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Author Topic: The Boardgame Thread  (Read 585229 times)
TheWalrus
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Reply #1365 on: April 04, 2014, 10:53:15 PM

Awesome thanks guys! Look like some excellent suggestions there.

vanilla folders - MediumHigh
Soln
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the opportunity for evil is just delicious


Reply #1366 on: April 05, 2014, 08:23:37 AM

Got those and also recommend these:
Forbidden Desert
Pengoloo

Lianka and I have tried 3&3, 2&2 and 3&2.  Won last night Poison Pill with 3&2 with only 2 cards on the clock.  And that was with Lem, Link, Harsk, Seoni and Mersielle.  She wants to go back to 1&1 but I want to try more.  We'll try 1&1 again.  I'm still really liking the ability to have progression between games.  It's the closest thing we have to an actual RPG, which we can't afford timewise.  But it's a beast for rules.  Even easy scenarios like Pill find us confused at least a couple of times.  Feel like the game needs an actual manual.
Trippy
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Reply #1367 on: April 05, 2014, 08:36:43 AM

Amazon.com has a bunch of strategy board games on sale in honor of International Table Top Day. They are in the Today's Deals section.
Lucas
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Further proof that Italians have suspect taste in games.


Reply #1368 on: April 05, 2014, 04:02:35 PM

Today I went to the biggest boardgaming/tabletop RPG/wargaming (plus cosplay and other stuff) convention here in Italy, called "Play" which,coincidentially enough, takes place in my hometown of Modena :)

Unfortunately I couldn't stay for long but it was great to see so many people (lots of thousands) for this kind of convention, something we're definitely not used to over here, and it's getting bigger every year.

Taught DungeonQuest to a friend of mine and other two guys who stopped by (we all met terrible deaths, of course), tried Yggdrasil for the first time (hmm...not sure about it); watched a couple games of Seasons  Heart Heart while I wait to finally play it myself. I also tried out "The Hobbit" card game and purchased it because, hell, why not :).

Saw a lot of other ongoing games; among the most played and promoted: the new edition of "Sherlock Holmes Consultive Detective" , "Concordia" , "Legends of Andor" , Taluva.

I wished I could stay more to sit down and learn Mage Knight, Descent, Nations and about a thousand other games, but hey, eventually I will :P

" He's so impatient, it's like watching a teenager fuck a glorious older woman." - Ironwood on J.J. Abrams
tazelbain
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tazelbain


Reply #1369 on: April 10, 2014, 11:56:20 AM


"Me am play gods"
jgsugden
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Reply #1370 on: April 10, 2014, 03:14:24 PM

Good, not great.  If you love the show, the greatest appeal will be recognizing the show references.  To be clear: I bought it.  I do not regret buying it.  I will buy the expansions.  However, I won't break it out unless everyone at the game table is a Firefly fan.  If not, I have a few dozen other games I'd prefer to it.

2020 will be the year I gave up all hope.
schild
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Reply #1371 on: April 10, 2014, 04:26:52 PM

So, fan service trash.

It's ok to say that.
jgsugden
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Reply #1372 on: April 11, 2014, 08:00:21 AM

So, fan service trash.

It's ok to say that.
I can put words in my own mouth.  I'll even choose the ones I mean to say.

I did not call it trash, and it is not. It is good, not great. In terms of fan service games, the mechanics are not as independently solid as Lords of Waterdeep, but they are better than the Walking Dead adaptions (comic and show).  Too much luck, and the winner of the game is usually evident at mid game. A solid expansion could introduce more 'screw your neighbor' mechanics and address both.

2020 will be the year I gave up all hope.
schild
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Reply #1373 on: April 11, 2014, 08:08:46 AM

Quote
Too much luck, and the winner of the game is usually evident at mid game.

I don't know how to respond when you explain why I'm right while trying to tell me I'm wrong.
Stewie
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Reply #1374 on: April 11, 2014, 11:27:50 AM

DIPLOMACY!!!!

So anyways, im about to start a game of diplomacy via email. Playing with my cousin in-law and a bunch of his friends who have been doing this for years.

As the new guy, I'm getting 1st choice of country. Ive kinda play a partial game like ~20 years ago. any advice?

Professional Forum Lurker.
jgsugden
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Reply #1375 on: April 11, 2014, 11:41:51 AM

Quote
Too much luck, and the winner of the game is usually evident at mid game.
I don't know how to respond when you explain why I'm right while trying to tell me I'm wrong.
*Sigh*.  You keep pulling my pigtails like this and I'm going to start thinking you're crushing on me.

Two critical comments =/= trash.  I'd say the same two things about a better game: Settlers of Catan.  Too much luck and the eventual winner is usually evident well before the end of the game. 

2020 will be the year I gave up all hope.
Ruvaldt
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Reply #1376 on: April 11, 2014, 11:52:41 AM

DIPLOMACY!!!!

So anyways, im about to start a game of diplomacy via email. Playing with my cousin in-law and a bunch of his friends who have been doing this for years.

As the new guy, I'm getting 1st choice of country. Ive kinda play a partial game like ~20 years ago. any advice?


It's all about what kind of game you want to play.

As a new Diplomacy player I would never pick: Italy, Austria-Hungary or Germany.  Italy is notoriously difficult to play.  Austria-Hungary can be powerful, but you have to know what to do, and do it early.  You have to be pretty aggressive, which as a new player you probably won't be.  The same goes for Germany.  Once you're more experienced they're both fun and exciting powers if you like dynamic play.

Russia tends to win more often than other countries in my experience, but it is all or nothing.  Either you do really well or really poorly.  I think as a new player they wouldn't be a great choice because they give you so many options that it could be distracting and you won't know how to capitalize on all of it.

France is a good all around power because you have reasonable defensive and offensive options without it being overwhelming like with Austria, Germany and Russia.  You're also both a land and sea power so you can see how everything works.  This would be my choice.  England is a close second.

England and Turkey tend to be very defensive powers with the fewest opportunities for expansion, but you likely won't embarrass yourself and you can get a good grasp of the game playing them.  If I were to pick between the two though I would go for England.  Turkey is a short game if you can't convince Russia or Austria to take out the other, and you're a little less bottled-up with England.  Still, it's going to feel like you're out of the action a lot of the time.

"For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can." - Ernest Hemingway
Numtini
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Reply #1377 on: April 11, 2014, 12:43:10 PM

Fish isn't a bad game. We have a game day at the library and we've played it between games to kill time. It has a surround territory thing going on sort of like Go, but fishier.

If you can read this, you're on a board populated by misogynist assholes.
lamaros
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Reply #1378 on: April 13, 2014, 07:46:44 PM

Played a couple of games of Archipelago this last week. I quite enjoy it. I feel like the best way might be a 3-4 player long game though, which I haven't had yet.

Been playing a lot of Skull recently too. Everyone loves a good bluff game.

Ordered a couple of new ones too, City of Remnants and Panic on Wall Street. And an eBay copy of Acquire.
Sky
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Reply #1379 on: April 14, 2014, 06:23:06 AM

I don't know how to respond when you explain why I'm right while trying to tell me I'm wrong.
Every conversation with my fiancee ever. Our thing is debating things we agree on. But complete respect for each other on things we don't agree on.
Count Nerfedalot
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Reply #1380 on: April 14, 2014, 08:43:45 PM

Just found Catan Junior - fun little game, my grandson (7) absolutely loves it, and even his daddy and the Countess will play. I may like it more than Settlers even, but it's been a decade since I played Settlers so memory is foggy. 
So that Forbidden Desert mentioned a few posts back sounds interesting, and I really like coop, so I'm looking for that next.
What about Lords of Waterdeep, think a 7 yr old could tackle it? I enjoyed the heck out of it last summer the one time I played, but it seemed like it required a lot more flexible strategy than he might be up for yet. Or maybe it will push him in the right direction?

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lamaros
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Reply #1381 on: April 14, 2014, 10:22:10 PM

Forbidden Desert is a bit boring, but it's better than Forbidden Island.

I'm not a huge fan of that style of co-op game, though.
Thrawn
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Reply #1382 on: April 15, 2014, 09:02:32 AM

Does anyone have much experience with Super Dungeon Explore?  I've never played it but I think part of my group might really enjoy that style of game so I was thinking of backing the current Kickstarter they have going.

A lot of what I'm reading seems to be that it's a decent game, but Descent or Mice and Mystics are both just straight better for a dungeon crawl style game.
« Last Edit: April 15, 2014, 10:19:41 AM by Thrawn »

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Goldenmean
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Reply #1383 on: April 15, 2014, 12:24:43 PM

A lot of what I'm reading seems to be that it's a decent game, but Descent or Mice and Mystics are both just straight better for a dungeon crawl style game.

It's a lot more of a beer and pretzels game. It's trying to mimic the feel of a gauntlet style video game, not a tactical RPG like Descent, or a Redwall-esque children's book like Mice and Mystics, and it does that fairly well.

It's more stripped down than Descent. Characters are simpler. Gear and combat in general is simpler. There's no questing in SDE, you just lay out the boards and kill minions and collect loot until the boss spawns and then kill the boss. There's also no campaign system.

One thing SDE does have (at least with this expansion) is a fully co-op mode, which Descent is missing at this point (though it's clear that they're going to add it. The dealer kits for this season include some mods that allow it, which is clearly them fiddling around with the idea)
Ard
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Reply #1384 on: April 15, 2014, 12:26:23 PM

Okay, i was about to post what Goldenmean posted, but shorter.  The only thing I'm going to add is that the characters are really poorly balanced, and some become unkillable with certain pieces of equipment.  I still had fun though.
Thrawn
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Reply #1385 on: April 15, 2014, 12:44:49 PM

So it almost sounds like it would overlap a bunch with Zombicde (which I already have) in regards to what niche it fills.  Thanks much guys, very helpful.

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the Universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
Lucas
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Further proof that Italians have suspect taste in games.


Reply #1386 on: April 24, 2014, 01:59:30 AM

Tried three games yesterday at the local boardgaming club:

- Lewis & Clarkswamp poop swamp poop 5 players ( not recommended by the manual), but the group (I didn't know any of them) drew me in and I hadn't the readiness to refuse since I didn't want to sound like a total ass :P, but not my kind of game and setting: too much worker placement, gathering and stuff. I started to understand what was going on...about 2 hours and half in  ACK! Traumatic experience ;

- Lords of Waterdeep: very nice, I enjoyed the mechanics (interactions, quest solving and all) and the setting.  Nice candidate for a purchase ;

- King of Tokyo: lol, very nice filler between more time and brain consuming games.

About a week ago, I finally played a couple games of Carcassonne but uggh....found it bleak and boring, while I really enjoyed Munchkin for what it is, although we were only two players (and as you know, with only two you miss a lot of the interaction mechanics).

" He's so impatient, it's like watching a teenager fuck a glorious older woman." - Ironwood on J.J. Abrams
Thrawn
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Reply #1387 on: April 24, 2014, 10:44:43 AM

Munchkin ... (and as you know, with only two you miss a lot of the interaction mechanics).

That likely vastly improves the game.

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the Universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
Goldenmean
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Reply #1388 on: April 24, 2014, 11:18:48 AM

Lewis and Clark is a strange game. We played a part of a game a couple of weeks back before more people showed up and we decided to start a different game that would support more people instead of exiling the newcomers to another room to play a 2 player.

I actually think of it as less of a worker placement game than Lords of Waterdeep is, despite it having elements of that in the village area. It seemed like it's much more a hand management game. Proper play really seemed to be about how best to use the characters in your hand before you're forced to camp to refresh them all. I definitely felt like I was only beginning to understand it when we stopped maybe a third of the way through.
Lucas
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Further proof that Italians have suspect taste in games.


Reply #1389 on: April 24, 2014, 11:52:57 AM

Lewis and Clark is a strange game. We played a part of a game a couple of weeks back before more people showed up and we decided to start a different game that would support more people instead of exiling the newcomers to another room to play a 2 player.

I actually think of it as less of a worker placement game than Lords of Waterdeep is, despite it having elements of that in the village area. It seemed like it's much more a hand management game. Proper play really seemed to be about how best to use the characters in your hand before you're forced to camp to refresh them all. I definitely felt like I was only beginning to understand it when we stopped maybe a third of the way through.

Yeah, that's true, especially 'cause you can also exploit (but that's not really the exact term) the cards other people (potentially up to 4 depending on the action) put in play, so you must develop a certain situational awareness.

In reality, since the time I wrote my previous post, I downloaded the instructions in my native language, read them, and now I understand the whole thing a lot better, I think (and I *might* actually give it a second chance).  
Fact is, since I have not really played a lot of boardgames in my life, I don't have a lot of "muscle memory" on the fly, I can't associate similar mechanics of other games like the other people at the table (quite a lot more experienced than me) showed, no matter it was the first time playing it for a couple of them too.

And also, because of the above reason, I'm a slow learner and need to read the rules myself, especially for more complex games like Lewis & Clark.

" He's so impatient, it's like watching a teenager fuck a glorious older woman." - Ironwood on J.J. Abrams
jgsugden
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Reply #1390 on: April 24, 2014, 12:27:00 PM

...- Lords of Waterdeep: very nice, I enjoyed the mechanics (interactions, quest solving and all) and the setting.  Nice candidate for a purchase ;
...
Very good game, and the expansion that adds corruption makes it significantly better.  It is an excellent gateway game, as well.  It is a bit on the simple side for some, but the majority will find it very pleasing.

2020 will be the year I gave up all hope.
MrHat
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Reply #1391 on: April 24, 2014, 01:53:19 PM

So I've got a bunch of board games now and it's crippling when it comes time that everyone wants to play.

We ended up just playing dominos with scoring on 5s and it was enormous fun.

RIP Pret-A-Porter, Agricola, Dominion, Pathfinder and Small World.

I think it's just the initial "get it set up" that makes us all go, meeeeh.
Lucas
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Further proof that Italians have suspect taste in games.


Reply #1392 on: April 24, 2014, 02:22:01 PM

...- Lords of Waterdeep: very nice, I enjoyed the mechanics (interactions, quest solving and all) and the setting.  Nice candidate for a purchase ;
...
Very good game, and the expansion that adds corruption makes it significantly better.  It is an excellent gateway game, as well.  It is a bit on the simple side for some, but the majority will find it very pleasing.

Yeah, seems very polished to me. Still, like many other boardgames, setting/theme is quite important for people, so if your GF/friends/parents (not talking about a regular gaming group in a store or club) are not into pure fantasy...hard to get past that and make them appreciate the underlying mechanics.

- MrHat... the set up "downtime" makes you go meeeeh as well, or it's just the other players you usually play with?


" He's so impatient, it's like watching a teenager fuck a glorious older woman." - Ironwood on J.J. Abrams
MrHat
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Out of the frying pan, into the fire.


Reply #1393 on: April 24, 2014, 03:59:51 PM

- MrHat... the set up "downtime" makes you go meeeeh as well, or it's just the other players you usually play with?



Me as well to a point. I think I'm just tired of being the Rules/Set-up/Host guy.
Lucas
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Further proof that Italians have suspect taste in games.


Reply #1394 on: April 25, 2014, 02:09:49 AM

Heh, true, but I guess that, for many, always being the host is the only solution in order to pursue the passion at home insteado to go tgo conventions, game stores, etc.

Let the others enjoy some small talk, drink, whatever, while you set up so it's just straight to the "fun" part for them. It reminds one of the episodes from the first season of "Big Bang Theory", when Penny plays Halo or some other FPS. She seems to enjoy it, then when Leonard asks something like "so will you play with us next week at..." she replies: "you kidding? I have a life!" .

In other words, for other, more casual players it's like: "me? Actually set up or read the rules for a boardgame???" That's a waste of time!! Explain, be quick, or we'll do something else.
---

And believe me, it's pretty much the mindset here in Italy (it seems to me that in the States the attitude is a little more open): the vast, vast majority still think that a "gioco da tavolo" (boardgame in italian) is Monopoli, Risk etc. and associate it to something you exclusively do as a child/early teen.
« Last Edit: April 25, 2014, 02:12:32 AM by Lucas »

" He's so impatient, it's like watching a teenager fuck a glorious older woman." - Ironwood on J.J. Abrams
jgsugden
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Reply #1395 on: April 25, 2014, 08:24:09 AM

When the wife and I have friends over to play games, we talk about the games to be played before hand and set up the games so that there is no time wasted during the evening setting them up while everyone is there.  We just set things up in 3 different rooms, on 3 different tables, with 3 different sets of snacks.

One of the things I like about Waterdeep is that it is a quick setup.  You lay out the board, hand out everyone's pieces, shuffle 3 decks and deal out 4 cards to each player.  3 minutes.

2020 will be the year I gave up all hope.
Goldenmean
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Reply #1396 on: April 25, 2014, 09:47:46 AM

And believe me, it's pretty much the mindset here in Italy (it seems to me that in the States the attitude is a little more open): the vast, vast majority still think that a "gioco da tavolo" (boardgame in italian) is Monopoli, Risk etc. and associate it to something you exclusively do as a child/early teen.

That's interesting. I've always thought just the opposite. What you describe is how things seem to work in the vast majority of the non-nerd United States as well, but I've always assumed that serious board gaming was a lot more mainstream through most of Europe after the rise of the euro-game in the 90s.
Lucas
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Further proof that Italians have suspect taste in games.


Reply #1397 on: April 25, 2014, 11:12:24 AM

In fact I was talking about Italy, which, for a lot of things, has such a retrograde mentality compared to the rest of Europe. I'm sure the situation in Germany and France is quite different. What I can say is that, when there is such a niche, that niche is of course VERY passionate.

A few posts back I mentioned the biggest convention here in Italy about boardgaming (which also includes wargaming, tabletop RPG, etc. http://play-modena.it/en/ ) that coincidentially is held here in my hometown of Modena. In such occasions, you can see that the potential is huge (this year attendance was about 27,000 for two days, 10% up from last year, and a lot more since its beginning back in 2008)....But for most "casuals", after those two days is just back to Facebook, Candy Crush or other stuff.
« Last Edit: April 25, 2014, 11:14:11 AM by Lucas »

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Ingmar
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Reply #1398 on: April 25, 2014, 12:47:36 PM

I'm surprised to hear it too, since Italian game designers pop up fairly often it seems like. (Notably for War of the Ring, for example.)

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Lucas
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Further proof that Italians have suspect taste in games.


Reply #1399 on: April 25, 2014, 02:34:55 PM

Yeah, infact I'm eager to play both Letters from Whitechapel and Kingsburg, both made by italians and, from what I've read and seen, not overly complex but still entertaining.

" He's so impatient, it's like watching a teenager fuck a glorious older woman." - Ironwood on J.J. Abrams
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