/bgg/ 2016 is almost over edition

Secret Hitler (do a PnP), Captain Sonar.

I've never played Resistance again after Secret Hitler.

It definitely was for me. It would be like upgrading from star realms to Dominion with an expansion. It's great.

I just moved and am trying to get my co-workers into board gaming but I only kept some heavier stuff when I moved. I want to get something that they can easily play but will wow them...

What would you recommend between Ticket To Ride 10th anniversary, Tokaido CE, and Takenoko Deluxe (which I can get a good deal on) .

Which would you recommend? I'm mainly looking for longevity and depth as I'd like to play it more than just to introduce new players.

That doesn't quite work, Star Realms is a five-card-buy and Dominion is a all-card-buy (what are the actual terms for these again?).
It'd be like upgrading from Star Realms to Ascension.
I hate Ascension but everyone knows it's better than Star Realms.

TtR. Takenoko is too random and Tokaido depends on whether your group likes weebshit or not.
I've never seen TtR not be a hit with casuals.

I'm thinking any of them will be a hit, I was more wondering which I would like the most and that I won't get tired of after a couple plays.

TtR. You can actually git gud at it, Takenoko is a randomfest and Tokaido is too susceptible to heuristic algorithmic play.

Also note, Takenoko and Tokaido come with expansion(s).
I'll definitely look into ttr though.

TtR has far more expansions which add far more to the game. It has two player maps, it has team maps, it has co-op maps, if it's a "thing" in board gaming there's probably a TtR map for it.

Not for the 10th anniversary edition.
They also come with the other games, I didn't say "there are expansions available"...

>recently played
met up with childhood neighbour last weekend and played DungeonQuest, always a good time

>top 3 wishlist
Zimby Mojo, Cave Evil: Warcults, Space Empires: 4X

on another note, I've stayed away from Kickstarters for years but I decided to back Dungeon Degenerates because the A E S T H E T I C S appeals way too much to me

>conflict or cube pushin
conflicts all the way, though I do enjoy Merchants & Marauders and 7 Wonders, and I did pick up AH Civilization a week ago and may or may not play it this weekend

>>best game experienced in 2016
When I sold Mechs vs. Minions to a firend for $100.
Barring that, the three days where I played Scythe with an LCS owner all day and into the night.
>>game delusion of 2016
I was really looking forward to Vast.
Turns out it's just four people doing their own thing and then hey, look, someone won.
>>games you are looking for in 2017
The Gods War.

7 Wonders is Hatedrafting: The Game, it's all about conflict.

When playing with more than three, maybe four, hate drafting just ensures that someone else wins

That's why everyone has to hatedraft.

So many popular games are just old, shit games with a fresh coat of paint.

Fluxx is thematic bingo
Machi Koro is weeb craps
Tokaido is weeb candyland
Any other examples?

Depends how much you want to ignore details I guess.

>Game X is just like Game Y! You start the game, a sequences of events occur according to some rules, then someone wins!

Everything looks the same if you abstract enough.

Tokaido is a quite a bit more involved than Candyland, but overall you're right.

Learned to filter out expansions, now my list doesn't look as bloated as it really is!

...

How's Terra Mystica compared to Scythe? I've played the latter and like it a lot.

I feel like I may have hit a ceiling with Eurogames. It seems like if I get anything more complicated than Scythe or Archipelago the playtime starts scaling faster than the enjoyment. Also heavier stuff (Terra Mystica, Caverna/Agricola) is said to have little/no player interaction, which I dislike.

Is there more Euro-influnced stuff like Eclipse around? Economy-management with heavy player interaction/conflict is great.

Terra Mystica has a lot of player interaction, mostly consisting of sniping territories and using spare shovels to turn desirable territories you don't want into something the opponent can't easily use.

Terra mystica is around the same or slightly less complex than archipelago

I'd personally disagree with that statement. I'd say Archipelago is more complex that Terra Mystica.

Woot! Looks like SJG is actually making plastic minis happen for OGRE!

kickstarter.com/projects/847271320/ogre-miniatures-set-1

I was talking about this with another user a week or two ago. Well there goes my $$$ again.

>What have you played recently?
Trying out Ortus Regni for free on steam. Pretty fun. Still on the fence about spending 80$ for a four player card game. Some neat ideas though.

>What are your top 3 games on your wishlist?
Mare Nostrum
Kemet
Falling Sky: The Gallic Revolt against Caesar

Now if only I could find all 3 in the same place online...and justify the expense.

>mfw bought the last falling sky on cool stuff inc two days ago

You're the bane! They also have Theseus for dirt cheap. Now I don't know if I want Theseus csi or falling Sky at mm.

Terra Mystica is slightly more complex strategically than Scythe, since from the start of the game you can do EVERYTHING, and your turns are limited by the amount of things you can get yourself to do before you run out of resources to do anything and having to pass, instead of a single action per turn that must be different from the last one. This means the more experienced player will almost definitely do better than a newer one, since they will know how how to chain actions more optimally, thus getting to do more in a round.

The rules themselves aren't that more difficult, though it did make me realize how spoiled I was with how easy everything is presented in Scythe. Once you have a grasp of the rules, getting yourself into a groove and managing to chain your actions to make the most of each round is pretty fun. As for interaction, it has less than Scythe since there's no direct combat, but there's still resource denial (those things you need magic to use), taking hexes, and taking actions others may want (TM has a randomized thingy where you can choose out of 5 things to get benefits during the start of a new round, closest comparison in Scythe is taking encounter cards).

I'd say give it a try if you can at the very least, it's definitely something. I liked it, but I probably can't play it as frequently as I can with Scythe due to information overload I feel.

Bane?

>MM has it for $50
I BACKED THE WRONG HORSE

I hear he's a big guy.

That's what I said.

Is Scythe worth it if you didn't get the blinged out Kickstarter version?

The best cube pusher of 2017 is up on kickstarter right now.
I've gotten to play Feudum a few times already in prototype form and damn is it a good game. Feels like a massively less confusing and fiddly Lacerda game with all of the nuances and meaningful decisions and a few very clever mechanical designs.

A foil box tier though? Kickstarter is a weird place.

The only kickstarter exclusives were a numbered box and (maybe) the art book. You can still bling it out to your heart's content. There's nothing really super necessary in the upgrades unless you want the game to take up more room on your table or metal coins.

I said "really super necessary" when I really meant "necessary at all, to even the smallest degree"

Stonemaier doesn't believe in exclusives, you can buy everything from their store. I can't say I've found anything to be necessary, the only game-changing promos I can think of are the encounter and factory cards, and those offer variety rather than being necessary since they're randomly drawn each game.

You could say the metal coins are necessary in the sense that you'd never want to play with cardboard monies (in ANY game) any more after playing with the coins I suppose.

>Stonemaier doesn't believe in exclusives, you can buy everything from their store.

pls

Repost from last thread.
Rate my games as a new player.
Next stop might be co-op or Euro if I find something that isnt a borefest.

Ants/10

4 ants

the only thing smaller than your collection is that picture.

Sorry guys, did it on my phone.

The only thing smaller than that picture is your collection

I like Smash up and Cosmic Encounter ok; but that gamelist just isnt my jam.

Wow that looks terrible. The original game was already bad but now they decided to fill the box with 8 pounds of plastic to justify the price. It looks very nice, especially the figures, but the gameplay sounds awful. If you wanna fight using figures then go for the new Conan game. No idea what they were thinking with this garbage though.

casual, casual, casual
casual, casual
casual, casual, REX

I mean throw something between CE and Rex (like Kemet)

I know there is a bit of an overlap, mostly because I find most Euro games boring to death.
Just sitting there and scoring while occasionally leaving your opponent with a super minor set back just doesn't click with me, same goes with co-op, I just dont find it fun (though I only watched videos).

I thought of getting Lords of Waterdeep and Pandemic just to try them out sometimes.

Its mostly casual stuff because I am a new player and all of my friends are new to this as well, so I gotta hook them and myself into it before I buy something like TI3

What euro games have you tried? Trying to build a good engine or figuring out how to get the most scores can be pretty fun as a puzzle of sorts. If you want an interactive one that isn't too heavy, Between Two Cities has you negotiating to get the tiles you want.

In any case, you're doing right by getting the games that interest you first, you can branch out later. If you have the opportunity to try out new games though, seize it, you might like something that you didn't expect you would.

Not saying casual is bad there's just a huge jump between Rex and Cosmic Encounter and you don't have anything in the middle.

If you don't like euros try:
- Kemet
- Legendary (deckbuilders)
- Smallworld
- Chaos in the Old World

Oh... Inis is from Matagot... Shit now I want it.

Kemet is one of the best games I played.
Cyclades are...OK.

/bgg/, I need games that are great for two, plays around half an hour or less, preferably though not necessary lighter than chess. Any recs?
Already considered Jaipur, Hive, Duke.

...

Neuroshima: Hex.
Imperial Settlers is a little bit longer at 2 but is super sweet

Do you often end Go under 30 minutes?

I have actually have Neuroshima: Hex :D
I feel like you are the user who often recs N:H, Imperial Settlers, and "the Convoy" (not sure if I've spelt that right)

>Do you often end Go under 30 minutes?
30~ minutes isn't unusual for causal games.

You could easily have a 9x9 game last that long

Rex was kind of a binge buy, it came back in stop for a brief period and it was super cheap, so I got it since I really want to play it even though its super heavy.
Ill check them out, thought I already watched and read reviews for most of these games.

I remember seeing smallworld before, a mix of Risk and Smash Up.

Looks nice but doesn't really feel different from Smash Up so much that its worth buying, id rather branch a bit further.

Well I do recommend N:H and Imperial Settlers but I haven't played Convoy.

There aren't that many 2 player games that can be played in about 30 minutes, though.

I mean you could try Welcome to the Dungeon, other duel games (Netrunner, Summoner Wars I don't suspect Mage Arena would take 30 minutes) or deckbuilders for 2p

Ah makes sense.

So what do you guys think of "The Edge: Dawnfall" from kickstarter?

Anyone knows of a good way of setting up initiative order?

I got a game of 6 players that constantly needs to shuffle and handle initiative cards to base turns, is there a faster way?

Which one should I get? I know that they are very different but I like all of them and can't decide.

Which one?

Initiative track? If it needs to be random just put it into a cloth bag and pick out the tiles at random.

I played 3/6 of them

For me:
Dominant Species > Terra Mystica >>> Roll for the Galaxy

Roll isn't even close. DS is my long time favorite euro/borderline war game and TM is my favorite euro.

That said and trying to be objective:

If you have dedicated people for it:
Dominant Species > Terra Mystica > Roll for the Galaxy

If you play with random people
Terra Mystica > Roll for Galaxy > Dominant Species

Ease of explaining to first timers:
Dominant Species > Terra Mystica > Roll for the Galaxy

Gotchas in the rules (after the first game):
Terra Mystica = Roll for the Galaxy > Dominant Species

Comfy factor:
Terra Mystica > Roll for the Galaxy > Dominant Species

Fiddlyness:
Terra Mystica > Roll for the Galaxy > Dominant Species

Down time:
Roll for the Galaxy > Dominant Species > Terra Mystica

Player interaction
Dominant Species >>> Terra Mystica > Roll for the Galaxy

>Which one should I get?
Yes!

(OK, to be helpful I'd suggest Roll for the Galaxy for the fact that it is fairly easy to teach and fairly fast to play out - 45 minutes or less for a typical game - and still allows significant player choices, but not a lot of direct player interaction, i.e. Euro style play rather than Ameritrash. This means no one gets eliminated early and has to sit out the rest of the game.

Not the same user but could you brief me up on Dominant Species?

Dominant Species is a "god game" in which you are personally responsible for one of the animal groups:

> Mammals
> Birds
> Reptiles
> Amphibians
> Arachnids
> Insects

The goal of the game is to score the most VP. The game is played on hex tiles, on the corner of the tiles there may be some resources that your animals may adapt to (eg grass, grubs, sun etc). Like I said you don't control animals instead you control an entire animal groups e.g your animal group is birds - the singular cubes might be hawks, eagles so on and so forth.

The main mechanism of the game is action selection via action pawns. In the planing phase players set up their action pawns in initiative order and then in the execution phase execute those actions. Actions are ordered and some actions "execute" before others.

Initiative is pretty important. In a 6 player game for example you might not get the Domination action which is very powerful, so the 6th players might want to settle for tactics that don't use domination or be in a constant battle for initiative.

The game usually lasts about 5-6 rounds, 2-3hrs.

The order of the actions is:

Intiative -> Adaptation -> Regression -> Abundance -> Wasteland -> Depletion -> Glaciation -> Speciation -> Wanderlust -> Migration -> Competition -> Domination

[1/3]

> Domination
Is the main scoring mechanism of the game. One one field you dominate (i.e are most adapted animal group at) you score people by the amount of cubes there are on that tile. More importantly you get to choose one of the five domination cards.

The cards are very powerful. They can give you additional action points, add/remove adaptations, and fuck everyone and everyone that stands near them. Sometimes literally e.g the cataclysm card can kill off multiple species (the cubes) on a tile and single cubes on neighboring tiles. Other lets you kill off any opponent in the tundra.

> Competition
Is basically fighting - it allows you to kill other species on some fields.

> Migration
Allows you to move your species from one field to another

> Wanderlust
Allows you to "explore" and add another tile to the game. Also a way of scoring points.

> Speciation
Allows you add new species of your animal group (i.e new cubes)

> Glaciation
Lets you fuck someone up by changing their terrain into tundra. This has two effects - it kills of most of their species, may starve them from resources. It's also a way of scoring points.

> Depletion
Allows you to remove one resource anywhere on earth

> Wasteland
Allows you to remove all resources of one type that touch the tundra

> Abundance
Allows you to add a resource

> Regression
If you don't take this action you might regress an adoptation you got in...

> Adaptation
You adapt to a resource

> Initiative
Move up on the initiative track and move your AP to a free space.

[2/3]

To win the game you usually have to do it by "fuck you" tactics. Because domination cards are so powerful (and some well placed actions too like competition, depletion, wasteland and glaciation) you might get booted out of a region completely if you don't mitigate and aren't an aggressive bastard too.

In a single round you must be aware off a shitload of things:

> Domination Cards
Which domination card can you realistically get with your initiative. How to mitigate the effects of other domination cards (spread out your animals for example)

> How many animals will you have on tiles that score
This can be influenced by people moving from/to your tile, people attacking you from competition etc

> Do you have domination on any tile
Domination is counted by summing the resources and the amount of adaptations to the resource your animal has. Domination can change in two ways - some species adapt to the resources that surround the tile OR resources change. But when you dominate a tile it's scored by the *AMOUNT* of animals (and not how well adapted they are)

This adds a certain dimensionality to play. Ideally you want to dominate the tiles that you will also get the biggest amount of points... while not giving the second player a boost. The adaptation of your competitor's species may change, the resources can change.

For me, this is the essence of the game. You have so many things that can fuck you over (and that you can fuck other people over) that the winner will be the person that's at the same time best at mitigating dangers from other players.

I've seen a lot of tactics like trying to go aggressive on the Tundra (it gives you amount of points almost exponentially proportional to the amount of tundra tiles you occupy). Never going through domination but trying to score second/third places in domination. Not adapting being highly but picking a shitload of fights, scoring points through wonderlust and other "passive" options etc.

[3/3]

>> Glaciation
>... it kills of most of their species ...

Iirc it only removes species from the board back to the player's species pool, not out of the game, so it's not quite as "fuck-you" as other moves.

Other than that, good posts

Yeah didn't want to get into particular mechanics just that it allows you to fuck someone standing in a place.

Forgot to mention that tundra tiles also score for less when dominated.

Wow thanks for the in-depth! I supppose it's a little bit "too agressive" (whatever that means) for my group, but it looks interesting anyway.

Damn, that makes me really want this game

Anybody on Veeky Forums play Arkham Horror?

I considered starting a new thread asking but it's my first time here and I didn't want to break any rules.

I got it for my sister for christmas, it sounds like a shitload of fun but I'm worried about how it will actually play out.

Anyone have any experience?

nah i only play fully expanded talisman

Beware it's quite heavy and for some reason people seem to dislike it... at least in my group.

> tfw you haven't managed to play Dominant Species since last year

>That picture
I'm vomiting just thinking about that. The base game is fun. Those expansions that add more to the board are suuuuuch a headache. So much is happening, you can't just throw all those extra mechanics you have to keep track of in the middle of trying to put out all the regular fires.

Well my wife already got Black Goat of the Woods and Lurker at the Threshold, don't plan on using them until we've done the base game for a few weeks, but they sound like interestng additions

Well I wish you luck and hope for the best. Maybe they got better with it over time. Innsmouth for me was what killed the game for me.

>- Legendary (deckbuilders)
I didn't know we have an /a/-tier hatred of neophytes.

Just get it second hand dude.

What's wrong with legendary?

It will probably get a Polish edition soon for next to nothing. Which reminds me I should probably buy Ta-seti.

Been seeing this mentioned in these threads a lot lately. Is it really that great? What makes it so good?

How shitty are the cardboard punchout pieces? Considering getting marble or vynil replacements

STEEV has an incredible run down on what makes it so good one or two threads ago, check the archived threads. He'd best just copy paste that anyway. It convinced me i need this in my collection.

STEEV GET OVER HERE

Nigga can't you follow simple directions? It's in the previous thread.

Who let the retard out of the cage?

Thanks, I did. Sounds very cool. I'll watch some videos on it.