Tried Star Realms tonight. Seems pretty solid from the one game I played. I'd like to play a few more games to really get a feel for it though. By the end my whole deck was basically blod cards, which was nice, but seemed like I didn't have nearly as much money as the other players. Need a few more games under my belt until i get a good idea of what each faction is all about.
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New Board Gaming |OT2| On Tables, Off Topic
- Thread starter Karkador
- Start date
the app is actually pretty good too. Don't forget machine cult cards is my advice.
cereal_killerxx
Junior Member
So I just funded two kickstarter card game projects. First time ever funding kickstarter. So I'm assuming that just before they're supposed to ship, I'll get asked for my address by kickstarter or via email or something?
antiquegamer
Member
I have physical game and app, the app just play much faster with less upkeep. Also some cards are dependent on when you play them and the app keep that on straight and narrow.
My favorite faction is the Blob, they hit hard and fast and especially if you get enough of them early.
I find it fun to make foam core and now I have to make foam core insert whenever I get new game. It get easier with practice so don't get discourage if the first few turn out to be a turd.
SillyEskimo
Member
Any opinions on Mice and Mystics? I have the game and expansions in my Amazon basket but am hesitating on pulling the trigger.
antiquegamer
Member
I am getting suck into all the Arkham Horror games and love the fact that I can play them solo if I want to. I just put used lot of Arkham Horror in my basket with only thing missing is the last expansion. It's probably a good thing I don't buy many video games now a day.
EYEL1NER
Member
Yeah, at some point between the end of funding and the ship date you'll probably get an email with a survey asking for your address. If there is a pledge manager for the campaign then they may ask you for that info there.
Lol, I know. I'm a sucker for the Arkham stuff. Wish they made a solo expansion for Mansions of Madness.
I've only played it with my 5 year old son, but I find it to be really enjoyable. It has a very nice story, quality components, and lots of "edge of the seat" dice rolls. I have, however, played the dungeon master role and fudged a roll or two to save victory and keep the story rolling along.
If, however, you're going to be playing it with a "hardcore gamer" group, who is all about strategy and min/maxing, you may be disappointed. The base game, at the very least, I find to be a bit lacking in the ability to strategize. I hear the newest expansion has done a much better job on the decision making front, but I haven't made it that far.
SillyEskimo
Member
Thanks for the info. It's great to hear you can play the game with a younger crowd. I believe my 2 daughters would totally be into the game's aesthetic. It's still on my basket for now. I also have to think about the 2 Zombicide Season 3 boxes coming out next week. (as well as a new wave of Lego sets I plan on getting and a new table saw) And no I don't have to worry about hardcore gamers. I would probably give up the hobby if I had to deal with those types of people!
Also, I really want to paint the miniatures. They would be very unique compared to most everything else I have ever done.
SillyEskimo
Member
I went ahead and ordered mice and Mystics plus it's expansions. I figure Zombicide may possibly delayed for a bit thanks to the shipping strike on the west coast, so why not.
Now I won't be able to sleep imagining what you drunken review would look like.
Haha, it wasn't anything crazy. I think the guys I played with didn't immediately grok how the combos worked but the game clicked with me pretty much right out the gate. I had an awesome line of production cards that were churning out a bunch of goods, then a line of brown buildings that gave a ton of money, and then topped it off with a yellow line that gave me points for having green and then brown buildings. ended up being a fairly perfect storm.
Played 3 new to me games last night, the first two of which were mine:
Last week we had a half-assed horror/Friday 13th themed night that didn't go overly well. I finally got to play Fearsome Floors with the full 7 players, it was fast and equally as good as 5 but ended anti climatically in the first round (one player moved two of his pieces out in the same turn).
We also played Fiasco for the first time with a slasher film playset, it was fun but the game didn't work very well with such a custom playset (should've sticked to the basic ones). The other players ran a terrible game of Eldritch Horror that dragged on for four hours or so before they gave up and stopped, we finished playing Fearsome Floors before they finished explaining the rules!
• Played Cockroach Poker (using Royal without the crowns/special cards) and I feel like we did something wrong. The game took forever (we were 3) and given the number of cards of each suit it was almost impossible that someone will get 4 of the same type. The game ended once someone finished their cards.
• Played Castles of Mad King Ludwig and everyone loved it, one player even declared how much he liked it just after his first turn.
The game was shorter (in terms of progress/rounds) than I expected and thus all my strategies didn't actually pan out at all. I ended up in second place with the first player catching up on end game scoring, he was the first for 3 favor tokens and he had a whole lot of bonus cards.
I expect this to get a lot more plays now that we have more than one player knowing the rules. We already had 3 other players interested a lot in playing it.
• Played Mystery Express (aka Clue on a train) and it was exhausting and took us more than 2 hours:
It's funny how I was mostly scared about the memorization element of the time (done in real time) but that ended up being the easiest part. Also the game has the most beautiful tokens:
• Played Castles of Mad King Ludwig and everyone loved it, one player even declared how much he liked it just after his first turn.
The game was shorter (in terms of progress/rounds) than I expected and thus all my strategies didn't actually pan out at all. I ended up in second place with the first player catching up on end game scoring, he was the first for 3 favor tokens and he had a whole lot of bonus cards.
I expect this to get a lot more plays now that we have more than one player knowing the rules. We already had 3 other players interested a lot in playing it.
• Played Mystery Express (aka Clue on a train) and it was exhausting and took us more than 2 hours:
- We played it later than we should.
- I was too tired for it and took forever on my turns, even late in the game I wasn't sure what each space did.
- Finally I gave up on knowing anything halfway through the game, I ended up trying to take the fastest options since I couldn't even optimize my moves.
It's funny how I was mostly scared about the memorization element of the time (done in real time) but that ended up being the easiest part. Also the game has the most beautiful tokens:
Last week we had a half-assed horror/Friday 13th themed night that didn't go overly well. I finally got to play Fearsome Floors with the full 7 players, it was fast and equally as good as 5 but ended anti climatically in the first round (one player moved two of his pieces out in the same turn).
We also played Fiasco for the first time with a slasher film playset, it was fun but the game didn't work very well with such a custom playset (should've sticked to the basic ones). The other players ran a terrible game of Eldritch Horror that dragged on for four hours or so before they gave up and stopped, we finished playing Fearsome Floors before they finished explaining the rules!
Played Gates of Arkham last night.
First off, I don't play particularly fast, but the game for sure took longer than old Elder Sign. The game to me has way more difficult decision making. I soloed with 2 investigators and won. It felt easy until all of a sudden things started to get REALLY bad. When you need a couple more Elder Signs to win not being able to see what you are running into can be brutal. You have to use the card flipping mechanic from the streets sometimes just try not to waste actions. I really really love it.
Elder Sign just went from the game I always wanted to love to a game that I actually do. I don't know if I will every try to solo Eldritch Horror again. I kind of regret owning it because GoA gives me just as much of an adventure feel, is almost as meaty and takes up WAY less real estate. Can't wait to play it a ton. I agree that it becomes less of a dice game and more of a game about spending trophies in the best way possible. I am not the best with impressions but I came away absolutely happy. I don't care one bit about taking all the old cards and sticking them in the other expansion box, I doubt I will ever use them again. That said I think UF if you are really into the game is still worth it because of the blessed mechanic (it does happen in GoA) the additional GOOs and the more varied rewards.
It is just so good. Best 20$ spent on a game that is for damn sure.
First off, I don't play particularly fast, but the game for sure took longer than old Elder Sign. The game to me has way more difficult decision making. I soloed with 2 investigators and won. It felt easy until all of a sudden things started to get REALLY bad. When you need a couple more Elder Signs to win not being able to see what you are running into can be brutal. You have to use the card flipping mechanic from the streets sometimes just try not to waste actions. I really really love it.
Elder Sign just went from the game I always wanted to love to a game that I actually do. I don't know if I will every try to solo Eldritch Horror again. I kind of regret owning it because GoA gives me just as much of an adventure feel, is almost as meaty and takes up WAY less real estate. Can't wait to play it a ton. I agree that it becomes less of a dice game and more of a game about spending trophies in the best way possible. I am not the best with impressions but I came away absolutely happy. I don't care one bit about taking all the old cards and sticking them in the other expansion box, I doubt I will ever use them again. That said I think UF if you are really into the game is still worth it because of the blessed mechanic (it does happen in GoA) the additional GOOs and the more varied rewards.
It is just so good. Best 20$ spent on a game that is for damn sure.
We ended up playing this last night as well. This seemed way harder than normal Elder Sign.
We played a 2 player game using the "Easy" Greater one from the new expansion, and lost 2 times in a row. The other world cards are particularly nasty now, as they are usually on the higher end of the difficulty curve to complete, and they prevent you from moving to a regular adventure card until they are done. I believe we both got devoured on the same turn the first game, and the monster awoke the second game, with the attack of devouring people if they don't have clues....we didn't have clues.
After the first 2 loses, we went back to one of the greater ones from the base game, and took out the red difficulty cards from the adventure deck. This almost seemed too easy though, and we won fairly easily.
Overall, I really like it. The skills in particular are a nice upgrade that really enhances your abilities.
Hey Board Game-GAF.
I just recently got into "modern" (to me) board games via some friends of mine that introduced me to King of Tokyo, Zombies!!, and Settlers of Catan. it sounds stupid, but I had no idea how much creativity and depth that existed in board games! I always thought of board games like games like Monopoly, Life and Scrabble, and therefore mostly played video games. However, when trying to find some fun games to play with my fiancee (who doesn't like video games), I feel like I stumbled into a whole other, untapped universe of entertainment.
To make of a purchase of my own to contribute to the group, I somewhat randomly decided on Forbidden Desert, in the hopes to get a good CO-OP game. I admit, I bought it somewhat for superficial reasons because the gameboard and pieces are so gorgeous.
Man, this game is tough! I played on Novice with three other people and we easily won our first round. However, playing on Normal really ramps up the challenge. There are so many competing elements in the game that makes it fun and exciting to manage--trying to get parts, trying to manage water and trying to keep sand reserves high. Even though our group of four lost four times in a row on Normal, the thrill of just getting closer and closer each round makes the game very rewarding and fun to play.
While there is a bit of luck involved, I loved the group discussion on how best to move forward, and even people that are amateurs to board games have interesting angles on what moves a player should take next.
I look forward to subbing this thread and seeing what sort of games I should look into next!
I just recently got into "modern" (to me) board games via some friends of mine that introduced me to King of Tokyo, Zombies!!, and Settlers of Catan. it sounds stupid, but I had no idea how much creativity and depth that existed in board games! I always thought of board games like games like Monopoly, Life and Scrabble, and therefore mostly played video games. However, when trying to find some fun games to play with my fiancee (who doesn't like video games), I feel like I stumbled into a whole other, untapped universe of entertainment.
To make of a purchase of my own to contribute to the group, I somewhat randomly decided on Forbidden Desert, in the hopes to get a good CO-OP game. I admit, I bought it somewhat for superficial reasons because the gameboard and pieces are so gorgeous.
Man, this game is tough! I played on Novice with three other people and we easily won our first round. However, playing on Normal really ramps up the challenge. There are so many competing elements in the game that makes it fun and exciting to manage--trying to get parts, trying to manage water and trying to keep sand reserves high. Even though our group of four lost four times in a row on Normal, the thrill of just getting closer and closer each round makes the game very rewarding and fun to play.
While there is a bit of luck involved, I loved the group discussion on how best to move forward, and even people that are amateurs to board games have interesting angles on what moves a player should take next.
I look forward to subbing this thread and seeing what sort of games I should look into next!
pluginbaby121
Member
Hello all. I am trying to get into more board games and am currently eyeing up Carcassonne, Arkham Horror, and Pandemic. I was wondering if those aren't too hard to pick up because the themes sound interesting. As of now the only board games I have are most of the Zombies!!! Series, Zombietown, and the show based Walking dead game in addition to Magic the Gathering and the Game of Thrones LCG. Any suggestions are welcome!
Taking out the red cards seems like it would make the game way too easy. They also are more likely to have Elder Signs so if you aren't using a GOO that opens portals all the time it makes it a little harder to gather them. I really liked the difficulty. The game I played I used the GOO that adds the masked monsters to the cup. He requires 11 Signs puts out a lot of monster and has a pretty short track. Skills are definitely awesome and give your character more of a sense of progression.
Arkham Horror is complex and very, very, very long. Think 4 hours plus.
Carcassonne and Pandemic are both great family games that also work as gateway titles. You should also look at Ticket to Ride (or Airlines Europe) and Stone Age.
Smash Up is a good game for someone new to the hobby coming from Magic: The Gathering. It is a card combo game that will have you taking two factions with wildly different mechanics and combining them together to form your deck that you then try and take objectives with.
Another fun game that is designed for 1 v 1 instead of muiltplayer is Star Realms. Designed by former MTG pro players this is a 1 v 1 deck builder that will teach you a solid foundation in the genre.
Another fun game that is designed for 1 v 1 instead of muiltplayer is Star Realms. Designed by former MTG pro players this is a 1 v 1 deck builder that will teach you a solid foundation in the genre.
BomberMouse
Member
Carcassonne and Pandemic are fine, but AH is too much, try Elder Sign which is thematically similar but shorter and simpler.
Always get Ticket to Ride if you don't have it already, always.
SillyEskimo
Member
Survive! Escape Atlantis and King of Toyko/King of New York are great next steps. Survive! is a family favorite around my house. We adore that game.
Yea, I don't think we will take the red cards out again, it just didn't seem as interesting or tense when they were out. We thought it might bring it down to a medium difficulty, but it ended up making it the easiest elder sign game ever.
I haven't played Arkham Horror, but I do have Eldritch Horror. Eldritch is a newer, more streamlined version of Arkham, and even then it can be kind of confusing and has a lot of rules you will be referencing the book for the first couple of games to make sure you are doing everything right.
Elditch is newer, and has one small and one big expansion out at the moment with, presumably, more to come.
Arkham is older with a lot of expansions already out, but with Elritch Horror now being a thing, I don't know how much support it will get.
I personally enjoy Eldritch Horror. The rules can be a little overwhelming at times, but its nothing super super complex, there are just a lot of them
Pandemic is great. Easy to learn and play, but can be challenging. It has 2 expansions that add more to the base game, with another one coming out in a month or so.
Also check out Pandemic: The Cure. Its a dice based version of Pandemic, but very very fun.
Edit: I agree with everyone above recommending Elder Sign, Star realms and smash up. Smash up can get boring after a while if you don't get any of the expansions though
TumblingHippo
Member
Had a chance to play around with some foam core and I think I got a good handle on this. I started with a tinier box (that really didn't need an insert) just for practice, and it seemed to work well.
Next, I'm going to try doing a custom insert for 8 Minute Empire Legends with individual trays that pull out, then work my way up in complexity and box size.
Made me think I need to up some of my tools. A metal ruler that starts its measurement at the edge of the ruler (instead of a few mm in like I currently have) would save a lot of guessing.
This is very relaxing, too. Sounds like a good way to spend a sick day.
Next, I'm going to try doing a custom insert for 8 Minute Empire Legends with individual trays that pull out, then work my way up in complexity and box size.
Made me think I need to up some of my tools. A metal ruler that starts its measurement at the edge of the ruler (instead of a few mm in like I currently have) would save a lot of guessing.
This is very relaxing, too. Sounds like a good way to spend a sick day.
Ticket to Ride + 1910 expansion is still great.
Gaming Truth
Member
Some advice:
Don't cheap out on the metal ruler. I first picked up a metal ruler at Target for like, $3? Worked great for a while. Didn't know: The lines rub off! (wtf?!?)
The current ruler I have, I picked up from Michael's. Hard metal ruler where the lines are grooved in. No guarantee those lines won't rub off, but they're not printed on, they're pressed on.
If your T-square sucks like mine does (not square, so it's a crooked T), you'll need a small triangle to check "squareness". It sucks finding out your square/rectangle is actually a parallelogram after you cut it out.
Gaming Truth
Member
Are you saying you don't want a pile of miscut parts you're hoping to recycle one day?
10th anniversary edition. I think you can get it for $70 shipped
Is it Friday yet?
I really enjoyed playing this game. The losing on purpose mechanic is a really nice touch on the deckbuilder "trash" mechanic. It also has the nice effect of really quickly whittling down your initial life points so that you get to the tension of possibly losing really early on. I managed to win my first game on exactly 0 life, so I felt like I was doing well for a lot of it, but it always felt like things could've gone bad at any moment. Definitely looking forward to taking a stab at the non-beginner difficulties.
Also, as a card interaction fiend I love how the abilities can all chain together. Though I had to resist my urge to draw as many cards as possible (which is my favorite part of deckbuilders) due to the aging mechanic.
How did you know about that?!
It's really more so that just the measuring and line-marking gets to be pretty laborious, and I end up more or less designing the insert as I go along (and occasionally make mistakes because of that)
Played Thunderstone Advance for the first time today. It was the the Towers of Ruin base game. I had a lot of fun. Love all the options you have each round and the deck building aspect. After Dice Masters and Lost Legends Mike Elliott is becoming one of my favorite developers.
Playing Machi Koro and Imperial Settlers tonight.
Playing Machi Koro and Imperial Settlers tonight.
TumblingHippo
Member
I noticed there's a ton of phone versions of great multiplayer board games, but very, very few (if any) of solo games like Friday or Onirim.
I'd love to have a digital version of Onirim on the go, but wonder if solo card games on the phone would undermine the sales of their physical counterpart?
I'd love to have a digital version of Onirim on the go, but wonder if solo card games on the phone would undermine the sales of their physical counterpart?
I would recommend eldritch horror before arkham horror, Its a bit more forgiving, though still a big game for beginners. Pandemic is hard to go wrong with, I've only ever played the app of carcassonne, so i can't speak much to that one. Maybe not at the moment, but since you like zombies, the 2 best zombie games are zombicide, (full coop feels like left 4 dead the board game) and last night on earth. (competitive vs zombie players, and is more like a b movie.) Another one to look into if you are into the horror theme is betrayal on house on the hill. I'd also agree with ticket to ride, marvel legendary and 7 wonders too.
Tabletop Simulator has Friday.
pluginbaby121
Member
Thank you for the suggestions everyone. I will definitely look into them when I go to my local store tomorrow.
Got to play Small World with the race and power expansions with friends last night. The lack of a complete reference card and only one of each for the five expansions made it more confusing than it needed to be. I have to figure that one out.
There's two custom reference sheets on BGG, one is a double-sided A3 sheet with all of the rule text. The other is 8 A4 pages but it includes the pictures and some rule clarifications. Trying to figure out which is more user-friendly at the moment, the more compact version or the version that you need to flip through but is easier to check things from across the table with. (Also Berserk Fauns are nightmarish).
There's two custom reference sheets on BGG, one is a double-sided A3 sheet with all of the rule text. The other is 8 A4 pages but it includes the pictures and some rule clarifications. Trying to figure out which is more user-friendly at the moment, the more compact version or the version that you need to flip through but is easier to check things from across the table with. (Also Berserk Fauns are nightmarish).
Because the tabletop renaissance only really started picking up steam in the last 10-15 years (though Catan is 20 this year) most people are in that position. It's only really the people that are coming of age now that even had a chance to grow up with decent board-games to play. It's actually really exciting to think that with the current generation of kids growing up in this environment board-games will be a bigger part of more of their lives.
TumblingHippo
Member
Ah whoops I meant specifically phone games. When I'm just waiting or have some minutes to kill, having the phone to just shuffle and handle all the rules on the go would be great.
Doodle City has a nice app and that can be played solo. Don't know if you are into it though.
What game is this? Sounds interesting.
joeyjoejoeshabadoo
Member
Friday. It's a solo deck builder by the guy who designed Power Grid.
Hands in the Sea Kickstarter is live: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/knightworks/hands-in-the-sea-a-two-player-card-driven-wargame
It's basically the deck-building system from A Few Acres of Snow applied to the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage. Will be interesting to see if this can supplant Hannibal for me; I absolutely love the elegant simplicity of the A Few Acres of Snow rules, and I'm a huge ancients era fan.
It's basically the deck-building system from A Few Acres of Snow applied to the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage. Will be interesting to see if this can supplant Hannibal for me; I absolutely love the elegant simplicity of the A Few Acres of Snow rules, and I'm a huge ancients era fan.
joeyjoejoeshabadoo
Member
I'm going to wait for the retail release. The game looks good, but not $70 good.
Just found this thread, i love board games although i still don't have that many. Catan was my first purchase, but i also just got these two:
I already played GOT a few times at a friend's house, and i love it. War of the Ring i never played, but heard great things. Can't wait to try it.
