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The New Board Game Thread (Newcomer Friendly)
- Thread starter AstroLad
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EYEL1NER
Member
South Seas looks pretty cool. I am still unsure of whether I want South Seas or the New World one more though. And I do want to pick up the Winter version and a set of the wood-etched tiles that the guy in the UK makes and sells.
Those reference sheets look to be one of the ones I was thinking about printing off of BGG. I might print them and laminate them at work and then when I am home in the US next month go somewhere and print them on a high quality paper or card stock.If you haven't already, you *need* the Universal Head player summary sheets for Arkham Horror. It will answer a /lot/ of your basic questions like monster movement, the flow for dealing with encounters/gates etc. It's utterly invaluable to playing Arkham Horror - I have laminated copies of the "rule sheet" /and/ enough of the player guides for everyone to have their own
Your reaction is pretty normal to Arkham - the rulebook tells you all the rules but it doesn't necessarily tell you how to attempt to /play/ it in my mind... And there's a lot of gotchas that aren't obvious, as you've found. Read over the Universal Head sheets, it should help.
This flow chart makes the game look /really/ complicated but it's useful to some people and it is a pretty accurate summary.
I do like that flow chart though. I can make sense of it well-enough and I hadn't seen that before.
Thanks!
Yeah wife toddler and I have been playing lots of Winter Edition. I mean it's just Carc + Gingerbread Man mini-expansion but the art is really nice and the general game flow makes it fun and understandable even for our little one (i.e., turning over a tile and putting it somewhere; no we have not yet explained field scoring to our 2.5-year old
). I have to thank the BGG 10x10 challenge for making me dig into games a bit more instead of constantly bouncing around.platypotamus
Member
I, sadly, am not even positive I will get 100 plays in this year. Probably about half that.
It is definitely a fun challenge. It helps to have a weekly game night although I'm in the midst of missing about a month of those owing to new baby on the way.
My strategy is have 6+ games that are just easy plays -- something I can play quickly and often. Ironically 7 Wonders, King of Tokyo, and Ticket to Ride don't have any plays so far but it will be really easy to bang those out. Then for my aspirational titles like Galaxy Trucker and Ghost Stories I'm just always on the lookout for opportunities to play those. Netrunner was a joke; I've probably played that 30+ times this year but I needed at least a couple easy ones. platypotamus
Member
It is definitely a fun challenge. It helps to have a weekly game night although I'm in the midst of missing about a month of those owing to new baby on the way.
Nice! Soon you guys are filling up a 4 player game
How old was the toddler before you were able to get her on the carc? Ada's only a year so I know she's not ready, but I'm impatient.I'd probably be able to do 100 plays if my wife and I were willing to take a more serious break from Magic, but Magic
joeyjoejoeshabadoo
Member
I made it a goal to learn Pax Porfiriana tonight and I think I got it. It only took a few hours of reading the rules and cards, a couple videos, and a few rounds of a solo 4 player play through. The rulebook is pretty dry and it wasn't until I watched the Modern Table Gamer tutorial video before it stuck.
The mechanics are actually pretty simple. On your turn you have three actions. Stuff like buying/selling/playing cards. Then you do a clean up, move cards down the row in the market and gaining income. The complexity comes in how the cards work with each other. Some cards can be played in front of you, some on opponents, and even some "attack" cards may be better served by playing them on yourself.
There are also like four different types of victory points. Depending on the regime when a topple card (think scoring card) comes out one of those types of points will be the one that will win you the game. Figuring out what to collect VP wise and how to manipulate the regime to go your way and make sure you score that regime is some next level shit. I can't wait to get this to the table.
The mechanics are actually pretty simple. On your turn you have three actions. Stuff like buying/selling/playing cards. Then you do a clean up, move cards down the row in the market and gaining income. The complexity comes in how the cards work with each other. Some cards can be played in front of you, some on opponents, and even some "attack" cards may be better served by playing them on yourself.
There are also like four different types of victory points. Depending on the regime when a topple card (think scoring card) comes out one of those types of points will be the one that will win you the game. Figuring out what to collect VP wise and how to manipulate the regime to go your way and make sure you score that regime is some next level shit. I can't wait to get this to the table.
New baby, awesome! I just recently, in the past couple of months, been able to get out of the house for my weekly game night. However, we had twins so I was on super lockdown for about 6 months. Anyway, congrats!It is definitely a fun challenge. It helps to have a weekly game night although I'm in the midst of missing about a month of those owing to new baby on the way.
Nice! Soon you guys are filling up a 4 player game
I'd probably be able to do 100 plays if my wife and I were willing to take a more serious break from Magic, but Magic
Exactly. The four-person-family thing is no mistake. Everyone knows four is the best number for board games, by far.
I should be clear on Carc though, she doesn't so much "play" it as she does "participate in the playing of it," mostly by grabbing a tile and flipping it over when it's her and mom's turn, and then enjoying the art and occasionally placing tiles. 1 is definitely pretty young but I was "playing" games with Eloise when she was pretty young too. The first ones she got to any extent were things like Orchard, Go Away Monster!, and Ringo Flamingo. Right now she basically gets turn-taking, die rolling, and a few other basic concepts. But most important she's always asking to play board games -- it's kind of our thing.
Played a couple games of Space Cadets: Dice Duel over the weekend. I find the real time dice rolling concept incredibly fascinating, so I had to try this one out.
We had six people total so it was 3 on 3. The game seems a little complex at first when you lay out all the different stations and the big board and the huge pile of dice, but it isn't super tough to teach because each person only needs to really know the specifics of their one or two stations. It isn't tough to teach someone "have shields pointing towards them" or "roll the three different torpedo parts to load a torpedo".
Since we were all new this did lead to a rather chaotic set of games without much planning or supreme tactical maneuvers happening that just came down to a slug fest of launching torpedoes at close range. It did lead to some hilarious moments as the weapons officer yells out "FIRE!" only to realize the ship had just moved and there is now nothing in range. I'd expect that with a few more game some really cool stuff could happen with the weapons and helm cooperating to fire a shot and then instantly move out of the enemy's fire arc while reloading happens.
I think it would really shine in a 4v4 scenario where one player on each team is assigned the captain role and isn't rolling dice at all. But that is obviously pretty tough to make happen on a regular basis.
I think my favorite thing, and it shares this with Escape: The Curse of the Temple, is how it forces you to be always on and paying attention for the 15 minutes a match takes. It is a feeling that is so foreign to board games typically, so I find it really cool. And the amount of team work and amount of communication it forces on you is fantastic as well as I really love games that get people talking.
We had six people total so it was 3 on 3. The game seems a little complex at first when you lay out all the different stations and the big board and the huge pile of dice, but it isn't super tough to teach because each person only needs to really know the specifics of their one or two stations. It isn't tough to teach someone "have shields pointing towards them" or "roll the three different torpedo parts to load a torpedo".
Since we were all new this did lead to a rather chaotic set of games without much planning or supreme tactical maneuvers happening that just came down to a slug fest of launching torpedoes at close range. It did lead to some hilarious moments as the weapons officer yells out "FIRE!" only to realize the ship had just moved and there is now nothing in range. I'd expect that with a few more game some really cool stuff could happen with the weapons and helm cooperating to fire a shot and then instantly move out of the enemy's fire arc while reloading happens.
I think it would really shine in a 4v4 scenario where one player on each team is assigned the captain role and isn't rolling dice at all. But that is obviously pretty tough to make happen on a regular basis.
I think my favorite thing, and it shares this with Escape: The Curse of the Temple, is how it forces you to be always on and paying attention for the 15 minutes a match takes. It is a feeling that is so foreign to board games typically, so I find it really cool. And the amount of team work and amount of communication it forces on you is fantastic as well as I really love games that get people talking.
Awesome to hear. I'd love additional impressions as I'm 99% sure on getting these. I'd go earlier into the thread, but that's simply too tl;dr for me.
AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWYISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS...
Nice! That may be the impression I needed to get me stuck in.
Ordered the 2013 editions of Pandemic and OTB, yesterday. Have only played the original core game several times, so I'm looking to press this game on the group (mostly newb-ish) and get back into it, myself.
Oddly enough, I missed out on Flashpoint. How is it vs. Pandemic?
Also nabbed Formula D. Another fairly simple game for my newb-ish group (new lot of friends who are mostly, with a couple seasoned, players new to tabletop) to get into. As much as I hate to say it, but I stumbled upon WW's Tabletop episode for the game...to which that got me to go straight to my FLGS and order it. Really interested in the track packs. Sadly, I discovered there are only 5 of them out there (each with one Street and one Circuit track) and I'm only really interested in the Circuit tracks. But alas, got to play it and see. I'm excited to see if a League could be formed out of this; which I understand is, by far, the best way to enjoy the game.
But next up on the "to order" list will likely be Suburbia + Inc.
BattleMonkey
Member
Flashpoint feels similar to Pandemic, though not as tough, and maybe a bit more random. But it has a lot more versatility in set ups and general gameplay.
platypotamus
Member
For those who have played Suburbia (I didn't get it to table like I thought I would), is it as potentially newb friendly as it seems? My folks will be in town this weekend and I was thinking about playing it with them. For reference, they have played (with varying degrees of enjoyment) Seven Wonders, Kingdom Builder, Castles of Burgundy, and Dominion
Gaming Truth
Member
Yeah, tell them to treat it like the first time they played 7 Wonders:
The rules are pretty simple and the game plays fast. And they'll have no idea what they're doing until half way through the first game.
I've played it three times and thanks to the random seeding of the stacks, all of them played very differently (and I wasn't close to winning any of those times!).
BattleMonkey
Member
It's fairly easy, the keeping track of stuff and constantly having to update everything as soon as you place a tile can be confusing for folks at first though.
Finally recovering from a massive weekend of gaming. Of the 20+ games I played this weekend, the game that stole the hearts and minds of everyone, by far, had to be Loopin' Louie! What a freaking children's game that is. Add vodka shots for the losers and you are in for a great party game.
Also had 2 really good Kemet games.
Two Rooms and a Boom has surpassed Resistance/Avalon as our goto party traitor game.
Netrunner is a hard sell to people not interested in the game.
Coup is still great.
Cooled off on Rampage since GenCon.
Dungeon World is a great D&D type 'party' game.
Also had 2 really good Kemet games.
Two Rooms and a Boom has surpassed Resistance/Avalon as our goto party traitor game.
Netrunner is a hard sell to people not interested in the game.
Coup is still great.
Cooled off on Rampage since GenCon.
Dungeon World is a great D&D type 'party' game.
Ok, cool. I figured as much. I'm a components hound and that's the only turn-off for me. But perhaps after getting the game I can hunt some down online or on etsy or something.
Did you do a print n' play of this? I backed it on KS and was curious.
PnP until my KS copy arrives. (Which reminds me I need to fill out the shipping survey)
My one qualm with the game is that people new to it are slow to grasp the need to lie. This is similar to other traitor games though. The first time you expose your card to a newbie and then straight lie to them it is hard for them to understand and go along. It takes a few games for it to start to click. After that it's smooth sailing.
platypotamus
Member
Just to add one point, I think Suburbia is like a lot of games that it's easy to get in to as long as you have someone at the table (i.e. you) that knows the game well enough to keep track of everything and guide the other players through their first game. As long as you're prepared everyone will have a good time.
lol, how the hell do you fall asleep to that guy's intensity
i'd say the solo is worth it, since the game proper is not that interactive anyhow.
Yea, I really like Rahdo's walkthroughs (errors and all), but having the invisible player be his wife who's not there combined with his intensity makes me think he's going crazy.
i don't think suburbia has any less interaction than most euros to be honest, especially with the expansion.
i don't think suburbia has any less interaction than most euros to be honest, especially with the expansion.
I like Rahdo's videos, too, and I feel that my tastes in games align with his. The only thing that is kind of limiting is that he always looks at games from a 2-player perspective, so it's hard to get a feel for what a game will be like with more players (namely, if it will drag).
As for Suburbia, I've definitely played more interactive euros (I'd say most worker placement games are more interactive/combative, and something like Troyes is very interactive), but I didn't mean it as a hit against it. Suburbia is fun and very much in the spirit of games like SimCity, so the competition being indirect is perfectly fine. I haven't played Suburbia Inc, though.
As for Suburbia, I've definitely played more interactive euros (I'd say most worker placement games are more interactive/combative, and something like Troyes is very interactive), but I didn't mean it as a hit against it. Suburbia is fun and very much in the spirit of games like SimCity, so the competition being indirect is perfectly fine. I haven't played Suburbia Inc, though.
yea i mostly play all games 2 players, which is how i got into his videos - so they are super helpful for me because most reviews address 4 - but yea his tastes and mine seem to lineup more so than SUSD or dice tower.
yea, maybe its because we played a couple of games of castles of burgundy last night and we liked it a lot - but wished tiles had more suburbia style interactions with the other player.
yea, maybe its because we played a couple of games of castles of burgundy last night and we liked it a lot - but wished tiles had more suburbia style interactions with the other player.
joeyjoejoeshabadoo
Member
I just looked at his linked in and found this:
Imagine calling the Nintendo hotline and getting Rahdo explaining how to beat Legend of Zelda. Kick ass.
He also worked on Brink. Good karma nullified!
BattleMonkey
Member
Played Dead Panic finally. More complex than Castle Panic, has some unique strategy choices to make, but damn the rules are so badly written. Such a simple game has a decent sized faq I see already heh.
Thought some of you would like this. Very cool and very detailed breakdown of a pay what you want Kickstarter that I backed: Where Art Thou, Romeo?
http://crashgamesaz.com/a-peek-behind-the-curtain-of-a-true-pay-what-you-want-kickstarter-campaign/
http://crashgamesaz.com/a-peek-behind-the-curtain-of-a-true-pay-what-you-want-kickstarter-campaign/
TumblingHippo
Member
Rahdo sold me on CO2 when I had all but forgotten about it, and was looking for something challenging and different. I figure he normally enjoys 2 player games but almost all of his top 2 player games also scale excellently up to 3 or 4.
Suburbia is the daily deal at The Cult of the New today. $38.99+shipping.
http://www.thecultofthenew.com/suburbia.html
I donno how that compares to USA online stores.
http://www.thecultofthenew.com/suburbia.html
I donno how that compares to USA online stores.
Both Suburbia and Inc. are $39.99 & $19.99 + shipping, standard price (20+ left, still):
Suburbia on CoolStuffInc.
Gonna wait and recover from my large Pandemic & Formula D purchases before diving into these.
Got my stuff in yesterday! Wooooooooo!!!
Already punched them all out. Already had the 1st ed. of Pandemic. Never player with OTB. But damn, these petri dishes are rad! Well done, Z-Man. Excited to finally introduce this to my newbie group as they absolutely adore great co-op games.
Any other FormD players here? Or better yet, anyone who's part of a FormD league? What's the curve going from Beginner to Advanced rules?
Both Suburbia and Inc. are $39.99 & $19.99 + shipping, standard price (20+ left, still):
Suburbia on CoolStuffInc.
Gonna wait and recover from my large Pandemic & Formula D purchases before diving into these.
Got my stuff in yesterday! Wooooooooo!!!
Already punched them all out. Already had the 1st ed. of Pandemic. Never player with OTB. But damn, these petri dishes are rad! Well done, Z-Man. Excited to finally introduce this to my newbie group as they absolutely adore great co-op games.
Any other FormD players here? Or better yet, anyone who's part of a FormD league? What's the curve going from Beginner to Advanced rules?
Rules aren't so bad, as long as everyone remembers their own ability, everyone works as a "group" to work out how best to avoid collision/land in a corner once someone over runs so its not that daunting.
BattleMonkey
Member
Game is frankly better with beginner rules especially with larger races
Jables Swan
Member
Pandemic is a great game. On the Brink turns it into an amazing game. It does help as to what sort of people you are playing with though.
I can see that. But I'd suspect long-term players would be able to keep the flow pretty well in Advanced. I've been repeatedly told that the game is vastly better in Advanced.
BattleMonkey
Member
If you are playing with smaller number of players, advanced add lot of rules to make it a bit more interesting. F-D supports big games and when playing with larger groups, you want to play quick and fast, and beginner rules are superior for those bigger races.
timetokill
Banned
I'm really curious about Robinson Crusoe, but are the rules really that bad? I see a ton of high ratings for it but also people saying the rulebook is garbage, so how are people knowing how to play the game correctly?
there's a really good faq/walkthrough of the first scenario that clears most of it up on bgg. the rule book isn't awful just not clear - especially when it comes to things that aren't obvious like perishable vs nonperishable food. There's a turn summary that helps make sure you do all the little parts of each turn which is only communicated on the board, just not clearly on your first turn.
i wouldn't be afraid of picking it up just grab the supplements. it's a lot of fun once it clicks though.
I am very doubtful of BGG's rules complaints ever since venturing into a Geeklist where people said Ghost Stories' rules were "impossible" and "some of the worst ever." Just...wtf. I have heard that about RC though and it's been part of what's scaring me off -- 20% that and 80% that I have so many other co-ops that I love, including meaty ones like Arkham.
Affeinvasion
Member
I really, really don't want to come off badly here, but some people do not have the reading comprehension skills to be able to understand rules that are a bit complex. Compared to the stuff I have to read and understand for grad school, rule books are nothing. Most people, including a lot of gamers on bbg, don't fit that criteria. Also it's a co-op game. If you do something not exactly right, it really doesn't matter too much.
It's a really neat game with a ton of theme. A lot of the mechanics just make sense from a logical and story-telling perspective. I have a friend who is dubious of thematic games and their realism as portrayed in game mechanics. I didn't have a hard time coming up with a story like explanation for why things happened the way they did in the game, no matter what happened. I think that is one sign of a good thematic game. And that same guy had a lot of fun with the game too (his favorite game is the basically theme-less Hanabi). Price should be the only barrier keeping you from getting Robinson Crusoe.
timetokill
Banned
Thanks guys for the comments.
I've been looking for a good co-op game since my collection is a little sparse in that category. I pretty much only have AH for it, as well as Sherlock but that's not going to keep once we've solved all the cases.
My wife wants more co-op games because she doesn't really want to play competitive games that much. So if you guys have any other suggestions for co-op, especially 2-player co-op, I'm all ears.
I also have a personal interest as RC sounds like the exact kind of game I've been designing and it's always good to check out similar stuff and learn from it.
I've been looking for a good co-op game since my collection is a little sparse in that category. I pretty much only have AH for it, as well as Sherlock but that's not going to keep once we've solved all the cases.
My wife wants more co-op games because she doesn't really want to play competitive games that much. So if you guys have any other suggestions for co-op, especially 2-player co-op, I'm all ears.
I also have a personal interest as RC sounds like the exact kind of game I've been designing and it's always good to check out similar stuff and learn from it.
LOTR LCG is supposed to be a good co-op game for 2.
I really like Space Alert, and you can also check out Escape the Curse of the Temple. Both of these are fun real-time co-op games, which are cool because they give you a different kind of challenge than most games, and they play quickly while still having a lot to them.
I really like Space Alert, and you can also check out Escape the Curse of the Temple. Both of these are fun real-time co-op games, which are cool because they give you a different kind of challenge than most games, and they play quickly while still having a lot to them.
EYEL1NER
Member
Hope to get some gaming in tonight at work: Firefly and Last Night on Earth arrived.
Last night would have been perfect but I had training to do. A guy who played a game of Pandemic and Smash Up with my coworker and me a week or two ago is moving to night shift tonight too, so I will finally have a third person who is interested in all this shit I have been buying.
If I can nab the copy of Eclipse that I have my eye on, I might be done buying anything for a while (unless some sale happens and I can get King of Tokyo for holiday prices or something). 10 games in less than two months is a bit much, considering I have to ship all of them back to the US by summer's end (along with my clothes, 30+ CDs I have bought here, dozens of movies, and dozens of 360 games...been buying way too much stuff lately knowing that I am going back home soon).
My copy of Cards Against Humanity came in too, which only serves to make me depressed now. My best buddy is leaving the US in a week or so for Japan, which is great for him and his wife. Bad for me though now that I am losing my fighting game friend. And I bought CAH with the intention of going back home in a couple months and getting hammered with him, his wife, and my wife and playing it. When I get home I will pretty much only have my wife and toddler around, no other friends. So maybe in a year or two time when I have moved wherever I play to move to, I can force myself to meet new people and then play CAH.
He's not a board gamer at all, but while buying him and his family a lot of going-away gifts online recently, I bought him Flash Point. I figured with the moving and with the newborn baby that they probably won't be getting out much. And he has a hard-on for firefighting, wants to be a volunteer and loves firefighting movies and shit. So I hope he appreciates it.
Last night would have been perfect but I had training to do. A guy who played a game of Pandemic and Smash Up with my coworker and me a week or two ago is moving to night shift tonight too, so I will finally have a third person who is interested in all this shit I have been buying.
If I can nab the copy of Eclipse that I have my eye on, I might be done buying anything for a while (unless some sale happens and I can get King of Tokyo for holiday prices or something). 10 games in less than two months is a bit much, considering I have to ship all of them back to the US by summer's end (along with my clothes, 30+ CDs I have bought here, dozens of movies, and dozens of 360 games...been buying way too much stuff lately knowing that I am going back home soon).
My copy of Cards Against Humanity came in too, which only serves to make me depressed now. My best buddy is leaving the US in a week or so for Japan, which is great for him and his wife. Bad for me though now that I am losing my fighting game friend. And I bought CAH with the intention of going back home in a couple months and getting hammered with him, his wife, and my wife and playing it. When I get home I will pretty much only have my wife and toddler around, no other friends. So maybe in a year or two time when I have moved wherever I play to move to, I can force myself to meet new people and then play CAH.
He's not a board gamer at all, but while buying him and his family a lot of going-away gifts online recently, I bought him Flash Point. I figured with the moving and with the newborn baby that they probably won't be getting out much. And he has a hard-on for firefighting, wants to be a volunteer and loves firefighting movies and shit. So I hope he appreciates it.
CrudeDiatribe
Member
It is really straight forward. Also, if you're playing with a few people, give everyone two cars.
Hydranockz
Member
PIcked up Love Letter and the character pack and expansion for King of Tokyo a month ago.
I have played a silly amount of Love Letter with my gf. It's crazy how amazing it is to have a really solid game be so quick to set up and play. Not even near burning out on it. Only 10 too.
The KOT stuff is great. Really enjoy how they expanded the game to give an incentive to rolling hearts in order to get evolutions. The costumes that come with the Halloween pack are really cool and encourage trying to roll big damage in order to steal them.
Played Shadow Hunters at a friend's place. It's Avalon Lite with some more information gathering which then gets frantic. Bit too random for my liking of the genre but I've found it easier to get to The table because it isn't nearly as taxing as Avalon.
I wish Space Cadets or the dice variant weren't so expensive. I don't think I'd be able to get my moneys worth of it.
I have played a silly amount of Love Letter with my gf. It's crazy how amazing it is to have a really solid game be so quick to set up and play. Not even near burning out on it. Only 10 too.
The KOT stuff is great. Really enjoy how they expanded the game to give an incentive to rolling hearts in order to get evolutions. The costumes that come with the Halloween pack are really cool and encourage trying to roll big damage in order to steal them.
Played Shadow Hunters at a friend's place. It's Avalon Lite with some more information gathering which then gets frantic. Bit too random for my liking of the genre but I've found it easier to get to The table because it isn't nearly as taxing as Avalon.
I wish Space Cadets or the dice variant weren't so expensive. I don't think I'd be able to get my moneys worth of it.
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