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The New Board Game Thread (Newcomer Friendly)
- Thread starter AstroLad
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Wooped some tail in Glory to Rome. First win actually. By a nice margin due to an insane building combo. Atrium + Basilica + Merchant client made it so I could pump 4 cards in my vault everytime I could lead/follow a merchant.
Played Cyclades for the first time. Got pretty stomped on the whole game. Ended up getting wiped off an island with my metro, but maintaining control. Had a few forces on my other island that was about to be attacked, but destroyed his shipline before he could swoop in. I was one Athena bid away from winning, and they knocked me off to Apollo. The saved cash came in handy the next turn as Ares showed up as the top bid and I claimed it first with a bank breaking 14 gold that no one could top. 3 more forces and I took the gamble and moved my forces to his Metropolitan area. Even sides so it came down to the die rolls. I was victorious.
Played Cyclades for the first time. Got pretty stomped on the whole game. Ended up getting wiped off an island with my metro, but maintaining control. Had a few forces on my other island that was about to be attacked, but destroyed his shipline before he could swoop in. I was one Athena bid away from winning, and they knocked me off to Apollo. The saved cash came in handy the next turn as Ares showed up as the top bid and I claimed it first with a bank breaking 14 gold that no one could top. 3 more forces and I took the gamble and moved my forces to his Metropolitan area. Even sides so it came down to the die rolls. I was victorious.
joeyjoejoeshabadoo
Member
Nicely done. What did you think of the game?Neverfade said:
joeyjoejoeshabadoo said:
Better than I expected. I really thought previously that the 2 metropolis win condition would lead to a quick and unfair victory, but I was actually ready for the game to be over, hence the wild gamble.
I'd HIGHLY recommend Game of Thrones (plus Clash of Kings expansion) to anyone who likes Cyclades. It shares a remarkable amount of 'feel', kills the dice luck, and adds both temporary alliances and brief, brief moments of cooperation. The items you bid for in GoT just feel great -- being able to break bidding ties and holding people in semi-extortion to turn the wheels in your favor. SO good.
BomberMouse
Member
AstroLad said:
OMG! great, I hope boardsandbits or miniaturemarket get some on stock too so I can order one
platypotamus
Member
Slight side note: There's a chance I actually won't be available tonight as promised.
The good news: Wife has informed me that she won't be home tomorrow night so I'm on my own for dinner, which my brain translated on the fly into "Eat some frozen pizza and play RftG with GAF". So I'm definitely around tomorrow.
EDIT:
Forgot, wanted to post an update to that Small World story yesterday. It wasn't Small World. It was some other game called Small Worlds:
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/09/14/british-tabloids-lin.html
The good news: Wife has informed me that she won't be home tomorrow night so I'm on my own for dinner, which my brain translated on the fly into "Eat some frozen pizza and play RftG with GAF". So I'm definitely around tomorrow.
EDIT:
Forgot, wanted to post an update to that Small World story yesterday. It wasn't Small World. It was some other game called Small Worlds:
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/09/14/british-tabloids-lin.html
Has anyone played Dungeon Twister (2)?
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/42124/dungeon-twister-2-prison
It looks like a nice 2player game with a good amount of depth without relying on luck, but I'm not sure whether my g/f would like it or not since it's quite heavy on the fantasy theme... looks interesting enough!
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/42124/dungeon-twister-2-prison
It looks like a nice 2player game with a good amount of depth without relying on luck, but I'm not sure whether my g/f would like it or not since it's quite heavy on the fantasy theme... looks interesting enough!
Askani said:
I've only had maybe 4 opportunities to play it. It is definitely more "take that" than regular Catan, with certain action cards letting you mess with your opponent's set up.
And I agree that there is a runaway leader problem. Last game I played against my daughter I hit 12 VPs (I think that's the target amount) before she even hit 5. I had so many resources cranking that I never needed to trade and would only trade to keep her "in" the game.
But, it's a cool idea, a cool set up, and it is a form of Catan for 2 people. I guess some of the expansions fix some of the base problems, but I haven't tried any of them out.
Oh, and it can take a while to get through, probably the biggest reason it doesn't get played much, since there is other great stuff we can get through quicker.
I love Dungeon Twister.Jefklak said:
My wife really enjoys it. How nerdy is your gf exactly? My wife likes complicated board games, comics and Doctor Who but not necessarily fantasy shit .
The game feels a bit like chess and leaves you scratching your head a lot. We each have managed to stay on an equal footing as I have deliberately avoided researching how to get better at the game.:lol Its a nice game for us, but I guess the theme could be off putting to someone who is advrese to nerdy shit. It doesn't require any role playing though and the flavor itself is pretty mild. Its a pretty gamey game.
So, got back from my game night..
Played 2 games, watched part of another I really want to play.
Mall of Horrors - This is a really fun game. I would suggest it if you are looking for additional party game rotation as the rules are really simple and the game is very teachable. Lots of screw-age, lots of negotiation, and a good deal of strategy still present. 6 players to boot, so pretty good there.
You essentially have 3 pawns that you move into one of 6 locations on the board and if more Zombies are in the room than there are pawns someone in the room is going to die. So there is safety in numbers, but every room has a limit of how many people are allowed to enter it.
There is one room that allows you to potentially pick up a special card, but you are really open to Zombie attack (no strength in numbers in that room, 1 person dies for each zombie coming in) and another room has a mechanic that allows you to be the only person to know where the Zombies are going to go.
Everything is controlled by votes, so making friends is critical as I learned. I was able to control the special cards and control of knowing where the zombies were the entire game via good strategy and made an enemy out of basically everyone in the game.
You vote to decide which player in the surveillance room is going to know where the zombies are located. You vote to see which person in the parking lot gets a special card. And if someone is going to die via zombie attack, the people in that room vote on who is going to die.
It's hard to put into words, but it is a really fun light game. I would say it is somewhere between a core game and a party game. It essentially boils down to a party game, but it has strong enough mechanics that a well reasoned player can get by without a lot of friends.. and if you are the guy with all the special cards and knowledge of where the zombies are.. well, fear keeps people in line too :lol The guy who owns the game led a revolt against my dictatorship late in the game and killed off two of my pawns, but my damsel still made it out alive.
Masons - played two rounds of this as a 'quick' game after the game of Mall of Horrors. Not the biggest fan of this one. It is a weird Carcassonne like castle building game, but instead of area control you are trying to complete elements and then you play cards to score after elements are completed.. but you can score when anyone completes a city. It's really an odd game that I think really lacked strategy because there was no way to tell what someone else was going to do and none of the cards help form a coherent strategy because you are constantly drawing new cards with new goals none of which really flow together. And half the deck becomes worthless as the game board fills up with cities, because you only score on elements outside of completed cities with them. Doubt I'll play this again. I won the 2nd game I played and nearly won the first and I really didn't have a strategy. Tells me this game is pretty much a "throw shit at wall: hope for best" sort of thing.. but it is dry on top of that.
Carson City - Oh man, I want to play this so bad. The guy who brought Mall of Horror said he will bring it in two weeks so I can play it. It's like Carcassonne meets Catan meets Puerto Rico meets Power Grid with the added ability to shoot fools. It's a tile placement game, with road building and resource management, role selection and a futures market for goods and buildings to construct. Oh, and you can straight up shoot mother fuckers.
Anyway, my collection of games doesn't seem like it's going to get a ton of play with this group. Of my games they all kind of turn their noses up at the standard games.. it seems like everyone there has some really niche out of print games that are their favorite of all time. They don't like Puerto Rico, they like Cuba (or Havana, or something). None of them like RFTG. My entry level games they find boring. So, I guess I'll be playing a lot of theirs. Although, one guy admitted that he really liked Ticket to Ride and a few people liked Power Grid.
Turnout was pretty good.. about 30 or 40 people seemed to be there playing games, so I'll probably be back a few times a month.. there was a giant game of Formula D going that was still going after I left 4 hours after getting there.
Played 2 games, watched part of another I really want to play.
Mall of Horrors - This is a really fun game. I would suggest it if you are looking for additional party game rotation as the rules are really simple and the game is very teachable. Lots of screw-age, lots of negotiation, and a good deal of strategy still present. 6 players to boot, so pretty good there.
You essentially have 3 pawns that you move into one of 6 locations on the board and if more Zombies are in the room than there are pawns someone in the room is going to die. So there is safety in numbers, but every room has a limit of how many people are allowed to enter it.
There is one room that allows you to potentially pick up a special card, but you are really open to Zombie attack (no strength in numbers in that room, 1 person dies for each zombie coming in) and another room has a mechanic that allows you to be the only person to know where the Zombies are going to go.
Everything is controlled by votes, so making friends is critical as I learned. I was able to control the special cards and control of knowing where the zombies were the entire game via good strategy and made an enemy out of basically everyone in the game.
You vote to decide which player in the surveillance room is going to know where the zombies are located. You vote to see which person in the parking lot gets a special card. And if someone is going to die via zombie attack, the people in that room vote on who is going to die.
It's hard to put into words, but it is a really fun light game. I would say it is somewhere between a core game and a party game. It essentially boils down to a party game, but it has strong enough mechanics that a well reasoned player can get by without a lot of friends.. and if you are the guy with all the special cards and knowledge of where the zombies are.. well, fear keeps people in line too :lol The guy who owns the game led a revolt against my dictatorship late in the game and killed off two of my pawns, but my damsel still made it out alive.
Masons - played two rounds of this as a 'quick' game after the game of Mall of Horrors. Not the biggest fan of this one. It is a weird Carcassonne like castle building game, but instead of area control you are trying to complete elements and then you play cards to score after elements are completed.. but you can score when anyone completes a city. It's really an odd game that I think really lacked strategy because there was no way to tell what someone else was going to do and none of the cards help form a coherent strategy because you are constantly drawing new cards with new goals none of which really flow together. And half the deck becomes worthless as the game board fills up with cities, because you only score on elements outside of completed cities with them. Doubt I'll play this again. I won the 2nd game I played and nearly won the first and I really didn't have a strategy. Tells me this game is pretty much a "throw shit at wall: hope for best" sort of thing.. but it is dry on top of that.
Carson City - Oh man, I want to play this so bad. The guy who brought Mall of Horror said he will bring it in two weeks so I can play it. It's like Carcassonne meets Catan meets Puerto Rico meets Power Grid with the added ability to shoot fools. It's a tile placement game, with road building and resource management, role selection and a futures market for goods and buildings to construct. Oh, and you can straight up shoot mother fuckers.
Anyway, my collection of games doesn't seem like it's going to get a ton of play with this group. Of my games they all kind of turn their noses up at the standard games.. it seems like everyone there has some really niche out of print games that are their favorite of all time. They don't like Puerto Rico, they like Cuba (or Havana, or something). None of them like RFTG. My entry level games they find boring. So, I guess I'll be playing a lot of theirs. Although, one guy admitted that he really liked Ticket to Ride and a few people liked Power Grid.
Turnout was pretty good.. about 30 or 40 people seemed to be there playing games, so I'll probably be back a few times a month.. there was a giant game of Formula D going that was still going after I left 4 hours after getting there.
Thanks for the info about the Catan card game. I wasn't in a rush about it until I read "out of print" above. :lol
Sounds interesting anyway. For the price it's probably worth it. After reading though, now I'm curious about Rivals of Catan.
Oh decisions, decisions...
Also, my friend's copy of Dominion just arrived today and should be ready for next Monday's game session. Looking forward to trying it out.
Sounds interesting anyway. For the price it's probably worth it. After reading though, now I'm curious about Rivals of Catan.
Oh decisions, decisions...
Also, my friend's copy of Dominion just arrived today and should be ready for next Monday's game session. Looking forward to trying it out.
AstroLad said:
Yeah, I really got a strong vibe that these are like hipster nerds.
They have to find something avant garde. Even the weird board games that no normal person has heard of are good enough for them. They have to find a game that even board game geeks rarely have heard of or played.
Mall of Horrors was actually a good bit of fun, but the other game we played I was sitting there the entire time thinking "You know, we could be playing Carcassonne.. it's kind of like this except it isn't pure dumb ass luck."
Several of them also had favorite designers. When I asked them what games the person made they rattled off a bunch of shit I've never heard of that is all around the 500-1000 rank on BGG. Everyone there was really nice, so I don't want to give the impression that they were a-holes or anything, but there was a strong music snob vibe.
That's fine by me, it's a way for me to play a bunch of stuff I would never have tried out otherwise.
Has anyone ever played "Mwahahaha"? It's a board game (5 player max) where each player takes on the role of an Evil Genius bent on destroying the world using a doomsday device. The premise is fun and thematically the game is decent too.
I played it for a round last weekend and gameplaywise it was also kinda neat. We all felt that the minions were very ineffective however.
I managed to stop a doomsday device 2 times by stealing resources needed to activate it, though. However I was only successful because the other player didn't have any minions. Maybe there's a rule we're missing (only one person read the manual before hand and we didn't really check during play so...).
Anyone here that can give their thoughts on the gameplay?
I played it for a round last weekend and gameplaywise it was also kinda neat. We all felt that the minions were very ineffective however.
I managed to stop a doomsday device 2 times by stealing resources needed to activate it, though. However I was only successful because the other player didn't have any minions. Maybe there's a rule we're missing (only one person read the manual before hand and we didn't really check during play so...).
Anyone here that can give their thoughts on the gameplay?
Back to Masons, because as I slept on it I can better articulate my issues with the game.
1) you roll 3 dice. 1 gives you a color of tower you have to build, the other gives you two colors of houses you have to put down. The entire game is a grid of interlocking triangles. You then select where to build a single wall piece, put one color house on either side of the wall and then put down your tower at the edge of the wall piece. If your wall piece doesn't connect to another wall (i.e. there isn't a tower next to it on the other side) you get to put down a tower of the color of your choosing.
You score because you have these cards in your hand. Maybe you get 2 points per white tower used in a completed castle. Maybe you get 1 point for every grid a completed castle takes up. maybe you get points for every green house inside the castle. Or maybe you get points for every black tower that isn't part of a completed castle.
Once someone finishes a castle off (completes a section that is completely enclosed) you go in order playing up to two cards that are in your hand to score points. You have to score points either off of the castle that was just finished or elements that are outside of that castle.
This all sounds well and good, except unlike Carcassonne you never know what your opponent is trying to do. You can try and guess at it, but the problem is the dice rolls may not be giving them anything they want. So they are being forced to put down shit they don't want. So you never know what anyone is trying to do. Which means you just kind of do whatever and unwittingly hope someone helps you complete an element that scores you a lot of points based on the cards in your hand. One time a guy made it blatantly clear what he was trying to do. The rest of the time? I was just doing my best to put elements in that helped me towards my goal and hoped that no one fucked it up for me too bad. Sometimes they did, sometimes they helped me. No one knew what the fuck anyone else was trying to accomplish so there was basically no way to develop a strategy.
1) you roll 3 dice. 1 gives you a color of tower you have to build, the other gives you two colors of houses you have to put down. The entire game is a grid of interlocking triangles. You then select where to build a single wall piece, put one color house on either side of the wall and then put down your tower at the edge of the wall piece. If your wall piece doesn't connect to another wall (i.e. there isn't a tower next to it on the other side) you get to put down a tower of the color of your choosing.
You score because you have these cards in your hand. Maybe you get 2 points per white tower used in a completed castle. Maybe you get 1 point for every grid a completed castle takes up. maybe you get points for every green house inside the castle. Or maybe you get points for every black tower that isn't part of a completed castle.
Once someone finishes a castle off (completes a section that is completely enclosed) you go in order playing up to two cards that are in your hand to score points. You have to score points either off of the castle that was just finished or elements that are outside of that castle.
This all sounds well and good, except unlike Carcassonne you never know what your opponent is trying to do. You can try and guess at it, but the problem is the dice rolls may not be giving them anything they want. So they are being forced to put down shit they don't want. So you never know what anyone is trying to do. Which means you just kind of do whatever and unwittingly hope someone helps you complete an element that scores you a lot of points based on the cards in your hand. One time a guy made it blatantly clear what he was trying to do. The rest of the time? I was just doing my best to put elements in that helped me towards my goal and hoped that no one fucked it up for me too bad. Sometimes they did, sometimes they helped me. No one knew what the fuck anyone else was trying to accomplish so there was basically no way to develop a strategy.
Just a reminder:
Race for the Galaxy Online Free Play -- Tonight 9 PM EST
http://www.keldon.net/rftg/ (download)
Sign-Ups
1. AstroLad
2. Stooge
3. platypotamus
4. PillowKnight
5. Cyan
Think we've got room for at least one more.
Race for the Galaxy Online Free Play -- Tonight 9 PM EST
http://www.keldon.net/rftg/ (download)
Sign-Ups
1. AstroLad
2. Stooge
3. platypotamus
4. PillowKnight
5. Cyan
Think we've got room for at least one more.
There was a lot of interest in dungeon crawls earlier, and as luck would have it the new Board Games With Scott is on that very topic, covering Descent, Dungeonquest, Castle Ravenloft and others: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rgaDCia9Hk
Scott is so dorky :lol
Scott is so dorky :lol
BomberMouse
Member
AstroLad said:
Scott videos are the best
, it's a shame he has slowed down lately but I guess it's a thing of quality over quantityjoeyjoejoeshabadoo
Member
My favorite openings of his are Agricola and his intro to the 18xx series of games.StoOgE said:
My exposure to crazy expensive out of print games continues.
I've been invited by one of the guys from last night to try Fury of Dracula which has been on my list of things to try out for a while now. 4 players vs 1 deduction game with a pretty decent battle mechanic to boot from what I've read.
I've been invited by one of the guys from last night to try Fury of Dracula which has been on my list of things to try out for a while now. 4 players vs 1 deduction game with a pretty decent battle mechanic to boot from what I've read.
AstroLad said:
Nice video but way too long.
I don't really like dungeon crawls because of the randomness it may cause. I own an older version of "Dungeons & Dragons: the boardgame" (when 3th ed was new) and dice rolling just kills it every single time, I don't have that much luck. DungeonQuest looks ridiculous, it's completely based on that principle! Can't believe many people love those kind of games.
Ravenloft looks cool though but the dungeon tiles are so bland...
Edit: talking about this one http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6366/dungeons-dragons-the-fantasy-adventure-board-game
The gaming group I go to is part of a larger gaming association so I often get emails with people trying to unload collections. One dude was selling Fury of Dracula for something like $25. I almost bought it because my daughter is knee-deep in the whole teenage vampire craze and I thought it might be something she'd like to play. It does look interesting.StoOgE said:
I did manage to grab a barely used copy of El Grande (with expansions) for $20.
I like randomness in certain games and situations, especially in a cooperative game I like a slightly punishing maybe even a snowball of death kind of randomness, it makes for really tense moments if you play with the right spirit and if the game is not just insta-deaths.Jefklak said:
I'm a Dwarf Fortress (or Roguelikes, that are even more fitting, especially considered that my dungeon crawl days consisted of follower of Xom after follower of Xom) kind of guy, losing is lots of fun when the setup for it is right.
DungeonQuest while competitive seems indirect enough and punishing enough that the main fight is between you and the board rather than between you and the other players so I might be able to enjoy bad stuff even when it hits me hard and/or often.
The fighting is the only part I might have a conceptual issue with, but mostly because it seems to be too drawn out for the type of game, like it was said in the video (and in the dicetower review), even if you could theoretically simplify it with house rules, but I don't know if that would be that balanced. Well, the game doesn't seem balanced either way so whatever.
Now judging by the various reviews it could be actually a bit too consistently heavy in the punishment it dishes to the players and that could be a problem if it just ends up being a "Roll a 6 to not die" kind of thing every 3 turns, but it wouldn't be an issue with the randomness in itself but with the way the odds of success and the odds of failure are stacked against each other.
Now Descent could be problematic if I were to play the DM.
Being one against many and having bad dice rolls and bad cards in my hand could frustrate me a little just like I get pissed off during certain games of Magic when I draw 10 plains in a row even if I only have those 10 plains in the entire deck and a hand full of nothing useful. I would feel the competitive spirit a little bit more strongly but it wouldn't be anything terrible and it wouldn't turn me off the game.
Now setting the randomness issue aside.
Castle Ravenloft interested me because of the lack of DM but I don't know if I like the way the monsters behave that much.
It seems like it could get repetitive and with no real expansions in sight (just an alternate, if compatible, version) I don't really know if the mechanics could keep my interest, especially considering that a friend of mine has Descent that seems way deeper and has some really interesting expanded contents.
I understand that the point of CR is to offer a shorter, more streamlined experience but it might be incompatible with what I'm looking for.
Mmh, indecision.
StoOgE said:
It's a lot of fun. It can drag on a bit, though: in the most recent game I played, we lucked in to finding Dracula on the first turn. We stayed on his trail for the next three hours or so, never more than a step or two behind him (why he didn't Wolf Form I truly don't know), but because he kept rolling well in combat we couldn't put a scratch on him. Game ended when we finally started rolling reasonably and killed him quite quickly.
But in general, I highly recommend it. Fun and quite flavorful. I hadn't realized it was out of print and expensive...
Got castle ravenloft last night. Tons of components, pretty simple ruleset. Gonna try it solo soon. Looks good though, decent minis, nice thick cardboard, and 12 missions or so.
Got caylus on order. Probably the most complex, layered euro I have ever played. Probably shouldn't even be mentioned on this thread
Got caylus on order. Probably the most complex, layered euro I have ever played. Probably shouldn't even be mentioned on this thread
AstroLad said:
I'm really bad about visualizing where fields are going to connect later. It is double hard on the iphone which is pretty much where I have lost the last two games to you.
That and you are better at screwing me up than I am you. Also, I got a little greedy with mega castle. It still scored 18 points without being completed :lol
But yeah, GG. I'm pretty much always up to play during work hours :lol
alright guys room is NeoGAF password is carc
Race for the Galaxy Online Free Play -- Tonight 9 PM EST
http://www.keldon.net/rftg/ (download)
playing base+TGS with goals
Race for the Galaxy Online Free Play -- Tonight 9 PM EST
http://www.keldon.net/rftg/ (download)
playing base+TGS with goals
platypotamus
Member
I anticipate a poor performance from team platy, but we'll see how it goes.
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