/bgg/ Board Games GeneralPrevious thread: >>97649830Pastebin:https://pastebin.com/h8Tz2ze8*NEWISH* survey results:https://pastebin.com/scAkFdTv>you guys come up with some questions...
Tq:>What's the longest you are willing to play a game?>What did you play at your last session?>Anything you've never tried before?>What is a funny strategy you've seen in your favorite game?For the last question, I played forest shuffle and someone treemaxxed, no animals, and won...
>>97693548>For the last question, I played forest shuffle and someone treemaxxed, no animals, and won...Absolutely trunkulant.With or without Alpine?
>>97693548>What's the longest you are willing to play a game?I do not tire of a game ever. I just don't play party games.I get murderous if I'm told "it doesn't matter" when helping a third party to understand rules, or if I just read the exact rule out of the rulebook and then told I'm wrong.
>>97693444Guys I was serious last thread.I move around the east coast and mid-west for work, so I can totally just show up one weekend, and do nothing but play the boardgames you want, if you tell me what city/area you live in and you're willing to pick me up.
>>97693683I have watched way too much real crime stuff to even consider this. I will keep my skin thank you very much
>>97693683MAIS C'EST QUOI TON OPINION SUR LES DEUX SOLITUDES?EST-CE QUE TU ES ÉQUIPE TÊTE CARRÉE OU ÉQUIPE PEPSI???VOTRE ACCUEIL DÉPEND DE VOTRE RÉPONSE
>>97693726If your this silly, do it at a game shop.
>>97693745I don't speak french, I don't know what team square or team pepsi is. I'm not into sports and I don't drink soda. I just want to play boardgames.
In games where you score a lot of points from a lot of different sources that you have to add up at the end (point salady games), do you personally enjoy that and find it tense to find out who won or do you find it annoying? In a group setting, does everyone add them up for themselves or does your group do player after player? I personally like it a lot. Adds a lot of tension and build-up to the finale. We do it player after player.
>>97693828
>>97693838If it's close its fun and tense.Unfortunately I have a regular who prioritizes fast low scoring ingame actions and activly doesn't like long term large scoring, so they get grumpy when we get to that point. They are the ones pulling out games that can't end quickly, instead of any with a short or player controlled variable length, so a bit confusing. He's directly asked and we've directly explained that. He seems to do fine on extremely tight convoluted drafting, but thats probably just natural game mechanic interference.Even without him specifically, games like that are rarely close.
>>97693862My guy, I'm a burger who posted a funny picture. I don't understand your responses.
>>97693726Keep your sick fetish to yourself. I want warm bodies to play boardgames, not for thier skin.
>>97693862>>97693745God, leaf frogs are so fucking weird.
Thoughts on this? Currently on Gamefound.
>>97693683>thinking I live in the USLol! You'll need to move continents my American friend.
>>97694149I didn't think you lived in the US, That's where I started I am...Why are you in /bgg/?
>>97693683Sorry, anon, I would but I'm quite far from you
>>97693548>What's the longest you are willing to play a game?I'm really low energy these days. Sleep disorder and and other health stuff. So I don't like playing long games at night. Unfortunately, I can't find day friends. I guess they have lives or jobs or something.>What did you play at your last session?I've been playing a ton of solo. I pulled out an old copy of Friday. It's way better than I remembered. Tight design. Tried the solo rules for 5 Tribes the session before that. It might be my fave way to play now. I'd say it takes the game from a 7/10 to an 8/10. >Anything you've never tried before?>What is a funny strategy you've seen in your favorite game?Do I even have a fave game? Hard to say. The Consuming Void major power card in Spirit Island can be repeated a few times back to back. I won a game by casting it three times on repeat and hoovering every single invader EXCEPT one little settler this week. That was amusing.
Show your favorite underrated game
>>97693838Honestly I find it to be busy work and I appreciate when games score on tracks as we play. It's fine to have a few extra points at the end.
>>97694588Alpha Strike played on a paper hex map like it's a board game with the optional hex rules. Battletech is easily the best franchise still around since my childhood. Too bad classic Battletech grognards refuse to accept Alpha Strike and also refuse to acknowledge that Battletech classic is meant to be played like a board game with smaller unit counts instead of with the bloated bullshit you see in Total Warfare and a dozen other rule books.
>>97694635I bought this the other day because I want to play that new solo variant of it. Always loved Battletech, but never had any chance to play the table top game.
>>97694646The solo mode for Battletech Aces is great once you learn how to read the cards. Only real problem is table space for it.
Semi-hot take: fun and good don't necessarily overlap in boardgames
>>97693838it sucks and it's why i sold harmonies and forest shuffle
>>97693838I like it, and I like games that have a method for doing it together. Like little sheets where you put in your points from each source and total them.
Playing my city again on bga right now. It's so good, absolutely underappreciated knizia. I blame the box art. Which actually is good but somehow looks very boring at a glance
>What's the longest you are willing to play a game?No real time limit except in terms of practicality. 3 year long Gloomhaven campaigns are fine with me, and so is 8 hours of TI4. But if a single match is something that would take more than entire day I'm unlikely to attempt it as it will likely stay unfinished.>What did you play at your last session?Arcs with Blighted Reach. Only Act 1 so far as the teach was brutal, but I'm still not impressed after this and the base game.>Anything you've never tried before?Haven't tried lots of things. 99% of entries on BGG. Question unclear.>What is a funny strategy you've seen in your favorite game?Don't have a favorite game.
>>97693838It is annoying if the game itself is not engaging. Just get it the fuck over with at that point. But if the game is good, I love the drumroll at the end. Everyone calls out their individual scores for each item, I tally them up, and player positions get announced from last place to first. Shame for losers and glory for winners.
>>97693683I dont live in america so I can't help you man
>>97693838BGA ruined Lost Cities for me. It's just too convenient to have all the mathing done for you as you play
>>97696533I feel similarly with affo and bga taking away all the fiddliness in setup teardown and handling of a hundred componentsIt's still better to play the physical version but it's such a hassle
It's crazy how so many games came out the last few years that you barely hear about some of the good ones. In some ways I feel it's because even the good ones coming out are rehashes of things we've already seen a million times over. Men-Nefer comes to mind. I really like the look, play, and solo mode of this game but I ask myself if it's really going to do anything for me that Teotihuacan doesn't already do? The setup looks every bit as time consuming. For what? I think I'm at a point where I want the same depth, middleweight euro, but way more elegant setup. Setup is everything to me now. How fast can I get the game on the table to play and then put away? Anybody else thinking about some of these topics lately?
>>97696779one big thing I miss about a large public game group, the FOMO guys are the fucking jet for bringing all the new games so I can find what is really good>>97696726clans of caldonia, I will never play the physical copy I got
>>97693683>east coastdisgusting
>>97693548>treemaxxedis that a game breaker or just a fluke? also you never answered about expansions
>>97696779I do feel you. I keep bouncing around all over the place in what I am looking for at the moment, but setup and playtime are certainly becoming ever more important. I also feel like this is my biggest gripe with euroslop; the games usually are interesting enough (at least for the first few plays) but they lack longterm appeal AND usually have a terrible fun/setup+playlength ratio.I just KEEP coming back to Knizia
>>97696816I've never been a part of a large public game group. I was the guy collecting and teaching for years until I accepted that I wasn't going to get the experience I thought I was out of playing with others. That honestly would be great though being able to test out these games in person. I've learned the hard way and now I download rule books and ask myself what a new game gives that an old one I own doesn't already.
Do you consider digital versions of board games to be video games?
>>97694588Era: The Medieval Age. It's really well done for what it is (3D roll-n-build filler with indirect combat) but it suffered from a limited print run from a small publisher and now subject to scalper markup.
>>97696779The hobby is seriously saturated with decent to great games, it's only natural that less and less of them will stand out as THE game to get over time.10 years in a row, I have more games unplayed each year that I would like to try than the previous year. I just don't give a single solitary shit about the hot new thing and keep my eye out for games that are still talked about years down the line. >setupI've also thought about this recently. I really appreciate games where you can just throw each player's pieces at them and start playing. Unfortunately not that many of them in the heavy range.
>>97696822I don't like it, I just work there
>>97696867Knizia have any good solo modes? I know Pandemic was inspired by his earlier Lord of the Rings game. >>97697017I do. Turn-based video games. Once a game has a digital version it's just a video game to me. I'm not saying I won't play it or that it's a bad thing. It's simply different. >>97697076I surprisingly don't have any unplayed games anymore. I have been ruthless in culling my collection. I gave away games and even tossed some out entirely. I collapsed boxes and packed games I wanted to keep forever into smaller shared boxes. I find it amusing that from the outside a person might assume I barely play any board games at all now because all they'd see is my copy of Ticket to Ride and Pandemic. The only "heavier" games I kept are Teotihuacan and Spirit Island because I love the solo. I'd get rid of them if I found games that gave me the same depth with less setup.The best feeling I have ever felt since I got into this hobby was getting rid of my games.
>>97697076>>97696867>>97696779For me the straw that broke the camels back was setting up the research tiles in SETI. Not that the game was particularly great (really, wtf was the hype all about) but that setup for some reason annoyed me so much I really don't want to get it out again.
>>97697258>I surprisingly don't have any unplayed games anymore.Poor choice of words on my part. I meant that my wishlist keeps growing, not games that I own but haven't played. Only EU: PoP on that list.>The best feeling I have ever felt since I got into this hobby was getting rid of my games.This best be a joke because it sounds like you've memed yourself into mental illness.
>the game you always look at longingly and look forward to playing again>when you actually get it to the table it's somehow always mehWhat's her name, anon
>>97697260I don't understand your issue with those tiles, you don't even need to pull them out or randomize them, it's a player choice at acquisition. You don't have to keep them on the board at all.I don't understand most peoples Issue with Seti. Is it the actual solar map navigation, but that would be too much to admit? There's nothing wrong with it.
>>97697729Clash of Cultures and Merchants& Marauders
>>97697323I'm not joking at all. Here's my diary if anybody cares: I was bit hard by the addictive buying bug in 2017. I bought Gloomhaven, and got it to the table over forty times by my count, but I kept on adding new games to the collection. I kept telling myself that I was trying to find games for my friends, wife, or in-laws. I would try to find games that were deep enough for me but light enough for them to enjoy. Or themes they might like. Years passed and I started to notice a trend. The majority of the games I bought for those reasons only got played once or twice. There were exceptions, always light games like The Crew, but mostly that was how it went. Then I noticed that I was the only one that really cared. I was the one reading the rules, teaching the games, and not enjoying my game nights at all. I'd barely play because I had to keep helping people follow the rules. On the few nights I relaxed somebody would have an emotional shit fit over some rule they didn't listen to or whatever else. I didn't give up. I tried other tabletop games. I started inviting strangers to my home. I even joined another person's game night too. The hobby seemed to turn into me being patient with everybody while not enjoying the games I wanted to play. I was honestly close to giving up on the hobby entirely before I started trying solo modes. I found that was exactly the experience I was looking for. I could focus purely on playing the games I enjoyed without any of the nonsense. I still play light games with others. I have a couple boxes packed with those that I haven't been able to give away yet. I'll keep a few around. That is my diary post for the year. Thank you.
>>97697786>Is it the actual solar map navigation, but that would be too much to admit?Unsure what you mean. I was ranting about the fiddliness of the research tokens. It's not all that much and I don't know why it specifically came to my mind as negative example but they do greatly annoy me, even if it seems nitpicky>Sort them by research>Flip them around>Balance these retarded 2 vp tokens on them>Repeat 12 times
>>97697729DUNC imperium. Fucking card casino makes me revisit it yet again even though I always come down not really enjoying it as much as I think
>>97693444karn, what are you doing getting trips in a board game thread? you're from a card game. i mean they DID kill you as unceremoniously as possible but still
>>97697729Burning Banners. I always think the game is going to be fun this time but it always ends up being swingy and a dice rolling mess.
>>97697729Cyclades (og+titans for what it's worth, never tried the new one) always seems like such a good game on paper, and while the auction is pretty neat (until the endgame) the mapplay is horrendous. Plus 'noone get a metropolis until you can get 2 in a single turn and win' as well as 'fuck everything Ima mill the deck for pegasus and win' always leave me disappointed.
>>97697729Sidereal Confluence. Maybe i'm just not cut out for cutthroat merchanting in an otherwise dry cube pusher, but the stories people tell of their game sessions sound so much better than what I can manage; its kinda strange to me how i suck so much at SConf but am quite good at Chinatown.
>>97696826Hey sorry, it's not a game breaker and I wouldn't recommend the strat, but somehow they pulled it off. I doubt they'd be able to do it again. Played without the expansion
>>97698330It's really, really close to being a 10/10 DOAM game, but honestly I just hate the ship system. I'm all for island hopping and intentional map play, but some card balance is just fucked. If someone recruits Jason they will just win the game.
>>97697811>guy has groups so shit he gets mindbroken into enjoying only solo and light games>the best feeling he had in the hobby is getting rid of games instead of playing themGrim. I'll be continuing my GH campaign tomorrow and I'll be enjoying it more than you did getting rid of all your games.
What are some recent and upcoming releases you are excited for or at least interested in?
>>97699172Isnt Eternal Decks over a year old at this point?
>>97699184Maybe I'm out of touch but to me games that are less than 2 years old are pretty recent.
>>97699257this. it's not even worth thinking about until the FOMO idiots are ready to sell their unplayed kickstarters.
>>97697811I used game nights to curate a small group of likeminded individuals who not only are really good at games but enjoy really good games. People who come on time every time and are there to play not roll dice.I'm thankful that you're sharing, and I believe you. It just makes me appreciative of what a great experience I've had. I wish covid hadn't torpedoed everything.
>>97698420okay because a guy in my group always min/maxes an rng strategy like mainlining all the visitors in viticulture/tuscany. I'm thinking about forest shuffle but I don't want an obscure strategy that always wins because my guy will find it and use it and then everyone has to use it.
>>97693867I played with a guy who always, always, always rushed the game timer no matter the game or score or position. it was a known thing where like, oh bill is playing, it's gonna go quick. It's so nice to sit down with people who enjoy the game and focus on the best moves and enjoy the arc and don't think about ending it until it makes more sense than letting the other guys' engines tick over two more times.
>>97693862is the creole or french? jesus fuck what is wrong with you canada
>>97693683Can you come to brazil?
>>97699377>mainlining all the visitors in viticultureI think I know that guy.Jesus that only kinda works when you're playing 6 people and the board is jammed.We where playing with 3 players on Tuscany, and I ended the game with double his points.
>>97699516>>97699377Did you guys try Bordeaux?
>>97694635shouldn't you be shitposting in /btg/ instead of /bgg/?
>>97699491No sorry.Is /bgg/ all non-US?
>>97699519Excuse me, yes he set up Bordeaux
>>97699409Its Joual, which is not interchangeable with Acadian.And the newfies claim they speak english but we all know thats a lie.Angine de Poitrine is pretty good though, not sure what the dude in the comic is complaining about.
>>97699533The average Unitedstatian is much too retarded to play board games, and even the ones who do... well... I just hope those kind of people are only a thing you find at my LGS.
>>97693862>>97699409I speak French bumpkin:>c'est quoi ca? (What is this)>c'est angine de poitrine (its the band Angine de Poitrine [trans: Chest Pain])>je suis jaloux de leur succès. Je n'aime pas ça (Im jealous of their success. I dont like this [the music/style])>Qu'est-ce que tu veux que je te dis? Ils sont plein de talent, vis avec [ça]. (What do you want me to tell you? They have tons of talent. Live with it!)
>>97699172Are any of these good?Compare them to good games for me
>>97699024I would rather play the board games I want to play the way that I want to play them. Have fun setting up GH. Move 2. Attack 2. Move 2. Attack 2.
>>97697871>research tokensThey aren't random, they are just limited, and you get to choose when you aquire them. You don't have to set them up like the instructions say, you just keep them in a pile.Example: Do you think anyone fucking keeps the actual random tile decks setup correctly in Nucleum? HELL NO ain't no one got time for that.
>>97699571I am a sick twisted husk of a boardgamer, dying of thirst that cannot be quenched. You cannot pitty me, for there is nothing left.
>>97699576I don't know. I'm just interested in them based on what I have seen and read so far.
>>97699610>They aren't random, they are just limited, and you get to choose when you aquire themWait what, am I reading correctly that you can choose which of the 4 possible bonusses you get? That cannot be true, there's a massive diff- ah I'll just check the rulesAnd indeed, it is not true. You need to stack it and see the bonus of the next tech tile in the stack. I suppose when somebody has researched you could always draw a random one so the next bonus is visible? Almost equally fiddly though.
>>97699356To be fair my post probably sounded more negative than it should. I love solo board gaming to the point where I shifted all my priorities in this hobby and culled my entire collection. I have a wife that will play any board game once or twice but Roll for the Galaxy is about the sweet spot for us.
>>97699172Shadow Moon Syndicates is one of the better games I've played in a long time but I've heard it will not see a retail release - maybe get some copies from their site after the crowdfund.Eternal Decks is not an enjoyable game. I'm not sure why it gets the pub it does, maybe because of scarcity?
>Delay releasing expansion for ever>Has no new Advance Action cards>Change the font for no good reason>$60 bc it includes stupidly large dragon mini>Announce new expansion for 2027>New cards and tactics horray>Designed for new players as a standalone entrywhat the FUCK is wizkids thinkingI get they're going to milk Mage Knight for what its worth but seriously did no one think this through?
>>97695958Half box art, half having no clue what it does differently than the dozen poly games out there. Kind of the reason I hate legacy games (besides the one and done ones), just tell me what the game is.
>>97700135wizkids is one of the most retarded companies in the market. somehow Jordan Weisman is responsible
>>97700135Haven't even played MK but even with what little I know of the community this seems massively retarded. Like learning to reappreciate lvl99s Brad levels of retarded
>>97700325>>97700135Also wtf. Just wanted to check if the other mk expansions were designed by vlaada or not and discovered that paul grogan has designed 2 of them. You know, the gaming rules! guy
>>97700135Does Mage Knight even need more content after ultimate edition?
>>97700135Mage Knight has enough name recognition in the hobby that folks will eat it up anyway. Plus, Mage Knight fans will buy anything.
>>97699609>Move 2. Attack 2. Move 2. Attack 2I already think you're sad as fuck, no need to tell me this is what you think happens in Gloomhaven or that's how you play it.
Im thinking of buying picrel. Heard good things online and I love Elder Scrolls but I’m hesitant in case it turns out to be shit. Anyone here played it before?
>>97700822It's 200 USD so you should try it on TTS first where it's free
>>97700822It's pricey, but it does have a ton of content.I wish it had more skill lines, but other than that it's pretty fucking great.Like, it effectively replaced gloomhaven in my group because of its shorter, roguelike nature.
>>97700845Nice, I’m retarded and didn’t even think about it being on TTS, appreciate it bro
>>97700906It looks badass, I’ve been on a big Elder Scrolls kick and want to get something that lets me play as a Dunmer spellsword that isn’t Oblivion or Morrowind for the 7th time
>>97699609buddy the point of every card being useable as move 2 attack 2 is so you try to do better than this baseline.Are you also one of the people who thinks Dominion is a solved game just because someone told you about Big Money and you couldn't beat it?
>>97700906>Like, it effectively replaced gloomhaven in my group because of its shorter, roguelike nature.How do the roguelike'ish aspects compare to TMB? Because I really dom't enjoy the random events giving out random rewards type of progression. Makes it feel like it's just a bunch of random shit thrown together (which it is) rather than a cohesive progression.
>>97699891A stack all have the same bonus, and tech, it's printed on the base board. What are you taking about?
>>97701362Fuck me I'm wrong. Why the hell did I think this?
>>97701127I think you got me confused for somebody else champ.
>>97700640This is like two people in a septic tank fighting over who stinks.
>>97699172>vampire lords won't be out for another year at least
>>97701211I was a TMB fan until I played one whole campaign in BOTSE (its 3 sessions max) and I sold my entire collection of TMB right after.The events and shit that happens has more structure and are way, way less BS and random.There are still random events, and you can still get hosed by really really bad RNG, but its far more like a perfect storm situation instead of like...30-50% of all games played like in TMB.Seriously, its GOTY for me. Might be top 3 for me as well. It's such a fun experience. It's the only game where I saw they added more shit on gamefound and I all in backed the new stuff immediately, and I am not a consoomer.
>>97701362>>97701364Happens. Did you not notice in your games of it, though? The difference between 1 energy and 3 vp is enormous imo
>>97700822imo the combat doesn't reach the level of interesting decisions in Frosthaven or Doomrock, however the choices in building out your character are a lot of fun and managing the dice cooldown is a solid foundationlots of icons and keywords to learn just like every CTG game
>>97699172Isn't most of that KS trash, though? I am vaguely familiar with almost all of them which means it's some crowdfunding game that had ads on the geekI also find it hard to not read the upper right games title as Rectum Reckoning
>friend is hyped to play his copy of Speakeasy>say I'll play with him at the meetup on Saturday>never played a Lacerda game, no idea what I'm in for>watch tutorial and playthrough>looks like systems upon systems, lots to keep track of, and not in a fun way that they interact with one another>3p playthrough is 4 hours long>suspect we will be doing 4pOh god, what have I let myself in for? Any anons played this game and enjoyed it. Reassure me that I will have fun.
>>97702501It's as you say. Never had much problems learning/playing his games other than that latent feeling of 'did this really warrant yet another subsystem?'. At the end of the day some enjoy lacerdas and some do not. Allegedly speakeasy is one of his better designs, for what its worth.
>>97702501Honestly any modern game sufficiently complex feels like multiplayer solo because you're not likely going to be playing against skilled players. So what are you in for? Solitaire.
>>97702396We had a few final scores of like >120 and we played hardmode where you don't get a tucked resource immediately. I did a 14 point turn and I was trailing the group. 3vp feels irrelevant.
>>97703005i think anon's point was that 1 energy can translate into way more than 3 vp if you have time so if you could pick the research bonus out of the four, the resource ones would go first.
>>97702501Speakeasy is also one of the worse Lacerdas. Have fun!
>>97699172Looking forward to getting Suriya later this year. https://gamefound.com/en/projects/hexa-house/suriyaAlso highly considering getting microverse. https://www.gmtgames.com/p-1147-microverse.aspx
>>97703049Yes, my experience agrees, but points out 3vp from a tech is just irrelevant
>>97703005Yes, that was my point. If you thought you can pick freely, were you not wondering why there is such a big gap in powerlevel between the bonusses. Honestly, it's not a relevant question.
>>97699172I like the look of Solar Supremacy and downloaded the TTS mod but haven't been able to play it yet.
Slambo for scaleHint: it is an expansion.And It is not one of the top games in the bgg 3x3 results
>>97704816Flick fleet?
Just played SETI for the first time. We were 3 players and I will never agree to play this with 4. Might not even play it again at any player count. While I can recognize and appreciate the design with all its mechanics, I think it all comes together in a way that feels bloated and overly long. I would say it's a good game, but to me not better than that. It drags too much, the turns don't really feel exciting, the resources are too tight for how much you need to plan ahead and for how easy it is for others to throw a wrench in your plans without even intending to. It can be very frustrating. That's why I've always said that whenever a game that takes 3+ hours to play gets called multiplayer solitaire, that's a feature not a bug. Investing so much time and brain power only to have your efforts fucked with is deeply unsatisfying to the point of frustration. The noveltly of the game in the form of the rotating central board wears off quick and eventually becomes the biggest source of frustration.But I am also not that big a fan of such heavy/long games to begin with so YMMV.
>>97704850Damn anon how did you know.
>>97705178My experience with SETI is that it's a solid euro, and I won't ever say no to playing it, but I'm not jumping for joy to play it again, I have other euros I enjoy more.That said, most euros drag on too far.
Been looking into a bit older games like Elysium. Any opinions on it?Its also absurd how time flies>2015 was over a decade ago
This month a friend and I dove into Earthborne Rangers.I had only ever done the tutorial deck building stuff before to get a basic sense of interacting with the world. So after relearning the rules, and repeating the deck construction missions to teach my friend, we were off to the races delivering biscuits.We are both quite smitten with the freedom to explore and the struggle of travelling. Last night we made our first run through the mountains, and jesus is that a difficult climb. Between the obstacles that move to Within Reach, the circling vulture predator with Persist that will follow you beyond the mountains, and the cougars, it was a surprise we had as many resources as we did to keep travelling to White Lake and also swim down to the Bubble Arcology place once we found it in the path deck. But we also stumbled upon the old installation that lets you super travel away from the mountain, and knowing that will always be in the mountain path deck is an interesting enticement to face. Sure, a fast travel option is always available, but how readily can we find it before the harsh environment fatigues enough cards that we may as well have traveled the two routes we intend to skip?I know anon here has complained about the tediousness of travel, but for now the magic has us in its grip. Whats beyond that next hill? When shall we return to an old haunt to find the grizzled hunter and see what the deal is with this super predator he warned us about last time?I also really appreciate how breezy set up and tear down is. I wish more games of this complexity gave such a streamlined way of packing it all up.Also our decks really suck. Feels like we tried to build certain combos without properly understanding how to efficiently interact with the world, our synergies are clunky and often too difficult to pull off.
My dear fat/tg/uys, it's time to talk deckbuilders. We had a bit of a discussion in January, off the back of which I bought a couple of examples to try.First up, Baseball Highlights 2045. I had no idea what to expect going into it. As an Eastern European I have almost literally zero cultural context with regards to baseball, I just know that baseball bats are involved. After playing the game, I still have no idea how baseball is played. This makes the board game really obtuse and unintuitive, both for learning and teaching.On to the game itself. The base experience at least is actually quite simple. Try to make hits and get your runners through all the bases to score, while cancelling the hits of your opponents. If anything, the game feels TOO simple. In the first rounds especially, the game basically plays itself and you can predict whether you will win on the draw alone.I am mystified why a round consists of 6 innings when an actual game of baseball consists of 9. Nine innings would make sure you have more of your team available to play (reducing randomness) and the added length would make more room for card management.Calling the game a deckbuilder is also borderline a misnomer. The cards are very generic (by design) and every new card replaces an old one, so there's basically nothing interesting in terms of the deckbuilding going on.I don't know what /bgg/ars see in it. I will play more to see if there's anything significant to figure out and to try the expansion content, but overall, it's a resounding meh so far.
>>97707023The second game I got was Dominion. Several thoughts to mention here.First, playing the game feels like coming home in some sense. It is intuitive to the point of basically not having to read the rules in order to play it. Of course this is because a lot of games have been aping these mechanics for two decades.It's also a breath of fresh air because of how stripped down and straightforward it is. The worst part of games like Dunc are the attempts to tie the deckbuilding to the board part of the game in a way that is not natural. Dominion on the other hand has no such problem by not having "another game" to begin with. Just build the best deck you can and score as many points as you can.Going into this I was skeptical about the fixed card market and the seemingly very limited amount of kingdom cards actually used in a game. Couldn't have been more wrong. The random market setup makes each game unique and the predictability of the market means you can actually try to figure out a "build" within it instead of waiting for some random mega card to show up and fix your shit deck.I only played a couple of matches and it's the best deckbuilder I've played in my life. I have seen the light.
>>97707023you can skip the first three games before the best of 7 series and just do the drafting instead. the games only get interesting once you've added a few cards to your decks. they're essentially a tutorial for new players. also when you add expansions be sure to expand the size of the market as recommended, which also adds more interesting choicesthe game has a very high skill ceiling (there's minimal randomness) and a lot of tension surrounding the minigames once you get into the pick-counterpick meta and the threat of when certain players will be deployed. sequence optimally in a vacuum, or for the value of surprise and disruption?
>>97707023I recommend the 500 year old deckbuilder: Piquet. The only problem is learning it and teaching it to a partner to play it with you. You have three phases. The exchange phase where you build your personal deck which you hold in your hand. It's quite convenient. The declaration phase where you declare the points you are claiming or bluff your opponent to trounce them in the final phase. The trick taking phase where you rapidly trounce your opponent. There are two catch-up mechanics that called repiquet and piquet but they require skillful exchanges. Other than that you have MTG or Dominion. There isn't much else worth the trouble.
>>97707023I think it might be best at 3 players. You know like the Dodgers, Mets, Cubs world series that one year? I can't say for sure because I've never found anyone willing to play it twice.>>97707089Dominion is shit, it's a closed case of Big Money and no expansion ever changed that. Plus almost every deckbuilder since has done it better, even Star Realms which has the opposite problem: the market wags the dog. Your strategy is meaningless in the face of the rng of the market you can do the exact same thing ten times in a row and it might win 40% of the time. It's one of those "I really feel like I'm making a difference when I buy the obvious card in the market row!"Do you have any actually good deckbuilders to review? Arctic Scavengers, Paperback, Valley of the Kings, Heart of Crown?
>>97707109oh I forgot Eminent Domain and Trains: Rising Sun
>>97707123And Dale of Merchants and Nightfall
>>97707023>>97707089Great>>97707100>>97707106Western>>97707109>>97707123Trail
>>97707089Addendum: Having actually played the game and now knowing what it means, I find the entire concept of the Big Money strategy absolutely fucking hilarious. Literally burst out laughing when I read what it entails - not engaging with any of the game mechanics and just spamming treasure and VPs.I'm not sure why people even refer to it as some degenerate optimal strategy when it transparently isn't to anyone with half a brain. Either it's an issue of sucking at deckbuilding in general (get gud), or it's an issue of timing, where people get too wrapped up in the engine they're building and don't invest in VPs early enough. And in the latter case, it's also a matter of getting gud. When people call it a benchmark, I now understand what it means. Playing against Big Money is baically playing against a bot with some kind of mid-to-decent strategy.
>>97707124I need better friends
>>97707023Baseball is quite simple. The game is split into Innings, and in each Inning each team takes a turn on the attack (at bat) and a turn on the defence (the pitcher and the field).The defender teams' Pitcher pitches a ball at the Home Base, where the attacking team's Batter is at bat. There's some complexity in how many balls you can let fly without trying to hit them, and how many you can whiff before you're out, but the important things start when the ball is batted, then the Batter becomes a Runner and tries to run to the next base. If they make it to the base before the ball is thrown to that bases' defender, they are safe and get to stay on that base while the next guy on the team goes to bat. If the runner is too slow they're out, back to the team bench you go. If there were already runners on bases when the ball was batted, they can run too, with the same mechanics for safety/outage. If the ball is hit far enough or high enough sometimes you can do a Double base run or a Triple base run, and if it's out of the play space it's a Home run, as the batter-now-runner and all the other runners get to run all the way around the diamond and back to Home base. Each runner that makes it to Home Base is worth a point.For more information on the game, please see the instructional video "Who's On First?" by Abbot and Costellohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9t097tbeT0
>>97707143For more information on the game, please see the instructional video "Who's On First?" by Abbot and CostelloDangerously based sense of humour, anon.
>>97707133the problem with Dominion is big money always beats any sort of strategy. If you can lean deck or max one type and win you played against someone who is bad at big money. Big money is often misunderstood by smol brains like yourself but there is ample evidence and experience that it is in fact nearly always the only viable strategy. Dominion is fun as hell unless you're smart enough to see why you're winning.
>>97707109>it's a closed case of Big Money and no expansion ever changed that>>97707150>big money always beats any sort of strategydude, Big Money sucks even in the base game, anyone with half an engine is able to challenge it no problem. expansions expand on how much Big Money sucks.did you even play the game? like ever?
>>97707089Dominion is great. The people that say Big Money is the only winning strategy are playing weak players. Big Money is just the bare minimum you need to play against. This is like saying that playing the Stonewall Attack in Chess is the winning strategy. Yeah sure, if everybody you play against is a weak player.
I wish other games had recognizable nicknames for iconic strats or opening plays.Despite its degenerate competitive play, no one found a solid name to dub the champ rush focused, turtle playstyle in the OG summoner wars, and TI3 having cannon rush or war sun rush just doesnt hit with amy sort of punch.Whoever came up with Big Money, I salute you, you glorious bastard.
>>97707181I suspect it's because most games don't hit the table often enough to have theory. You get opening names in most serious competitive games eventually but modern board games only get played by most people once or twice before they get trashed, sold, or lost in an attic somewhere.
>>97707181Viticulture visitor strat>let's introduce rng into an otherwise tight euro hurr durr
>>97707157>>97707176if it helps you sleep keep believing your are smart
>>97707181Round 1 war suns might seem powerful but usually come at a cost of not scoring any objective and being behind on blue techs, and blue techs are teh ones that actually help you win (more movement, more carrier capacity, ability to go through opponent units, chaining 2 actions in one turn). The actual rush in TI is Round 1 Mecatol + Imperial, but you only see that in 3&4 player games because there's no faction that can do a R1 Mecatol without a strategy card or outside help, and nobody will help you win, not even if you sell your soul to them.
>>97707225What a cute non-sequitor.
>>97707129Not a deckbuilder.
>>97707225He's right thoughNot even the biggest fan of dominion, but level one is normal play. Level two is big money, level 3 is beating big money>>97707181Basically >>97707201 or otherwise broken stuff, like halifax hammer
>>97707319>halifax hammerOh fuck, I had completely forgotten about the Halifax Hammer. Another perfect name. And oddly enough, from another deck building game.
>til anons forgot about Dominions Village IdiotShame.
>>97707089>>97707023Pretty based posts, I really like these quick reviews and slop or not posts, there's been precious few of them recently
>>97705257You are my doppelganger, I know your every move.
>>97707498God damn it, not you again.Every year, a stark reminder I'll never play with my bg soul mate.
>he came>he dropped absolute fire of a track>he leftWhy has he abandoned us? Why cant he return? https://youtu.be/NW0EHdDWKiE?si=-MqbTL7_tubsXxn6
>>97707089The actual best strategy in base Dominion is "Play Sentry and trash everything that isn't Gold, Province, card draw, or other Sentry."
>>97707181I like that Tzolkin has big corn and the Uxmal gambit.>>97702501>>97702576>>97702905>>97703065Speakeasy wasn't bad, I'd play it again, but there are many, many games I'd rather play. Took us about an hour teach, about 3 hours to play with 4 players so not the absolute worst time hog. All the end of round mob attack, police coming out, etc. was fiddly as fuck, as was setup. I enjoy chaining shit together so there were quite a few opportunities to do that with bonus actions and stuff, that was quite satisfying.I feel like there was plenty of things that could be cut out, like the rum-runner battling. I think it might also be better with fewer individual districts and fewer buildings on your player board.The 2 that had played Lacerdas before said it was his most thematic (I don't really feel like pushing wood around the board, pick up and deliver, and not a lot of conflict is mob-war themed, but okay) and simplest to learn, I can't speak to that.
>>97707583>big corn and the Uxmal gambit.Tell me more, please!
>>97707589>big cornFocus on corn, getting techs that give you more food, buildings that make it cheaper to feed your guys, etc. so that you always have plenty of corn to place lots of guys and put them out high up the wheels>uxmal gambitLots of variants to this, but essentially first round place 3 guys on Uxmal wheel so that in subsequent rounds you can take them off and gain more workers while also placing them onto other wheels to ride up and get good stuff. Very corn-intensive so you might have to beg for food and/or starve some workers on food days, so take early VP hits unless you get lucky with starting resources etc. Also hard to block if you get it started and doesn't give other players access to higher up wheel slots, except on the Uxmal wheel which is not that great early on.
>>97706103I like it.It's very tight, if obscure, drafting.
>>97707319>level one is normal play. Level two is big money, level 3 is beating big moneyNtaOk sure that's a description of any meta.Ignorance -> Meta -> meta breaker, the problem is you don't name or describe the actual breaker. And the named meta remains because the breaker only works against the meta, but the meta always works. I once played with someone who didn't understand why thinning your deck was always good. Then I showed him and pointed out; if you only have exactly the cards you want, your engine always works better. He literaly deck-thins every Dominion now. In fact he always ALWAYS uses Prosperity (the money expansion with platinum etc) in combo with the actual market.
>>97708130I mean, fair, but the meta always works because the money market is always the same. I think it's fun to look at the market and ponder what'll beat it, but I suspect I stopped playing dominion within some sort of goldilocks zone where it was still fun and engaging and not a go into the tank for 10 minutes after seeing the market and the rest is just execution.
>>97707100I know all this, and I accept that the game is very skill-based. That said, I think the core of the game is not really the card play or the deck building as such, but card counting and drafting against your opponent's deck. I think recommending it as a deck builder is a sign that the guy doing it doesn't like deck builders.The two biggest reasons the game is a "meh" for me is that and the theme.>>97708130>the problem is you don't name or describe the actual breakerHow exactly do you expect someone to do this when there's C10/26 market combinations in the base game, and increasing exponentially with each expansion?
>>97707338>>97707319Remembered another one that might count; Pirate Dracula in Fury of DraculaThat shit absolutely ruined the game for me. Not that it was ever stellar in the first place
>>97707201Basically this. See war of the ring having the DEW strat
>>97708292I personally tried to make an aggressive 'Demagogalf' strategy a thing (in LoME), but going for a straight up FPMV is just too hard to make it more than an opportunistic pivot, and there's just more people just playing basegame. Which, as an aside, I don't get because LoME is so goddamn good
>>97708227>How exactly do you expectI'm not. The money always being out and the same is why it's the meta.
>>97708130I love how everyone just steps over the fact that your guy went full BIG MONEY by literally using the EVEN BIGGER MONEY expansion in addition to the market everytime.
>>97708340>it's the metaDoes it get used in tournaments?
>>97708130>problem is you don't name or describe the actual breakerbecause "the breaker" depends on the set of 10 market cards, duh. but usually there's a deck or two in those ten cards that reliably outpaces big money.this is not rock paper scissors, this is slow fast faster.
>>97706589I can imagine it getting very annoying when you have a timed quest to back track or very late in a campaign since there's only so many decks of environments right?Do decks say permanently changed for a campaign? or do they only have those set cards forever
Name a more over-tuned game.
>>97708481>Do decks say permanently changed for a campaign? or do they only have those set cards foreverYou unlock tons of rewards talking to people and / or completing missions.Three sessions in and we've already met people that can let you "recall memories/moments" to swap in unused role/background cards you ignored during deck construction at campaign start. It does take a considerable amount of round resources and the risk you fail is always there unless you super over commit, but that makes sense given you are doing something as serious as modifying your deck without having "earned" the reward through missions.
>>97708227what is deck building but a flavor of drafting?
>>97708599What is drafting but a flavour of worker placement?
>>97708599what is a draft but a variation on auctions?
>>97708599Technically I guess it is a deckbuilder, though honestly the forced 15 card limit alone already disqualifies it for me. There's way too little card shenanigans going on. No deck manipulation outside the drafts, very generic cards, almost no combos, basically nothing you would want to see in a deckbuilder.But again, I'll have to try out the expansions.>>97708655what is an auction but a variation of area control?
>>97708778What is area control but an overcomplicated variation of tic-tac-toe?
>>97708888And what is tic-tac-toe, but an unrefined imitator of Roll a Six, Eat a Cookie?
>>97708594No I mean the environment decks. Like mountains etc
>>97709075They can change a bit. A mountain path going to a major location like White Lake will have a handful of White Lake features/people added in, which the mountain path to Atrox mountain will lack.There are also cards with the keyword Persistent that will follow you from path to path until cleared. These can be folks you are escorting/following or predators hunting you down.However, its clearly limiting, as theyve recently released an expansion that offers some additional cards for each path type.
>>97709094>>97709075I should also add some wacky path cardpool imbalancing can happen due to missions.Say you are tasked with luring out an Apex giga-predator. You need to kill and collect a bunch of prey cards, which get attached to the mission card.Now, those prey cards are no longer in their respective path decks, and the predators cards in that deck that would normally prioritise attacking prey when their test challenge triggers occur, well, they only have you now.As it only takes 3 injuries to end a day, advancing this mission suddenly makes the more leisurely wood paths a lit more damgerous.This is what I've seen after only three sessions, so there may be more tweaks to the travelling system I haven't experienced yet, but again, the fact they released the "Moments on the Path" mini expansion speaks to repetitiveness being an issue at some point down the road.
>>97708320Probably bigger player base and you can use dwarven rings to balance the shadow player's advantage anyways
Howdy folks.Looking to expand my meager collection with some classics in a card based/deck-building direction and wanted to get some opinions.Thinking about Dominion, the Arkham Horror card game, or LotR Duel.Dominion seems to be a contentious topic around here thoughOr should I not bother with all that and just get something like Moon Colony Bloodbath cause it's already on the store shelf and looks silly and fun.
>>97709250>Moon Colony BloodbathI liked it and it has a solo mode. Fun engine builder. I have Arkham as well but it's kind of a money sink. It's fun and immersive, but you should do some research to see which ones to buy if you consider it.I also love Dominions, but it's a cool game for friends to own. I wouldn't have much use for it myself.
>>97709250>Dominion, the Arkham Horror card game, or LotR Duel.Dominion and Arkham Horror are both expansion hell. Constantly teasing you with more game if only you'll spend a little more money. Dominion is more affordable mind you. Lots of stuff out of print/in demand for AH that keeps prices high. >classicsHave you looked at Battle Line/Schotten Totten? It's incredibly affordable.
>>97709250Dominion is like Catan. A true classic, a good game but with flaws.I was obsessed with dominion for a while but that game does get a bit old after a huge amount of games. But still fun to bust out now and then. I definitely got my moneys worth, even though the game has become a bit more boring for me.I recommend the big box, it has the base game and the intrigue expansion. That is honestly enough. A lot of the expansions are just kind of bloat and make it unwieldy to set up and deal with.The flaws in my opinion are that it feels like there is an unimaginable amount of cool card combos. And during the learning and exploration phase you can find a lot of cool interactions. But it converges to a slightly lame meta, where you look at the card market, decide on a strategy, buy money and 2-3 types of cards. You can ignore the remaining 7-8 cards. Your opponents actions barely matter. All you gotta keep track of is an estimation if you are ahead or behind them in victory points.Arkham horror card game is good, but really expensive. They are doing a reboot so the old good shit is unobtainium. The reboot seems to be going in a weird direction, with the shorter campaigns and ugly card art.I think if they bothered ro remake that shit, they should have gone all in. Jusr do a second edition and change the fundamental mechanics. Forget backwards compatibility and make a true new iteration
>>97709348Dominion is such a fun game to fall back on when you can't decide what to play. We always play with random cards so it feels different every time and it's always fun to try and create a deck on the fly. Weirdly we all end up with different decks even if there's a clear answer.
got this as a gift what am I in for
>>97709525This game is made for people who think Barnes & Nobels is a good local bookstore
>>97709496yeah if you have a group that just fucks around. it's like viticulture (to beat a dead horse) it's a great euro as long as you don't have that one guy who does the visitor rng and destroys anyone who doesn't do it. the flaw is there and the game is fine as long as nobody exploits it.great western trail is the same thing generally, max score is reached by going into debt for two or three rounds, taking negatives instead of playing. there is no debat this is the only winning strategy and if someone doesn't do it they can't win. thankfully nobody in my group does the META debt thing so nobody ruins the game for us. but if one person did it we'd all have to do it.
>>97709548Yeah, the people I play against know it pretty well and I rarely beat them unless I bully them with curses, but it's the sort of game I enjoy even when losing.
>>97709348Okay but Catan actually is just unfun. I play it once a year because I have a friend who swears by it but its just never fun.
>>97708499SETI
>>97709834In a typical game of SETI how many people tie for first?
>>97709848None. It clearly is a game of skill, but it is balanced to the point of being boring. Which is a sentence I'd never thought I'd write.Is architects that bad?
>>97709865I've only played it once but there was a 4 way tie for first in a seven player game.
we played jewels, harmonies and coloretto this eveningi am 74 out of 365 days through my challenge, which is around 20% or a fifth of the year, that means there's 291 days to go, and i'm happy about it, fun coincidence: 74 days is 1776 hours total (year of american independence)on the dominion discussion i'll say i'd buy it if i didn't own shards of infinity already
>>97710122How is that a challenge?
>>97708778i think it just may be a different style than what you enjoy. i don't think the game would function without the strict deck size limit, and choosing what player to remove is another moment of meaningful decision. if you played with literally no expansions at all, then yes it's very straightforward. I personally have barely played without at least the first few expansions, so I can't really comment there. I think some of the players have a lot of personality, after having played in a league with experienced players over a number of seasons there are a lot of standouts to me. It definitely isn't a combo kind of game though - most of the time. some players will reward you with a string of hits for having played a bunch of Naturals, or cancel all hits if you've played enough cyborgs. I guess it's more like synergy than truly combo-ing. it fits the sport theme, but that's no positive if you don't care about the sportanyways I feel like you'd enjoy Star Trek: Captain's Chair with what you value in deck builders - have you tried that one yet?
