Gaming Truth
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The Resistance
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The New Board Game Thread (Newcomer Friendly)
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The Resistance
I second that.
BattleMonkey
Member
Really like Betrayal at House on the Hill.
Resistance is good but doesn't seem to have lasting power at the table and makes more for a quick in betweener game.
Resistance is good but doesn't seem to have lasting power at the table and makes more for a quick in betweener game.
BattleMonkey
Member
Still hoping for an Elder Signs expansion.
Me too, I really enjoy Elder Sign. Hopefully they will announce something at Arkham Nights in October.
Well, now I have to make some hard decision. (or just buy both which will likely happen, I hate my addiction).
Well it really depends on what kind of game you are looking for.
Betrayal is more of a storytelling-type game though its rules are quite fiddly (imo) because they're scenario-specific.
Resistance is a very basic Mafia/Werewolf-type game. You need a decent number (5+?) to make it work.
Shadows (which I will include in the finalist list even though you didn't
) is much more of a traditional game (like BSG) with traditional mechanics where you are trying to beat the board but may have a traitor among you (frankly game is pretty hard even without one). Also has some fiddliness -- definitely one to learn before you play.
Betrayal is more of a storytelling-type game though its rules are quite fiddly (imo) because they're scenario-specific.
Resistance is a very basic Mafia/Werewolf-type game. You need a decent number (5+?) to make it work.
Shadows (which I will include in the finalist list even though you didn't
) is much more of a traditional game (like BSG) with traditional mechanics where you are trying to beat the board but may have a traitor among you (frankly game is pretty hard even without one). Also has some fiddliness -- definitely one to learn before you play.Well it really depends on what kind of game you are looking for.
Betrayal is more of a storytelling-type game though its rules are quite fiddly (imo) because they're scenario-specific.
Resistance is a very basic Mafia/Werewolf-type game. You need a decent number (5+?) to make it work.
Shadows (which I will include in the finalist list even though you didn't
I didn't include Shadow because after reading about it, the these sounded too "fantasy" for the group I can likely get together. It sounds mechanically great, but the theme itself seems like it'd be oft putting to my group. The other 2 just sound like themes I could much more easily get them to play.
I wish the people I knew were cooler though. lol
BattleMonkey
Member
I would recommend Betrayal because it's what I've had best luck with amongst the more casual gamers who come for a game. But to note it's not totally about betrayal as the other games since everyone is on the same side, and random near end of the game, one player turns into the bad guy against everyone, and everyone knows it too. So it's not like the other games that has one or more players secretly trying to sabatoge it.
Yep (though that's a plus for me) but when you're playing with casuals sometimes you are dealing with people who think cards=Magic, anything remotely fantasy=D&D. Can't give these people any excuse to run for the hills.
Yep (though that's a plus for me) but when you're playing with casuals sometimes you are dealing with people who think cards=Magic, anything remotely fantasy=D&D. Can't give these people any excuse to run for the hills.
All my friends are nerdy in at least some way. So no issue there!
Yep (though that's a plus for me) but when you're playing with casuals sometimes you are dealing with people who think cards=Magic, anything remotely fantasy=D&D. Can't give these people any excuse to run for the hills.
This is the exact issue. Anything even remotely DnDesque and they roll their eyes and walk away.
Yep, definitely a Ticket to Ride kind of group. I've been there. These kind of people might even think Catan is "too fantasy."
One of them saw my g/f and I playing the Catan card game and commented how he once saw some friends playing is and how dumb it looked because of "trading wheat".
Unfortunately they are my roommates and the people I'm most likely to game with so.
I hate people who are judgmental about other people's hobbies like that, always makes me feel like I should say something about their hobbies. But then I realize I should be the bigger person. Still infuriating.
Hahah yeah -- I don't really think it's hating on BG in most cases though, just being really sensitive to theme. For casuals, I know the trick is always to get a theme that won't turn them off immediately or even better actually play with a theme they like. This is a big reason why TTR is so awesome for casuals. Everyone gets it and it's pretty.
Last Night on Earth usually works best for that for me, but its pretty complex.
BattleMonkey
Member
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=3529
Star Wars LCG preview. So yea as mentioned already, they ditched the coop aspect due to all the whiners, as it originally was based on a similar design to that used in the LOTR LCG. Anyways what seems interesting with this game is they are changing the deck building aspect to being you choose sets of cards instead of building decks one card at a time. So in essence you want a specific card, you take the whole set of 6 cards that are associated with it. Each deck is made up of 10 or more sets.
Might like Zombicide, since it's very simple. It's like a video game on a tabletop.
Star Wars LCG preview. So yea as mentioned already, they ditched the coop aspect due to all the whiners, as it originally was based on a similar design to that used in the LOTR LCG. Anyways what seems interesting with this game is they are changing the deck building aspect to being you choose sets of cards instead of building decks one card at a time. So in essence you want a specific card, you take the whole set of 6 cards that are associated with it. Each deck is made up of 10 or more sets.
Might like Zombicide, since it's very simple. It's like a video game on a tabletop.
What do you think are some other good games to get casuals in? My wife and I are new to these kinds of games, but we dove in hard. We need more games like TTR to get our friends on the same page as us.
I've invested too much in LNOE to add another Zombie game, sucks.
Depends on a few key factors:
# of players
familiarity/ease in understanding game concepts
theme preferences
but let's say 3-4, zero familiarity/easy, and hate anything "nerdy"
in that case, i would say something like carcassonne (play without fields first if really zero familiarity) or forbidden island (or pandemic if even slight ease and depending on theme preference)
if they are ok with a game that takes up to 90m and is a touch deeper, you can try catan or stone age
if they want something cutthroat, check out survive! or king of tokyo if you have 4+
joeyjoejoeshabadoo
Member
Co-Op games are easy to get people to play. With Co-Ops it's easy to help new players figure out rules and help them with basic strategy. Forbidden Island, Pandemic, Flash Point are all simple to play co-op games that have themes that wouldn't scare people away. Mystery Express is a game I've had a good experience introducing to non-gamers. Everybody has played Clue growing up so I basically prefaced the game by saying it's like advanced Clue, which it is. Instead of one of each card in a given category there are two. Even though it's a little harder than Clue it's more forgiving because you don't need to solve every piece of the crime to win, you just need to have more clues correct than your opponents.
Affeinvasion
Member
That's exactly how Star Trek Fleet Commander (I think that's what it's called) handles deck building. You choose like 4 out of 10 mini-decks to make your player deck.
BattleMonkey
Member
Fleet Captains, yea kinda though it was 4x style game and not ccg like deck building game. The small card sets you choose in SW LCG are supposed to also contain a tied in objectives which are a major part of trying to obtain victory. Deck min maxing is going to be harder this way for players and essentially force players to take cards they might have previously tossed out, in favor of getting what they really need.
BattleMonkey
Member
Its interesting but the whole time limit thing can make it frustratingly hard and hard to teach to some people.
Picked up Netrunner on Amazon. Figured why not; I paid a few bucks more but didn't have to go through the charade of getting to $100
Space Alert -- awesome experience the first couple times I played it, but I sold it recently because it just wasn't right for me. Way too long to teach for a co-op unfortunately and needs too many players.
Space Alert -- awesome experience the first couple times I played it, but I sold it recently because it just wasn't right for me. Way too long to teach for a co-op unfortunately and needs too many players.
Got one coming tomorrow myself.
And another in a CSI order. Maybe overkill. Perhaps a buddy will buy it off of me.
joeyjoejoeshabadoo
Member
Played it last week. It's not as game changing as Leaders was but it's good. There isn't as much as the player interaction as I was expecting. I only played it once so I haven't figured out a good strategy for the new cards yet. There are a couple cards I find interesting, I like the double production card a lot and the wonder building card (build stages of your wonder for free) is a good one too.
I would say that ultimately its a good expansion but it's not as good as Leaders was.
Picked up Netrunner on Amazon. Figured why not; I paid a few bucks more but didn't have to go through the charade of getting to $100
Space Alert -- awesome experience the first couple times I played it, but I sold it recently because it just wasn't right for me. Way too long to teach for a co-op unfortunately and needs too many players.
Escape might be something of a smilar coop experience although dice based. Rules are super simple and it looks like it balances well for different player numbers. I am very much looking forward to it. Will probably pick it up at Spiel.
Picked up Netrunner on Amazon. Figured why not; I paid a few bucks more but didn't have to go through the charade of getting to $100
Earliest date for European Amazon seem to be 1st October for Netrunner.
Any EU gaffers who knows a site to order from that could dispatch pretty much today? If there is one that is.
superrobot
Member
Deliver or dispatch?Earliest date for European Amazon seem to be 1st October for Netrunner.
Any EU gaffers who knows a site to order from that could deliver pretty much today? If there is one that is.
£24.99 excluding delivery
http://www.boardgameguru.co.uk/android--netrunner-12802-p.asp
Edit: Pre-order - probably not available yet
Edit part 2: their facebook page predicts that it will be there on Thursday (6th)
Earliest date for European Amazon seem to be 1st October for Netrunner.
Any EU gaffers who knows a site to order from that could deliver pretty much today? If there is one that is.
They expect it mid-September: http://www.spiele-offensive.de/Spiel/Android-Netrunner-Card-Game-engl-1012214.html
BattleMonkey
Member
Impressions of the Doctor Who card game don't make it sound too hot
Gaming Truth
Member
Sorry, I've played it three times and though it was fun each time, it's ..., I dunno, unfulfilling. The weird thing with defenders going away when a place is defended, the restrictions on attackers, the hand-size and knowing what to do with drawn locations (if you have them, you probably don't have room for attackers or defenders in your hand too), etc.
I've only played four player games and because of the number of players, there were lots of things that could be done. I'd hate to see what a two player game would be like.
A little better then, will see if the swedish stores will match that.
Gaming Truth
Member
So where is the line drawn between a board game and miniatures game for games like Star Wars: X-Wing, Gears of War, Heroscape, etc.?
BattleMonkey wrote a really good review of the Star Wars: X-Wing game in the miniature games thread, which I didn't know existed until today.
BattleMonkey wrote a really good review of the Star Wars: X-Wing game in the miniature games thread, which I didn't know existed until today.
It is a pretty thin line, but I think one thing to consider is that with most miniature games you can extend the game by buying one new figure at a time. While most Board Games come with everything you'd need to play in the box, and then have occasional expansions.
That said, people have definitely talked about X-wing in this thread as well.
Ach, I'd talk about any of that in here, no-one will mind. Now, the likes of Warhammer etc, keep it far away
Yep, I think it depends just as much what you see yourself as. For example after being blown away by trying to puzzle through a game of Monsterpocalypse, I definitely don't consider myself a minis gamer, but I do always find reading about them here or in the real minis thread quite interesting and I'm sure I'll get lured back in by something shiny and cool some day. I've always seen the minis thread as a place for the core people. Kinda like how there's the iOS gaming thread where they talk about iOS board games sometimes but then also the iOS board games thread for us hardcore people.
BattleMonkey
Member
Well X-Wing has "Miniatures Game" in the actual title of the box but yea some times the lines blur. For example Battletech which is highly complex and considered a wargame classic, is sold under the name of boardgame. Dust Tactics recently tried to blur the line by creating a game that would appease both and calls it both a board game, and miniatures game. They then put out a separate rulebook for Dust called Dust Warfare which adds a bunch of complexity and is targetted to the hardcore mini gamer market, while selling the Dust Tactics figs as part of their hybrid boardgame. Heroscape kinda falls in both again mainly because of the way it was marketed and it's simplified rules.
Miniature games though tend to be more free form games that don't follow the restrictions of a preset gaming environment of the actual board. Complexity levels usually are fairly different with mini games being much more robust often and dealing with force construction and usually battle games. Board games tend to be more streamlined games with more restricted presets and often more oriented for larger player numbers. Mini games often are designed for one on one competitive play. And as mentioned, miniature games are often designed more for expandability, customization. Hobby aspect is another big part of the miniature gaming hobby as well.
And as the name suggest, the miniatures are a major component of the game and often you need those miniatures to play, with the figs often have component or design elements made vital to the game, while in most board games, the figures are nothing but tokens that can be replaced by something generic or just a cardboard chit even.
Also to note, FFG can not make Star Wars board games, Hasbro has the exclusive deal on that. Hasbro blocked Lego from even putting out their Star Wars Lego board game in the US because of it. FFG license only is for miniature, card, and roleplaying games. So those hoping for some nice FFG fancy big board games, yea it's not happening sadly.
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