Board Gaming Era |OT| (Mostly) Unplugged Gaming

[Antiquegamer]

I am a backer of LoH and I find the delays frustrating. I want them to get it right but I also get annoyed when they're putting out other large KS in the meantime. Some delays I get.. I mean, it's KS but a 16-18 month delay is pretty ridiculous. It's obvious that they didn't really have any of the expansions really developed when they launched.

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My sentiment exactly and that is why I haven't support any of their projects since. I am sure they will pull the same shenanigan with Nemesis. They claimed they needed more time to finish the expansions and SG yet they have spare times to put out two other projects.

 

[PCfromNYC]

So Dized relaunched their Kickstarter, and I guess they figured out what they did wrong the first time since they've already raised more than they did last time.

 

[GrimGrinningGuy]

Just double checked the email and £135 plus £8 shipping, plus I'll pay shipping again when the stretch goals arrived. Don't have to worry about that til next year!

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I paid £70 for the base game and I honestly think shipping was $30 (hard to remember ha) so you really didn't Pay too much a premium at least

 

[Ventrue]

Played some more Betrayal Legacy. It continues to be very fun (and hilarious). It's definitely still Betrayal, but feels more polished/balanced than the base game. And the theme elements are very good.

 

[Fonst]

So Dized relaunched their Kickstarter, and I guess they figured out what they did wrong the first time since they've already raised more than they did last time.

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Wait, so publishers have to be paid to be on this app when they can just put it on their site for free? Or does the team make it interactive for them and that's the cost? $400 seems like a lot for one game to be posted on there. Maybe I am missing something here.

 

[LunarKnite]

Wait, so publishers have to be paid to be on this app when they can just put it on their site for free? Or does the team make it interactive for them and that's the cost? $400 seems like a lot for one game to be posted on there. Maybe I am missing something here.

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I'm guessing if the app becomes popular enough where it's a marketable feature to have your rules and/or a tutorial available on it, it may be worth it for some publishers. But I think the app itself is catering to a very small subset of people who do buy significantly more games than they can play. $400 is a little steep, but when you put that into production costs, it's really not that much. And for the margins of a $50 game, you'd only need to sell around 20 copies because of the app to get your money worth.

 

[BassForever]

Got my copy of dinosaur island totally liquid deluxe and duelosaur island deluxe. Anyone got experience with duelosaur island? Going on a trip this week was planning to bring one. It'll only be 2 players so either game works have not played either yet.

 

[ArkkAngel007]

That's what they said about Lords of Hellas , it would ship 6 months after core because they want the core to go out first. Now a year later they just finish PDF files to be send so we are looking at another 6 months at least.

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I am a backer of LoH and I find the delays frustrating. I want them to get it right but I also get annoyed when they're putting out other large KS in the meantime. Some delays I get.. I mean, it's KS but a 16-18 month delay is pretty ridiculous. It's obvious that they didn't really have any of the expansions really developed when they launched.

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I can understand and even appreciate that they didn't have the expansions all worked out for LoH/Nemesis at the KS launch. Too many projects come in as just pre-order dumps, and while that's fine it does create an issue for the the people who do come in looking for help in actually getting a project off the ground and setting expectations against them.

That said, I do agree that too many companies like Awakened Realms are too eager to push out more projects when their previous ones are yet to ship and are facing delays. I didn't back LoH, but I am having to rely on a BGG market seller to get the Wave 2 content, and it is frustrating to see more projects get pushed out in the meanwhile.

Played some more Betrayal Legacy. It continues to be very fun (and hilarious). It's definitely still Betrayal, but feels more polished/balanced than the base game. And the theme elements are very good.

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They really nailed it with this one. It still has some Betrayal issues between components and still some minor slowdown with the haunts, but it's a marked improvement that actually has me eager to play the next game.

 

[MyQuarters]

the counter argument is that after they've sent files to China to be produced, all the designers are just wasting their time until they start working on the next game

 

[Rolento]

https://idwgames.com/mgstbg_pr/?fbclid=IwAR0nZr0L2dBUlVPWiXVs6h4_Ps5n8oZU-UgNCkbkjWj5gssN_ZP4M-QNc7o

 

[Bane]

Kinda bummed that we finally get a Metal Gear board game but it's from IDW. I've only played TMNT from them but I've not heard much positive about any of their other games.

 

[Rover]

Should be a physical version of Acid

 

[Rolento]

Should be a physical version of Acid

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You know how right you are.

 

[Spookie]

Kinda bummed that we finally get a Metal Gear board game but it's from IDW. I've only played TMNT from them but I've not heard much positive about any of their other games.

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Guy who made it also did Reef & Century which aren't bad games at all. I'd be tentatively excited about it.

 

[PanzerKraken]

Kinda bummed that we finally get a Metal Gear board game but it's from IDW. I've only played TMNT from them but I've not heard much positive about any of their other games.

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What matters most is who made the game, not the publisher. The designer created the good Specter Ops

 

[Rover]

Specter Ops felt too bloated to me. Too many mechanics and things to fuss with. A lot of hidden movement games work on pretty simple mechanics that ramp up the tension. FWIW I thought Burgle Bros did some things that were a decent abstraction of the Metal Gear experience.

 

[Antiquegamer]

the counter argument is that after they've sent files to China to be produced, all the designers are just wasting their time until they start working on the next game

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So now they should be working on the next game not spending time doing Nemesis this year and push LoH out because they already got the money at least that how it looks.

 

[Ace Harding]

Finally opened Robinson Crusoe, set it up and played three rounds. Man this is way more fiddly and complicated than I thought, but I dig it so far! A little overwhelming starting on day 3 with a ton of choices available. I love the theme and the system they've designed. Hoping I can get my group (3 others) to give it a shot but not looking forward to teaching it. This might remain a solo game...

 

[Nappuccino]

I spent some time today putting together a beginner's guide to Twilight Imperium for my friends. I thought I'd mostly thought I'd put little things on it like "You can't travel through asteroids" or w/e. But instead almost every major thing is a sequence of little things.

I'm pretty happy with the result, but we'll see if everyone finds it easy to read.

On a similar note, my GF got a big box in the mail for me and wrapped it. Now, I'm not saying it's a big box board game . . . but I'm thinking it's a big box board game :)

 

[piratepwnsninja]

I spent some time today putting together a beginner's guide to Twilight Imperium for my friends. I thought I'd mostly thought I'd put little things on it like "You can't travel through asteroids" or w/e. But instead almost every major thing is a sequence of little things.

I'm pretty happy with the result, but we'll see if everyone finds it easy to read.

On a similar note, my GF got a big box in the mail for me and wrapped it. Now, I'm not saying it's a big box board game . . . but I'm thinking it's a big box board game :)

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Oh, if you feel like sharing, that'd be awesome!

 

[Nappuccino]

Oh, if you feel like sharing, that'd be awesome!

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Sure! Let me know if this link to google drive works. I can try to find a better free hosting place if not.

Right now, I just have the basic phases of a turn, and a semi-major break down of the Tactics Phase on the second page. Tried to make notes where little oddities or other non-common sense things made sense.

I haven't played TI before, so hopefully my condensing of the rules is accurate :)

P.S. I might still make another quick reference sheet for things like movement and technology . . . but I didn't want to overwhelm my players with sheets--these seemed like the most essential things to have, I think.

 

[BassForever]

Kinda bummed that we finally get a Metal Gear board game but it's from IDW. I've only played TMNT from them but I've not heard much positive about any of their other games.

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This is the same argument about people working on dlc before a game launches. Is everyone supposed to just sit around doing nothing for a period of time when things are out of their hands? It's not efficient or a good use of labor.

 

[Bane]

This is the same argument about people working on dlc before a game launches. Is everyone supposed to just sit around doing nothing for a period of time when things are out of their hands? It's not efficient or a good use of labor.

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Erm... quoted the wrong person?

 

[BassForever]

Erm... quoted the wrong person?

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Definitely lol -.-

 

[Adda]

Box split and bottom insert damaged on my Nemesis copy but fortunately all components look to be intact. Hopeful seller can get another one sorted from AR.

Will try jump into the rules tonight!

 

[Rover]

This is the same argument about people working on dlc before a game launches. Is everyone supposed to just sit around doing nothing for a period of time when things are out of their hands? It's not efficient or a good use of labor.

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A lot of those employees working on board games are contracted freelancers, they're not on a payroll in that sense.

 

[Antiquegamer]

This is the same argument about people working on dlc before a game launches. Is everyone supposed to just sit around doing nothing for a period of time when things are out of their hands? It's not efficient or a good use of labor.

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Again, I am not asking them to sit on their hands and do nothing. I understand you want to have multiple projects going to minimize downtime. The problem is they were not anywhere done with Lords of Hellas when they launch Nemesis and now Tainted Grail. They should have devoted all the times to Hellas and get that to the point of ready for proof while in the meantime as they wait for factory to make prototype run and proofing, they could then prep for Nemesis launch. That would have been fine with me. No one is asking devs to sit on their ass and do nothing. My beef is they obviously have nothing plan for Hellas SG and Expansions yet made it seems during KS that they have all contents ready to go and just need fine tune. Obviously that was not the case. They then spend all the times launching new KS earlier this year and get that fulfill (at least the core, again same business model) and just now "finishing" Lords of Hellas.

As for Steamforge that is sort of similar but in their case they have nothing ready yet kept promising SG to increase their KS intake and that they now could not fulfill. They are nice and I met them at PAX but doesn't mean I think they are not a terrible company. I actually like Dark Souls and find it entertaining to play but their handling of backers and then launching more and more KS projects that they have yet to fulfill is just tiresome. At this point I am going to just write Dark Souls as my first KS lost. At least they send out the Extra Buy and expansions (well most of them anyway). Of course no one care about the game because all the bad reviews and publicity.

 

[Adda]

I paid £70 for the base game and I honestly think shipping was $30 (hard to remember ha) so you really didn't Pay too much a premium at least

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Boardgameguru just listed it for £89.99.

Really great timing on my part then!

 

[GrimGrinningGuy]

Boardgameguru just listed it for £89.99.

Really great timing on my part then!

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Oooooof :(

 

[BassForever]

Pandemic Legacy is the truth, s1 just finished January after 2 games and phew this is amazing.

 

[Fonst]

Pandemic Legacy is the truth, s1 just finished January after 2 games and phew this is amazing.

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Man, I wish I had such passion for that game.

 

[trapperkreeper]

Pandemic Legacy is the truth, s1 just finished January after 2 games and phew this is amazing.

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Me and the GF have really enjoyed both pandemic legacies, she really got into it so that was cool

 

[Deleted member 8860]

I realize Eurogames have been moving away from the mechanic for a long while, but I still love auctions. Age of Steam and Princes of Florence remain two of my four favorite strategy games (joined by Imperial and Race for the Galaxy), and among lighter games, I still love Ra and Medici and No Thanks!, etc.

Have there been any great recent (2015+) auction-centric games? Some people's eyes glaze over as soon as they see a train or Renaissance theme (or merely functional, instead of evocative, artwork).

 

[Rover]

I realize Eurogames have been moving away from the mechanic for a long while, but I still love auctions. Age of Steam and Princes of Florence remain two of my four favorite strategy games (joined by Imperial and Race for the Galaxy), and among lighter games, I still love Ra and Medici and No Thanks!, etc.

Have there been any great recent (2015+) auction-centric games? Some people's eyes glaze over as soon as they see a train or Renaissance theme (or merely functional, instead of evocative, artwork).

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QE just ended on KS and it's a auction game where you can bid any amount whatsoever (you are 'printing the money' as you go along), all the bids stay mostly hidden, but you reveal everything at the end and the player who printed the most money loses (there are also VPs to win along the way, so there is a winner). It's supposedly a big mindgame.

Container is older (2007) and kind of thematically odd sometimes, but very simple to play, tough to master. Overall just a delicious slice of bidding in a tight closed economy. It also has some nice bid mechanics - one-time blind bid (speeds up the process a lot), and you as the seller can either accept the bid, or pay it yourself and take it.

Ponzi Scheme is another interesting game, from 2015. You are running a Ponzi scheme, so you are free to take a bunch of free cash from dupes every turn, the catch being that you've promised to pay them some pretty crazy interest rates. Meanwhile, you're making secret bids to other players for their properties (the VP in the game), again with a similar mechanic to Container of taking the bid or matching it. It's inevitable that none of this is sustainable, so you're hoping to outpace the first player to go bankrupt.

Finally I'll add Tramways (2016), which is a streamlined (but still rather brain-burny) train game with a hand building mechanic, lots of fun to combine cards in different ways to do your actions. The other twist to the genre is the way the auctions work, which is that you have to pay each bid you make (even if you don't win). This makes even a 2P auction a bit more interesting. It's also a great solo game, if you're into that.


Also I'll just add that I love Ra, incredible game.

 

[JSR_Cube]

If you're into auctions, check out The Estates.

It just came out and you should be able to grab a copy fairly easily.

 

[Deleted member 8860]

Thanks for the responses -- I'll look into them (already owned and enjoyed Container).

 

[BassForever]

Just finished Time Stories: Brotherhood of the Coast. Second best scenario after Asylum and meta gaming after our ending all 3 endings seem to hint at the next expansion potentially having some major revelations. The flaws of Time Stories system basically demanded we screw the rules and just continue when we ran out of time near the end since we would just repeat the same actions again but with a slightly better combat character. I can get why some are done with Time Stories because of that flaw, but my group and I still enjoy much of the experience and are looking forward to the next one.

 

[GrimGrinningGuy]

Just finished Time Stories: Brotherhood of the Coast. Second best scenario after Asylum and meta gaming after our ending all 3 endings seem to hint at the next expansion potentially having some major revelations. The flaws of Time Stories system basically demanded we screw the rules and just continue when we ran out of time near the end since we would just repeat the same actions again but with a slightly better combat character. I can get why some are done with Time Stories because of that flaw, but my group and I still enjoy much of the experience and are looking forward to the next one.

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Good to hear. We did the dragon one in the spring and so far that was our least fav. Up next for us is the Egyptian one hopefully in January

When we get close to the end though we also just kinda "fast forward" and just say out loud what we plan to do because it's a huge pain to set up cards just to get an item and leave and etc etc

 

[Nappuccino]

Played our first game of Twilight Imperium. Game is super cool, but we had a difficult time grasping the rules at first we played almost the whole first turn wrong when it came to production and movement. We had to close it down before we hit the agenda phases, but we all agreed we enjoyed the game.

Ah well, next time.

 

[BassForever]

Good to hear. We did the dragon one in the spring and so far that was our least fav. Up next for us is the Egyptian one hopefully in January

When we get close to the end though we also just kinda "fast forward" and just say out loud what we plan to do because it's a huge pain to set up cards just to get an item and leave and etc etc

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My list goes

Asylum
Brotherhood of the Coast
Expedition Endurance
Lumen Fidei
Marcy Case
Under The Mask
Prophecy of Dragons
Estella Drive

If we didn't rush the ending I could see Brotherhood dropping below E.E. because there is a lot of running around you need to do to prep for the final boss run and the time die will turn into your worst enemy.

 

[apocat]

So Gen7 has started to pop in stores, and I'm curious if anyone has played it yet and can share some impressions. It's kind of hard to justify buying an expensive board game in the middle of christmas shopping, but I'd be lying if I said I'm not slightly tempted.

 

[4Tran]

I realize Eurogames have been moving away from the mechanic for a long while, but I still love auctions. Age of Steam and Princes of Florence remain two of my four favorite strategy games (joined by Imperial and Race for the Galaxy), and among lighter games, I still love Ra and Medici and No Thanks!, etc.

Have there been any great recent (2015+) auction-centric games? Some people's eyes glaze over as soon as they see a train or Renaissance theme (or merely functional, instead of evocative, artwork).

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Lost Cities: Rivals just came out, and it's supposed to be really good. Also if you haven't played it yet, a new edition of High Society just came out and it's one of the all time classics in the genre.

 

[Deleted member 8860]

Lost Cities: Rivals just came out, and it's supposed to be really good. Also if you haven't played it yet, a new edition of High Society just came out and it's one of the all time classics in the genre.

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Lost Cities: Rivals looks really good, like a blend of the original and Ra (or Dream Factory -- Knizia has so many wonderful light-medium auction games). Thanks for the tip.

I have the new version of High Society. That's actually what keeps me from pulling the trigger on LC Rivals -- it may be too similar to the greats that are already in my collection.

 

[GrimGrinningGuy]

My list goes

Asylum
Brotherhood of the Coast
Expedition Endurance
Lumen Fidei
Marcy Case
Under The Mask
Prophecy of Dragons
Estella Drive

If we didn't rush the ending I could see Brotherhood dropping below E.E. because there is a lot of running around you need to do to prep for the final boss run and the time die will turn into your worst enemy.

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Nice, I got them all over Black Friday. We are just playing release order

I wish there was an official "fast forward mode" because after 4 hours sometimes just prepping all again is a little tiresome

 

[Deleted member 4452]

Been playing some Glass Road. Confirms that I love resource conversion euros. Fun, and plays really fast while still providing some brain burning (though somewhat lighter than Uwe Rosenberg's other big box games). The fast setup and playtime means this one will hit the table often

 

[Fonst]

Nice, I got them all over Black Friday. We are just playing release order

I wish there was an official "fast forward mode" because after 4 hours sometimes just prepping all again is a little tiresome

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I mean, if you remember how many time units and what items you had at a certain point, you could just start there? For example, if in a case I know I got item C after 5 Time Units, maybe we would start our game there instead of going thru everything again.

 

[BassForever]

Nice, I got them all over Black Friday. We are just playing release order

I wish there was an official "fast forward mode" because after 4 hours sometimes just prepping all again is a little tiresome

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I mean, if you remember how many time units and what items you had at a certain point, you could just start there? For example, if in a case I know I got item C after 5 Time Units, maybe we would start our game there instead of going thru everything again.

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Generally my group does one of two things

1) If we time out, we talk about the plan and items we would make on a more efficient run to get back to where we are, keep those relevant items and roll the time dice for movement to all those locations. We generally do this if we feel we still have a ways to go but know the exact steps to get back to where we timed out. If we time out in that first 1-2 run and still have no idea what is or isn't relevant yet we'll truly start fresh and play as intended. Often times when going back to a location someone will make a different decision that reveals more info and helps clue us in on the goal.

2) if we lose due to combat, if we all agree the only changes we would make are the characters and hoping for better dice rolls we just take a small time penalty and act like we won the fight.

It's funny for my group we find the best part of time stories are those first 2-3 runs. Trying to figure out what to do, where to go, arguing if this is bait, getting baited, and solving the puzzles and easier combat/skill challenges are the highlights. Pretty much the finale of any module is always an annoying min/max efficiency dash that often devolves into time stories mediocre combat system where the game largely falls apart. This is doubly annoying if a module has a lame duck wrap up where the whole scenario felt like filler.

Despite how down that paragraph sounds 95% of the experience is so incredible we're dying for more content.

 

[GrimGrinningGuy]

I mean, if you remember how many time units and what items you had at a certain point, you could just start there? For example, if in a case I know I got item C after 5 Time Units, maybe we would start our game there instead of going thru everything again.

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Generally my group does one of two things

1) If we time out, we talk about the plan and items we would make on a more efficient run to get back to where we are, keep those relevant items and roll the time dice for movement to all those locations. We generally do this if we feel we still have a ways to go but know the exact steps to get back to where we timed out. If we time out in that first 1-2 run and still have no idea what is or isn't relevant yet we'll truly start fresh and play as intended. Often times when going back to a location someone will make a different decision that reveals more info and helps clue us in on the goal.

2) if we lose due to combat, if we all agree the only changes we would make are the characters and hoping for better dice rolls we just take a small time penalty and act like we won the fight.

It's funny for my group we find the best part of time stories are those first 2-3 runs. Trying to figure out what to do, where to go, arguing if this is bait, getting baited, and solving the puzzles and easier combat/skill challenges are the highlights. Pretty much the finale of any module is always an annoying min/max efficiency dash that often devolves into time stories mediocre combat system where the game largely falls apart. This is doubly annoying if a module has a lame duck wrap up where the whole scenario felt like filler.

Despite how down that paragraph sounds 95% of the experience is so incredible we're dying for more content.

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That's how we pretty much do it too. It takes us 4ksh hours and around 3.5 we are ok we know what we need to do so we "fake it" and just roll time.

I wish there was an official "low on time!" Card you could play and officially keep items and whatnot.

We love the game and don't mind adjusting the rules though

 

[chapel]

Played Star Trek: Ascendancy with Mandos and Musan on TTS. Was quite fun. It is a game I'd likely never be able to play IRL so thanks for setting that up Mandos and teaching us.

Also last week played A Feast for Odin with Blizzard and Mandos on TTS and that was fun as well. Thanks Blizzard for teaching us.

Would love to setup regular gaming sessions on TTS for games that can be harder to get groups together for.

 

[PanzerKraken]

First time in a long time it's happened, but I was stumped by Root? Wtf. I dont know what it is but the rulebook feels... bad? Like I literally read the rules and have so much confusion of how this game even works. Part of it could be shitty explanations or lack of diagrams for some rules, but I kept getting stumped and rarely happens.