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Post by Kraetyz on Nov 25, 2016 19:36:56 GMT 1
FraaOrolo That sounds like a fuckin' fun game. I'll have to check that out. I had Patchwork appear in my mailbox today, and played it with my mother. I am incredibly bad at this game, but I recognize that it's a very, very good game! Lots of number crunching if you're into that. I'm not good at it, haha. It's got some super neat little mechanics. I especially like that the progress track measures the time you've spent sowing your quilt, so buying new pieces takes time. Or, you can go and get more currency, which also takes some time! Cute little thematic thing.
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Post by flagrantangles on Nov 28, 2016 13:59:58 GMT 1
I joined some friends as they drove down from Madison, Wisconsin to Napier Field, Alabama for Thanksgiving. It was a long-ass drive but we had a good time nonetheless. During my time there, we played some Pirate Munchkin and it goes the way Munchkin always goes where it seems a couple of people level up pretty easily, one person fails to level up, but accrues a bunch of shit, one person who levels AND accrues a bunch of shit, and everyone else is kinda fucked. It was still relatively fun but I always find that Munchkin plays out the same way every time. It's a once a year game for me.
Later, we tried out playing Sid Meier's Civilization board game and that was relatively fun. We fucked up some of the rules, but oh well. I've always said that as long as you get about 70% of the rules right the first time, you're golden. I played China and was able to eke out a culture victory thanks in large part to an alliance that was formed to prevent my friend, Tom, from getting a military victory. It was glorious.
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Post by Kraetyz on Nov 28, 2016 16:02:50 GMT 1
Later, we tried out playing Sid Meier's Civilization board game and that was relatively fun. We fucked up some of the rules, but oh well. I've always said that as long as you get about 70% of the rules right the first time, you're golden. I played China and was able to eke out a culture victory thanks in large part to an alliance that was formed to prevent my friend, Tom, from getting a military victory. It was glorious. Relatively fun? How dare you? Is da BESSST Did you play with the expansions? With the two expansions, you get a better combat system and a better great person system. Not that I think the base game is bad, it's my favorite big strategy game of all time. Gratz on the culture victory imo military victory is actually harder in the board game than in the actual games, even if you only need to eliminate one player. Culture track gives you a lot of anti-army stuff, and having a mildly teched army is more than enough to defend cities at least into the lategame.
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Post by flagrantangles on Nov 28, 2016 17:39:17 GMT 1
We did not. Tom's brother had just purchased the game so we were all brand new to the board game and I was brand new to Civilization generally. None of us were particularly fond of the combat system and since China's base abilities seemed really culture-oriented, I put all my chickens in that one basket. I never really got any kind of military prowess so I was really quite vulnerable to any kind of military action. Furthermore, we fucked up the coins super hard. I should have had way more and that would have actually helped me reach my cultural victory even sooner because of the way it interacts with the quantity of trade you start with each round.
We also researched our technology randomly when we should have been selecting the specific technology we wanted. It didn't help that the game took like 4-5 hours and one of our players struggled to comprehend some stuff. I enjoyed the game and would play again but my first time was just good.
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y
Website Designer
Posts: 16
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Post by y on Nov 28, 2016 17:43:25 GMT 1
@kraetyz: Tell me how that Pathologic game turns out! I love Pathologic.
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Post by flagrantangles on Nov 28, 2016 18:38:56 GMT 1
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Post by Kraetyz on Nov 28, 2016 23:04:41 GMT 1
@kraetyz: Tell me how that Pathologic game turns out! I love Pathologic. Yeah, our fourth was 2 hours late yesterday so we didn't actually have time to play it. Pissed me right the fuck off, but whatever. We're trying again tomorrow, hoping he'll actually show up this time. We did not. Tom's brother had just purchased the game so we were all brand new to the board game and I was brand new to Civilization generally. None of us were particularly fond of the combat system and since China's base abilities seemed really culture-oriented, I put all my chickens in that one basket. I never really got any kind of military prowess so I was really quite vulnerable to any kind of military action. Furthermore, we fucked up the coins super hard. I should have had way more and that would have actually helped me reach my cultural victory even sooner because of the way it interacts with the quantity of trade you start with each round. We also researched our technology randomly when we should have been selecting the specific technology we wanted. It didn't help that the game took like 4-5 hours and one of our players struggled to comprehend some stuff. I enjoyed the game and would play again but my first time was just good. That... sounds like the first time playing Civ, yeah. It took me at least two or three games before figuring out how everything about the coins should be handled. It gets messy with the expansions when you start playing with the Investments, too, but those are another good addition when you get used to them lol. It's definitely a game with a learning curve, I'll admit that. The thing with the base game combat is that your army is so painfully random. If someone drew all the 3-power units, you're fucked. In the rework, it's tiered into offensive, balanced and defensive units with separate health and attack values. So, 3 attack/1 health, 2 attack/2 health, 1 attack/3 health. Then both values increase by one when you tech up, obviously. Makes the combat feel a lot less unfair.
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Post by Kraetyz on Nov 29, 2016 21:37:29 GMT 1
@kraetyz: Tell me how that Pathologic game turns out! I love Pathologic. It's good! The game feels very basic in terms of components, and I imagine you'll learn very quickly what all the different cards do. Which I think is good, because there's an awful lot more going on than just the text on the game cards. Might make it a little repetitive in the long run, I'm not sure yet. We played two rounds. I did not try being the Plague, so I won't say much about how that experience is. Seemed like my friends had fun with it though. But yeah, as I was saying: There's more going on than just rules text. Because every move is potentially deadly, and every move might also help your opponent, you're constantly evaluating and re-evaluating every single thing you can do to find the LEAST disastrous course of action. Which usually backfires anyway. It's a very stressful experience, which I think is what is SHOULD be like. xD I liked it, and my friends seemed to have fun with it too. The one problem I see right now is that it kinda feels like it's way too easy to beat on the leading healer, but I think one can learn to avoid that by being better at using the Pact function. We didn't make very good use of that, new game and all. We shall learn!
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Post by Star Slayer on Dec 7, 2016 22:38:33 GMT 1
Two weekends ago, I played two Mythos-themed cooperative games:
Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu on Saturday with three players. It was a lot of fun. (BTW, this was the first time that I played a Pandemic game. Never played any of them before.) Very easy rules and concise gameplay. While the other two were setting up the game, I read the two sided game overview card and understood almost everything I needed to know about the game right there. And in the time it took me to read that card, the game was already set up and we were ready to go!
The game went really well and we won after roughly 40 minutes without any major troubles. The other two who had played the game a couple of times before said that this went much better than expected and that they had actually lost at least half the games so far. Maybe that was because the game was harder with four players? It seemed that we got quite lucky though.
All in all, I really liked how well destilled this cooperative experience was. It was a bit abstract, but still felt like a Cthulhu game. Easy rules and not much busywork made for a really quick and fluid gameplay.
Eldritch Horror was played on Sunday with a different group and a total of four players. While it also was a cooperative Mythos game, it couldn't have been more different. When I heard that it was a reworked Arkham Horror, I always assumed that they trimmed it down quite a bit. I was suprised to find out that this wasn't the case at all. When I arrived, the table was already set up and when I saw the dozens of little card stacks, the bowl with the monster markers and all the little tokens and chits for the board and character sheets, I immediately knew that this experience would be vastly different from the one from the day before.
We also managed to win this game (juuuust in time - two turns longer and we would have been toast), but it took us four hours! And there was a lot of track keeping and busy work involved. It was also a lot less abstract and more narrative-focused though. I liked that and it was all in all a good experience. However, I really don't see myself playing this often. Almost all the negative aspects from AH made it into this game. It was cumbersome and didn't feel steamlined at all. I am glad that I got to play it, but I'd rather stick to more streamlined games.
Final verdict: Pandemic Cthulhu wins against Eldritch Horror!
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Post by Star Slayer on Dec 7, 2016 23:25:19 GMT 1
Also, I am currently insanely obsessed with one of the insanest board games in existence, mostly due to its current new kickstarter (NSFW): Kingdom Death: MonsterIt is doing insanely well, with over 7 million Dollars pledged already. And 30 days still to go. This will end up as the most funded board game on kickstarter, suprassing the completely crazy Exploding Kittens. And I am contemplating to add to that insanity by getting both the base game ($250) as well as a couple expansions ($200 - $300). Am I as insane as this game is? Ok, why do I keep using that word here? Well, simply because the game is insane on multiple levels: - Price: $400 retail for the base game alone, over $1000 with all expansions. Totally insane. - Components: With expansions hundreds of super detailed miniatures and thousands of cards. Totally insane. - Setting: Dark Souls meets Berserk. 'nuff said. Totally insane. - Art and miniatures: Violence, gore, nudity and body horror abound, like dark fantasy done by H.R. Giger. Totally insane. - Game length: 60-90 minutes... for one full turn! And a complete game takes 25-35 tuns!! Totally insane. - Gameplay: It's like a miniature battle game with cooperative civilisation building in a twisted D&D campaign that DMs itself. Totally insane. Has anyone of you heard about this game before? Did anyone actually play this? I am seriously considering getting a copy, simply because it is so insane and so unique and now seems like the best opportunity to get it for cheap. Ok, relatively cheap. 50-60% of the retail price is still a lot in this case. A "cooperative game of boutique nightmare horror", indeed. Here is a short (ok, relatively short - this is an insane game we are talking about) overview and review of Monster. And someone made a cool video version of the rulebook's Prologue that tosses the players directly into the "tutorial" fight / first turn of the game. (Btw, the game came out about a year ago. This new, second kickstarter is for version 1.5, doing the Sirlin thing of refining the game.)
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Post by Plum on Dec 8, 2016 17:07:05 GMT 1
I've not played KDM myself but a guy at the club has the original and my boyfriend has played it a couple of times. I asked him about it when the current KS popped up and his reply was "Yeah it's pretty good". Praise indeed!
Seriously though the general consensus is that it's a very good game, but it's absolutely a premium product. If you've got the money to burn then you'll almost certainly have a good time with it, but my god that's a lot of money. My view is probably biased though as I don't like horror and gore, so the aesthetic doesn't appeal to me in the least
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Post by Star Slayer on Dec 8, 2016 17:55:07 GMT 1
Sorry, I wanted to write a full reply, but our boardgame evening is starting in five minutes. And when I say boardgame, I mean Cthulhu Wars.
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Post by Plum on Dec 18, 2016 21:10:12 GMT 1
It's over... it's finally over. We finished Pandemic Legacy last night. I don't know what to do with myself now... :/
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Post by Kraetyz on Dec 18, 2016 22:36:47 GMT 1
It's over... it's finally over. We finished Pandemic Legacy last night. I don't know what to do with myself now... :/ Play it again... oh wait.
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Post by scymrian on Dec 25, 2016 15:18:44 GMT 1
I just purchased Onitama yesterday. My partner saw it for sale at the cafe and thought it looked up my alley, but they didn't have it in their for-play library, so I had to look it up online to see if it looked good for me. My answer is, it's real awesome actually. Light and interesting little two-player Abstract Strategy game with perfect information and randomized starting conditions. Scratches the itch I always wanted from Chess 2, hahah
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Post by Plum on Dec 26, 2016 2:09:59 GMT 1
I just purchased Onitama yesterday. My partner saw it for sale at the cafe and thought it looked up my alley, but they didn't have it in their for-play library, so I had to look it up online to see if it looked good for me. My answer is, it's real awesome actually. Light and interesting little two-player Abstract Strategy game with perfect information and randomized starting conditions. Scratches the itch I always wanted from Chess 2, hahah Bought it for my boyfriend because the box is utterly gorgeous. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be a really interesting and fun game!
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Post by scymrian on Dec 27, 2016 15:35:55 GMT 1
Yeah it's just, really very good!
The other night, we wound up at the café with a significantly larger group than anticipated - our group of 6 became a group of 10, with a lot of people who don't typically play many board games involved. Options for a group of 10 are pretty low, so we played a few rounds of Avalon.
I got my start playing social deduction games playing Werewolf/Mafia over IRC when I was like 10, so frankly, The Resistance/Avalon don't do much for me anymore - the mission structure seems to take out a lot of the "social" and add more "deduction," if that makes sense? Although not needing a dedicated moderator role is a fairly big plus, or can be. Hmm. I need to think about this a little more.
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Post by scymrian on Dec 27, 2016 16:46:58 GMT 1
I haven't actually played Mafia since I was like, 14, and thinking about it now I have an itch...
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Post by scymrian on Jan 3, 2017 2:08:51 GMT 1
Just got back from visiting phrawger, we and ours played board games: Onitama Forbidden Island Karuba I think he's in love with Onitama now, We'd never played Forbidden Island but both had played Forbidden Desert before. I think I like Island better, turns out. And Karuba continues to be a cool game, as well.
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Post by flagrantangles on Jan 9, 2017 18:45:09 GMT 1
I bought my sister a copy of Codenames for Christmas because I thought she would enjoy it and I didn't think the game was particularly complicated. I then learned that my brother, sister, and mother did not agree with my assessment of the game so it was a bit rocky to play at first. However, eventually they got the hang of it and it turns out that my brother and sister BOTH really enjoy the game so I was pretty happy with my gift choice.
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Post by Zejety on Jan 13, 2017 9:29:39 GMT 1
Anybody else doing BGG's 10x10 challenge in 2017? The "hardcore" version tasks you to play ten preselected games (you can pick one 1tth alternative option) ten times over the course of the year. I'm using it to play some stuff I always wanted to try or play more. My list and progress: www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/218459/item/5105883#item5105883You may notice it has no less than 3 dead games on it!
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Post by Star Slayer on Jan 13, 2017 10:45:34 GMT 1
Huh, you can pick which games you use yourself? I guess that makes this actually doable. Good list, Zejety. Smart move to choose games that can be played quickly online. Ten times of Eldritch Horror seems like a real challenge, though I guess the games go faster with fewer players. It is also interesting to put a RPG on the list.
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Post by Zejety on Jan 13, 2017 11:29:00 GMT 1
Huh, you can pick which games you use yourself? I guess that makes this actually doable. Good list, Zejety . Smart move to choose games that can be played quickly online. Ten times of Eldritch Horror seems like a real challenge, though I guess the games go faster with fewer players. It is also interesting to put a RPG on the list. Yeah, I'm actually afraid I made it a little too easy. Thinking about switching Yomi matches for full sets. Maybe even the same for PS. Eldritch Horror is easily the longest game on the list. But I wanted some motivation to play it more and also may want to try it solo sometime. Probably plays a lot quicker if you don't have to read the cards out loud.
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Post by scymrian on Jan 13, 2017 16:34:43 GMT 1
I bought my sister a copy of Codenames for Christmas because I thought she would enjoy it and I didn't think the game was particularly complicated. I then learned that my brother, sister, and mother did not agree with my assessment of the game so it was a bit rocky to play at first. However, eventually they got the hang of it and it turns out that my brother and sister BOTH really enjoy the game so I was pretty happy with my gift choice. Every time I hear something like "there are people out there who think Codenames is complicated," I'm forced to face the fact that I'm a fucking nerd, once again
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Post by Kraetyz on Jan 13, 2017 19:41:15 GMT 1
I bought my sister a copy of Codenames for Christmas because I thought she would enjoy it and I didn't think the game was particularly complicated. I then learned that my brother, sister, and mother did not agree with my assessment of the game so it was a bit rocky to play at first. However, eventually they got the hang of it and it turns out that my brother and sister BOTH really enjoy the game so I was pretty happy with my gift choice. Every time I hear something like "there are people out there who think Codenames is complicated," I'm forced to face the fact that I'm a fucking nerd, once again My mother thinks Hey, That's My Fish is the perfect amount of complexity. My dad pretty much universally dislikes anything more complicated than Ticket to Ride. We are a minority, my friend.
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Post by scymrian on Jan 13, 2017 19:48:44 GMT 1
Codenames is just fancy-Taboo! Which is probably less complicated than Monopoly! AHHHH!
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Post by Plum on Jan 16, 2017 11:43:09 GMT 1
My mother thinks Hey, That's My Fish is the perfect amount of complexity. My dad pretty much universally dislikes anything more complicated than Ticket to Ride. We are a minority, my friend. Don't you speak ill of Hey That's My Fish. That game is a god damn brutal murder fest!
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Post by Kraetyz on Jan 16, 2017 12:38:41 GMT 1
Don't you speak ill of Hey That's My Fish. That game is a god damn brutal murder fest! I would never speak ill of that game - I'm afraid it would come after me at night with a fish-shaped knife. Just saying, it's not very complex.
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Post by CarpeGuitarrem on Jan 17, 2017 1:42:39 GMT 1
So, funny story to tell.
I was at a used bookstore, right? And I spy something amazing that triggers my impulse-buy reflex: a copy of RISK: Legacy for $32. I immediately think of how awesomely fun it's going to be to play it with a group of friends (I've played it once before, but I'd love to spread the fun to others), put down the money, and take it with me (headed straight to work, actually).
In the middle of my work shift, I realize--wait, there's one tiny flaw in this strategy. It's a used bookstore. RISK: Legacy is a game where you destroy components and write on stuff and put stickers on things. These two things do not go together well. It just never crossed my mind because the bookstore re-shrinkwraps its games, so it mentally registered as "new" to me. Saddened, I double-check the box from the outside and note that the initial "What's done cannot be undone" seal on the game has indeed been broken.
After leaving it for a while, I discuss it with my housemate, who informs me that said used bookstore doesn't really have a return policy. So thinking it over, I decide to open it up, just to see how much of the game has been played/used already.
Lo and behold, it's almost 100% pristine. It wasn't signed by anybody (not even the initial signatures the players put on the back of the board), all of the packets (including the "DO NOT OPEN EVER" one) were sealed and in the correct places, and the faction power stickers weren't even assigned. The only thing that was done was initial starting coins on resource cards, which is something you can do randomly anyway.
I was floored. Turns out, sometimes you get lucky.
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Post by thehug0naut on Jan 19, 2017 12:50:25 GMT 1
Well I just wrote a whole post that seems to have vanished...
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