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The New Board Game Thread (Newcomer Friendly)

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Neverfade

Member
Any opinions on War of the Ring or Battlestar Galactica for a group of 4 that are enthusiastic, but new? (We've done some Pandemic and enjoyed it; we've also enjoyed Arkham Horror, but it was a bit too lengthy on setup and ... well, all of it.)

I can't recommend Battlestar for 4. It shines at 5. If you can't get a 5th person then I'd say look to something else. Since it was just talked about, Chaos in the Old World is a fantastic 4p game.
 

MichaelBD

Member
I can't recommend Battlestar for 4. It shines at 5. If you can't get a 5th person then I'd say look to something else. Since it was just talked about, Chaos in the Old World is a fantastic 4p game.
I will start of by agreeing that 5 players is the preference for Battlestar Galactica. But I love the game enough where I wouldn't turn it down if we had 4 or 6 (heck, I've even played the 7 player variant).

I think with casual players it might not be as obvious what more experienced players see as perceived flaws with 4 or 6 players.

If you like Battlestar Galactica and your group likes Battlestar Galactica I say go for it. It's easily one of my top 5 favorite games and with the right group of people it's awesome.

And also, for the record, I would agree that Chaos in the Old World (another favorite of mine) is a better 4 player option, but it's a different beast than Battlestar, so it would depend on the group. Some people are turned off by the theme.
 
Well I just ordered Munchkin and now reading some of the comments here am worried. I bought it after watching Tabletop's game of it and I thought it looked like a good filler game between other games.
 
Well I just ordered Munchkin and now reading some of the comments here am worried. I bought it after watching Tabletop's game of it and I thought it looked like a good filler game between other games.

As soon as I saw tabletop did an episode on Munchkin with Peter Jackson I knew it was what I had always suspected. A piece of shit.
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
The game has plenty of fans so I hope I'm one of them. Also I got it hoping my son would enjoy it for years to come. :) So I won't admit defeat yet.

I'm not saying you can't have fun with Munchkin. It's just not much of a game.

I suspect most of it's 'fans' enjoy it while getting blitzed in college. Most people I know who have heard of munchkin talk about how much fun they had playing it in college.

Most people here's problem with Munchkin is that there are much better games that scratch the same itch with shorter playtimes and a lot more strategy involved.

Here is a good explenation of the problems with Munchkin:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/796000/i-dont-see-the-appeal

1) Everything is random
2) It lasts way too long
3) As soon as someone might mercifully get to end the game, everyone pounced on them and prevents it.

It's bad enough that I might prefer playing Killer Bunnies. And that is saying a lot.
 

Petrie

Banned
The game has plenty of fans so I hope I'm one of them. Also I got it hoping my son would enjoy it for years to come. :) So I won't admit defeat yet.

Yeah but even fans admit you are constantly having to invest cash to keep it interesting. I won't play for the same reason I avoid TCGs like Magic.
 

-tetsuo-

Unlimited Capacity
Been tough finding Arkham xpacs, even for me and I have a brick and mortar store. We wanted anything at this point. Walked into the store that is right there close to my house. Right there up front, Dunwich Horror.

And then, I just happened to ask about Descent 1st. In the back, dented box, content complete, pre bagged, 40% off. Fuck. Yes.
 
Yeah but even fans admit you are constantly having to invest cash to keep it interesting. I won't play for the same reason I avoid TCGs like Magic.

Fair enough. It'll be more for the family anyway then my gaming group I guess.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Just noticed I'm no longer a junior member. Yay.
 
I just ordered 7 Wonders. Here....we....go! I'm also going to try sleeving these cards. I normally don't sleeve anything because it seems a little too over protective. I am interested to see how the cards feel and handle, being sleeved.

How do you shuffle sleeved cards? I assume the overhand shuffle is the only way to do it or to make piles.

I am such a whore for sleeving my cards. I MUST sleeve all my cards (I sleeved the spells and item mini-cards in Elder Sign). It makes being a protective asshole more tolerable to my friends who can have drinks on the table now. It also makes shuffling cards a breeze.

All this talk about Cosmic Encounter...and now I ordered it. This thread is worse than the LEGO thread.
 

fenners

Member
God I hated Killer Bunnies. The only time I played it, I won. And I still hated it.

Killer Bunnies was effectively the game that got me started with modern eurogames, sadly. Even when I played it and enjoyed the mechanics, *hated* the random ending with a passion. Had to find more better games than it & lead me to funagain.com & BGG. So it's got that going for it at least :)
 
My workmates and I just started 5-player Risk Legacy box. We are still in the first game but there is already a lot of tension. One of the players left their HQ open and lost it in the first round. Said player has now pledged to counter attack repeatedly through all 15 rounds and ensure that the attacker has no chance at winning.

Basically, the harmed player is committing suicide to prevent the attacker from ever winning. His goal is no longer to win the game, just to prevent another person from winning.

GAF - Do you consider this a problem? If so, how do you deal with it?
 
My workmates and I just started 5-player Risk Legacy box. We are still in the first game but there is already a lot of tension. One of the players left their HQ open and lost it in the first round. Said player has now pledged to counter attack repeatedly through all 15 rounds and ensure that the attacker has no chance at winning.

Basically, the harmed player is committing suicide to prevent the attacker from ever winning. His goal is no longer to win the game, just to prevent another person from winning.

GAF - Do you consider this a problem? If so, how do you deal with it?

Play a better game than Risk?
 

MichaelBD

Member
Well I just ordered Munchkin and now reading some of the comments here am worried. I bought it after watching Tabletop's game of it and I thought it looked like a good filler game between other games.
Munchkin is one of the games that got me into this hobby. Do I play it anymore? No, but I enjoyed it when I did. You'll get your money's worth and have fun with it, so don't worry.
 
Play a better game than Risk?

that's really not a good solution. this kind of thing happens in a lot of board games, even GAF favorites.

For example, it frequently happens in games of Blood Bowl Team Manager that somebody sees the writing on the wall that victory is out of reach and plays the rival to somebody else, puts all their cards in one match to prevent the other guy getting what he wants, etc.

Similarly, I see this behavior all the time in Game of Thrones. Somebody gets nearly wiped out early, and then they focus all their energy on dragging down the person who harmed them.

Generally, in any game where victory is out of reach, it makes sense that the player will create a new goal that they CAN accomplish. And often it's the fun of griefing another player.
 

mercviper

Member
zzzzz thank you both for the deep insight. Let me broaden the topic.


Sometimes players have a goal other than 'Win the Game'. Examples include things like playing for second place or helping a significant other win (or not lose).

Do you consider that a problem? If so, how do you deal with it?

I have a couple friends that lose morale easily/like to play the asshole and their version of winning is to disrupt the game. E.g. in TtR hold all the cards and never play or only claim routes of where they suspect other players are going to. In their minds, they feel like they already lost and want to redeem the time they're spending playing the game. It's just something you're gonna have to deal with if you include that person in your game.

If you want to prevent that from happening, then as the better player you can try coaching them to not make gamebreaking mistakes such as leaving their HQ open. You can play games where being spiteful is encouraged. You can play games where it's harder to fall behind by a tremendous amount. You can also just not invite them to play.
 
Personally I wouldn't even invite someone like that back to play.

It's just something you're gonna have to deal with if you include that person in your game.

I've excluded non-friends in the past but can't really be done with good friends. I'll definitely have a chat with him if it continues.


To be fair, Risk Legacy is actually pretty cool.

Tell your bro to grow up. Straight up tell him that if he's going to ruin the game for one person just don't play at all. No one is going to enjoy a game of spite.

I'm going to do this, thanks.
 

Screaming_Gremlin

My QB is a Dick and my coach is a Nutt
I've excluded non-friends in the past but can't really be done with good friends. I'll definitely have a chat with him if it continues.

I'm going to do this, thanks.

Sounds like you already got good advice. Honestly, unless your friend is someone who really holds a grudge I would hope that he would calm down enough by your next game that he largely forgets all about it.

Thankfully everyone in my group tends to leave any animosity behind at the table once the game ends. That would become a huge issue if they brought grudges from past games to future ones.
 
Dave Sirlin actually just posted on this situation, as well as in relation to the badminton olympics shit where teams were trying to lose on purpose.

The relevant bits:
Sirlin said:
Let's start with two terms from game design: lame-duck and kingmaker. In a game with more than two players (or more than two teams), a "kingmaker" is someone who can, through his or her in-game actions, decide which OTHER player will win the game. The kingmaker is so far behind that he can't win, but he could deal a card (or whatever) to Alice or to Bob, which would determine the winner. This is considered really bad because you'd hope Alice or Bob would win off their own skills, not from some 3rd party's vote. "Lame-duck" (a term I use because I don't know what else to call it in game design) is the portion of a game where a certain player cannot possibly win anymore but somehow they are still stuck playing the game. Lame duck players are ripe to be kingmakers. When you don't have skin in the game anymore, so to speak, your potential to screw things up for others is pretty high. (Note that this is NOT what's going on the badminton case right now.)
 

Deadstar

Member
I am such a whore for sleeving my cards. I MUST sleeve all my cards (I sleeved the spells and item mini-cards in Elder Sign). It makes being a protective asshole more tolerable to my friends who can have drinks on the table now. It also makes shuffling cards a breeze.

All this talk about Cosmic Encounter...and now I ordered it. This thread is worse than the LEGO thread.

Really? Could you explain how you shuffle? I was under the impression that sleeving would make it harder to do. Thanks in advance!
 
Really? Could you explain how you shuffle? I was under the impression that sleeving would make it harder to do. Thanks in advance!

You do not riffle shuffle sleeved cards.

You shuffle like this. When you have mastered it, you can do this

The trick is to not smash the two piles together, but rather let them fall into each other. That way you don't end up splitting the sleeves over time.

IMO, much faster and it doesn't bend your cards (not all cards are good at dealing with riffle shuffles overtime)
 
HNNGH...shuffling with sleeves feels so good. Riffle shuffling bends the cards which obviously ruins them forever! It takes anybody about 5 seconds to learn how to shuffle with sleeves before they get it. Some people just never learn how to riffle. These games are an investment and sleeving is the best way to protect your investment. I love Mayday sleeves the best and they have a very helpful chart on their website which tells you exactly what sleeve size to get.

Back to sportsmanship, there are definitely games out there that prevent the lame duck situation, but in my opinion game length is always the best protection against dickish players. If you lose and it takes less than an hour, you can just play another round or two. People need to learn how to be good losers.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
I hate sleeves with a passion and I'm a pure riffle shuffler (then again, people can eat/drink around my games too -- I really don't care since I play with fairly responsible people and if a spill happens oh well). I do accept though that if you want to keep your cards longer sleeves are good (you have to replace them after a while though so something to consider) and for proper shuffling sleeves are quite good as well I've just always been a riffler.

As far as kingmakers, that's a pretty interesting situation. I don't know Risk Legacy so can't speak to mechanics there. In Carcassonne though if someone fucks me over I will spend at least a few moves trying to screw them just to send a message to others more so than get "revenge." That's what's awesome about Carc though. So much backstabbing and screwage and yet it really doesn't compromise the game at all. In more Ameritrashy games, it can get a lot trickier and it really is more of a feel thing than anything. I don't see anything wrong with getting revenge -- that's part and parcel of the danger of attacking someone (especially in games where there are other options), but when someone just spends an entire game dogging someone or, way worse, dogs someone for no good reason, than it compromises the game. That's just an issue with direct conflict in social games though. Many consider it part of the fun and there are entire games based around it. I really love when a game features conflict but you can whiff on it -- like Citadels if you've ever played that.
 

Petrie

Banned
HNNGH...shuffling with sleeves feels so good. Riffle shuffling bends the cards which obviously ruins them forever! It takes anybody about 5 seconds to learn how to shuffle with sleeves before they get it. Some people just never learn how to riffle. These games are an investment and sleeving is the best way to protect your investment. I love Mayday sleeves the best and they have a very helpful chart on their website which tells you exactly what sleeve size to get.

Where's the most affordable place to order sleeves in bulk? I'd definitely like to get my LNOE and a few other games a little better protected. Basically my lengthier games more likely do be around drinking.
 

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
Seen a few requests for next-step board games. Here is my current next-step hotness in terms of introducing people to gaming. You really can't go wrong with these -- just pick a theme you like and play it with the right number of players.

2P
Dominion
Carcassonne

3-4P
Ticket to Ride
7 Wonders
Pandemic (co-op)

5+
King of Tokyo
Dice Town

I'm sure you know this but just to point out to others, Pandemic is not only great for 3-4 it's also very fun with 2 players only. A great girlfriend game IMO.
 
Where's the most affordable place to order sleeves in bulk? I'd definitely like to get my LNOE and a few other games a little better protected. Basically my lengthier games more likely do be around drinking.

Honestly I get most of mine from my local brick and mortar store, but you can get them directly from Maydaygames.com. They must be on the boat right now because they're available for pre-order with delivery sometime in August. Their pdf with games on it is great though because it color codes exactly what you need and tells you how many packs you need as well.
 

Petrie

Banned
Honestly I get most of mine from my local brick and mortar store, but you can get them directly from Maydaygames.com. They must be on the boat right now because they're available for pre-order with delivery sometime in August. Their pdf with games on it is great though because it color codes exactly what you need and tells you how many packs you need as well.

Does shipping tend to make them cheaper locally?
 
Munchkin is one of the games that got me into this hobby. Do I play it anymore? No, but I enjoyed it when I did. You'll get your money's worth and have fun with it, so don't worry.

Sounds good mate. I reckon my boy will love it when he's older too. For a while at least by the sounds of it. That's good enough for me.
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Where's the most affordable place to order sleeves in bulk? I'd definitely like to get my LNOE and a few other games a little better protected. Basically my lengthier games more likely do be around drinking.

mayday.com. Their premium sleeves are nice. Their standard leave something to be desired.

My B&M store stocks sleeves, but not enough to actually sleeve a game with. Like 1 pack when most games would take 2 or 3.
 

Petrie

Banned
mayday.com. Their premium sleeves are nice. Their standard leave something to be desired.

My B&M store stocks sleeves, but not enough to actually sleeve a game with. Like 1 pack when most games would take 2 or 3.

This link led me to a nautical site. Lol
 
Well I just ordered Munchkin and now reading some of the comments here am worried. I bought it after watching Tabletop's game of it and I thought it looked like a good filler game between other games.

You have to take opinions with a grain of salt from any dedicated community. Most members of such a community have been active for years in a particular hobby and barely remember what it was like starting out. NeoGaf's own Gaming side is a shining example of this.

Munckin is a simple and fun game. Most people's taste in this thread have evolved well beyond basic hobby starters like this years ago and now see nothing but flaws and simplicity. However, playing Munchkin with 6 people that have never heard of it and don't play/follow board gaming, you will find everyone loves it. It's all relative to your actual group.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
I removed 7W: Cities from my CSI order because I don't want to wait another 2-6 weeks for it. :D Also removed Eclipse since there's just no realistic way that I'm going to get to play it locally more than once or twice a year, and even then. I'll just learn it at BGG.Con or something.

Replaced those with the reinforcements from Summoner Wars and Rattus Africanus (suck it, haters!). Order also includes Ghost Stories: Black Secret, which I'm told makes that awesomely difficult game even tougher. Perfect for game night since we're doing pretty well on the first two difficulties.
 
Order also includes Ghost Stories: Black Secret, which I'm told makes that awesomely difficult game even tougher. Perfect for game night since we're doing pretty well on the first two difficulties.

Please post impressions. I was close to adding it to my order, but I really wanted the other (out of print?) expansion more.
 

SCHUEY F1

Unconfirmed Member
My wife and I are really enjoying Elder Sign so I'm thinking of picking up Arkham Horror. Does it play fine with 2 people and do others significant others enjoy it?
 
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