It didn't help that there were so many reds out. It took almost an hour for anyone to get their engines going. I believe most people unlocked two dice around the 45 minute mark.
If we're defining "Splendor" as an economic snowball game where you spend resources on cards that let you get more resources, then Outpost and Saint Petersburg are also versions of Splendor. :P
If we're defining "Splendor" as an economic snowball game where you spend resources on cards that let you get more resources, then Outpost and Saint Petersburg are also versions of Splendor. :P
I haven't played Outpost.
St. Pete differs from Splendor in some key ways, though. The great carpenter requires that you adjust for the board state depending on the number of players to manipulate the new card market to your advantage. In Splendor and Machi Koro you just buy the best card you can on your turn, and that's it.
If we're defining "Splendor" as an economic snowball game where you spend resources on cards that let you get more resources, then Outpost and Saint Petersburg are also versions of Splendor. :P
I haven't played Outpost.
St. Pete differs from Splendor in some key ways, though. The great carpenter requires that you adjust for the board state depending on the number of players to manipulate the new card market to your advantage. In Splendor and Machi Koro you just buy the best card you can on your turn, and that's it.
The dice add a certain amount of randomness. It's possible to roll the right thing at the wrong time. (Rolling red cards, but everyone is broke)
I've never seen an expansion so utterly destroy a game, like the Harbor expansion in Machi Koro. All they had to do is add more cards to rotate in and out of the base game. Changing to an "Ascension"-like deckbuilder was a mistake.
I've played Saint Petersburg, Machi Koro, and Splendor ~15 times each. As it regards the games I own, Saint Petersburg has a permanent place in my collection. I own Machi Koro, but I'm not sure for how much longer. I don't own Splendor, but the thought process required to play has become monotonous. The dice make Machi Koro (a bit) more enjoyable for me, even if Splendor is a deeper game.
By chance I noticed two OOP Kosmos games are getting English reprints in 2016: Rosenkönig and Tally Ho!
I've played Saint Petersburg, Machi Koro, and Splendor ~15 times each. As it regards the games I own, Saint Petersburg has a permanent place in my collection. I own Machi Koro, but I'm not sure for how much longer. I don't own Splendor, but the thought process required to play has become monotonous. The dice make Machi Koro (a bit) more enjoyable for me, even if Splendor is a deeper game.
By chance I noticed two OOP Kosmos games are getting English reprints in 2016: Rosenkönig and Tally Ho!
I don't think Splendor is deeper than Koro. It's just less bad.
Favor of the Pharaoh - The winning roll was a truly terrifying 14 of a kind. The game went long with some new players, so quite a lot of potential energy built up.
You wanna see some shit? Here's my winning board from Factory Fun hard mode at PAX South 2016.
After messing up my first game, I played it very safe in this expert round. I didn't touch any buildings until I was very sure they were going to fit somewhat nicely. I ended up skipping 3 rounds. Still won by a whole bunch with this ultra-compact and efficient factory. At one point I had a hard time placing a machine, then I remembered that I hadn't even used my orange vat yet!
This is the last week before Anthony moves in, and I predict a spike in two player games beginning next week. Just a hunch.
Collection Played in 2016: 17%. 116 games to go. Added this week: Glass Road, Mottainai. Trade pile: Roma, Steam Time.
A Game of Thrones: The Card Game (new to me) - There were a few people in the store for Thrones on Thursday, so they loaned me a deck and taught me the game. It seems like a good game, but it's doomed to the same fate as all non-Netrunner CCGs (for me).
Mombasa - Second play holds up, and I'd be happy to play more, but I don't feel the need to own this one.
Russian Railroads (new to me) - I WILL be picking up a copy of Russian Railroads. Superficially similar to Snowdonia (worker placement + train game), with spaces that cost 2-3 workers that break up the regimented drafting you see in many worker placement games.
Mottainai - This design speaks to the decade of experience Chudyk has had since designing Glory to Rome. I find myself in a unique position in every game, arising primarily from the interconnectedness of the basic mechanisms, rather than the effects of individual cards.
Outpost - I love Outpost. You can get dealt crap for money, or an amazing starting hand that breaks evenly into 10/20. But in the end, it doesn't matter - I love Outpost.
Rome: City of Marble - Following the same arc as some of my favorite games: Game 1 - Grasp at ideas, play randomly. Game 2 - Seeing possibilities that would not have occurred to me in Game 1. Simple rules, definitely a keeper.
I took my trip to Hartford this past weekend, and have the overstock of games in my car now. I will be making an appearence at Katsucon to drop them off to MAGfest so that I can fit more games into my car to bring to MAGFest. This is the year of board games and friends with a splash of music.
Avoid Rattle, Battle, Grab the Loot. It's a pirate dice battle game with a really neat mechanic: your ships are dice, and you drop all the dice into a box (the ocean) and play what boils down to a really simplified miniatures combat game. You do this 10+ times with different missions and NPC ships and such, over the course of a game.
It's just bad. I strongly suspect it has a runaway leader issue. I mean, first and foremost, it's a lucky dice game. Success in the first few rounds is very random, and if someone wins big, they can buy themselves major advantages, ensuring better luck of the future dice fest rounds, and continuing their domination. And it takes well over an hour to play. Woof.
Burgle Bros on the other hand is a really cool implementation of Monaco as a co-op board game, but it ultimately does nothing at all to patch the inherent flaws we've found in co-ops since Pandemic.
Well my 200+ game collection will be brought with me to MAGFest, there is a PnP game that is up your ally Rym but it is a large event. Anyone interested in a horse racing betting game combined with a stock market?
I'm planning to play a lot of classics at MAGFest.
Shortlist of things I am considering bringing:
Is that 1996 Entdecker, or 2001 Entdecker: Exploring New Horizons? It's hard to find the former, since it got totally replaced by the later design... which seems to be the fate of all of Teuber's non-Catan games.
I really want to try La Citta. And I'm interested in Entdecker.
I forget... Rym, have you played Brass? Web of Power? I know Scott has played both.
I'm planning to play a lot of classics at MAGFest.
Shortlist of things I am considering bringing:
Puerto Rico
Between Patrick's collection and the rest, I have to imagine there's at least one copy that will already be there.
The main games I'll be bringing inside the Gaylord will most likely be:
Sentinels of the Multiverse (I've a bunch of cards I that aren't out in the digital version.) Bomb Squad (Kinda would like to get a couple more plays from this) Firefly (I know some people there would play it) Among the Stars (For 6 players)
I'm mulling over bringing my copy of Eclipse, since you can do the really long games at a con.
Chances are I will bring Puerto Rico, you can pack another game Rym. Also I will be there on Wednesday all day with nothing to do so if we want to schedule a pregaming party in a hotel room let me know and what games you want me to bring.
Also I was asked this question recently and thought it was really good so I will throw it out here:
Wil Wheaton calls you and ask for you to be the co-host on an episode of Tabletop, you are allowed to bring up to four other people (minimum of two) to appear on the show and play a game of your choice. Who would you bring on the show and what game would you play that would likely be a good canidate for the show?
After a really long time I went with Rym, Aisha Tyler, Tiffany (TheOneTar), and Eric S Raymond to play Spyfall.
The campaign started at 11AM, it is now $31K beyond its highest stretch goal, and still climbing.
The artwork has slightly improved, but is still horrifyingly bad.
To each his own, I like the overall art style. I remember one time showing this to a group and one of the women gamers asked "Are there any female heroes in the game?" expecting me to say either "no" or "one or two". As of right now a solid 40% of the Heroes are women which is usually better than most Marvel/DC products where it might be 28% on a good day.
The campaign started at 11AM, it is now $31K beyond its highest stretch goal, and still climbing.
The artwork has slightly improved, but is still horrifyingly bad.
To each his own, I like the overall art style. I remember one time showing this to a group and one of the women gamers asked "Are there any female heroes in the game?" expecting me to say either "no" or "one or two". As of right now a solid 40% of the Heroes are women which is usually better than most Marvel/DC products where it might be 28% on a good day.
And its made $24K since the last post.
Yeah, it's definitely doing well in the diversity category. It's just that the artist is really bad at drawing. They've definitely improved from their earlier days, so I give them credit for that. That being said, their newest art is somewhere in the quality range of the earliest Penny Arcade comics. With all that sweet Kickstarter cash, shouldn't they be able to hire a better artist?
In a similar vein, I'm a fan of awkward portraits and illustrations played straight in board games, like the cards in Res Publica or Saint Petersburg... I suspect it's an affinity for classic MtG art, before they had a house style and you'd see Foglio illustrations on Magic cards.
I'm planning to play a lot of classics at MAGFest.
I'm tempted to make a theme out of it, I don't have too many games from that time period that you didn't already list. Definitely Saint Petersburg and Web of Power. Mostly card games from European designers like The Bottle Imp, Wizard Extreme, and Rosenberg's pre-Agricola run (Bohnanza, Schnappchen Jagd, Mamma Mia). Thebes and Fresh Fish have their origins in that era, but are more recent redesigns. And the FRC is done with Settlers, as far as I know. ;]
It's just that the artist is really bad at drawing. They've definitely improved from their earlier days, so I give them credit for that. That being said, their newest art is somewhere in the quality range of the earliest Penny Arcade comics. With all that sweet Kickstarter cash, shouldn't they be able to hire a better artist?
I have to imagine it's for the same reason Jerry doesn't fire Mike from Penny Arcade and hire a better artist.
Comments
I believe most people unlocked two dice around the 45 minute mark.
St. Pete differs from Splendor in some key ways, though. The great carpenter requires that you adjust for the board state depending on the number of players to manipulate the new card market to your advantage. In Splendor and Machi Koro you just buy the best card you can on your turn, and that's it.
I've never seen an expansion so utterly destroy a game, like the Harbor expansion in Machi Koro. All they had to do is add more cards to rotate in and out of the base game. Changing to an "Ascension"-like deckbuilder was a mistake.
By chance I noticed two OOP Kosmos games are getting English reprints in 2016: Rosenkönig and Tally Ho!
After messing up my first game, I played it very safe in this expert round. I didn't touch any buildings until I was very sure they were going to fit somewhat nicely. I ended up skipping 3 rounds. Still won by a whole bunch with this ultra-compact and efficient factory. At one point I had a hard time placing a machine, then I remembered that I hadn't even used my orange vat yet!
Collection Played in 2016: 17%. 116 games to go. Added this week: Glass Road, Mottainai. Trade pile: Roma, Steam Time.
A Game of Thrones: The Card Game (new to me) - There were a few people in the store for Thrones on Thursday, so they loaned me a deck and taught me the game. It seems like a good game, but it's doomed to the same fate as all non-Netrunner CCGs (for me).
Mombasa - Second play holds up, and I'd be happy to play more, but I don't feel the need to own this one.
Russian Railroads (new to me) - I WILL be picking up a copy of Russian Railroads. Superficially similar to Snowdonia (worker placement + train game), with spaces that cost 2-3 workers that break up the regimented drafting you see in many worker placement games.
Mottainai - This design speaks to the decade of experience Chudyk has had since designing Glory to Rome. I find myself in a unique position in every game, arising primarily from the interconnectedness of the basic mechanisms, rather than the effects of individual cards.
Outpost - I love Outpost. You can get dealt crap for money, or an amazing starting hand that breaks evenly into 10/20. But in the end, it doesn't matter - I love Outpost.
Rome: City of Marble - Following the same arc as some of my favorite games: Game 1 - Grasp at ideas, play randomly. Game 2 - Seeing possibilities that would not have occurred to me in Game 1. Simple rules, definitely a keeper.
It's just bad. I strongly suspect it has a runaway leader issue. I mean, first and foremost, it's a lucky dice game. Success in the first few rounds is very random, and if someone wins big, they can buy themselves major advantages, ensuring better luck of the future dice fest rounds, and continuing their domination. And it takes well over an hour to play. Woof.
Burgle Bros on the other hand is a really cool implementation of Monaco as a co-op board game, but it ultimately does nothing at all to patch the inherent flaws we've found in co-ops since Pandemic.
Shortlist of things I am considering bringing:
Tikal
Puerto Rico
Entdecker
La Cita
Glory to Rome
El Grande
I really want to try La Citta. And I'm interested in Entdecker.
I forget... Rym, have you played Brass? Web of Power? I know Scott has played both.
The main games I'll be bringing inside the Gaylord will most likely be:
Sentinels of the Multiverse (I've a bunch of cards I that aren't out in the digital version.)
Bomb Squad (Kinda would like to get a couple more plays from this)
Firefly (I know some people there would play it)
Among the Stars (For 6 players)
I'm mulling over bringing my copy of Eclipse, since you can do the really long games at a con.
I could play it again. It was right around when we were playing Pizarro.
Also I was asked this question recently and thought it was really good so I will throw it out here:
Wil Wheaton calls you and ask for you to be the co-host on an episode of Tabletop, you are allowed to bring up to four other people (minimum of two) to appear on the show and play a game of your choice. Who would you bring on the show and what game would you play that would likely be a good canidate for the show?
After a really long time I went with Rym, Aisha Tyler, Tiffany (TheOneTar), and Eric S Raymond to play Spyfall.
The campaign started at 11AM, it is now $31K beyond its highest stretch goal, and still climbing.
And its made $24K since the last post.