlord imo is a hot hot garbage character (the worst kind of kingmaker card -- the one where you bring yourself and someone else down and out of contention, or can just straight up tank to blue shell a leader) and yet there it is again right in the base set. :/
I guess it's intended to be for players who don't already own Citadels, and I'm sure it works well in that sense. You can swap Warlord and other characters you don't like out too anyway so it's not gamebreaking. Just wanted an excuse to pick it up and not really seeing it (even art-wise the new stuff is fine but I prefer the old art -- some of my fav).
There is a section of designer's notes in the rules in which he outright says he wants the game to be kind of nasty. That's probably why the obnoxious stuff like Assassin / Witch / Warlord is still there.
I normally swap out Assassin and Warlord at minimum since even the Witch is better than losing your turn entirely. The new rules includes several suggested character + card combinations depending on what sort of game style you want.
The new buildings are also intended to help the game flow faster.
I normally swap out Assassin and Warlord at minimum since even the Witch is better than losing your turn entirely. The new rules includes several suggested character + card combinations depending on what sort of game style you want.
The new buildings are also intended to help the game flow faster.