BomberMouse
Member
Damn, all this AF backslash and my copy hasn't even arrived. Customs be damned. By the time I actually order and get to play Troyes It'll be 2012 and there'll be like 3 expansions for it 
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The New Board Game Thread (Newcomer Friendly)
- Thread starter AstroLad
- Start date
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Don't get me wrong, AF isn't bad. It's fun. My personal problem with it is after you allocate dice, the colonization part just falls flat for me. I'm much more partial to games where you're not quite sure who's leading until the end, and AF certainly never panned out that way for me. And again, after Troyes, it's going to be hard to go back. Someone pointed out that they never felt like they were limited, but as open as Troyes is, I certainly would feel that way.
Had a pretty kerrrrazy weekend of boardgaming with family and friends. Mostly played 5P stuff but also some other things. Group was a mix of mostly total casuals and a couple modest hardcores. Breakin' it down.
Tumblin' Dice: Gotta start with the mega-hit of the weekend. I snagged this specifically for this weekend and I was extremely glad I did. Easily among my top dexterity games now and it was the one game that absolutely everyone was down to play at any time.
Shadows over Camelot: A nice opportunity for social gaming. Even though the first game went on for over two hours, everyone had a lot of fun. And the second game the following day I got to be the traitor with an absolutely delicious draw, so that was really enjoyable (for me). I managed to score Lancelot's Armor and on my Reveal turn I chose a bad card for the knights and my brother said "hey why'd you choose that one?" Me: "don't worry I have a card!" Played Fate and revealed.
Innovation: Very cool little game. Managed to play it twice with three. It's one of those games like RFTG (base), Glory to Rome, etc. that's maybe a little muddly the first few turns and then it just clicks and is so simple and fun.
Wits & Wagers Family: Played a couple games of this. The new scoring system is quite nice and it remains the only actually-fun tabletop trivia game and is actually much snappier than the original even though the question topics are more limited.
Airlines Europe: Played this 3P. First time for all of us. One friend loved it and the other didn't (and it didn't have anything to do with winning/losing). I definitely liked it myself but then again I'm a fan of Union Pacific and those kinds of games. I think it would be a lot of fun with five.
Roll through the Ages: Fun light game. We played a lot on our first night. It's actually a pretty good introduction to worker-placement and resource-management games because of its simplicity.
Carcassonne Hunters & Gatherers: Another light game courtesy Yucata. Who doesn't like Carc as a gateway right? I do like base Carc and certainly Carc+expansions more mechanically, but this game is a lot more busy and fun in terms of art and theme so it went over well.
Resident Evil Deckbuilding Game: Without a doubt the one flub of the whole weekend. It certainly didn't help that we started at 1 AM and tried to play the recommended Partner mode without ever having played the basic game. No one liked it. I still have hope for it though and next time I will try the basic story mode and just one character per person to keep things straightforward.
RoboRally: Played with five. It was tough because people got rough cards and I ran away with it. Everyone enjoyed it though, even the poor guy who got his robot pushed and shot all around the map for like six turns in a row.
Citadels: Big hit. EVeryone loves killing, stealing, and bluffing.
Tumblin' Dice: Gotta start with the mega-hit of the weekend. I snagged this specifically for this weekend and I was extremely glad I did. Easily among my top dexterity games now and it was the one game that absolutely everyone was down to play at any time.
Shadows over Camelot: A nice opportunity for social gaming. Even though the first game went on for over two hours, everyone had a lot of fun. And the second game the following day I got to be the traitor with an absolutely delicious draw, so that was really enjoyable (for me). I managed to score Lancelot's Armor and on my Reveal turn I chose a bad card for the knights and my brother said "hey why'd you choose that one?" Me: "don't worry I have a card!" Played Fate and revealed.
Innovation: Very cool little game. Managed to play it twice with three. It's one of those games like RFTG (base), Glory to Rome, etc. that's maybe a little muddly the first few turns and then it just clicks and is so simple and fun.
Wits & Wagers Family: Played a couple games of this. The new scoring system is quite nice and it remains the only actually-fun tabletop trivia game and is actually much snappier than the original even though the question topics are more limited.
Airlines Europe: Played this 3P. First time for all of us. One friend loved it and the other didn't (and it didn't have anything to do with winning/losing
). I definitely liked it myself but then again I'm a fan of Union Pacific and those kinds of games. I think it would be a lot of fun with five.Roll through the Ages: Fun light game. We played a lot on our first night. It's actually a pretty good introduction to worker-placement and resource-management games because of its simplicity.
Carcassonne Hunters & Gatherers: Another light game courtesy Yucata. Who doesn't like Carc as a gateway right? I do like base Carc and certainly Carc+expansions more mechanically, but this game is a lot more busy and fun in terms of art and theme so it went over well.
Resident Evil Deckbuilding Game: Without a doubt the one flub of the whole weekend. It certainly didn't help that we started at 1 AM and tried to play the recommended Partner mode without ever having played the basic game. No one liked it. I still have hope for it though and next time I will try the basic story mode and just one character per person to keep things straightforward.
RoboRally: Played with five. It was tough because people got rough cards and I ran away with it. Everyone enjoyed it though, even the poor guy who got his robot pushed and shot all around the map for like six turns in a row.
Citadels: Big hit. EVeryone loves killing, stealing, and bluffing.
Got try Citadels and 7 Wonders for the first time.
Citadels is pretty fun, I like the political aspect of the game and the mechanics are pretty fun. I just wish the majority of the cards you played for your city weren't useless. The few city cards that actually do things for you seem pretty broken. Didn't play with the expansion characters just yet but they seem pretty ridiculous too. It's kind of interesting how going first isn't always beneficial. Once I got King I bluffed characters a lot so nobody actually took the King card even though I wanted them too. The one guy who is notorious for being a sore loser must've picked Assassin naming King like three times for a total whiff. Are there any other expansions lined up for this?
7 Wonders I really enjoy as well. As a Magic player the concept of basing a game off of drafting is really awesome. It's hard to believe it took so many years for a company to do it. The one critique I had was that a lot of the Age II and III cards had symbols that didn't quite make sense and had to refer to the rulebook for but once everyone gets used to them it'll be a non-issue. I also wish there was a bit more interaction/disruption between you and your neighboring cities. Only tried 3 player version so I'm excited to try it with more, especially since it seems to scale well without really effecting the length of time the game takes. And a first expansion coming out soon that introduces Leaders for you to choose at the beginning of every Age? Sounds awesome. Stevie Wonder is apparently a promo Leader Card.
Can't wait.
Citadels is pretty fun, I like the political aspect of the game and the mechanics are pretty fun. I just wish the majority of the cards you played for your city weren't useless. The few city cards that actually do things for you seem pretty broken. Didn't play with the expansion characters just yet but they seem pretty ridiculous too. It's kind of interesting how going first isn't always beneficial. Once I got King I bluffed characters a lot so nobody actually took the King card even though I wanted them too. The one guy who is notorious for being a sore loser must've picked Assassin naming King like three times for a total whiff. Are there any other expansions lined up for this?
7 Wonders I really enjoy as well. As a Magic player the concept of basing a game off of drafting is really awesome. It's hard to believe it took so many years for a company to do it. The one critique I had was that a lot of the Age II and III cards had symbols that didn't quite make sense and had to refer to the rulebook for but once everyone gets used to them it'll be a non-issue. I also wish there was a bit more interaction/disruption between you and your neighboring cities. Only tried 3 player version so I'm excited to try it with more, especially since it seems to scale well without really effecting the length of time the game takes. And a first expansion coming out soon that introduces Leaders for you to choose at the beginning of every Age? Sounds awesome. Stevie Wonder is apparently a promo Leader Card.
Can't wait.
Neverfade said:
I looked into it since you mentioned it and yeah....definitely see what you're saying about the original version.
Compared to the 2008 version
French Edition cover.
I mean, I don't really see how you can blame anyone for its popularity. If the marketing is horrible and the product isn't even available how do you expect the game to sell?
For the basic city cards either they're setting you up to get income or the five-color bonus (underrated in importance). And of course the purples give you special powers even though they don't provide role-based income like the others. Don't really think any of the cards are broken either, not with the stealing and killing you can do, and especially not with Diplomat, who can outright steal them and who makes purples prime targets. Warlord is the only role or card I think is genuinely lame (get to target a specific player rather than a character, and you pay to destroy but get nothing from it so it can be a pure kingmaker card), which is why I never play with it.Hero said:
In early games people love to target the King, because, well, he's the King! But after a few hands people generally notice hey wait we should be picking on that guy with 2-3 green districts in his city trying to pick Merchant every time. Until that person starts purposely making suboptimal character choices to avoid being targeted . . . until they think they can sneak by an optimal play. When everyone is on that level that's when the game is crazy fun.
I think I know what you mean in the sense of most districts are pretty simple (color+cost), but honestly I much prefer it that way. It lets me play like I did yesterday teaching five new people the game and having everyone love it. Add in a bunch of crap and it may be a "deeper" game but now you're pretty much limited to playing with nerds. And if I'm playing with a bunch of nerds and I'm not really interested in interacting or anything, I'll just play RftG with a few expansions tossed in. So it's a downside I'll accept for this game, which I basically consider a party game.
Citadels, according to one of our more casual players, is the first game we've played where she felt as if she got it from the beginning. When she says that, she means the strategic aspect, not necessarily the rules. Carcassonne was easy for her to pick up, but she didn't really start to be competitive there for a while. Citadels? She went from 0 to veteran ass-kicker in less than three plays.
But yes, I absolutely love Citadels. It's great fun to mix up the character cards with the expansion folks and see how the game changes, and how you have to augment your strategy based on that.
EDIT: FWIW, the only characters targeted explicitly very often by folks in my group were Tax Collector and Diplomat. Seems like Tax Collector is called by the Assassin nearly 4/5 times when the Assassin isn't the initial discard.
But yes, I absolutely love Citadels. It's great fun to mix up the character cards with the expansion folks and see how the game changes, and how you have to augment your strategy based on that.
EDIT: FWIW, the only characters targeted explicitly very often by folks in my group were Tax Collector and Diplomat. Seems like Tax Collector is called by the Assassin nearly 4/5 times when the Assassin isn't the initial discard.
platypotamus
Member
I'm a merchant killer/thiever myself. Lacking any compelling reason, I'll go for him nearly every time.
Of course, the great thing about Citadels is that there's almost always a compelling reason to go for someone else.
Of course, the great thing about Citadels is that there's almost always a compelling reason to go for someone else.
Hahah yeah I've actually never played with Tax Collector because he seems like a super easy target or one where he might get very little benefit because people choose not to build or just max out on their builds by drawing cards instead of coins or something. Be pretty interesting to try.Vinci said:
piratepwnsninja
Member
AstroLad said:
It's much better in its basic mode. Total fan service, but fun.
AstroLad said:
Well, one of the added changes to the game by removing the Thief and playing with Tax Collector is that you no longer have the threat of losing all your coins through being selected by the Thief. So whereas people would build consistently to avoid having their money taken, they would horde it to avoid paying taxes. The problem with this is, though, that people will shift from the Tax Collector to Architect as the principal target of the Assassin because, "Good lord, look at how much money that guy has! He's definitely going to build a lot if he gets the chance!" Or meanwhile, other Characters that would ordinarily take precedence for the Assassin would suddenly come into play more often, sending things a different direction.
Seriously, the Tax Collector is a major target for the Assassin, but that automatically changes things up heavily.
Really awesome game. I love the expansion characters.
joeyjoejoeshabadoo
Member
Did anybody else pick up Dixit for iOS devices? I'm trying to get in on a game I'm not having any luck.
BomberMouse
Member
Neverfade said:
Happens to me all the time.
Since I'll never be able to snag a copy, does anyone want's to play Tammany Hall online?
http://www.slothninja.com/
Neverfade said:
Played Troyes this weekend.. it's a good game.. but I was let down compared to Xavier's previous effort. Carson City is a better game in pretty much every way.
I mean, I like that rolling better die just gets you a little extra cash (and less dice) and doesn't determine the game (I'm looking at you Stone Age).. but it has probably the most pasted on theme I've ever seen.
Why does that card let you convert yellow dice into red dice? What exactly are the dice supposed to be? Why does rolling a 5 let me bump you out of a building? Why can't I bump you out of a builing twice?
Why do you have to build in each level of the church? What the hell does building in a level even represent?
This game would make Dr. Knizia blush.
I also don't really care for the hidden scoring mechanics.. I wound up winning the game because I guessed right on my last turn on what one of the hidden ones might be and my opponent guessed wrong.
StoOgE said:
Cool. Well...disagreed.
Edit: Your assessment of why card let you do thing is pretty ridiculous. Yellow dice are merchants. Baker turns yellow dice into gold. Makes sense.
Red dice are soldiers. Archer gives you a chance to hit incoming enemies like mauaraders. Makes sense.
White dice are religious folks. Monks let you turn those into yellow. Monks are known to do stuff like make beer, and grow crops. Makes sense to me.
Don't get me wrong, I think the theme is subpar, but if I can stand it, I don't see how you can't, given some of the dry euro stuff you like in comparison to me. :lol
Edit 2: And hidden scoring mechanics are about my favorite thing ever. I hate knowing halfway through a game that there's no chance for my opponent to catch up. boring.
joeyjoejoeshabadoo
Member
Played Dominant Species last night and I crushed it with a score of 227. I was able to get two nice little protected sea spaces all to myself and by the end of the game I had dominance in 8 regions. I really enjoyed the game and it was definitely not what I was expecting coming from GMT.
BomberMouse
Member
Well, Carcassonne finally jumped the shark.
Not really an expansion but these could be used for some very cool house rules
Neverfade said:
First of all, I liked the game a good deal. I'm not saying it's a *bad* game at all. It's just that with Carson City, I really felt like a cowboy and got my rootin' and tootin' on while having a very mathy Euro. Certainly not a thematic game, but the theme was well integrated with the mechanics.
This one just felt like a completely pasted on theme, I was hoping he would have bottled some of that same magic and made it feel like I was actually helping defend and build a city. I never really got that feeling. Doesn't mean I won't like the game, but I certainly prefer games like Le Havre, Puerto Rico, etc where it feels like I am actually building something and not just grinding veeps.
The hidden scoring mechanic would probably work better with subsequent plays. Not knowing what all the possible ones are led me to scouring the rule book and then trying to remember what other people did. If you (and everyone) knew the various scoring methods you can probably play a game of cat and mouse trying to hide what you know from others, while trying to guess what they are up to.
BomberMouse
Member
AstroLad said:
I'm loving RTTA a lot lately on yucata (even with all you pestilent folks
) , I'm thinking about buying the game for the dice and laminating the yucata player mat since the real ones are not that usefull IMO.Tammany Hall sort of bombed with the group I played with. I haven't technically given up on it yet but do you have a trade list up on BGG? Is it something you'd want to trade for?BomberMouse said:Happens to me all the time.
Since I'll never be able to snag a copy, does anyone want's to play Tammany Hall online?
http://www.slothninja.com/
platypotamus
Member
AstroLad said:
I think I've single handedly earned you like 3 rank promotions on yucata from that game alone
EDIT: to clarify since it's a new page, this post was about Campaign Manager
Yep I bought it after playing it on Yucata too (helps that it's pretty cheap like most Yucata games). The little wooden pieces are cute, but the pads are pretty jank though I guess they are functionally and economically the best way to track stuff.BomberMouse said:I'm loving RTTA a lot lately on yucata (even with all you pestilent folks
BomberMouse
Member
Played a couple of new games tonight:
Survive: It was mostly a learning game since we only played it as a 2P game, still, it wasn't very good. I'm pretty sure it'll get better with more people. The quality of the reprint is somewhat off-putting though. The player pieces while nice seems to topple easily, plus some of them came "glued" to each other on my copy an the colors got mixed while I sticked them appart, this seems to be a common issue since they are putting a 6P expansion with all the player pieces redone in plastic. The included bag is really poor quality and it doesn't even serve any purpose game wise. Finally, the whole package seems to have been done by a very mediocre designer, the instructions are unreadable in some parts, the tiles and board are ugly and the box looks like an awful copy/paste from real images taken from google images with some "cartoonize" photoshop effect on them.
Hellas: I only played it once, and I'm not sure if how often I'd like to play this, but it offers a lot of content for such a small/cheap package and the final turns were very tense. It's basically a 2P euroish wargame, with a map created by tile laying, combat resolved by majority, growth dictated by a number of action points per turn and some cards which represents god favors that shakes everything a bit. The mechanics and theme blends very well, also the pictures on the geek don't do this game justice, it's really pretty. It reminds me a lot of cyclades (ships and soldiers, various islands, get X number of cities to win) yet it's a completely different game.
The package: 48 cards, 24 tiles and 50 miniatures (15 soldiers and 10 ships per player)
Survive: It was mostly a learning game since we only played it as a 2P game, still, it wasn't very good. I'm pretty sure it'll get better with more people. The quality of the reprint is somewhat off-putting though. The player pieces while nice seems to topple easily, plus some of them came "glued" to each other on my copy an the colors got mixed while I sticked them appart, this seems to be a common issue since they are putting a 6P expansion with all the player pieces redone in plastic. The included bag is really poor quality and it doesn't even serve any purpose game wise. Finally, the whole package seems to have been done by a very mediocre designer, the instructions are unreadable in some parts, the tiles and board are ugly and the box looks like an awful copy/paste from real images taken from google images with some "cartoonize" photoshop effect on them.
Hellas: I only played it once, and I'm not sure if how often I'd like to play this, but it offers a lot of content for such a small/cheap package and the final turns were very tense. It's basically a 2P euroish wargame, with a map created by tile laying, combat resolved by majority, growth dictated by a number of action points per turn and some cards which represents god favors that shakes everything a bit. The mechanics and theme blends very well, also the pictures on the geek don't do this game justice, it's really pretty. It reminds me a lot of cyclades (ships and soldiers, various islands, get X number of cities to win) yet it's a completely different game.
The package: 48 cards, 24 tiles and 50 miniatures (15 soldiers and 10 ships per player)
Played my first game of Cyclades this week. It was a 2P game just to try it out but it was still fun stuff. We were kind of confused about the fleet movement with the Sylph but other than that the rules are pretty straightforward. I really like the way bidding works, too. I kind of talked my friend into playing it even though I knew he had to leave early. After an hour he had to go and I was about to pack it up but he asked me if I'd leave it out until next week so we can finish the game. So I think that's a good sign.
That was right after we got demolished in a 2P/4C game of Arkham + Dunwich. Man, sometimes that game can be just brutal. Twice I had my characters on the second half of other worlds and they ended up LiTaS or devoured because of a bad roll. Ug. The devour was especially frustrating since that character had built up a lot of clues and was at full health/sanity going into that encounter. I love the game but sometimes I want to rip the board in half. I think playing with 2 characters actually makes it worse for me. It's bad enough when one of my characters is getting his butt kicked but when I have 2 and they're both getting destroyed it's even more depressing.
That was right after we got demolished in a 2P/4C game of Arkham + Dunwich. Man, sometimes that game can be just brutal. Twice I had my characters on the second half of other worlds and they ended up LiTaS or devoured because of a bad roll. Ug. The devour was especially frustrating since that character had built up a lot of clues and was at full health/sanity going into that encounter. I love the game but sometimes I want to rip the board in half. I think playing with 2 characters actually makes it worse for me. It's bad enough when one of my characters is getting his butt kicked but when I have 2 and they're both getting destroyed it's even more depressing.
joeyjoejoeshabadoo
Member
I can't imagine Survive with two players being good at all. The entire point of the game is to screw and get screwed over by your opponents. Playing with just two people would turn it into a really shitty race game. You really should give it a second chance with more people.BomberMouse said:Played a couple of new games tonight:
Survive: It was mostly a learning game since we only played it as a 2P game, still, it wasn't very good. I'm pretty sure it'll get better with more people. The quality of the reprint is somewhat off-putting though. The player pieces while nice seems to topple easily, plus some of them came "glued" to each other on my copy an the colors got mixed while I sticked them appart, this seems to be a common issue since they are putting a 6P expansion with all the player pieces redone in plastic. The included bag is really poor quality and it doesn't even serve any purpose game wise. Finally, the whole package seems to have been done by a very mediocre designer, the instructions are unreadable in some parts, the tiles and board are ugly and the box looks like an awful copy/paste from real images taken from google images with some "cartoonize" photoshop effect on them.
Hellas: I only played it once, and I'm not sure if how often I'd like to play this, but it offers a lot of content for such a small/cheap package and the final turns were very tense. It's basically a 2P euroish wargame, with a map created by tile laying, combat resolved by majority, growth dictated by a number of action points per turn and some cards which represents god favors that shakes everything a bit. The mechanics and theme blends very well, also the pictures on the geek don't do this game justice, it's really pretty. It reminds me a lot of cyclades (ships and soldiers, various islands, get X number of cities to win) yet it's a completely different game.
The package: 48 cards, 24 tiles and 50 miniatures (15 soldiers and 10 ships per player)
I do agree that the art style is pretty shitty (the box art...my lord) but I think the component quality is pretty good.
BomberMouse
Member
joeyjoejoeshabadoo said:
Yep, I bought it with the intention of playing with more, but even as a learning game it went terrible, it's a shame they market it like a 2 player game when it's clearly is not. The player pieces are nice and all, but are easily recognizable. Still...
So thick
platypotamus
Member
Had a card gaming day yesterday. A two player game of Innovation with the wife, in which she beat me, as usual, and a 4 player game of 7 Wonders. I really love both of these games, and want the upcoming expansions for each pretty badly.
joeyjoejoeshabadoo
Member
Sent out a couple invitations for Yucata.
Carcassonne fans - do you have a default Carcassonne + expansions setup? Do you do whole expansions or pick and choose what you like? Any expansions you just avoid all together? I know the answer to that question to a lot of people is "All of them except Inns & Cathedrals" but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway. Anyone pick and choose aspects from the different expansions? I've picked up a few over the last few months.
My thoughts:
Expansions I like
- Inns & Cathedrals is pretty much part of the base game for us at this point. I only leave it out if we're throwing in a couple other expansions and don't want the game to get too unwieldy.
- Traders & Builders is one of our regulars too. The variety in the new tiles is cool, and the builder adds some strategy. I also like the idea that sometime it's advantageous to finish someone else's city to get the resource tiles.
- The River II is our default start now. I like the variety it adds to the board, as well as cutting down on some of the megafarms.
- Abbey & Mayor seems interesting, though I haven't played it with others yet. I like that each person gets one Abbey tile they can use to close off that one impossible spot. The mayor and the barn seem like interesting additions as well. Hoping to try this one out with the guys soon.
- Cult, Siege, & Creativity is cool. I like the cult tiles competing with the cloisters, and slapping a siege tile on an opponent's big city is fun. I'll probably never use the Creativity tiles.
- King & Scout (just King in our case) seems ok. I tossed the few extra tiles into the set and we use those whether we do the king and robber baron or not. I just picked up a couple of 20 sided dice to set up top of the king and robber tiles to keep track of how large the biggest city and road features are.
Expansions I think I like
- The Tower is a strange beast. I like the interaction it forces with other players, but it can be frustrating not being able to keep any followers on the board. I haven't played this enough with others to truly judge it, but I don't know if it'll ever make the regular rotation.
Expansions I don't think I like
- The Count of Carcassonne doesn't seem fun to me. I've only played it a couple times, but I don't like having to take another few minutes when putting a tile down to figure out how many followers are going to be dumped on there from the city. Makes the game drag.
- Bridges, Castles, and Bazaars looks awesome but hasn't played that well in my experience. I don't mind the occasional mega-field game, but the bridges in this expansion pretty much make it so the whole board is one giant field. I do like the Castle idea, so I may just use that and skip the rest. The Bazaars part of this expansion is a waste of time in my opinion.
Other
I think a new mini-expansion is coming out this week called The Phantom, where you get one clear follower for each player that can be added to a feature where you already have a follower (I think). Doesn't sound worth the money to me. Princess & the Dragon looks more frustrating than fun, so I never picked it up. The Catapult just looks dumb.
My thoughts:
Expansions I like
- Inns & Cathedrals is pretty much part of the base game for us at this point. I only leave it out if we're throwing in a couple other expansions and don't want the game to get too unwieldy.
- Traders & Builders is one of our regulars too. The variety in the new tiles is cool, and the builder adds some strategy. I also like the idea that sometime it's advantageous to finish someone else's city to get the resource tiles.
- The River II is our default start now. I like the variety it adds to the board, as well as cutting down on some of the megafarms.
- Abbey & Mayor seems interesting, though I haven't played it with others yet. I like that each person gets one Abbey tile they can use to close off that one impossible spot. The mayor and the barn seem like interesting additions as well. Hoping to try this one out with the guys soon.
- Cult, Siege, & Creativity is cool. I like the cult tiles competing with the cloisters, and slapping a siege tile on an opponent's big city is fun. I'll probably never use the Creativity tiles.
- King & Scout (just King in our case) seems ok. I tossed the few extra tiles into the set and we use those whether we do the king and robber baron or not. I just picked up a couple of 20 sided dice to set up top of the king and robber tiles to keep track of how large the biggest city and road features are.
Expansions I think I like
- The Tower is a strange beast. I like the interaction it forces with other players, but it can be frustrating not being able to keep any followers on the board. I haven't played this enough with others to truly judge it, but I don't know if it'll ever make the regular rotation.
Expansions I don't think I like
- The Count of Carcassonne doesn't seem fun to me. I've only played it a couple times, but I don't like having to take another few minutes when putting a tile down to figure out how many followers are going to be dumped on there from the city. Makes the game drag.
- Bridges, Castles, and Bazaars looks awesome but hasn't played that well in my experience. I don't mind the occasional mega-field game, but the bridges in this expansion pretty much make it so the whole board is one giant field. I do like the Castle idea, so I may just use that and skip the rest. The Bazaars part of this expansion is a waste of time in my opinion.
Other
I think a new mini-expansion is coming out this week called The Phantom, where you get one clear follower for each player that can be added to a feature where you already have a follower (I think). Doesn't sound worth the money to me. Princess & the Dragon looks more frustrating than fun, so I never picked it up. The Catapult just looks dumb.
Slacker said:
Should be part of everyone's base game. It's extremely simple to implement and ups the risk reward factor highly. Adds no complexity to the core game, but adds intresting strategic decisions = no brainer. Does the pig come with this one? The pig is a little hard to explain, but thats more because the farmers are a bit hard to explain to start with.
Slacker said:
Same.. I think both of these first two are fairly non-controversial... 90% of BGG probably plays with these two expansions. The builder is easy enough to explain and is nice way of letting you do more, great in a 6p game especially but he isn't a real "game changer". The Traders is the real winner, and while it slighly (ever so slightly) makes the game more complicated it's well worth the "do I finish this for you" decision.
Slacker said:
I waiver on this one.. it's nice to have a larger starting board and more varried start, but at the same time, I like the early game fight for space of the standard starting piece. It's good for 5 or 6p games, less than that I normally go with the standard tile. I've also mixed the river with river 2.. it's fun in a similar way. I go with totally random end to the river though.. when it gets capped, the game starts.
Slacker said:
This one is sort of the least hated of the bad expansions.. held in regard somewhere between being in the good list and the catapult. I personally don't like it, because forcing your opponent into a hard to finish spot on his castle is half the point. Giving someone a free out makes a cathedral less intimidating. Don't like the idea of it at all.
Slacker said:
I use both siege and cult as well. I've seen a cult compete with a cloister exactly once, but with all the added tiles from expansions, the game *needed* a few more open green space tiles to balance it back out.
Slacker said:
I use the tiles (there are some really nifty ones) but not the king or robber tiles. I think the game should be all about the core scoring mechanisms.. I make an exception for the traders because they are a truly unique scoring mechanism that introduces a strategic element. With the King and Robber you are already trying to build the largest road and biggest city. It just makes having a slighly larget city than your opponent an even bigger windfall than it otherwise should be. Hate the idea.
Slacker said:
Haven't played it, seems less objectionable than some of the others.. but I don't like the idea.
Slacker said:
Stupid.
Slacker said:
Kill it with fire.
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