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The New Board Game Thread (Newcomer Friendly)
- Thread starter AstroLad
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Amibguous Cad
Member
Race for the Galaxy is awesome. That is all.
My love for RFTG has once again been reignited by the Keldon program (now with online play!). Two weekends in a row we've played a couple games. Probably stick to base + The Gathering Storm for another month or so since one of our friends is still learning (and it's so easy to forget how dense RFTG can feel at first), then integrate Rebel vs. Imperium back in (sans quixotic "takeovers-every-other-time" rule; takeover opportunities in RvI are so rare anyway that it makes sense to just leave them on).Amibguous Cad said:
Askani said:I got to try my first Dominion last night. We played the basic game and had tons of fun with it. I was actually surprised at how good it was. Can't wait to play it again...hopefully tonight. There's definitely more we can get out of this game, but we're already talking about expansions.
I feel like such a noob coming in here and talking about the games you guys have been playing for awhile now. :lol
Anyway, onwards and upwards. Researching what game I want to have next. Maybe Small World. Maybe Puerto Rico. Maybe Tigress and Euphrates. And I still want Carcassonne. Oh choices. I guess too many is better than none at all.
I can personally recommend every one of those, and give some insight on what you might get out of them based on what exactly you like about Dominion.
As Stooge said, Dominion is a very elegant and streamlined experience. It's very easy to learn, but the randomness of which kingdom cards come up change the strategies in a major way.
Of the games on your list, Smallworld most matches these qualities from Dominion. However - while Dominion is relatively lacking in direct conflict (though there is a little, particularly with some of the expansion cards) Smallworld is extremely cutthroat. After the first couple turns, you'll rarely find a moment where you can simply do your thing without regard to others.
If you like the fact that Dominion is conflict-light, and enjoy the feeling of building something, Puerto Rico is an outstanding choice, but the game is also more complex than Dominion, though I think Stooge is over-selling its complexity a bit. It's not so much that it's complicated as the fact that the game's core concepts are very foreign to a lot of casual players. It can take a bit of effort to get through the "wtf" stage to get to the core of what is really a pretty simple game.
Tigris and Euphrates is another step up from Puerto Rico in complexity and challenge. It's also an excellent game, but I'd hold off on playing it until you're sure your gaming friends are able to handle PR.
From your phrasing, I'm guessing that you've already played Carcassone, so I'll not bother commenting on it.
BattleMonkey
Member
So trying Neuroshima on Iphone, it's the exact game as the board version correct?
BattleMonkey
Member
Cool, this is a good cheap way to try before buying then.
It's really not that complex, but I do find games to be harder to learn on iPhone than with manual + board. Probably easier to learn with the paper manual: http://www.zmangames.com/boardgames/files/neuroshima_hex/NH_Rules.pdfhoverX said:
The only other tricky part is learning the individual units. Each army has mostly units with general characteristics, but also a handful of unique ones. All units for each army (along with recommended tactics for each) are described here: http://boardgamegeek.com/file/download/2h8vjdnb4i/NH_Army_Ref.PDF
Earthstrike
Member
What's this BSW I'm hearing about? I would want to play some games with it, if it's a decent client.
Edit: Ok read a bit about it now. Is it as much of a hassle as people make it out to be?
Edit: Ok read a bit about it now. Is it as much of a hassle as people make it out to be?
Anyone up for a couple games of RFTG?
http://www.keldon.net/rftg/
http://www.keldon.net/rftg/
Neverfade said:
I'm not a huge fan of it either. I've tried it twice now as a "fun party game". From what I can tell it is an incoherent mess of a game that's basic draw is "lulz, your ship doesn't look like a space ship at all".
It would be like if Small World didn't have an actual lite-wargame feel to it and the entire draw of it was "lulz, rampaging elves"!
Someone out there loves it because it keeps selling out.
Galaxy Trucker's biggest issue perhaps is that it feels like a party game but it's actually quite complex and difficult to learn and learn properly.
It's still probably in my Top 20 though it doesn't come out more than once every few months due to the fact that it's rather hard to introduce to new people. My only complaints:
-Poorly structured rulebook.
-Three rounds is too long.
Not sure what this means unless you're disregarding the entire building of your ship, when you can build a near-perfect ship given the ability to view cards and given the proper skill. The major constraint is time, which is where you have to compromise, which is where the fun comes in. The entire meat of the game is building your ship. Then you set it free and see what happens (though there are occasionally important decisions to make regarding cards, the actual trip itself is much lighter).
It's still probably in my Top 20 though it doesn't come out more than once every few months due to the fact that it's rather hard to introduce to new people. My only complaints:
-Poorly structured rulebook.
-Three rounds is too long.
AstroLad said:
I AM disregarding it because it's still limited by how fast you flip tiles and previous mistakes you may have made on your ship. Someone could have already taken what you need and you don't even know it. So it's waste time checking other ships or waste time looking for something. Or just throw something together. None of those options are fun. Your near perfect ship also means nothing as you have zero control over the second half of the game. All it takes is a single die roll to perhaps literally end your run.
The building ships rounds take maybe... 12 minutes of the game? I didn't exactly count how many flips of the timer there were. Yet it still took us like an hour/hour and a half to finish this game? Thats a ton of boring fucking sit-there-and-do-nothing.
Party game? Maybe. I'd rather play trivial pursuit than this. Or just a fun party game.
Xater said:
It is of my opinion that the interface is less than ideal.
Hm, we'll just have to agree to disagree then. I don't think it works well as a party game at all though. As a serious game (filled with fun random events, granted) with people willing and able to learn all the rules and events, and divine optimal ship construction from those rules? Yes. Well, unless they hate the ship-building mechanic apparently. As to the tile point, it's all about building the best ship you can given your circumstances, not building the best possible ship in the game every time. There are more than enough tiles to make a good-earning and surviving ship every time out even if you're missing a piece or two that would make your ship that much better. There's certainly no uberwinbuttonpiece or anything. But yeah if you hate building then the flying phase certainly won't help matters. It's pretty much you did your best to build a good ship now let's see what happens to it.Neverfade said:
Don't get me wrong, I'm no hardcore Galaxy Trucker defender. I think I have it rated as a 7 or 7.5 at most on BGG because of the issues I outlined above.
I'll defend Galaxy Trucker. I think the decisions that Neverfade is missing are the split-second ones you make when building your ship.
Admittedly your first few plays of the game are spent in utter failure, but once you get the hang of what makes a ship work you can go about building with a semblance of plan.
What I like about both this game and Dungeon Lords is that they're about building something and watching the game destroy it.
I suppose it helps to be of a certain mindset when approaching these kinds of games.
Might I ask: do you love or hate rogue-likes?
Admittedly your first few plays of the game are spent in utter failure, but once you get the hang of what makes a ship work you can go about building with a semblance of plan.
What I like about both this game and Dungeon Lords is that they're about building something and watching the game destroy it.
I suppose it helps to be of a certain mindset when approaching these kinds of games.
Might I ask: do you love or hate rogue-likes?
Looks like I am headed to BGG-con, grabbed a ticket off of their forums.
Getting solo tickets is pretty easy (lots of wives backing out of the trip?) but I've seen a few people trying to sell 2 as well.
I know some people are looking for tickets:
Post in this thread.
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/534845/official-bgg-con-2010-waiting-list
I got GM'ed within 12 hours to get a ticket from a guy who has really good rep on BGG.
Getting solo tickets is pretty easy (lots of wives backing out of the trip?) but I've seen a few people trying to sell 2 as well.
I know some people are looking for tickets:
Post in this thread.
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/534845/official-bgg-con-2010-waiting-list
I got GM'ed within 12 hours to get a ticket from a guy who has really good rep on BGG.
AstroLad said:
Sounds like a plan. I've never actually played it. I'll bring a few of my games up with me. Maybe Mall of Horror since it's probably the only game I own that is hard to come by.
Jesus, this thing runs Wed through Sunday?
I'll have to see if I can get off work for the whole thing. I'll head up there Friday after work for sure. I'll stop in West, TX and get Kolache's for the group. They are awesome.
Hate rogue likes.Flynn said:
I'm of the mindset that there are way too many brilliant games that knock it out of the park on try one. Why waste my time to get into some groove if I don't enjoy it? Watching something I built be destroyed isn't my idea of a good time.
Oh well, it doesn't matter, I won't be playing it again, so we can all move on.
Yep it's loooong. :lol We're getting in Tuesday night and flying out Sunday at 1. Going to be my wife and I and at least one (possibly two) of our gaming buddies. Probably not going to bring much either since lugging large sets of games cross-country is a huge pain in the ass and supposedly the BGG library is nonpareil.StoOgE said:
AstroLad said:
Well, I have a 3 hour drive so it's not that bad, I may bring a few more with me since all I have to do is throw them in my truckbed. I'll probably drive up Wed. morning and get there around noon and will drive home sometime on Sunday.
I'm sure their collection is vast, but I'll bring a handful of favorites as backup.
Room booked..
I hate Westins. 10 dollars a day for internet access. I stay at them at work because the hotels are awesome.. but 10 dollars? FFS.
That and I stayed at the Westin Jersey City when advertised my room as "downtown view". When your hotel is located on the Hudson, most people assume "downtown view" means downtown Manhattan. Not downtown Jersey City :lol
I hate Westins. 10 dollars a day for internet access. I stay at them at work because the hotels are awesome.. but 10 dollars? FFS.
That and I stayed at the Westin Jersey City when advertised my room as "downtown view". When your hotel is located on the Hudson, most people assume "downtown view" means downtown Manhattan. Not downtown Jersey City :lol
So, I got two games of Shadows over Camelot.
It's mostly good stuff.
It is a co-op game with a potential traitor. Essentially the game is played as 4-5 little mini-games with extremely simple mechanics and the various players have to jump around to these different "quests" and try and win them. If you fail a quest (the board wins) you put black swords at the round table. If you win a quest you put white swords at the round table. Each quest is worth a different number of swords.
Strength in numbers rules the day on most of them. And the trick seems to be to cut your losses on some of the quests that are worth less white swords and focus in number at winning the quests that give you the most.
The turn is two phases. You flip over a black card that represents something bad happening, then you take a heroic turn. This is either going on a quest or taking additional white cards in your hand to use on said quests. The black cards each give the game (or evil as it were) and additional action in one of the various mini games that hurts the players.
There are a couple other little fiddly rules.. special cards that give you (or the game) special powers.. and you have the ability to take a hit on your life points instead of drawing a black card. The last mechanic being 20 siege engines.. if these fill up the game is over automatically. You can also elect to place a siege engine instead of drawing a black card.
It all works out to a crazy balancing act of jumping all over the board in coordinated effort to try and delay the loss of certain quests or to pile on to try and win quests. It works extremely well in a very Pandemic like way while still feeling very different.
The issue I have is the game is stacked against the player in ways Pandemic never dreamed *and* you have the added problem of the possible traitor. In our first game we had a traitor and he hosed us several times. I called him out on it early (+1 white sword!) which limited some of his nefarious actions, but not enough to save us from peril.
The last game we won because we took the traitor out. I think the game is stacked enough against you without the traitor that their inclusion in your first few games is a mistake.
I would give the game a solid C+. The mechanics are very simple, but the game is great fun and I felt strategy really ruled the day. My biggest complaints were it seemed disproportionately hard to remove siege engines from the game (burning multiple white cards) vs winning the quests and a few of the characters had almost useless special abilities. I also think the life point system is unnecessarily fiddly and could have been removed altogether.
This game also takes up a shitload of space for such a simple game. I think there was 1 main board, 3 sub-board and character cards for everyone.
This is one of those games I would be glad to pick up on the cheap if it presented itself.
It's mostly good stuff.
It is a co-op game with a potential traitor. Essentially the game is played as 4-5 little mini-games with extremely simple mechanics and the various players have to jump around to these different "quests" and try and win them. If you fail a quest (the board wins) you put black swords at the round table. If you win a quest you put white swords at the round table. Each quest is worth a different number of swords.
Strength in numbers rules the day on most of them. And the trick seems to be to cut your losses on some of the quests that are worth less white swords and focus in number at winning the quests that give you the most.
The turn is two phases. You flip over a black card that represents something bad happening, then you take a heroic turn. This is either going on a quest or taking additional white cards in your hand to use on said quests. The black cards each give the game (or evil as it were) and additional action in one of the various mini games that hurts the players.
There are a couple other little fiddly rules.. special cards that give you (or the game) special powers.. and you have the ability to take a hit on your life points instead of drawing a black card. The last mechanic being 20 siege engines.. if these fill up the game is over automatically. You can also elect to place a siege engine instead of drawing a black card.
It all works out to a crazy balancing act of jumping all over the board in coordinated effort to try and delay the loss of certain quests or to pile on to try and win quests. It works extremely well in a very Pandemic like way while still feeling very different.
The issue I have is the game is stacked against the player in ways Pandemic never dreamed *and* you have the added problem of the possible traitor. In our first game we had a traitor and he hosed us several times. I called him out on it early (+1 white sword!) which limited some of his nefarious actions, but not enough to save us from peril.
The last game we won because we took the traitor out. I think the game is stacked enough against you without the traitor that their inclusion in your first few games is a mistake.
I would give the game a solid C+. The mechanics are very simple, but the game is great fun and I felt strategy really ruled the day. My biggest complaints were it seemed disproportionately hard to remove siege engines from the game (burning multiple white cards) vs winning the quests and a few of the characters had almost useless special abilities. I also think the life point system is unnecessarily fiddly and could have been removed altogether.
This game also takes up a shitload of space for such a simple game. I think there was 1 main board, 3 sub-board and character cards for everyone.
This is one of those games I would be glad to pick up on the cheap if it presented itself.
BattleMonkey
Member
Yea BSG is similar.
joeyjoejoeshabadoo
Member
Kicking toasters to the brig can take some finesse.Neverfade said:
BattleMonkey said:
ill check that out now, thanks.
looks like a Blood Bowl card game is in the works as well. could be fun.
edit: that looks like a cool game. have you played it? im going to look for reviews. no dice used! weird.
AstroLad said:
good to hear-
StoOgE said:
-aw shucks.
Captain_Spanky
Member
BattleMonkey said:
I can recommend that. It's a real battle of wits. Intense and thick, not exactly fun, but deeply satisfying.
BattleMonkey
Member
Daigoro said:
It's a wargame really in a way than a board game, but it works well. Yea combat is diceless, you have combat values on cards that you play while some cards have special abilities and bonuses attached to specific type of units (like a card that you can use on a Titan to breach a wall). The game comes with various scenarios which basically change the set up of the board at the start for some variation. Game has various win conditions and is essentially timed so things can play out in quite a few different ways. Production values are top notch and if your a fan of 40K the game is a real treat. Ton of figures with the game.
Xater said:So I decided to go to Spiel in Essen this year. Any suggestions what I should probably check out and/or buy?
I guess Dominion: Prosperity should be very high on my list.
Super Jealous.
Be sure and try out 51st state. It looks pretty amazing.
Also, let me know how the new Small World and Power Grid expansions look.
Wow two mentions of 51st State. I just took a look at it on BGG and it does sound interesting. Yeah I will give it a try. It also looks like it will cost 24, at least that's what was said on BGG.
I don't know if I can be of much helpwith the Small World and Power Grid expansions because I have never played these games before. :lol
So far on my list of stuff to check out is:
7 Wonders
Forbidden Island
London
Space Hulk: Death Angel
Duel of the Giants
51st State
I am pretty sure not all of those ar enew but they look interesting and I hope I can try them out and maybe buy something that I like.
I don't know if I can be of much helpwith the Small World and Power Grid expansions because I have never played these games before. :lol
So far on my list of stuff to check out is:
7 Wonders
Forbidden Island
London
Space Hulk: Death Angel
Duel of the Giants
51st State
I am pretty sure not all of those ar enew but they look interesting and I hope I can try them out and maybe buy something that I like.
Schmattakopf
Member
I saw people talking about Puerto Rico on the last page: http://www.tropiceuro.com/
It's a Java version that works on anything. You can play against other people or AI and I'm pretty sure you can play offline once you download the (tiny) Java app. A few things are renamed to fit the setting. It works well for practice.
It's a Java version that works on anything. You can play against other people or AI and I'm pretty sure you can play offline once you download the (tiny) Java app. A few things are renamed to fit the setting. It works well for practice.
Neverfade said:
I thought I had read that there was some kind of card tossing involved in the game. I read this years ago and basically said "Well, I don't want to do that" and wrote the game off.
I'll be very glad to know I was mistaken.
To be fair, I never have shown a keen interest in the game simply because my table is far too small for it, so I haven't paid that much attention to the game.
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