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Dudes on a Map Board Games: Chess to Root
- Jackwraith
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ThirstyMan wrote: More offended about him being a Liverpool fan than anything else.
YNWA
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- Erik Twice
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- hotseatgames
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Many games also do a poor job of differentiating blue and purple.
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It's essential design as a Dudes on a Map game is just sublime. Asymmetry like few other games have managed, to the point where you feel the identity of each faction without an overflow of flavor text forcing the issue. Threaded turns keeping everyone involved and active at all times. The Power resource management means you have to not only be thinking about your current move, but *all* your moves for the rest of the turn (yes, this is stolen from Chaos, but hey, steal from one of the best). Buckets of dice but controlled randomness. A combat system that refuses to be "all or nothing" and allows you to accomplish your goals and bully people around without eliminating them entirely. I could go on and on.
I suspect the genre's near-and-dearness to our hearts is because so many of us gravitated into the hobby on the backs of one of these titles. Whether it was Samurai Swords or Risk or Axis and Allies, our brains were trained to see this as a default game type, a familiar face and shape to guide us from game to game. It provides personal identity in the game space by way of factions/abilities. We get something visibly "ours" and suddenly we're very keen to defend and expand it. Our best friends get to be our worst enemies, worthy of destruction, if only for a couple of hours. The physical layout and spacing of armies and territories leads to dealmaking and alliances not always specified in the rules but makes us all manipulators and brokers of promises (and sometimes, lies.)
There is something magical in the genre, and it will always remain my gravitational force that keeps me tethered to the hobby.
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- Jackwraith
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Ken B. wrote: Mmmmmm...Cthulhu Wars. That game basically killed all other Dudes on a Map games for me. I'll still play it, anytime, even to this day.
Great points. I've only played a couple times, but I get this. Petersen did a great job of keeping the factions distinct in function, so that even without the gigantic garish "minis", you still get the flavor of Black Goat or King in Yellow or whoever.
I still have my copy of Shogun/Samurai Swords. I will never part with it. That Battlemaster series is one of the best things that MB (not that MB) ever did.
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- Jackwraith
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Jexik wrote: I'll never own Cthulhu Wars because it costs too much for pieces that I don't want. It's too over the top in it its production. And the people I know who own it aren't people I play with often enough to really earn it. I'll keep Nexus Ops and even Small World around though.
Small World is an interesting case. It's clearly a DoaM game, but because your faction only exists for a couple of turns before you pick up a new one, I never quite get the attachment that I do in other games of that style. That impermanence pervades the gameplay, as well, so I always felt I was going back over the same ground that I took two turns ago, not because of my actions or my opponents' but simply the game, and it never felt satisfactory to me.
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Jackwraith wrote:
Jexik wrote: I'll never own Cthulhu Wars because it costs too much for pieces that I don't want. It's too over the top in it its production. And the people I know who own it aren't people I play with often enough to really earn it. I'll keep Nexus Ops and even Small World around though.
Small World is an interesting case. It's clearly a DoaM game, but because your faction only exists for a couple of turns before you pick up a new one, I never quite get the attachment that I do in other games of that style. That impermanence pervades the gameplay, as well, so I always felt I was going back over the same ground that I took two turns ago, not because of my actions or my opponents' but simply the game, and it never felt satisfactory to me.
I agree with this assessment of Small World to a point. It's fun, but feels like empty calories at times. I've never celebrated a win nor taken a loss particularly hard. It's appeal is primarily in the "let me see what I can do with THIS combination for a few turns."
Nexus Ops though is also one of the gems of the genre. I'd also never get rid of it. I even own both the old school and FFG vomit-nightmare-factory version. That to me is the genre distilled into its barest elements without losing so much of what makes these games sing.
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Likewise, I've been playing Bunny Kingdom with my kids. I guess you'd call it "Rabbits on a Map" (ROAM). It's a fine game, but again, there's really no sense of ownership or identity because your bunnies, once placed, never move. There's no combat, no threat of losing your bunnies or your territory, and therefore no need for alliances. In fact, you really can't do much of anything to impede the other players, other than taking a card that they may want.
I guess just becomes something looks like a DOAM game doesn't mean it really is a DOAM game.
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There are a number of games like this that feel pretty bland at high player counts, but actually shine with 2, like 7 Wonders and Race for the Galaxy. Dominion too.
Tragedy Looper is another game, but very different than all of the above.
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- hotseatgames
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Who knows, perhaps I'll add Lords of Hellas to that once I finally get my copy. End of February? Maybe? Hey, it's only late by 18 months or so.
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I'm starting to feel like the Spanish Inquisition. "Our chief weapon is fear. Fear and surprise. Our TWO main weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency. Our THREE! Our THREE main weapons..."
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After that, came Shogun/Samurai Swords, which was aided by the fact that I was reading James Clavell's books in the late 80s and early 90s. Then Nexus Ops, Runewars, and Cthulhu Wars. Those are probably my top 5 DOAM games (assuming I don't count War of the Ring as a DOAM game -- it just feels different).
But as Ken says, it really is part of your identity if you grew up in the 80s -- so I am up for trying any DOAM game at almost any time. I even like the Dragonlance armies of Dragons game.
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