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Post by Southpaw Hare on Sept 27, 2019 16:33:25 GMT 1
Myself and two friends also played a game of it. Turned out really great. I really like MB. I love how you can just sell off your entire deck between tournaments and build something completely new, or abandon winning altogether and double down on collecting card sets while playing a straight meta-deck for bonus points. Or forget all that extra fluff and nonsense and just spend the whole game crafting the perfect tournament deck, dominating your opponents and winning through clever card combos. Or go for a mixed approach, never appearing like a threat but steady scoring in all aspects lets you steal the win from the pro collectors and card players I agree, there is a lot of variety in ways to win. We generally play with the nerf to money points, though, and make money count 5-to-1 VP instead of 4-to-1. The strategy of winning by doing Absolutely Nothing like Luigi was a little too good and too easy before. I think the new upcoming big expansion has this as an actual suggested rule, from what I've heard. I tend to go for the mixed strategy with a lean toward tournament victories. Of course, since the tournaments are of escalating value, winning the last tournament is by far the most important of them.
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Post by lemmingrad on Sept 27, 2019 18:58:19 GMT 1
I saw on Discord that Burgun is making his board game debut (Kickstarter). The game reminds me of Flash Duel but different, which is obviously something I can get behind. Plus, the theme is probably more attractive to my partner. Nice inexpensive price point, too, so I'm almost certainly in for the basic Game + Expansion tier ($18! Man I love a small box game). At first glance, this sounds very much like a Nidhogg x Harry Potter boardgame, which is absolutely something I'm interested in lemmingrad it's possible that you love AH too much... we might need to stage an intervention If I start making environmental pixel art like this, without any money incentive, feel free to commit me. www.instagram.com/arkhamhorrorimagesofmadness/
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Post by scymrian on Sept 30, 2019 20:54:32 GMT 1
I got a copy of Millennium Blades at Pax Unplugged 2017 but haven't played it yet, because I realistically only have one friend who would be down to play something that heavy with me. I LOVE the concept though and had amusement just looking at the cards.
There's a decent chunk of my board game collection that doesn't get played because I tend to buy games aspirationally, without regard for what kind of stuff my partner actually enjoys playing and therefore is likely to make it on the table.
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Post by Plum on Oct 1, 2019 9:44:14 GMT 1
I got a copy of Millennium Blades at Pax Unplugged 2017 but haven't played it yet, because I realistically only have one friend who would be down to play something that heavy with me. I LOVE the concept though and had amusement just looking at the cards. There's a decent chunk of my board game collection that doesn't get played because I tend to buy games aspirationally, without regard for what kind of stuff my partner actually enjoys playing and therefore is likely to make it on the table. I imagine you've already tried this, but have you looked for gaming groups in your local area? Either via your local game store (if there is one) or via Facebook / Meetup etc?
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Post by scymrian on Oct 1, 2019 19:46:00 GMT 1
Yeah, I've met the heavy board gamers in my area. Frankly, I'm not interested in getting to know most of them better, and that's all I'll say about that.
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Post by Plum on Oct 9, 2019 9:30:54 GMT 1
I saw on Discord that Burgun is making his board game debut (Kickstarter). The game reminds me of Flash Duel but different, which is obviously something I can get behind. Plus, the theme is probably more attractive to my partner. Nice inexpensive price point, too, so I'm almost certainly in for the basic Game + Expansion tier ($18! Man I love a small box game). I decided to back this after all. I played a ton of Auro and he's picked a price point cheap enough to be worth a gamble. Compare that with Codex which I never actually play because it's just too damn big
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Post by scymrian on Oct 9, 2019 16:28:44 GMT 1
I blame Codex for me hurting myself when I moved over the summer.
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Post by Plum on Oct 26, 2019 23:02:55 GMT 1
My boyfriend and I started Arkham Horror's The Circle Undone, after a couple of months of not playing. I'm playing Rita Runner and he's Detective Two-Decks and so far it seems like a really great combination. I run rings around the monsters and keep them occupied, with occasional swings of a baseball bat for emphasis, and he does the clue gathering with sporadic bouts of gunfire. My main weakness is a low sanity and near pathological inability to collect clues, but an upgraded Peter Sylvestre solves the former and hopefully the newspaper I've just picked up will help with the latter!
We've just finished the Silver Lodge and managed to evacuate all of the members successfully, though we were greatly helped by my BF being able to harvest clues remotely while I kept the fog monsters on lockdown. I'm looking forward to more!
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Post by lemmingrad on Nov 1, 2019 19:32:00 GMT 1
My October of doing 1 sprite per day is complete! @ Plum - Yeah, Rita is quite tough to discover clues for early on. She actually gave me a bigger headache than Calvin. But ultimately, you just use Survivor tech (Flashlight to reduce to 2 or under, proc Survivor events if you fail) My Diana partner back then had to do the heavy lifting cluevering. But otherwise, playing to Rita's strengths and survivor bullshit is fun. I recommend 2x Alter Fate ASAP. So, I've started my blind runs(!) of The Dream-Eaters. It is divided into two 4 scenario campaigns instead of one 8. For them to interconnect, each campaign is a different team of investigators. So Team Dreamlands is Luke Robinson and Patrice Hathaway and Team Waking World is Mandy Thompson and Tony Morgan. Dreamlands - A 17 doom agenda is a ton of fun. Luke was making so many resources from Renfeld, he didn't have anywhere to spend it. And my Patrice used Prophesy as a massive booster. But yeah, Patrice is fun. The community has declared her a top tier investigator, the ability to draw 5 new cards each round makes up for her bad stat line. Just run a cheap curve and lots of flexible icons to commit. I can't wait to run 2x Cornered, so she can discard a card for +2 skill value. Also I had to repeatedly answer my partner "So what does Patrice do?" "Whatever my hand is. I literally play by ear." We didn't really get an opportunity to have Luke throw a Barricade(0) (he is able to use events at connecting locations, and since Barricade only discards after leaving a location, it in theory should be amazing) Otherwise, my cousin was really super pleased, The Cats of Ulthar make their debut. Waking World - My cousin decided, given the choice of 30, 40 or 50 card deck sizes, he went all in at 50. Super THICC. Despite it having no right to be any kind of consistency, Mandy's power and early game Mr. Rook procs her Research traited cards far more than it ought to, AND get 2 cards out of it. She has surpassed Norman as his favourite investigator. I build Tony strictly for fighting and try not to die to Willpower checks. I will say, having 5 combat stat is great, and with the new Swarming mechanic, Tony was making bursts amounts of resources with his bounty contracts (he marks targets with bounties, he gets that back as resources if he kills them.) I am especially pleased Joey "The Rat" Vigil is usable with this deck. Pull off some janky drawing dual guns to get a gun to soften the target, then finish off with his signature gun to regain a bounty. And one last pic. Finished a The Path to Carcosa run with one of my 4 player teams. Exhibit - Preston Fairmount finishing off Hastur with the power of Money! (cue Million Dollar Man theme song)
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Post by Zejety on Nov 2, 2019 23:54:19 GMT 1
Got to play my Essen purchases today!
People on Discord have been hyping up Wingspan for months and it's as good as they and the SjD jury suggested! First play obviously didn't feel super strategic because we went into it without much of a plan but I'm excited to play again. I hope my group shares my enthusiasm. I'm not completely sure they are sold on it yet.
Not new to me, but I finally got to play Paper Tales at more than 2 player, and people are rihght that it only gets better. If you like drafting games and haven't tried it yet, I strongly reccomend giving it a shot. I would never want to play 7 Wonders when this is an option.
Finally, we've tried one module from the Bärenpark expansion, the mono rails. They make the game a lot harder. a good rail racks up a lot of "free" points, especially if you build it early. We got decimated by the player who executed it well. The new achievements are also interesting, though I wish we had mixed them with the old ones (like the rules suggest).
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Post by Greatest Mind of a Generation on Nov 5, 2019 1:07:06 GMT 1
It’s been a while since I’ve been in here, but I figured it was worth popping in to note that Sirlin’s doing brand new tabletop content on Patreon again, and I think a lot of the folks here would probably really dig it. The most I’ll say about it is “numbered sequel to existing game that plays nothing like the original.”
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Post by Plum on Nov 5, 2019 10:58:13 GMT 1
Oh man I'm so hype for AH LCG again after a long drought! I'd entirely forgotten how much I enjoyed it Although BF has also just picked up the Marvel LCG, so we might get sidetracked again trying that. I still haven't tried Wingspan, though we have a game day coming up and I've no doubt that there'll be a copy floating around the hall. But I want to spend half the day playing Dune so smaller games might not get a look-in. Barenpark I have played and enjoyed, but I did feel like it was a bit simple so I might have to look at the expansions to see how much extra spice they add to the mix.
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Post by scymrian on Nov 5, 2019 14:42:22 GMT 1
After seeing a lot of discussion about it on Discord, I started playing Through The Ages on my phone. Civ-style games are something I've always admired without getting very into. There's a lot going on in this game. I think I'm going to keep at it for a while.
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Post by Plum on Nov 5, 2019 16:59:39 GMT 1
It's considered by many to be the best civilisation board game out there, and many of those now play the digital version exclusively so I think you're in good company! My bf and I play it quite often when we're waiting for something (cinema, train connection etc) and he beats me pretty much every game
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Post by Zejety on Nov 5, 2019 19:07:09 GMT 1
The Bärenpark expansion includes 2 modules (and new achievements you can use independently):
The monorail has you build a (gasp!l mono rail. Everytime you place a green tile, you may put a pylon on it IF it would legally add to your existing monorail line. That means it has to be 3 straight squares away from either end of your line, and the newly added segment must be orthogonal to the previous one. Every time you do this, you can connect your new pylon with a monorail car that is worth points. As usual, these become less valuable the more have already been taken. Because you can build monorails relatively quickly, their value decreases quickly after the first couple, and it is easy to build yourself into a dead end, they require a lot of attention. Did I mention they are 3-dimensional pieces and make parks look a lot more interesting?
The other module introduces grizzly enclosures. These are HUGE, valuable pieces you can add to your reserve by trading in any green tile and any bear house. When using the module, you also play with larger parks of a size of 5 tiles by adding new exit tiles, and a couple extra houses and statues.
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Post by Plum on Nov 6, 2019 10:16:26 GMT 1
Hm I like the sound of that - I'm always a fan of alternative strategies in games. My bf's birthday is coming up so I might grab him a copy of the expansion Thanks!
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Post by Plum on Nov 13, 2019 11:40:19 GMT 1
I got to play Cloudspire over the weekend, the latest from Chip Theory Games who produce ridiculously expensive but desirable poker chip based strategy games. And it's basically a MOBA. Four players represent four factions, each with their home base, each with their own armies and upgrade options, face each other over a hex map. The game is split into four waves and at the beginning of each wave, the players spawn a set of creeps that follow AI rules and march towards your nominated enemy for that wave. The wave ends when all of the creeps have been destroyed and typically this takes 3-5 turns. During those turns, players are moving their heroes around to kill enemy creeps, smash towers and ultimately clear a path for their own creeps to damage the enemy base. Between each wave they can spend resources to upgrade their faction, each upgrade counting for victory points at the end of the game. After four waves have been completed, the winner is the player with the most combined upgrades + base health. Simple! Four player free-for-all was a little weird as you could potentially have all three other players target you on a given wave and just crush your defences BUT creeps will attack anything in range, so if you can trick their AI into going near your other opponents, you can cause them to fight each other. Easier said than done of course, but it means that if everyone attacks you, their creeps will do a bunch of damage to each other while fighting to reach your gates.
Fascinating game and similar to something like Cthulhu Wars or Chaos in the Old World where I think playing with the same group using the same factions for several games in a row would be the best way to play.
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Post by scymrian on Nov 13, 2019 16:32:38 GMT 1
PAX Unplugged is coming up in like, three weeks, so I'm looking forward to that! I still haven't gone to any bigger tabletop cons, but PAX is a fun and relaxed experience.
I don't play much new at PAX because I'm not super into the convention environment for actually gaming, but I'm looking forward to good panels and talking with some indie designers on the floor.
I need to shape up on Mahjong because I learned how to play after talking with some Mahjong folks last year - I could find myself sitting for a few games of that if I take the next couple weeks re-learning the various basic yaku and shit. I talked to a guy who was working on basically re-skinning riichi to make it more welcoming to western audiences and signed up for his e-mail list, but no news ever came. I hope he's there again!
1v1 games tend to be my preference and Mahjong doesn't really accommodate, but I love rummy, so working on Mahjong is just a reasonable extension of that I think.
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Post by Plum on Nov 14, 2019 10:44:28 GMT 1
It wasn't until that post that I actually looked up how Mahjong is played - my perception was coloured by the old Master System game Shanghai, which used Mahjong tiles in a tile matching game. Nope! I had no idea that it's a draw-and-discard card game about set collections with an utterly ridiculous scoring system Blood Bowl tonight and I'm on a three-game losing streak. Hopefully I'll break that tonight and beat the Bretonnians for a 3-0-3 parity
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Post by scymrian on Nov 14, 2019 14:02:41 GMT 1
Blood Bowl is a game I've always been interested in but never really gotten into for a few reasons. Interestingly, one of them is the meddling of Games Workshop - I was more interested in the game when GW was keeping their nose out of it, but when they decided to get back in the business in 2016 it kind of closed the door on me.
This is something I mention because I notice that I have a sort of opposite viewpoint to this sort of thing than some other people I come across (imagine, differing opinions) - I've seen a bunch of people recently saying that a reason they don't get into, for example, Yomi, is the lack of future support. The game isn't being updated, so they don't want to bother. Where I'm more likely to really invest in a game after it's settled (developmentally - organic shifts in meta or whatever are a different beast).
Also, I'm very not into the artsy/craftsy side of miniature games, which keeps me away from games I think I'd like such as other GW games. I like the high degree of customizability but it's almost impossible to convince me to play a game that can't just be played with cheap plastic prepaints. And sure, the rules would let that be a thing in casual play (nothing stopping you from just using scraps of paper to play BB, really), but the culture... I just can't penetrate.
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Post by Zejety on Nov 14, 2019 17:08:37 GMT 1
It wasn't until that post that I actually looked up how Mahjong is played - my perception was coloured by the old Master System game Shanghai, which used Mahjong tiles in a tile matching game. Nope! I had no idea that it's a draw-and-discard card game about set collections with an utterly ridiculous scoring system There's an anime about Mahjong called Akagi. I've only watched a couple episodes for the Discord anime club, but it was entertaining enough, even without understanding the scoring system.
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Post by scymrian on Nov 14, 2019 19:03:07 GMT 1
It was funny when I was talking to the Mahjong folks last year - the guy asked me what got me interested, and he told me the most common answer was anime. He smiled when I told him that I just liked rummy a lot, because that's how he got into Mahjong as well - just wanting to play more rummy variants.
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Post by Plum on Nov 15, 2019 10:28:58 GMT 1
GW have actually been pretty hands off since they retook over and the game has had a huge resurgence. Sure, they've added an awful lot of unnecessary extras (pitches with features, balls with features, lots of new event cards etc) but almost all of that is ignorable and our league doesn't use them at all. They're also rereleasing all of the classic teams in the new 32mm sizing and they're so far all pretty damn good, but there's nothing to stop you using your old 28mm teams, or third party teams (in fact there's been a huge resurgence of 3rd party teams via Kickstarter). So there have been a few key tweaks here and there but my personal opinion is that the game is in a better place now than ever before and so far GW has been happy to let the game be, mostly cashing in on the completists that have to own everything (regardless of whether it will be used). Don't worry too much about the painting and modelling side of the hobby either. I like doing it now, but I literally played BB for three whole seasons without it. My first two seasons were with cardboard standee teams that worked perfectly well, and my third season was using an unpainted team, which also worked perfectly well. I'd recommend taking a look at Blood Bowl 2 on Steam (or whatever console). It's still running the pre-2016 rules, but they are close enough to learn and enjoy the game and the Steam version at least has a lot of very active leagues.
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Post by Bomber678 on Nov 17, 2019 9:28:34 GMT 1
Blood Bowl is a game I've always been interested in but never really gotten into for a few reasons. Interestingly, one of them is the meddling of Games Workshop - I was more interested in the game when GW was keeping their nose out of it, but when they decided to get back in the business in 2016 it kind of closed the door on me. This is something I mention because I notice that I have a sort of opposite viewpoint to this sort of thing than some other people I come across (imagine, differing opinions) - I've seen a bunch of people recently saying that a reason they don't get into, for example, Yomi, is the lack of future support. The game isn't being updated, so they don't want to bother. Where I'm more likely to really invest in a game after it's settled (developmentally - organic shifts in meta or whatever are a different beast). Also, I'm very not into the artsy/craftsy side of miniature games, which keeps me away from games I think I'd like such as other GW games. I like the high degree of customizability but it's almost impossible to convince me to play a game that can't just be played with cheap plastic prepaints. And sure, the rules would let that be a thing in casual play (nothing stopping you from just using scraps of paper to play BB, really), but the culture... I just can't penetrate. Hey man just use fumbbl.com it's free and you don't have to worry about physically moving your crap around If you wanna learn how to play hit me up I'll teach you
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Post by scymrian on Nov 19, 2019 15:09:50 GMT 1
Might take you up on that sometime!
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Post by scymrian on Nov 22, 2019 15:43:51 GMT 1
The schedule for PAX Unplugged is out and I'm looking forward to getting my classics on. In addition to the Mahjong stuff (which this year is scheduled for like, semi-formalized learning sessions hourly. neat!), I'm eyeballing a Cribbage tournament and a Hearts tournament.
Who gives a care about the latest and greatest?
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Post by Plum on Nov 22, 2019 15:49:33 GMT 1
Having just lost my fourth blood bowl game in a row, I'm thinking going back to the classics might be a good idea! I think Nuffle has turned his face from me
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Post by Bomber678 on Nov 23, 2019 1:59:12 GMT 1
Hah! Blood Bowl is a classic! It's over 30 years old!
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Post by Plum on Nov 27, 2019 13:24:44 GMT 1
Hah! Blood Bowl is a classic! It's over 30 years old! Given how much they dress it up in fluff and faux-history, I would not be at all surprised if in five hundred years it was taken as gospel and Bloodbowl grandmasters toured the world to adoring fans
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Post by Zejety on Nov 28, 2019 16:11:23 GMT 1
Has anyone here played Men at Work? I'm particularly interested in a comparison to Tokyo Highways and maybe Modern Art.
I own Tokyo Highway, and I like that I like its aesthetics and how it has a strategic element. However, its rules are vague and hard to enforce, and it can be hard to stop a leader.
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