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GeekNights Tuesday - Hanabi

MrPeriodMrPeriod
edited July 2013 in GeekNights

Tonight on GeekNights, we reveiew the delightful Hanabi from Antoine Bauza, itself having just been awarded the Spiel des Jahres for 2013! It's a co-op, information sharing game that avoids all of the problems of games like Pandemic or Shadows over Camelot. We also briefly review the extremely disappointing and woefully uninspired Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?! and realize that Civilization V: Brave New World will destroy our lives.

We're going to be on a minor hiatus until we're back from ConnectiCon and PAX Australia, so be sure to check out our videos, twitters (@apreche, @schezar, @geeknights), and various assorted Internets while we're gone! And, if you're in Melbourne, let us know and come say hi!

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  • DromaroDromaro
    File linked to in Download MP3 link is reading corrupted. Anyone else?
  • RymRym
    No problem here. Just downloaded it from the site. Same mp3 I uploaded. Plays fine. ;^)
  • DromaroDromaro
    Odd. I did update my video card driver today but I don't see how that would effect it. I'll look into it.
  • RochelleRochelle
    I know that I'm not the only one who first thought "He gon brow up!"
  • chaosof99chaosof99
    I know that I'm not the only one who first thought "He gon brow up!"
    No, you weren't.
  • RochelleRochelle
    I'm so tempted to listen to that episode again tomorrow and just laugh hysterically.
  • Linkigi(Link-ee-jee)Linkigi(Link-ee-jee)
    edited July 2013
    I know that I'm not the only one who first thought "He gon brow up!"
    Only because you saw the episode posting before I did. I am greatly disappointed by this not being about Fast Karate.
    Also, if you can find their Parsec Award submission, it's pretty great - if only because it's eight concentrated minutes of just the best clips from that episode.
    Post edited by Linkigi(Link-ee-jee) on
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    I thought it was the film about the cop.
  • MattMatt
    edited July 2013
    You guys are pretty spot on w/ your analysis of Hanabi. My group picked it up quickly and came to most of the same strategy conclusions. Lots of strategic "I'm telling you this with the hope that you will then look at what information you know I know, and infer why I am giving you this specific information" and then praying that the person is smart enough to unravel all those embedded clues. Brilliant little game. We played a few times and got 18 or 19 every time, I suspect b/c the other players weren't tracking the discard pile so closely. Also, we weren't getting a time token back when we played a 5. Must have missed that in the rules.

    The only bit of strategy that I disagree with is Rym's philosophy on discarding new cards. If the other players had several turns to tell me one of my older cards was valuable, but have said nothing, I would rather assume the older card is junk. There is a lot going on in one turn of Hanabi, and w/ only 1 action per player and a limited number of time tokens, you won't always get info about a potentially valuable fresh draw the first time around the table.
    Post edited by Matt on
  • NisslNissl
    edited July 2013
    I'll be interested to see what you all think of the updated Civ V. I played it at launch, and like Rym said the computer was ridiculously easy to beat in open field combat. It had really bad unit balance issues as well (mounted vs. city being way too good is the one I remember, but there were many others.) And yeah it did seem to railroad you towards conquest because of the way the different systems interacted. I recall thinking it was a bad design decision to make owning a lot of cities shift from being expensive but with various ofsetting benefits in Civ IV to being a cash flow with the only offset needing to find enough unique goods to keep people happy.

    Regarding Adventure Time, am I going to be jumped on for suggesting using a Metacritic screen on things? Sometimes I might rate things lower or higher, but very rarely have I found stuff that's well into the yellow tier to be worthwhile. This is particularly true if whatever it is isn't notably controversial. Maybe the sequel will be worth checking out if everyone hypes it again and it actually gets a high score?

    Hanabi sounds interesting but card counting isn't my favorite game mechanic. My current circle of gaming friends also sucks at hiding their reactions, which could be a real problem.
    Post edited by Nissl on
  • Luke BurrageLuke Burrage
    None of the shops I checked in today had Hanabi in stock.
  • XefasXefas
    I'll be interested to see what you all think of the updated Civ V. I played it at launch, and like Rym said the computer was ridiculously easy to beat in open field combat. It had really bad unit balance issues as well (mounted vs. city being way too good is the one I remember, but there were many others.)
    IIRC, Gods and Kings did a whole lot of unit rebalancing, including making mounted units complete rubbish at attacking cities, but more effective at running down exposed siege equipment and ranged units, and making siege units much less effective at shooting units, and more effective at shooting cities.

    The AI has been improved since release, but it's still nowhere near difficult to outsmart them. If you want intense tactical combat, you'll either need to crank the difficulty way up, to where your ~8 guys are forced to take down the ~20 guys the AI builds in the same span of time, or play a human being.
  • Luke BurrageLuke Burrage
    None of the shops I checked in today had Hanabi in stock.
    I wonder why I even bother checking in real shops and not ordering from Amazon right away. The game will be here for Monday, in time for our summer trip away. This game should get plenty of play at the European Juggling Convention.
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    I played this game at PAX AUS; it was for me one of the most intriguing games there. It's the kind of game that calls out to me to straight-up solve (i.e. with accompanying mathematical proof).

    Mafia/Werewolf is another one, as I mentioned to Rym - the underlying game theory is less trivial than he suspects.
  • StarfoxStarfox
    Is it huh-NOB-ee or HA-na-bee?
  • MattMatt
    hah-nah-bee with no accent on any one syllable more than the rest.
  • sK0pesK0pe
    edited July 2013
    I got to play it at PAX Aus for the first time as well.
    It is deceptively simplistic and utterly intriguing. Everyone in the group can mess up or just one person can mess up.

    Non verbal communication combined with the specific player who is receiving that information's interpretation is so important. Combine this with a 3rd person who is seeing this unfold, the position of the person receiving that information and if this is an indirect communication for them to perform an action for a successful plan - well it provides a huge range of complexity and the feeling of group success when a plan works.

    Sometimes it can be excruciating when a player keeps forgetting information about their hand though.

    It's great fun anyhow, I strongly suggest you try it.

    It's only $12.60 AUD for Australian forum users.

    Edit - it's on backorder
    Post edited by sK0pe on
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    edited July 2013
    Combine this with a 3rd person who is seeing this unfold
    Or a 4th person seeing the 3rd person seeing it unfold.

    At this point, if you've heard of it, the Blue Eyes logic puzzle should seem familiar.

    I suspect Scrym have gotten perhaps too good at abstracting away various aspects of games, which, while it probably lets them play near-optimally in quite a lot of games with relative ease, would sometimes cause them to miss pockets of complexity.

    That said, considering how badly I understand my own brain, it's rather a stretch to speculate on someone else's.
    Sometimes it can be excruciating when a player keeps forgetting information about their hand though.
    Yeah. Did I do any of that that you noticed? I have to admit, I felt some schadenfreude when Scott fucked up, after he kept telling me I would at the start.
    Post edited by lackofcheese on
  • sK0pesK0pe
    edited July 2013
    Yeah. Did I do any of that that you noticed? I have to admit, I felt some schadenfreude when Scott fucked up, after he kept telling me I would at the start.
    I think we all messed up individually at points. The frustration I'm referring to was that guy (sorry guy if you read this but don't take it too harshly) that brought the Tim Tams and Shapes, he forgot about his hand 2 or 3 times in a row and I felt like I needed to nurse the guy instructions on what to do, wasting timers.
    Post edited by sK0pe on
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    edited July 2013
    Yeah, that was kinda unfortunate.
    Post edited by lackofcheese on
  • Casa VinoCasa Vino
    edited July 2013
    I got to play it at PAX Aus for the first time as well.
    It's only $12.60 AUD for Australian forum users.
    Edit - it's on backorder
    This is relevant to my interests.
    Post edited by Casa Vino on
  • Luke BurrageLuke Burrage
    Home from vacation and Hanabi is waiting. I'll see if we can get a game going tonight.
  • Luke BurrageLuke Burrage
    Hanabi is really good! I thought we'd play it once, but then played 4 games in a row, taking well over 2 hours. Our scores were 16, 18, 17 and 18. I'm sure there's something really important we're doing wrong early in the game to fuck us up for the rest of it... but how fucked up we all got is mighty entertaining!
  • DromaroDromaro
    I finally played Hanabi with 4 people I'd never met before in my life. We played twice and scored a 15 and an 18. One of the people was stone cold stupid. One was smart and the other 2 were average, I'd say. I feel like with intelligent people, I could get above 20 easily. I want to play it s'more!

    One aspect I find very appealing is that I feel no desire to discuss the game at all. It's a game where you should just sit down, make sure everyone knows the rules, and then play. Discussing logic at all is to invite whiffs of a "convention" and thus robbing yourself of the experience, in a way.
  • sK0pesK0pe
    Of the games I played, the best are where there is no conversation other than the verbal turn taking to exchange information, I love that everything is reading body language, facial expression, vocal tone and the relevance of the information being recieved plus how that particular person will respond to it.

    I don't think I could classify people as stupid but each person is to be managed differently based on how they respond especially if it is the first few times they are playing. I think in some regards, the better you know the people you play with, the better your score becomes.
  • KoeniouKoeniou
    I played this at PAX Australia and I'm still waiting to receive my copy in the mail. I found the game very difficult, as I have short term memory issues. I think once I play it a few more times and work out my own system for holding cards rather than purely relying on my memory of what information people have told me I'll find it much more enjoyable. I spent the whole time playing thinking to myself "don't fuck it up and ruin everyone else's experience". Still enjoyed the hell out of it though. Its going to be a hard sell to my regular gaming group, but once they actually play it they'll probably get really into it.

    Also, fuck Pandemic.
  • IkatonoIkatono
    edited August 2013
    Also, fuck Pandemic.
    Post edited by Ikatono on
  • CremlianCremlian
    wow apparently my first game of it went pretty well with 19. :-p
  • ColdguyColdguy
    Also, fuck Pandemic.
  • pencepence
    Also, fuck Pandemic.
    So I should bring Pandemic tonight, right?
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