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The New Board Game Thread (Newcomer Friendly)

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TwiztidElf

Member
My dirty little secret is that I bought Starcraft Risk.
I couldn't help myself....it had the Queen of Blades on the box....and all those little stalker and hydralisk figures.....
 

JesseZao

Member
I'm thinking about picking up King of Tokyo sometime soon. Is it too reliant on luck or is there a decent amount of strategy available? I want something light for family/non-gaming friends to play and was considering this.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
I'm thinking about picking up King of Tokyo sometime soon. Is it too reliant on luck or is there a decent amount of strategy available? I want something light for family/non-gaming friends to play and was considering this.

It's completely based on dice-chucking, so yeah there's a lot of luck. But there are also fun strategic/social elements as well, like deciding whether you want to be aggro or turtle and try to collect points. The dice element just means you will very rarely get to do exactly what you wanted, but because of the re-rolls you can help guide the dice to where you want them.

King of Tokyo, Netrunner, RoboRally. Garfield is a damn genius.
 

JesseZao

Member
The amount of Mass Effect stuff I have is just stupid, adding one more game that I will at least play once isnt really that bad :p

Just sounds like a problem when you will be "forced" to buy something you "fucking hate." (Hyperbole and all that aside...still)

I'd rather wait and get a well done original game implementation of the property than support cash grabs.

It's completely based on dice-chucking, so yeah there's a lot of luck. But there are also fun strategic/social elements as well, like deciding whether you want to be aggro or turtle and try to collect points. The dice element just means you will very rarely get to do exactly what you wanted, but because of the re-rolls you can help guide the dice to where you want them.

King of Tokyo, Netrunner, RoboRally. Garfield is a damn genius.

I still need to get a handle on Netrunner and play my first game. Have just ended up playing other games recently since I'm more familiar or we had more than two of us. The stream of $8-10 card packs will probably be too much for me though so hopefully I can enjoy the base set and a few packs well enough. Seeing all of the LCG packs for AGoT or Cthulhu makes me think the genre really isn't "cheaper" than M:TG, which is why I allowed myself to buy into LCG games in the first place.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
I still need to get a handle on Netrunner and play my first game. Have just ended up playing other games recently since I'm more familiar or we had more than two of us. The stream of $8-10 card packs will probably be too much for me though so hopefully I can enjoy the base set and a few packs well enough. Seeing all of the LCG packs for AGoT or Cthulhu makes me think the genre really isn't "cheaper" than M:TG, which is why I allowed myself to buy into LCG games in the first place.

The game works perfectly fine standalone, unless you want to play in tournaments. And getting everything you need to play top-level is WAY cheaper than constructed Magic.
 
Just sounds like a problem when you will be "forced" to buy something you "fucking hate." (Hyperbole and all that aside...still)

I'd rather wait and get a well done original game implementation of the property than support cash grabs.




I still need to get a handle on Netrunner and play my first game. Have just ended up playing other games recently since I'm more familiar or we had more than two of us. The stream of $8-10 card packs will probably be too much for me though so hopefully I can enjoy the base set and a few packs well enough. Seeing all of the LCG packs for AGoT or Cthulhu makes me think the genre really isn't "cheaper" than M:TG, which is why I allowed myself to buy into LCG games in the first place.

Haha, yeah. In all honesty if it came out today, it would be bought already, but since it doesnt come out for a few month I will have time to forget about it and not buy it anyway, haha. Id have to see what it comes with anyway, theme means a lot in board games (in my opinion), so it might be worth it if there is some cool things that come with it, but since its Risk, its probably just cubes stupid.


Its super disappointing that they are wasting this awesome universe on such a bland board game, Mass Effect could be a really cool version of Descent, or something like Eclipse, hell I think you could even make it play like Pandemic, haha. It should be about killing geth, not about controlling territories. It doesnt even make sense!!
 
Its super disappointing that they are wasting this awesome universe on such a bland board game, Mass Effect could be a really cool version of Descent, or something like Eclipse, hell I think you could even make it play like Pandemic, haha. It should be about killing geth, not about controlling territories. It doesnt even make sense!!

Well some of that sounds like it would just be slapping a name on a box without it really having proper theme of Mass Effect game.

As for wanting a sci fi like Descent again, Privateer Press announced that they are doing a 2nd game in the Level 7 series, though its quite different. Players control a special forces black ops team who goes into area 51 like Level 7 to find out what happened in the previous game. One player plays an overlord who control the aliens/mutants of the base while the rest of the players control the spec ops. To come with miniatures too.

The first Level 7 game was a coop game where players have to escape from the secret base, the sequel is a new game that takes place after where your the military going in afterwards.
 
Well some of that sounds like it would just be slapping a name on a box without it really having proper theme of Mass Effect game.

As for wanting a sci fi like Descent again, Privateer Press announced that they are doing a 2nd game in the Level 7 series, though its quite different. Players control a special forces black ops team who goes into area 51 like Level 7 to find out what happened in the previous game. One player plays an overlord who control the aliens/mutants of the base while the rest of the players control the spec ops. To come with miniatures too.

The first Level 7 game was a coop game where players have to escape from the secret base, the sequel is a new game that takes place after where your the military going in afterwards.

Well obviously you would change things to make it fit the theme better. I dont want Mass Effect: Descent, or Mass Effect: Eclipse* I want them to take the ideas that are in those games, and build something new around that.

The point was that there is much better games than Risk that would both work better with the actual universe and be more fun and would be much easier to modify and change to work with the theme.

Like how Marvel Legendary is a deck building game, but they made up coop since your all Avengers and shit. Great game, great theme, fit and molded to go together and be awesome. Or the Gears of war game being kind of like Descent, but they changed stuff to make it work better with the theme.


All of the millions of themed Monopoly and Risk board games are fun and novel for a while, but are pretty much a waste of time in the end.



* I would buy a Mass Effect: Eclipse :p
 
So, my group is pretty much done with Descent 2nd ed.

We jumped right into campaign and played up through the first quest of Act 2, at which point everyone decided the game wasn't very fun.

The issue we came across is that the game is very bad at making the game fun for everyone simultaneously. I crushed the heroes in Act 2, and I was having a good time. The heroes weren't. However, in Act 1 the heroes were crazy overpowered and were having a pretty good time rolling through my baddies.

The game has so many weird flaws. The rules are poorly explained and have so many weird exceptions. We hate the "treat this character like a Hero EXCEPT" line which is then followed by all the ways in which the character is actually nothing like a Hero.

There have been several quests where, as the Overlord, I have to put a group of monsters in a room where the Heroes start. The Heroes, on their first move, proceed to wipe out the entire group of monsters. Oh, the respawn rules for this map don't allow me to replace these monsters? Cool. So I never got to use them. Why even have me put them there?

The hero players complained that they had to micromanage every turn, that they couldn't really play themselves because it had to become such a group effort. Meanwhile I had to keep asking them to slow down their turn, take a move step by step so I could play a tripwire or whatever on them, etc.

Anyway, what's most amazing to me is that the game could be simplified and made about a million times better. I may take a crack at it, actually. But in the meantime, my group has basically written it off.
 

Dreavus

Member
Played a little bit of the DC comics deck-building game. It was alright, but I think it would function better as some kind of co-operative game. There's a co-op variant on BGG that looks pretty fun, we may give it a shot next time we play.
 
Speaking of dream licenses, Gale Force 9 (Spartacus) announced they are doing a Firefly game.
http://www.gf9.com/
In Firefly: The Game, players captain their own Firefly-class transport ship, traveling the ‘Verse with a handpicked crew of fighters, mechanics and other travelers. As a captain desperate for work, players are compelled to take on any job -- so long as it pays. Double-dealing employers, heavy-handed Alliance patrols and marauding Reavers are all in a day’s work for a ship’s captain at the edge of the ‘Verse. Firefly: The Game is a high-end thematic tabletop boardgame from Gale Force Nine (GF9). It will be the first in a series of tabletop hobby boardgames and miniatures games from GF9 set in the Firefly Universe.
GF9 did right by the Spartacus license, I'm really interested in seeing how this turns out.
Played a little bit of the DC comics deck-building game. It was alright, but I think it would function better as some kind of co-operative game. There's a co-op variant on BGG that looks pretty fun, we may give it a shot next time we play.
That DC game is so half assed. Cryptozic just takes their one deck building system and throws a theme on it. The system is the same in the Penny Arcade game, DC, and now in LotR.
 

Dreavus

Member
Speaking of dream licenses, Gale Force 9 (Spartacus) announced they are doing a Firefly game.
http://www.gf9.com/

GF9 did right by the Spartacus license, I'm really interested in seeing how this turns out.

That DC game is so half assed. Cryptozic just takes their one deck building system and throws a theme on it. The system is the same in the Penny Arcade game, DC, and now in LotR.

Oh is it? It was a bit of an impulse buy (not mine) and we didn't know tons about it.

For a pasted on theme I think it actually works pretty well, even on a card by card basis.
 

fenners

Member
Played Eclipse with a few co-workers after work. 5 players, 1 new. A very weird game of tech race, upgrade brinkmanship, and not a lot of fights until the last round where the player who had "threatened" everyone & looked strongest military-wise got wiped off the board *completely*. A completely bizarre ending to the game. And not a single missile fired all game.

Totally bizarre.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Speaking of dream licenses, Gale Force 9 (Spartacus) announced they are doing a Firefly game.
http://www.gf9.com/

GF9 did right by the Spartacus license, I'm really interested in seeing how this turns out.

That DC game is so half assed. Cryptozic just takes their one deck building system and throws a theme on it. The system is the same in the Penny Arcade game, DC, and now in LotR.

Spartacus is a badass game. Probably wouldn't buy it but I was quite pleasantly surprised by it.
 
Watched the first 4 episodes of Battlestar Galactica then promptly ordered the board game from Amazon. Really looking forward to playing it. It'll be nice to play a longer game. All the games we have take an hour at the most.
 
Watched the first 4 episodes of Battlestar Galactica then promptly ordered the board game from Amazon. Really looking forward to playing it. It'll be nice to play a longer game. All the games we have take an hour at the most.

Even without the show it's an incredible game. You're in for a treat. Play with 5 people for the optimal experience.
 

Draconian

Member
I really enjoy Settlers of Catan and have been looking at the expansions. Seafarers looks like a must. Does anybody have any thoughts on Cities and Knights or Traders and Barbarians?
 

Bazza

Member
Watched the first 4 episodes of Battlestar Galactica then promptly ordered the board game from Amazon. Really looking forward to playing it. It'll be nice to play a longer game. All the games we have take an hour at the most.

Huh didn't know you could order them on amazon, thought they had to be brought from the fantasy flight website, that's the BSG game and expansions added for when i next have free funds. Might have to pick up the Game of Thrones one as well.
 
everything i've heard is that 1st ed. is significantly more complicated, though

Yea it is, and why it's so much better. So much of Descent 2nd edition problems stem from the over simplification of things and putting more randomness into it. It's not a complicated game either version though, just 1st has more detail and more rules, and you generally play a dungeon encounter that is about 4-5x the size of what they are in 2nd. Overlord also is more involved in the game with many more cards and options for monsters. In 2nd you do get into many situations as you described where the heroes whipe out the enemies and your left just sitting their with a shitty tripwire card and one spawn a turn of a useless enemy
 

Keasar

Member
So, my group is pretty much done with Descent 2nd ed.

We jumped right into campaign and played up through the first quest of Act 2, at which point everyone decided the game wasn't very fun.

The issue we came across is that the game is very bad at making the game fun for everyone simultaneously. I crushed the heroes in Act 2, and I was having a good time. The heroes weren't. However, in Act 1 the heroes were crazy overpowered and were having a pretty good time rolling through my baddies.

The game has so many weird flaws. The rules are poorly explained and have so many weird exceptions. We hate the "treat this character like a Hero EXCEPT" line which is then followed by all the ways in which the character is actually nothing like a Hero.

There have been several quests where, as the Overlord, I have to put a group of monsters in a room where the Heroes start. The Heroes, on their first move, proceed to wipe out the entire group of monsters. Oh, the respawn rules for this map don't allow me to replace these monsters? Cool. So I never got to use them. Why even have me put them there?

The hero players complained that they had to micromanage every turn, that they couldn't really play themselves because it had to become such a group effort. Meanwhile I had to keep asking them to slow down their turn, take a move step by step so I could play a tripwire or whatever on them, etc.

Anyway, what's most amazing to me is that the game could be simplified and made about a million times better. I may take a crack at it, actually. But in the meantime, my group has basically written it off.

I had the opposite experience. During the first act I was the one overpowering the heroes and by Act 2 the heroes were getting snowballed in powerful items, abilities and etc. which they used to completely steamroll me. The final encounter in the game was basically them murdering the bad guy with me getting 1(!) hit on one of their heroes before he died.

Anyway, yeah, the game has some serious flaws and balance issues, most of the encounters in the game favors one side or the other. For us when we played no encounter played like a "close call", it was one side always winning heavily and quickly over the other.
 

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Trying to decide on the next game to pickup down the road. Narrowed it down to Tammany Hall, Letters From Whitechapel (the FFG one when it comes out), Suburbia, and Tzolk'in.
 
Trying to decide on the next game to pickup down the road. Narrowed it down to Tammany Hall, Letters From Whitechapel (the FFG one when it comes out), Suburbia, and Tzolk'in.
Of those the one I haven't played is Suburbia. Tamanay Hall is a good area control/negotiation game. The game can be cutthroat so make sure players are aware that you can and probably will be screwed over by deals.

Tzolkin is fantastic. Takes a game or two to feel like you are actually in control. There are a number of different strategies to explore and not one of them is dominant over the other.

Letters from Whitechapel sucks. It has one interesting mechanic (the ability for Jack to wait for the right moment before he kills) but the rest of the game is just dull. For my money, Fury of Dracula is a much better game.
 

Neverfade

Member
Of those the one I haven't played is Suburbia. Tamanay Hall is a good area control/negotiation game. The game can be cutthroat so make sure players are aware that you can and probably will be screwed over by deals.

Tzolkin is fantastic. Takes a game or two to feel like you are actually in control. There are a number of different strategies to explore and not one of them is dominant over the other.

Letters from Whitechapel sucks. It has one interesting mechanic (the ability for Jack to wait for the right moment before he kills) but the rest of the game is just dull. For my money, Fury of Dracula is a much better game.

Agreed on all fronts.
 
I had the opposite experience. During the first act I was the one overpowering the heroes and by Act 2 the heroes were getting snowballed in powerful items, abilities and etc. which they used to completely steamroll me. The final encounter in the game was basically them murdering the bad guy with me getting 1(!) hit on one of their heroes before he died.

Anyway, yeah, the game has some serious flaws and balance issues, most of the encounters in the game favors one side or the other. For us when we played no encounter played like a "close call", it was one side always winning heavily and quickly over the other.

Yea, it's often like that, though in most games it seems the heroes can just dominate and it's just no fun at all to play the overlord. In Descent 1st edition the Overlord always had ton of cards to choose from for different tactics as well as access to lot of monsters to constantly put into play. In 2nd edition the Heroes can often wipe a board of monsters leaving the Overlord with several turns of doing next to nothing. Yea it moves the game fast, but makes it really boring to be overlord when monster spawning in shit in this new edition.

The simplification of movement rules with how anything can squeeze through spaces completely removed the area control aspect of the game and any of that strategy.
 

Keasar

Member
Yea, it's often like that, though in most games it seems the heroes can just dominate and it's just no fun at all to play the overlord. In Descent 1st edition the Overlord always had ton of cards to choose from for different tactics as well as access to lot of monsters to constantly put into play. In 2nd edition the Heroes can often wipe a board of monsters leaving the Overlord with several turns of doing next to nothing. Yea it moves the game fast, but makes it really boring to be overlord when monster spawning in shit in this new edition.

The simplification of movement rules with how anything can squeeze through spaces completely removed the area control aspect of the game and any of that strategy.

Yeah, hated missions involving getting stuff to places or having to interact with an object. It usually ended with the ranger-type hero just rushing all the way through a map in order to get to a objective. I couldn't stop it, I tried a few times to use my monsters to block the way but that left me with way fewer monsters to use to deal with the rest of the party who could then deal with them on range (fucking Necromancer Army of Undead).
 
Yea it is, and why it's so much better. So much of Descent 2nd edition problems stem from the over simplification of things and putting more randomness into it. It's not a complicated game either version though, just 1st has more detail and more rules, and you generally play a dungeon encounter that is about 4-5x the size of what they are in 2nd. Overlord also is more involved in the game with many more cards and options for monsters. In 2nd you do get into many situations as you described where the heroes whipe out the enemies and your left just sitting their with a shitty tripwire card and one spawn a turn of a useless enemy

Interesting. Anyway, I don't think it's wise for my group -- if maps are 4 to 5 times the size, and the OL has more cards AND it's more complicated, that means much longer play times. We were already pushing 5-6 hours for a single quest in 2nd ed., and it was leaving everyone feeling pretty drained.
 
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