• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The New Board Game Thread (Newcomer Friendly)

Status
Not open for further replies.
I'm a huge 7 Wonders fan and I refuse to play it two player. It's just not designed to be a two player game. It's barely acceptable as a three player game. Id say at least four is needed for 7 Wonders.
 

bloodydrake

Cool Smoke Luke
I'm cool if it works best with 4 , just usually have lots of times when its just 2 of us so more games that can be played with 2 the better.
 
Had the best and most epic game of Twilight Imperium ever last night. We used all the expansions and rules, except for Representatives and Generals/Admirals/Spies etc. We played to 14 points; the game took about 6 hours including setup. Everyone knew the rules and was paying attention, so we had very little downtime.

I was the Lizix Mindset and managed to get the racial tech that lets you ignore technology prerequisites on the first turn. With that I was able to get the Assault Cannon and Duranium Armor way earlier than normal, so I steamrolled Player 2 early on and vaulted ahead on Victory Points.

At that point, two other players (plus the one I had crippled) joined forces against me, and suddenly I was on the ropes. The pinnacle turn occurred when my four Dreadnaughts and four Fighters managed to take out a force of TWO War Suns and five fighters. I rebuilt all of my Dreadnaughts the same turn, and then was immediately attacked by another player armed with 20 Action Cards(!), three Naughts, a flagship, and two carriers FULL of fighters. I took them all out with only a single casualty, despite him having two Emergency Repairs cards.

While all this went down, Player 2 was quietly rebounding and amassing victory points after retaking his home planet. The final turn consisted of a race between him and myself to reach 14 points; the decisive turnaround occurred when I captured one of his planets, which left him 1 resource short of being able to spend 20 resources to get the 2 points he would need to jump ahead up to 15, and I came out victorious!

Amazing game all around, and I've never had one so close. At one point there were 4 of us with 10 or more points, with no clear outcome determinable. I love this game.
 
I'm a huge 7 Wonders fan and I refuse to play it two player. It's just not designed to be a two player game. It's barely acceptable as a three player game. Id say at least four is needed for 7 Wonders.

I've only played it with 2 or 3 players, and I think it plays just fine. Again, it's very different as a 2 player game, but it's not unplayable as you seem think it is.

It's also not really a dummy player, there is strategy involved with using the third player, and it plays very different because of it.
 
We played 4p with Leaders last week. I think that the Leaders are unnecessary, and didn't really make the game any more fun. Just added more junk to your tableau, and more to look out for on others'. Maybe Cities will be better?
 

XShagrath

Member
Is the strategy 'try not to be bored to tears'? :p
It's a way to get cards away from the other player that you maybe don't want yourself (put them on the "dummy" player). Also, you can play a card on the dummy player that might help you in scoring that your opponent might not otherwise play.
 
I played 7 Wonders for the first time yesterday with 3 players. Everybody loved it, I had zero problems. I can see why a dummy with 2 players might be an annoyance for some, and I can see how more players could make it more fun, but it definitely works fine with 3 people. Especially if that's the only way you've played it. I was initially put off introducing the game; me and my group are relatively new to board gaming. I own Settlers, Carcassonne, Domininion and Ticket To Ride... the more common lighter games, and a quick flick through the manual had me worrying about the bombardment of symbols but, as is usual, within 10 minutes of playing it reveals itself to be much simpler than previously thought. I know the day will arrive when we're all scratching our heads for an hour over a game, but I'm trying to ease everybody (myself included) in gently, and 7 Wonders turned out to be an excellent purchase.

The star of my Christmas purchases was Dixit. I bought Dixit and Wits and Wagers for holiday party gaming, and it stole the night every time. I took it to 3 parties and it must have been played with at least 20 different people, and it's the only game I've played that literally everybody loves. The concept is as simple as can be and appeals to all ages, but the game remains a good challenge as you try to work out how people are thinking, and how you can fool and/or tip off others, walking the fine line between too subtle and too obvious. Plus the art is just gorgeous. I've bought the expansion already!
 

bloodydrake

Cool Smoke Luke
I know the day will arrive when we're all scratching our heads for an hour over a game.
Best to avoid twilight Imperium for a while then :0

The star of my Christmas purchases was Dixit. I bought Dixit and Wits and Wagers for holiday party gaming, and it stole the night every time.
I was very temped to get this as well! glad it worked out ..sounds like a good contender to bring to larger non gamer gatherings. Can you play it teams?
 

panda21

Member
Does anyone know if this version of Carcassonne is any good?
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.exozet.game.carcassonne&pli=1

I sort of want Catan too, but the reviews say it has bad AI

Can't speak for the board game but Elder Sign on Android was lots of fun. I really want FFG to come out with an asynchronous Blood Bowl Team Manager -- would be god damn amazing but I'm sure licensing and other reasons make that a pipe dream.

Elder Sign is a lot of fun. Its fairly simple, but theres a lot of variety to it with the different ancient ones and investigators.

The app is good, I found it kind of hard with only one player though. It kind of helped me figure out the rules for the real game properly!
 
Best to avoid twilight Imperium for a while then :0
Noted :) I do a fair bit of research before buying a game, so I get a general idea of what I'm letting myself in for. I've still made note of the more challenging games I want eventually though.

I was very temped to get this as well! glad it worked out ..sounds like a good contender to bring to larger non gamer gatherings. Can you play it teams?
It doesn't mention it in the manual, but we did play with a couple of teams at one point when we had too many players without issue. I think the latest version allows for 12 players, perhaps via a team variant.
 
We played 4p with Leaders last week. I think that the Leaders are unnecessary, and didn't really make the game any more fun. Just added more junk to your tableau, and more to look out for on others'. Maybe Cities will be better?

Hmm have to disagree, everyone I've played with love leaders. It basically lets a person develop a plan early on, on what they plan to achieve with their wonder. Always felt like your wonder had little goal outside of luck of the draw until the 2nd act. With leaders you have a more clear cut goal usually early on as people choose the leaders that will give them the most benefit following a specific build/strategy. We always play with leaders... yet we are all not sure on Cities as it doesn't sound that interesting and sounds like the problem you are having with leaders
 
Hmm have to disagree, everyone I've played with love leaders. It basically lets a person develop a plan early on, on what they plan to achieve with their wonder. Always felt like your wonder had little goal outside of luck of the draw until the 2nd act. With leaders you have a more clear cut goal usually early on as people choose the leaders that will give them the most benefit following a specific build/strategy. We always play with leaders... yet we are all not sure on Cities as it doesn't sound that interesting and sounds like the problem you are having with leaders

I think it really depends on what leaders you get and can actually can choose from. I've played twice with it (only with 2-3 people though), and each time the leaders weren't anything that I wanted to develop a strategy around. I'm not overly impressed with it so far. Also Roma's starting ability to get leaders for free is way overpowered from what I've experienced so far.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Glen More uses a dummy player for 2 also. It's not that bad. The all-time great with 3-4 and amazing with 2 games are Race for the Galaxy/San Juan and Carcassonne though. Might be forgetting a couple.

Oh Arkham also works with 2 if you do 2 investigators each. Not totally ideal but still fun imo as long as you are in an Arkham mood.
 

LProtag

Member
I finally played Alien Frontiers. Not really sure why I waiting so long on it as my friend has had it for a little while, but I really really enjoyed it.

Normally I'm not a huge fan of making economic engines, but for some reason by throwing dice into the mix and it worked perfectly for me.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Elder Sign is a lot of fun. Its fairly simple, but theres a lot of variety to it with the different ancient ones and investigators.

The app is good, I found it kind of hard with only one player though. It kind of helped me figure out the rules for the real game properly!

Yeah I would honestly consider buying it if they had actually bothered to make new art for it. I think Arkham Lite is a disservice to the game actually -- it's more of just a pure dicefest like Roll through the Ages, King of Tokyo, Dice Town, etc. (note none of which are co-op so Elder Sign has a nice niche). As far as difficulty the mobile version supposedly ups the difficulty and it's pretty solid.
 

Neverfade

Member
Sorry I don't have a billion analog gaming friends like you. Two player is pretty much all I can get most of the time.

I'm only facepalming because my post was cleanly rhetoric, and you go on some ridiculous explanation, like I'm going to/need to be enlightened.
 

XShagrath

Member
I'm only facepalming because my post was cleanly rhetoric, and you go on some ridiculous explanation, like I'm going to/need to be enlightened.
I think maybe we both could've handled our responses in a slightly more mature way. However, this is the internet, and I'll let bygones be bygones.
 

Neverfade

Member
I think maybe we both could've handled our responses in a slightly more mature way. However, this is the internet, and I'll let bygones be bygones.

I wasn't even originally responding to you, nor am I losing sleep over someone enjoying a 2 player game of 7 Wonders states away. It was a joke. Just move on.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
This thread is already at 84 pages.

Looks like I have to start working on a new one now to have it ready in time. :p
 

ParityBit

Member
Hi all,

I figured I would pop into this thread to say Hi! I am an avid gamer and actually have game night with my wife and friends a couple weekends a month. I used to play various board games every Friday at a local college which was really nice to keep in touch with the board game scene. I just wanted to let you all know I appreciate the banter on the games and hopefully I can chime in!

For Christmas my wife got me Stone Age, Race for the Galaxy and Puzzle Strike. One of my friends got me the wonderful expansion for Castle Panic. I think this expansion is a must have for the game as it add's so much!

I must say that Stone Age was much more enjoyable than I thought it was going to be. I found it also played well with 2 people (although it did start a little slow)
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Whoo fun games! Yeah Stone Age is really solid. Awesome light worker placement even if it does feel like it runs about 20m too long with 3. Expansion is coming out too which I'm actually sort of interested in.
 
If I don't like Pandemic (love the gameplay, dislike the inevitable point in the game where you use math to calculate the win rather than play it out), will I like Defenders of the Realm?

edit: I asked BGG and got great feedback
 
Last night, we played Agricola for the first time in many many months. I was a bit rusty but was able to place third. After the game I poked around on the net and found a rule we may have missed but I wanted to get your opinion on it. During our game we place our farmers first then we perform all the actions once everybody have placed. On BGG they were saying once you place your farmer you immediately take your action. Not sure which is correct, I like the way we've been playing it and I think we will continue to play that way but is there a good argument for performing the action as soon as you place your farmer?
 

ParityBit

Member
I have my Quarriors expansion box out for delivery today! I Enjoy that game so I am hoping this expansion is good. [Like the Wizards Tower is for Castle Panic]
 

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
Having only owned Arkham Horror for a week now, I've played it 3 times. Now I want to expand...

I've also played Pandemic about 15 times since getting it for Christmas. I have that expansion on its away as well.

I'm really loving board games at the moment.
 

ParityBit

Member
Having only owned Arkham Horror for a week now, I've played it 3 times. Now I want to expand...

I've also played Pandemic about 15 times since getting it for Christmas. I have that expansion on its away as well.

I'm really loving board games at the moment.

The expansion is very good I think. It really adds a lot to the game.

As you play more of the German-style games, you will love them even more. There are SOOOO many good ones out there.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Having only owned Arkham Horror for a week now, I've played it 3 times. Now I want to expand...

I've also played Pandemic about 15 times since getting it for Christmas. I have that expansion on its away as well.

I'm really loving board games at the moment.

Get Dunwich -- you will not regret it. Especially since I'm sure you're hankering for some new encounters and Dunwich adds so much to everything.
 

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
Get Dunwich -- you will not regret it. Especially since I'm sure you're hankering for some new encounters and Dunwich adds so much to everything.

So you think I should ditch the chronology and jump right to that rather than the Dark Pharaoh one?
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
So you think I should ditch the chronology and jump right to that rather than the Dark Pharaoh one?

I've only played Dark Pharaoh once (and not the new revised edition -- the old one). There really is no chronology to the Arkham expansions per se, they just all have different themes. Between those two, I think it just depends on the meatiness of the expansion you're looking for. iirc, Dunwich adds new encounters at every location, a whole new part of town, and a few new mechanics that are quite worthwhile. The small-box expansions more add flavor and maybe a few little quirks. The other thing about small box is that I find them more awkward to integrate. They give a few options, but I've never found a single one to be totally satisfactory. Big box, otoh, integrates almost seamlessly.
 

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
I've only played Dark Pharaoh once (and not the new revised edition -- the old one). There really is no chronology to the Arkham expansions per se, they just all have different themes. Between those two, I think it just depends on the meatiness of the expansion you're looking for. iirc, Dunwich adds new encounters at every location, a whole new part of town, and a few new mechanics that are quite worthwhile. The small-box expansions more add flavor and maybe a few little quirks. The other thing about small box is that I find them more awkward to integrate. They give a few options, but I've never found a single one to be totally satisfactory. Big box, otoh, integrates almost seamlessly.

Thanks, I'll probably just get Dunwich then.

I'm trying to figure out what game to get next as well. I'm interested by Blood Bowl Team Manager and War of the Ring, though the latter is probably too expensive to justify at this point. Not sure where to go next aside from that.
 
Thanks, I'll probably just get Dunwich then.
The small box expansions are fun too and add a bit of spice. What I like about them is they act as a story. For example, The King in Yellow expansion is about a play comes into town that is turing the citizen of Arkham insane. As the game goes on you will have to try and prevent the play from completing. I think it adds a nice little twist to the standard game. The best part is they don't need to be permanently integrated in the base game, they can exist on their own and only added when you want to try something different. Best part, they are cheap as hell.
I'm trying to figure out what game to get next as well. I'm interested by Blood Bowl Team Manager and War of the Ring, though the latter is probably too expensive to justify at this point. Not sure where to go next aside from that.
Both completely different game but BBTM is really good and if you can't justify the price for WotR now then go for BB. It usually runs around $20 and you get a pretty meaty game for the price.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
I am dying for the BB expansions. Really can't wait. And actually looking forward to the FAQ which is supposed to clear up a couple of lingering corner-case questions.
 

Evlar

Banned
Last night, we played Agricola for the first time in many many months. I was a bit rusty but was able to place third. After the game I poked around on the net and found a rule we may have missed but I wanted to get your opinion on it. During our game we place our farmers first then we perform all the actions once everybody have placed. On BGG they were saying once you place your farmer you immediately take your action. Not sure which is correct, I like the way we've been playing it and I think we will continue to play that way but is there a good argument for performing the action as soon as you place your farmer?

Taking actions as soon as you place your worker limits you to harvesting resources before you take actions to use them. For example, say you want to build Fences but you have no wood. In the official rules you must first get wood and only then may you choose the Build Fences space as your second action... but you risk having other people taking all the available Fences actions in the meantime.

How this resolves in your variant rule is unclear. If you don't have enough resources for an action (wood for Fences) while you place your workers are you simply unable to do the action this turn? Or, alternately, are you allowed to do it if your other worker(s) will gather the resource this turn? Either way changes the way actions using resources are resolved and, perhaps, the order you take your two or more actions per turn. This further impacts the way each player's actions restricts other players.

To put it another way, with the official rule you cannot be certain who will be able Build Fences each turn based on their wood supply being empty at the start of the turn. You can only be certain those lacking wood cannot take Build Fences on their first action.
 

Ferrio

Banned
So a friend bought pandemic a few weeks ago and we've been play that quite a lot recently. Though a good game, it seems to be very predictable? Seems like if you've played it a few times, you've pretty much seen all it has to offer.

That said, does anyone ever actually eradicate diseases in it? We've yet to ever do that. Seems if you take time to do it you usually end up losing to outbreaks from another disease.
 

Hero

Member
So a friend bought pandemic a few weeks ago and we've been play that quite a lot recently. Though a good game, it seems to be very predictable? Seems like if you've played it a few times, you've pretty much seen all it has to offer.

That said, does anyone ever actually eradicate diseases in it? We've yet to ever do that. Seems if you take time to do it you usually end up losing to outbreaks from another disease.

The base game never really changes. The challenge is in the different roles as they each will force you to adapt your playing style accordingly to suit their strengths.

As for eradicating diseases it depends on if anyone is nearby and it won't take more than a turn. Usually you will just waste time chasing down cured diseases.
 

Evlar

Banned
Just punched Ora et Labora.

These components: 'the fuck?

Flimsy boards and the cut on the chit
Sheets is subpar. Boo this man!

Punched mine on Saturday. I don't really mind the thickness of the boards at all; the ones they provided are perfectly functional (and beautifully printed).

The chits, though... Yeah. I was pretty lucky compared to some on BGG, only two sheets of resource chits out of five had significant punching problems, maybe a dozen total chits, and I got most of them out with minimal tearing. I had no offset problems. BUT, even so, that much tearing was pretty crappy for such an expensive production. Lookout needs to check their QA.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom