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[zulux21]

I was looking for a cooperative game since we have never played something like that before. If we play a boardgame it's usually risk and sometimes the Game of thrones boardgame but the latter is too slow, too rule heavy and requires a bit too much focus for a game that can easily last three hours. Which is a reason it rarely gets played.

So usually we fight eachother and i thought it would be fun to work together instead.

I need to get around to playing my copy of andor.

anyways, my two go to co op games are Legendary and Sentinals of the multiverse.

Legendary comes in a number of flavors such as marvel, aliens, predator, but I would avoid the firefly version... it's not very good. It's a deck building game where you are using your resources to buy cards to take down bad guys.

Sentinals is a super hero card game where you have a preset deck based on the hero you choose and work with others each with their own preset deck to take down a bad guy.

Dead of winter is another solid co op game if you don't mind the zombie theme (well to be fair I hate the zombie theme but still like dead of winter)

 

[Keasar]

That would normally be a huge problem but not only am I off from the 22nd to the 29th but in the UK we can have it delivered to a store. Is that not the same where you are? :s

Not always, I've tried asking them at times to drop it off at the postal office location where I pick up most of my packages but at times its been various reasons it can't, and if I ask for them to come to the office with it, it's "too far away from their planned route" (it's still in the same goddamn town, takes me 15 minutes to walk between home and work). Then they either leave the package just outside the door which is NOT fucking acceptable or go to a whole wrong place to drop the package off at some gas station or whatever so I have to walk out of my way far to pick it up.

I honestly just hate door delivery, the only kind I accept is pizza, because you order it and it arrives 30 minutes later where you want it to arrive.

 

[espher]

So, I haven't really looked at many titles in the past year or three, and I'm trying to put together a list of stuff to check out. I've added the following titles -- either released in that timeframe or a bit before it that flew completely under my radar -- to a list and am just wondering if there's anything else people would recommend scouting:

Above and Below, Arcadia Quest, Blood Rage, Caverna, Concordia, Keyflower, Mysterium, Orléans, Terraforming Mars.

anyways, my two go to co op games are Legendary and Sentinals of the multiverse.

Legendary comes in a number of flavors such as marvel, aliens, predator, but I would avoid the firefly version... it's not very good. It's a deck building game where you are using your resources to buy cards to take down bad guys.

Sentinals is a super hero card game where you have a preset deck based on the hero you choose and work with others each with their own preset deck to take down a bad guy.

My group(s) have played both Legendary and Sentinels and there's a significant preference for the pure co-op and character variety of Sentinels. Neither is a bad choice but Legendary just hasn't clicked with any of us.

 

[ultron87]

Sentinels didn't grab me much when I played it at a meetup a few weeks ago. It didn't feel like there were a ton of interesting decisions to make or particularly tough puzzles to figure out the best line of play to handle. It was a fine time to spend 30-60 minutes playing some cards out, but there weren't any super big memorable moments or huge drama.

 

[Brohan]

I need to get around to playing my copy of andor.

anyways, my two go to co op games are Legendary and Sentinals of the multiverse.

Legendary comes in a number of flavors such as marvel, aliens, predator, but I would avoid the firefly version... it's not very good. It's a deck building game where you are using your resources to buy cards to take down bad guys.

Sentinals is a super hero card game where you have a preset deck based on the hero you choose and work with others each with their own preset deck to take down a bad guy.

Dead of winter is another solid co op game if you don't mind the zombie theme (well to be fair I hate the zombie theme but still like dead of winter)

Thanks for the recommendations. However all those options are alot more expensive over here than Andor which is a shame. I've read that Andor is quite newcomer friendly so it shouldn't be a bad choice right?

 

[Karkador]

I was looking for a cooperative game since we have never played something like that before. If we play a boardgame it's usually risk and sometimes the Game of thrones boardgame but the latter is too slow, too rule heavy and requires a bit too much focus for a game that can easily last three hours. Which is a reason it rarely gets played.

So usually we fight eachother and i thought it would be fun to work together instead.

It's been recommended a lot already (sorry for sounding like a broken record!), but Pandemic is pretty much the model co-op game of today. Hanabi is also a nice co-op card game, if you're looking for something simpler and less expensive.

 

[Keasar]

My group(s) have played both Legendary and Sentinels and there's a significant preference for the pure co-op and character variety of Sentinels. Neither is a bad choice but Legendary just hasn't clicked with any of us.

Tried the Alien version?

I wasn't very sold on Legendary before either because the regular Marvel version had a competitive element to it that "sorta" encouraged co-op but still made people compete. Encounters (the Alien one) went the full distance with the co-op part and have a lot of cards to use between players.

And it has Facehuggers which is just a funny card, place it infront, panic hoping that one of your partners can kill it. If not, put a Chestburster in your discard and the next time you draw the Chestburster card you die, "Painfully".

 

[espher]

Tried the Alien version?

I wasn't very sold on Legendary before either because the regular Marvel version had a competitive element to it that "sorta" encouraged co-op but still made people compete. Encounters (the Alien one) went the full distance with the co-op part and have a lot of cards to use between players.

And it has Facehuggers which is just a funny card, place it infront, panic hoping that one of your partners can kill it. If not, put a Chestburster in your discard and the next time you draw the Chestburster card you die, "Painfully".

I have not, no. I've only done the Marvel version - I guess I'll see if I can check that one out.

 

[Blizzard]

So, I haven't really looked at many titles in the past year or three, and I'm trying to put together a list of stuff to check out. I've added the following titles -- either released in that timeframe or a bit before it that flew completely under my radar -- to a list and am just wondering if there's anything else people would recommend scouting:

Above and Below, Arcadia Quest, Blood Rage, Caverna, Concordia, Keyflower, Mysterium, Orléans, Terraforming Mars.



My group(s) have played both Legendary and Sentinels and there's a significant preference for the pure co-op and character variety of Sentinels. Neither is a bad choice but Legendary just hasn't clicked with any of us.

Have you played Agricola? If you have that, you might want to skip directly to Feast for Odin instead of Caverna.


Side note about Odin, the Christmas theme solo challenge is up until new year's and the last solo challenge is up until Christmas.

 

[espher]

I do have Agricola - hadn't heard of Feast for Odin (a given I suppose since it came out this year), but I'll check that out. Thanks.

 

[AstroLad]

Tried the Alien version?

I wasn't very sold on Legendary before either because the regular Marvel version had a competitive element to it that "sorta" encouraged co-op but still made people compete. Encounters (the Alien one) went the full distance with the co-op part and have a lot of cards to use between players.

And it has Facehuggers which is just a funny card, place it infront, panic hoping that one of your partners can kill it. If not, put a Chestburster in your discard and the next time you draw the Chestburster card you die, "Painfully".

Yep. I have a friend who won't play Marvel Legendary because of the weird semi co-op issue but Aliens is one of his favorite games. To be fair, I feel like Marvel moved away from semi co-op with the expansions (upping the difficulty, and reducing the number of cards that hurt other players) but it was always a weird thing about the game. I'd pay some serious cash for a reboot of Marvel Legendary using the Encounters system. Maybe they'll do it since I think by now they seriously have covered the entire MU.

 

[BattleMonkey]

We've always played Marvel Legendary as purely coop game, just ignore completely the points stuff and it works fine. Course Aliens and Predator improved the feeling of coop play

 

[Fewr]

Guys, quick question, which to buy for a family setting?

King of Tokyo vs Stone Age Jr.


My family's favourites: Nuns on the Run, Love Letter, Dungeon Petz, Bang!

Thanks

 

[AstroLad]

Guys, quick question, which to buy for a family setting?

King of Tokyo vs Stone Age Jr.


My family's favourites: Nuns on the Run, Love Letter, Dungeon Petz, Bang!

Thanks

Stone Age Jr. is great for teaching a kid 5-7 about worker placement, but it's not a deep game at all. So KoT is flat better if by "family" you mean adults and kids. I actually play KoT with my 5-y-o, just handle explaining to her what the cards do and giving recommendations about them, but she can handle everything else on her own.

 

[Fewr]

That's what I thought. Thanks.

 

[joelseph]

I am giving Blueprints in a non-gaming grab bag this season. Wanted to give Fuji Flush but couldn't find it in stock. It came down to Blueprints or Lanterns but I thought the dice in Blueprints might be a stronger anchor for non-gamers to relate to.

 

[zulux21]

We've always played Marvel Legendary as purely coop game, just ignore completely the points stuff and it works fine. Course Aliens and Predator improved the feeling of coop play

same... in fact I didn't think anyone would really play with the horrible competition scoring rules that should have never been in the game in the first place.

it's simple.

if you beat the boss, you win...
if not you all lose.

that is how super heroes work, they don't go...

"Well I saved 7 citizens that is worth 7 points meanwhile beating the boss is only 6 so HA you suck super man"

well bad example because super man does suck but that is besides the point

but yeah we just play pure co op for legendary, and indeed the later expansions are basically designed for pure co op.


but yeah the aliens game is better if you can't find yourself ignoring competitive rules that are pointless anyways

I personally prefer the marvel one, but that is just because i like how much content there is.

but again, if you have a choice, avoid the firefly one. some people dislike the art (I think it is fine) but the game's balance is completely off. They went and themed it with the tv episodes, which is neat theme wise, but mechanically is not fun to play at all. The first episode is basically... shuffle the deck... if one of the cards ended up anywhere but the last few cards start over as soon as you see it. :/

Thanks for the recommendations. However all those options are alot more expensive over here than Andor which is a shame. I've read that Andor is quite newcomer friendly so it shouldn't be a bad choice right?

most likely not... though... having glanced at the rules it didn't seem super new comer friendly.
I play a ton of co op games (it's the main focus of my gaming group) and there seemed like there was a lot to read and digest to play. But I was also a bit tired and annoyed at an election when I looked at it so that may have been part of it >.>

 

[alundra311]

The Others is a great game but it's pretty hard.
Think Zombicide on Roids.

Thanks. Tried checking out to see how much shipping to my country would cost and it cost's just as much as the game itself. LOL.

 

[cooltrainer]

Anyone gonna play games with their family on Christmas? I was thinking of doing a Christmas-themed Concept or Christmas Werewolf.

 

[toddhunter]

Stone Age Jr. is great for teaching a kid 5-7 about worker placement, but it's not a deep game at all. So KoT is flat better if by "family" you mean adults and kids. I actually play KoT with my 5-y-o, just handle explaining to her what the cards do and giving recommendations about them, but she can handle everything else on her own.

KoT is the better choice. I disagree on Stone Age Jr teaching worker placement though, it is memory and set collection so only suitable for very young (but does shine at it).

 

[Fireblend]

Visited Roll and Role Station in Akihabara and ended up buying 3 more games, bringing the total of my jp board game loot to 6:

Definitely more than expected, but I don't mind

 

[BassForever]

I wish I had the disposable income to justify buying all these dope ass board games

 

[zulux21]

just to note if anyone else got Escape the big box from amazon.

it seems there is a misprint in this version
https://boardgamegeek.com/article/23871134#23871134

made me very confused when sorting tiles.

I think it isn't a huge deal as I think the characters are hidden until activation so you can just write on one side, but still.

edit: emailing them from their english site (which turned to german as I was filling out forms) seems to have done the trick as less than 3 hours later I got a response apologizing and saying a new tile will be shipped to me.

 

[nicoga3000]

Got in two games yesterday!

Patchwork with the wife again. I enjoy playing games with her because she isn't a super strategic thinker. So I sort of min/max her turns in my head and give her "suggestions" when she's struggling. For example, she was going to buy a piece that had no business on her quilt last night. So I explained that she may consider buying piece X because it would let her get another turn before me AND she could buy the 1x2 filler piece to take care of a weird gap in her board AND it would let her get the 1x1 patch on the board. It was a big chain reaction that, in the end, gave her the edge and the win.

I don't play to win with her, though. I play more to get her thinking critically and enjoying games like that. Her winning usually helps her enjoy the experience more.

Zombicide: Black Plague - so I got Wulfsburg in and decided to mix in the items with the core. I'm not adding the zombies just yet, but I'll take the edge that the items give because I don't care. I definitely think that the items, while a bit broken compared to the core stuff, really help keep the game exciting and not nearly as stressful. I played Q2 and didn't realize how quickly I'd get overrun with zombies once hitting Orange level. I mean, there was a time when there were 17 zombies (a mix of walkers and runners) on one square. I ended up using a Dragon Fire to get some nasty XP on one of my heroes, so that was cool. But the game can get super out of hand. It ALMOST feels a bit, I don't know, broken?

With 4 spawn points, it was just silly how much stuff was spawning. The out-of-box Necro isn't that hard to deal with - just get in it's way and wack on it. The Aboms and Fatties, though...They're a mess. The way Fatties work makes the start of the game sort of a chore - spawn camping an open building to build up gear. You HAVE to otherwise you can't deal with Fatties or (inevitably) Runners and Necros. Aboms are what they are - you can kite them for a bit. But eventually you need to kill it.

I wish there were some sort of "shop variant" where you could collect and exchange zombie parts or something for upgrades to your weapons. Make it so you can spend the first few turns killing some walkers and then go upgrade to a 2 damage weapon. That's really my biggest gripe with the game - 2 and 3 damage options are SO scarce unless you cheese it. The Wulfsburg items help tremendously, and maybe other expansions will help make the Search phase of the game less painful.

 

[Lupercal]

Thanks. Tried checking out to see how much shipping to my country would cost and it cost's just as much as the game itself. LOL.

Which Country ?
Check BGG for a better sender I'd say.

 

[joelseph]

Visited Roll and Role Station in Akihabara and ended up buying 3 more games, bringing the total of my jp board game loot to 6:

I really wish I had a connection to the Japanese boardgame scene. There is something special happening there and it is so closed to the outside. Fascinating.

 

[joelseph]

Anyone gonna play games with their family on Christmas? I was thinking of doing a Christmas-themed Concept or Christmas Werewolf.

Codenames, Wits and Wagers.. the usual.

Concept sounds great for a family holiday game. I might pick that up!

 

[Lupercal]

Got in two games yesterday!

Patchwork with the wife again. I enjoy playing games with her because she isn't a super strategic thinker. So I sort of min/max her turns in my head and give her "suggestions" when she's struggling. For example, she was going to buy a piece that had no business on her quilt last night. So I explained that she may consider buying piece X because it would let her get another turn before me AND she could buy the 1x2 filler piece to take care of a weird gap in her board AND it would let her get the 1x1 patch on the board. It was a big chain reaction that, in the end, gave her the edge and the win.

I don't play to win with her, though. I play more to get her thinking critically and enjoying games like that. Her winning usually helps her enjoy the experience more.

Zombicide: Black Plague - so I got Wulfsburg in and decided to mix in the items with the core. I'm not adding the zombies just yet, but I'll take the edge that the items give because I don't care. I definitely think that the items, while a bit broken compared to the core stuff, really help keep the game exciting and not nearly as stressful. I played Q2 and didn't realize how quickly I'd get overrun with zombies once hitting Orange level. I mean, there was a time when there were 17 zombies (a mix of walkers and runners) on one square. I ended up using a Dragon Fire to get some nasty XP on one of my heroes, so that was cool. But the game can get super out of hand. It ALMOST feels a bit, I don't know, broken?

With 4 spawn points, it was just silly how much stuff was spawning. The out-of-box Necro isn't that hard to deal with - just get in it's way and wack on it. The Aboms and Fatties, though...They're a mess. The way Fatties work makes the start of the game sort of a chore - spawn camping an open building to build up gear. You HAVE to otherwise you can't deal with Fatties or (inevitably) Runners and Necros. Aboms are what they are - you can kite them for a bit. But eventually you need to kill it.

I wish there were some sort of "shop variant" where you could collect and exchange zombie parts or something for upgrades to your weapons. Make it so you can spend the first few turns killing some walkers and then go upgrade to a 2 damage weapon. That's really my biggest gripe with the game - 2 and 3 damage options are SO scarce unless you cheese it. The Wulfsburg items help tremendously, and maybe other expansions will help make the Search phase of the game less painful.

If you think a mission is to hard, just search up those first turns. It can get out of hand pretty quickly but it can also be a cakewalk when your entire party has orange/red items and some good synergies with levelup abilities.

I mostly use the dwarf and whenever I find that Orange Axe, it's GG for the zombies and I can easily kill 6-10 a turn.

Best advice I can give is, never let someone reach yellow if you're unprepared. Try alternating kills so every is ready to advance to yellow and use that all important extra action. (Tip: you can use the extra action as soon as you get it!)

 

[joelseph]

Splurged on Fast & Fhtagn yesterday, MM had it for $14 and people on twitter made it look interesting so I said let's ride. I read that it is a spiritual sequel to C'thulu 500 and plays similar to Road Kill Rally but I have no experience with either game.

 

[BomberMouse]

I really wish I had a connection to the Japanese boardgame scene. There is something special happening there and it is so closed to the outside. Fascinating.

What do you mean? Just go there, attend a tgm, talk to people and play some games.

 

[joelseph]

What do you mean? Just go there, attend a tgm, talk to people and play some games.

The travel and language barrier have stopped me from making the trip. Someday!

 

[AstroLad]

We played the new Arkham LCG standalone campaign (Carnevale of Horrors) and man the narrative flow of the game is reflected in the mechanics continues to be impressive. We almost reached a positive outcome, but just barely missed out by a turn or so. We actually felt pretty confident going in but the difficulty ratcheted up pretty fast. We were playing on standalone so the tokens were harder than they would be coming off of a Night of the Zealot scenario as a side quest. Next time we'll probably play it as a sidequest somewhere in the middle of the Dunwich campaign (fwiw, I think this scenario is harder than Rougarou, which we kind of stomped).

I'll say that I think I really appreciate the various interactions and universe of new options with three investigators, but I think in terms of overall experience I prefer it at two. The scenario took us almost three hours yesterday and we're all pretty experienced Arkham Files players (and two of us had already logged ~8 scenarios played in Arkham LCG). Just my own personal preference I prefer this game to top out at 120m, preferably 90m, which I think can be achieved with two for all the current scenarios. Just that each player added ratchets up the time by a healthy chunk given how the game scaled by basically making you do more stuff.

Art's amazing though. Definitely my favorite art package so far.

Also, my Destiny order's finally in the mail. Yay! Now to find some folks at work to play it with since I don't really see any local tournaments afaict (Bay Area too, so kinda surprising, but then again it took about a month for Netrunner tournaments to get started).

 

[BomberMouse]

The travel and language barrier have stopped me from making the trip. Someday!

I don't speak japanese either and last time I traveled over 30 hours to get there, you can do it! Super fun.

 

[Shadow_FFVI]

Just opened Legedary Encounters: Alien, and the sleeving and sorting was as grueling as some on the internet said. Took me quite a long time but luckily, no card was missing. I was really dreading the possibility throughout the whole ordeal.

Looks really good though, and the experience didn't sour my anticipation. Hope it is worth it.

 

[Barrylocke]

Got in two games yesterday!
Zombicide: Black Plague - so I got Wulfsburg in and decided to mix in the items with the core. I'm not adding the zombies just yet, but I'll take the edge that the items give because I don't care. I definitely think that the items, while a bit broken compared to the core stuff, really help keep the game exciting and not nearly as stressful. I played Q2 and didn't realize how quickly I'd get overrun with zombies once hitting Orange level. I mean, there was a time when there were 17 zombies (a mix of walkers and runners) on one square. I ended up using a Dragon Fire to get some nasty XP on one of my heroes, so that was cool. But the game can get super out of hand. It ALMOST feels a bit, I don't know, broken?

With 4 spawn points, it was just silly how much stuff was spawning. The out-of-box Necro isn't that hard to deal with - just get in it's way and wack on it. The Aboms and Fatties, though...They're a mess. The way Fatties work makes the start of the game sort of a chore - spawn camping an open building to build up gear. You HAVE to otherwise you can't deal with Fatties or (inevitably) Runners and Necros. Aboms are what they are - you can kite them for a bit. But eventually you need to kill it.

I wish there were some sort of "shop variant" where you could collect and exchange zombie parts or something for upgrades to your weapons. Make it so you can spend the first few turns killing some walkers and then go upgrade to a 2 damage weapon. That's really my biggest gripe with the game - 2 and 3 damage options are SO scarce unless you cheese it. The Wulfsburg items help tremendously, and maybe other expansions will help make the Search phase of the game less painful.

I've played Black Plague a few times with a guy who owns almost every expansion, if not every, and he tosses everything out onto the board at once. The big thing you have to remember is that due to leveling up resulting in stronger spawns, it's ideal to get all characters near their upgrade at about the same pace, at least until you start getting stronger weapons to compensate with more fire power. At the very least you want some stronger people in every group if you split off. Also remember to start slow with opening doors since those also result in spawns. If you wait until you get a 2 power item or two to get into the Yellow Zone then you likely won't deal with too many Fatties.

I wouldn't be too scared to add in the wolves (they require one to kill but have 3 actions). I can understand why you may want to hold off on the Abomination of that set, which IIRC is an abomination that acts like a wolf (3 actions). But keep in mind that I can't say I know what the balance is like with mostly the base set, since again, the person who ones it just throws everything down. I know one of his more powerful characters that he sometimes puts into the hardest scenarios, Milo, comes in character expansion. He has +1 Magic damage which means he can actually take out Fatties right away and Abominations with +2 magic weapons.

Splurged on Fast & Fhtagn yesterday, MM had it for $14 and people on twitter made it look interesting so I said let's ride. I read that it is a spiritual sequel to C'thulu 500 and plays similar to Road Kill Rally but I have no experience with either game.

Eldritch themed games have clearly gotten out of hand.

 

[Blizzard]

Castles of Burgundy went reasonably well with 2 players for the first time. Players use dice to pick tiles off a board and place them in an estate. The dice can be adjusted by playing +1 / -1 "workers". 1 and 6 wrap around to make the numbers equal, though some die rolls are still "better" in some sense. With 2 players, only one section has a castle, for example, so you have to get that number and/or burn workers to get more castles.

After you learn the game, you can switch out player boards for different city layouts.

The game seemed decent, but I am a little surprised it was so high up the BGG overall and strategy rankings. I feel BGG voters typically prefer less randomness in games, and Castles of Burgundy seems to have a ton of it. Various knowledge tiles that drastically affect your scoring and strategy can come out at vastly different points in the game, and if you happen to be second on a given turn you may miss out. You can mitigate die rolls a bit, but they're still die rolls. Knowledge tiles aren't created equal, either. I got one that gave me a maximum of maybe 8 points (if I totally filled four colors on my board), but totally filling in some colors is HARD and takes significant dedication. In contrast, another knowledge tile gave 8 points if you simply had 2 matching buildings, a much easier task. Yet another one gave 18 points for selling at least one good of every type. That's pretty easy to do if you get the knowledge early, and hugely outscores the other tiles I saw.

Also, every game starts off with an instruction to sort all 164 tiles by back color (wat). The box has 6 plastic tray divisions and no bags, so unless I start adding my own bags then sorting and storage is a big pain.

 

[LunarKnite]

So, I finally got my Xenoshyft: Dreadmire package today. Forgot how much I went in on this. Got a playmat, some folding boards, and bunch of extra card packs and the Immolation expansion. Definitely gonna try to open up this bad boy and play tonight.

Castles of Burgundy went reasonably well with 2 players for the first time. Players use dice to pick tiles off a board and place them in an estate. The dice can be adjusted by playing +1 / -1 "workers". 1 and 6 wrap around to make the numbers equal, though some die rolls are still "better" in some sense. With 2 players, only one section has a castle, for example, so you have to get that number and/or burn workers to get more castles.

After you learn the game, you can switch out player boards for different city layouts.

The game seemed decent, but I am a little surprised it was so high up the BGG overall and strategy rankings. I feel BGG voters typically prefer less randomness in games, and Castles of Burgundy seems to have a ton of it. Various knowledge tiles that drastically affect your scoring and strategy can come out at vastly different points in the game, and if you happen to be second on a given turn you may miss out. You can mitigate die rolls a bit, but they're still die rolls. Knowledge tiles aren't created equal, either. I got one that gave me a maximum of maybe 8 points (if I totally filled four colors on my board), but totally filling in some colors is HARD and takes significant dedication. In contrast, another knowledge tile gave 8 points if you simply had 2 matching buildings, a much easier task. Yet another one gave 18 points for selling at least one good of every type. That's pretty easy to do if you get the knowledge early, and hugely outscores the other tiles I saw.

Also, every game starts off with an instruction to sort all 164 tiles by back color (wat). The box has 6 plastic tray divisions and no bags, so unless I start adding my own bags then sorting and storage is a big pain.

I love Castles of Burgundy! It's my second favorite Feld, the first being Bora Bora which uses dice as well. I think there's enough dice mitigation for people to be okay with the random dice rolls. Knowledge tiles can be a bit of a crapshoot, but certain points are easier to obtain because they make you try to do certain actions. Selling goods of every type is not good in the game, as it's much more efficient to sell a lot of the same goods at once. In doing that to get the measly 18 points, you potentially give up other actions spent doing other things (I usually don't sell goods more than 3-4 times). When talking two evenly skilled players, sure luck may be a factor, but skill still wins out at the end of the day because it's all about efficiency. Besides the point that 8-18 points is a small amount compared to the end scores of 200-300.

As for the storage, yeah, it's bad. I ended up buying Meeple Realty's insert. It's very nice! Comes with little dice towers and everything.

 

[AstroLad]

Yeah there's a lot of dice mitigation in COB between the +/- tokens and the buildings that let you do it. I don't really think BGG rankings favor non-randomness (thank goodness or they'd be garbage to me! ) so much as just favoring games that get a good amount of attention and it just so happens that some overwhelming majority of people who do play and rate them really have a good time. I would call most of Feld's designs "a surprisingly good time" for what look like dry Euros, and I think most people agree. I think most of the games in their top 20 at least really strike a good balance on many axes, Twilight Struggle sort of being the classic example.

 

[Sizemore24]

Need a new two player game for the gf and I. We're pretty open minded. Lately we've been playing 7 Wonder Duel, Le Havre, Splendor, and Sherlock Consulting Detective. We own Dominion (plus expansions), Carcassone, C o Burgundy, Lost Cities, Twilight Struggle, Dutch Blitz, Love Letter, Pandemic, Suburbia, Terra Mystica, Castletti, Agricola (big and small), Race for the Galaxy and a few others that aren't coming to me.

I'm leaning towards Time Stories, but I've already played one scenario from the base game with a friend, so I'm not sure how good of a value that would be for us. Any other suggestions?

Sorry if late.

Patchwork is very fun. My wife and I enjoy it a lot

 

[Lyng]

Castles of Burgundy went reasonably well with 2 players for the first time. Players use dice to pick tiles off a board and place them in an estate. The dice can be adjusted by playing +1 / -1 "workers". 1 and 6 wrap around to make the numbers equal, though some die rolls are still "better" in some sense. With 2 players, only one section has a castle, for example, so you have to get that number and/or burn workers to get more castles.

After you learn the game, you can switch out player boards for different city layouts.

The game seemed decent, but I am a little surprised it was so high up the BGG overall and strategy rankings. I feel BGG voters typically prefer less randomness in games, and Castles of Burgundy seems to have a ton of it. Various knowledge tiles that drastically affect your scoring and strategy can come out at vastly different points in the game, and if you happen to be second on a given turn you may miss out. You can mitigate die rolls a bit, but they're still die rolls. Knowledge tiles aren't created equal, either. I got one that gave me a maximum of maybe 8 points (if I totally filled four colors on my board), but totally filling in some colors is HARD and takes significant dedication. In contrast, another knowledge tile gave 8 points if you simply had 2 matching buildings, a much easier task. Yet another one gave 18 points for selling at least one good of every type. That's pretty easy to do if you get the knowledge early, and hugely outscores the other tiles I saw.

Also, every game starts off with an instruction to sort all 164 tiles by back color (wat). The box has 6 plastic tray divisions and no bags, so unless I start adding my own bags then sorting and storage is a big pain.

Like others have said, there are tons of ways to mitigate the dice.
Its rated so highly because it is a excellent game. The more you play, the more it shines.

 

[ultron87]

Sorry if late.

Patchwork is very fun. My wife and I enjoy it a lot

I've been playing that with a buddy on the app a lot and it's really great. It took a few games to get the strategy of it and to realize just how much of the game is about the track instead of the quilt, but we've been enjoying it a lot now that we're pretty into it. Trying to look ahead a few turns in order to get your opponent to make bad moves is a neat way to start thinking about it.

 

[EYEL1NER]

Went into the local store last night to play some games for the first time since the baby was born (he is a month old today). I took in Santorini, which arrived yesterday instead of the day before like it was supposed to,mZombie Tower 3D, and Exploding Kittens. I didn't actually expect anyone to be there for games since Tuesday nights have been taken over by the DnD group but there were three people hanging around. We wound up playing a game of Zombie Tower 3D, my third time playing it. I think everyone else liked it well-enough, once they realized it wasn't a Zombicide style action game but more of a puzzle that you have to figure out. One guy that was there the first time I played it months ago and then played last night kept saying "I just don't get what people don't like about this game. I just don't get it."

I holding I can get Santorini played tonight maybe, if my wife will try out the basic version sans God cards.

I've been thinking lately that I am going to buy Fuse. I also have my eye on Treasure Hunter, thenRichard Garfield/Queen Games drafting game.

Also, in case anyone missed it, an update on Millenium Blades Set Rotation came out:

The port landing date is January 25th, 2017!
If all goes according to schedule, we will be unloading Millennium Blades on the 25th and 26th. After landing, it takes 1-2 weeks to get everything to our facilities, and then 3-5 more days to have them start arriving at your doors (3-10 days in Europe). Canada will be shipping out a little bit later, since we have to ship things that arrive in the USA across our northern border before fulfillment can begin.
If you're in the USA or Europe though, you should expect to receive your copies of Millennium Blades: Set Rotation, and any additional items (such as art books and play mats) around February 15th, 2017!

 

[cooltrainer]

I played Secret Hitler with 6 people. I was honestly a bit skeptical of this game. I like Avalon a lot and this looked kinda like a knock off, and the name "Secret Hitler" feels a little juvenile in humor. I need to play it some more but I might actually like it better than Avalon because I think it is a more approachable design for new people. Usually when I play Avalon there is someone new, and even people who have played it a few times have trouble getting the strategy as a good guy or lying as a bad guy or hiding as Merlin. Avalon is probably at it's best when the players have a lot of experience with the game and is probably a deeper deduction experience.

In this game, one person in each round is the president who elects a chancellor. Everyone else votes in favor or against that chancellor. If they pass it the pres picks up 3 policy tiles that are either fascist or liberal, discards one in secret then gives the other 2 to the chancellor. The chancellor selects one of the policies and enacts it. Since there are a lot more fascist tiles than liberal tiles, there are situations where a liberal president has to pass 2 fascist tiles to the chancellor. This gives players some obvious lies to run with. In the game I played I was the lone fascist and I gave my chancellor 2 fascist cards. That policy allowed me to assassinate someone and I chose him claiming he was a fascist because I gave him a liberal and a fascist. This type of play and the fact that you know for sure what someone did makes it easier on new players while still having that uncertainty and tension that Avalon has.

I don't know if I will actually get this one because I already have a lot of social deduction games but it's definitely fun and a very nice looking production. I absolutely hate the box size/shape though.

 

[v1lla21]

Local store got a destiny Booster box so I picked up 8 packs.

Yall are gonna make me buy arkham lcg. Lol. Probably gonna pick it up this weekend since the whole family will be here for a week.

 

[jstevenson]

Local store got a destiny Booster box so I picked up 8 packs.

Yall are gonna make me buy arkham lcg. Lol. Probably gonna pick it up this weekend since the whole family will be here for a week.

whatcha pull?

waiting on more to arrive. I really, really like the game though

 

[v1lla21]

whatcha pull?

waiting on more to arrive. I really, really like the game though

First order fighter, holdout blaster, sith holocron, launch Bay, qui-gon jinn, cunning, immobilize, gaffi stick.

 

[jstevenson]

First order fighter, holdout blaster, sith holocron, launch Bay, qui-gon jinn, cunning, immobilize, gaffi stick.

nice, holdout blaster is terrific, so is the holocron and launch bay.

qui-gin good too

 

[LunarKnite]

So, Xenoshyft: Dreadmire. I couldn't even make it past wave 2 solo. I presume it'd get somewhat easier with more players as you have a few more cards/abilities to work with, even if there are more enemies. It also didn't help at all that I had no weapon items to buy. The collector in me is wanting to pick up Onslaught now since I skipped that. Though maybe I have too many deck builders... Just got Aeon's End and Tyrants of the Underdark.

 

[v1lla21]

nice, holdout blaster is terrific, so is the holocron and launch bay.

qui-gin good too

Yeah I got real happy with the blaster and holocron.

 

[alundra311]

Which Country ?
Check BGG for a better sender I'd say.

I'm from the Philippines, by the way.