The New Board Game Thread (Newcomer Friendly)

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Dreavus said:
Thanks! I'm looking at a few other games as well, but this one is high on the list at the moment. Can I count this as a recommendation? :P
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I like it a ton, but its not without its faults. What I know of the expansion seems to address the issues I do have with it. Its a safe purchase, IMO.
 
Flynn said:
I like the goals a lot. The cool thing about them is that racing for them can lead you down an inefficient path. Of course it is good to win them all, but having them out there offers a little push and pull -- especially with more than two players.
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AstroLad said:
Yeah I feel the same way -- quite like them with 4 but not at all with 2.
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Yeah, we were playing with goals with 3 of us. My brother managed to get nearly all of them (4 of the six), my friend got one, and I couldn't pull off any. Couldn't find an Alien world for the diversity one :(. It was my first time playing with goals, so I can't really make a final decision about whether I like them or not. They seemed to offer a nice diversion to the usual paths of victory, but at the same time it felt like they all kind of fell into one players lap based on the cards he got during the first several rounds. There wasn't really anything I could do to "stop" it based on the cards I had access to, but then again this game is light on the interaction by design (not a bad thing). That's only ONE game though, I want to try them a few more times and see how it plays out.

Neverfade said:
I like it a ton, but its not without its faults. What I know of the expansion seems to address the issues I do have with it. Its a safe purchase, IMO.
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Cool! I was pleased to hear that there was an expansion announcement not too long ago, even though I had just learned of the game's existence yesterday. What I might do is see if I can borrow the game for a night from the store I frequent and give it a shot (yes, he does let people do that! As long as you keep it in very good shape, of course.) Honestly though, I'll probably end up purchasing it in the end... I've been poring over impressions and reviews tonight and last night and it looks like it'll be right up my my group's alley.
 
Dreavus said:
Yeah, we were playing with goals with 3 of us. My brother managed to get nearly all of them (4 of the six), my friend got one, and I couldn't pull off any. Couldn't find an Alien world for the diversity one :(. It was my first time playing with goals, so I can't really make a final decision about whether I like them or not. They seemed to offer a nice diversion to the usual paths of victory, but at the same time it felt like they all kind of fell into one players lap based on the cards he got during the first several rounds. There wasn't really anything I could do to "stop" it based on the cards I had access to, but then again this game is light on the interaction by design (not a bad thing). That's only ONE game though, I want to try them a few more times and see how it plays out.
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The randomness in the draw can make it lean a little toward one player's tableau. There's an interesting decision there though. Do you diverge from the smart strategy for your starting planet and hope you can grow big enough to defray the losses or do you fish for cards that'll help you chase what your opponent is going for.

I know Astrolad said he liked them better with more than 2, but I dug them with the two player game both because you're more empowered to make those kinds of decisions (you can always drop and Explore +5) and because you really have to police your opponent when they start looking like they're going to grab a goal. Good tension, I think.
 
platypotamus said:
Might get to try Quarriors tomorrow... cautiously optimistic.
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It's random & chaotic & fun. Pull dice, roll dice, spawn a creature, attack everyone, buy another creature. If your creature survives when it comes back to your turn, score & throwaway a die. Rinse, repeat.

It should be your starter, not your main course. Works great for lunch.
 
fenners said:
It's random & chaotic & fun. Pull dice, roll dice, spawn a creature, attack everyone, buy another creature. If your creature survives when it comes back to your turn, score & throwaway a die. Rinse, repeat.

It should be your starter, not your main course.
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I played another couple of games last night (both 4p). I'm warming up to it more. If you are a fan of dice it's hard not to smile when you see them all laid out on the table. Yeah there is the randomness of the dice, but the games go so quick it takes the edge off any frustration you might feel if you get a string of bad rolls.

Now Lords of Vegas. We played that last night as well and the dice were being beastly to me. Still love that game though.
 
MichaelBD said:
I played another couple of games last night (both 4p). I'm warming up to it more. If you are a fan of dice it's hard not to smile when you see them all laid out on the table. Yeah there is the randomness of the dice, but the games go so quick it takes the edge off any frustration you might feel if you get a string of bad rolls.
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Exactly. Yes, it's random & chaotic, but it's short & fun for the duration.

Now Lords of Vegas. We played that last night as well and the dice were being beastly to me. Still love that game though.
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I've heard nothing but good things about Lords of Vegas, and one of my group enjoyed it at BGG.Con, but no-one's bought it... Bah.
 
Lords of Vegas is a really fun game. I played it at BGG but my group hated it, even though I loved it. The randomness is pure chaos, but man it's so much fun. More fun than aquire (which it basically is a really close relative of). The lack of anyone to ever play it with means I probably won't ever get it.

My only problem is fourfold (and mostly easily fixed).

1) The insert is the worst thing in the world. Someone mentioned it was actually made for a different game. The pieces don't fit in the box.

2) Paper money is awful. The game is themed to the 40s/50s Vegas.. and has pictures of elvis impersonators on it? Blargh. Paper money sucks already, and you make it out of theme. Get poker chips. They are awesome and perfectly fit the theme.

3) the card backs are kind of awful. It's just a picture of the back of the board. Games Logo with a green feltish background would have been much better.

4) the themes of the casinos don't really match the time period.. why am I building Caesar's Palace in the 40s?

The game also screams for a home made dice tray that looks like a craps table. I have a perfectly proportioned dice tray that I've thought I would paint up to look like craps.
 
For years when our friend group got together we'd mostly play video games, usually Halo. Our friend Andrew is not so much into the video games but he'd play and pretty much get slaughtered. Now we've been playing a lot of board games and he's totally getting his revenge. Dude kicks my ass in Power Grid every time. Thought I had a chance last night but late in phase 2 I was completely locked in with a good chunk of money but nowhere to expand. If I could have built 3 more spots I would have ended the game and won but unfortunately for me the game went one extra turn and I lost. Blerg. I still <3 that game, though.

Also played a couple of games of 7 Wonders last night. I came in second and first. I'm getting a lot better at not spending every single resource on army. In fact I'm tempted to just stop spending on military completely and see if I can make up for it with other stuff. It's only -6, right?

We didn't play with the Leaders expansion because I just picked it up but after looking through it this morning I definitely want to give it a try soon.
 
Cathcart said:
Also played a couple of games of 7 Wonders last night. I came in second and first. I'm getting a lot better at not spending every single resource on army. In fact I'm tempted to just stop spending on military completely and see if I can make up for it with other stuff. It's only -6, right?
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It's -6 to /your/ score, but you're also giving +9 (1/3/5, right?) to each player beside you...
 
Yeah. Frowny face.

In the game that I won the guy on my left built no military and the guy on my right built a bunch. I built enough to split each age so I ended up with a decent number of VPs for not much military. I guess we were like the three bears of 7 Wonders.
 
Cathcart said:
Also played a couple of games of 7 Wonders last night. I came in second and first. I'm getting a lot better at not spending every single resource on army. In fact I'm tempted to just stop spending on military completely and see if I can make up for it with other stuff. It's only -6, right?
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I've done. It can work, but it's a risk, of course. Like Fenners points out, you're giving points to neighbors. In a larger game, this is less of an issue, but a 3-4 player game it's... bad. There's also the possibility that you can fuel a large scale arms race between other players this way, which is nice. I love seeing anyone (that's not me) at the table with a final military count in the double digits... that's a lot of actions spent for a relatively small point payoff.

This sort of choice is part of why I love 7 Wonders though, because it's a choice you can't really make at a blanket level, it's more of a tactical response to the particular game you're in.
 
I've been playing a lot of Race for the Galaxy and Hansa Teutonica lately. I manage to convince my friends to give Race another shot and the results were much better this time. They finally got a hang of the iconography so the games went much smoother this time. I'm really liking the game. It plays quickly and there are a lot of tough decisions to make throughout the game.

Hansa Teutonica is an action point game with a skill tree. I like leveling up my abilities and the fact that the game has multiple paths to victory. It's also really fun just being a dick and blocking people.

And I've also played Santiago a few times. It's an auction/bribing game. The game is pretty fun, especially when it comes to the bribing part. Trying to suck up and bribe another player after you ruined his field of bananas is always fun.
 
Just finished my new Dominion storage solution.

Every Dominion card in one box with the exception of Walled City or whatever the new promo card is (though, there is a space for it!). Even the extra base cards from Intrigue fit. Super fucking heavy box, but really nice not having to..

1) Drag out 6 boxes.
2) Keep them in some ugly home made storage solution.

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Not sure what I'll do about the future 3 expansions.. I may be done buying Dominion (I always say this), or I'll figure out a way to get the remaining 3 into one of the small boxes in a similar fashion.
 
StoOgE said:
Lords of Vegas is a really fun game. I played it at BGG but my group hated it, even though I loved it. The randomness is pure chaos, but man it's so much fun. More fun than aquire (which it basically is a really close relative of). The lack of anyone to ever play it with means I probably won't ever get it.

My only problem is fourfold (and mostly easily fixed).

1) The insert is the worst thing in the world. Someone mentioned it was actually made for a different game. The pieces don't fit in the box.

2) Paper money is awful. The game is themed to the 40s/50s Vegas.. and has pictures of elvis impersonators on it? Blargh. Paper money sucks already, and you make it out of theme. Get poker chips. They are awesome and perfectly fit the theme.

3) the card backs are kind of awful. It's just a picture of the back of the board. Games Logo with a green feltish background would have been much better.

4) the themes of the casinos don't really match the time period.. why am I building Caesar's Palace in the 40s?

The game also screams for a home made dice tray that looks like a craps table. I have a perfectly proportioned dice tray that I've thought I would paint up to look like craps.
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1) Agreed. I can get the stuff to fit in there, but it's a mess.

2) They are not Elvis impersonators. The ones have Dean Martin, the fives have Frank Sinatra, and the tens have Elvis. The money doesn't annoy me enough that I'm ready to move to chips.

3) The quality of the paper they used is pretty poor. The cards are flimsy, so I ended up sleeving them.

4) Never noticed.

What we didn't really get into much until recently is the trading. Lately we've been big on trading which adds a lot of extra interaction to the game.
 
MichaelBD said:
1) Agreed. I can get the stuff to fit in there, but it's a mess.

2) They are not Elvis impersonators. The ones have Dean Martin, the fives have Frank Sinatra, and the tens have Elvis. The money doesn't annoy me enough that I'm ready to move to chips.

3) The quality of the paper they used is pretty poor. The cards are flimsy, so I ended up sleeving them.

4) Never noticed.

What we didn't really get into much until recently is the trading. Lately we've been big on trading which adds a lot of extra interaction to the game.
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The trading is one of my favorite parts of the game. Obviously the most fun in the game is when you are trying to hostily take over a casino.. but this game gets dice rolling right. You can play strategically and put the odds in your favor.. but you still have the intensity of hoping to hit on the roll.

There was a review of Quarriors I read that really expressed this well. I haven't played the game, so I don't want to comment on Quarriors, but the good dice rolling games are the ones where the roll is an intense experience. You sort of know *how* the dice will land, but there is the hope/fear that the longshot comes through. It's a difficult balance to make the game not seem random but have enough randomness in it to create uncertainty.

Lords of Vegas does that in spades. It really is Acquire with dice and a better theme.
 
StoOgE said:
The trading is one of my favorite parts of the game. Obviously the most fun in the game is when you are trying to hostily take over a casino.. but this game gets dice rolling right. You can play strategically and put the odds in your favor.. but you still have the intensity of hoping to hit on the roll.

There was a review of Quarriors I read that really expressed this well. I haven't played the game, so I don't want to comment on Quarriors, but the good dice rolling games are the ones where the roll is an intense experience. You sort of know *how* the dice will land, but there is the hope/fear that the longshot comes through. It's a difficult balance to make the game not seem random but have enough randomness in it to create uncertainty.

Lords of Vegas does that in spades. It really is Acquire with dice and a better theme.
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I am enjoying Quarriors, but I haven't played it enough to appreciate any hidden depth that's yet to be found. I know that so far I haven't experienced anywhere near the visceral feeling I get when I'm rolling to take over a casino. But they are two different games with different agendas anyway.
 
So I'm becoming quasi-obsessed with Innovation. I've played about half a dozen times and I'm already wondering whether or not I should snag the expansion. I don't feel like we've even scratched the surface of the base game but I'm compulsive about expansions when it comes to games.

Does anyone have it? Should I bother or just wait it out? Is the base game enough? I've read up on it a bit and I know it adds some more keywords and we still have people getting tuck and return confused so I don't want to add any complexity at this point. However, I get itchy when it comes to games because it feels like availability is sketchy within the industry unless you're talking about the big games like Catan or Ticket to ride, etc. I'd hate to go buy it and it not be available (it's already out of stock at CSI).

So I guess I'm wondering if it is a safe bet to just buy it now and maybe put it on the shelf until we are ready.
 
Captain_Spanky said:
Considering buying 7 Wonders, any thoughts fellow boardgame addicts?
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Sat down for a 7 player game one afternoon. It was unanimous, we all liked it. All were very eager to play another round and another round and another...and another. It's nominated and won many game awards. There's a good chance your group will like it. It plays fast, probably around 30ish minutes which could be good or bad depending on your preference.
 
Captain_Spanky said:
Considering buying 7 Wonders, any thoughts fellow boardgame addicts?
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I'm not a big fan, but I won't say no when the group wants to play it. It's great in that it is quick and can scale to 7, so it gets played almost every week as a starter. The issue I have with it is that it seems limited in the paths to victory, so games have been feeling samey to me.

Plus, you rely a lot on what your neighbors are doing. I had one guy try a "no resources" strategy which not only halted his production of buildings but also put a damper on mine. So if you have neighbors that aren't building resource buildings then you have to build resource buildings which can get you some cash (because they will have to buy resources from you) but also means you are passing on a lot of other buildings that could further your game plan.

But again, once people know how to play it only takes half an hour and it's not a painful game to play, it just doesn't float my boat like it does for a lot of other people.
 
Captain_Spanky said:
Considering buying 7 Wonders, any thoughts fellow boardgame addicts?
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You won't regret it, unless you game exclusively 2 player, in which it's weak. Any number between 3-7 players and you've got a quick game that everyone will want to play multiple rounds of. Accessible to newbs, but engaging for veterans. I can't recommend it enough.

MichaelBD said:
So I'm becoming quasi-obsessed with Innovation. I've played about half a dozen times and I'm already wondering whether or not I should snag the expansion. I don't feel like we've even scratched the surface of the base game but I'm compulsive about expansions when it comes to games.

Does anyone have it? Should I bother or just wait it out? Is the base game enough?
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I <3 Innovation a ton myself, but haven't got the expansion yet. I'm on the call list at that ridiculous game store/bar that I've posted about here, so when they get it, I get it. Astrolad has it and said good things. He has pretty good taste, generally.
 
I liked 7W. It's a game that is easy to learn, has a nice theme with broad appeal, and plays well and quickly 4-7. Which is a totally unprecedented combo.

MichaelBD said:
So I'm becoming quasi-obsessed with Innovation. I've played about half a dozen times and I'm already wondering whether or not I should snag the expansion. I don't feel like we've even scratched the surface of the base game but I'm compulsive about expansions when it comes to games.

Does anyone have it? Should I bother or just wait it out? Is the base game enough? I've read up on it a bit and I know it adds some more keywords and we still have people getting tuck and return confused so I don't want to add any complexity at this point. However, I get itchy when it comes to games because it feels like availability is sketchy within the industry unless you're talking about the big games like Catan or Ticket to ride, etc. I'd hate to go buy it and it not be available (it's already out of stock at CSI).

So I guess I'm wondering if it is a safe bet to just buy it now and maybe put it on the shelf until we are ready.
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WELCOME TO MY WORLD. My wife and I are completely in love with Innovation the past few months. We just now started playing with the expansion and I totally love it. For one, you pick a random combo of cards from both sets, so the game is even less predictable than base (which itself can get pretty wild). A lot of the new mechanics are quite cool too -- I especially like the Echo effects that let you get actions from old cards. I would still say it's not anywhere near a heavy game, but the expansion does add maybe 5-10m to the rules explanation b/c there is a fair amount of new stuff. All of our games with it have been really crazy though, lots of swings and tons of interesting new strategies.
 
Will agree with what's been said about 7 Wonders. It's a great game for 3-7 players and the beauty of it is that adding more players doesn't increase the playing time since everyone is always taking the turn at the same time. It's got a few different ways to victory (art, science, military, commerce, etc) but usually you have to be well balanced or extremely lucky to get every type of a certain card to win. It's a drafting game so if you've done that in a game like Magic it'll be really easy to pick up and teach. Usually a very great starter game before moving on to something more time consuming / involving.

Also, the first expansion 7 Wonders Leaders is great as it adds more depth to the game with probably only about 5 minutes added onto the playing time.
 
Hero said:
Will agree with what's been said about 7 Wonders. It's a great game for 3-7 players and the beauty of it is that adding more players doesn't increase the playing time since everyone is always taking the turn at the same time. It's got a few different ways to victory (art, science, military, commerce, etc) but usually you have to be well balanced or extremely lucky to get every type of a certain card to win. It's a drafting game so if you've done that in a game like Magic it'll be really easy to pick up and teach. Usually a very great starter game before moving on to something more time consuming / involving.

Also, the first expansion 7 Wonders Leaders is great as it adds more depth to the game with probably only about 5 minutes added onto the playing time.
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Seriously looking at this for our lunchtimes now - once the others get dominion fatigue.
 
BomberMouse said:
I registered as well, I'm BomberMouse on that site.
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I've invited you to the game robo-gaf - there may be 3 public invites on there also.
I thought I might be able to add names after but I don't think that's possible.
 
GAF BGG regulars will remember me as a big poster in this topic ~12 months ago. Got busy, got broke, fell out of the BG scene.

Anyway, looking to get back into it. What is the current BGG hotness? Any good new 2-4p games that are new? I finally have some $ so I'm ready to blind buy a game or two to have something new to bring to the table.

Edit: NM BGG GAF. I got impatient and just bought Stone Age and Dominion: Seaside. <3
 
The games on Board Game Arena are live. Played a round of Troyes last night and it went pretty quick. BGA is my favorite place for playing Race For The Galaxy.

EDIT: I registered for Boiteajeux. I'm Triphibian.
 
I do wish all these games were consolidated in one place -- Yucata comes sort of close. If there's one game I'll visit a different site specially for it's Gric though.
 
Ascension is a nice little game for Yucata purposes, but a few games in I just feel like the dungeon is kinda half-baked as an idea. Really doesn't replicate an RPG dungeon and its random encounters -- feel like Ascension and even Resident Evil do a better job. Having the monsters just sitting there until you're ready to wack them just seems a bit anticlimactic.
 
Neverfade said:
Fuck Ascension. Someone get Innovation online.
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+1 my post in the yucata.de geeklist on bgg -- i suggested innovation to kay from yucata both on there and on g+. few people complained that it wouldn't work well asynchronously -- they are morons. everything is better async, except st petersburg
 
AstroLad said:
+1 my post in the yucata.de geeklist on bgg -- i suggested innovation to kay from yucata both on there and on g+. few people complained that it wouldn't work well asynchronously -- they are morons. everything is better async, except st petersburg
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Well Luna is now in beta. Invites incoming.

Send SuperRobot a message if I've not included you.
 
Played another game of Quarriors last night with 4. I had pretty much the worst rolling experience you could dread and only managed to score one monster throughout the whole game. I kept rolling quiddity on my monster dice and when I did score a monster it would get trampled.
But it's dice, so you have to accept that that can happen. I still dig the game.

I had been planning on getting Gears of War but after reading some more about it I decided to snag Doom: the Board Game instead (I also snagged the expansion). I know it's out of print so I was lucky that a local comic shop had new copies of both.

We played last night and I'm glad I bought it. What a fun game. We had played Mansions of Madness a few times and I pushed Doom as Mansions with lots of carnage and no puzzles and the response to Doom was positive all around. We fumbled a bit as there is--as is common with FFG--a lot of chits to move around. I played as the Invader and I know next time we get it to the table I'll have all the board pieces and item tokens set aside before we start. Too much time was spent looking through the stacks of room tiles and tokens whenever I had to reveal a new area.

The combat works great with the Doom dice. You are rolling range, damage, and ammo expenditure all at once and as the Invader you get to roll a bunch of dice as well.

I'm looking forward to playing again.
 
AstroLad said:
I liked 7W. It's a game that is easy to learn, has a nice theme with broad appeal, and plays well and quickly 4-7. Which is a totally unprecedented combo.


WELCOME TO MY WORLD. My wife and I are completely in love with Innovation the past few months. We just now started playing with the expansion and I totally love it. For one, you pick a random combo of cards from both sets, so the game is even less predictable than base (which itself can get pretty wild). A lot of the new mechanics are quite cool too -- I especially like the Echo effects that let you get actions from old cards. I would still say it's not anywhere near a heavy game, but the expansion does add maybe 5-10m to the rules explanation b/c there is a fair amount of new stuff. All of our games with it have been really crazy though, lots of swings and tons of interesting new strategies.
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I should probably just snag it because amazon has it in stock.
 
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