Board Game General /bgg/

Board Game General - Big Games Edition

Previous thread:
Pastebin:
pastebin.com/NA2W929q

What are your favorite games that have a playing time of 90+ minutes?

What have you played recently?

Which 2017 releases are you excited for?

Other urls found in this thread:

miniaturemarket.com/mdg7077.html
store.cave-evil.com/collections/board-games/products/cave-evil-warcults
pogo.com/games/risk
kickstarter.com/projects/grimlordgames/village-attacks
kickstarter.com/projects/coolminiornot/rising-sun/description
twitter.com/NSFWRedditGif

First for people have different tastes and that's ok.

> What are your favorite games that have a playing time of 90+ minutes?

StarCraft: The Board Game
Dominant Species
Through the Ages

> What have you played recently?
Been playing a lot of Through the Ages online and mostly I'm getting my shit pushed in.

Also played Mansions of Madnes last week

> Which 2017 releases are you excited for?

None really. I bought War of the Ring and expansions to Last Night on Earth and I don't plan to buy any other board game this year.

I planned to maybe buy Arkham Horror: LCG but seeing some of the opinions here and the cash-grabbing nature of LCGs I think I'll pass.

I'll think of getting 2017 games in 2019.

Preach it.

>What are your favorite games that have a playing time of 90+ minutes?
Rex, TI3, Kemet if it goes a little long, big HoN scenarios, New Angeles is pretty satisfying so far but needs more plays.

>What have you played recently?
Crossing, Kenjin, Santorini, Arsenal, Sheriff, Deception, Secret Hitler in the last week or so, but nothing meaty. I hunger.

>Which 2017 releases are you excited for?
Not a ton so far. Expansions for stuff I already like, a couple KS games that I'm hoping hold up.
>Giga Robo
>Tortuga 1667
>2R1B Expansion

Recently been playing lots of Tak. Finally, an abstract I can see myself actually learning strategies to. All the others were either too light or too poorly designed/ancient. Arimaa almost did it for me, but it's too much of a game about tanking - aggressive strategies never work. Here, at least aggressive strategies let you Flat Win if you time them right.

I'm actually really looking forward to The Fox in the Forest, it looks like my jam. I hope it's released soon.

The Doors of Stone are never going to be finished, aren't they?

>really tempted to back pic related
>watch video of complete playthrough they uploaded today
>super intricate, awesome looking minis
>watch to find out what big minis even do in the game
>powerful dragon's ability is simply "has force of 5"
>normal units have a force of 1
>other monster minis aren't that flashy either

Man, I expected the monsters in the game to be like the ones in Mythic Battles. All with their own stats and powers and all that. In the end they are really, really simple. Like units from Risk or something. It doesn't feel right. The game itself seems cool but paying so much for minis that aren't really all that awesome feels wrong. Like putting a Ford Fiesta engine in a Ferrari body. It finally hit me what the term plastic pusher means. There is no reason for those monsters to be those huge, detailed minis. Well, it's a reason for many to back the game I suppose.
Kinda disappointed now. I was planning on backing it but that video soured everything. I only see it as a cheap facade without a proper foundation now.

Welcome to every plastics pusher ever.

you sound like you would prefer to play a wargame or something.
Guild ball I would suggest.

>What are your favorite games that have a playing time of 90+ minutes?

- Chaos in the Old World
- Bloodbowl

>What have you played recently?

- Castles of Burgundy
- 7 Wonders
- Sushi Go Party

>Which 2017 releases are you excited for?

There are so many existing games I want to try that I'm not fussed with what is about to be released.

I already backed Mythic Battles. Not sure if it counts as a wargame. I asked in the wargame general and they said yes.

it was only a suggestion. I quite like GB, that's why I suggested it.
shame about all these new fancy Kikestarter games that only rely on beautiful minis all while the gameplay is as deep as a duck pond.

>What are your favorite games that have a playing time of 90+ minutes?
Shadows of Brimstone, Shogun (the Wallenstein one),
>What have you played recently?
Dungeon Saga (Its pretty fun, not too excited about the "risk" combat dice resolution but overall provides that nice "heroquest feel" that I find missing in games like Descent 2.0
Unusual Suspectq (it's so light it's barely a game, but I gotta admit it's really fun. Made my lefty friends uncomfortable but they still loved it)
Ninja Nice (Eh, if I'm going to play a super light dice game, I think I'll stick to Zombie Dice)
Big book of Madness (I read incredibly mixed reviews on this one and I found it surprisingly fun. It might get old fast though)
>Which 2017 releases are you excited for?
I'm so fucking out of the loop right now.I guess I'll check out the gama videos.
Let's just say I'm excited for all the kickstarters I backed last year (went a little crazy on the old crowdfunding front) : The Walking Dead : No Sanctuary; Evil Dead 2 ; Assault on the Citadel ; GhostBusters II and the rest of my Shadows of Brimstone mine cart.

Oh btw, happy to finally have the proper final version of the cards. And plasticized too. They feel big and aren't easy to shuffle but I wanted them to feel like more than just cards.
Potato picture but I don't have anything else right now.

...

>What are your favorite games that have a playing time of 90+ minutes?
Ankh Morpork
>What have you played recently?
>>Lost Legacy
It was okay... nobody wanted to play a second round.
>>Blood Rage/Steam Works
I was the new player for both, and I got my ass handed to me. I imagine I fucked up a lot, but when Round 3 in Blood Rage everyone was going "You can totally make a comeback!" and I only advanced that round because I got one of those upgrades where you get a dozen points if your boats are destroyed.
>>Thunderbirds
I like it more than regular Pandemic.
>Which 2017 releases are you excited for?
Nothing, really.

>It finally hit me what the term plastic pusher means. There is no reason for those monsters to be those huge, detailed minis.
There's no reason for them to be huge, detailed PVC minis.
Honestly, what elevates KD:M from trash to niche is that it uses HIPS.

what are you, some kind of beatnik hippie? get out but nah I totally agree with you

>favourite 90+ minute games
Duel of Ages II
Cave Evil: Warcults
Argent: The Consortium

then again they're pretty much my top 3 games anyway, I love medium/heavy games

>recent plays
had a long weekend due to a public holiday on Monday so I actually got a lot of board game action in. I played Brass Empire, two games of Ferox, Neuroshima Hex, Survive: Escape from Atlantis and four games of BattleCON. good times!

>2017 releases
I backed Dungeon Degenerates and the new Exodus expansion, I have an interest in Sword and Sorcery and BattleCON: Trials of Indines. would love to see reprints of Space Empires: 4X and Talon actually happen

>fav 90min+ games
Forbidden Stars
Eldritch Horror
Chaos in the Old World
Archipelago

>played recently
Civilization & Welcome to the Dungeon

>2017 releases
None really, I have no idea what's coming out this year.

OP you gotta get a new picture, there's over a dozen /bgg/ images on the archive, branch out a bit.

It turned out a lot better than I expected from Cheapass Games, but I'd like a set made by someone other than Wyrmwood so it was affordable, no time recently to carve my own.

Prolly a better chance than George Martin finishing his epic, but only because Rothfuss isn't likely to drop dead any moment. Just go to ANY con in North America this summer, chances are Pat'll be there and you can kick him in the balls.

Looks great user, glad to see your set's turning out well

>What have you played recently?
This fundamentally perfect game. We just got it and finished playing. I don't think I could improve a single aspect of this game. I really thought it was going to be fun but ultimately flawed in some way, but no.

The first thing that was apparent is that the component quality was batshit terrible. The cards are flimsy and make your head physically hurt to touch. There's something just "wrong" about them and they take damage instantly. After sleeving them in premium Mayday fitted sleeves, we never had another problem but the poor quality persists to the gates (cut some Maydays to square size) and the organizer tabs, which we can't do anything to fix. Oddly, the player and nemesis boards were nice. The dials look tacky to start but turned out to be rather workable. The player sheets look dull at first but you just get used to it and barely notice after play starts. Some of the crystal art is re-used with minor photoshop touchups. Other than those component problems, the gameplay was F L A W L E S S.

Let me repeat that because it bears repeating: FLAWLESS. Imagine Dominion but no randomization to your deck. Imagine it's co-op now and Dark Ages expansion is aimed at killing a big bad boss a la Arkham games. A permanent market deckbuilder but you never shuffle and it has really cool casting mechanics. Each boss feels entirely different rules-wise. The variable player powers are very strong. The only two random elements are fun instead of shitty:
>3 tiers of Nemesis cards are randomized. Sometimes a separate Nemesis special deck, which is randomized. The 3 tiers "stack" together, meaning only each tier is random with itself.
>Turn order of players+nemesis is randomized every round, to keep you guessing.

Randomization is only ever used when adds fun or tension. Everything else is hardcore teamwork, good deckbuilding action, and depth. How the fuck is this game only $33?! GET ALL EXPANSIONS

Damn. How long is the game?

>What are your favorite games that have a playing time of 90+ minutes?

Agricola, Cutthroat Caverns, Dominion (w/setup and all expansions)

>What have you played recently?

Some newer games I've picked up.
Seafall (I love legacy but holy shit the downtime)
Fabled Fruit (Friedemann Friese is great at these small concept games)
Arkham Horror LCG (Absolutely love it except for the one person who keeps building suboptimal decks)

>Which 2017 releases are you excited for?
Waiting patiently for my copy of Campaign Trail. It's definitely the last game I've ever KS. Original release date was supposed to be before the election last year, now it's projected to be fall of this year. :\

Otherwise every game seems to be just more of the same. I keep trying to get cool unique games to the table only to realize some are complete retreads of the same mechanics. I am looking forward to some upcoming legacy games, but only because they add another layer on top of the same old thing. Werewolf Legacy seems like an awesome concept, at least.

Tom's review made me kinda want this, but knowing what I do about Travis and the few interactions I've had with him at Gencon have me hoping some other publisher will get it for the 2nd print run.

>Cave Evil: Warcults

How is this? It looks pretty wargamey, which isn't really my thing, but I love the theme. The original's theme was even better but I don't think I'm ever going to find a copy for anything I'd be willing to pay.

> public holiday
Pretty sure I live where you live. Unless it's NZ, since apparently they had a public holiday monday too.

I have no idea who that person is and don't give a shit. Buy this game. It's $33 and immaculate. Pick up the following and don't even open the box until you have them:

miniaturemarket.com/mdg7077.html

318 cards from base = 7 sets = $11.20
74 cards from The Depths = +1 set = $12.80 total

You can use the same sleeves for the square breach "cards" and just trim the excess.

It's the owner of Indie Boards & Cards, guy is a douchenozzle of the highest caliber; either way my gaming budget is so small I'm gonna have to playtest before I buy but very nice writeup user.

it's a thematic wargame masterpiece, no plastic pusher will ever come close to the sheer immersion that it provides, and the best thing about it is that it encourages a flexible ruleset for a complexity that you feel comfortable with, and it also includes rules for mixing its ruleset with the original Cave Evil ruleset. the 92-page rulebook is actually very easy to digest, there's barely any typos and there's very little in rules confusion. it is very clearly an example of a labour of love

the original game is a blast as well, a very 4X-ish experience (though expanding is only limited to increasing your army) that becomes even more insane when the ridiculously OP NPC (which is randomised between five different monsters) enters play and fucks shit up

I live in Melbourne

Find someone to just 2-player it up with on TTS. Heck, even 3 players works since it has an absolutely ingenious way of making 3 player turns with 2 Nemesis turns per round work. With the use of a "Wild" player turn where players get to choose who takes that extra turn. Fucking brilliant.

>it's a thematic wargame masterpiece
I have to know more. Wargaming is my favorite genre. I just get turned off by historical war themes.

unfortunately I'm at work and I'm about to finish my break, but the designer has a series of tutorial videos online and the complete rulebook is available, everything can be seen at their website (page design is a bit eye-gouging)

store.cave-evil.com/collections/board-games/products/cave-evil-warcults

Metal as FUCK

I love it, looks fantastic!

Maybe related

where the fuck do you play risk online?

pogo.com/games/risk

Hey fellow Melbournian!

I'd be keen to try Cave Evil: Warcults if you're in the Eastern Suburbs. Do you know House of War, in Ringwood?

Can you compare it to Sentinels of the Multiverse?

Bump!

Looking for anyone who has played Empires at Sea. Any opinions would be appreciated!

This will be the next Scythe. Hyped beyond reason but ultimately a letdown.

Anybody tried Epic Card Game? I'm wondering if it feels like MtG, but a bit smaller and without the whole boosters thing.

Funny, I thought it'd be the next blood rage for the same reasons.

Nah, it'll be the next Monopoly.

i hated blood rage but isn't it generally considered great? its like 15 on bgg

Opinion is all over the place on BR.

Thoughts on this?

kickstarter.com/projects/grimlordgames/village-attacks

>only like one thing ks exclusive and it's kinda dumb
I hate this game but I won't hate you for backing it.

Why do you hate it? Seems like a fun coop game.

every time someone posts this i look it up and immediately close out the tab because it looks so fucking ugly

>you know what would be cool
>mansions of madness
>but let's make the monsters weaker instead of making them represent a constant pressing existential threat
>and lets make the monster spawn procedure simpler
>and dumb the whole game down to tower defense
>and steal mythic battles' level-up system
Just buy MoM.

Coop garbage.

1ed or 2ed?

Making things simpler or "dumbing them down" is often streamlining which is good.

2nd, the keeper role is just a huge fucking hassle and almost everyone I've talked to hates it (the role, not 2nd ed, which, as I'm having implied, does not contain that role).

MoM was simple. You race around the map trying to solve the plot as you make decisions about who to act as screeners, who to solve puzzles, and who to play support based on stats and balancing immediate goals with the ultimate goal (or what you believe it to be).
This goes beyond simple. Everyone plays combat, and you spend the whole game killing shit. It's like Mechs vs. Minions if it didn't have the frankly brilliant drafting and programming mechanical framework.
I mean, I hated MvM, but damn that engine is sexy.

I've never seen someone try so hard to make a lame game sound cool. Spend money on that thing if you want, but if the fact that they were stupid and lazy enough to call it "Village Attacks" should be a huge red flag

GTFO

>I've never seen someone try so hard to make a lame game sound cool.
I hate all three games, I just think that MoM is Village Attacks without the lobotomy and MvM has a great mechanical interaction that I'd like to see in a good game.

yep, i misunderstood your post

So what's the problem with the Conan boardgame?

2/3 of it is KS exclusive.

I'm so glad that I kickstarted that thing.

Someone brought their copy into the shop.
Fucking thing comes in two boxes and weighs half what I do.
Nice set of miniatures though.
I don't think anyone's actually gotten around to playing it at the store yet though.

Sorry, never played it. I couldn't get over the cheesy comic book graphics.

"Feels" like MtG is accurate. Plays like? Nope. There are some subtle changes that just make it a strictly better game, not that it's hard to top something that came out over 25 years ago. It facilitates draft excellently and the constructed is pretty fun. A word to the wise from someone who runs an Epic strategy blog:

>Constructed has a "You win the game" card that the community is basically fighting about right now because admitting it's as completely broken as it is would basically kill constructed until it dies mortally. Inquisitor Kark is what to watch out for. Stalls the game with lifegain, which is faster than any aggro/burn, and then wins pretty easily, while having access to control cards.

>Once you realize Epic is the best CCG-like there is, there's no going back and you might realize there's no going forward either. After 2 years of playing, I now find random constructed decks to be incredibly sacky considering I dedicated 16 years of my life to competitive CCGs and the better part of a college-like education in statistics and Game Theory. YMMV, but for my effort, CCGs never developed past design of the 90s and will seem dated compared to the 2010s.

The game is cheap, so you lose practically nothing just buying a single copy for draft. I highly recommend getting a full constructed playset (3xbase, 3xall tyrants, 3xall uprising). If not, buy the digital version coming out.

It's a very nice Kickstarter kit. I would probably never have considered buying the retail version of the game. Although, straightening out all the warped plastic minis is a pain in the ass. But hey, it's a hobby.

>I dedicated 16 years of my life to competitive CCGs and the better part of a college-like education in statistics and Game Theory. YMMV, but for my effort, CCGs never developed past design of the 90s and will seem dated compared to the 2010s.

Interesting. Ever consider writing your own book about your experiences and perspective?

> Q: Do you even lift bro?
> A: Of course, I board game!

Freaking 'OGRE' box weighs 28lbs and that's without the extra tiles from various sources.

>Interesting. Ever consider writing your own book about your experiences and perspective?
Not really. I could only type that sentence without feeling incredibly arrogant because I knew my identity wasn't tied to it. I think a book about what I've experienced would make me feel bigheaded for even trying.

What I try to do it write articles that apply my knowledge (for the reader) in some specific circumstance.

>Not really. I could only type that sentence without feeling incredibly arrogant because I knew my identity wasn't tied to it.

Fair enough. (Though as an interesting aside, some of the best stories {fact or fiction} aren't so much about what happens, but who it happens to.)


>What I try to do it write articles that apply my knowledge (for the reader) in some specific circumstance.

I can't imagine spending that kind of time working at a particular subject and NOT learning a thing or two. Your comments on CCGs and their lack of grown beyond a specific model struck me as interesting. If you do post articles what you observed I'd love to see a link.

Thanks.

Been playing Magic for well over a decade and still love it very much. Is ECG really that much better in your eyes? In what ways is it different/better? I have trouble imagining it. How does the gameplay differ? Is combat different?

Fucking lmao.

Name field just for this post. I wiped my old CCG articles and just kept Epic stuff. Plus my own homebrew game. I've learned a lot more in the past four years of writing than from lectures or gaming. Just that fact that I need to push the limits all the time, do thousands of tests, quantify everything, look for that next tiny margin of edge. It felt vindicating when I had two scientists showed up (separately) and told me my methods were correct. It's good to hear for someone who's fumbling blindly as an autodidact.

Definitely. Firstly, there's the aspect of owning the entire collection for (right now $126-$151, depending on how optimally you shop) including tons of tokens.

This gives you the ability to draft, cube draft, and have a full constructed set, presumably for two players. Though I recommend a second set of base (+$30-45) for a second player, as there are some key cards there.

ECGs can fix many problems with CCGs such as set bloat. It takes a shitload of money to design, test, revise, test, finalize, and publish every card. That's ignoring having staff to direct, communicate with artists, and either paying large lump sums for every piece of art or agreeing to limited royalty contracts. All of this has to be done for every single card, and every single print run needs proofing (both pre-production and post for ink), sorting (rarity), packing, shipping etc. Every single card costs money and a lot of time to develop. Wasting that time and money on a 1/1 for R with a negative effect causes bloat. Players just rip open packs, check the rare, dump most of the rest, and go.

Draft players will find the bloat model easier (for first picks, and mind-numbingly awful for late picks), but drafting where every card is good works much better, as evidenced by Epic.

Bloat alone accounts for a lot of wasted money in R&D+Prod; the cost of which absolutely gets passed on to a customer.

That's not even to account for anything else, just one aspect. I could probably go on for hours about this subject.

So I backed this: kickstarter.com/projects/coolminiornot/rising-sun/description

Tell me it wasn't a mistake Veeky Forums

Enjoy your action figures.

I won't say anything

can we just agree to stop posting every kickstarter under the sun

...

Under the Rising Sun?

YYYYEEEAAHHHHHHHHHHHH

Even if the naysayers are right you'll be able to sell it for cost, if not profit, due to the massive amount of Kickstarter exclusive content.

Kickstarter campaign ends in 5 days. Anyone here who knows this or played the old version?

Have you done anything on accessibility for ECGs? The general consensus for something like Netrunner is that its harder for new players to join in vs Magic. Perhaps you have something that can improve that, or atleast shed some light as to why it's harder to jump into LCG/ECGs?

I am this guy
Thought about backing it but then changed my mind because the full gameplay video made it seem kinda shallow.

Shill post

>I've learned a lot more in the past four years of writing than from lectures or gaming. Just that fact that I need to push the limits all the time, do thousands of tests, quantify everything, look for that next tiny margin of edge.

There's the old saw about 'Life is nothing without obsession'. I still think it would be interesting to read about someone who pursued gaming and ended up learning a lot of other things along the way. As for not having your identity tied up in a potential story - this is what pen names are for.


It felt vindicating when I had two scientists showed up (separately) and told me my methods were correct. It's good to hear for someone who's fumbling blindly as an autodidact.

I imagine so - I've been curious about taking some statistics courses just to learn how probability plays out in various board games. Thanks for the link

I'm a bit saddened by this since I have the first version. I'll have to go through and see if the additions are worth it. Ultimately I suspect I won't be too saddened because they're very good at their price points.

Thoughts on GKR: Heavy Hitters?
Another overproduced plastic pusher?

>Another overproduced plastic pusher?
Yes. One of the worst offenders in that regard in a long time.

>Another overproduced plastic pusher?

Maybe but i'm a real sucker for mech stuff. However at the same time I am also one that hates having KS exclusives locking regular people out of getting any access to said extra content.

The biggest appeal to me so far is how the mechs are almost just "scrapped together" or looking like industrial construction robots at times.

>I'm wondering if it feels like MtG, but a bit smaller and without the whole boosters thing.

Considering the game was designed by a MTG Hall of Famer who runs a games company i'd say that's not too unusual.

Shill post

Might be salvageable, but out of the box the combat resolution is pretty bad. Rest is okay, but not great.

>Have you done anything on accessibility for ECGs?
The general reason is that FFG is horrible for accessibility in all of their "living" games. Take X-Wing or Armadas for example. Or just any of their LCGs. This is a problem with FFG using the old tricks of bloat and poorly-made expansions to force people into buying lots of different product, like individual puzzle pieces. I remember counting something like 8 expansions required (plus 2 core sets) just to make one of the top Worlds winning Runner decks in Netrunner. That's pretty awful, since you're not even getting the whole game collection.

Games like Epic that trim the fat and offer a strong base set are great. Epic certainly has room for improvement on their pack expansion model. Many of their customers have expressed discontent at a 4-pack model driving up the manufacturing price (which they pass on to customers) for absolutely no gain to those customers. You will never buy only one pack, since they're structured in a way that forces you to get all four to collect a set of relevant cards. They know this, based on the fact that their own store offers them as a 4-pack "draft set" and 3 copy 4-pack "constructed set".

A "for designers" series of articles would be satisfying to write though.

Maybe. I just fear it coming off as "Sirlin-esque". The man's a genius no doubt, but also equally hated for being sure of himself. My writing style is heavily inspired from 2007-2012 Cracked fused into an Economics 103 lecture.

Tell me /bgg/ as a big dinosaur, Agricola and kickstarters without TONS of plastic fan, will I enjoy this?

I am worried it is not as 'developed' as it looks. They seem to be changing the rules a fair amount as it goes on. Plus it's £100 when you factor in shipping.

But then again Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis was great...

Shill post

There's absolutely no reason to back *any* Kickstarter project at all considering how many classic games that already stood the test of time you haven't played yet.

Not him, but I like plastic crap to paint. That's why I backed the Conan and Mythic Pantheon kickstarters.

That is like saying don't buy any new books, music or games because you haven't played all the existing stuff.

Fair enough. I would save much more money this way!

Any suggestions on what game I should play instead of this then?

Not including Ewe stuff as I already own them though!

Let me know when you're done with that (and you happen to get say, 20 to life in prison) - I have 8 Gorillian Zombicide minis in need of painting...

I can't even contemplate painting board game miniatures right now my wargaming backlog just sits in the corner judging me every day.

Not the same thing. The time investment in learning a boardgame properly is much greater. I good boardgame you can play for decades and not get bored.

Dunno, what do you already have and what do you like?

Hey, I'm not in a rush. It's not like the plastic will selfdestruct within my lifetime.

I just paint whatever I fancy at the time. If I just paint a little bit at the time I will eventually finish.