In fact it might be my favorite of the "manage multiple resources and build your own settlement/city/whatever" eurogames I've played, but im not a huge fan of eurogames - which by the way is the word to describe what you like. Low chance, resource focused (and often consequently not too conflict-based).
Yeah, I'm not a huge fan either. Low-chance, low-conflict seems to me like an intrinsically poor combination for a game: optimal strategies are quickly discovered (or Googled), and the game becomes predictable. Puerto Rico in particular leaves a bad taste in my mouth. In a low-chance, high-conflict game like chess, at least, you can react and counterplay to what your opponent is doing, so the strategy shouldn't stagnate. And of course Race for the Galaxy fixed Puerto Rico by being high-chance; players have to think on their feet to play the hands they're dealt. (It must be remembered that my favorite board game of all is Cosmic Encounter, which is basically Poker In Space.)
I feel like I should have one Eurogame in my collection, though, for form's sake. I'm eyeballing Firenze. It looks like it has chance and real interaction, and it runs on that queued drafting mechanic that Smallworld uses for race selection, which I thought was really cool but underutilized there.
Come to think of it, perhaps a distinction should be made between high-chance and high-variation. It is not as if economic success in Race for the Galaxy, or an encounter in Cosmic Encounter, comes down to the roll of a die or the flip of a coin. You have a lot of options available, and the success or failure of them is predictable. It's just which options are available to you that varies from game to game.
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Do you been keep the sets separate, or do you play with all combined?
So far, I only keep them separate because I do not want to go through the hassle of separating out the cards afterwards. While each set is a good game on its own, playing combined will probably make for the best experience. Once my local players have gone through more games, I will start combining sets.
Different groups sometimes have their own house rules. I've played with people who use all the maids from a set at once and people who have banned certain maids in their group to restrict obvious strategies. Someone from my own group suggested a variant in which each player gets a random private maid at the beginning of the game.
I recommend starting with the original since the expansions build upon the ideas that were presented in it.
Some things to be aware of when choosing your first set:
Romantic Vacation is the only set that does not have private maids. Because of this, I would not recommend starting with Romantic Vacation.
Also, while the maids in each set are unique to that set, each set also has card types unique to it:
Original: Has events, which are like harmful enchantments you play on other players or their maids.
Expanding the House: Has buildings, which are like beneficial enchantments you add to your play area.
Romantic Vacation: Has memories, which are like powerful sorceries that can benefit you or harm your opponents.
"A rich man thinks all other people are rich, and an intelligent man thinks all other people are similarly gifted. Both are always terribly shocked when they discover the truth of the world. You, my dear brother, are a pious man." - Strahd von Zarovich
I'm always playing some version of Savage Worlds, right now its an original world my friend and I are designing, Battle Suit Zenzo, a kind of super future samurai space opera,
I also always play an old World of Darkness game.
I just started playing Monsterhearts, a relatively new game that uses a version of Apocalypse World to create an angsty teen supernatural game in the vein of Buffy, Twilight, etc... It's fun if you can just let go and be ridiculously dramatic.
I'm always playing some version of Savage Worlds, right now its an original world my friend and I are designing, Battle Suit Zenzo, a kind of super future samurai space opera,
Your quote reminded me that there are a couple of fantastic, newly translated Japanese story games out right now. One of particular note is Tenra Bansho Zero, which is set in a crazyass kitchen sink-style sci fi/fantasy setting ala Masamune Shirow's Orion comics.
I played eclipse for the first time a couple days ago and I have to say, my first impression is that it is totally deserving of all the respect it gets.
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"Virtue, Jacques, is an excellent thing. Both good people and wicked people speak highly of it..."
"A rich man thinks all other people are rich, and an intelligent man thinks all other people are similarly gifted. Both are always terribly shocked when they discover the truth of the world. You, my dear brother, are a pious man." - Strahd von Zarovich
I've been on a ridiculous deck building game binge these past two months:
Ascension: built a (non-soul gem) cube out of the first 4 sets. Also, I just grabbed the Rise of Vigil and Darkness Unleashed expansions, to keep as a separate game environment; the new energy mechanic just does not mesh well with the older sets. Ascension is actually one of my favorite games to play solo. I spent quite a bit of free time, sept - december just playing the solo game while plowing through Breaking Bad and a few other television series.
Puzzle Strike: Bought the 3rd ed and Shadows boxes + promo chips. This game I just can't recommend highly enough. It is (relatively) easy to learn, but so deep as far as re playability and tactical depth.
Kanzume Goddess: this one I nabbed as a bit of a joke, but despite its prurient artwork is a decent enough game. The english publisher is apparently releasing an expansion (i.e. boob job?) 3rd or 4th Q, 2014, and I think that'll help the game out a bit.
Tanto Cuore: I haven't gotten this one to the table yet, but TC is intended to fill the Dominion-style deck builder part of my shelf. I may be putting the cart before the horse a bit, buying the House Expands expansion before the base game, but I'm very eager to try all the sets for this game eventually.
EDIT: I've picked up an impressive little game, Pixel Tactics, which is kind of like if the battle system from SNES' Ogre Battle had been ported into a mini-board game. Just curious if anyone else has tried this one?
Last weekend I just started playing Dungeons & Dragons adventure system board games with Legend of Drizzt. I picked up Castle Ravenloft and Wrath of Ashardalon but haven't broken the shrink wrap on those yet. I'm going to be hooked on these for a while!
"A rich man thinks all other people are rich, and an intelligent man thinks all other people are similarly gifted. Both are always terribly shocked when they discover the truth of the world. You, my dear brother, are a pious man." - Strahd von Zarovich
Favorite tabletop games by rank
1 Magic (duh)
2 Cosmic Encounter
3 Knights of Catan (expansion, I wouldnt recommend just the base game)
4 Dominion
5 Twilight Struggle
6 Pandemic
7 Ticket to Ride
8 Chess (Team captain in high school)
9 was gonna do ten but really thats it...
Favorite tabletop games by rank
8 Chess (Team captain in high school)
Have you heard of chess 2? It's written by the publisher of games like Puzzle Strike, Yomi, and Flash Duel. I've been dying to try the game myself (if anything for the sheer hubris of the concept), but my lady friend has expressed pretty much zero interest in playing.
Favorite tabletop games by rank
8 Chess (Team captain in high school)
Have you heard of chess 2? It's written by the publisher of games like Puzzle Strike, Yomi, and Flash Duel. I've been dying to try the game myself (if anything for the sheer hubris of the concept), but my lady friend has expressed pretty much zero interest in playing.
I've liked what I've played of Sirlin's games thus far (I own Puzzle Strike Shadows and I've played both Yomi and Flash Duel online, looking to pick up Yomi when the expansion comes out), but the Chess 2 thing is pretty ridiculous.
I'd be willing to give it a shot, but the guy is pretty full of himself sometimes. I feel like you could make a Doge meme of things he says all the time:
"Such asymmetric!
Very matchups!
Wow!"
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Definitely agree, but the Chess 2 one does strike me as self-conscious hyperbole. I can't possibly imaging saying "Sure, chess 1 has had a good run, but..." without a little bit of irony about the sheer arrogance.
A friend of mine picked up Suburbia this week and we've really enjoyed it. I joke to them that it's The Fountainhead in board game form. It's a lot of fun, though, and plays quickly once everyone knows the rules.
Last night, I was able to demo a 3-player session of the kickstarter game, Lagoon: Land of Druids. The game was very enjoyable, with amazing theme and production value; one that definitely harkens to high-quality MtG stuff. There are a few days left in the kickstarter, and based on the achieved stretch goals, the $35 for the base game + wooden tiles/tokens seems like a really, really good deal.
Just thought I'd share this. I've had my eye on the game since the designer started posting art/design previews over at BGG.
Lagoon looks gorgeous and has streamlined mechanics, but I was underwhelmed by its execution of the theme. All the sites just seem to do something random. In M:tG or Netrunner or Arkham Horror or Illuminati or any other good thematic game, when you play a card, it's generally immediately obvious why it does what it does.
It's nice to see Kickstarter projects go smoothly, though. I think after some initial overexuberance people are starting to figure out how to use the service realistically and productively.
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Lagoon looks gorgeous and has streamlined mechanics, but I was underwhelmed by its execution of the theme. All the sites just seem to do something random. In M:tG or Netrunner or Arkham Horror or Illuminati or any other good thematic game, when you play a card, it's generally immediately obvious why it does what it does.
I'd agree that the game seems to have a high learning curve, due to the need to reorient yourself constantly among tiles with non-obvious synergisms, but I am looking forward to improving my understanding of the game (more than say, your average high learning curve Euro with a bland theme). Some folks at the session expressed concerns about the game's polish, or whether the game will hold up in the long run. On the other hand, I think becoming more and more familiar with the tiles will improve the enjoyment and depth of the game. I'd be really surprised if there aren't expansions already in the works to shore up or modify some of the weaker aspects.
It's nice to see Kickstarter projects go smoothly, though. I think after some initial overexuberance people are starting to figure out how to use the service realistically and productively.
+1000. I'm really happy the days on BGG are gone when EVERY forum post or frontspage pic was of some kickstarter project ~
"Hmmm, that looks interesting" - clicks picture - "...kickstarter prototype to be released 8-12 months from now." <slams head on keyboard>
I played Shadows over Camelot last week (my buddy who is a little too into board games got it). It's definitely fun once you learn the rules, but it ultimately feels like a less complicated Battlestar Galactica. Not that I mind the games taking 1.5 hours instead of 3-4.
Is there a definitive tile-laying game that you hold as the pinnacle of that genre? Suburbia seems to be king of that hill these days (haven't played). I used to own infinite city, but my friends got bored of it a while before I did.
Probably not, there are a lot of them. Eclipse and Carcassone are probably the most iconic ones though. I would maybe say Carcassone is the pinnacle of relatively simple tile placement ones that I've played so far.
I also really like Neuroshima Hex personally.
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I actually think Dominion executes its theme better mechanically. That theme may be kind of bland, but you can understand, "Oh, this is a Workshop, it makes something for me. Oh, this is a Moat, it protects me." Lagoon has a much more evocative theme and better art... but why on earth does the Moon Garden swap sites? Why on earth does the Cairn Colossus move a druid?
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Last night I played a real game of Bang! and I think I like it more than King of Tokyo. It has a lot of interesting interactions, and so while King of Tokyo is good from 3-4ish players, Bang! is better with 5-6 Players. I have to say that the game seems a little weighted in the Outlaw's favor, however. They're a lot more free to act and don't have to worry as much about a strategy.
Yeah, I'm not a huge fan either. Low-chance, low-conflict seems to me like an intrinsically poor combination for a game: optimal strategies are quickly discovered (or Googled), and the game becomes predictable. Puerto Rico in particular leaves a bad taste in my mouth. In a low-chance, high-conflict game like chess, at least, you can react and counterplay to what your opponent is doing, so the strategy shouldn't stagnate. And of course Race for the Galaxy fixed Puerto Rico by being high-chance; players have to think on their feet to play the hands they're dealt. (It must be remembered that my favorite board game of all is Cosmic Encounter, which is basically Poker In Space.)
I feel like I should have one Eurogame in my collection, though, for form's sake. I'm eyeballing Firenze. It looks like it has chance and real interaction, and it runs on that queued drafting mechanic that Smallworld uses for race selection, which I thought was really cool but underutilized there.
Come to think of it, perhaps a distinction should be made between high-chance and high-variation. It is not as if economic success in Race for the Galaxy, or an encounter in Cosmic Encounter, comes down to the roll of a die or the flip of a coin. You have a lot of options available, and the success or failure of them is predictable. It's just which options are available to you that varies from game to game.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
Not really. I am a bit burned out on the original since I always use it to teach new players.
So far, I only keep them separate because I do not want to go through the hassle of separating out the cards afterwards. While each set is a good game on its own, playing combined will probably make for the best experience. Once my local players have gone through more games, I will start combining sets.
Different groups sometimes have their own house rules. I've played with people who use all the maids from a set at once and people who have banned certain maids in their group to restrict obvious strategies. Someone from my own group suggested a variant in which each player gets a random private maid at the beginning of the game.
I recommend starting with the original since the expansions build upon the ideas that were presented in it.
Some things to be aware of when choosing your first set:
Romantic Vacation is the only set that does not have private maids. Because of this, I would not recommend starting with Romantic Vacation.
Also, while the maids in each set are unique to that set, each set also has card types unique to it:
I also always play an old World of Darkness game.
I just started playing Monsterhearts, a relatively new game that uses a version of Apocalypse World to create an angsty teen supernatural game in the vein of Buffy, Twilight, etc... It's fun if you can just let go and be ridiculously dramatic.
[Clan Flamingo]
Your quote reminded me that there are a couple of fantastic, newly translated Japanese story games out right now. One of particular note is Tenra Bansho Zero, which is set in a crazyass kitchen sink-style sci fi/fantasy setting ala Masamune Shirow's Orion comics.
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
Warning for spam. - LN
That's great! Do you have anything for us to think about?
Ascension: built a (non-soul gem) cube out of the first 4 sets. Also, I just grabbed the Rise of Vigil and Darkness Unleashed expansions, to keep as a separate game environment; the new energy mechanic just does not mesh well with the older sets. Ascension is actually one of my favorite games to play solo. I spent quite a bit of free time, sept - december just playing the solo game while plowing through Breaking Bad and a few other television series.
Puzzle Strike: Bought the 3rd ed and Shadows boxes + promo chips. This game I just can't recommend highly enough. It is (relatively) easy to learn, but so deep as far as re playability and tactical depth.
Kanzume Goddess: this one I nabbed as a bit of a joke, but despite its prurient artwork is a decent enough game. The english publisher is apparently releasing an expansion (i.e. boob job?) 3rd or 4th Q, 2014, and I think that'll help the game out a bit.
Tanto Cuore: I haven't gotten this one to the table yet, but TC is intended to fill the Dominion-style deck builder part of my shelf. I may be putting the cart before the horse a bit, buying the House Expands expansion before the base game, but I'm very eager to try all the sets for this game eventually.
EDIT: I've picked up an impressive little game, Pixel Tactics, which is kind of like if the battle system from SNES' Ogre Battle had been ported into a mini-board game. Just curious if anyone else has tried this one?
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
1 Magic (duh)
2 Cosmic Encounter
3 Knights of Catan (expansion, I wouldnt recommend just the base game)
4 Dominion
5 Twilight Struggle
6 Pandemic
7 Ticket to Ride
8 Chess (Team captain in high school)
9 was gonna do ten but really thats it...
Have you heard of chess 2? It's written by the publisher of games like Puzzle Strike, Yomi, and Flash Duel. I've been dying to try the game myself (if anything for the sheer hubris of the concept), but my lady friend has expressed pretty much zero interest in playing.
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
I've liked what I've played of Sirlin's games thus far (I own Puzzle Strike Shadows and I've played both Yomi and Flash Duel online, looking to pick up Yomi when the expansion comes out), but the Chess 2 thing is pretty ridiculous.
I'd be willing to give it a shot, but the guy is pretty full of himself sometimes. I feel like you could make a Doge meme of things he says all the time:
"Such asymmetric!
Very matchups!
Wow!"
Currently Playing:
Legacy: Something U/W Controlish
EDH Cube
Hypercube! A New EDH Deck Every Week(ish)!
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
I'm not currently active in any games, but I am creating my tabletop game at the moment. Been working on it since 2008.
Just thought I'd share this. I've had my eye on the game since the designer started posting art/design previews over at BGG.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1619383091/lagoon-land-of-druids
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
It's nice to see Kickstarter projects go smoothly, though. I think after some initial overexuberance people are starting to figure out how to use the service realistically and productively.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
I'd agree that the game seems to have a high learning curve, due to the need to reorient yourself constantly among tiles with non-obvious synergisms, but I am looking forward to improving my understanding of the game (more than say, your average high learning curve Euro with a bland theme). Some folks at the session expressed concerns about the game's polish, or whether the game will hold up in the long run. On the other hand, I think becoming more and more familiar with the tiles will improve the enjoyment and depth of the game. I'd be really surprised if there aren't expansions already in the works to shore up or modify some of the weaker aspects.
+1000. I'm really happy the days on BGG are gone when EVERY forum post or frontspage pic was of some kickstarter project ~
"Hmmm, that looks interesting" - clicks picture - "...kickstarter prototype to be released 8-12 months from now." <slams head on keyboard>
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
I also really like Neuroshima Hex personally.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath