I played seven new-to-me games at PAX, not counting an interesting variant (Ca$h 'n Guns Team Spirit) and one redeveloped game I was less excited about (Sushi Go Party!)
Quadropolis was my favorite of the new games, I like the way it restricts tile placement and tile drafting with the same mechanism.
The real-time cooperative prototype was quite good - I'm hoping to see that developed some more, and I'd play the prototype again if I had the opportunity.
Wolf & Hound was a pleasant surprise, it only annoys me a little bit that you need to put some forethought into selecting a set of wolf/hound/sheep cards to play with.
Hit Z Road is a really tight auction and resource management dice game. Even though it's not in my wheelhouse, I was impressed by the game design and the precarious balance of the eight rounds.
Captain Sonar is a very clever game of a type I don't enjoy that much. I'd happily play it, and I find it more enjoyable than Space Cadets Dice Duel.
I didn't care for Castle Dice. The inclusion of a deck that is very nearly the Settlers of Catan development cards feels very out of place. So do the "bad" rolls - you can personally get stuck with multiple barbarians, when the bulk of the game is about dividing the dice rolled by everyone. And even pushing it along, we doubled the 45 minutes printed on the box, at the same table that can play a 30-minute Ginkgopolis. Pass.
I played seven new-to-me games at PAX, not counting an interesting variant (Ca$h 'n Guns Team Spirit) and one redeveloped game I was less excited about (Sushi Go Party!)
Quadropolis was my favorite of the new games, I like the way it restricts tile placement and tile drafting with the same mechanism.
The real-time cooperative prototype was quite good - I'm hoping to see that developed some more, and I'd play the prototype again if I had the opportunity.
I didn't care for Castle Dice. The inclusion of a deck that is very nearly the Settlers of Catan development cards feels very out of place. So do the "bad" rolls - you can personally get stuck with multiple barbarians, when the bulk of the game is about dividing the dice rolled by everyone. And even pushing it along, we doubled the 45 minutes printed on the box, at the same table that can play a 30-minute Ginkgopolis. Pass.
Castle Dice always felt really long for what it was for some reason.
Any interest in Quadropolis? The box looked interesting, but didn't know anyone willing to take a chance on it yet.
Captain Sonar is best. I want to play it a ton, but where will I get 8 quality players who are invested and have time? Also need room to store that box? Someone make it happen at New Years/MAGFest. The only reason for X-COM to exist is for when you have 4 instead of 8 players.
Agility is a good two player game. Still can't beat Lost Cities, but it's up there.
Between Two Cities is good, but you have to carefully figure out who sits where. I said before the game that the person sitting between Rym and myself would win, and that's exactly what happened.
Here's a mod of Between Two Cities that I just came up with that could be great.
Still draft tiles every turn and build cities that are 4x4. The cities are in the middle of the board. When you place a tile, you can place it in any city.
Use some sort of mechanism for players to choose which cities to invest/buy into. Maybe when you add a tile to a city you get a 1/16th share of that city. Maybe some sort of bidding or something. Just one more game mechanic. At the end, you get the points for the lower of the two cities you are the most invested in. In the end, each city is "owned" by exactly two players, and each player owns exactly two cities, but it just won't be determined purely by seating arrangements.
Makes some hard decisions about whether to place your tile in a city you are heavily invested in to raise its score, or place your tile in a bad spot of a city that someone else is heavily invested in.
Captain Sonar is something I will own and bring to conventions. I was deeply impressed with how well it works and the fact that it does not require a facilitator (human or app). The only downside at all is really just that there are two stressful difficult roles, one OK role, and one easy role. If you play once and have 6-8 high powered people, someone's bored.
However, if you play multiple times, you rotate to the easy role after doing the hard role, and I can see that greatly extending the number of plays a group could tolerate in a day.
Deep See Adventure is now my bust-out quick game for any audience, replacing Spot-It.
I saw some Twitter pics of Klask. What did you all think of it? I was sent a copy to use as a giveaway for Extra Life, but I've only messed around with it a bit. I was initially surprised that you were limited to your side of the board, but it works. Had fun with it for the time I played, and I like the harsh penalty of falling into your own goal.
Based purely on buzz, both here and elsewhere, I may have to swap out Space Cadets (which never gets to the table) on my shelves with Captain Sonar.
Most of the complaints I find online about Captain Sonar amount to:
1. Played with randos at a meetup, they were awful 2. Everyone told me I was mumbling as captain and couldn't understand me 3. Moron rando kept fucking up the rules
I think this is a game to buy and only ever run for or play with legit people.
People apparently have a LOT of trouble with NSEW. A common complaint is that they'll cover the compass rose rose with their hand, and thus NOT KNOW WHAT WAY THEY'RE GOING.
Are you fucking for real. No. I know you are. And I weep.
I agree that with Klask not folding up at all, it's a hard sell. Even with a nice 4BR house, I couldn't fit it. I already have a ton of stuff, and I like to keep my place neat, not cluttered. If I kept a copy, it'd wind up living in my garage.
Retailers: All pre-orders for Warhammer 40,000: Conquest Store Championship Kits and Quarter 1 Tournament Kits have been canceled. These kits have been discontinued and will not be released. Retailers will not be charged for these kits.
This proves that this wasn't something they knew about that far in advance, otherwise they wouldn't have even taken orders for or designed those kits in the first place.
Retailers: All pre-orders for Warhammer 40,000: Conquest Store Championship Kits and Quarter 1 Tournament Kits have been canceled. These kits have been discontinued and will not be released. Retailers will not be charged for these kits.
This proves that this wasn't something they knew about that far in advance, otherwise they wouldn't have even taken orders for or designed those kits in the first place.
It's a good thing I ordered a copy of Forbidden Stars a couple days ago. As availability decreases, I expect the price to get ridiculous like it did with the old FFG/Blizzard games like WoW and StarCraft.
People are starting to suggest that a lot of the GW games will be re-skinned and re-released. I wouldn't mind some Warhammer games re-skinned as LotR or Star Wars. Though, I'm not sure what you do with Blood Bowl: Team Manager unless you get a real NFL license.
People are starting to suggest that a lot of the GW games will be re-skinned and re-released. I wouldn't mind some Warhammer games re-skinned as LotR or Star Wars. Though, I'm not sure what you do with Blood Bowl: Team Manager unless you get a real NFL license.
People are starting to suggest that a lot of the GW games will be re-skinned and re-released. I wouldn't mind some Warhammer games re-skinned as LotR or Star Wars. Though, I'm not sure what you do with Blood Bowl: Team Manager unless you get a real NFL license.
People are starting to suggest that a lot of the GW games will be re-skinned and re-released. I wouldn't mind some Warhammer games re-skinned as LotR or Star Wars. Though, I'm not sure what you do with Blood Bowl: Team Manager unless you get a real NFL license.
I just want to post here that I beat Rym and Scott in my first-ever game of Fresh Fish at PAX (thanks to a last-minute attack on Scott and nobody noticing I was doing that well).
I didn't really get to play any of the games that are new to the forum, but lots that were new to me:
Deep Sea Adventure is real fun, but definitely seems like it's designed for three players and not five.
Quartermaster General doesn't do enough to mitigate starting luck: the apparently high cost for not drawing a basic card on first turn nearly had me throw the game. (sorry Scott)
I really like the prop mechanics in Ca$h n' Guns: I think my friend group would really get a kick out of it.
Rhino Hero is exciting for the exact reasons that Jenga is exciting, but is pretty much a first-player-wins-guaranteed game.
People are starting to suggest that a lot of the GW games will be re-skinned and re-released. I wouldn't mind some Warhammer games re-skinned as LotR or Star Wars. Though, I'm not sure what you do with Blood Bowl: Team Manager unless you get a real NFL license.
Just re-skin everything to a Terrinoth theme (I kid... but this might actually happen).
I just want to post here that I beat Rym and Scott in my first-ever game of Fresh Fish at PAX (thanks to a last-minute attack on Scott and nobody noticing I was doing that well).
Me, too. I was clearly winning but Scott was afraid of a somehow comeback on Rym so rather than fucking up my 4th commodity, which would put me back in a fight for first, he chose to continue a long beating on Rym, and I won with a score of 6.
I only lost that Fresh Fish because I bid too much on an earlier auction. It wasn't even that I feel like I bid too high, but other people bid too low. I put in 7 because if I won I could really hurt other people, and I did. But everyone else bid like, 3. I expected people to bid 5 or 6 because that is what it was worth. If I had bid 4, those two extra coins could have won me the later auction locking in a ridiculously low score and guaranteeing GG.
Welcome to Fresh Fish? Proper valuation plus group psychology is literally all that matters in those auctions. You misread the dynamics at play and lost. It happens.
Welcome to Fresh Fish? Proper valuation plus group psychology is literally all that matters in those auctions. You misread the dynamics at play and lost. It happens.
The people bidding against me also got crushed because me winning that auction ruined their scores. I bet thinking other people would be smart, I didn't gamble hoping they would make bad moves.
I bid low on that auction because my placement meant that me losing that particular auction wouldn't necessarily ruin my position on that good. I maintain that my bid was correct.
Retailers: All pre-orders for Warhammer 40,000: Conquest Store Championship Kits and Quarter 1 Tournament Kits have been canceled. These kits have been discontinued and will not be released. Retailers will not be charged for these kits.
This proves that this wasn't something they knew about that far in advance, otherwise they wouldn't have even taken orders for or designed those kits in the first place.
It's a good thing I ordered a copy of Forbidden Stars a couple days ago. As availability decreases, I expect the price to get ridiculous like it did with the old FFG/Blizzard games like WoW and StarCraft.
Forbidden Stars will be the most difficult to repackage, Star Wars already has a grand strategic game, and they also have Twilight Imperium.
Retailers: All pre-orders for Warhammer 40,000: Conquest Store Championship Kits and Quarter 1 Tournament Kits have been canceled. These kits have been discontinued and will not be released. Retailers will not be charged for these kits.
This proves that this wasn't something they knew about that far in advance, otherwise they wouldn't have even taken orders for or designed those kits in the first place.
It's a good thing I ordered a copy of Forbidden Stars a couple days ago. As availability decreases, I expect the price to get ridiculous like it did with the old FFG/Blizzard games like WoW and StarCraft.
Forbidden Stars will be the most difficult to repackage, Star Wars already has a grand strategic game, and they also have Twilight Imperium.
FFG could repackage Forbidden stars and re-theme it in the Twilight Imperium Universe if they wanted. There are tons of interesting races they could use, plus expansions, and outside Twilight Imperium itself, and Rex, I can't think of any other game in that universe, which is a shame because it seems so much more interesting than the lame/vanilla Terrinoth setting.
Comments
Quadropolis was my favorite of the new games, I like the way it restricts tile placement and tile drafting with the same mechanism.
The real-time cooperative prototype was quite good - I'm hoping to see that developed some more, and I'd play the prototype again if I had the opportunity.
Agility was also good, possibly great.
Wolf & Hound was a pleasant surprise, it only annoys me a little bit that you need to put some forethought into selecting a set of wolf/hound/sheep cards to play with.
Hit Z Road is a really tight auction and resource management dice game. Even though it's not in my wheelhouse, I was impressed by the game design and the precarious balance of the eight rounds.
Captain Sonar is a very clever game of a type I don't enjoy that much. I'd happily play it, and I find it more enjoyable than Space Cadets Dice Duel.
I didn't care for Castle Dice. The inclusion of a deck that is very nearly the Settlers of Catan development cards feels very out of place. So do the "bad" rolls - you can personally get stuck with multiple barbarians, when the bulk of the game is about dividing the dice rolled by everyone. And even pushing it along, we doubled the 45 minutes printed on the box, at the same table that can play a 30-minute Ginkgopolis. Pass.
Any interest in Quadropolis? The box looked interesting, but didn't know anyone willing to take a chance on it yet.
Agility is a good two player game. Still can't beat Lost Cities, but it's up there.
Between Two Cities is good, but you have to carefully figure out who sits where. I said before the game that the person sitting between Rym and myself would win, and that's exactly what happened.
Here's a mod of Between Two Cities that I just came up with that could be great.
Still draft tiles every turn and build cities that are 4x4. The cities are in the middle of the board. When you place a tile, you can place it in any city.
Use some sort of mechanism for players to choose which cities to invest/buy into. Maybe when you add a tile to a city you get a 1/16th share of that city. Maybe some sort of bidding or something. Just one more game mechanic. At the end, you get the points for the lower of the two cities you are the most invested in. In the end, each city is "owned" by exactly two players, and each player owns exactly two cities, but it just won't be determined purely by seating arrangements.
Makes some hard decisions about whether to place your tile in a city you are heavily invested in to raise its score, or place your tile in a bad spot of a city that someone else is heavily invested in.
However, if you play multiple times, you rotate to the easy role after doing the hard role, and I can see that greatly extending the number of plays a group could tolerate in a day.
Deep See Adventure is now my bust-out quick game for any audience, replacing Spot-It.
Based purely on buzz, both here and elsewhere, I may have to swap out Space Cadets (which never gets to the table) on my shelves with Captain Sonar.
1. Played with randos at a meetup, they were awful
2. Everyone told me I was mumbling as captain and couldn't understand me
3. Moron rando kept fucking up the rules
I think this is a game to buy and only ever run for or play with legit people.
People apparently have a LOT of trouble with NSEW. A common complaint is that they'll cover the compass rose rose with their hand, and thus NOT KNOW WHAT WAY THEY'RE GOING.
I weep.
I agree that with Klask not folding up at all, it's a hard sell. Even with a nice 4BR house, I couldn't fit it. I already have a ton of stuff, and I like to keep my place neat, not cluttered. If I kept a copy, it'd wind up living in my garage.
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2016/9/9/a-new-path-forward/
The most interesting part is this: This proves that this wasn't something they knew about that far in advance, otherwise they wouldn't have even taken orders for or designed those kits in the first place.
It's a good thing I ordered a copy of Forbidden Stars a couple days ago. As availability decreases, I expect the price to get ridiculous like it did with the old FFG/Blizzard games like WoW and StarCraft.
I didn't really get to play any of the games that are new to the forum, but lots that were new to me:
Deep Sea Adventure is real fun, but definitely seems like it's designed for three players and not five.
Quartermaster General doesn't do enough to mitigate starting luck: the apparently high cost for not drawing a basic card on first turn nearly had me throw the game. (sorry Scott)
I really like the prop mechanics in Ca$h n' Guns: I think my friend group would really get a kick out of it.
Rhino Hero is exciting for the exact reasons that Jenga is exciting, but is pretty much a first-player-wins-guaranteed game.
I got so lucky in Amel Up.
Forbidden Stars will be the most difficult to repackage, Star Wars already has a grand strategic game, and they also have Twilight Imperium.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/loneshark/thornwatch?ref=thanks_tweet
I like Lords of Waterdeep, but I'm not Kickstarting any boardgames anytime soon.
One day... 7 Wonders... iOS.
I don't see the point of me kickstarting it. If it turns out to be worthwhile, I can pick it up later.