/bgg/ board game general

I -really- like Arctic Scavengers, though its really lite on card options.

Deckbuilders in general feel like they're mostly just solitaire-with-shared-resources, though.

>comic sans in the OP
I love you guys

I want to get a 3 player low/midweight-ish wargame without going too autistic.
Maria or Triumph&Tragedy? Any other suggestions?

Anyone played Photosynthesis? I'm a sucker for aesthetic games.

>Do you guys ever whip out bootleg cardboard copies?

Only if it's something I just can't acquire at a reasonable price. And mostly it wouldn't be a full sized board game, more likely the old 'fits in a zip-lock bag' Micro-games from the 80's like 'Melee & Wizard' that had a simple hex map and flat chit counters.

>Is anyone else just kind of... burned out from oversaturation?

I wouldn't say 'burnt-out'. Rather - no great need / desire for new games. I still have plenty of hours of play left in games I own and rarely get to play. I've purchased more 'expansions' for games I already own, than I have new games in the last 6 to 8 months. It just means that I'm being a lot more selective about buying new additions to my collection. But if you're tired - relax and give it a rest. Not owning 'every new decent game' isn't the end of the world.

Can anyone recommend some good 4X games? Bonus points if it's sci-fi themed

> I

< whistles innocently...>

I'm still working through the rules for my copy of Empires of the Void II, so no feedback yet. But it's looking really promising.

Literally any other deckbuilder
Tyrants of the Underdark has area control mechanics
Valley of the Kings has manipulation of the drafting pool and stealing/donating to other players' decks

Thanks for that. Eclipse and Exodus are standing out to me right now, which of those two would you recommend? Also, is there a homebrew fix for the randomness of tech draws in Eclipse?

You don't know me, I could be any user; who doesn't have time to finish a project on my table for 4-5 months now, or update any of those charts, or even post here aside from once or twice every other thread, or play a game not on my phone/tablet in the last 8 weeks. I never thought I'd hate my business being successful

The tournament ruleset for eclipse let's you repick space tiles if you sacrifice technology or something. There's a few other rules they added, makes it better for 2p.

The thing with Eclipse is that if you're playing with autism STEEV type people it'll suck because that brand of autism is in love with humming and hawing over "Muh Politics!" for literal hours. Not to mention bitching about a lack of mechanics that enable "Muh Politics!" like super duper bonus points, win conditions and other stupid shit.

If you're the type of person that prefers to risk investments in destructive battles and to make quick decisive moves it'll be more your thing. Eclipse favours bold moves and if you're playing with people who aren't the embodiment of autism it's fairly common for players to completely switch sides on the map as you pummel each other.

Most people here prefer Exodus as a 4x because of the aforementioned "Muh Politics!".

Anyone see Planet Apocalypse on KS? Looks like a type of tower defense board game by Sandy Peterson. Looking pretty decent , just fucking expensive for what you get

I think right now I'm more leaning towards more combat over politics so it sounds like Eclipse is the one I'm looking for. Thanks user!

Don’t get Eclipse then, who has the strongest military and therefor wins all the combat is determined by who does/doesn’t get screwed by the random tech draw. Seriously, why the fuck that’s even a thing is beyond me, the game would be 1000% better without that feature.

>Homeworlds is better than most abstracts ever designed
>nobody has even heard of it
I blame the lack of a good online implementation.
I'd pay so much money for a solid Android version.

My complaint about lack of politics in eclipse has always been secondary to my complaint that everyone spends the first two thirds of the game aggressively avoiding direct interaction with the other players by hauling ass away from the center of the board as fast and deep as possible.

And maybe that's just a problem with the people I've played it with and/or their lack of experience. I'm perfectly willing to entertain such an argument - the kind of aggressive play you describe would do much to elevate the game in my estimation.

The tech system is still shit though.

>Most people here prefer Exodus as a 4x because of the aforementioned "Muh Politics!".
I prefer Exodus because you aren't a slave to the tech draws, and because the pop vs. techs mechanic introduces a better source of tension than "pay upkeep," and because simultaneous movement is objectively superior to movement-as-an-action, and because it's far more streamlined.

What board games are best for sluts to play?

Catan

This is the best board game for sluts

If the tech draws are what's shit about eclipse, can't you houserule something to fix such as drawing two and picking one?

You're missing components

Kek I was thinking about that after but I didnt want to samefag

There are these as well

World Championship Russian Roulette. It practically comes with a "Strip" version - just strip every time you're shot by anyone for any reason - and the almost entirely, but not quite, random nature of it makes it casual and good for getting drunk to.

Spaceteam: Not Safe For Space Expansion is another great one, it has pics of dildos but is actually a good game, which I can't say for any other game.

Hm a genuine answer that wasn't strip poker or twister. Got anymore?

Say anything, God Hates Charades

Sheriff of Nottingham

It's all but built for sexual harassment as gameplay

Trains: Rising Sun

It's because I'm a slut myself, so I can empathize.

Not Alone has a great one-vs-many dynamic and the perfect backstory for this - one player is an alien that controls a living planet and literally wants to mentally dominate the others into staying there. Tentacle/vine porn references and dom/sub/mindrape tabletalk ensue - "Why would you ever want to leave, my pets? I can make you so happy here!"

Escape From the Aliens in Outer Space has that but kinda less so, as you'll be hiding your identity, but, hell, to me it always seems like if you have aliens of unknown biology who have a position of power over the other players, it's only a matter of time til you start verbally domming people. Maybe it's a group-specific thing.

Spyfall's question-response mechanics and open ended nature can lead to whatever tabletalk you want, and often does, as you start to ask things like "Would you be naked here?", and occasionally get "Well, I would, but that says almost nothing" as a response.

Gloom is a light card game in which you are only allowed to play an event card unless you tell the story of exactly how that thing happened to that character, from where they were last. So, if you want them to be Wonderfully Wed, but they were last on a train caught in a caved in tunnel, you have to weave the story of their sudden romantic entanglement within the micro-society that has now evolved in the tunnel. Which sounds tame as your only example, but trust me, that's about as tame as it gets with certain friends, and it can literally evolve into sitting around a table with your friends eagerly listening to you impart improv softcore porn. It encourages you to use florid prose, so it ends up basically being the equivalent of an old Victorian penny dreadful.

Dracula's Feast gets an honorary mention for involving "dancing" as a primary mechanic, leading even the most serious players to always ask it coyly - "Would you, perhaps... do me the honor of a dance, fair sir? (◠﹏◠)"

Who's doing the one picking one? Is it a vote? Also, there are more facets to Exodus' superiority than the tech system.

Oh FUGG I forgot about Trains.
Does it turn the trifecta into a tetrafect or is it the "strut" between Tanto Cuore and Mage Knight?

If you want more interaction get Rising Sun, not the original. Lots of interaction opportunities on the board and cards that interact with the opponent's deck. Plus it doesn't really have an opportunity for huge combos like most pure deckbuilders and the original Trains do.

Love Trains, and while I hate suggesting anyone ever pay full price for a game, if you ever get the chance to buy from AEG direct at a convention they often toss in bonus stuff. Got the midwest/Gencon promo map years after they released it, as well as a copy of Batman Love Letter when I bought the original box from them.

I have no idea how Eclipse plays, I'm I just guessed that everyone would draw their own tech card to use but that's completely groundless and so please correct me if that's wrong.

>Also, there are more facets to Exodus' superiority than the tech system.
Would you mind explaining what they are?

I'm pretty sure that's actually one of the tournament rules.

People here are very rigid though, if you figure out a better way to play the game they'll rage at you for playing the game badwrong.

You don't draw tech you use. At the beginning of each round, tech gets drawn and put on the market. It gives the first players far too much advantage.

>Would you mind explaining what they are?
The same limited cubes are pop and tech markers, creating a resource tension.
Simultaneous movement phase at the end of each round, which discourages turtling and encourages small raids.
You can take over planets without conquest.
There are WMD missiles as fixed installations on planets belonging to whomever has majority.
The resource system is similar, but more economic than a simple "it costs X to keep a planet which supplies Y." Instead of tracks, you decrement the respective resource die on a planet you occupy (it can be reincremented of course).
politics phase

If I'm having to repair defective rules in your game by replacing them with my own, then I'm not really playing 'your game' any more. Opps. I own all of the Eclipse expansions and while I enjoy the game, I'm not blind to its numerous short coming.

> The tournament ruleset for eclipse let's you repick space tiles if you sacrifice technology or something.

Which does NOTHING to fix highly random combat, plus random sector draw (which results in random resource availability) and can and routinely does make some 'alien' techs randomly available only to one player.

> There's a few other rules they added, makes it better for 2p.

Eclipse Player count 2 - 6. Typical player count on game night in my area 4 - 5. Great fix!

> I don't get 'Politics' in 4x - it must be Autism!

This speaks volumes about your lack of depth. Smart people routinely describe 'Warfare' literally as "Politics by other means". Well designed politics systems in games *ENHANCE* the effectiveness of warfare as tool.

> Eclipse favours bold moves...

Except it doesn't - until last 1/3 of the game.

STEEV Nails it...
> everyone spends the first two thirds of the game aggressively avoiding direct interaction with the other players by hauling ass away from the center of the board as fast and deep as possible.

Typical game pic is typical... And the reason for this is simple. No one has the resources to build fleets or the tech to gain an advantage. Throwing ships into a 50/50 win/lose fight scenario isn't 'daring' it's just plain stupid leadership. And that's exactly what one is looking at on Turns 1 - 3 in every game. Turtling routine lasts until turn 6 or 7 - game after game after game with anyone intelligent enough to play the long game. The first 2/3 rds of the game literally play out as a Euro style engine-builder, with rare exception, until someone actually has an advantage. Is it possible to get lucky? Sure. Is that the same thing as 'skill' no.

As for the 'Politic System' in Eclipse - and obviously the author of the game thought having political means of some sort was a worthy addition to the game - it isn't simply 'Meh', but actively counter-productive.

If Eclipse has so many short comings, mind if I ask why you enjoy it?

I'd never buy it but when my friends brings it I enjoy building tons of tiny missile shits and just devastating everything until someone manages to survive the opening salvo.
Last time I did that I wiped out the owner in one turn, on his birthday.
He stopped bringing the game after that.

My group isn't really able to get together that often -- maybe once a month. Every time we do manage though we'll have one or two new games and play those and never really have a chance to go deeper on stuff we've played before. I would really prefer to get more real games in on things I know I like than just do learning games of something I probably won't ever play again.

If you're like me and only like the land grab phase then fake up a copy of Fjords and maybe re-theme it if you're a creative type. I don't think it's very available and it's pretty simple to make.

nope, not me

Because, in spite of the short comings of the game, it still teaches basic 4x game principles, it's very easy to teach to players who are utterly new to 4x games, and it allows for interesting choices in ship and fleet design. As pointed out - you can go for cheap 'one shot' fleets. Personally I like teching up with anti-matter cannons if I can get them. Then even my scouts become a serious threat to enemy cruisers and dreadnoughts. Simply put - I can enjoy the game system for what it does well without pretending that it does 'everything' well. The designer recently announced that there will be a new edition of Eclipse - late this year? If the new game design comes up with better ways of dealing with tech availability so that there is more player agency, combat dice roll mitigation, and if it implements a political system that actually rewards cleaver choices on the part of a player, then I'll be really excited to buy 2nd edition Eclipse. What Eclipse currently does well, it does very well. But where if fails, it tends to fall on its head.

>I'd never buy it but when my friends brings it I enjoy building tons of tiny missile shits and just devastating everything until someone manages to survive the opening salvo.

I've got a friend who likes that strategy too. It worked well for him one game, but the next game he got to watch his fleet evaporate when one damaged cruiser survived the one and only missile salvo. The best part was the other player who cruelly insisted on rolling for every hit until all the 'missile carriers' were destroyed. My buddy wasn't so smug after that one.

The worst ones though are the 'Green' Plant People aliens. The little green bastards get to choose 2 sector tiles per explore action and potentially keep / play both if the player likes both of them. In 2 player games they have a hella advantage, and even in 3 player games, if the other two players don't quickly team up against green they both get owned at the end as green simply out produces everyone else. There's nothing quite as daunting as annihilating 90% of Green's fleet on turn 7 only to have them rebuild literally every ship (including 2 freakin' dreadnoughts) the very next turn with resources to spare.

Holy Shiz! There's more than one... IIIIIEEEEE!!!

Obviously at least one is a liar, and the one is too lazy to tripfag and also prefers anonymous posting

B.. Bu.. But I liked it better when there was the possibility of a factory somewhere, like say Cleveland, slowly cranking out perfect (and evil) copies.

Damn you internet! Another dream crushed...

Anyone KS'd or played Sword & Sorcery? Sounded like it had tons of promise but I'm watching a playthrough of it and it seems like the most complicated, convoluted shit for nearly the same result as a single die roll D&D type basic combat.

The only thing I'm really liking is the monster "AI," but that too seems to add more complexity to a freakishly complex system.

>alice_in_chains.jpg
Immmmmm
The man
In the box.

I own it. It's not difficult. The dice have symbols. You roll them. Match symbols to your abilities to trigger them. Same with enemy AI.

Doesn't seem too bad. Once you learn it does it flow nicely? Would you recommend it for ADD friends lol?

Honest thoughts on KS and it's effect on the Board Game industry

It was pretty good. Tight little puzzley game. Looks awesome on the table.

This is what I mean by autism.

Namefag autism at that.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=U-wBo5_sV0I

There’s only one factory in Cleveland, and you won’t like what it produces.

it's great that it lowers the barrier for entering the industry
It's less great that the established industry uses it as a glorified preorder system and that if you miss out on a kickstarter you have to resort to getting scalped.

Thanks for the advice. It looks like Exodus is the game I'm looking for

The way it is used and the way the community reacts to it is overall damaging.

> Ah-blu-blu-blu I'm butt-bothered by a name
> Just because I don't know what I'm talking about doesn't make me wrong, even when I'm wrong!
> Everyone else except me is a faggot!!!!

Look on the bright side user, you've done a fine job of self-identifying as a someone who does NOT understand the topic at hand, and who does NOT having anything of value to add to the conversation. Bravo!

I think you'll get more play out of Exodus - Proxima Centauri in the long run than you would with Eclipse. The one main criticism of Exodus is that that there are 2 expansions - Edge of Extinction, and Event Horizon - that are very difficult to obtain if you missed their respective KickStarters. I emailed the game Designers NSKN asking if they had plans to reprint the expansions and their reply indicated that they would like to, but haven't obtained publishing / distribution support that would allow them to do so, so they have no current plans for that. :(

I'd disagree with that - I've been to 'The Flats' in Cleveland and they're apparently mass producing Drunks like it's going out of style.

Ah, I see the United States version of Monopoly has arrived.

>implying I'd let Ohio house the factory that clones me

Pretty accurate; KS definitely has produced quality designs like AF or Raiders of the North Sea, but then you also get Exploding Kittens. The pre-order that publishers like CMoN, EGG, Queen use it for doesn't annoy nearly as much as their using it for pre-order and then producing absolute shit.

Maria is absolutely great, Triumph and Tragedy is too, but qute a bit heavier

It gets worse...

why does it say 'gamer' instead of 'mario'
what the fuck

i get that it's monopoly for retards but come on

The In jail, Free parking and Go to jail spaces are so jarring, jesus christ.

Hasbro probably thinks of them as key branding elements.

Incidentally there's a hell of a dumb fine print on that board. Do you really need the copywrite text right there on the board itself? What does the tag line add to the title if you're already playing the game? Why does it need to say 'brand' next to the giant logo? Why does it need the part number?

Don't get me wrong, it's bad. But it's not as bad as playing original Monopoly

Talisman is even worse than that.

Hopefully the eclipse 2nd edition fixes most of these problems. I still enjoy the base nonetheless however

What do the expansions add to Exodus? Does the base game stand on its own?

>Do you guys ever whip out bootleg cardboard copies?
Depends what you mean by bootleg. I do play P&P versions of games that are OOP/hard to get/good games with hideous original components, but I take care so that these versions are high quality, including hunting down appropriate third-party minis and the like.

>Is anyone else just kind of... burned out from oversaturation?
Hell yeah. I actually had a 2-3 year break from boardgames because of the glut of Kickstarter titles and people who seem forced to play every new shiny and consider a game they played 10 times a classic. I'd rather play a very good game 50 times and discover new strategies.

>Do you guys ever whip out bootleg cardboard copies?

I have this burning itch to make a cardboard version of Photosynthesis because it would be so easy. The problem is I have no interest in owning photosynthesis and my group wouldn't understand if I brought it out in the first place.

it's merely OK if that. you start on opposite corners then either dominate the outside ring or race for the center. you either have a glut of sun points or none. don't really see much you can do to change your fate once the game starts. Like you can fuck yourself putting both starter saplings on one side of the board, but you cannot do better than opposite corners.

It looks good- aesthetic and nobody IRL is not into little saplings, even people who don't into board games would want to play and it seems strategic enough that medium-core board gamers would want to play, I'm just not sure it's actually that strategic or if it just looks like it should be.

>I brought it out
*If I brought out a cardboard and sharpie bootleg

>backed 2 big area control kickstarter games last year
>they both arrive on the same week

youtube.com/watch?v=1Q-U2THOF00

>Does the base game stand on its own?

A lot of 4x Fans would agree that the base game does stand on its own. Word of warning - there have been 2 editions of Exodus. You want to make sure you're getting the 2nd edition - it will say 'Revised Edition' in the lower right corner of the box cover. The 2nd edition components (like the player boards) are nicer and the rules are a bit more polished.

>What do the expansions add to Exodus?

The core game has a back story that Earth is destroyed in some calamity, and the last of humanity flees in search of a new home. 6 power groups / clans / tribes on their last legs reach the 'Proxima Centauri' system with the help of a mysterious alien race the 'Centaurans'. Initially they help the various groups, but over time the aliens largely withdraw leaving a few remnant groups. So you have 6 different human factions and a semi-hostile 7th 'Alien' faction.

The 1st expansion "Edge of Extinction" adds a lot more detail to the various core factions and expands their powers and abilities using additional cards, etc, effectively making them each more distinctive game-play wise. It also adds more resource cubes, additional tech options, etc. Plastic space-ship minis were also part of the Kickstarter - they're the same miniatures as the ships in the old ICE "Silent Death" sci-fi war game - just color coded for the various factions. Some of the new content from EoE (like some of the cards) actually ended up for sale on the BoardGameGeek store.

The newest expansion is 'Event Horizon' (which I have not had a chance to try out yet). E.H. adds a bunch of new 'sector' hexes for greater variety, some new rules, and some nice upgrades like a tech track with openings for the cubes so that bumping the table during game play doesn't scatter your marker cubes all over. There's also 6 'turn summary' cards, more event and action cards, etc. As an added bonus NSKN enlarged the E.H. box so everything fits in 1 box.

In other words, now you have no choice but to buy the extra large dinning table with the folding leaf ends and 3 expansions for the middle. First board game collecting, then oak furniture. Dayum!

I made a 400 tile !Carcassonne set with a sheet of fiberboard and home printed sticker sheets.
Cut all MDF tiles, edited all images on GIMP, cut and glued each sticker, sealed with polystyrene spray, made my own colored tokens. Probably spent around 60 hours and about $40 on the project.

That sounds rather nice. Got any pictures?

None atm, I'll see if I can lay a mock-up game when I get home.

So, I've been keeping a close eye on the Hate kickstarter and... I don't know. The actual game is probably going to be pretty mediocre and forgettable--I totally agree with you dudes on that. I also know you guys keep mentioning shit quality miniatures, but I just have to stop you right there.

The painted models look pretty nice. Even if the painted models are resin the production models can't possibly be way worse than what's being previewed, right?
>picrelated

Sure, gathered together they might look a bit... samey? At least that's how they appear from the paint jobs given. One could easily make each clan distinct from one another with just a shade of paint.

Alls I'm saying... I might have to go against the grain here and pitch into this Kickstarter.

I've only ever pitched in for one (Flash Point) so I might need to get burned at least once before I become jaded.

>whip out bootleg copies
Soon to be 'yes'

I'm in the process of making a bootleg copy of Cave Evil cause fuck paying $400 for a copy on eBay.

>do the quality components sell the game
in the case of Cave Evil. No. It's a hex 'n chit game with chipboard map pieces and a deck of cards.

CMON KS minis always look good on the KS page but they will look like shit when you get them in your hands

Where did you get the files? Have a link?

vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:Cave_Evil

Change file to a ZIP and unzip it--I think. It might be a bit more involved. I got all the images like a month ago.

Be forewarned, there are a lot of images.

ok