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The New Board Game Thread (Newcomer Friendly)

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M

Merino

Member
Just won my first game of AFAoS on Yucata as the British. Opened with a 2 Settlers buy and then expanded to Halifax. French opponent immediatly put pressure on me sieging Pemaquid but seeing no way to defend I just opted not to play any cards into the siege and let him have the cube. Since he used his Montreal card on the siege I had no fear loosing as he couldn't settle it himself. Took Pemaquid back with a fast settle and from there on started to slowly expand trying to fortify up the Pemaquid-Deerfield-Albany border against raids. Also managed to get Canso and fortify up but Halifax and Canso. My opponent took way to long getting some raids on and focussed to much on sieges that, despite him winning, only netted him a cube and not a new settle. After a while I had my fortify border up and a reserve full of army cards and decided to put the pressure back on to him while upgrading my cubes into discs going for a point win after placing all my discs. This is exactly what happened. Never won a single siege (even attacking) but just simply having the pressure on him allowed me to upgrade and sneak away with the win. I even had Cumberland settled and fortified as he tried to raid through that side.

Absolutely loved the game and it's slowly turning into one of my absolute favorites.
 
O

Oxigen_Waste

Banned
Has anyone here tried Die Macher? I keep hearing about it but find little or nothing on it...

Also, is Twilight Struggle that good? I'm leaning towards buying it...
 
F

flashburn2012

Member
Holy shit, Mage Knight is fucking nuts. Shagrath and I played our first game today, and it was the shortened "learning" game. Took like 2 1/2 hours, and we didn't even make it past like level 3 or 4. Game is fun as hell, and just super epic. So much stuff to do. It's like a more epic Runebound (although many of the mechanics are way different).

I've gotten two Vlaada games so far, this and Dungeon Petz. I've only played both of them once each, but I really like them, he might be getting more of my money soon. Well, after I play some of my other new games more. I keep buying too many games. It's like every week we play stuff we are playing at least one new game.

Speaking of which, I get the 2nd RFTG expansion tomorrow... woohoo. I still need to sit down and figure out Civ, I've had that and the expansion sitting in my closet for a month now.
 
J

joeyjoejoeshabadoo

Member
Oxigen_Waste said:
Has anyone here tried Die Macher? I keep hearing about it but find little or nothing on it...

Also, is Twilight Struggle that good? I'm leaning towards buying it...
Click to expand...

I've always wanted to play Die Macher. From what I've read it's great. Twilight Struggle, on the other hand, I have played and it is amazing. Its a heavier game than most but the mechanics are simple. The challenge comes in how the cards are used. Instead of just one use they are used for a whole host of ways. Anywhere from using them for the event, starting a coup, or even using it for the space race. It's just an amazing game that if you are at all interested in the history during that time you will get a kick out of it.
 
P

PalaceBrother

Member
Just a quick thanks to the folks who recommended Dominion as a good two player game.

I picked it up yesterday and my wife and I ended up playing six games in a row; 3 hours disappeared quickly!

Awesome game; cannot wait to play more.
 
O

Oxigen_Waste

Banned
joeyjoejoeshabadoo said:
I've always wanted to play Die Macher. From what I've read it's great. Twilight Struggle, on the other hand, I have played and it is amazing. Its a heavier game than most but the mechanics are simple. The challenge comes in how the cards are used. Instead of just one use they are used for a whole host of ways. Anywhere from using them for the event, starting a coup, or even using it for the space race. It's just an amazing game that if you are at all interested in the history during that time you will get a kick out of it.
Click to expand...

Amazing as in best thing ever? Seems to be the general opinion!
 
U

UpperCaseN

Member
Math trade results are in. I'm 2/2 for trades. Incoming is Dungeon Run and Ultimate Werewolf; that way my 1 friend who owns it doesn't always have to bring it over. I'm pleased, I'd rather have gotten Elder Sign than Ultimate Werewolf though. Might just buy Elder Sign from amazon now.
 
N

Neverfade

Member
MT ended up w/ me sending out King of Tokyo (gonna pick up second edition with engraved dice), and Kingdom builder, and receiving Gates of Loyang + Dungeon Lords.
 
X

XShagrath

Member
I was 1/2 on the Math Trade. Sending out Dungeon Run (possibly to Gryphter), and getting a new-in-shrink copy of Urban Sprawl. Not too bad for my current gaming situation, and a decent trade-up.

I figured no one would bite on my Space Hulk: Death Angel I put up. There were a ton of them for trade.



EDIT: Nope. Not going to Gryphter. My curiousity got me to search the list of trades and saw someone with the tag of Gryphter on there. Woulda been a strange coincidence.
 
F

flashburn2012

Member
I'm 2/5, but 3 of those were just gift certificates. Traded D&D Wrath of Ashardalon, and a $25 Gift Cert for A Few Acres Of Snow, and Homesteaders.

I'm pretty happy with the trade, but Wrath is going to cost a bunch to ship out since the box is so big.
 
U

UpperCaseN

Member
XShagrath said:
I was 1/2 on the Math Trade. Sending out Dungeon Run (possibly to Gryphter), and getting a new-in-shrink copy of Urban Sprawl. Not too bad for my current gaming situation, and a decent trade-up.

I figured no one would bite on my Space Hulk: Death Angel I put up. There were a ton of them for trade.



EDIT: Nope. Not going to Gryphter. My curiousity got me to search the list of trades and saw someone with the tag of Gryphter on there. Woulda been a strange coincidence.
Click to expand...

heh, yeah wouldn't that have been something. I only had 2 copies on my want list though, so mine is coming from the other person. That is indeed me that put yours on my want list, though. Duplicate protection ftw
 
U

UpperCaseN

Member
there's reports of Elder Sign having a poorly written rulebook, typos on the cards, and I found the supposedly 6 page long FAQ. For those here who have it, is it that bad? I might try to hold out for a revised printing if my will power can handle it
 
B

BattleMonkey

Member
Gryphter said:
there's reports of Elder Sign having a poorly written rulebook, typos on the cards, and I found the supposedly 6 page long FAQ. For those here who have it, is it that bad? I might try to hold out for a revised printing if my will power can handle it
Click to expand...

Never had issue with Elder Sign, the faq also had lot of stuff which we were already doing as we thought many of them were just common sense rulings. I don't know if a revised edition will be on deck any time soon, it doesn't really have major problems as most is covered in the faq and fairly minor. It's been reprinted several times already as well.
 
F

flashburn2012

Member
Keasar said:
While waiting for the new edition of Descent to be released, I am looking into ordering a new game to play with my friends and wonder which of these you guys would recommend most, all of them are of great interest so anything goes.

Earth Reborn
Mage Knight
Claustrophobia
Twilight Struggle
Click to expand...

Only played it once right now, but Mage Knight. If you can find it, that is. I haven't played Twilight Struggle, but I've played Claustrophobia and Earth Reborn 2-3 times. They are good, and I haven't really gotten into them enough to fully say (especially Earth Reborn), I just really, really liked Mage Knight after playing it once. I think it and Eclipse are going to quickly become my favorite games.
 
B

BattleMonkey

Member
Got to try the new Trek DBG set this weekend. Overall they did a better job with the card design/balance this time out, they did alot of improvements to the ship designs this time out so that they aren't just straight up progression of one being better than others, the ships actually are unique this time around with wildly different stats plus each ship having unique abilities, so it's not just about which ship has best stats.

Still the game has the issue that theres a bunch of cards with blurry images that look like bad screen caps from the show. Seems better than the first set but lot of the images that involve ships or special effects shots from TNG look blurry. They should have waited for the bluray releases of the series for image sources :p

Set is also stand alone game that can be mixed with the original set if you like.
 
S

Switters

Member
Keasar said:
While waiting for the new edition of Descent to be released, I am looking into ordering a new game to play with my friends and wonder which of these you guys would recommend most, all of them are of great interest so anything goes.

Earth Reborn
Mage Knight
Claustrophobia
Twilight Struggle
Click to expand...

Earth Reborn is awesome with the 4 player rules and after you've gone through all the learning scenarios. You're not going to play this game out of the box, but it is by far the most rewarding tactical experience on the board IMHO
 
S

Switters

Member
What is this Math Trade you speak of? I want to unload Gears of War and Thunderstone.

Anyway, I also wanted to say that I used to dislike Euro games until Power Grid changed my life.
Now I'm willing to give anything but Catan a chance.
 
L

Lasthope106

Member
Is it just me or Axis and Allies is mega hard. I mean we spent like 7 hours playing and there was no end in sight. Granted, that was our first time, but everything from reading the instructions to setting up the board was excruciatingly long. I'm guessing this is a game for history nuts.
 
U

UpperCaseN

Member
Switters said:
What is this Math Trade you speak of? I want to unload Gears of War and Thunderstone.

Anyway, I also wanted to say that I used to dislike Euro games until Power Grid changed my life.
Now I'm willing to give anything but Catan a chance.
Click to expand...

It's a big online swap. Basically you list what you want to trade away, go through the list of all offerings, and select what you're willing to get in return. If anything matches up, you're told what to send where and you'll be receiving something from your want list.

You have to watch for the math trades to pop up on BGG. Some of them have restrictions (mostly being regional) and you can find more than just board games up for trade; video games, books, and a lot of gift certificates are usually allowed as well.

joeyjoejoeshabadoo posted some useful info a few pages back,

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=34316677&postcount=8554

It can be a little intimidating at first, but the video tutorial he posted is ACE.
 
J

joeyjoejoeshabadoo

Member
So last night I got Cuba to the table. I've had the game for months but never found the time or energy to play it. It's actually a pretty neat game that feels like a mixture between Puerto Rico and Pillars of the Earth. Each player has a set of role cards that they will play during the action phase. The roles range from workers (who work the field) to the mayor (who ships the goods). The neat thing about the game is the Parliamentary Phase. After each action round, players vote on a set of laws that changes some rules on the fly. It's an overlooked game but a really good one.

flashburn2012 said:
I still need to sit down and figure out Civ, I've had that and the expansion sitting in my closet for a month now.
Click to expand...
Civ is actually a really easy game to play, you should really give it a shot. The rulebook is more convoluted than it needs to be, but it's actually really easy to teach since most of the phase happen simultaneously and everybody starts out really small with only a handful of choices that need to be made. As the game progresses the choices start to open up but the basic mechanic is still there.
 
O

outunderthestars

Banned
Switters said:
What is this Math Trade you speak of? I want to unload Gears of War and Thunderstone.

Anyway, I also wanted to say that I used to dislike Euro games until Power Grid changed my life.
Now I'm willing to give anything but Catan a chance.
Click to expand...

I don't see why we don't organize out own trades here on GAF. I have several games I'd love to get rid of! :)
 
U

UpperCaseN

Member
outunderthestars said:
I don't see why we don't organize out own trades here on GAF. I have several games I'd love to get rid of! :)
Click to expand...

277230-merchant_large.jpg


What are ya sellin?
 
F

flashburn2012

Member
joeyjoejoeshabadoo said:
Civ is actually a really easy game to play, you should really give it a shot. The rulebook is more convoluted than it needs to be, but it's actually really easy to teach since most of the phase happen simultaneously and everybody starts out really small with only a handful of choices that need to be made. As the game progresses the choices start to open up but the basic mechanic is still there.
Click to expand...

That's not surprising, FFG have the absolute worst rule books.
 
X

Xater

Member
Ok so I played around with the iPhone version of Elder Sign and it's fun. The German release is on February 15th which great because I can now get it for even cheaper and don't have to wait too long.
 
P

Phthisis

Member
flashburn2012 said:
Honestly, I don't think I'm going to get to it until February. That makes me a little sad. :(
Click to expand...

Once you play it, be prepared to have it on the brain for a long time. My friend who played with us on Friday, he texted me the next day wanting to know of a local game store where he could buy it. I absolutely love asymmetric, open-ended games, and Civ is fantastic and elegant in that regard.
 
S

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Sorry this is late, been busy with wedding stuff:

Things I am selling:

1960
Alea Iacta Est
Alhambra
Beyond Balderdash
Innovation (original big box version)
Last Night on Earth
Small World (with all expansions except anything to do with Underworld)
Richard III
Roborally
Tikal (maybe)
Bootleggers (maybe)
Through the Desert (German Version, some wear and tear on the box)
Citadels
Lost Cities (German)
St Petersburg

Basically getting rid of games that don't get play. Some of them I like but have tired of, some have been replaced by better games (1960, Small World)

Let me know if you are interested in anything. Probably more sale than trade since I'm trying to cull my collection down to a more reasonable amount of games I actually play.
 
A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Xater said:
Ok so I played around with the iPhone version of Elder Sign and it's fun. The German release is on February 15th which great because I can now get it for even cheaper and don't have to wait too long.
Click to expand...

It's definitely fun . . . as long as you can accept that it's Arkham Yahtzee.
 
B

BattleMonkey

Member
Lasthope106 said:
Is it just me or Axis and Allies is mega hard. I mean we spent like 7 hours playing and there was no end in sight. Granted, that was our first time, but everything from reading the instructions to setting up the board was excruciatingly long. I'm guessing this is a game for history nuts.
Click to expand...

Game can just go on for some time like a game of risk as there is no definite end in sight and the way people play sometimes can lead to tons of going back and forth.

If you found it complicated, you might want to stay away from alot of the more complex games posted here as they will make A&A seem like Chutes and Ladders
 
S

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
BattleMonkey said:
Game can just go on for some time like a game of risk as there is no definite end in sight and the way people play sometimes can lead to tons of going back and forth.

If you found it complicated, you might want to stay away from alot of the more complex games posted here as they will make A&A seem like Chutes and Ladders
Click to expand...

Not that I am advocating New York Blood Feud as a better game, and it certainly has some issues... but it is sort of A&A with an end game acceleration that can kind of force your hand a bit.

It's a tough balancing act, because in these sort of long-term strategy games you don't want to make the path to victory obvious in that an early rush is the winning strategy, but you also don't want to make being too methodical the way to win either.
 
A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Played a 4P game of Blood Bowl Team Manager at game night tonight. Of course it ate up the whole night (~2.5 hours) but man I rarely get tired of Blood Bowl. Only thing is that the staff upgrades that give you 2 VPs per star player at the end are pretty unstoppable if things break right.

Gryphter said:
Oh yeah, got KoT plus the promotional cards, Dice Town has been in my peripheral but I admit I don't know much about it, I'll look it up real quick
Click to expand...

Dice Town is fun because you each get a cup and you slam the dice down at the same time.
 
N

Neverfade

Member
Nexus Ops should be in shops in the next couple days. Guess I'll throw an order in.

Probably pick up that, Walnut Grove, and Dungeon Pets.
 
J

joeyjoejoeshabadoo

Member
AstroLad said:
Played a 4P game of Blood Bowl Team Manager at game night tonight. Of course it ate up the whole night (~2.5 hours) but man I rarely get tired of Blood Bowl. Only thing is that the staff upgrades that give you 2 VPs per star player at the end are pretty unstoppable if things break right.



Dice Town is fun because you each get a cup and you slam the dice down at the same time.
Click to expand...

I had both staff upgrades that give you points for Freebooters and non-freebooters star players. I ended up making most of my points on just those two cards.
 
U

UpperCaseN

Member
Elder Sign order placed. I'm hoping the shipping box is big enough for me to reuse for one of my outgoing math trade games, ha

Dice Town looks fun. I'll probably hope for this in the future but not right now, I try to space my game purchases out. I don't want to go on dice rolling overload either with Elder Sign on its way.

Lords of Vegas seems cool that it adds territory control into the mix. Again, perhaps in the future though.

Thanks for the suggestions and feedback, everyone.
 
A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
joeyjoejoeshabadoo said:
I had both staff upgrades that give you points for Freebooters and non-freebooters star players. I ended up making most of my points on just those two cards.
Click to expand...

Yeah I think early on staff upgrades are hugely powerful because no one realizes just how big they are and people are more focused on superpowered stars and wonky team upgrades. After a few games though you realize you really have to gun for the guy who has the strong staff upgrades, which mitigates their strength just a little. I had the perfect game yesterday from this perspective in that I had a mediocre Weeks 1-2, picked up some good (non-VP) upgrades and star players in Week 3, and then racked up Staff Upgrades and won the Blood Bowl in Week 5. It was a crazy game though, so many huge DQs that I managed to avoid (even though I was playing as Chaos) and benefit from. We had the headline where you roll two dice and apply both results on tackles regardless of star power (craziest headline I've seen) and a guy rolled two Xs against me and injured his best player. So yeah....
 
JetBlackPanda

JetBlackPanda

Member
Played my first game of Dominion with the wife last night, she was frustrated at first because I suck at explaining the rules.

once she understood it however she was hooked! such good fun!

thanks for everyone that recommended that game for 2 players.
 
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