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New Board Gaming |OT2| On Tables, Off Topic
- Thread starter Karkador
- Start date
Conan's pretty good but not worth the price imo.
If it was the Kickstarter version I'd go for it for that price.
+-100 is to much for Conan, unless you're mini crazy and even then I wouldn't.
So I decided to bite on the Arkham Card Game, got the core and the first expansion, anything I should know about introducing it to people or get things organized. Is the deck building hard or is there premade decks? Seems like a good solo game but would like to play with gf and friends also, is the core set enough for three players?
Finally broke open T.I.M.E Stories on NYE and it was a pretty big hit with all of us, looking forward to the other released stories.
Finally broke open T.I.M.E Stories on NYE and it was a pretty big hit with all of us, looking forward to the other released stories.
AbsolutBro
Member
Have a question for anyone who plays Mice and Mystics. I am having trouble understanding the Explore action in relation to Minion Surge Cheese and placing new Minions.
So the rules say if the last person on the initiative track finishes their turn, and there are no minions on the board, to add a piece of Cheese to the minion surge track clock thing. To avoid this, I have generally been taking the "Explore" action with the last mouse on the initiative track, that way everyone else can try to Search and find equipment and such. When I explore and a new board is placed, we get a new encounter with new minions. Since there were previously no minions on the track, I have been shuffling the initiative cards and starting a new round.
Is that right? Should I just be adding the new minions to the bottom of the track instead? Otherwise, if someone early on the track took the Explore action, it would cost the other mice below them their turn if you reshuffle. I checked the FAQ on their site, but didn't see anything applicable.
So the rules say if the last person on the initiative track finishes their turn, and there are no minions on the board, to add a piece of Cheese to the minion surge track clock thing. To avoid this, I have generally been taking the "Explore" action with the last mouse on the initiative track, that way everyone else can try to Search and find equipment and such. When I explore and a new board is placed, we get a new encounter with new minions. Since there were previously no minions on the track, I have been shuffling the initiative cards and starting a new round.
Is that right? Should I just be adding the new minions to the bottom of the track instead? Otherwise, if someone early on the track took the Explore action, it would cost the other mice below them their turn if you reshuffle. I checked the FAQ on their site, but didn't see anything applicable.
Deckbuilding doesn't really exist if you're on a single core. You can play 2 investigators but can't overlap classes with 1 core. Premade decks (and custom on 1 core, for that matter) are effectively all level 0 of the character's classes plus a few neutrals to fill it out so pretty easy. What I've done for introducing the game is set up and play the first scenario with a premade deck and then going into basic card anatomy (resource cost, type of card, and what the commit icons mean), taking the first turn as an example and explaining monsters as they come up. Since everything is a skill check once you resolve the first investigation check it's fairly straightforward and all that's left is to explain keywords on cards when they come up.
So I see there are some mythos packs and things like that, how does it all kinda work together, since this is the first LCG that I am paying attention to, are those needed?
The mythos packs are there to expand the story. The Dunwich Legacy box that comes out later this month will start a new campaign storyline which will last for probably 6-8 scenarios. That box has some new player cards, and then the first two scenarios. The mythos packs will each contain another scenario, so if you enjoy the game, then you can essentially get another "level" every month by getting the next mythos pack. Those will also contain some new player cards as well to expand the card pool.
The great thing about LCGs is that everything is set cards. There's no randomization in the packs, so if you buy a mythos pack, you'll get all of the cards you need for it, and the maximum amount of player cards (2 per card) for one player.
I played my copy of 7 Wonders: Duel recently, and I'm unsure how I feel about it. It's thematically similar to but mechanically very different from 7 Wonders, most notably in how "drafting" functions (although resources, military, science, and wonders themselves are also pretty far from the 7 Wonders implementation thereof). Cards are [partially] layered in alternative face-up and face-down rows. At first, only the foremost face-up cards can be "drafted", but as cards are [entirely] uncovered, they become available (and flipped face-up if face-down). Unlike the original game, this becomes a game of denial and risk management first and foremost. You must avoid making available a military or science card to an opponent who's strong in that area (both are insta-win conditions in Duel), but half the cards are hidden, so good luck with that.
I can see how some people would enjoy the tension that arises from this ("no whammies"), and I understand that 7 Wonders has a similar lack of control in what cards intermediary players draft/pass, but this mechanic seems too luck-based in Duel. Perhaps with greater knowledge of all possible cards in an age, face-down cards become largely predictable, but I don't care for this kind of mechanic.
I'll try playing with all face-up cards a few times to see how that goes.
I wish I could get Age of Steam onto the table more often, but my local gaming store closed a few years ago (the group largely migrated to one that's about 20 minutes farther away and now plays during the day) and there's far too great a skill gap in my work group (AoS is exceedingly unforgiving of poor play, allowing players to enter a death spiral via the initial bond offering and auction).
On the other hand, I have a fair amount of opportunities to play BSG, but playing with less-experienced/less-confident players just isn't fun (for me). It's not that the rules are particularly complex/difficult to explain or the familiarity with the theme is necessary. It's that if incompetence is indistinguishable from actively poor play, accusations (and support) are half-hearted, and players are unwilling or unable to be attentive, then the game devolves into two+ hours of tedium and mundane card play. I'd much rather bring out The Resistance/Avalon or One Night Ultimate Werewolf to get the traitor/hidden-teams/misdirection kick.
I think the other game I'd really like to get more play of is Tragedy Looper, which is a mastermind-vs-team deduction/inference game (with an anime-style art/theme). Understanding each scenario requires a fair amount of prep beforehand by the mastermind (and requires some explanation for new players), which means that it can't just be brought out on a whim, and the team/cooperative element is not favored in my work group.
BSG is pretty simple, and given that it's cooperative (with "traitors"), it's easy to jump right in. It's just a small step up from, say, Pandemic. Every turn is just draw skill cards, move anywhere, activate location or play skill card (or activate special ability), resolve crisis card. The human goal is to survive crisis cards (resources, damage, boarding party) until a certain (variable) number of jumps are made. Players should also be aware of how skill checks work (secretly play skill cards into pile to pass/fail, don't be too obvious with respect to type/color) and that Cylon reveals are an action (and that Cylons will spam Caprica after revealing), but that's about it. There are some special abilities exclusive to the President, the Admiral, and pilots, as well as iconography and combat, but those can be addressed as needed.
I can see how some people would enjoy the tension that arises from this ("no whammies"), and I understand that 7 Wonders has a similar lack of control in what cards intermediary players draft/pass, but this mechanic seems too luck-based in Duel. Perhaps with greater knowledge of all possible cards in an age, face-down cards become largely predictable, but I don't care for this kind of mechanic.
I'll try playing with all face-up cards a few times to see how that goes.
I wish I could get Age of Steam onto the table more often, but my local gaming store closed a few years ago (the group largely migrated to one that's about 20 minutes farther away and now plays during the day) and there's far too great a skill gap in my work group (AoS is exceedingly unforgiving of poor play, allowing players to enter a death spiral via the initial bond offering and auction).
On the other hand, I have a fair amount of opportunities to play BSG, but playing with less-experienced/less-confident players just isn't fun (for me). It's not that the rules are particularly complex/difficult to explain or the familiarity with the theme is necessary. It's that if incompetence is indistinguishable from actively poor play, accusations (and support) are half-hearted, and players are unwilling or unable to be attentive, then the game devolves into two+ hours of tedium and mundane card play. I'd much rather bring out The Resistance/Avalon or One Night Ultimate Werewolf to get the traitor/hidden-teams/misdirection kick.
I think the other game I'd really like to get more play of is Tragedy Looper, which is a mastermind-vs-team deduction/inference game (with an anime-style art/theme). Understanding each scenario requires a fair amount of prep beforehand by the mastermind (and requires some explanation for new players), which means that it can't just be brought out on a whim, and the team/cooperative element is not favored in my work group.
BSG is pretty simple, and given that it's cooperative (with "traitors"), it's easy to jump right in. It's just a small step up from, say, Pandemic. Every turn is just draw skill cards, move anywhere, activate location or play skill card (or activate special ability), resolve crisis card. The human goal is to survive crisis cards (resources, damage, boarding party) until a certain (variable) number of jumps are made. Players should also be aware of how skill checks work (secretly play skill cards into pile to pass/fail, don't be too obvious with respect to type/color) and that Cylon reveals are an action (and that Cylons will spam Caprica after revealing), but that's about it. There are some special abilities exclusive to the President, the Admiral, and pilots, as well as iconography and combat, but those can be addressed as needed.
Yeah basically there are POD packs, which are just one-off sidequests (no regular character cards for deckbuilding), and the actual mythos packs (big box and small box), which I believe will have both story/encounter side of things as well as character cards. So you'll have new stories to play each month as well as new cards to use in your decks. You can build decks on arkhamdb.com, which is much easier than writing them all down. I would advise ideally for core that you have one core per player if you really want to get into the deckbuilding straightaway. Two cores for three is OK too, but a little limiting. If you play through a scenario and are just getting stomped, don't hesitate to dial down to Easy. Some of these scenarios are a little tough right now, I think so that they have more staying power as new cards come out.
Polite but hard disagree on this one.
BSG takes 3+ hours and has complexity level more akin to Arkham Horror than to Pandemic (its weight on BGG is almost the same as Eldritch Horror actually). The traitor aspect also makes it way more problematic to introduce to groups not well versed in complex games because as the traitor you'll have to fully understand the rules and then some, and be able to subtly exploit aspects of the game that might not even be clear to you. And your questions will be suspicious as hell, so you're kind of stuck. I know what you're getting at I think -- once you know the game it seems dumb-dumb easy, like most games. I mean I've been playing Arkham for so many years now and the rules are so ingrained that I do find it literally an easy game to play rules-wise, but I wouldn't compare it to Pandemic, and it doesn't have that traitor element too. ymmv!I'm thinking about picking up Scythe when the next print hits soon and, to be honest, it's 50% due to the artwork and 50% due to the hype. Would someone who has played the game be willing to check my list of owned games on BGG and tell me if it would be too similar to any games I already own? I've found I have a habit of buying games with similar mechanics and then I end up selling them later on.
List is here. Thanks!
List is here. Thanks!
LunarKnite
Member
At this very moment? Probably Forbidden Stars. I bought it because it was supposed to be pretty much Starcraft the Board Game 2.0. The hidden action tokens that go first in, last out, the asymmetric races, the WH40K universe which the SC lore was based off of. Now I have played half a game of Starcraft, and that's also on the list, the Brood War expansion is one of my grail items even though I'm likely never to play the base game enough to warrant it. Aside from that, 1846, Cyclades, Cry Havoc, Trickerion, and Empires: Age of Discovery as games in my pile of shame that I want to play the most.
But there's so many games, usually the big/long games that rarely get played because of time constraints. Dominant Species, Eclipse, Nations, Through the Ages, Three Kingdoms Redux, Kingdom Death: Monster, Argent.
Oh, and I completely forgot that I still haven't played any of the Golden Elephant winners from HeavyCardboard's podcast: Madiera, Arkwright, and Food Chain Magnate.
I don't think it's too similar to any of the games on that list (brief look-see). It's and action-selection-driven efficiency-engine-race that's over in 15-20 turns. Combat is kinda like Blood Rage, but BR is primarily a card drafting game and there isn't any of that in Scythe (factory card excepted). I guess you sorta build an engine in Catan, but there's no trading or random production in Scythe. Is there anything on your list that's primarily action-selection based or efficiency-engine oriented, let alone both?
So 2 cores for 3 people is minimum?
Yeah. There are five classes, and currently each investigator can have cards from two different specific pairs of classes. Since the card pool is so small, "one core" decks take all of the cards from those two classes, plus a smattering of neutral cards. So you can build two starter decks with one core, and then you'd have one class left over, which wouldn't be enough to make a third deck.
If I use the arkhamdb with 2 cores to build three different classes and just store it that way, is that ok to play that way? or should I store without built decks, the people I usually play are not going to be much for the deck building part of it so I want to have a decent way to have it built and somewhat ready to go or I can build two good decks and play solo mostly I guess.
It sounds like you're doing it correctly.
Mouse 1 - Kills last enemy
Mouse 2 - Could explore, but instead, searches for an item if they haven't found one yet in this area
Mouse 3 - Does the same
Mouse 4 - Explores if we don't want to add cheese to the wheel, or searches if we don't care.
Once you explore, you clear the initiative track of all cards, spawn new enemies, and then shuffle your mouse initiatives with the new enemies and put them on the track again. If you add any NEW enemy types either via a Surge, or a story trigger, they'll automaitcally be at the bottom of the initiative track. Enemies that already have a card on the track just activate at the same time as usual.
We've definitely spent extra turns in a cleared area so that we could search for items, and/or trigger a surge in a controlled environment.
So I've played Netrunner a couple more times (still got a couple rules wrong, but I swear I'll eventually play it right!). Definitely something I enjoy and I could see myself going for some of the packs/boxes down the road. Haven't had a chance to see if my gf likes it though, which will probably be the deciding factor.
I have a couple friends who like to deckbuild, but when I play with my wife or new people I just use pre-made decks yes. Then if we're doing a whole campaign I'll let them choose upgrades so they do get a taste of the deckbuilding.
EYEL1NER
Member
Damn, damn, damn. A few weeks ago, I was down in my garage digging through boxes of games I shipped back from Greenland, looking for Phantom Leader. I found some loose Smash Up cards in a packing box that contained a bunch of games and misc items, so I grabbed the Smash Up box and opened it only to find that the cards went everywhere during transit. I just stuffed them into slots in the insert as best I could, rounded up all the loose cards from the shipping box, got those into the Smash Up box, and set it aside.
So for game night tonight, I thought I would take Smash Up to the store. I went back down to the garage and rummaged around for the Big Geeky Box and brought it upstairs, along with the base game, Smash Up Munchkin, Pretty Pretty Smash Up, It's Your Fault, and Cease and Desist (I own all of it besides the Cthulhu expansion and the rest of the expansions were already in the base game box). I sorted everything out, only to discover that I am missing about half of the Steampunk cards. I am assuming (hoping) that they are down in the shipping box and that I missed them before when I saw other loose cards. I can't remember which box that was though and there are like 10+ huge boxes that I need to sift through now (luckily I know that it wasn't one of the large trunks that I found the loose cards and base game box in, because that would add to the time it will take to go through them).
I know AEG has pretty decent customer service (they replaced a Pirate card that had a defect and was marked unless the cards were sleeved) but I would rather find the cards than contact them and ask for a hookup over something that was my own fault. A couple cards that were loose in the Smash Up base game box that hadn't fallen out are slightly warped though, not to a huge degree, but enough that I am thinking about sleeving all of the cards now. So that makes me a bit worried that the loose Steampunk cards could be horrible bent and mangled in that large box too.
EDIT: That was almost a disaster, but meltdown averted. I didn't thoroughly catalog everything that was in every box before I shipped them, but I did take pictures and made notation on my iPad of some of the items in each of the boxes. I was scrolling through notes and pics when I saw that Box 3 had some sheets and pillow cases in it. I remembered being concerned that loose cards were in wrapped up in the sheets before, so Box 3 must have been it. I went down and checked the sheets again (there were no cards in it before) and then started removing games. Underneath a copy of The Agents and nestled firmly between Mage Wars and Pandemic: The Cure were the 12 cards I was missing. So my Big Geeky Box is good to go for the time being. I think I will order the Cthulhu expansion, for completionist's sake. And then a new expansion comes out in a few months.
Going through that box made me think that I want to play Pandemic: The Cure. I only started a game of it once and my coworker I was playing with and I wasted so much time playing MtG that he had to call it quits early and we abandoned the game. I could take it with me tonight but I would have to read the rules and I'm running low on time. I know the game shares a lot of similar mechanics with regular Pandemic (which I know inside and out) and isn't complex, but I don't even remember setup or the phases of a turn at this point. Maybe next week though.
So for game night tonight, I thought I would take Smash Up to the store. I went back down to the garage and rummaged around for the Big Geeky Box and brought it upstairs, along with the base game, Smash Up Munchkin, Pretty Pretty Smash Up, It's Your Fault, and Cease and Desist (I own all of it besides the Cthulhu expansion and the rest of the expansions were already in the base game box). I sorted everything out, only to discover that I am missing about half of the Steampunk cards. I am assuming (hoping) that they are down in the shipping box and that I missed them before when I saw other loose cards. I can't remember which box that was though and there are like 10+ huge boxes that I need to sift through now (luckily I know that it wasn't one of the large trunks that I found the loose cards and base game box in, because that would add to the time it will take to go through them).
I know AEG has pretty decent customer service (they replaced a Pirate card that had a defect and was marked unless the cards were sleeved) but I would rather find the cards than contact them and ask for a hookup over something that was my own fault. A couple cards that were loose in the Smash Up base game box that hadn't fallen out are slightly warped though, not to a huge degree, but enough that I am thinking about sleeving all of the cards now. So that makes me a bit worried that the loose Steampunk cards could be horrible bent and mangled in that large box too.
EDIT: That was almost a disaster, but meltdown averted. I didn't thoroughly catalog everything that was in every box before I shipped them, but I did take pictures and made notation on my iPad of some of the items in each of the boxes. I was scrolling through notes and pics when I saw that Box 3 had some sheets and pillow cases in it. I remembered being concerned that loose cards were in wrapped up in the sheets before, so Box 3 must have been it. I went down and checked the sheets again (there were no cards in it before) and then started removing games. Underneath a copy of The Agents and nestled firmly between Mage Wars and Pandemic: The Cure were the 12 cards I was missing. So my Big Geeky Box is good to go for the time being. I think I will order the Cthulhu expansion, for completionist's sake. And then a new expansion comes out in a few months.
Going through that box made me think that I want to play Pandemic: The Cure. I only started a game of it once and my coworker I was playing with and I wasted so much time playing MtG that he had to call it quits early and we abandoned the game. I could take it with me tonight but I would have to read the rules and I'm running low on time. I know the game shares a lot of similar mechanics with regular Pandemic (which I know inside and out) and isn't complex, but I don't even remember setup or the phases of a turn at this point. Maybe next week though.
It is fun.
Balancing out the risk of getting good stuff and making noise adds a nice level to depth. You don't have to go deepest into the dungeon to win the game either which is good. Just make sure you buy some movement cards or you might not do as well.
Is there any direct player interaction?
Word on the street is it's the current "best" Deck Builder and an amazingly fun extension of the Ascension buy line mechanic. I have been hunting for a copy at a decent prize and read on BGG a reprint is hitting stores now.
AbsolutBro
Member
Sweet, glad I was doing it right.
Also hadn't considered a controlled surge, that's a good idea.
INIS YA'LL.
If only the bloody game would get restocked in Sweden anytime soon I would also like to see if I could join in on this.
There is. There are cards that can cause all other players to gain or lose clank/noise. Don't know if you qualify this as player interaction but people can get to stuff before you so it can be a race to objects on the board.
That might be it though. I only played it once so haven't seen a lot of the cards.
Scythe is actually kind of unique. It's closest to Terra Mystica albeit more thematic and has combat. It also scales a lot better.
I own it, every time it comes to the table it's great fun. Well loved with my group.
Here is my collection as of Jan 2017:
I finally have a copy of Inis! In English! In the UK! Hurray!
Just briefly, not to be left out, I think my GOTY might be a win between: New Angeles & Great Western Trail. With my best-game-of-the-year-I-discovered-this-year going to Kemet. It's bloody glorious.
I'm really on the fence about picking up Arcadia Quest & Zombicide.
Can you give me some pointers about choosing between Zombicide and Black Plague? I like the idea of both & I'm not sure which setting appeals to me more.
Out of Arcadia quest & Zombicide? Arcadia Quest every time, it's due an expansion sometime the end of the month too.
As for Vanilla Zombicide vs Black Plague? BP has better refined rules on ranged weapons and had more content than Vanilla. Both are fairly simple games though.
Amory
Member
My girlfriend and I gave it a shot over the weekend. It was....alright.
First of all, I don't think this game is made for 2 players. There's no secret objectives and no betrayals, which I'd imagine takes a lot away from the experience.
My biggest problem is that the instructions just aren't presented well. I read them what I thought was front to back like 3 or 4 times before we started playing, and there were still a lot of scenarios where I didn't understand how the game worked.
Some examples:
- How do barriers work? If they work the way we were playing them, zombies really aren't much of a threat in this game. Not nearly as much as the risk you're exposed to from just moving place to place.
- What the hell is a helpless survivor? I didn't see it in the instructions
- Is there any point in keeping characters at the shelter? It just costs you more food. We kept one character there to clear out the garbage and build some barriers, didn't see a need for any more.
- When completing a crisis, do I need one item for every character in the game? Or just one for each person playing the game? If it's one per character, that seems ridiculously difficult. If it's one per player, that seems ridiculously easy.
We tried the recommended first-timers main objective, "Tribute", where you just need to pick up 2 cards from each location. We won, I guess? But when I contributed the last card to the pile and told her we had won, we both kind of just shrugged. But I do understand that that's probably one of the most boring scenarios in the game.
I love the concept, but in practice there seems to be just too many components gumming up the experience of playing
Out of Arcadia quest & Zombicide? Arcadia Quest every time, it's due an expansion sometime the end of the month too.
As for Vanilla Zombicide vs Black Plague? BP has better refined rules on ranged weapons and had more content than Vanilla. Both are fairly simple games though.
I'll probably end up with both. Arcadia Quest I'm on the fence with because I've already got SDE but have played it...maybe once? way back when I got it.
I've got so many barely played/unplayed games, but there's something about a big ole box of boardgame that makes it so appealing to buy even with the backlog..
The conflict within Arcadia Quest makes it, as at some point, you're going to need to backstab a friend.
Which is great fun.
-tetsuo-
Unlimited Capacity
These are my plays for the year.
As you can see, BattleCON was the go to game in 2016 lol. Also there are a few more single play games but they wouldn't fit in the screen cap AND I started recording in July or so I believe. Much KDM was left off >.>
SapphiCine
Member
I played Tsuro over the weekend and that is a game with a bad rule sheet. It's only mentioned in one section that players knocked out of the game put their tiles back in the deck. Miss that and everything concerning the dragon tile and drawing tiles is confusing.
I never understood the dragon tile part. We always left it out and just grabbed knocked out player's tiles when needed.
Yeah I wouldn't even bother DoW with 2. Kind of defeats the point of the game, though I guess it's an OK way to learn. I saw they were answered above but jfyi all those things you asked about are in the rules so maybe just pull it up on a tablet or laptop next time and you can word search for them. The rules are fiddly but they're fairly comprehensive.
All my games from the Steal This Game kickstarter just arrived!
I backed the tier with ...and then they held hands, Mythe and They Who Were 8. Never bought anything from Ludicreations before but these all seem lovely. In particular Mythe's pop-up book style board is real neat!
Can't wait to get them to the table.
I backed the tier with ...and then they held hands, Mythe and They Who Were 8. Never bought anything from Ludicreations before but these all seem lovely. In particular Mythe's pop-up book style board is real neat!
Can't wait to get them to the table.
It's just to indicate who gets first dibs on those tiles.
Oh hey, I forgot that was coming soon. I backed Steal This Game + the rabbit divorce game (KUNE v LAIKA). I wonder if they'll show up soon. I got no word in my email after the "last chance to confirm shipping address" one.
SapphiCine
Member
It's so simple and yet explained so poorly.
Yeah, me neither. The only sign I had that it was coming was that my friend's games came last week.
I recently grabbed Ars Alchimia and I've had a lot of fun with it. It's a worker placement game where you manage an alchemy lab. The aesthetic is anime so think the Atelier series for inspiration. The game is a lot of fun but if you end up picking it up, be warned that the way the instructions are written is terrible. We figured everything out by the end of the first game but it definitely seemed like they dropped a page somewhere when printing the instructions.
platypotamus
Member
I really enjoy And Then We Held Hands. It's kind of abstract, but the mechanics push the theme really well anyway. Love playing it with the wife
I picked up Ars alchimia too but haven't had a chance to play it yet. I remember seeing somewhere from the publisher that the instructions were printed incorrectly, they don't fold the right way and are missing the images. No word yet on a correction though, the rules on BGG are from the previous version a couple years ago but they should still be good.