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Werthead

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23 hours ago, Chaldanya said:

I like the post. I would question Arkham sitting at intermediary, tbh. It's heavy on set up time which can be off putting for those just dipping a toe in more complex games :). I would also ask: Why no love for the humble worker placement Euro?

Arkham is weird. It looks monumentally complex but when you play it, it's actually very straightforward.

I need to play more Euro games. I just picked up a copy of Lords of Waterdeep, but my gaming group is on a brief hiatus so it'll be a while before we get to play it.

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2 hours ago, Werthead said:

Arkham is weird. It looks monumentally complex but when you play it, it's actually very straightforward.

I need to play more Euro games. I just picked up a copy of Lords of Waterdeep, but my gaming group is on a brief hiatus so it'll be a while before we get to play it.

That's one I am looking at picking up.  Lords of Waterdeep, Champions of Midgard, and Terraforming Mars  are on my shortlist.  Oh, and Tiny Epic Galaxies.  Anyone have much experience with any of these?

Also - does anyone have some recommendations for small and/or quick games?  My group has some options like Flip City and Harbor, I'd like something small/portable, but with some depth.

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42 minutes ago, Lightning Lord said:

That's one I am looking at picking up.  Lords of Waterdeep, Champions of Midgard, and Terraforming Mars  are on my shortlist.  Oh, and Tiny Epic Galaxies.  Anyone have much experience with any of these?

I Kickstartered the Champions of Midgard Expansions with the base game, really looking forward to playing it - it's on track for a June delivery.  Terraforming Mars is excellent.

 

1 hour ago, Lightning Lord said:

Also - does anyone have some recommendations for small and/or quick games?  My group has some options like Flip City and Harbor, I'd like something small/portable, but with some depth.

Fuse is a great short and small game, Flatline is coming out soon, but it doesn't look to be as small.  Bang! The Dice Game is excellent.  I'm really looking forward to Magic Maze is this category (although not necessarily small).

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June, you say?  That could work out quite nicely, indeed... :)   Glad to hear Terraforming Mars is actually a good one.  It looked great in the review, but that's not always how a game really is.

I will check try to check out the the smaller ones you mentioned.  I found Fuse on boardgamegeek just now and it looks promising.

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On 19. 5. 2017 at 5:27 AM, 6649er said:

have you played Settlers with the Cities & Knights expansion? it takes Settlers to a whole other level. playing vanilla Settlers looks like tiddly winks after it.

Yes. It makes the game much more complicated and also makes it more likely to be decided from the beginning, in my experience.

My father hates it.

On 19. 5. 2017 at 2:43 PM, SuperMario said:

Yep. I should have prefaced that. Cities and Knights is a great game because it adds more dimensions and ways to win. Haven't played any of the other Settlers expansions, but I've heard Cities and Knights is the best.

I much prefer the one with the ships! (Whatever the name is in English, Seafarers maybe?) It expands the field in that you get additional tiles and a bunch of ships, which you build similar to the roads of the original game, and can explore new islands then. So it is more an expansion into "width" and less building up into "depth", if that makes sense.

I like the option to flip the sea and new island tiles so you cannot see where you are sending your ships; only to turn them when you actually reach the new area. It adds some surprise to the game.

My brother and I recently tried out the new expansion Traders and Barbarians, but only played two versions of the several offered in the box, once each time, so I cannot really decide yet how much they add to the game. I guess I liked the one where you can build bridges, but we agreed that the "poorest man" card was stupid and we are probably going to ditch that option when playing from now on.

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  • 1 month later...

Finally managed to play a game of Star Wars: Rebellion to a conclusion. Now that we were more familiar with the rules the game flowed better and we finished it in a more manageable amount of time (about 4.5 hours).

In this game, the other player (playing the Empire) split his forces early on and started going after the Rebels (me), but I hit back. I pursued two very aggressive policies: one was going mad every turn sabotaging his production lines. He made the mistake of not fixing his production, so within a few turns his output of ships slowed to a crawl. I then made major diplomatic overtures at Mon Calamari and Utapau and won their allegiance, which is vital as they allow you to crank out Mon Cal Star Cruisers in the early turns, when production tasks are frequent.

I also hit a major roadblock when Princess Leia was captured and then turned to the Dark Side (argh!) and Han Solo was captured. This left me two heroes down on the Empire, which screwed me over completely (as the Empire became able to carry out two more missions per turn and I was unable to stop him). However, I lucked out in recruiting Obi-Wan and got him to Dagobah to team up with Yoda, which gave him some very powerful abilities. I was able to mount a daring rescue of Han Solo and was suddenly back in the game.

I feinted at Bothawui and the north-east corner of the map in the early going, so he thought the Rebel Base was in that area and moved his starting Death Star and main fleet into that region, whilst in reality it was on Yavin (he never saw it coming!) in the far west of the map. He then started building a second Death Star at Dathomir and attacked Mon Calamari with his secondary fleet. I beat him off with my fleet from Bothawui (using the "retreat to Rebel Base" mission on one turn and "Rebel Deployment" in the next to effectively use the Rebel Base as a teleporting stop to move a fleet anywhere on the map: an underappreciated and rather handy ability) and then used my fleet from the Rebel Base to destroy the second Death Star when he rashly left it unprotected. I then hit his second fleet at Feleucia with two Mon Cal cruisers and the entire Rebel fleet. He knew at that point that the Rebel Base was on Yavin but his main fleet (including the other Death Star) was on the far side of the map and couldn't do anything with the map. I also had Chewbacca land on Kashyyyk and trigger a planetwide rebellion against the Empire, just for giggles.

This happened on Turn 9 and my reputation marker was on 13, but by destroying the Death Star I won 2 reputation points, then another for destroying a Star Destroyer and then another for liberating Feleucia (a subjugated world), which dropped the marker to 9 and thus I won in one go.

The other player made two key mistakes: the first was not actively searching for the Rebel Base more stringently. He relied on the probe droids but even by Turn 8 that hadn't really helped him much (especially after I played Misdirection and got half his cards back in the probe deck, meaning he had to repeat himself all over again). He only knew the base was on Yavin after I sortied to hit Dathomir, and even that was a lucky guess (it could have been 3 other systems). He left his second Death Star completely unprotected, forgetting that any space fleet at the Rebel Base doesn't appear on the board, and if they're in the sector next door you're toast. He also got into the "Game of Missions", which is a big mistake for the Empire: Rebel missions are pretty powerful and the Empire's are not as versatile (apart from Capture and Lure to the Dark Side). The Empire is better off using its leaders to move its fleets. As a result of not doing that, he was unable to bring the sheer size of the Imperial Fleet to bear on any one Rebel system, and split his attention.

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I was back in the states for a few weeks and went a little overboard maybe?  New additions...

Lords of Waterdeep

7 Wonders

Flip City: Wilderness

Tiny Epic Galaxies

Tiny Epic Kindgoms + Expansion

One Night Werewolf

Sushi Go

Eight Minute Empire: Legends

Played several of them in the last few weeks.  I haven't had the chance to try 7 Wonders, but the reviews are strong enough that I'm pretty optimistic.  Eight Minute Empire: Legends has been a fun pick-up.  It's quick to learn, has a little depth, and moves along at a good clip.  Hashtag pleased at the random purchase when they didn't have the game I wanted.

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Just ordered a couple of games. I'll be going on a brief retreat with my in-laws in a few weeks; we are the board game people and typically provide a lot of the entertainment, in that form. With that in mind I picked up Mysterium after consulting with some friends, who pitched it to me as basically Dixit + Clue. I watched the Shut Up & Sit Down how-to-play and we are pretty sure it will be a big hit, especially with the kids.

We also ordered Captain Sonar after seeing the SU&SD video. We are going to bring it with us, although we'll see whether anyone there is interested in signing up for this level of insanity. I absolutely love concepts where a team works together but are all doing different things -- that's why I loved Guns of Icarus on PC so much -- and really want to play this. If no one goes for it on the trip I'll line up a date to play with friends here.

Interested in thoughts if anyone has played either, although obviously I've bought them and it's too late.

I think after discussing with a few people I am not going to pick up Betrayal at House on the Hill. I dig the concept but multiple friends plus SU&SD seem to feel there isn't actually much game there.

An aside: jesus, board games have gotten expensive. Used to be $30 was "jeez that's steep but I guess I'll go for it." Now that mark is at $50+. Both of these games were around that mark. I understand board games have production costs and a small audience and still need to make money, but I sure am buying fewer board games now that the cost of entry is so high. I was looking at Dixit expansions -- the family likes the game and I love the creative card artwork -- and christ, even the expansions are approaching that $50 mark. The world's gone mad. I don't know if I'll ever buy a Dixit expansion since the prices are so insane.

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  • 3 weeks later...

CMON's A Song of Ice and Fire: Tabletop Miniatures Game went live on Kickstarter today (with a really short campaign - 21 days).  I've given CMON a ridiculous amount of money already this year, but I just don't know about this one.  You would think combining two of my favorites things would be an instant back for me, but I just don't know when I would ever play it as war games like this don't appeal to me.  I've set a reminder for it, so I might change my mind at the end of the campaign depending on how the campaign develops. 

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5 hours ago, RedEyedGhost said:

CMON's A Song of Ice and Fire: Tabletop Miniatures Game went live on Kickstarter today (with a really short campaign - 21 days).  I've given CMON a ridiculous amount of money already this year, but I just don't know about this one.  You would think combining two of my favorites things would be an instant back for me, but I just don't know when I would ever play it as war games like this don't appeal to me.  I've set a reminder for it, so I might change my mind at the end of the campaign depending on how the campaign develops. 

They've already demolished their targets. This is clearly going to be a $1 million or double that project. On that basis the amount of stuff you'll get for $150 (£115 right now) is utterly ridiculous. I am tempted because, although the price is high for a board game, it's also quite good value-for-money.

However, I am also deeply sceptical when companies with enormous cashflow go to Kickstarter. They don't need to, not for a project like this, and the "early adopters get Kickstarter exclusives" mentality I think is somewhat toxic for building a board game community, especially for people who pick up the game months or years after the Kickstarter campaign.

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Kehmet and Cyclades are both decent war-based board games that should appeal to "risk" style players.

Carcassonne is still my go to favourite - easy but with lots of different strategies depending on the tiles and people you play against. Great for playing at the pub on a rainy weekend.

 

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Not sure if this is the right thread for this, but it seems close enough for government work. I don't know how many of you are familiar with Geek Chic or not. They are a furniture company that specializes in gaming furniture. Anyway, they have apparently hit the wall at like 95mph and are declaring bankruptcy. Not sure if this will result in a blowout sale or not, but it seems likely. Keep your eyes peeled for deals.

 http://kryptonradio.com/2017/07/25/luxury-gaming-furniture-maker-geek-chic-enters-liquidation-7m-debt/?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark

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10 hours ago, Werthead said:

They've already demolished their targets. This is clearly going to be a $1 million or double that project. On that basis the amount of stuff you'll get for $150 (£115 right now) is utterly ridiculous. I am tempted because, although the price is high for a board game, it's also quite good value-for-money.

However, I am also deeply sceptical when companies with enormous cashflow go to Kickstarter. They don't need to, not for a project like this, and the "early adopters get Kickstarter exclusives" mentality I think is somewhat toxic for building a board game community, especially for people who pick up the game months or years after the Kickstarter campaign.

I'm sure it will hit $2mill easy.  And while that's just my guess, CMON knows exactly what mark they'll hit, and they've planned their stretch goals accordingly because their campaigns are all meticulously planned and organized.  The "stretch goals" are not anything they did not initially plan to have in the games, which can make it frustrating to be a backer on these campaigns as you constantly get emails as another stretch goal is met.  It's their way of building hype, but when you know they're planning to include those things from the get go it seems pointless.  Would their campaigns do as well without all the games they play?  I don't know, but it would be interesting to see.  I'm not a big fan of KS exclusives either, but I understand that it's part of the game.  If they don't have the exclusives then they don't get as many backers, and then they can't include everything in the game that they had planned, then they include less in the retail version too, and maybe that doesn't do as well either.  

CMON got their start in board game production on KS, so I don't mind that they continue to use it.  Although, I do appreciate that they are starting to send some games straight to retail.  I use KS more as a preorder service than anything else, backing games by companies that have been successful previously or smaller games that look amazing but I'm not confident they'll hit retail (Get Off My Land!, Street Masters, Minerva, Feudalia, or Coin & Crown).  

Yeah, you do get a lot for the $150, but I just don't know when I would actually get it to the table.  In a week, I also expect that they'll have an add-on expansion for about $50, with another to follow after that, and also a few smaller expansions (probably some playmats to stage battles).  So, to get everything they'll end up offering in the campaign it will likely end up costing >$300.

Sorry about the rambling, I've had a wicked headache today.

 

37 minutes ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

Not sure if this is the right thread for this, but it seems close enough for government work. I don't know how many of you are familiar with Geek Chic or not. They are a furniture company that specializes in gaming furniture. Anyway, they have apparently hit the wall at like 95mph and are declaring bankruptcy. Not sure if this will result in a blowout sale or not, but it seems likely. Keep your eyes peeled for deals.

 http://kryptonradio.com/2017/07/25/luxury-gaming-furniture-maker-geek-chic-enters-liquidation-7m-debt/?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark

Reading that article makes it sound like there's very little to liquidate.  It's astonishing how poorly that business was run.  They should have been making money hand over fist.  I give Rothfuss a lot of shit on this board, but damn I feel bad for him here.

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1 hour ago, RedEyedGhost said:

Reading that article makes it sound like there's very little to liquidate.  It's astonishing how poorly that business was run.  They should have been making money hand over fist.  I give Rothfuss a lot of shit on this board, but damn I feel bad for him here.

 I'm not terribly familiar with them, but apparently their stuff was very expensive and custom more often than not. Seems to me you'd be better off going with  lower priced, standardized stuff that had popular mods made to them. 

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15 minutes ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

 I'm not terribly familiar with them, but apparently their stuff was very expensive and custom more often than not. Seems to me you'd be better off going with a lower priced, standardized stuff that had popular mods made to them. 

That's the issue though.  They were the first ones making custom board game tables, and everybody that came after was doing at least (usually more) very important thing better than them - lower price, faster turnaround, better quality (although not many beat them here), but the first two things is what killed them.  And now at least one other company has gotten into mass producing them for extremely reasonable prices - you don't get the options of a custom one, but the price is sure nice.  That's also where I got my table, and they turned it around for me in about two months, GeekChic was taking at least a year - that's fucking unacceptable.  They didn't even have to go the mass production route, but they should have, at the minimum, had an adequate staff that could fulfill orders in a timely manner, which would have lead to more orders and a more profitable business.  (Although they should have mass produced their chairs, because $800 for a chair is absurd.)

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2 minutes ago, RedEyedGhost said:

That's the issue though.  They were the first ones making custom board game tables, and everybody that came after was doing at least (usually more) very important thing better than them - lower price, faster turnaround, better quality (although not many beat them here), but the first two things is what killed them.  And now at least one other company has gotten into mass producing them for extremely reasonable prices - you don't get the options of a custom one, but the price is sure nice.  That's also where I got my table, and they turned it around for me in about two months, GeekChic was taking at least a year - that's fucking unacceptable.  They didn't even have to go the mass production route, but they should have, at the minimum, had an adequate staff that could fulfill orders in a timely manner, which would have lead to more orders and a more profitable business.  (Although they should have mass produced their chairs, because $800 for a chair is absurd.)

Yeah, it sounds like they were poorly run. Turns out they were I guess, as evidenced by their bankruptcy.

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In the latest Stonemaier Games monthly update Jamey mentions that Scythe will be on a table as background dressing in the series finale of Orphan Black.  That's pretty cool.  Great game, if you haven't tried it.

It also has a link to a Charterstone preview video.  I'm really looking forward to this game, because I've yet to play a Stonemaier game that I didn't love.

 

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Re: ASoIaF Miniature Game

On 7/26/2017 at 4:56 PM, RedEyedGhost said:

So, to get everything they'll end up offering in the campaign it will likely end up costing >$300.

Holy crap did I ever underestimate that.  I just looked, and with a full week left to go, to get everything they're offering in the campaign it's now $633.  I'm sure that will climb even higher in the next couple of days.  I'm too much of a completist to back this one.

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On 03/08/2017 at 4:06 AM, RedEyedGhost said:

It also has a link to a Charterstone preview video.  I'm really looking forward to this game, because I've yet to play a Stonemaier game that I didn't love.

 

Yea I stumbled across that, but didn't realise it was the guy that did Scythe until recently. I guess I'll have to jump on the preorder pretty swiftly as it's not on kickstarter. Just the artwork and 'village building Legacy game' had me interested.

I picked up Great Western Trail recently and I'm so glad I did. It's a great game, plays differently every time and really rewards multiple plays. There seems to be so many equally viable strategies, and each one is dependent on the board randomness so you have to react quickly and be willing to change things up. Also picked up Patchwork (I've discovered a local board game store I didn't know I had) and if you like tessalating tiles and Tetris style block filling, you can't go wrong. It's a simple 20 minute 2 player game, which is a handy thing to have sometimes.

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