Played the first game of The Isle of Cats yesterday. I enjoyed it a lot. Having to pay for cards that will stay hidden means you'll have to trust the other players not to cheat, but technically that should be a given.
I ended up in last place sadly because the husband screwed me over on the last turn. ( I had used a card to move some cats from the more expensive side to the cheaper one so that I could effort them and expand one of my families and before I had a chance to take even one he used the same card and moved them back. Which was especially painful because he didn't even gain anything from it and apparently wasn't even aware just how bad he had fucked with me.)
Not related to anything in particular, but I don't understand the secondary market for boardgames at all.
I've watched Runebound 3e Unbreakable Bonds prices go from discount bin to $100+ in a period of a few months. For a game people didn't seem to love, I find it crazy that it goes for that much these days.
And I'm sure there are other games in this same line, but that's the only one I have ever really seen go up in value so much and so quickly in my collection.
Anyone else have any interesting or unique examples of this?
Man Shut Up and Sit Down is on a roll. A War of Whispers looks amazing. A war game that is based on area control, works with all player counts, has easy rules and can be played in an hour tops? Sign me up!
Edit: It seems like it's not widely available (yet?). What a bummer.
Not related to anything in particular, but I don't understand the secondary market for boardgames at all.
I've watched Runebound 3e Unbreakable Bonds prices go from discount bin to $100+ in a period of a few months. For a game people didn't seem to love, I find it crazy that it goes for that much these days.
And I'm sure there are other games in this same line, but that's the only one I have ever really seen go up in value so much and so quickly in my collection.
Anyone else have any interesting or unique examples of this?
UB is popular among solo gamers. I was lucky to grab a copy not long before the stock disappeared. I'm glad I did because the game works really well solo.
Years ago, Betrayal at House on the Hill was out of print and got ridiculously expensive. I remember reading reports of people getting the game for like $10 when it went on clearance at Toys r Us. It hit $100 plus not long after.
Yea it sucks the first run of some of these games are so low in quantity. I get it, but that means for a lot of these games that are "2019" releases like Atlantis Rising and Isle of Cats really aren't for most of us 2019 games and it makes it hard to figure out when they are actually available. People still can't buy wingspan!
Finally got to play MegaCiv this weekend, and while it is definitely one of my most memorable board gaming experiences ever, I still felt very disappointed in the end.
We played from 10am to 0030 am in the night, so about 14 hours and thirty minutes including a dinner break, and I really loved the epic scale of it. However, I dont think the gameplay is really varied enough to support such a huge game, as it all boils down to doing the same over and over.
After a really cool start where everybody try to expand as quickly as possible, the game slows down, everybody starts to build citites in the land they captured during the hectic start - and with cities the real game starts. Which is about getting the right cards. Basically, you get more cards the more cities you own, and the goal of the game is to get sets of cards to develop technology. To get sets you need to trade cards with other players. However, among the cards are also a quite high proportion of catastrophes - called calamities - which can also be traded. Basically you want to trade away the calamities while completing you sets, but since the other players are in the same situation, you will always receive calamities along with the cards you need. Meaning the meat of the game is about 1) being lucky with what cards you draw and 2) understanding the psycology of the trade. Which of course also can be quite based on luck.
You will pretty soon understand that you need to accept a ton of calamities to get anywhere, meaning your cities and units will be destroyed and sometimes overtaken by another player, however, there is almost nothing you can do about this as the cards are random and you need to trade cards to get techs. Also rebuilding cities isnt really hard as long as they are not overtaken by other players.
Techs is really the only thing that matters in the game. Every turn you need to be able to get a set or more, so that you can get some techs (and a few calamities), and while some techs give advantages, most of them dont to much. Except making other techs cheaper so that the process is speed up more and more.
And thats basically it. There is combat as well, but combat is almost meaningless as it costs way too much for most of the game.
This game has been my holy grail (well, the original Advanced Civ) my whole adult life based only on its reputation. When i now have finally played it, i must say that it is unfortunately way to simple and luck-based for my taste, even though the sheer epic-ness and theme of course greatly appeal to me (making it my holy grail in the first place).
I won with Carthage by the way, quite comfortably as well.
That game looks good, if maybe a bit heavier than most of what I can get to a table easily.
Pretty busy time now though with Kickstarters and some high profile pledge managers, so maybe in a couple of months you'll get some bites.
Well I have a rare opportunity. My dad is going to be traveling in Asia often in the upcoming future, and we were talking about reprising our old chess habit but then he said he's willing to learn a classical Asian game that he could use in a social setting when traveling(even if he loses). Preferably one more common in China. Obviously something for a more one on one setting. I've been wanting to pick up Shogi for a while but I know it's a more Japan thing. Perhaps Go might be an option? May consider Mahjong but I know that's more of a group thing.
I know you guys are more on the modern game side but figured it's worth asking
Well I have a rare opportunity. My dad is going to be traveling in Asia often in the upcoming future, and we were talking about reprising our old chess habit but then he said he's willing to learn a classical Asian game that he could use in a social setting when traveling(even if he loses). Preferably one more common in China. Obviously something for a more one on one setting. I've been wanting to pick up Shogi for a while but I know it's a more Japan thing. Perhaps Go might be an option? May consider Mahjong but I know that's more of a group thing.
I know you guys are more on the modern game side but figured it's worth asking
Well I have a rare opportunity. My dad is going to be traveling in Asia often in the upcoming future, and we were talking about reprising our old chess habit but then he said he's willing to learn a classical Asian game that he could use in a social setting when traveling(even if he loses). Preferably one more common in China. Obviously something for a more one on one setting. I've been wanting to pick up Shogi for a while but I know it's a more Japan thing. Perhaps Go might be an option? May consider Mahjong but I know that's more of a group thing.
I know you guys are more on the modern game side but figured it's worth asking
The most popular board game in China is Chinese Chess or Xiangqi. You'll find people playing it in public all over the place. Other than that, Go and regular Chess are pretty widespread as well so any of these would be fine. Mahjong is also popular, but it's strictly a four player game and it's commonly used as a form of gambling so it may not be quite what you're looking for.
Thanks for the heads up. I grabbed it for iOS. I still haven't played my copy that showed up at the beginning of the month. A replacement box showed up since mine had some dents. I've overlooked a lot of dents and dings over the years but I did email the BoardGameTables team to see if they could do anything for me, since the game was a birthday gift from my wife, and they hooked me up with a new box. Between service like that and On Tour being so good (and QE as well, presumably; I should be able to try that one out next week), I definitely have my eyes on whatever they produce in the future.
I tried Railroad Ink and Air, Land, & Sea for the first time last week at game night. Both were pretty good. I might start taking Railroad Ink to work with me to play solo while board. We also played Quacks of Quedlinburg again, so my second time. I wound up winning by one point. I've got no clue what we'll play tomorrow but I really want to play Quacks again. The only thing that sucks is that I'd like to change some of the ingredient abilities to more advanced ones since two of the other players have played it both times with me, but the other person who should be there hasn't tried it and doesn't play many games, so I feel like I should at least teach it to him with the starting powers.
I bought the Batman Funkoverse base game this morning and three expansions last night: The Rick and Morty expansion, the Golden Girls expansion, and the Batman expansion. I'll get the Harry Potter sets soon, and the Jurassic Park and Aggretsuko stuff when it comes out in March. Reviews seemed good and there are a lot of licenses I'd love to see. It was all super-cheap too; I had some rewards expiring that brought the price way down to sub-$10 each on the three expansions.
Anyone interested in the new TIME STORIES coming out?
My group was a big fan if the first few boxes but they really fell off in quality. We'd also cheat the system by hour 4 just to speed it along. I'm intrigued in the new ones as you no longer get sucked back in tune and have to redo stuff
I played Western Legends in a 5 player group for the first time this weekend and it was so enjoyable.
One of our players went Wanted in the first few rounds but was almost immediately arrested by a Marshall player, which set them back a ton (and definitely impacted their enjoyment of the experience).
Towards the end of the game, another player went Wanted but was cleaned up by the Sheriff pretty quick, which potentially lost them the victory.
Is there any incentive to go Wanted? We were discussing what benefits there may be but there genuinely didn't seem to be any, which is a real shame.
Anyone interested in the new TIME STORIES coming out?
My group was a big fan if the first few boxes but they really fell off in quality. We'd also cheat the system by hour 4 just to speed it along. I'm intrigued in the new ones as you no longer get sucked back in tune and have to redo stuff
I wanted to jump in after falling off early in the previous season, but the reviews have been mixed to negative. The Dice Tower one felt especially damning, and I feel like I'm on the same wavelength as them for this series.
I wanted to jump in after falling off early in the previous season, but the reviews have been mixed to negative. The Dice Tower one felt especially damning, and I feel like I'm on the same wavelength as them for this series.
They avoid story spoilers but didn't really like the new mechanics. Essentially the story was fine but the act of playing it got in the way of that instead of adding to it.
They avoid story spoilers but didn't really like the new mechanics. Essentially the story was fine but the act of playing it got in the way of that instead of adding to it.
I played Western Legends in a 5 player group for the first time this weekend and it was so enjoyable.
One of our players went Wanted in the first few rounds but was almost immediately arrested by a Marshall player, which set them back a ton (and definitely impacted their enjoyment of the experience).
Towards the end of the game, another player went Wanted but was cleaned up by the Sheriff pretty quick, which potentially lost them the victory.
Is there any incentive to go Wanted? We were discussing what benefits there may be but there genuinely didn't seem to be any, which is a real shame.
I am not a Western Legends expert but there are some decent benefits for playing wanted.
It is quite situational. If four players are competing for the Marshall points and objectives then there should be some room for at least one player to do well playing wanted.
Again, I am no expert though.
It is a fun game. Haven't tried it with Ante Up yet. Have it. Just haven't gotten it to the table.
Top Shelf Gamer have a lot of metal coins. I don't know if they have magic or circus theme. I currently just use my Trickerion coins. (also quote function is broken for my browser at work).
BoardGameTables is running a Kickstarter for reprints of On Tour and QE since they are almost out of one and sold through their stock of the other. QE is going to be the same but On Tour will be in a smaller box and have maps that are smaller. It comes with 8 maps now instead of 4 and they are double-sided with the new European expansion on the back. The expansion is able to be ordered on its own though, which I will definitely be doing.
BoardGameTables is running a Kickstarter for reprints of On Tour and QE since they are almost out of one and sold through their stock of the other. QE is going to be the same but On Tour will be in a smaller box and have maps that are smaller. It comes with 8 maps now instead of 4 and they are double-sided with the new European expansion on the back. The expansion is able to be ordered on its own though, which I will definitely be doing.
I grabbed Dominion Intrigue. It's old but I really wanted this expansion for a while. I have Hinterlands, I feel like with just the base and two expansions, there will plenty of variation.
Good looking out. I was trying to rush out the door when I posted so I wouldn't be late for game night and didn't think to provide a link. Got to play Railroad Ink for the second week in a row, Reef, and Sushi Go Party.
Okay, so I've been looking around and according to a mod post elsewhere, self promotion is encouraged if it's kept within the relevant thread, so...
The last few years I've been working on a fantasy card game system. The idea is to have "hero" cards that can be used in several different rule sets, making entirely different games. Meanwhile every new game also works as an expansion to the existing ones. Game #1 is a 1-4 player casual strategy game, game #2 is a 1-4 player light RPG adventure and #3 is a tactical 2 player game.
Currently the first two games are in Swedish and available as physical decks, but I've been translating most of it into English. Game #3 has just been sent to test printing. Since I'm better at making than promoting, I'm still only producing small quantities.
Would you like to see more? I'm mostly looking for (brutally honest) feedback, but I could also use some encouraging to make the English version available at least on a print-on-demand basis. I'm using a printing service that has that feature so it's pretty easy to set up.
Top Shelf Gamer have a lot of metal coins. I don't know if they have magic or circus theme. I currently just use my Trickerion coins. (also quote function is broken for my browser at work).
Would you like to see more? I'm mostly looking for (brutally honest) feedback, but I could also use some encouraging to make the English version available at least on a print-on-demand basis. I'm using a printing service that has that feature so it's pretty easy to set up.
I new expansion for This War of Mine called Days of the Siege has just been released! And this one is about adding a full-blown campaign to the game. I'm excited!
I new expansion for This War of Mine called Days of the Siege has just been released! And this one is about adding a full-blown campaign to the game. I'm excited!
I just bought Days of the Siege! It was the last copy at my local game store.
Never looked so forward to going through so many atrocities with the real possibility of just ending up dead in a ditch. I'll try to report back in the next few days once I could sink my teeth into the campaign.
Picked up some things lately so I'll give my short-ish reviews and one question to start things off:
I picked up Arkham Horror Card Game for really cheap and I'm wondering if the story cycles (big expansions plus smaller packs) are supposed to be played in order or if you can just jump into any of the big story campaigns?
Now for my reviews:
Ticket to Ride: London (got it from the Walmart sale that may still be going on) - It's a really solid, fast-playing form of ticket to ride. Nothing ground-breaking, but it's a nice two player option and really easy to take to places like bars. If you've been into gaming for a while and never got around to picking up a physical copy of any ticket to ride edition, this is a really solid one to have.
Res Arcana - Picked this up a little bit ago and got around to it this week. It's a very "basic" engine builder, which is to say that you have a really small deck and optimization is the name of the game. I think you can very easily set yourself up for a loss just with some of your basic opening game set up decisions. It plays fast, though, and is a solid mechanical engine-builder. The theme is pasted on, but if you are into engine-builder games, I would highly recommend it.
Empires of the North - This was really interesting. I saw how highly spoken of it was on the Dice Tower and decided to give it a go. It's more or less an engine builder or tableau building game with a very small amount of worker placement. The worker placement is really more action selection and it is very tight in that you only have two pawns to place (and then you can spend a resource to use each of them once more in a limited fashion). The decks feel really balanced even though they don't seem that way at first, and there is a learning curve. We only played two of the six decks so far and they were towards the lower end of the complexity rankings, but it is very asymmetrical and interesting. Knowing all the decks and how they play would be an enormous advantage eventually. Strangely I would compare the flow of the game to Disney Villainous, but the complexity has been ratcheted up. I would honestly recommend Villainous to somebody who was just beyond playing gateway games, but Empires of the North is for someone who is well past that. That being said, it is a really easy game to learn and nothing is hard to understand, but it can be really difficult to suss out your best moves especially once your tableau has like 10-20 cards in it. I think it's great, but I'd go with Villainous or Wingspan first if you aren't as comfortable with the mechanics.
Yeah it's wild. I went ahead and preordered Thor and Black Widow from MM today, no luck finding the Wrecking Crew set for preorder. I wonder if FFG flat out underestimated demand.
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