The Horror the horror
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If you can find a copy of Gumshoe, you'll be in for a treat. It's Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective on steriods, set in the 1930's. Created by the same people.
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The New Board Game Thread (Newcomer Friendly)
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If you can find a copy of Gumshoe, you'll be in for a treat. It's Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective on steriods, set in the 1930's. Created by the same people.
joeyjoejoeshabadoo
Member
So got Pax Porfiriana to the table last night. Excitement cooled a bit but I think it's because we just had a bum deck of card come out. Income cards didn't come out until a few rounds into the game so we each had a ton of attack cards which would specifically target income cards. Once income cards came out people were too afraid to play them since we knew everybody had attack cards. The game just didn't flow as well as my solo game. The end of the game also just sort of happened. I've heard that this can happen with inexperienced players since you don't really know how to prevent a victory from happening. I want to give it another shot, but my first time was a little anticlimactic.
i don't think RC is very complex - it's just not very clear - like non=perishable food is symbolized by an hour glass, rather than the opposite. there's like 14 spaces for invention cards, but the starting items don't have a space and then there's scenario only invention cards on the scenario sheet. there are special weather events, that occur as well as weather dice, and they don't always relate.
mystery cards and beast cards just kinda hang out off the board for no great reason. you take the bottom part of the threat action card when it moves off the board instead of having a place for it. having to discover environment types to invent weapons is kinda silly, maybe have that a result of gathering would make it more thematic. even like having fish and birds on tiles providing the same amount of food i think goes against theme.
and there's dozen more of these things which makes the rules very unclear because it has to explain against what people would intuitively think about the game.
We're in the nascent planning stages of a board game weekend sometime soon here. The centerpiece would likely be playing Twilight Imperium for the whole afternoon/evening/however long it takes. As I've never played before I'm really excited to take part in something so ridiculous.
NuffDREW4two
Member
I caved and ordered Descent 2e. My co-worker and his friends stalled on their Pathfinders campaign a number of months back because of two brothers (one of them the DM) not getting along right now. I'm hoping this will scratch that skirmish/light-RPG itch and get them to play with me (minus the DM guy to avoid conflict). Plus, with this format, it won't take any pre-planning on my part -- I'm not very creative and/or lazy.
Been reading and watching a ton on it, and hope the balance issues that some people report aren't a mood killer for this group.
Edit: Does anyone have experience with 3 vs 4 hero games/campaign and how balanced each would be against the Overlord? I've got three other guys that'll play the heroes and am wondering if one of them should play an extra character.
Been reading and watching a ton on it, and hope the balance issues that some people report aren't a mood killer for this group.
Edit: Does anyone have experience with 3 vs 4 hero games/campaign and how balanced each would be against the Overlord? I've got three other guys that'll play the heroes and am wondering if one of them should play an extra character.
I played Race for the Galaxy tonight. I like the art and themes and stuff. Seems like a quality game, though a bit on the 7 Wonders level of confusing with so many icons to keep track of everywhere. "I'm developing, hang on while I check 9 cards to make sure I didn't forget an icon that would help me."
I was the only person who seemed to try to use the produce/trade stuff much, and I ended up with 6 victory tokens while someone else ended up with 8...but despite that, they had maybe 20 points more than me. So, I'm thinking consuming and producing goods may not be the best strategy unless you have excellent card combinations -- it seems that having the cards that give you points per card, and high-point cards in general, are better.
I was the only person who seemed to try to use the produce/trade stuff much, and I ended up with 6 victory tokens while someone else ended up with 8...but despite that, they had maybe 20 points more than me. So, I'm thinking consuming and producing goods may not be the best strategy unless you have excellent card combinations -- it seems that having the cards that give you points per card, and high-point cards in general, are better.
I've been playing Race for a little bit now, discovering the strategies as well. From what I can tell, the produce/trade cycle alone wont really get you too far in most cases. The key to victory is in the 6-cost development cards. You gotta try to nab one or two early on and then build towards that. Produce/trade still definitely helps, though (especially if you can do the 2x bonus on cards that normally get you 2-3-4 VPs a pop). Sucking up VPs/building to 12 cards quickly will cut your opponents off from totally realizing their plans.
Is love letter any god for 2 players?
It's alright. Definitely much better for 3 and 4. But still worthwhile. And I mean c'mon it's like 10 bucks. You don't get more bang for the buck than that.
Love Letter is a fun game, but you could probably find a better card game for 2 that's still not too expensive. I mean, you could find Ascension: Apprentice Edition for under $10 and you get a basic version of Ascension for 2 players with way more game-meat to it than Love Letter.
I've played well over 500 games of Race For The Galaxy. There's very little "hard and fast" advice on strategy as much of the skill in the game is adapting to your card draws, learning to leech actions off other players, and not getting fixed on "one way to win".
Produce/consume is absolutely a useful/viable strategy for card draw, and some VP with the right engine - consume is the easiest, fastest way to get card income. Military is absolutely a useful/viable strategy too. 6 point developments can be absolutely key to winning, yes, but unless they have an early benefit, don't build them too early - paying 5 cards to build a 6 cost development is a /lot/ of cards early in the game for little benefit outside of endgame scoring.
There's lots of viable strategies in Race, but it's all about which cards you draw, how much you draw, and what your opponents are doing too. There's often a lot of groupthink in Race depending on how often you play it with the same people in my experience, with what's viewed as a dominant strategy changing as people learn the synergies of the cards, and people on BGG (and myself) have noticed common patterns of how people learn & grow their strategies through the game - "Military's too strong! It's just solitaire! Yellow's too strong! This development is too strong! Naked trade time!" etc.
Race is my most played game by far.
Citadels is a great 2 player game
It plays very different to the regular game - you essentially pick multiple roles a round, throwing out one (randomly) after you pick so your opponent doesn't exactly know what you've got. The Thief/witch/assassin are absolutely useful in it.Ah cool, I never read the 2-player rules to realize there were multiple-draw special rules.
timetokill
Banned
My group played Descent 2e for several nights until we decided we hated it. We played with 3 or 4 heroes vs the Overlord, and it really comes down to the quest that the group chooses as far as balance. Some of them are stacked pretty heavily one way or the other. My group played 5 quests in total, and of them, 1 was a down-to-the-wire quest, the other 4 were wildly unbalanced in one direction or the other. A lot of that comes down to analysis time though. Our games always took a LONG time to play because the heroes would always spend about 15 minutes each turn to discuss every possibility and maximize things. It was a mood-killer for my group, but if yours isn't going to mind it, then don't worry about it. It's still a pretty cool concept.
As far as your question of 3 vs 4, you shouldn't need somebody to play an extra to make it 4. The game specifically scales based on the number of heroes.
My wife loves LotR so that is probably going to happen. She saw a card that had Glorfindel on it (her favorite LotR character) and she got super excited and asked if she could "play as him." Heh.
I'll have to look at the other ones, I haven't tried a real-time game before, I wonder how that would go.
Damn, seems to be a tough find! Thanks for the heads-up though, I'll keep an eye out for it. I had no idea of its existence and I think my family would really love it.
Yeah my friend is a big LOTR fan and he loves the game. Just be aware that it's a game you invest more time into because you build decks and do scenarios together. It could become a staple game for you to play with her.
Affeinvasion
Member
The opposite side of this warning is that my wife loves this game, but she hates (to the point of refusing to do it) building decks. I very rarely feel like putting together two decks myself, so we hardly ever play.
NuffDREW4two
Member
Thanks. I really hope Descent goes over well with this group since it looks like it'll be a fun fantasy skirmish game. If not, I'll just wait till the boys are old enough.
EYEL1NER
Member
Hot damn... Two coworkers and I started Firefly for the first time while at work this morning and it is absolutely amazing. One guy had never seen the series, so he wasn't drawn too much into the theme. The theme absolutely worked for the other guy and myself. I am not THAT big a Firefly fan; I love the series and Serenity but wouldn't go to a Browncoat convention or anything. It was just so well put together though. Three hours in and I had only completed three jobs and none of us had even began working towards the goals on the story card. I don't think any of the three of us even card about completing the story card and winning, we were just having too much fun jetting around on our ships and doing stuff.
We played for three or so hours, maybe a bit more. There was a lot of rule-checking and I think I may still have some things lingering that I need to search BGG for to see if anyone else has asked in the past. We got the hang of the basic game though and were having a blast.
I cannot wait for the Pirates and Bounty Hunters expansion. I will buy Breaking Atmo in the next couple days and then pre-order the new expansion as soon as it gets put up on Amazon. There are a lot of expansions for Carcassonne that aren't essential, I probably won't buy all of the Arkham Horror expansions, and I do not feel the need to snap up the Pandemic: In the Lab expansion. But this is a game where I feel like I need everything.
I absolutely cannot wait for another chance to play the game. It was either Firefly last night or we were going to try to play a full game of Arkham for the first time after struggling through two turns a couple weeks ago that took hours to get through and tons of re-reading of rulebooks and internet stuff. I am really glad we decided to work on Firefly.
Man...so much fun.
EDIT: I am kind of frustrated now though, because I want to track down all the promos, which won't be cheap. I see that in November Gale Force listed on their site that soon they would begin selling promo items for their games after a period of exclusivity. Hopefully the Firefly promo items get put up sometime soon. I need that Artful Dodger.
We played for three or so hours, maybe a bit more. There was a lot of rule-checking and I think I may still have some things lingering that I need to search BGG for to see if anyone else has asked in the past. We got the hang of the basic game though and were having a blast.
I cannot wait for the Pirates and Bounty Hunters expansion. I will buy Breaking Atmo in the next couple days and then pre-order the new expansion as soon as it gets put up on Amazon. There are a lot of expansions for Carcassonne that aren't essential, I probably won't buy all of the Arkham Horror expansions, and I do not feel the need to snap up the Pandemic: In the Lab expansion. But this is a game where I feel like I need everything.
I absolutely cannot wait for another chance to play the game. It was either Firefly last night or we were going to try to play a full game of Arkham for the first time after struggling through two turns a couple weeks ago that took hours to get through and tons of re-reading of rulebooks and internet stuff. I am really glad we decided to work on Firefly.
Man...so much fun.
EDIT: I am kind of frustrated now though, because I want to track down all the promos, which won't be cheap. I see that in November Gale Force listed on their site that soon they would begin selling promo items for their games after a period of exclusivity. Hopefully the Firefly promo items get put up sometime soon. I need that Artful Dodger.
Is that the one given away by the GameTradeMagazine last summer? I have an unplayed one here...
FallingEdge
Member
Was thinking of picking up Race for the Galaxy. Thoughts? Mostly would play it as a 4 player game.
Picked up Sergeants Miniatures: Red Devils recently. Probably going to cross post this with the miniatures thread. The game is WW2 skirmish level miniature/board game. The gameplay is card driven and most of the information needed is on the soldier cards and the board itself. No dice required!
The game comes with pre-painted minis, which look fantastic (5 British and 5 German soldiers). Six of the soldiers are main characters and 4 that are unique to every copy of the game.
You select actions based on the story cards that are drawn each round which give one of two possible tactics the player can use such Look or Shoot.
These are some of the individual soldier cards each with different stats.
Another pic
The component quality of the game is very impressive and it is all made in the USA.
The game comes with pre-painted minis, which look fantastic (5 British and 5 German soldiers). Six of the soldiers are main characters and 4 that are unique to every copy of the game.
You select actions based on the story cards that are drawn each round which give one of two possible tactics the player can use such Look or Shoot.
These are some of the individual soldier cards each with different stats.
Another pic
The component quality of the game is very impressive and it is all made in the USA.
I'm thinking about doing a local trade for this game. Would also like to get some thoughts from folks here. I watch a Tom Vassel vid but wasn't too impressed. I'll be trading my Netrunner core set for it. It has never made it to the table for zero plays since I bought it in the fall. Two player games are death in my group.
That game looks great! Wasn't there a kickstarter of a expansion or add on recently? Do you have a link to the miniatures thread? Thanks!
There was Kickstarter for Red Devils it is another base game/storyline the SMG line. The original was Day of Days.
The company also just Kickstarted a smaller version of Sergeants called D-Day. It uses the same gameplay as the miniature line, but uses smaller map tiles and instead of pre-painted pewter minis it will uses some form of cardboard standees. D-Day is more of a board game and does not require measuring. D-Day is basically a low cost alternative to the miniature line, which can be quite expensive. D-Day will also allow for bigger scenarios with less investment.
Hydranockz
Member
Is "Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice" any good? Thinking of picking it up this weekend.
I'm thinking about doing a local trade for this game. Would also like to get some thoughts from folks here. I watch a Tom Vassel vid but wasn't too impressed. I'll be trading my Netrunner core set for it. It has never made it to the table for zero plays since I bought it in the fall. Two player games are death in my group.
You don't happen to live in Scandinavia do you? I have a copy of RFTG that I'd be willing to trade for a (second) copy of Netrunner.
RFTG is supposed to be an awesome game, but I have a hard time getting it to the table in my group.
Ok, so after some very rough months, I've got the urge to play socially, with real people. So I dusted off my decent but limited boardgames collection and ordered two additions for it. I tried to remain simple and / or varied in my selection, so tomorrow will be...
Ticket to ride (can't be more accessible than that) and Ankh-Morpork (I like the hidden role mechanism and I have to discover Wallace ((and Feld, but Bruges seemed too similar to Ankh-Morpork to buy the two in one order)).
Hope it will turn out to be a good selection, we will see. I've got at least one pretty difficult player to please.
- Already own :
Pandemic
Princes of Florence
Smallworld
Agricola
Saboteur
Uno
- Planning to buy :
Dominion
Bruges
Carcassonne (maybe I will stop hating this game in its physical form)
Last will
Ticket to ride (can't be more accessible than that) and Ankh-Morpork (I like the hidden role mechanism and I have to discover Wallace ((and Feld, but Bruges seemed too similar to Ankh-Morpork to buy the two in one order)).
Hope it will turn out to be a good selection, we will see. I've got at least one pretty difficult player to please.
- Already own :
Pandemic
Princes of Florence
Smallworld
Agricola
Saboteur
Uno
- Planning to buy :
Dominion
Bruges
Carcassonne (maybe I will stop hating this game in its physical form)
Last will
disillusion386
Member
Absolutely love RFTG. It takes a while to get a hang of the game (probably because of all of the card symbols and the perceived randomness of the game itself), but once you figure it out, the gameplay is very rewarding. I mostly play with one other person though, and the mechanics of the two-person game changes the dynamic of role-choosing.
If you hate Carcassonne as a digital game, you will hate the physical board game perhaps more. Scoring is bothersome and the tiles shift which can be annoying when placing them in tight spots. I love both, but the digital version is better.
I was very curious about this after seeing the recent Red Devils expansion KS. I love me: A) Miniatures and B) WWII
But UGGGGGH at that artwork. I'm sorry. I'm sure it's attractive to others. But that comic book style look just tears it all down for me. Also UGH--the $$. Very pricey. Also a pure miniatures game; not into those. Measuring and such just kills me (minus Star Trek & Star Wars Minis games, which have the stencils and played on much small areas).
You'll have to post some impressions on the gameplay, however. I do M44 and Tide of Iron (JUST got a super-clean used copy from my FNGS, and with the Normandy expansion, for just $40 in trades), so this will always somewhat have my interest.
I haven't played race much as a 4 player game but it's a solid 2, 3 and 5 player game so I imagine 4 would be just fine.
It's a lot like purto rico, except if you know what you are doing (aka don't have to look up symbols) can be played in 30-45 min.
the game is broken up to multiple actions you can take each turn, unlike purto rico everyone selects their action at the same time, thus you can have overlapping actions, the end result of every player that choose that action gets a bonus, while everyone else just takes that action in the order of actions.
your action choices are explore (which happens first) which allows you to get some more cards (which is important as cards are not only what you play, but what you use to pay for other cards) the bonus for selecting this action is either seeing more cards to choose from or taking more cards, you choose by selecting one of two action cards for this action.
develop (in order action 2) which allows you to play certain types of cards by paying their costs (they typically are point scoring cards or cards that give you bonuses while playing other cards or taking other actions) the bonus for this action is simple, reduce the cost to play by 1.
settle (action 3) this phase you place planets, these things can really do anything, but the big thing they can do is get goods on them to sell for cards or points in a later phase. the bonus for playing this one is you draw a card after placing your planet.
consume (trade) with this action you first are able to trade a single good from a plant at a predetermined rate of trade (plus any bonuses you have from developments and planets) this often can get you way more cards then exploring would. This is actually a special action only available to the person that took the consume trade card which will still trigger the normal consume phase.
consume (action 4) you sell all of your goods that you can. Planets and developments have actions that allow you to sell the goods for points thus you resolve as many as you can, you get to choose the order though so if you want to keep some goods around and use up certain consumes up first so you can you can do that. There is a second consume card aside from trade that allows you to get double points.
finally the last action is produce... this one just puts more goods on your planets that support them. Those come in two flavors though, normal worlds that get goods, which all of them will get goods if anyone plays a produce action, and windfall worlds which only get goods if you choose produce (but come in play with one on them)... there are some cards that allow you to place goods on windfall worlds with the produce action merely being taken.
With the basic actions taken care of how the gameplay progresses is you just take actions and work on developing, settling, and consuming stuff to get the most points (each of the cards that you play have a point value) the way you end the game is someone gets 10 (or maybe 12... I can't remember which right now lol) cards in front of them or you run out of points (you use a set number based on how many players) to give people from trading.
Personally I really enjoy the game. There are a number of different ways you can win. There are also a number of expansions that alter the gameplay a decent amount (not all of the expansions play well with each other though as the newest one won't play with the older 3 at all) it should also be noted the base game only supports 4 players, it's not until you get any expansion that it supports 5.
It's hard to recommend race to people who can't remember symbols or don't like having a long explanation before a game... once you get the game down though it's very easy to remember and see how things play together. If you don't mind that though, and like the idea of a quick easy to set up resource management game it's really solid.
note: the cards you get are all randomly drawn from a deck... this doesn't mean the game is luck based as you will see enough cards to pick and choose in general... though if you hate the idea of taking from a random deck there is always draft rules in the rule book that would allow you to draft your own deck.
I think that should give you an idea about race
I dunno, I find that there's something more satisfying about the building aspect of the physical version. As if placing those tiles provides some kind of tactile feedback.
Suburbia has been such a huge hit with every group I table it with. I have people begging to play it nightly, feelsgood.jpg.
Keeping the deckbuilding love going I grew my Martin Wallace collection with Few Acres of Snow. Going to give it a go this evening, it looks so tight!
Please do not spoil the evil strategy for me! Thanks <3
Keeping the deckbuilding love going I grew my Martin Wallace collection with Few Acres of Snow. Going to give it a go this evening, it looks so tight!
Please do not spoil the evil strategy for me! Thanks <3
Yeah the artwork can be a bit hit and miss. From what I have seen Red-Devils is better art wise than Day of Days. I will post some impressions when I get a few games in. Too bad you didn't get in on the D-Day Sergeants Kickstarter. Way more of board game than miniatures and no measuring is needed. Plus it is much more easy on the wallet. Wonder if you could get in as a late backer?? Some nice stretch goals were reached.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1649576328/d-day-sergeants-boardgame?ref=live
I have been playing a lot of Tide of Iron lately and loving it. Glad that 1A Games has the licence and has a bunch of stuff in the works for the line.
BattleMonkey
Member
I love tossing down some Carcassonne despite massive collection of games.
Do it! We have a blast with it in my gaming group!
I would rather see Carcassonne on the table over Dominion...
of course that is true of most games over Dominion as quite frankly I don't enjoy Dominon at all.
Well, digital-wise, as I get too few occasions to play boardgames I went full on ipad boardgaming. But really, when all is said and done, I truly think one essential part is missing, the human one. Having grown in a solitary environment, let me tell you I truly love video games, but in the case of boardgames, nope, something is missing. Touching a piece of glass, playing with an AI or some faceless people...
And I hope that maybe, the things I hate about Carcassonne will be counter balanced with the pure fun of playing with tiles and human beings.
But yup, the risk of me hating the physical version is very real.
PS. Sorry about any engrish, the ipad dictionnary is not set on the proper language. Come to think of it, why do I not set it to English, I spend my life on Neogaf ^^
PS2. Well I must be honest, I'm a sheep... Errh no scratch that, what I mean is that being all too aware of the way one's taste is not set in stone, I take a liking at trying things many times to see if I truly don't like them or not. And Dominion is another one of those games. Trying the physical game I saw nothing more than a tedious shuffling card simulator. But the unofficial ios version was pretty fun, so who knows, maybe this time...
I find physical Carcassonne to be more satisfying. I like seeing the thing build out as we go along. I like that the table space you play on makes a natural boundary (which does affect the game - the rulebook actually states that if you run to the edge of the table, you cannot move the rest of the tiles to make room), and it's easier for me to look around and turn the tile to find a place for it.
Prophet Steve
Member
Yeah, I think the same. Although I never enjoy the digital version of a game more, although it is more convenient sometimes. My friends also wanted to play a lot of Puerto Rico only, but I never really enjoyed it.
A Few Acres of Snow is awesome. Perfect blend of wargame and deck-builder. I also picked up Wilderness War (also a French and Indian War game), which is also superb. Was Volko Ruhnke's first game before he designed Labyrinth and the COIN series.
That's awesome to hear. It's on my "buy" list, towards the top. Looking forward to getting it.
That looks pretty good. More up my alley. I LOVE miniatures; but not miniature GAMES. I need tiles or boards. Something a little more concrete with my groups as they're mostly newbs and friends (with a sprinkle of tabletop vets).
Yeah I'm pretty excited as well. Not gonna expand just yet as I haven't been able to fully bring it to the table. The gf isn't into the war-themed games, so the only chance I get with them is going solo to level up my hosting.
And the true purpose to tabletop: Interacting with...like, actual people.
Yeah I just dug out my core box as well and we're likely going to pick up some expansions this weekend. Watched the Tabletop episode of it played (while surfing for other stuff) and figured we should get back into it. It's been quite a while.
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