The New Board Game Thread (Newcomer Friendly)
- Thread starter AstroLad
- Start date
- Status
Awesome, added to OP. I pared down a little bit on some of the fat (e.g., I removed BGG usernames since I think everyone's in the Guild anyway) because I hit the damn characer limit in the OP! Should have reserved post 2 but I didn't think of it until it was too late. Maybe I'll do post 3 but that might be asking too much for people to check 1 & 3.
Awesome thread, thanks!
I'd like to add an excellent 2player deduction boardgame: Mr Jack
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/21763/mr-jack
Why is this game great?
- It's very easy to get into but still has enough strategy
- It's very quick, a round is only 15min if you're familiar with the game
- It's very girlfriend-friendly, currently my g/f's fav. game
- It's a boardgame designed for 2 players, owow
- It's a "who is it?"-style simple deduction game but your opponent can still fuck things up in one turn
- It only contains 16 cards and 9(char placeholders) +8 (tiles) pieces except the board
I also like it a lot, we played it like 10 times last week.
I've also bought Carson City but didn't play it properly yet.
My BGG: http://boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/Jefklak
Joined the guild!
Edit: cool, now I want forbidden island
saw this review:
http://boardgamegeek.com/video/284/forbidden-island/board-to-death-review
I'd like to add an excellent 2player deduction boardgame: Mr Jack
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/21763/mr-jack
Why is this game great?
- It's very easy to get into but still has enough strategy
- It's very quick, a round is only 15min if you're familiar with the game
- It's very girlfriend-friendly, currently my g/f's fav. game
- It's a boardgame designed for 2 players, owow
- It's a "who is it?"-style simple deduction game but your opponent can still fuck things up in one turn
- It only contains 16 cards and 9(char placeholders) +8 (tiles) pieces except the board
I also like it a lot, we played it like 10 times last week.
I've also bought Carson City but didn't play it properly yet.
My BGG: http://boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/Jefklak
Joined the guild!
Edit: cool, now I want forbidden island
saw this review: http://boardgamegeek.com/video/284/forbidden-island/board-to-death-review
Mr. Jack has always been near the top of my list of games to buy, it just always gets bumped for something else when I'm structuring orders.
I have a hard time spending that much money on a purely 2 player game. I don't know what it is, but there is a mental block with me that 2 player only games = cheap. Even though feasibly I would get *more* play out of a 2 person game because it's easier to find one person to play with.
Possibly because I can play Mancala for hours on end without getting bored.
I have a hard time spending that much money on a purely 2 player game. I don't know what it is, but there is a mental block with me that 2 player only games = cheap. Even though feasibly I would get *more* play out of a 2 person game because it's easier to find one person to play with.
Possibly because I can play Mancala for hours on end without getting bored.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
mod abuse: jacked the second post so that astrolad could extend the op
In other news, got BTTF today. The local BG shop had a used / good condition copy of 1960 so I know what I'm asking my girlfriend for for my birthday!
In other news, got BTTF today. The local BG shop had a used / good condition copy of 1960 so I know what I'm asking my girlfriend for for my birthday!
PillowKnight
Member
Can you add me to this? (I've never played this game before)AstroLad said:
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
PillowKnight said:
Play a couple rounds in a simulator first or you are going to be TOTALLY lost. The game isn't hard but there are a lot of icons and stuff and if you don't know what they are or have a general idea of what cards are in the deck, you're going to be a bigtime fish out of water.
PillowKnight
Member
Will do, I've got the installer downloaded and will probably run through it tomorrow.Stumpokapow said:
joeyjoejoeshabadoo
Member
I've wanted to like this but in the end I wasn't really feeling it.Jefklak said:Awesome thread, thanks!
I'd like to add an excellent 2player deduction boardgame: Mr Jack
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/21763/mr-jack
Why is this game great?
- It's very easy to get into but still has enough strategy
- It's very quick, a round is only 15min if you're familiar with the game
- It's very girlfriend-friendly, currently my g/f's fav. game
- It's a boardgame designed for 2 players, owow
- It's a "who is it?"-style simple deduction game but your opponent can still fuck things up in one turn
- It only contains 16 cards and 9(char placeholders) +8 (tiles) pieces except the board
I also like it a lot, we played it like 10 times last week.
thanks stump!
Race for the Galaxy Online Free Play -- Wednesday 9 EST
http://www.keldon.net/rftg/
Sign-Ups
1. AstroLad
2. Stooge
3. platypotamus
4. PillowKnight
Pillow, just fyi we're going to be playing base + The Gathering Storm. You can check out the rulebooks at riograndegames.com or in the game I believe. GS doesn't add that much in terms of rules though.
Race for the Galaxy Online Free Play -- Wednesday 9 EST
http://www.keldon.net/rftg/
Sign-Ups
1. AstroLad
2. Stooge
3. platypotamus
4. PillowKnight
Pillow, just fyi we're going to be playing base + The Gathering Storm. You can check out the rulebooks at riograndegames.com or in the game I believe. GS doesn't add that much in terms of rules though.
AstroLad said:
I have that problem at times. Some of my friends are prone to that sort of thing as well and I would imagine a deduction game would just exacerbate it in a lot of ways. When I did logic sets in college I would check and recheck them 2-3x before turning them in. :lol
AstroLad said:
Heh. I may get it at some point.. but I just ordered Lost Cities and Battle Line so I should be set for 2 player experiences.. especially since I already own Carcassonne and Pandemic which I think are great 2 player experiences.
I've added it to my want list on my math trade on BGG, but only in exchange for some of my shitty old games I don't want anymore. I've limited my Memoir 44 trade to getting another top tier game.
platypotamus
Member
AstroLad said:
To be fair, my incredibly mega-liberal gaming group all kinda thought so too, pretty unanimously.
So played the first game of Dominion with the wife and it was an unmitigated disaster...for about 15 minutes. My wife was absolutely hating it and doing a poor job of hiding it. Then we figured it out, played a few hands (this is the first deck building game either of us has played) and I could see her mood changing. She figured out a strategy a hand or two before me and ended up winning by 3 points. I'm glad, because she definitely likes finding things she can beat me at (few and far between). In the end, she was really, really into it. It took us a long time to play the first game (like 90ish minutes) because we had to talk through everything and got confused more than once early or we definitely would be playing again right now.
I'm stoked because it seems like this is sort of a bridge game to more complex games and opens us up to a ton of deck based games, which I thought we would both hate because they remind me of Magic....sorry. Are there any sports games similar to Dominion!?!
Couple questions for you experts:
- the fuck is the value of the mine?
- Does a moat only negate one attack, or all attacks in that phase?
- why so many copper cards? is there significance in them being worth "0"
I wasn't ripping him just making an observation
I'm stoked because it seems like this is sort of a bridge game to more complex games and opens us up to a ton of deck based games, which I thought we would both hate because they remind me of Magic....sorry. Are there any sports games similar to Dominion!?!
Couple questions for you experts:
- the fuck is the value of the mine?
- Does a moat only negate one attack, or all attacks in that phase?
- why so many copper cards? is there significance in them being worth "0"
I wasn't ripping him just making an observation
Hahaha yeah that's a pretty standard reaction to Dominion I think, even among "experienced" players. It's just a novel mechanic even when compared to other card games. That's great to hear you guys got into it though. Unfortunately there is no sports analogue, although that could be quite fun now that you mention it. Sports in general are woefully underrepresented on board games imo.
.
Mine is great because it lets you upgrade all your treasure cards. So instead of having 1-coin coppers, you start moving to 2-coin silvers, and then 3-coin golds. Which gives you a lot more buying power when you consider that, to start, your hands are always limited to five.eznark said:
Moat negates all attacks. And you don't discard it, you just show it and take it back into your hand. Moat is a really powerful card in games where there are a lot of attacks.
Default unit of currency. The "0" just means the cost is 0. So if you have an extra buy, you can always pick up a copper for free. People do this early until they realize
that it's not a good idea to clog up your deck with coppers unless you can leverage them with something like Moneylender
Copper costs zero so you can always "buy" something.
Big hint: stay away from the action cards. Get ones that give you additional cards, additional actions and additional buys. In almost all cases buying silver is better than buying a card and buying gold is more useful than anything else on the board. Copper isn't good because even with a hand of 5 coppers you can't buy a Province. So don't get copper just to buy something. It dilutes the better cards.
Almost all of the 2 and 3 cost action cards are worthless.
Remember, if you buy worthless cards you dilute your hand. If you have a bunch of coppers or worthless action cards and you draw 5 cards you are more likely to get a hand full of crap you can't do anything with.
A streamlined hand has a lot of money in it (silver + gold) and action cards that let you draw more cards, buy more stuff, give you additional money and take additional actions (but not too many of these as they can clog up your hand once you overdo it as well). You want to get as much cash in your hand as possible and whenever you can buy a province, you buy it. When it is getting near the end of the game (2-3 Provinces left) buy whatever victory point cards you can afford for a given hand.
RE: moat. It protects your hand as soon as you draw your next one (i.e. right after your previous turn). So you play your hand. discard, draw 5 new cards. One of them is moat. You are now protected from whatever any other player does as far as an attack card until you play (and discard) the hand with the moat in it. Moat is a cost/benefit analysis. It clogs up your hand and takes away from the strategy of keeping useless cards out of your hand. But if your opponents are loading up on attack cards, you probably want to buy a few moats for some protection.. if there are lots of attackers it is possible to get killed with curse cards.
RE: Mine. Cards that let you discard crap cards from your deck are also really useful. Either by burning them for temporary boosts in money or letting you exchange them for better cards. Crap goes out, better stuff comes in. Double win.
Big hint: stay away from the action cards. Get ones that give you additional cards, additional actions and additional buys. In almost all cases buying silver is better than buying a card and buying gold is more useful than anything else on the board. Copper isn't good because even with a hand of 5 coppers you can't buy a Province. So don't get copper just to buy something. It dilutes the better cards.
Almost all of the 2 and 3 cost action cards are worthless.
Remember, if you buy worthless cards you dilute your hand. If you have a bunch of coppers or worthless action cards and you draw 5 cards you are more likely to get a hand full of crap you can't do anything with.
A streamlined hand has a lot of money in it (silver + gold) and action cards that let you draw more cards, buy more stuff, give you additional money and take additional actions (but not too many of these as they can clog up your hand once you overdo it as well). You want to get as much cash in your hand as possible and whenever you can buy a province, you buy it. When it is getting near the end of the game (2-3 Provinces left) buy whatever victory point cards you can afford for a given hand.
RE: moat. It protects your hand as soon as you draw your next one (i.e. right after your previous turn). So you play your hand. discard, draw 5 new cards. One of them is moat. You are now protected from whatever any other player does as far as an attack card until you play (and discard) the hand with the moat in it. Moat is a cost/benefit analysis. It clogs up your hand and takes away from the strategy of keeping useless cards out of your hand. But if your opponents are loading up on attack cards, you probably want to buy a few moats for some protection.. if there are lots of attackers it is possible to get killed with curse cards.
RE: Mine. Cards that let you discard crap cards from your deck are also really useful. Either by burning them for temporary boosts in money or letting you exchange them for better cards. Crap goes out, better stuff comes in. Double win.
platypotamus
Member
eznark said:
- The mine is useful, because getting rid of smaller valued coppers can make your deck faster. Imagine for a second that your deck stays at exactly 11 cards (the mine + your starting ten). Each time you use a mine, one copper goes away, and you get a silver. This means each five card hand has a higher probable money value. Often times keeping your deck trimmed of fat is just as important as what you actually put into it.
- All attacks until it's your turn again. You don't have to discard it or anything, so you can even still use it for the +2 cards during your next turn, if you want to/have a spare action.
-There's a lot because it can become necessary when playing with 4, particularly with certain kingdom cards out there. There is significance to them being worth 0 (you can always take a free copper if you have a buy remaining, even if you are broke). The zero cost thing also has a couple unique interactions with specific cards (I think they are all in expansions though).
Didn't think you were, was just defending you from that cruel cruel troll, Astrolad :lol
Ah, we definitely had some rules mixed up. We must have been looking at the mine card incorrectly because I thought it didn't add enough value to upgrade from copper to silver. We also didn't realize you could pick up a copper when you had extra buy phases.
The moat thing never came up but we assumed wrong on that one too (we knew it didn't need to be discarded, but thought it could only negate one attack per moat.
Thanks dude. And seriously, looking at this game an MLB/NFL game practically writes itself. Maybe I'll try my hand at modding something for the first time ever, just give it a new skin (make it somewhat appealing to the crowd of meatheads I hang out with).
Is there any chance you guys could post where you play these games online in the OP?
Stooge, my wife had that strat figured out before I did which is why she won. I had all sorts of action cards just because I wanted to see what they do!
The moat thing never came up but we assumed wrong on that one too (we knew it didn't need to be discarded, but thought it could only negate one attack per moat.
Thanks dude. And seriously, looking at this game an MLB/NFL game practically writes itself. Maybe I'll try my hand at modding something for the first time ever, just give it a new skin (make it somewhat appealing to the crowd of meatheads I hang out with).
Is there any chance you guys could post where you play these games online in the OP?
Stooge, my wife had that strat figured out before I did which is why she won. I had all sorts of action cards just because I wanted to see what they do!
AstroLad said:
Teaching people how to mini/max Dominion is a past time. Nothing frustrates me more than playing with friends who just buy a shitload of cool looking action cards with no real strategy to what they are doing.
"Good.. you have 7 coppers in your hand and 8 action cards." :lol
Most of my friends still haven't figured out why I always kill everyone in Dominion. "How do you always buy Provinces at the end of the game".. "Because all that gold I bought lets me do it. Your 6 witches do not"
In the OP, alllll the way at the bottom under "Free Online Play."eznark said:
I've played dozens of games and I still do that. :lol I'm just as likely to go "eh, fuck it" as to make a clear effort to make an efficient winning deck, especially when there are fun attack cards in play. Sorry Stooge! And that Street Fighter guy who hates people having fun!
Just remember in Dominion, you start your turn with one action (and you're not ever required to take an action), then you move on to your buy phase and have one buy (which you also don't have to use), then of course you discard all your cards, including any you kept in hand, and draw 5.
eznark said:
I do this every time a card I rarely see is in a deck. I know not to do it, but I want to see what it can do. And really, you have to go through that phase, because most of the cards have value in some situations and unless you mess around with the cards and see how they interact you won't figure that out.
What I really like is Seaside (an expansion) that creates some interesting gamble opportunities like treasure map. It is a completely worthless card in your hand, but if you happen to draw 2 of them in one hand you get 5 gold. If you can hit on that early on in a game you win. If they never wind up in the same hand you are screwing yourself with worthless cards.
Also, if you are having any issues with game flow: Tom Vassel does a great job explaining the rules:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ENsEhRbVIM
The last part is what had me confused for the better part of 20 minutes thanks to the examples they use in the reading material. I thought you always discarded everything including your deck, and always shuffled. Just seemed so strange. Bless my wife for putting up with me trying to sort through that shit...I am not a "read the manual" guy.
edit: oh and it was the Remodel card I had that I couldn't figure out how to effectively use, not the mine. But I think they do similar things? Don't remember off the top of my head.
And yeah, you guys are awesome in this thread
oh crap, I never thought to hit youtube for a quick tutorial. That's a great idea.
edit: oh and it was the Remodel card I had that I couldn't figure out how to effectively use, not the mine. But I think they do similar things? Don't remember off the top of my head.
And yeah, you guys are awesome in this thread
oh crap, I never thought to hit youtube for a quick tutorial. That's a great idea.
eznark said:
I try and hit youtube before buying games. I'll read a couple of reviews, but if there is a good video of it you can get a great feel for what gameplay looks like.
The two best I've found are Dice Tower and Games with Scott. Scott is a super nerdy old dude, but he has fun with them and the two of them are really good at explaining how to play games.. often times much better than the actual rulebooks.
platypotamus
Member
eznark said:
True story: There are some kingdom cards that destroy/steal other player's gold. If they are out, I sometimes go with a moneyless strategy (if possible), and the remodel can be real useful there. Also, it's a great way to get rid of curses
EDIT: I guess in general, sometimes cards are useless for the given layout of 10 kingdom cards, but then another set is out and their values change pretty dramatically. So for your particular set you played with, remodel might have sucked.
platypotamus said:True story: There are some kingdom cards that destroy/steal other player's gold. If they are out, I sometimes go with a moneyless strategy (if possible), and the remodel can be real useful there. Also, it's a great way to get rid of curses
EDIT: I guess in general, sometimes cards are useless for the given layout of 10 kingdom cards, but then another set is out and their values change pretty dramatically. So for your particular set you played with, remodel might have sucked.
I use the remodel card instead of moat if someone is playing a witch or other curse giving card. Especially if Mine is also out there. Take the curse.. turn it into a copper. Turn that into a silver. Thank you for the free money sucker.
Lord, I was sort of using Dominion as a barometer of what types of games we would dig before I went way overboard. Now that I know we probably will enjoy most good games within reason (and that don't require over an hour commitment or a role-playing aspect) I've added a dozen games to amazon wish list. One a month from here on out is the plan!
Stratego is still the best game ever though.
Stratego is still the best game ever though.
eznark said:
That's pretty much what happened to me. I bought Catan and Carcassonne from XBLA plays.. then I stumbled upon this threads precursor and it all went downhill from there.
I have a similar situation to you. I have to keep play time around 60-90 minutes and the theme can't be too crazy. Dominion and Race for the Galaxy are pushing it. Historical stuff tends to go over better with my friends because it seems slightly less nerdy (Catan, Puerto Rico, etc)
platypotamus
Member
I was stuck in "short games only" mode for awhile, but then I wanted Through the Ages so badly I bought it as a test case. It met approval, so now I can do the longer stuff
eznark said:
My local shop has it for sale if you really want it I could pick it up and ship to you. They have really cut back on their board game section, but they have a giant Catan Aisle with every Catan spin off ever made.
Though, I've not really heard good things about it. I would just go with San Juan.
platypotamus said:I was stuck in "short games only" mode for awhile, but then I wanted Through the Ages so badly I bought it as a test case. It met approval, so now I can do the longer stuff
My two longest games are Power Grid and Puerto Rico. I guess Catan would be my 3rd longest game.. and they are all really short in the grand scheme of things.
I really, really, really want to play Arkham Horror though. Hopefully I get it in the Math trade and it works out.
platypotamus
Member
StoOgE said:
Would you like to? Wife and I love it
StoOgE said:
I've had a lot of success remodeling gold into provinces. Generally speaking, I only do it once I've bought a few provinces, and they start to get in the way of buying more. You end up with a hand like Remodel - Province - Province - Silver - Gold, and you can either buy a Duchy or Remodel into a province. Since there's already multiple Provinces bought by then, I generally do the remodel.
I also like to remodel my starting Estates into Silver or sometimes a quality 4-point card if one is available (like Smithy or Bridge).
Cyan said:Oh sure, it's situational. But there's always buying several remodels, and remodeling them into gold.
Also something I like to do.
How much is it Stooge? When I bought it, it was like $18. I have plenty of other games I want to get to first, so if it's jacked way up I'll pass.
The first long game I am going to spring on my wife is Sid Meier's Civilization.....droool
The first long game I am going to spring on my wife is Sid Meier's Civilization.....droool
I do know you love it platy!
My issues with Catan Card, and why it doesn't see much play:
-It's actually pretty complex. Way more complex than Catan, and has lots of fiddly rules for each of the cards and some of their interactions. I'd consider it mediumweight, but for two I'm usually looking for light.
-Bit of a runaway leader problem, which I think is the primary reason for the relatively low BGG rating.
My issues with Catan Card, and why it doesn't see much play:
-It's actually pretty complex. Way more complex than Catan, and has lots of fiddly rules for each of the cards and some of their interactions. I'd consider it mediumweight, but for two I'm usually looking for light.
-Bit of a runaway leader problem, which I think is the primary reason for the relatively low BGG rating.
eznark said:
I will check. They normally sell everything at (or a dollar or two below) MSRP. I'll swing by at lunch tomorrow and let you know what the price is like. They had 2-3 (unless I've gone crazy, I'm pretty sure I saw it yesterday) so I don't see them running out of them anytime soon.
I usually look through their board game section but don't buy because MSRP on some of the larger games is nuts. I was looking through it because they sold a few little fiddly bits like the River and fishermen expansions for Catan that I was checking out.
For the many people that were waiting on it: Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries is back in stock!: http://www.coolstuffinc.com/main_boardGame.php?viewType=view board games&fp=Acc-DOWTicketToRideNordicCountries. One of the best lightweight 3P games out there imo.
- Status