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The New Board Game Thread (Newcomer Friendly)
- Thread starter AstroLad
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mrklaw said:
I've played Zooloretto a bunch with/without the expansions, though not much with Aquaretto as that fell flat for us.
Don't give out the extra zoo enclosure for free - it's supposed to be a "big" investment to buy it but to me, it's a must purchase as you /need/ those extra points - the base board is so narrow in points otherwise.
Frankly, I don't think it requires many rule tweaks & giving out a free coin each round will break the economy - that's a /lot/ of extra money, about 18/20 coins! If you're running out of cash, what are players spending it on? Are you remembering that when you "buy" an animal from another player's barn, one coin goes to that player? /Are/ players buying animals that way?
The designer has a good list of the mini expansions/variants on his website BTW. Like the various Christmas/Essen give-aways.
Check out the OP if you haven't. Lots of light 2P games. If you like horror, it's way complex but I have to recommend Arkham Horror. Also Last Night on Earth for something campier and easier. Both games can be played with more, but work with two as you can just each take on the role of multiple investigators/heroes/zombies.BronzeWolf said:
Math trade results are out.
I'm trading Masons, Hera and Zeus, Formula De
Getting:
Through the Desert, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Tempus (Martin Wallace, hooray).
Only problem.. I thought this was a NA math trade. I'm paying the shipping costs above 10 dollars to get Leonardo Da Vinci in from France :lol
I'm trading Masons, Hera and Zeus, Formula De
Getting:
Through the Desert, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Tempus (Martin Wallace, hooray).
Only problem.. I thought this was a NA math trade. I'm paying the shipping costs above 10 dollars to get Leonardo Da Vinci in from France :lol
Artadius said:Math trade results are up.
Sending out World of Warcraft the Boardgame and receiving Battlestar Galactica. Not too bad (good on value for sure!). Was hoping to score an Arkham Horror or Agricola but I'm not complaining
Huge trade up considering I love one and hate the other. Shipping costs on WoW suck though. That thing is fucking huge.
Artadius said:Math trade results are up.
Sending out World of Warcraft the Boardgame and receiving Battlestar Galactica. Not too bad (good on value for sure!). Was hoping to score an Arkham Horror or Agricola but I'm not complaining
I'm interested in letting go of Arkham, what do you have to trade for it?
Played La Strada for the first time last night. It's got deceptively simple rules, but there tons of room for higher level strategy. it's a path-building game where you play as a merchant trying to expand your business to different towns. There are four types of towns (Hamlets, Villages, Towns and Cities) each one worth more points than the last. The way scoring works is: at the end of the game depending on how many players are occupying a town the point values change. having a monopoly on a city (as I did :]) nets you tons of points, whereas sharing a city with 3 other players gives you very little points. For the smaller two types (hamlets and villages) having too many players occupying them actually reduces their point value to 0, which makes for interesting strategies.
It's also a fairly quick game which is a nice change of pace (the box says 30 minutes; took us about 35 on our first play through, no counting setup and instruction reading).
It's also a fairly quick game which is a nice change of pace (the box says 30 minutes; took us about 35 on our first play through, no counting setup and instruction reading).
Thanks. We're doing the trade purchase properly, it's just that there isn't much money coming in on the trucks, so not much trading or expansion building - just the occasional remodelling. Maybe it's just the luck of the draw but it seems odd that there are so many wooden coins (which must cost money to make) but nobody ever has any of them, just the starting ones and some occasional cardboard onesdogbert said:
Edit: looking at the rules, you get 30 wooden coin tokens, but only 12 coin cards, so when will you ever use all 30 coins?
Chorazin said:I'm interested in letting go of Arkham, what do you have to trade for it?
The only thing I have currently that I'd be willing to part with is my second edition Axis and Allies game and I've already got someone thinking about this exact trade. If it doesn't happen, would you be interested?
After an epic six-hour gate-seal win against Azathoth last night, we had a one-hour game against Nyarlathotep today. We almost always go for gate seals, playing with 3, but The Terrible Experiment came out and monsters elsewhere in town conspired to block off the path to it, so we just said screw it, got blessed and geared up, and proceeded to wipe the floor with Nyarlathotep. Man, what a wuss. Not quite Ithaqua but still a wuss. We now have all the Innsmouth and Dunwich Location Encounters mixed in which really gives a great variety.
BomberMouse
Member
Yeef said:
Thanks for the heads up, it looks interesting, might be my first martin wallace game
Yeef said:Played La Strada for the first time last night. It's got deceptively simple rules, but there tons of room for higher level strategy. it's a path-building game where you play as a merchant trying to expand your business to different towns. There are four types of towns (Hamlets, Villages, Towns and Cities) each one worth more points than the last. The way scoring works is: at the end of the game depending on how many players are occupying a town the point values change. having a monopoly on a city (as I did :]) nets you tons of points, whereas sharing a city with 3 other players gives you very little points. For the smaller two types (hamlets and villages) having too many players occupying them actually reduces their point value to 0, which makes for interesting strategies.
It's also a fairly quick game which is a nice change of pace (the box says 30 minutes; took us about 35 on our first play through, no counting setup and instruction reading).
Looks like Steam of Catan!
AstroLad said:
I beat Nyarlathotep on my first encounter with him (gate seal victory) and lost to Cthulu (you're seriously fucked if he wakes up... I think it's impossible to kill him in time) and Yeg something or other. I'm going to try to beat all of them and then move into the one of the big box expansions (probably Dunwich Horror). This is by far my favorite game so far. It plays great even with 1 person.
I'm so thankful there's not a lot of rumor mythos cards. They're all so nasty.
Yeah Cthulhu is really tough if he wakes up. He got us too a few days ago. And yes rumors are a huge bitch unless you happen to be well-equipped for them. There's a character in Dunwich that lets you ignore a Mythos card once per turn for two clue tokens. Now that is power. And yeah the big-box expansions ratchet up the difficulty substantially.Mashing said:
So does GAF have any experience playing Diplomacy of the Dead? My friend describes it as World War Z in board game form. BGG has it rated quite well, but surprisingly this doesn't seem to be a particularly popular game.
dentoomw said:
I owned Zombie State and ended up trading it away. It didn't really go over well with the group of guys I play with.
I personally really dug the theme and some of the aspects of the game, but there is a brutal aspect to the game in how the zombies multiply on the board. By brutal I mean the zombie infestation is unrelenting and the game is really an exercise in chaos management as you watch your populations get munched. From a thematic standpoint it makes perfect sense that the more the zombies kill the faster their own population will grow, but as a player you have a very small window of opportunity to react.
I also really like how the tech research worked, though there have been complaints about the random aspect of it (you have to roll a die to successfully research something) but I thought it was a nice mechanic to illustrate just how under pressure everyone would be in a true zombie invasion and the die represents hasty testing, etc. Plus you "learn" from your failed rolls in the form of a die-bonus the next time you try and research the same tech.
As for player interaction, it's an odd bird with DotD. We didn't even scratch the surface of the game, but reading about it on the Geek there were lots of ways for players to negotiate and work cooperatively within the game system. Of course there is also the opportunity to screw over your neighbor by developing tech that will "guide" zombie hordes over the border and away from your people. But the interaction is not a very cut and dry process. There is no resource trading (which some thought seemed an odd mechanic to leave out) and you can't trade tech. You are on your own with only some means to influence other players. At least that's how it felt the 2 or 3 times I got to play.
The components are acceptable. The playing board and player tech sheets are nice, sturdy, and colorful; it comes with a crap ton of dice to use as population markers, and the plastic minis for tanks and border walls are fine. My biggest complaints would be around the cheap feel of the resource cards (there are decks of cards instead of cubes or chits). But I can see why they might have avoided chits because chits are how the zombies are represented and there are a lot of them. And then you have chits for the player boards to represent what tech you've completed, so there is a lot of stuff to manage.
With my group it simply wasn't fun. I'm a guy that likes to try new games (to the detriment of my wallet because I usually just research and buy) and I had high hopes for Diplomacy of the Dead and I would still like to have it in my collection, but I would never get it to table again and it didn't make sense to hold onto it while I could trade it away while it was still "hot."
I would say if you have a group who digs the theme, loves playing games that put you in a high-pressure situation, and don't mind the abstract indirect/direct player interaction that the game offers, the game could be for you.
joeyjoejoeshabadoo
Member
I've been (actually still am) out of town so my boardgamming has been slowed a bit. I did manage to pick up a couple light games to play with my fiancé (yeah that officially happened) while the baby goes down. I grabbed The Rivals for Catan and Bananagrams. Rivals for Catan is a reworking of the Catan card game. I hadn't played the original so I can't really comment on the changes but we both found the card game to scratch that Catan itch.
Bananagrams is a light word game that can be found just about anywhere. It's like Scrabble but with out the points and everybody is building their own crossword simultaneously. You start the game with a group of tiles and once you run out you yell peel and everyone has to grab another tile from the middle. This goes on until there are less tiles than players. The first person to yell bananas when they are out of tiles and their crossword is legal is the winner. We liked the game and found it to be a decent Scrabble replacement. There is no downtime and there aren't any of the Scrabble tricks to contend with.
Other than that we bought my fiancé's sister Ticket to Ride and Wits and Wagers. So, we ended up playing both on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve. Over all it's been a light couple of weeks but I'm itching to play something meatier and also firing to play 7 Wonders which I'll hopefully get to break out next Friday.
Bananagrams is a light word game that can be found just about anywhere. It's like Scrabble but with out the points and everybody is building their own crossword simultaneously. You start the game with a group of tiles and once you run out you yell peel and everyone has to grab another tile from the middle. This goes on until there are less tiles than players. The first person to yell bananas when they are out of tiles and their crossword is legal is the winner. We liked the game and found it to be a decent Scrabble replacement. There is no downtime and there aren't any of the Scrabble tricks to contend with.
Other than that we bought my fiancé's sister Ticket to Ride and Wits and Wagers. So, we ended up playing both on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve. Over all it's been a light couple of weeks but I'm itching to play something meatier and also firing to play 7 Wonders which I'll hopefully get to break out next Friday.
So,
question time for GAF.
I won Leonardo Da Vinci from the math trade. Problem is, it is sitting in France (though it is English rules). It is going to cost me 25 dollars in shipping to get it to the US. Has anyone played it? Is it worth it?
It's rated around 500 on BGG and is some kind of worker placement game involving making inventions. Sounds like it could be fun and I only have 2 worker placement games (Le Havre, Carson City) at this point so it's not like I already have 20 bajillion of them or anything.
question time for GAF.
I won Leonardo Da Vinci from the math trade. Problem is, it is sitting in France (though it is English rules). It is going to cost me 25 dollars in shipping to get it to the US. Has anyone played it? Is it worth it?
It's rated around 500 on BGG and is some kind of worker placement game involving making inventions. Sounds like it could be fun and I only have 2 worker placement games (Le Havre, Carson City) at this point so it's not like I already have 20 bajillion of them or anything.
Never played it but it's always on super sale at CSI: http://www.coolstuffinc.com/main_bo...GLeonardoDaVinci#Leonardo Da Vinci Board Game
and with that piece out of the way.. a good light weekend of gaming.
on Friday on my way down to San Antonio I dropped my dog off at my parents place and had a game of Twilight Struggle with my dad. I was the US again and won in round 8 with control of Europe. I got a card that allowed me to remove up to 2 influence up to 5 total and removed his control of East Germany and Poland which were the last two battlegrounds I was missing. I was then able to take over with the play of a 4 point US card to take control over Poland and then the China card on the next turn to take East Germany.
Played Power Grid on the Brazil map yesterday. ROUGH ROUGH ROUGH. There are no resources to be had at all on this map. As a result the game took about 30 minutes longer because everyone was constantly having to stock up on fuel and switch plants for a cheaper fuel type. One of the most cutthroat games of PG I've played.
on Friday on my way down to San Antonio I dropped my dog off at my parents place and had a game of Twilight Struggle with my dad. I was the US again and won in round 8 with control of Europe. I got a card that allowed me to remove up to 2 influence up to 5 total and removed his control of East Germany and Poland which were the last two battlegrounds I was missing. I was then able to take over with the play of a 4 point US card to take control over Poland and then the China card on the next turn to take East Germany.
Played Power Grid on the Brazil map yesterday. ROUGH ROUGH ROUGH. There are no resources to be had at all on this map. As a result the game took about 30 minutes longer because everyone was constantly having to stock up on fuel and switch plants for a cheaper fuel type. One of the most cutthroat games of PG I've played.
AstroLad said:
Thanks. So it would basically be really really stupid to get it shipped for 25 :lol
Kind of ticked. They almost always run the math trades as region specific and I don't mind shipping to Canada since it's only 2-3 bucks more than shipping to the states. I should have paid closer attention still, but didn't think that a French guy would be in a math trade that was 99% North Americans.
edit: in a brilliant idea, I'm going to have the French guy paypal me the 15 dollars he was putting towards shipping so that I can buy a copy of the game for 5 dollars after shipping costs.
Ah yes holiday gaming wrap-up!
Carcassonne: Played only one game of this, but my mom in particular really loved it. Probably helps that she's French.
Pandemic: A big hit early when we were looking for co-op stuff. I almost never play co-op games regularly but with family around they were just perfect. Finally sort of got why people enjoy this game. The expansion is quite nice too. Will definitely break this out more often in the future, especially with new people around.
Forbidden Island: Pandemic Lite as always. My mom liked this a lot more than Pandemic, mostly because of the reduced difficulty level and theme.
Agricola: Amazingly I taught this to my mom, dad, and brother all in one sitting. Our first game was really fun if a bit stressful because everyone was trying to figure things out. I don't play Family Game-style so I certainly don't make things easy on anyone. Thank God for the super-friendly bits and theme, which won my parents over. My brother and Dad got pissed at their cards and I was like wtf you don't even know what any of the other cards are! Gric is funny in that in casual play it has that grass-is-greener effect where everyone goes "awwww I can't believe you got that -- I want that" about others' cards. It is a tough game to win if you are at different experience levels (>5 plays) though. But at least making a cute farm is fun enough for most.
Twilight Struggle: Like stooge, also played this several times with my Dad, who said it was his favorite game out of all those we played. And I'd have to put it near the top too. Just a real treat to play this against someone who is a history buff, and our games were mostly really good too. My brother liked it as well.
Labyrinth: Spent about three hours learning this and then played roughly a two-hour game with my dad. He liked it, but not as much as TS and we didn't break it out again. He said it felt more abstracted to him than TS, or at least more difficult to pin down a goal in. I dunno, I actually liked it a lot. Not sure how often it will hit the table though as it's a real bear to teach, and I dare say nearly impossible to teach to someone who doesn't have TS, or at least strategy-game, experience.
Arkham Horror: BREAKOUT HIT ALERT. Man, it had been like nine months since I last played AH. My dad and brother are both into CRPGs (my dad more from back in the days of Ultima) so they just both took to the gameplay really quickly. I mean we were just spamming games of AH, up to 4 per day. It was usually just the three of us though, so when we integrated Innsmouth it was a bit too much in terms of difficulty. But still tons of fun. Here I was maybe a few weeks away from selling my pretty AH set and now it's at the top of the pile in terms of things to play.
Neuroshima Hex: The only game my dad didn't like! I only taught it to him though. I dunno, I like NH a good deal. Think it's a really fun light, quick tactical game. But sometimes I think I'm one of the few. It's an abstract is what I think throws people considering the theme.
Dominion: Actually not that big of a hit. My dad liked it but didn't really get wrapped up in it on his first play. Mom didn't really like it, not a huge surprise. It just sort of left the table early and didn't return. Even I myself am hot and cold on Dominion and that was just a cold spell.
Memoir 44: My brother really liked this. It was the first game we played and he immediately wanted to play the expansions. But the competition got a little too heated and he got a little too pissed off at his die rolls so I shelved it a few plays in. :lol
Monsterpocalypse - Voltron: Bit of a dud. Learned and played with my brother, who used to play Warhammer so certainly wasn't intimidated by it. But the game was sort of meh. Pew-pewed each other until our big guys came out and then the game was over in three turns. Obviously there was a ton of strategy that we missed out on, but with all the other games we had to play MonPoc just didn't come out again.
Carcassonne: Played only one game of this, but my mom in particular really loved it. Probably helps that she's French.
Pandemic: A big hit early when we were looking for co-op stuff. I almost never play co-op games regularly but with family around they were just perfect. Finally sort of got why people enjoy this game. The expansion is quite nice too. Will definitely break this out more often in the future, especially with new people around.
Forbidden Island: Pandemic Lite as always. My mom liked this a lot more than Pandemic, mostly because of the reduced difficulty level and theme.
Agricola: Amazingly I taught this to my mom, dad, and brother all in one sitting. Our first game was really fun if a bit stressful because everyone was trying to figure things out. I don't play Family Game-style so I certainly don't make things easy on anyone. Thank God for the super-friendly bits and theme, which won my parents over. My brother and Dad got pissed at their cards and I was like wtf you don't even know what any of the other cards are! Gric is funny in that in casual play it has that grass-is-greener effect where everyone goes "awwww I can't believe you got that -- I want that" about others' cards. It is a tough game to win if you are at different experience levels (>5 plays) though. But at least making a cute farm is fun enough for most.
Twilight Struggle: Like stooge, also played this several times with my Dad, who said it was his favorite game out of all those we played. And I'd have to put it near the top too. Just a real treat to play this against someone who is a history buff, and our games were mostly really good too. My brother liked it as well.
Labyrinth: Spent about three hours learning this and then played roughly a two-hour game with my dad. He liked it, but not as much as TS and we didn't break it out again. He said it felt more abstracted to him than TS, or at least more difficult to pin down a goal in. I dunno, I actually liked it a lot. Not sure how often it will hit the table though as it's a real bear to teach, and I dare say nearly impossible to teach to someone who doesn't have TS, or at least strategy-game, experience.
Arkham Horror: BREAKOUT HIT ALERT. Man, it had been like nine months since I last played AH. My dad and brother are both into CRPGs (my dad more from back in the days of Ultima) so they just both took to the gameplay really quickly. I mean we were just spamming games of AH, up to 4 per day. It was usually just the three of us though, so when we integrated Innsmouth it was a bit too much in terms of difficulty. But still tons of fun. Here I was maybe a few weeks away from selling my pretty AH set and now it's at the top of the pile in terms of things to play.
Neuroshima Hex: The only game my dad didn't like! I only taught it to him though. I dunno, I like NH a good deal. Think it's a really fun light, quick tactical game. But sometimes I think I'm one of the few. It's an abstract is what I think throws people considering the theme.
Dominion: Actually not that big of a hit. My dad liked it but didn't really get wrapped up in it on his first play. Mom didn't really like it, not a huge surprise. It just sort of left the table early and didn't return. Even I myself am hot and cold on Dominion and that was just a cold spell.
Memoir 44: My brother really liked this. It was the first game we played and he immediately wanted to play the expansions. But the competition got a little too heated and he got a little too pissed off at his die rolls so I shelved it a few plays in. :lol
Monsterpocalypse - Voltron: Bit of a dud. Learned and played with my brother, who used to play Warhammer so certainly wasn't intimidated by it. But the game was sort of meh. Pew-pewed each other until our big guys came out and then the game was over in three turns. Obviously there was a ton of strategy that we missed out on, but with all the other games we had to play MonPoc just didn't come out again.
Played Catan Histories: Settlers of America - Trails to Rails *long breath* last night. AKA Catanamerica.
I must say that I really enjoyed it. It uses the Catan basics (hexes producing on number rolls, trading, development cards and building stuff) and puts it into a different scenario and set of goals. The goal is to deliver all of your 'goods cubes' to opponent cities. To be able to deliver them you have to have built one of your own cities and then moved your train to an opponent city. And the train needs rails to move, whether yours or your opponents (which you have to pay to use).
The interesting balance of the game is that since you need cities to produce resources and goods cubes, and since you need to build rails from those cities to get your train to opposing cities you are creating plenty of opportunities for your opponents to deliver their own cubes to your city.
By the end of the 4-player game we played last night any 3 of us had the opportunity to win on that turn. So it was a very close run thing. Obviously we'll have to play a few more games to develop strategies and whatnot, but I definitely enjoyed the first game.
I also played Caylus on Thursday night, but I was honestly a few too many drinks into the evening to give any sort of reaction to it.
I must say that I really enjoyed it. It uses the Catan basics (hexes producing on number rolls, trading, development cards and building stuff) and puts it into a different scenario and set of goals. The goal is to deliver all of your 'goods cubes' to opponent cities. To be able to deliver them you have to have built one of your own cities and then moved your train to an opponent city. And the train needs rails to move, whether yours or your opponents (which you have to pay to use).
The interesting balance of the game is that since you need cities to produce resources and goods cubes, and since you need to build rails from those cities to get your train to opposing cities you are creating plenty of opportunities for your opponents to deliver their own cubes to your city.
By the end of the 4-player game we played last night any 3 of us had the opportunity to win on that turn. So it was a very close run thing. Obviously we'll have to play a few more games to develop strategies and whatnot, but I definitely enjoyed the first game.
I also played Caylus on Thursday night, but I was honestly a few too many drinks into the evening to give any sort of reaction to it.
BomberMouse
Member
All of you make me really jealous :lol, I was only able to put a game of Lost Cities and a game of Thebes (it's probably my wife current favourite game). I actually enjoy the high luck factor of the "digging", at least it provides lots of laughs when you spend 8 weeks digging 10 artifacts and they are all dirt
Didn't get to play any games over the holdays, even though I got so many as gifts. Hopefully I'll get to play Dominion and Forbidden Island tomorrow night, and gonna use my new minis and terrain for Heroscape this weekend for sure.
Not sure when I'll get to break out Dust Tactics.
Not sure when I'll get to break out Dust Tactics.
HappyBivouac
Member
My holiday season was a little Arkham Horror with friends and a lot of Dominion + Intrigue. Dominion was a first time for both my friends and family and was a huge hit with just about everyone. Actually in many cases my family are better gamers/better competition than my friends, which is a bit odd.
BattleMonkey
Member
Chorazin said:Not sure when I'll get to break out Dust Tactics.
Well maybe you will have the expansions out by the time you get to it, which should make it better. The base game is nice, but it's very simple and straight forward. The two factions have lot of similarities and it's a move and shoot game. The game is nice quick ruleset but it needs some more unique units and abilities to flesh it out and make it more interesting at this point.
Okay, so the mystery gift I was given for Christmas was Power Grid. Which really didn't work well for the group I play with. They found it too maintenance heavy, so I might end up having to trade it for something else in the future.
And I actually felt it had potential until folks started getting antsy about all the little pieces they had to keep track of.
Oh well. At least it wasn't horrible like Twilight.
And I actually felt it had potential until folks started getting antsy about all the little pieces they had to keep track of.
Oh well. At least it wasn't horrible like Twilight.
Played Android with my mom and brother last week. Even though all the pieces make it look daunting, the rules aren't complex - there are just a lot of them. It's really three games in one - plot resolution for each of the characters, uncovering the conspiracy with puzzle pieces, and manipulating evidence to make your hunch character guilty.
Some people don't like that there is no 'true' suspect, but I don't have a problem with that gameplay-wise or thematically. If you do, there are Director's Cut rules (although obviously not by the game designer), which change the game so that there is actually a deduction process.
Things I like - the story, how each player has a different, unique character, the art (for the most part). Each of the three "games" could be easily separated and made into their own small separate games, and they are all pretty intriguing. The evidence game is interesting in how you can manipulate the evidence others have placed on suspects to make them innocent or guilty, and there is also a skill in not revealing who your hunch is (because other players can turn your evidence against you, or worse, try to kill the suspect and nullify all evidence on that person).
I don't have a problem with the length (should be about 2-3 hours if your group knows what they are doing), but there are some turns where you don't quite have any particular goal. The more you know about the game, though, the less often this happens.
My biggest problem is that the interaction between the players and different aspects of the game feel a little loose. You don't get a sense that each card or action is directly tied to a particular strategy - some make the game easier for you or harder, but there are so many different aspects that it feels like a strategy consists of a bunch of 'good' cards, but not so much an interaction between cards that work well with each other. I think with a couple months of streamlining this game could be a lot better, but as it stands, I really enjoy it.
Some people don't like that there is no 'true' suspect, but I don't have a problem with that gameplay-wise or thematically. If you do, there are Director's Cut rules (although obviously not by the game designer), which change the game so that there is actually a deduction process.
Things I like - the story, how each player has a different, unique character, the art (for the most part). Each of the three "games" could be easily separated and made into their own small separate games, and they are all pretty intriguing. The evidence game is interesting in how you can manipulate the evidence others have placed on suspects to make them innocent or guilty, and there is also a skill in not revealing who your hunch is (because other players can turn your evidence against you, or worse, try to kill the suspect and nullify all evidence on that person).
I don't have a problem with the length (should be about 2-3 hours if your group knows what they are doing), but there are some turns where you don't quite have any particular goal. The more you know about the game, though, the less often this happens.
My biggest problem is that the interaction between the players and different aspects of the game feel a little loose. You don't get a sense that each card or action is directly tied to a particular strategy - some make the game easier for you or harder, but there are so many different aspects that it feels like a strategy consists of a bunch of 'good' cards, but not so much an interaction between cards that work well with each other. I think with a couple months of streamlining this game could be a lot better, but as it stands, I really enjoy it.
echoshifting
Banned
Vinci said:
You got a want list? I'll trade ya for it. I'll put a few games on my trade list, take a look at my profile sometime today if you really want to trade it (echoshifting).
edit: That's not a complete list, so a want list would still be helpful if you have one. Are you Vinci on bgg?
Vinci said:
The best thing to do with that is to have one person know the rules well and run it all themselves. There is a fair amount to do especially in the last step.
Not trying to talk you out of the trade, but play the game at least one more time and make sure you have all the little fiddly bits down (how much to restock, to put the highest numbered plant at the bottom of the draw deck, turn order, etc). Auction games are notorious for creating problems with the first place simply because you are bidding on things you don't fully comprehend.
I recommend this for most games too! It's funny how easy a game can be when you don't have to worry about all the little upkeep details. I think most of the people in this thread are usually the learners/teachers so we really get to relish in all the complexity of each game. But, for example, AH is really almost a lightweight game if you have someone who can manage the terror track, monster limits, status effects, environments, and rumors in play and only fill people in as to the pertinent details.StoOgE said:
Exactly, and it allows the other players to focus on the strategy/core mechanics of the game without worrying about the fiddly bits.
When I play Power Grid with my parents we have a good system. I control turn order and the plants. My mom is the banker and my dad deals with the fuel resupply. Makes the whole thing go really quickly.
When I play with others, I handle it all typically because it can be a lot to keep up with the first few times you play the game.
When I play Power Grid with my parents we have a good system. I control turn order and the plants. My mom is the banker and my dad deals with the fuel resupply. Makes the whole thing go really quickly.
When I play with others, I handle it all typically because it can be a lot to keep up with the first few times you play the game.
Gaming Truth
Member
ultron87 said:
I broke out Catanamerica on my friends two days ago. My only other experience was a 15-minute demo at GenCon, so it took a little while to get started. Everyone seemed to pick it up pretty quick. Not only that, but I found myself in dead last halfway through the game (this normally happens; just because I know the rules doesn't mean I play correctly). On the turn I won the game, one other player was his turn away from winning, the other two players were down to one unproduced city each.
I catapulted to first from last by building a railroad in the Rockies (my other three attempts at rails were blocked by a trans-continental rail by one player), stockpiling coal, and having an uber-turn where I built a train and ran it the length of my railroad, dropping off three goods. At that point, my trade status went from Pitied to Oh Shit, Hmm..., Maybe. =)
Maklershed
Member
Question - We just started doing family game nights in my house and we were in the mood for a trivia type game so obviously we choose Trivial Pursuit. Well I don't know if we got the wrong version or what .. I think we got the plane jane kind .. but the questions are ridiculous. One of them is like "how many students out of 10 graduate from Harvard with honors". We were hoping for stuff people could actually know without guessing ... like what temperature in celsius does water boil or Wayne Gretzky spent most of his career on what team .. stuff like that. Does anyone have any suggestions for a trivia game with good 'trivia' type questions?
StoOgE said:
I tried a practice session of Power Grid before playing it with the group, so I managed pretty much everything during our run-through. Something about all the bits and the process of the game just annoyed them. I've already asked that we try it once more, so I haven't given up on it yet, but I don't know how the result could change.
Doublethink
Banned
It was pretty much nothing but board games for me and my friends over the holiday break.
The Settlers of Catan: This game was the early favorite. It was really easy for everyone to learn and everyone loved the trading aspect of the game. We did play it way too much, though, so we got tired of it after a while.
D&D: Castle Ravenloft: Maybe it's because I'm disorganized but this game is sort of a pain in the ass to setup. But it is a lot of fun. My group is composed of former D&D players so the rules were really easy to pick up and everyone had a blast with the co-op nature of the game. I don't think my friends appreciated my foolhardy wizard and his measly 6 hp though :lol. My only complaint with this game is that it starts to feel samey after a while.
Dominion: Without a doubt my group's favorite game. It took us a few game to finally get all of the rules right but we couldn't get enough of this game. I think what we liked most about it was the made scramble towards the end as everyone rushes to buy the most victory points. We also tried Alchemy and Prosperity. We were meh on Alchemy but Prosperity was amazing. The inclusion of treasure cards that did stuff just made things a lot more fun.
Carcassonne: We really didn't like this at first. We played one game, thought it was boring, and put it away. I'm so glad we gave it another chance. The problem with the first game was that everyone was off doing his own thing. The next few games, however, we found out how to steal other people's cities and fields. After that it became a lot more fun. The best game we played had me and friend battling over a field. We were both determined to have that field and we had both managed to get two farmers onto it. Then we realized that the field was only worth six points. Meanwhile, my other friend had a field to herself worth nine points. So me and my friend decided to put aside our battle and worked together to add her field to ours. Once we successfully did so it became a race again to see who could add the third farmer to the field. So good.
I think I've managed to get my friends addicted to board games :lol. I'm planning on moving on to the harder stuff but I think we'll stick with the light games for now. I'll probably get a few expansions for the games I have just to spice them up a bit. I'm also going to get Ticket to Ride and Stone Age. After those games get old, then I'll move on to Puerto Rico and Agricola.
The Settlers of Catan: This game was the early favorite. It was really easy for everyone to learn and everyone loved the trading aspect of the game. We did play it way too much, though, so we got tired of it after a while.
D&D: Castle Ravenloft: Maybe it's because I'm disorganized but this game is sort of a pain in the ass to setup. But it is a lot of fun. My group is composed of former D&D players so the rules were really easy to pick up and everyone had a blast with the co-op nature of the game. I don't think my friends appreciated my foolhardy wizard and his measly 6 hp though :lol. My only complaint with this game is that it starts to feel samey after a while.
Dominion: Without a doubt my group's favorite game. It took us a few game to finally get all of the rules right but we couldn't get enough of this game. I think what we liked most about it was the made scramble towards the end as everyone rushes to buy the most victory points. We also tried Alchemy and Prosperity. We were meh on Alchemy but Prosperity was amazing. The inclusion of treasure cards that did stuff just made things a lot more fun.
Carcassonne: We really didn't like this at first. We played one game, thought it was boring, and put it away. I'm so glad we gave it another chance. The problem with the first game was that everyone was off doing his own thing. The next few games, however, we found out how to steal other people's cities and fields. After that it became a lot more fun. The best game we played had me and friend battling over a field. We were both determined to have that field and we had both managed to get two farmers onto it. Then we realized that the field was only worth six points. Meanwhile, my other friend had a field to herself worth nine points. So me and my friend decided to put aside our battle and worked together to add her field to ours. Once we successfully did so it became a race again to see who could add the third farmer to the field. So good.
I think I've managed to get my friends addicted to board games :lol. I'm planning on moving on to the harder stuff but I think we'll stick with the light games for now. I'll probably get a few expansions for the games I have just to spice them up a bit. I'm also going to get Ticket to Ride and Stone Age. After those games get old, then I'll move on to Puerto Rico and Agricola.
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