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The New Board Game Thread (Newcomer Friendly)
- Thread starter AstroLad
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Amibguous Cad
Member
Just ordered Puzzle Strike and Yomi. I'm super excited; I love Sirlin's stuff.
platypotamus
Member
StoOgE said:
Bombermouse is holding up Arkadia, and joeyjoejoeshabadoojr is holding up st pete
AstroLad said:
If you go into your stats and look at the game again, you can mouseover some part of the right side to see it. Oddly, it's the player's population count. Even more oddly, I think you can see all the info DURING a game, which I don't think you can when playing in person? Cards are secret right?
I actually *really* enjoyed Lords of Vegas when I played it.
If the card backs were the logo with a green poker table background and the money were poker chips the game would become 100000x better.
Also, the casinos should be themed like the 50s era Vegas casinos, not look like modern ones.
Other than that, stellar game... kind of like Aquire meets Las Vegas and it really drips with theme. It has dice rolls, but you are playing the odds and its a game based on Vegas for pete's sake.
If the card backs were the logo with a green poker table background and the money were poker chips the game would become 100000x better.
Also, the casinos should be themed like the 50s era Vegas casinos, not look like modern ones.
Other than that, stellar game... kind of like Aquire meets Las Vegas and it really drips with theme. It has dice rolls, but you are playing the odds and its a game based on Vegas for pete's sake.
So, two games tonight.
Played an 8 player game of Shadows over Camelot + Merlin's Company.
The expansion is good, not great. I don't see any reason to ever play without the expansion, but I don't see it as a real game changer. There are some more nasty special black deck cards, but there are also some pretty awesome new white deck cards. Similarly, the travel deck can really kick your ass, but getting Merlin on your quest (especially Excalibur) is insanely useful.
So, I don't really see it as making the game harder so much as it is making the game a bit more strategically deep. Not a lot more, but you have the thought of "well, changing quests could bring out a bad card.. or it could move Merlin off of that quest he is helping on". So, it kind of makes it beneficial to stay on one quest and not be so cavalier about moving around the board. I would say the biggest improvement is it feels thematically like you are actually going on a quest since there is danger in even attempting the move.
The game itself was long. 8 players is too many. There was about 15 minutes of downtime between moves and several people were waning in interest towards the middle. The games end was so close that everyone got really into it. I named one traitor, then we completed the grail quest which left us with a majority white swords and only one spot left. The kicker being if we didn't uncover the second (potential) traitor we would lose the game when two swords flipped at the end. My friend Jon chose between two of the people I suspected and was wrong so we lost by 1 sword after two white swords were flipped. Super intense game. Ton of fun other than the downtime issues. Though, even that had its plus side, we got to bullshit a lot during the game and everyone was really nice.
My second game was London. WOW.
I had heard this was "Martin Wallace does a card game". I didn't realize this was "Martin Wallace does Race for the Galaxy". Cards are played in a tableau, cards are resources but your card draws aren't completely blind either. You can build a large tableue or keep it small and build over existing cards. It's a risk reward system as having too large of a tableau (and too many cards in hand) leads to VP losses at game end. So it really pushes a streamlined efficient deck.
There is a board, but half of it is a place to put cards face up for a draw pile, and the rest is a map of London. You can buy parts of London for VP points (and forced card draws) and there are some interesting cards that give you VP points for ever parcel you own next to the Thames or North of the Thames.. and in the late game you can add Underground stations to your parts of the city for 2 extra VP per connected area. But the board while integral to the game really plays 2nd fiddle to the tableau building game.
Phenomenally good game, and extremely simple for a Wallace game too. Dare I say it is an elegant, streamlined Wallace game?
It certainly felt simpler than RFTG with more depth based on 1 play.
Played an 8 player game of Shadows over Camelot + Merlin's Company.
The expansion is good, not great. I don't see any reason to ever play without the expansion, but I don't see it as a real game changer. There are some more nasty special black deck cards, but there are also some pretty awesome new white deck cards. Similarly, the travel deck can really kick your ass, but getting Merlin on your quest (especially Excalibur) is insanely useful.
So, I don't really see it as making the game harder so much as it is making the game a bit more strategically deep. Not a lot more, but you have the thought of "well, changing quests could bring out a bad card.. or it could move Merlin off of that quest he is helping on". So, it kind of makes it beneficial to stay on one quest and not be so cavalier about moving around the board. I would say the biggest improvement is it feels thematically like you are actually going on a quest since there is danger in even attempting the move.
The game itself was long. 8 players is too many. There was about 15 minutes of downtime between moves and several people were waning in interest towards the middle. The games end was so close that everyone got really into it. I named one traitor, then we completed the grail quest which left us with a majority white swords and only one spot left. The kicker being if we didn't uncover the second (potential) traitor we would lose the game when two swords flipped at the end. My friend Jon chose between two of the people I suspected and was wrong so we lost by 1 sword after two white swords were flipped. Super intense game. Ton of fun other than the downtime issues. Though, even that had its plus side, we got to bullshit a lot during the game and everyone was really nice.
My second game was London. WOW.
I had heard this was "Martin Wallace does a card game". I didn't realize this was "Martin Wallace does Race for the Galaxy". Cards are played in a tableau, cards are resources but your card draws aren't completely blind either. You can build a large tableue or keep it small and build over existing cards. It's a risk reward system as having too large of a tableau (and too many cards in hand) leads to VP losses at game end. So it really pushes a streamlined efficient deck.
There is a board, but half of it is a place to put cards face up for a draw pile, and the rest is a map of London. You can buy parts of London for VP points (and forced card draws) and there are some interesting cards that give you VP points for ever parcel you own next to the Thames or North of the Thames.. and in the late game you can add Underground stations to your parts of the city for 2 extra VP per connected area. But the board while integral to the game really plays 2nd fiddle to the tableau building game.
Phenomenally good game, and extremely simple for a Wallace game too. Dare I say it is an elegant, streamlined Wallace game?
It certainly felt simpler than RFTG with more depth based on 1 play.
Unison said:
Sigh... so jealous. I'm a big mystery fan and a fan of the original ACD Holmes stories so I'm sure I would love it.
There is one copy on the BGG marketplace for $62, which is more than I can afford. There is also a lot on Amazon that includes the base game, Mansion Murders, and Queen's PArk affair for $120.
Why is it that as soon as Xmas is over I think of a bunch of awesome stuff I want, bu in Nov-Dec I never have any gift ideas for anyone? :/
BomberMouse
Member
platypotamus said:
Sorry, I'm not accustomed to the new yucata interface, I just accepted the invitation.
Cards an buildings are not secret information in Stone Age
joeyjoejoeshabadoo
Member
Shit, sorry about that. I thought I set it up to notify me when it was my turn. I'll get to it when I get to the office in about an hour.platypotamus said:
joeyjoejoeshabadoo
Member
Ok I accepted the invite.joeyjoejoeshabadoo said:
echoshifting
Banned
All right I'm going to make a point of checking this thread around the lunch hour (PST) for Dominion games. 
Made it to my weekly game night for the first time in a few weeks (thanks work & sick kids!). Other table played High Frontier, crazy complicated space race game. We played 4 player Tammany Hall followed by 3 player 7 Wonders.
I was the only player who'd played Tammany Hall before... I stressed how important it was to not let someone run away with it & so I hammered someone who went ahead early at the midpoint of the game, practically wiping him off the board & preventing him from being mayor 3 times in a row. Ended up being really tight & nail biting game. I won by about 6 points... Went over really well.
7 Wonders was its usual light fluffy filler self. 2 games, won the second by about 20 points. I find it almost no different playing with 3 players vs 7 players (only notable difference - you see less cards). Not sure if that's a good thing.
I was the only player who'd played Tammany Hall before... I stressed how important it was to not let someone run away with it & so I hammered someone who went ahead early at the midpoint of the game, practically wiping him off the board & preventing him from being mayor 3 times in a row. Ended up being really tight & nail biting game. I won by about 6 points... Went over really well.
7 Wonders was its usual light fluffy filler self. 2 games, won the second by about 20 points. I find it almost no different playing with 3 players vs 7 players (only notable difference - you see less cards). Not sure if that's a good thing.
fenners said:
I'm bringing it to the table (finally) on Saturday night at a game night. I think it will go over well, it's such a tight game and it plays so quickly.
I think the key things to stress:
1) Don't let someone get a big lead
2) Try and win at least 1 immigrant bonus especially in early rounds
3) It's a political game, make and break alliances to get what you need. There is no reason not to make a deal to allow someone to be mayor if they put you in the a job you want. And no reason for the Mayor not to renege on that promise
StoOgE said:I'm bringing it to the table (finally) on Saturday night at a game night. I think it will go over well, it's such a tight game and it plays so quickly.
I think the key things to stress:
1) Don't let someone get a big lead
2) Try and win at least 1 immigrant bonus especially in early rounds
3) It's a political game, make and break alliances to get what you need. There is no reason not to make a deal to allow someone to be mayor if they put you in the a job you want. And no reason for the Mayor not to renege on that promise
Yep, after the game two of the players commented that they let me get too many of the "waterfront" bonuses in the last two elections. In the very last election, I got 3 out of 4 with only one of them contested!
Amibguous Cad
Member
Damn, Arkham Horror has gotten way too easy for our group of players. We even had someone playing as a GM last night, controlling the Old One- his goal was to kill the players, and whenever an encounter or Mythos card would be drawn, he got to draw 2 and pick the one he wanted to resolve- we still won by permasealing gates easily. 4 games in and we've still never had to fight an Old One. How do we make this stuff harder?
I think I like Arkadia, but think I must have been confused.
It only let me set one of my guys and close out a single building when I wanted to place 3 and close out two different buildings. Can you only place workers until a building is surrounded? Only place 1 worker at a time?
Also, that special blue card up in St Pete right now lets you hold 4 cards in hand instead of the normal limit of 3, but remember it's minus 5 VP for every card in hand at gmes end.
The rest are straight money for VP cards.
It only let me set one of my guys and close out a single building when I wanted to place 3 and close out two different buildings. Can you only place workers until a building is surrounded? Only place 1 worker at a time?
Also, that special blue card up in St Pete right now lets you hold 4 cards in hand instead of the normal limit of 3, but remember it's minus 5 VP for every card in hand at gmes end.
The rest are straight money for VP cards.
In fact here are the special cards since the rest of the game is straightforward.
Two special rules:
When the player has a gold smelter in his play area, he pays 1 ruble less for each red card he buys (after he has the gold smelter).
When a player has a carpenter workshop in his play area, he pays 1 ruble less for each blue card he buys after he has it.
Mariinskij Theater
The aristocrats love theater: When scoring the buildings, the player earns 1 ruble for each aristocrat that he has in his play area.
Potjomkin's Village
The virtual village pays for itself: The player pays 2 rubles when he buys/places the card. If he displaces the card with a trading card, it is worth 6 rubles.
StoOgE's note: remember, the cost of the "upgrade" cards (4th phase) is the cost of the upgrade less the cost of the card you are using to displace it with.. so this is a good bang for your buck card to buy an upgraded building and play over Potjomkin's Village
Tax Man
Unattractive job, but important: When scoring the aristocrats, the player earns 1 ruble for each worker that he has in his play area.
StoOgE's note: SUPER AWESOME CARD
Warehouse
Good, but dangerous: The player can have up to 4 cards in his hand
Pub
Don't spend too much: Immediately after each scoring of buildings, the player can buy up to 5 points. Each point costs 2 rubles. (The player cannot "buy" 2 rubles for 1 point.)
Czar and Carpenter
Czar Peter can do it all: He can be displaced by any green trading card.
Observatory
1 secure point or a good opportunity: The observatory is worth 1 point in scoring if the player does not use the following: once, during the blue actions, he may draw the top-most card from the stack of his choice (it may not be the last card in the stack). He must immediately either buy and place the card or add the card to his hand or discard the card. In each case, he turns the observatory card over and will score not points for it. To begin the next round, he turns it face-up so it is again available for scoring or its special ability.
Two special rules:
When the player has a gold smelter in his play area, he pays 1 ruble less for each red card he buys (after he has the gold smelter).
When a player has a carpenter workshop in his play area, he pays 1 ruble less for each blue card he buys after he has it.
Mariinskij Theater
The aristocrats love theater: When scoring the buildings, the player earns 1 ruble for each aristocrat that he has in his play area.
Potjomkin's Village
The virtual village pays for itself: The player pays 2 rubles when he buys/places the card. If he displaces the card with a trading card, it is worth 6 rubles.
StoOgE's note: remember, the cost of the "upgrade" cards (4th phase) is the cost of the upgrade less the cost of the card you are using to displace it with.. so this is a good bang for your buck card to buy an upgraded building and play over Potjomkin's Village
Tax Man
Unattractive job, but important: When scoring the aristocrats, the player earns 1 ruble for each worker that he has in his play area.
StoOgE's note: SUPER AWESOME CARD
Warehouse
Good, but dangerous: The player can have up to 4 cards in his hand
Pub
Don't spend too much: Immediately after each scoring of buildings, the player can buy up to 5 points. Each point costs 2 rubles. (The player cannot "buy" 2 rubles for 1 point.)
Czar and Carpenter
Czar Peter can do it all: He can be displaced by any green trading card.
Observatory
1 secure point or a good opportunity: The observatory is worth 1 point in scoring if the player does not use the following: once, during the blue actions, he may draw the top-most card from the stack of his choice (it may not be the last card in the stack). He must immediately either buy and place the card or add the card to his hand or discard the card. In each case, he turns the observatory card over and will score not points for it. To begin the next round, he turns it face-up so it is again available for scoring or its special ability.
Amibguous Cad
Member
Mashing said:
No, just the base set.
Hahah yeah I feel like I'm back at BGG learning all these new games right now. Both seem pretty fun though.
How many are you playing with again? just so you know with 5 or more the game can get fairly easy. 4 is the real sweet spot imo. nevertheless base itself is considered pretty straightforward, which is why almost all the expansions add many layers of difficulty (some to an almost absurd amount). but nevertheless you should make sure you are playing all the rules right, as with any co-op games because there's no one to serve as a check on exploitation other than yourself. outside of that if you're into the game dunwich is a very popular expansion that makes the game harder and innsmouth is the most recent big one that makes the game MUCH harder.Amibguous Cad said:
Amibguous Cad
Member
AstroLad said:
It's true we've been skewing toward larger groups. Last night we had 4 players, plus a DM, but I think that was the only time we've been below the 2-monster spawning threshold. We've usually been at 5 or 6.
Whoo just found out I may be going after all! Wife's gonna be with friends on Saturday so I will reserve that for uberhardcore gaming. The nice thing is that now that I know the library is good I don't have to carry around a 25-lb giant gym bag with me to the convention center.Unison said:
One weird thing I noticed on the site is that for hotels they still list those close to Hynes, but they're like two miles away from the new location. staying at the intercontinental fwiw
UpperCaseN
Member
My fiance and I are having 1 friend over tonight, he's a huge zombie fan so we're going to introduce him to Last Night on Earth, expect to get 2 games in and maybe some Forbidden Island to fill time
Tomorrow night we're having 2-4 over for Catan (I'm hooked, the fiance is down right addicted though) and once again, hoping to play Forbidden Island as an appetizer. Has anyone tried FI with 5 or 6 players? I know the box says 2-4
Tomorrow night we're having 2-4 over for Catan (I'm hooked, the fiance is down right addicted though) and once again, hoping to play Forbidden Island as an appetizer. Has anyone tried FI with 5 or 6 players? I know the box says 2-4
Anyone play Space Hulk? I preordered a 3rd edition about two years ago but when I got it I just didn't have time to play it. Recently pulled it out of the closet and I have started to paint up the terminator minis, just finished the dead marine. Hoping to get a game in this weekend with a neighbor. Rules seem pretty simple enough and I am looking forward to the squad based feeling the terminators will have. Looking at BGG though Games Workshop asked the site to delete some of their files. Should I print out anything before playing or is the game easy enough to get through after reading the rules a few times?
BattleMonkey
Member
Dmorr07 said:
Game is pretty simple, and really there is nothing you need to print to play.
3rd edition is basically just a reprint of 1st edition Space Hulk with the expansion packs added in, and pretty much just updated fancy modern components.
It's a great classic game, it's like playing a game of the movie Aliens. Just note, you need a fairly good sized table to play it on as the tiles make for some big ass hulks
echoshifting
Banned
Dominion, anyone? I'll be cruising the lobby for a few here.
platypotamus
Member
Someone in this thread asked for impressions of one of my new games, and I don't remember which one, so I'm just going to do all of them. Only played two so far though:
Glory To Rome - Played this one two player with the wife. Neverfade is so right, this game is awesome (at least, after one play). It's a lot heavier of a game than I had anticipated from reading reviews (somehow I thought it was about Dominion complexity). The whole game is made up of really tough choices. Roles you lead end up in the pool, and once they're there, they are grabbable by other players (to be used in any of the ways a card can be used--Role, Building, Material). Huge conflict if you really need to lead a role (say... craftsman), but your only craftsman card has a building on it that your opponent would love to build. Fortunately, there's also a good amount of opportunities for massive power plays, (I once managed to clear 8 cards out of the Pool at once, leaving it pretty much empty for my poor wife). Once we figured out what we were doing, every turn was an interesting one, and since you can "follow" actions lead by other players (more than once if you have the right client!), there's not much down time. Really looking forward to playing this one again.
Innovation - Same designer as Glory to Rome. Again, played 2 player with wife. We also both loved this one, though it's perhaps even more brain hurty, and definitely heavier than I expected as well. Basically: You've got cards representing various techs, from prehistory up to present day. All 150 of these has their own special power ("dogma"). Once it's face up in front of you (max 5), you can use the dogma power of any tech each turn. Each one has a key symbol. If your opponent(s) have at least as many of that key symbol as you, they can share your dogma, and also use the power. Powers generally involve moving cards from your to/from tableaus, decks, score piles, etc. Generally, it seems you want to try to get access to higher tech decks (10 total) while preventing access to your opponents. This is hard. My wife and I were in a constant struggle for dominance in light bulb symbols, while I had factories pretty covered and she had leaves. I won by achieving 6 achievements, but she was KILLING me in score at the time, so another game ending condition could have gone her way. We both want to play this one again pretty badly too.
Also had a some newbish-folks over for board games yesterday. Inspired a bit by our yucata games, I busted out Stone Age, and it went over really well. I did much worse than I've done online though. Ended up ballooning my tribe too big to feed too early, and fell behind. Extra dudes aren't that useful if you just have to dedicate them all to hunting/gathering!
One of them wanted to play Blokus too, which I never think of suggesting, but enjoyed the hell out of.
Yep, you place workers to enclose a specific building. If you can fully enclose one, and get a second one in doing so (without placing additional workers), that is allowed, so if that's what you were trying to do, it might have been weirdness with the interface that prevented it (place your dudes in a different order maybe?)
Glory To Rome - Played this one two player with the wife. Neverfade is so right, this game is awesome (at least, after one play). It's a lot heavier of a game than I had anticipated from reading reviews (somehow I thought it was about Dominion complexity). The whole game is made up of really tough choices. Roles you lead end up in the pool, and once they're there, they are grabbable by other players (to be used in any of the ways a card can be used--Role, Building, Material). Huge conflict if you really need to lead a role (say... craftsman), but your only craftsman card has a building on it that your opponent would love to build. Fortunately, there's also a good amount of opportunities for massive power plays, (I once managed to clear 8 cards out of the Pool at once, leaving it pretty much empty for my poor wife). Once we figured out what we were doing, every turn was an interesting one, and since you can "follow" actions lead by other players (more than once if you have the right client!), there's not much down time. Really looking forward to playing this one again.
Innovation - Same designer as Glory to Rome. Again, played 2 player with wife. We also both loved this one, though it's perhaps even more brain hurty, and definitely heavier than I expected as well. Basically: You've got cards representing various techs, from prehistory up to present day. All 150 of these has their own special power ("dogma"). Once it's face up in front of you (max 5), you can use the dogma power of any tech each turn. Each one has a key symbol. If your opponent(s) have at least as many of that key symbol as you, they can share your dogma, and also use the power. Powers generally involve moving cards from your to/from tableaus, decks, score piles, etc. Generally, it seems you want to try to get access to higher tech decks (10 total) while preventing access to your opponents. This is hard. My wife and I were in a constant struggle for dominance in light bulb symbols, while I had factories pretty covered and she had leaves. I won by achieving 6 achievements, but she was KILLING me in score at the time, so another game ending condition could have gone her way. We both want to play this one again pretty badly too.
Also had a some newbish-folks over for board games yesterday. Inspired a bit by our yucata games, I busted out Stone Age, and it went over really well. I did much worse than I've done online though. Ended up ballooning my tribe too big to feed too early, and fell behind. Extra dudes aren't that useful if you just have to dedicate them all to hunting/gathering!
One of them wanted to play Blokus too, which I never think of suggesting, but enjoyed the hell out of.
StoOgE said:
Yep, you place workers to enclose a specific building. If you can fully enclose one, and get a second one in doing so (without placing additional workers), that is allowed, so if that's what you were trying to do, it might have been weirdness with the interface that prevented it (place your dudes in a different order maybe?)
echoshifting
Banned
Good game gents...someday that points gap is going to close. :S
Funny how gaming works, no matter the format - being better than everyone who plays at your house does not necessarily translate into the wild. XD I'm starting to recognize my mistakes, though.
Funny how gaming works, no matter the format - being better than everyone who plays at your house does not necessarily translate into the wild. XD I'm starting to recognize my mistakes, though.
joeyjoejoeshabadoo
Member
I own it and love it. I play with a buddy of mine and we are currently working our way through the scenario book. The game itself is really straight forward. The only weird rules are the Librarian and Broodlord's special powers but even then you really wont use them for your first couple of games. Like Battlemonkey said, it's really just like playing Aliens. If you don't quote Bill Paxton at least once you are playing it wrong.Dmorr07 said:
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