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Re: What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?
We also got in a game of Core Worlds with the Galactic Orders expansion. I always have fun playing this, even when I lose (which is basically every time); and I love how the theme of invading and conquering worlds is expressed through the mechanics. One of my favorite little touches is how, instead of "trashing" a card to remove it from the game, after invading a world you can thin your deck by placing one of your invading units under the conquered world to "garrison" it. It was one of my friends' first time playing but he's a gaming savant and he won easily by scoring 18 points on the Galactic Order cards alone. I was rusty and a combination of a bad play and turn order screwed me out of conquering a world early on so I spent the rest of the game playing catch-up. On the last round I had a couple of firsts for me in this game where not only did I conquer two Core Worlds in one turn, but those worlds were the 14 Fleet Strength and the 14 Ground Strength worlds (I've never conquered one of the 14 Strength worlds, let alone both). It proved to be enough to catapult me into 3rd place out of the 4 of us. Even though it plays long for a deckbuilder it never feels long to me, which is one of the best things I can say about it, and I plan on picking up the Core Worlds: Revolutions expansion.
We've also been playing a lot of Star Realms lately and I think 4 players is the way to go. I could see how 2 player would be repetitive whereas 4 player injects enough conflict and chaos to keep things interesting. Unfortunately that means buying two base sets but it's nice that it even supports 4 players out of the box without dicking around with some fan-made variant. 4 player Free for All is a little too chaotic but fun enough, but I really like the Two Headed Hydra (2 vs. 2) team mode. It's a nice touch that playing a base lets you pool money with your partner, and it's great fun to destroy your opponents' bases to screw with their buying strategies. The 4 player version of this game is what I imagine a grown up, more complicated version of Mag Blast would be, and I mean that in the best possible way.
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On the other hand, I hated Merkator. The poster-child for dry, soulless Euro. Acquire cubes, deliver cubes for money and contracts, buy buildings for points, repeat ad nauseum. Obviously, the game felt too long for me from the beginning due to the repetitiveness, but objectively I think it's too long by any standard (and it wasn't even that long-- maybe 90 minutes?). The essence of this game could be done in 30 minutes, and I really don't think you'd lose anything. Long-term strategy isn't really an option in this game, so why have so many rounds? Ugh.
I pulled out the old Knizia Beowulf over the weekend and had a blast. I really had to blow off a lot of dust and cobwebs, but I was glad I did. What a tragically forgotten (or under-appreciated) gem this one is. Classic Knizia design that has some similarity toTaj Mahal. I just wish the icons on the board were a bit larger for better playability.
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I've been playing Quantum online with my co-workers and that game has shown itself to be a much better and much tighter game than I initially thought. We've had some hits and misses and awesome take that plays of cards like Sabotage. It's a game that elicits groans and shouts and one that I reacquired, hopefully to stick around for a while now. It's been decided that red is overpowered and needs to be nerfed.
Last, we've also been playing Carson City online with my co-workers and mostly losing. It's a game I had and sold when it was slightly easier to find, but still hard to come by. At this point, I wish I still owned it because it's a simple worker placement game with teeth. I've been told there will be a deluxe reprint later this year and I'll likely pick it up then.
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- Posts: 1728
- Thank you received: 771
Bunny Bunny Moose Moose was probably the best game I've played and possibly my favourite Vlaada game. Its awesome, and its eccentric which is what I like about it most. One player reads the lines of a poem whistl playing cards with pictures of bunnys or moose with their ears/antlers in various positions with points + or -. You then switch your hands around to form ears or antlers to try and maximize your score until a hunter is played. Very childish, innocent, funny, and very different. Great game.
Kemet with 5. I thought this was alright. Its greatest asset is probably its short play time and streamlined ruleset. I like that it strongly encourages pure aggression. I wonder if it will devolve to the usual table politics after the upgrade tiles are well known.
Ascension: Rise of Vigil is a pretty standard deck builder but I quite like it strangely. Its mystico-machine game world and art style appeal to me and there is something relaxing about playing it. I won one and lost one but it was a breeze to play.
Betrayal at the House on the Hill: Also new to me, like all these other games. I thought this was a decent story experience but i'm not fussed about playing it again. I ran around the house as one of the small kids until i ended up in the basement. We hatched a convoluted plan to lure Frankenstein's monster onto a rope bridge then i was to beat it in a strength check using an angel feather i'd found. Didn't work, we all died.
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And this weekend a group of friends is opening a co-gaming space. Played a lot of stuff such as Survive (seems like a staple after I introduced the game), Carcassonne, Kingdom Builder, Imperial Settlers, Concept, Tsuro and taught myself Machi Koro.
Machi Koro is very simple, but I yet to find the predetermined paths usually exist in board game.
But the highlight of the day was playing 3 hours on Band of Brothers. There's a friend who's attracted to board game (bought SL at age 6, but never played it), and I taught the game in 10 minutes. I just give him a few pointer on the core concepts (like OpFire, FInal OpFire, command range & how the German/Russia in comparison). I then asked him what he wants to do and taught him on the fly. Very logical game, things just work. We played the infantry training scenario, and then we went on a full scenario with 6 maps, tanks, guns, halftracks and artillery. Lots of fun toys.
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I've never found Kemet to devolve into table politics in the 10 or so games I've played, but maybe thats because almost every time I play there is a different mix of players. Some games devolve into kingmaking situations in the last round, but with a DOAM type of game I don't think there is another way around that. And I really appreciate the lack of dice in this one, too many games like this rely on dice combat that takes away the planning/strategic elements. Really looking forward to the expansion and the addition of some much needed Black Power tiles.
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- hotseatgames
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My issue with this is that the fun of having your diverse party is those unique abilities. Having the game take them away is basically taunting the player, "Hey, remember that cool thing you do? You can't do it!" In a game that demands PvP, I think it's a bit much. I'd rather suffer a gold penalty or something like that.
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stoic wrote: Played a two-player game of City of Remnants. My only comment after only one play is that with the two-player game, you probably could reduce the number of renound tokens (VP tokens) for the end game because the two-player game lasts a bit too long with all of the tokens.
So what you are saying is.... In a solo, one player game with all the tokens included it could last forever?
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hotseatgames wrote: Each time one of your heroes dies during a scenario (they can come back) you get a skull token for that character. At the end of the scenario you draw a death penalty card for each skull token, and that penalty affects you for the next scenario. Sometimes the penalty is literally "no penalty", but sometimes you lose your unique ability, lose a health, etc.
Were you keeping all the Death Curses you received? You're only supposed to keep one, the highest level of all that you are dealt.
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- hotseatgames
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VonTush wrote:
hotseatgames wrote: Each time one of your heroes dies during a scenario (they can come back) you get a skull token for that character. At the end of the scenario you draw a death penalty card for each skull token, and that penalty affects you for the next scenario. Sometimes the penalty is literally "no penalty", but sometimes you lose your unique ability, lose a health, etc.
Were you keeping all the Death Curses you received? You're only supposed to keep one, the highest level of all that you are dealt.
I never had a character die more than once in a scenario so it didn't come up. I just felt that they didn't make the game more fun, so they should have been dealt with differently.
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stoic wrote: Played a two-player game of City of Remnants. This was our first game so we're getting to know the cards, factions, and strategies. It was quite enjoyable. I didn't think that I'd like this one, but, the time just flew as we played. The combination of all of the different game mechanics somehow work. My only comment after only one play is that with the two-player game, you probably could reduce the number of renound tokens (VP tokens) for the end game because the two-player game lasts a bit too long with all of the tokens; with a three-player or four-player game this doesn't seem as if it would be a problem.
I've always dialed it back to 150 for 2 player games and found that to be the sweet spot.
Stick with it. It's one of the best games of the past 3-4 years. Tragically underrated.
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