Boardgames

[Nexus]

Ticket To Ride - The Beatles I assume.

 

Discworld is quite a lot of fun - it's a combination of board dominance and card playing. 

[deanb]

Earlier today in Travelling man:

Dean: "ooh, there's that Gloom game. ooh, pocket sized too".

Later today at home:

Housemate: "There's something here for you, oh and a hand drawn comic"

Dean: "Oooh, Gloom."

 

I should speak allowed in shops more often.

 

Yeah it's pretty neat, transparent cards is certainly a weird concept. Gives a very nice feel to it too. I lost our first game due to only having one dead family member. Also gotta say, from the old "youngest first" or "roll dice, highest first" of the games of my childhood, the recent games with "whoever has traveled to most european countries" and with Gloom "who has had the most miserable day" certainly makes it interesting starts.

[P4: Gritty Reboot]

Yeah unless first player is a huge deal for some reason or another, they tend to do something silly that fits in with the theme for determining who goes first. Kinda cute.

[Hot Heart]

Oh, I played Alhambra yesterday. It was alright, I suppose. All the other guys had a better handle on how to play it so knew how to setup their town and such. I did introduce the rule that you have to slam your fist on the table and cry, "Alhambra!" to signal the end of your turn and I managed not to come last, just narrowly beating the other new player.

[Hot Heart]

Played Sentinels of the Multiverse for the first time with four friends. That was a lot of fun. It takes a little getting used to all the little things that come into play (damage dealt +1 for certain villains, environment damages everything at the end of a go, etc.), but it feels like a well-balanced RPG boss. My friends are all MMO veterans, so they grasped the tactical nature of things early on, and it's quite easy get a handle on each hero's strengths fairly quickly. Also had an app that was handy for tracking the villain's HP without switching around hit-point counters or anything like that.

 

Did one game against a low difficulty boss, who got some killer cards early on, but was a cinch after that. Then we went against the highest difficulty boss in this pack, who again started strong due to their deck, but my character steadily became very useful (along with some proper teamwork and consultation) so I was a big damage-dealer and a decent support character. We did lose one hero during the game but that's because they were taking a risk whereby they could deal damage equal to the difference between their max HP and their current HP (which would've been a massive blow to the villain) but got delayed when another card made the villain immune and then unlucky with a bit of damage just before their go.

 

Either way, if you like card games, superheroes and local co-op stuff, I highly recommend this.

[P4: Gritty Reboot]

Great stuff. Yeah I hear the tracking can be a pain if you have a lot of stacking effects in play (but if you've played MTG it's probably not an issue).

[Hot Heart]

Well, I got the enhanced edition, which includes all the 'status effect' tiles; it's just remembering to use them/not being lazy. We only encountered a problem one time when we had to completely reset one guy's turn because we hadn't included the 'damaged received -1' for all the citizens (minions) where Citizen Dawn was the villain (you also have to remember she also counts as a citizen for certain game conditions, which we picked up on in-time).

 

If you have Android there's a useful, free 'SOTM Sidekick' app, as well as a randomizer. iTunes has Sentinels Sidekick, which allows you to track all hitpoints simultaneously, but it's not free...or as pretty.

 

Going into it, I only had a basic idea of what each hero did, so it was funny seeing my friend gradually realise that he had almost no means of dealing damage and was purely support/interference, or another time a friend drew a new card and discovered a whole load of things they could do in one turn.

[Mr. GOH!]

7 Wonders. Hybrid board and card game. Played it with some friends a few months ago, then bought a copy to give to different friends as a housewarming gift this past weekend. we played it for hours.

 

Once you play a practice game, it goes fairly quickly, about 20 minutes to half an hour for a full game with four players. It's for 2 to 7 players (2 players play a weird advanced variant I have not tried), and it's won a shitload of awards. Extremely great and accessible game that doesn't overstay it's welcome, but is different every time you play. I think it's probably best with at least 4 players. Seriously guys, check it out.

 

http://www.rprod.com/index.php?page=description-22

 

There are expansions, which are also supposedly top-notch.

Edited July 22, 2013 by Mr. GOH!

[Nexus]

I like 7 Wonders but I still maintain that a lot of it is luck-based. You can have a strategy in mind, but if your neighbour doesn't hand you the cards you need, it will all fall apart. 

[Mr. GOH!]

You have to adapt when you play 7 Wonders. You cannot go into the game with a set strategy and hope to win. But, yes, like most games, there is an element of random chance.

[deanb]

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2013/07/monopoly-getting-rid-jail-appease-your-kids/67556/

 

So new heavily branded Monopoly hitting, will lack Jail and is meant to be playable in under half an hour.

[Hot Heart]

Kicked some more butt at Sentinels of the Multiverse, even with one less player to help. Legacy came up as a hero for both and he seems pretty damn good. When I played him, he made for a great damage-booster as well as a really good tank. We beat what I think was supposed to be the toughest of the base bosses in the toughest environment, so I think we might have to start playing by the Advanced ruleset in future.

 

Went onto some Guillotine, which I'd played once before on NYE. Ran away with that game and was on-course to win under normal progression but then I executed a noble without realising that instantly ends the game, so I won 'accidentally' which pissed off all my friends that little bit extra.

 

Then we moved onto Love Letter, which was meant to be quick, before I had to dash for a bus home. It took me a little while to grasp it since it's a whole bunch of complicated rules and things to keep in mind, involves some bluffing/misdirection, and we were playing quickfire rounds. I actually managed to win overall, though I'm hesitant to call it that because my friends were sort of going easy on me and also didn't capitalise in one game where I got confused about a move and completely exposed my hand, giving them the perfect opportunity to knock me out (still, I was two victories ahead when we called it quits). Definitely one to try in future now that I've got a better understanding of it though.

[P4: Gritty Reboot]

Ha, I actually bought Love Letter... but I still haven't convinced anyone to play. "Let's all get a love letter to the princess" isn't the best sales pitch for the usual gaming crowd.

[Hot Heart]

Hehe. I actually had no idea why it was called Love Letter (and still don't!), and maybe that's a good thing. If I were trying to describe it, I would say it's a sort of quickfire-poker meets Go Fish...but different.

 

Oh, and while I think of it, we did get very 'lucky' at Sentinels. There was a Self-Destruct Countdown on the environment we played, but fortunately that never came up and there's also an automatic lose condition if the villain gets 10 minions in play at once...and he had a card that auto-destroys and plays every minion already in his trash (of which there were 8 already). One of our guys had a power/card that shifts the villain's trash to the bottom of their deck, though doing so deals him 1 damage for all the cards moved that way (which was equal to his health). So, he would've sacrificed himself for the greater good and was ready to do that after my turn...except I played a card (Heroic Interception!) that dealed me 3 damage and stopped everyone else receiving any damage whatsoever until my next turn. Good times.

[Nexus]

This place has just opened in Oxford. Was there today. £3.50 for as much gaming as you want + obviously coffee and such costs. Plan on spending a lot of time there.

[Hot Heart]

Didn't play any new games, but some valuable lessons were learned.

 

1. Do NOT play against Miss Information, especially on advanced mode, with six heroes in Sentinels of the Multiverse.

First off, this was an 'experiment', because my friend's wife was going to join us, since the game is meant to be 2-5 players/heroes. Second, this villain's theme is essentially that the superteam's secretary was killed in an alternate/future timeline and has been reincarnated in the current one, seeking revenge. As such, her identity is unknown at the start of the game, so she is not an available target. Instead, her deck reveals diversions to hold up/damage the heroes, or clues which reveal her identity if enough are in-play...though, these also come with negative effects. In order to reveal her identity, so as to flip her card and make her a target, you need a certain number of clue cards. This value is the number of heroes minus 1, therefore 5 were needed.

 

Unfortunately, we chose to play on advanced mode (+1 extra damage to heroes) and had a pretty evil environment that kept further buffing that damage, plus more heroes meant more damage from certain cards. So, right near the start of the game, 4 heroes were taking 8 damage each (typical starting health is in the 26-30 region) and then we had clues (which we desperately needed) making us destroy/discard cards each round (which really limits the options for a couple of heroes who are good at manipulating decks, buffing damage, etc.) I was holding out with a fairly decent set-up, and might've made a go of it if we'd held out a little longer to get her to flip, but we got pretty unlucky with a lot of the draws and she has some pretty evil cards anyway, so when we were 4 heroes down we decided to concede. Worst was the fact that my friend's wife had already quit after the second round anyway.

 

2. Toying with people in Munchkin is fun.

When we started playing, I had no designs on/hope of winning since I'd forgotten most things from last time and everyone else had played a lot more than I had, but I started with an alright hand and just battled on from there. Early on, I got lucky because I faced a level 20 dragon but turned it into a parrot and took its five treasures, and being a dwarf meant I could keep an extra card in my hand. These would prove useful at many moments along the way and, after what happened last time with victory being stolen from me, I spent the whole game holding onto cards that would help at the end. So, a doppelganger that doubles my combat score, a transferral potion, a +10 to the monster, a bomb that can add +3 to either side, a magic lamp if things go really bad, and even one card that automatically kills the Floating Nose. Cue, me at the penultimate level 9, pretty confident I can secure victory straight after my friend's turn when he goes 'looking for trouble' and produces...the Floating Nose.

 

So, first up, he was going to defeat it easily and I figured I'd mess with him and perhaps mislead others as to what cards I had. So I gave the monster +10 to bump it over his combat score. He has to use some other card and then gets the only available friend except me to help out (one was too low a level after dying, thanks to me discarding a race card to them...which made them incapable of escaping the tough monster they faced on their very next turn. And the other was an elf tied with me, who would've won if allowed to help) and they're about to beat it and put someone else at level 9. By now, I've got an idea that no one else really wants to or is incapable of messing with them too much, so I lay down the transferral potion and drop myself into solo combat instead, ready to beat it by 3 and thus win the game.

 

It was a risky move not immediately playing the 'auto-kill this exact monster' card but I wanted to toy with them a bit, and I already knew they didn't have much they could do...so I graciously enquire as to whether anyone cares to try and alter this combat. Two of them pipe up and both use cards to trash two bits of my armour, putting me just 1 below the required combat score. Then I'm torn, because I could just play that 'kill monster' card...or I could put the doppelganger card down and obliterate the monster the old-fashioned way. Rather than delay it any further, and because it would probably annoy them more, I chuck down the former and ask someone to read it for me.

 

The friend whose turn it was grabs it, has a quick look "Oh, plus two, nice." (the first part of the card allows you to add 2 to either side in any combat and that would again put me above the required combat score).

"And read the second half, please," I instruct him.

A second later, "Son of a bitch!"

Edited August 4, 2013 by Hot Heart

[P4: Gritty Reboot]

So happy you're all getting your cardboard on. Soon this site will be called "Roll 6 or Die".

 

Well I'm learning Twilight Struggle. I own the physical copy but my wargaming buddy lives in LA so we're playing via VASSAL. It's actually very simple. There is one shared deck, and each card has a value at the top-left corner. About half the events are US's, and about half are the USSR's. If you play an opponents' event, you get to use the value as normal to do stuff, but he then gets to "play" the card for its event. So the game is all about evaluating your hand, playing to its strengths, and mitigating the effects of your opponents' events. It's all very thematic as it follows the showdown of the Cold War.

 

[TheMightyEthan]

"Roll 6 or Die".

[Hot Heart]

I wouldn't accuse people of not having played a game...but I'm not sure these guys played the game. Properly, anyway.

http://susd.pretend-money.com/videos/v/sentinels-multiverse/

[P4: Gritty Reboot]

Bummer they didn't like it. I don't agree with them all the time, but at least they're entertaining. SOTM is ranked in BGG's top 100, so rest assured it's very well regarded.

[Hot Heart]

Yeah, I just hope people in the UK don't give too much weight to what they're saying. For starters, I don't really like Matt Lees because he's always had this tendency to overexaggerate for comic effect (well, they all seemed to be doing that there). It is a tactical game and it's not just about using the same power/setup everytime because the dynamic is constantly changing. Things get destroyed, new targets appear, other things get triggered, the playstyle needs to completely change because the villain has flipped, etc.

 

I can understand the complaint about trying to keep track of too many things (which is why there's a useful HP tracking app on BGG for things like 'target with highest/lowest HP' situations) even with the status effect tiles, but keeping that all in mind is part of the strategy and why you need to coordinate and talk to other people to even beat the villains. Could be they were playing with simpler heroes or ones that take a while to get going or suffer against certain villains, but they had at least one expansion (that I want!) And I guess it is useful to have someone who really likes the game, so they learn the complexities a little more. Oh well...

 

In other news, played Dominion with some friends, and though we were 1 over the recommended max number of players it didn't suffer for it (plus, I think it has a fairly neat core setup that can scale anyway). Essentially, it is the quintessential deck-building game with a simple setup and easy to grasp rules. There are action cards, money cards (in values of 1, 2 and 3) and Victory Cards. Using a simple progession of Action, Buy, Clean-up, each turn you can build a deck for a variety of different strategies (some allow you to draw more cards, some allow extra cards and actions, etc.), but the main aim is to have the most Victory Points at the end. These are represented by cards that can be worth 1, 3 or 6 and need to be bought as you go. But since you only get a hand of 5 each turn (barring actions), buying too many Victory Points (only worth something at the end) can clog up a potential hand and limit your options that turn.

 

For example, I had a hand with 3 markets and 2 coppers (worth 1c each). The market allows you to draw an extra card, play an extra action, make an extra buy and adds another value of 1c for your buy. I can chain these to give me more 3 more cards and another action spare (which I may have drawn from my deck) as well as an extra 3c. If I have no more actions, it's possible I might have more money which allows you more money in order to make up to three buys of more action cards, money cards or victory cards (rarely will you get a chance/need to make more than 2 buys).

 

Long story short, I failed massively on the first game and came third in the second game. Though the second game was ruined because we didn't realise a certain card (which I never got close to being able to buy in the first game) lets you 'upgrade' your money (trash a 2 in exchange for a 3) and put it straight in your hand not your discard pile, which would have changed the whole dynamic...and it would have benefitted me greatly first. This is Power Grid all over again...

 

Anyway, it was still pretty fun and goes by fast, so I would recommend it.

[P4: Gritty Reboot]

I have Dominion. It is pleasant; not earth-shattering, but pleasant for sure.

[Nexus]

I have an irrational hatred of Dominion based purely on the fact that when I played the base game with a friend who owned it, he absolutely destroyed me. The base game has one ridiculously good strategy which is easy to execute and if you play it you are almost certain to win. Where's the fun in that? 

 

Apparently the expansions improve it, but ehh

[P4: Gritty Reboot]

The "Big Money" strategy is very beatable.

[Nexus]

Yeah but not when you're having the game explained to you - he was teaching us and the best way to teach, imo, is not to absolutely destroy someone.