Yeah you don't because it advances the agenda automatically, giving you fewer turns to do stuff.
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New Board Gaming |OT2| On Tables, Off Topic
- Thread starter Karkador
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Yeah you don't because it advances the agenda automatically, giving you fewer turns to do stuff.
I mentioned it because maybe you're missing a rule then. Agnes's ability (deal 1 dmg after taking horror) is a reaction trigger, meaning it's entirely optional (all the triggered abilities are always inherently optional - the arrow symbol, the circley arrow and the lightning bolt). Agnes coulda just let that fella stroll on by.
Oh yeah haha good point, but the person actually chose to initiated thinking it wouldn't be a big deal. So I guess it's not totally agnes's fault, though the dark memory one isI mentioned it because maybe you're missing a rule then. Agnes's ability (deal 1 dmg after taking horror) is a reaction trigger, meaning it's entirely optional (all the triggered abilities are always inherently optional - the arrow symbol, the circley arrow and the lightning bolt). Agnes coulda just let that fella stroll on by.
Oh yeah haha good point, but the person actually chose to initiated thinking it wouldn't be a big deal. So I guess it's not totally agnes's fault, though the dark memory one is
I am in full Zoey mode, but Agnes is an angel and can do no wrong, lol! Never thought I would have weird character loyalty in a card game.
Roland's my dude. But I'm thinking Jenny's my co-main. Even her cards like Searching for Izzie are awesome. Also looks like someone in our playgroup which is another layer of fun.
Roland's my dude. But I'm thinking Jenny's my co-main. Even her cards like Searching for Izzie are awesome. Also looks like someone in our playgroup which is another layer of fun.
The personal weakness cards are design genius. They seriously add so much. Monster hunter Zoey's though really annoying to deal with is so damn thematic. Searching for Izzie may be my favorite though.
One Foul Note
Member
Since my last game, I think Jim might be my favourite. I managed to get his trumpet out turn one and spent the rest of the game horror healing and doing bananas magic constantly. Although I do have a soft spot for Agnes given in my very first game I defeated the final boss of that scenario with her reaction ability.
TerminalDogma
Member
So far I've only played with Agnes and Roland, while my friend has played with Wendy and Skids. Wendy seemed pretty cool, but man I LOVE how Agnes plays. I wasn't super into Roland. Gonna have to try Daisy out soon, but I don't know if I want to drop Agnes.
toddhunter
Member
Cross post from the digial thread, but it seems to be well loved here so worth mentioning that potion explosion is now available as an app https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/potion-explosion/id1162628471 at least in the free world.
It's what the players want!
electrolytes?
jstevenson
Sailor Stevenson
yeah BB-8 is basically worthless
EYEL1NER
Member
Wednesday night wound up being pretty fun. There were only three of us that showed up to the hotel for game night. We first played Scythe again, because one of the guys who showed up this week really wanted to try it last week but was too sick to come. So the owner taught him that while I helped with set-up. I didn't do anywhere near as good this time though when all was said and done. I started off strong becuase I was the faction that lets meeples cross rivers and I got my Riverwalk ability really quickly, so I was zooming around the map capturing the objective tokens to get cards with my leader. Last time I played I didn't bother producing or building and I didn't thing I would be strong in those aspects for this game either, so I was hoping to use all the cards I was netti to get me a ton of resources or good benefits. I did get some good stuff but it was all for naught; I made some serious errors with my battles in the last two or three rounds and wound up with all of my mechs defeated and not holding territories at game's end. I think I had 26 points or so, compared to the winner's 70-something.
I know we all know what Scythe is like, but here is a quick shot before turn one begin:
After that we began playing Burgle Bros. I explained the game pretty well I thought, we got set up, and then began a three story game of the Bank Job. It was The Peterman, The Raven, and The Rook (me). Finally, my first time to play the game! We lost within something ridiculous like two full rounds of play. The floor one guard was in one corner of the floor so we entered on the opposite corner, which turned out to be the stairs. It was a corner with one wall next to the tiles, so a dead end. Upon trying to leave, we discovered that we had a fingerprint room right next to us that would set off an alarm upon entry. One guy decided to take the stairs to the second floor but things weren't much better up there with where the guard spawned. Back down on the first floor, two of us decided we had to try to rush out and trip the alarm anyway but the guard was heading towards us before setting off the alarm. It ended quickly as we were still in an area that led to a dead end and the guard passed over us multiple times in a row in such a way that my stealth tokens were gone before the game had really gotten underway.
After setup before game one started. We wound up entering in the corner towards the right side of the image and got boxed in.
So we decided to make another go of it. We rotated the building 90 degrees to give a slightly different layout, reshuffled all tiles and cards, and began again. The first two floors fell really quickly. The Peterman cracked the first floor safe as the other two of us went to the second floor so The Peterman would have some breathing room on the first floor and less guard movement. The room we entered into on the second floor was a deadbolt, which requires three actions to get in. The loot The Peterman picked up from the safe required him to spend an extra action to enter a room with another player in it and he needed us to remain in the deadbolt room so he could easily come up without spending another turn on floor one. Luckily he was able to stop below us and my character ability as The Rook let me move him up with us and disregard entry costs. The second floor's safe fell quickly as well, once again getting fracked by The Peterman. The third floor is what took us the longest. We did uncover a lavatory that acted as a free stealth room but floor three was a tough one. We went through the patrol deck many times, which meant that the guard up there was moving at max speed for a lot of our time up there. The Peterman was able to crack the third safe and we got really lucky with some events that prevented the game from ending a couple times. On one turn, I had no more stealth tokens and the guard was going to move over my space guaranteed before I could prevent it. No way for the current player to set off an alarm or anything to draw him away. Luckily, we convinced the current player to draw an event that caused they are to go straight to his destination, which spared me. I made it out of the building after the safe was cracked and spent a couple turns waiting for the other two. It was a close one, but they were able to make it out.
Here an image towards the end of that game, with me waiting on the helipad off to the left. You will also notice that the high rise tower is upside down, something I didn't realize until I looked at the images a few hours ago. I did wonder while playing why the struts overlapped the board on the third floor. Now I know.
My overall impression of Burgle Bros is positive. It was a bit of a brain-burner at times and really tough, but fun. The heist theme is so great as well. Maybe one day I'll try to form a proper review of the game from my jumbled thoughts on it, after a few more plays, but I look forward to playing it again sometime soon.
I know we all know what Scythe is like, but here is a quick shot before turn one begin:
After that we began playing Burgle Bros. I explained the game pretty well I thought, we got set up, and then began a three story game of the Bank Job. It was The Peterman, The Raven, and The Rook (me). Finally, my first time to play the game! We lost within something ridiculous like two full rounds of play. The floor one guard was in one corner of the floor so we entered on the opposite corner, which turned out to be the stairs. It was a corner with one wall next to the tiles, so a dead end. Upon trying to leave, we discovered that we had a fingerprint room right next to us that would set off an alarm upon entry. One guy decided to take the stairs to the second floor but things weren't much better up there with where the guard spawned. Back down on the first floor, two of us decided we had to try to rush out and trip the alarm anyway but the guard was heading towards us before setting off the alarm. It ended quickly as we were still in an area that led to a dead end and the guard passed over us multiple times in a row in such a way that my stealth tokens were gone before the game had really gotten underway.
After setup before game one started. We wound up entering in the corner towards the right side of the image and got boxed in.
So we decided to make another go of it. We rotated the building 90 degrees to give a slightly different layout, reshuffled all tiles and cards, and began again. The first two floors fell really quickly. The Peterman cracked the first floor safe as the other two of us went to the second floor so The Peterman would have some breathing room on the first floor and less guard movement. The room we entered into on the second floor was a deadbolt, which requires three actions to get in. The loot The Peterman picked up from the safe required him to spend an extra action to enter a room with another player in it and he needed us to remain in the deadbolt room so he could easily come up without spending another turn on floor one. Luckily he was able to stop below us and my character ability as The Rook let me move him up with us and disregard entry costs. The second floor's safe fell quickly as well, once again getting fracked by The Peterman. The third floor is what took us the longest. We did uncover a lavatory that acted as a free stealth room but floor three was a tough one. We went through the patrol deck many times, which meant that the guard up there was moving at max speed for a lot of our time up there. The Peterman was able to crack the third safe and we got really lucky with some events that prevented the game from ending a couple times. On one turn, I had no more stealth tokens and the guard was going to move over my space guaranteed before I could prevent it. No way for the current player to set off an alarm or anything to draw him away. Luckily, we convinced the current player to draw an event that caused they are to go straight to his destination, which spared me. I made it out of the building after the safe was cracked and spent a couple turns waiting for the other two. It was a close one, but they were able to make it out.
Here an image towards the end of that game, with me waiting on the helipad off to the left. You will also notice that the high rise tower is upside down, something I didn't realize until I looked at the images a few hours ago. I did wonder while playing why the struts overlapped the board on the third floor. Now I know.
My overall impression of Burgle Bros is positive. It was a bit of a brain-burner at times and really tough, but fun. The heist theme is so great as well. Maybe one day I'll try to form a proper review of the game from my jumbled thoughts on it, after a few more plays, but I look forward to playing it again sometime soon.
It was.My copy of Santorini was delivered today. Can't wait to give this a play over the weekend. Let's hope it was money well spent
Finally tracked down one of my grail games off of Ebay. Got it for $100 and it is complete and everything is in great condition. It took about two hours to go through and catalog everything last night. I can't wait to try and convince my friends to try it. I will download the third edition rules too and give them a look.
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
Oh my...Good luck. I attempted to learn the rules via a PDF I found. I quickly decided it wasn't for me.
If nothing else that is a fucking rad wizard.
Heh. I know what I am getting into and that is part of the charm. We won't play it regularly I think but if we can try it out, I would be happy.
The art is atrocious and awesome at the same time.
BlewHedgehog
Member
Any perspectives on competitive LCG? I sold out of Magic two years ago and am itching for something to replace it. I have Ashes and am enjoying it, but it isn't filling the void.
The L5R rebirth is what I am most looking forward to, but who knows if it'll be any good. Netrunner feels like it might have sailed already in terms of jumping in. A friend is thinking about Game of Thrones. Is there a general concensus best game out there?
The L5R rebirth is what I am most looking forward to, but who knows if it'll be any good. Netrunner feels like it might have sailed already in terms of jumping in. A friend is thinking about Game of Thrones. Is there a general concensus best game out there?
I feel like all FFG's LCGs/CCGs have great gameplay so unless theme is absolutely of critical importance to you if you're looking to get into it competitively, you probably want to scope out which has the most active scene around you. It does tend to vary and once a scene dies (or if it never started), it's probably never coming back so you should know that going in. That's one of the big reasons I jumped over from Netrunner to Destiny was because I could tell how vibrant the competitive scene was going to be (and it would be even more so if FFG could get the damn supply issues sorted :/).
PAX is doing a Tabletop focused con in Philadelphia in November: http://unplugged.paxsite.com/
Probably too far away for me to squeeze in as another convention, especially during that busy time of year, but it is good to see another potentially big con out there.
Probably too far away for me to squeeze in as another convention, especially during that busy time of year, but it is good to see another potentially big con out there.
Philadelphia might actually have enough hotel space to accomodate a convention
BattleMonkey
Member
Orlando, one of the largest convention centers in the US with ample parking and hotels. Gencon take not
On that note, Gen Con badges go on sale this weekend.
Since they don't sell out, the only real reason to get a badge now is if you want to be in the hotel lottery on Feb 12th.
Edit: And it seems this PAX thing is the same weekend as BGG Con. Not a big deal for potential attendees since they're in pretty different parts of the country, but for exhibitors could be a choice to make.
Since they don't sell out, the only real reason to get a badge now is if you want to be in the hotel lottery on Feb 12th.
Edit: And it seems this PAX thing is the same weekend as BGG Con. Not a big deal for potential attendees since they're in pretty different parts of the country, but for exhibitors could be a choice to make.
Man I wish CA had better cons. Something in the ballpark of even DiceTowerCon at this point. I think the closest we have is KublaCon, and maybe my standards are too high from my other cons being BGG and even PAX East way back in the day, but I thought it was terrible. No parking, bad game library, not much of an environment for open play. :/ Closest top-flight con is probably BGG which is hilarious b/c that's a 3.5-hour flight.
platypotamus
Member
PAX Prime is pretty good too, and not too hard to reach from CA
jstevenson
Sailor Stevenson
get in on the ground floor on Destiny, yeah it's a CCG but it's the bomb
strategicon in LA is supposedly decent, I know they will have lots of Destiny events this year
like Astrolad says, the games themselves are all of the good stuff of your typical CCG (rules, mechanics, metas, updates) with none of the bad stuff (blind buying, crazy prices for more powerful rare cards, etc)
the big problem is.. and in no way is this limited to LCGs.. in a game with continued releases you need a community. Even just among a group of friends.. I feel board games usually serve a more common desire..
and yeah, your community in the area will determine a lot. In our area we used to have a store that did LCG night every week.. since then though the only regular night among ALL stores is Netrunner at one location. Star Wars and GoT are non-existent.
of course one option is working online to coordinate a community, then approaching a store about hosting it.
Honestly Hearthstone is far and away your best option. Yes it is digital, but I have yet to find any LCG that can scratch the Mtg itch quite like it can. Free to play can be a bit misleading but if you stick with it and learn the game you can be competitive for free within a couple months.
it's not misleading, just what you are saying. To be competitive you either have to play daily (or technically every three days for at least a few hours) for months, or spend money.
the upside to playing for free is that you have to play a TON of games, which obviously only make you better.
also, as you get better at the game, you are usually better off spending minimal time in constructed to clear out daily quests, but the vast majority of your time is better off in Arena. Overall better prizes when you do well, and very easy to make your money/gold back in packs. I still wish they would tune Arena better to be closer to a real draft. Like keep it as is.. only have you selecting 40 cards, then building a deck of 30 from your selections. Still too much in arena where you draft forming a game plan, only to have cards supporting that game plan to just stop appearing for the rest of the selection.
It depends what you mean by "be competitive". I hit rank 14 after playing a month on the NA server and only spending $5 for the welcome pack. That's the top 25% of players, according to the ingame tooltip, and I'm happy enough with that. I did play daily to do quests, yes.
I've only had maybe 5 legendary drops, most of them mediocre or bad, and I don't use any of them in my ranked deck.
The ability to play on my phone is nice.
competitive I mean Legendary ranked. Getting to rank 6 or higher (lower?) only needs enough play time and a win rate of 48-52%. Not to say it's not an accomplishment, but because of the win streak feature, a continued win rate of at least 48-52% means getting to level 5 is a when not an if.
actually getting into rank 4 through legendary means you need to claw out every single win, and even 2-3 losses in a row can be huge.
That's a very small percentage of players, though. Only 2% of players are rank 5 or better according to a 2014 report, though I'd be happy to see newer information. Maybe someone who currently has a high rank can report what the ingame tooltip says.
If someone's goal is to be in the top 2% for any card game they play, it will probably take some time and/or money, fair enough.
Another digital option is Eternal. It is more like Magic than Hearthstone plus you are coming into the open beta and won't be playing guys with tons more cards than you. I also find it more generous than Hearthstone with its f2p model. Plus it is made by the company that makes the boardgame Clank!
platypotamus
Member
Plants versus Zombies: Heroes is a great great CCG on mobile as well. It's basically replaced Hearthstone for me at this point
That's a very small percentage of players, though. Only 2% of players are rank 5 or better according to a 2014 report, though I'd be happy to see newer information. Maybe someone who currently has a high rank can report what the ingame tooltip says.
If someone's goal is to be in the top 2% for any card game they play, it will probably take some time and/or money, fair enough.
your numbers are probably right. absolutely. by competitive I just mean "will place respectably in a tournament" or hit legendary every month. I don't want to take anything away from people getting to Rank 10 or higher. But it's just like I said. If you have a win rate of just around 50% (which I think most would say is probably not what's traditionally thought of as competitive), you will get into the top 10 with enough games played (i.e. if you win 5 in a row then lose 6 in a row, you still end up two stars ahead)
in Star Wars Destiny, I just took a eBala/Jango/Trooper deck against a Jango Veers deck that has been my nightmare for weeks. I got a couple wins against him by getting Ace in the Hole to Crime Lord out early with a Sith Jabba deck. and had some close wins (but nothing reliable) with eLeia/eAckbar.
man... eBala/Jango/Trooper is.... near broken. DEFINITELY OP. All of the bullshit of Jango Veers with 6 more health and even more redeploy bullshit. I lost 1 character (Bala) in two games each. And my last game didn't lose any characters. won with a Fight Dirty for 6 followed by an Armed to the Teeth for the killing blow. I mean seriously, 9 damage in two actions is just nuts.
We were discussing exactly where the problems are in Destiny.. and really, a WHOLE chunk of equipment is way too under costed.
So look at aggro in most CCGs, especially young ones. It is basically aggro that is a mile wide and a foot deep. if you can survive the onslaught your opponent brings through cheap but plentiful aggro, you can usually clear it leaving your opponent with no follow through.
the problem in destiny is that most games are only 4-5 rounds when an aggro deck is present. so where in more rounds, you could ramp out some of the major support that is in the game.. AT-ST, Launch Bay, Falcon.. I mean imagine a Destiny game where control can control the fuck out of aggro long enough to drop two AT-STs!!!
But you can't. Because by the time you are on turn 4, one control character is dead, you've used every resource just to keep them alive until round 3/4 and maybe do some damage in the process, maybe even kill a character, and now it's fighting it down with one character hoping to win. Basically every deck has to devolve into some sort of aggression deck.
Now Destiny is a SOLID game. Truly just a top notch CCG. But going forward, they are definitely going to have to slow the game down. Not literally slow it down.. but allow more turns to happen in fewer actions, resulting in less damage per round early on. So the game essentially takes the same time (say 35 minutes), but you have more rounds going on, more resource ramp, more control, etc.
Because as it stands right now, an opening hand of Holdout Blaster x 2 in eRey/eHan is near broken. Potentially 6 damage before your opponent even gets to take their first turn... Turn two having a Jango with 2 jetpacks rolling out 8 damage and unable to respond.. well.. and my use of the word broken is hyperbole.. but it ends up with the only answer to these types of decks are to run a similar VERY small subset of decks.
To get more types of competitive decks out there, FFG/Lukas have to figure out how to slow the game tempo down. make aggro feel like more traditional aggro.
One of the things that came to mind is very careful use of the "before" keyword in the next set. They've been cautious with "before" largely because it interrupts the flow of the game. but there are so many ways to take away the ability to answer in this game, especially for yellow villains (and red in general to a lesser degree).
You should also have more "when you deploy" card text. DL-44 is a perfect example of providing control. No surprise that control did VERY well in early Hearthstone because most control decks played a ton of Battlecry cards giving them both presence and control.
Also there needs to be more ways to exhaust characters. It is EASILY the best way to control tempo. I am guessing FFG has stayed away from it because taking away a player's ability to use his characters is frustrating, but most games being over in 4 rounds is equally frustrating.
I mean I'm not a game designer, but the prevalence of aggro in this game seems plainly obvious. There is way too much advantage to a player sending out three to five 1-2 cost upgrades when most matches are over 1-2 rounds after you are done deploying.
another rule I was thinking about.. having new equipment in the set that was costed in the same ballpark of this set, a bit more powerful, but could only be deployed to an exhausted character. or just changing the rule in general that equipment can only be deployed to an exhausted character unless the card text says otherwise.
jstevenson
Sailor Stevenson
yup, Jango/Ebala/Trooper is the best deck in the game right now. It has lots of answers. My sweep through several tournaments wasn't even close. And I beat really good players and decks with it. When you're outputting 19 damage in the first 2 rounds sometimes it's just like, woof.
The thing is, even if they do counter it, the deck now has enough resilience to survive and fight another round. I played a strong player with a Kylo/Vader deck. He managed to mitigate my entire first turn and do 4-5 damage. That's a deathknell for normal Jango/Veers. But with the Bala deck, I was able to mitigate all of his dice in the 2nd turn, do some damage. I dumped Kylo as he got rid of Jango but still had 3 dice on the table, and enough direct damage to finish Vader a turn or two later, even despite his immobilize / force throw / cards in hand.
I'm now working on the counter but man, not sure there is a consistent one yet that is reliable.
I agree with you in general, I think you kinda want the elite games / decks to be control, ultimately. Aggro should be scary and need to be dealt with, but I want the powerful decks to be like Jabba / Vader / Luke.
When you get into epic control match-ups, the potential of this game seems insane. Just need some help taming the aggro. And honestly, a fair chunk of that is Jango's ability to resolve without you having a chance.
The thing is, even if they do counter it, the deck now has enough resilience to survive and fight another round. I played a strong player with a Kylo/Vader deck. He managed to mitigate my entire first turn and do 4-5 damage. That's a deathknell for normal Jango/Veers. But with the Bala deck, I was able to mitigate all of his dice in the 2nd turn, do some damage. I dumped Kylo as he got rid of Jango but still had 3 dice on the table, and enough direct damage to finish Vader a turn or two later, even despite his immobilize / force throw / cards in hand.
I'm now working on the counter but man, not sure there is a consistent one yet that is reliable.
I agree with you in general, I think you kinda want the elite games / decks to be control, ultimately. Aggro should be scary and need to be dealt with, but I want the powerful decks to be like Jabba / Vader / Luke.
When you get into epic control match-ups, the potential of this game seems insane. Just need some help taming the aggro. And honestly, a fair chunk of that is Jango's ability to resolve without you having a chance.
Yeah I'm actually cool with the meta being all aggro to start. It's honestly less painful I'd say than control being OP, for newer/casual players. But I am looking forward to a more balanced meta with the next pack hopefully. I'm actually trying to make my Han/Rey as resilient as possible by putting in like 1x Diplomatic Immunity for early shields so Rey can survive into 2x OWTF...stuff like that. But yeah the one game I lost last tournament was against that exact Bala/Jango deck just spiking me with a god roll (that it had a pretty good chance of rolling, so even that term sort of undersells the power of the deck). Just Rey went from full health+one shield to dead in the course of one game action basically.
Yeah, we use the term god roll, but honestly it's just "your fucked".. it's not really hard. Between Jango (33% ranged), Bala (44% ranged), Trooper (50% ranged), DH-17, Holdout Blaster and F11 (all 50% ranged) and Jetpack (33% ranged), basically the chance of rolling 8 damage on 7 dice is like 75%, and you can have that many out by the first action of round 2.
Yep -- I think everyone says that just to argue that their opponent got lucky but honestly no Jango is just OP. Not totally broke mind you. I mean you can still beat him if you have lots of range counters/removal and he rolls mediocre. But you're basically counting on him rolling mediocre or you yourself getting an actual god roll/hand that lets you knock him out in the first couple turns.
I finally got to play my 3rd game of TI3 after having had the game for 8 years or so now.
I forgot how much I love it. It took about 10ish hours with some breaks in there to play 6 people, only 2 of which had played it before.
I wish I could find time to get these kind of 'event' games out more often. Game of Thrones is another one.
I forgot how much I love it. It took about 10ish hours with some breaks in there to play 6 people, only 2 of which had played it before.
I wish I could find time to get these kind of 'event' games out more often. Game of Thrones is another one.
Affeinvasion
Member
game of thrones takes WAAAY less time to play than TI3, though. My only thing holding me back from playing it more is getting a hold of some blue pieces for the expansion that balances for four players.
Iced_Eagle
Member
Hah, isn't that always the truth.
I've played TI3 probably 3 times total. While I enjoy the game, it can just be damn hard for me to commit to literally an entire day of a single activity. My friend who was much more obsessed with it recently found a good Tabletop Simulator mod he wants us to try, so he doesn't have the damn game collecting dust on his shelf. At the very least, it's super easy to save at arbitrary points without needing to have a table be solely your TI3 table until you finish the game! We haven't played it yet, but we might soon. Playing the game in 2-3 hour chunks over a few days is a lot more manageable IMO.
HashtagLapsed
Member
I had a big gaming day yesterday. Something like 16 hours of Scythe, Imperial Assualt and a few filler type games. Was awesome fun but very tiring by the end.
Not the way my group plays. We assign houses early so everyone can get the alcoholic beverage that best fits their house. We also make a huge roast. It's a big drunken feast of politics and backstabbing.