OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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hepcat
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

I love me some V-Sabotage, so I’m interested in Assassin’s Creed. Keep us informed.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by AWS260 »

This weekend, I played Alchemists for the first time in three years. I still really love the mix of deduction and publishing and the clever player order / worker placement system.

It was a two-player game, and while my wife focused on testing ingredients to learn their true properties, I published a large number of very speculative papers. Thankfully, I hedged my guesses so that I didn't lose too many points when my theories were debunked, and I ended up eking out the win.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Fardaza »

It took me about 17 sessions, but I finally finished Sword & Sorcery: Ancient Chronicles! With Act 1 (the base game) now out of the way, I had to move on for a bit before I eventually come back for the Northwind Tales expansion.

The choice was between Sleeping Gods and Roll Player Adventures.

I decided to break out Sleeping Gods with Tides of Ruin and Dungeons expansions included from the start. I understand that I probably won't see any of the ToR or Dungeons stuff until my second or even third campaign. That's okay. My wife is still out of the country for another 5 weeks. I should still have enough time to get through much of it. And then there's still RPA when I'm ready for that.

Too many good games.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by YellowKing »

hepcat wrote:I love me some V-Sabotage, so I’m interested in Assassin’s Creed. Keep us informed.
I'm not far into the campaign because I've been tied up with other things, but I've played enough to be comfortable with the ruleset (so far). I've never played V-Sabotage, so it's difficult for me to make a valid comparison. However, I did read through the rulebook of V-Sabotage just to discover where the differences were.

The "visible" status in V-Sabotage is known as "exposed" in AC, and largely works the same (reveal checks when entering a tile with an enemy, etc.). However, AC has an additional mechanic in which guards can see your last known location. This is accomplished by putting a red ring on your miniature base when you're exposed. When you move while exposed into a tile with no enemies, you leave the ring behind. During the enemy movement step, enemies will move towards this last known location. Makes for some neat strategic moments where you can lure enemies out of the way.

While most of the other base rules are the same or very similar, AC also incorporates some elements from the video game. For instance, on tiles with towers, you can climb them and perform an action to synchronize. This may reveal new tiles, hidden chests, etc. There are also hiding spots (such as hay carts) on some tiles, that can be used to go incognito and remove your exposed status. And of course you're using things from the video game like throwing knives, hidden blades, smoke bombs, etc. vs modern weapons.

AC is also VERY heavily campaign based, as I mentioned initially. It's very scripted in how you slowly unlock items, event cards, secrets, characters, etc. It's a complete story that has you taking your assassin from lowly apprentice to total badass, so you are tracking XP, achievements, etc. Characters that are wounded in a mission don't instantly regen health - you may have to spend time at your HQ resting up, and each scenario only allows two failures before you're forced to move on win or lose. YMMV on whether that kind of "on rails" experience appeals to you or not.

Having never played a stealth board game before, I have found the game to be extremely challenging. My instinct is to go slow and steady like a dungeon crawl, when sometimes the game calls for you to be quick in and out due to the enemy spawn timer. On the other hand, I also tend to take unnecessary chances, relying too much on the luck of the detection roll. However, setting off an alarm early can be utterly disastrous, and I've failed some missions because I simply got impatient. There are events and items to help mitigate reveal rolls, and sometimes you just have to wait for those to come around. I'm still getting a feel for that balance, and it's possible I may restart the campaign once that clicks.

At any rate, it's great fun. I like the problem solving of how to best mitigate the constant risk, and trying to figure out how to extricate yourself from a situation when things inevitably go sideways.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

I remember the Triton folks talking about adding the "last known position" mechanic to a future edition of V-Sabotage, if they ever make one. It sounds like a great mechanic.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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I recently played La Cosa Nostra, a tableau-building card game about mafia families at war. It has occasional elements of cooperation, but mainly it's hilariously confrontational. I came in last in our game, after being subject to a relentless series of thefts by the other families. The player who ended up in second place would have won, but I used my last action in the game to take revenge for an earlier slight, burning down his profitable underground casino.

It's an absolutely in-your-face mean game, but it allows space for negotiations that really bring the game to life. You don't just send out a gangster to make trouble for another player, you extort that player for money or a favor in exchange for pointing your gangster at someone else. Fun and funny, but definitely not for everyone.

The art is essentially knock-off Grand Theft Auto. It's not bad by any means, but it's deliberately and obviously the same cartoon style. It also leans heavily on some stereotypes. Every named character is an Italian American lifted almost directly from The Sopranos. Women are almost invisible unless it's a pair of legs in the foreground of the "night club" card or cleavage on the "pimp" card. Only one African American is depicted, and of course they're on the "drug dealer" card.

Overall, La Cosa Nostra can be a mixed bag, but the core gameplay is strong if you have the appetite for that level of aggression.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by YellowKing »

The solo thread will probably be full of Hoplomachus: Victorum impressions soon, but I can go ahead and give some impressions of Hoplomachus: Remastered. I went in on this in addition to Victorum specifically to play the co-op mode with a buddy of mine who loves tactical combat games, and we were not disappointed.

Typical great Chip Theory production values, though I did have one chip come in with a defect on both sides that looks like the paint chipped. Not the end of the world, but since it makes a chip easily identifiable that should be able to be randomized, I put a ticket in for a replacement.

Hoplomachus: Remastered is a bit of a remix of all the previous Hoplo games with streamlined rules, improved artwork and production values, and factions from all the expansions all in one box.

Two of the big rule changes are around how crowd favor works. It's much more deliberate now vs something nice you get as a by-product of playing. It adds some strategy around when to go for favor and when to focus on other things, which adds another layer of decision-making. The other big rule change is that they added an Ability phase to remove ambiguity about when certain things trigger.

I played both co-op modes tonight, Onslaught and Ascension.

Onslaught is the more meaty of the two options. You're faced with 6 waves of enemies, each led by an Immortal (boss). The boss cannot be harmed directly, but loses HP when you kill one of their minions or occupy a stone hex in the middle of the map. However, direct attacks against the boss do increase crowd favor which unlocks various rewards.

Units that die are not resurrected between waves, so you have to be extremely careful in order to survive the entire "campaign." (We died on Wave 3). There are ways to earn dead units back through crowd favor, but be prepared for a real challenge. The bosses all play very differently and come out in a random order, so you really have to be prepared for anything. We had a blast with this mode, but it does make for a lengthy game.

Ascension is a much quicker option if you're shorter on time. In this mode, you're fighting one of 6 Titans, bosses who again all play very differently. Unlike the Immortals in Onslaught mode, however, their AI flowchart is a bit more complex and not all of them utilize Arena minions. In this mode you may be tasked with doing other things like destroying shards to make the boss vulnerable to damage. This one can play very quickly once you get into the flow, and feels like a true boss battler.

It's hard to say which mode I like better; they're both a blast, and play so differently from each other that both have value. To me Onslaught feels the most like classic Hoplomachus, though expanded out to a lengthy series. I'm predicting people will quickly come up with ways to scale it so that you can shorten the number of waves - personally I'd love to see maybe a 3-wave version that would provide the strategic depth of the mode without the longer time commitment.

Whichever mode you prefer, this edition really just showcases what a great game this is. I was a little nervous about grabbing this when I knew I'd be spending the bulk of my time solo with Victorum, but now I'm glad I took the plunge. This is a great game for the occasional 2-player nights I find myself hosting, and I can even see breaking it out solo just for the fun of playing on a larger map and different game modes.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

And BAM, my copy of Victorum just arrived. Whoo hoo!
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Skinypupy »

I popped into my local store to pick up a last minute "family game" Christmas gift. I came home with Skyrim: The Adventure Game. I am weak, and couldn't resist when I saw it there on the shelf. :oops:

A few quick thoughts after the tutorial and first chapter.

Good
- They really nailed the theme. The artwork, the board (even though it's freaking huuuuuge), the player mats, the gear, the quest markers...everything fits Skyrim perfectly. Playing it with the game soundtrack playing in the background was awesome.
- The combat and questing are very simple. You have a couple attacks to choose from, enemies have a couple types of armor, roll some dice, subtract armor value, do damage. The numbers get bigger, but there's not a whole lot more strategy to it than that. You can sneak for an free 2X attack at the start, or enemies might ambush you, but it doesn't seem to get much more complex. This is a plus for me, but ymmv.
- The quests vary between scripted and those which evolve organically and from random card draws. I thought this was pretty cool. One questline I picked up from a villager had me chasing a fugitive back and forth to multiple locations. I was doing this at the same time as the Main Quest, and it forced some interesting decisions on where to focus my efforts.

The Not So Good
- The rulebook is a farking disaster. It's disjointed, it digs into the weeds of very technical rules before even introducing the basic systems it supports, it's difficult to find where things are (some of the rules are in the rulebook, some are in the chapter guide, still others are in the separate tutorial book), there's multiple misprints in the tutorial guide on which page to find the detailed rules in the rulebook, it doesn’t tell you what parts of the card anatomy are, etc. It's just an absolute mess overall. I was able to muddle my way through it eventually, but it took most of this afternoon. Most games I can at least get a general sense of how the game flows after reading the rules, but I honestly had no idea on this one. Had to watch a bit of a playthrough to figure it out.
- You're paying a lot for the IP here, not the game components. The basic quality of everything is fine, but for $130 I would expect more than 6 minis and a bunch of cards. I have games that cost $30-50 less that come with trays and trays of minis and glossy printed tiles, bits, and bobs. The components you get here are really basic and very underwhelming for how much it costs. Especially when they sell the "Upgrade Kit" which includes the (rather bland) minis...for another $90. :roll:
- Some of the setup and quests can be a bit confusing. For example, the setup in the Rules book tells you to start with card 209 to begin the quest. But in the Tutorial book, it tells you that you get that card at the end of the first turn. I got to the end of the first turn and thought I was doing something wrong because I didn't know where the heck I was supposed to get that particular card from. Another quest had me gathering my party in a specific town to complete it, but it didn't specify how to do that when playing solo. I was left digging through card decks to try and figure out how/when I was supposed to pull the card that triggered the final quest step (turns out I missed the line in the setup that said I needed to remove a few cards before starting when playing solo). There's some really easy things to miss that can end up making the game very confusing.
- Most of the writing for the quests is very basic. A couple lines and that's it. Middara, this aint.

If you have $$ to burn and are a big Skyrim fan to begin with, I’d give this a recommendation. It's true to the game, the questing and combat is enjoyable, leveling and getting more powerful is satisfying, and it is quite fun to play. That said, I can absolutely see how some might be underwhelmed at what they get for the price.

I'm giving Chapter 1 a go with a couple other characters tomorrow (played with a Nord 2-handed fighter tonight), will let you know how that goes.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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Skinypupy wrote: Fri Dec 23, 2022 2:19 am - You're paying a lot for the IP here, not the game components.
Also: Modiphius. They'll sell you dollars, two bucks each.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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Blackhawk wrote: Fri Dec 23, 2022 3:06 am
Skinypupy wrote: Fri Dec 23, 2022 2:19 am - You're paying a lot for the IP here, not the game components.
Also: Modiphius. They'll sell you dollars, two bucks each.
I’d never heard of them before, but certainly agree with that take. I just saw that the expansions for this game are going for $80 each as well. That’s absurd. Live and learn, I guess.

Two other things I forgot to mention last night. The way the game is structured, you're kinda locked into a specific playstyle depending on the race you choose. Each race has abilities that are specific bonuses to them. Nord gets bonuses for Two-Handed weapons and Smithing and a Battle Cry that gives extra 2-handed attack, Khajiit gets bonuses to Sneak and Pickpocketing and Night Vision that gives extra Sneak, etc. if you build your character using a character archetype that goes against those skills (i.e. a stealthy Nord thief or a Khajiit warrior), then you simply lose out on all the bonuses. So you really have to stick to what's already on the card in order to have much success. Not crazy about that.

The game is also really bad at telling you what to do between chapters. Do I carry over my level or reset it? Do all my skills carry over? Do I reset the monster decks? Do roaming monsters stay out or go away? Do I keep my enhancements and upgrades? Do I keep my horse if I bought one? Do the events I discarded go back in the deck or do I remove them? What about the Wilderness or Town events? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

So I have a gift card for gamenerdz and I was eyeing Skyrim. How’s the replayability look? Have you ever played the Fallout board game from FFG? I’ve heard this is similar in some ways.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Blackhawk »

That was the first thing that I thought of when I read the description above.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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hepcat wrote: Fri Dec 23, 2022 2:26 pm So I have a gift card for gamenerdz and I was eyeing Skyrim. How’s the replayability look? Have you ever played the Fallout board game from FFG? I’ve heard this is similar in some ways.
I haven’t played Fallout.

Seems like the replay ability would be good, as the side quests are all randomized. I’ll play a couple more this weekend and report back.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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I think you’d like the fallout board game. But it really works best with the California expansion.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Smoove_B »

FYI, Rolling Solo just posted (an hour ago) an overview and game play example for Skyrim:

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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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Thanks. I may just wait a bit before spending that gift card as I have enough adventure games for now.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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hepcat wrote: Fri Dec 23, 2022 7:49 pm I think you’d like the fallout board game. But it really works best with the California expansion.
I’ve never liked the Fallout IP. Post-apocalyptic has never been my thing.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

I never thought I’d enjoy that IP in a board game either, but it’s really good and I love it in spite of the theme. It’s the same thing with middara. Absolutely loathe the anime theme, but the game is so good i just grit my teeth and tell myself I’m not a pervert.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Isgrimnur »

hepcat wrote: Fri Dec 23, 2022 8:53 pm It’s the same thing with middara. Absolutely loathe the anime theme, but the game is so good i just grit my teeth and tell myself I’m not a pervert.
Spoiler:
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

Isgrimnur wrote: Fri Dec 23, 2022 9:20 pm
hepcat wrote: Fri Dec 23, 2022 8:53 pm It’s the same thing with middara. Absolutely loathe the anime theme, but the game is so good i just grit my teeth and tell myself I’m not a pervert.
Spoiler:
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Spoiler:
…sorry, I’m just always on the lookout for a chance to post Craig Robinson stuff.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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:lol: Friggin love Craig Robinson.

…but we digest.

..

….digress
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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hepcat wrote: Fri Dec 23, 2022 7:49 pm I think you’d like the fallout board game. But it really works best with the California expansion.
I'd also suggest Atomic Bonds. It works much better cooperatively than competitively.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

Blackhawk wrote: Fri Dec 23, 2022 10:14 pm
hepcat wrote: Fri Dec 23, 2022 7:49 pm I think you’d like the fallout board game. But it really works best with the California expansion.
I'd also suggest Atomic Bonds. It works much better cooperatively than competitively.
Oh yeah, I forgot about that one. It’s probably even more important than the other expansion.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Skinypupy »

Played through the first two chapters (out of 6) in Skyrim again tonight, and found myself just as engaged as I get in the video game. Took me just over 4 hours, and the time absolutely just flew by.

Tried a different character (Orc brute this time) and now that I know the rules a little better, things went much more smoothly. Just like the game, the main quest will almost always be the same no matter what (with some slight variations if you happen to fail a quest). However, the side quests are completely different with each playthrough. I did multiple multi-step quests tonight, ranging from sneaking into a temple to make a donation to Mara, to clearing out a Whiterun Thieves Guild chapter, to stealing a Jarl's prized horse (which gave me a +2 to movement...huge!). All those quests were in addition to taking out roaming monsters, fighting Daedra and Undead through dungeons, and generally becoming a bigger and better badass. My primary weapon is a 2-handed Orcish Greatsword, but I have also mixed in some healing spells and can even plunk from a distance with a longbow. Gotta be honest, it was really pretty awesome.

I do think this game is likely going to be far too simple and maybe far to easy for many folks' tastes. I haven't died or failed a main quest via threat tokens yet, but came really close a few times. Once you get how combat works, it becomes quite easy to manage. I like that there's not a bazillion things I have to track with every encounter, and I can get through them with minimal fuss (even when some things kick my arse). The Chapter transitions aren't nearly as confusing as I originally thought, as basically everything stays in place except for a few cards that the game has you remove or shuffle around.

One thing to be aware of is to make sure you pay very close attention when the game tells you to remove cards from the game. If the game tells you to draw a card and it's not in the deck (because it's been removed), then you go to the next card in sequential order. For example, if it tells you to draw 102 but that one's gone, then you draw 103. If 103 is gone, then you draw 104, etc. It's structured in a way where multiple cards are often removed at once, which will then default you to the next one you need to progress the mission. If you miss the instructions to remove one of them, you'll end up really confused...which is what happened to me last night.

All in all, much better second impressions than first impressions. I do still think it's overpriced for what it is, but it's certainly a fun game if you're a Skyrim fan.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by AWS260 »

Some good family gaming this holiday weekend.

I died my way to a close victory in Village.

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My better half absolutely crushed me at Trickerion.

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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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I just finished my 2nd campaign playthrough in Sleeping Gods. This game went much smoother than the first time! I really enjoyed it.

It's time to move to something else for a bit though. So, here comes Roll Player Adventures. I got everything sleeved and set up this evening. I'll begin the adventure tomorrow!
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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Fardaza wrote: Mon Dec 26, 2022 11:38 pm I just finished my 2nd campaign playthrough in Sleeping Gods. This game went much smoother than the first time! I really enjoyed it.

It's time to move to something else for a bit though. So, here comes Roll Player Adventures. I got everything sleeved and set up this evening. I'll begin the adventure tomorrow!

Did your second playthrough of Sleeping Gods include a lot of overlap from the first campaign? I played (and enjoyed) the game when it first came out, but worry I'd run into too many scenarios I'd already experienced. I've been letting it "sleep" for a time, hoping with distance the repeated material won't bother me when I dig it back out.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by YellowKing »

In "games you'd find at Target" news:

Played several games of HUES & CUES, a game my daughter got for Christmas. She's really into art and color so it was the first board game in ages that has actually appealed to her.

It's pretty simple. The game board is a vast pallette of colors. Players take turns being the clue giver, drawing a card with one of four color samples, choosing one in secret, then giving a one-word clue as to what it is. The other players place their pawn on the color they think it is. Then the clue giver gives a second two-word clue to help people narrow it down, and all players place a second pawn. Obviously you can't use actual color names in the clue.

Then a 3x3 scoring grid is placed over the target color, and pawns score points based on how close they were to the target. The clue giver scores based on how many pawns were inside the scoring grid, so it's in the clue giver's best interest to give really good clues.

My big problem with the game is that the pallette is very heavy in shades of base colors like green, blue, etc. and has far fewer in browns, orange, etc. So if you want the best chance of scoring, it's better to just pick the "rarer" shades as your target. So we found people just gravitating to the same color shades over and over.

The other problem is that unless you're super creative, we tended to just use the same clues over and over. Rich green? That's "Kermit." Carolina blue? "Carolina." And with so many possible shades and only one-world clues, it sort of feels like a random guessing game with whoever gets the luckiest eventually being the winner. I could say "rust" and there are 20 different shades of a coppery brown to choose from. So whoever just happens to guess the closest wins. Yay.

At any rate, my daughter enjoyed it so that's the important thing.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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YellowKing wrote: Tue Dec 27, 2022 2:10 pm In "games you'd find at Target" news:

Played several games of HUES & CUES, a game my daughter got for Christmas. She's really into art and color so it was the first board game in ages that has actually appealed to her.

It's pretty simple. The game board is a vast pallette of colors. Players take turns being the clue giver, drawing a card with one of four color samples, choosing one in secret, then giving a one-word clue as to what it is. The other players place their pawn on the color they think it is. Then the clue giver gives a second two-word clue to help people narrow it down, and all players place a second pawn. Obviously you can't use actual color names in the clue.

Then a 3x3 scoring grid is placed over the target color, and pawns score points based on how close they were to the target. The clue giver scores based on how many pawns were inside the scoring grid, so it's in the clue giver's best interest to give really good clues.

My big problem with the game is that the pallette is very heavy in shades of base colors like green, blue, etc. and has far fewer in browns, orange, etc. So if you want the best chance of scoring, it's better to just pick the "rarer" shades as your target. So we found people just gravitating to the same color shades over and over.

The other problem is that unless you're super creative, we tended to just use the same clues over and over. Rich green? That's "Kermit." Carolina blue? "Carolina." And with so many possible shades and only one-world clues, it sort of feels like a random guessing game with whoever gets the luckiest eventually being the winner. I could say "rust" and there are 20 different shades of a coppery brown to choose from. So whoever just happens to guess the closest wins. Yay.

At any rate, my daughter enjoyed it so that's the important thing.
So games Color Blind people should not play?
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baelthazar
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by baelthazar »

We've been gaming quite a bit since Christmas.

First up, we played Flamecraft, an unbelievably cute game about building a town and hiring dragon artisans to run them. The dragons look like something between a fairy, a dragon, and a cat. It is all so adorable. The game itself is a mid-weight worker placement. At first I was a little chagrined that the different dragons within each color (red, white, green, purple, yellow) didn't have slightly different powers, but as we played I was thankful since it was one less thing to worry about. The six year old is extremely good at learning games, so she picked it up fairly well. It plays a little similar to Archravels a game about knitting but really about worker placement and set collection. We very much liked it as a mid-weight game.

We also played some New York Zoo which is a polynomial placement game by Uwe that borrows a little from Ark Nova's aesthetic. It is very simple but fun.

Lastly, the kiddo is deeply into Pokemon, so we are learning the Pokemon card game. After decades of playing Magic the Gathering, it was simple to pick up, but all the card playing feels like cheating within mana. We are having a blast!

Next up will be Villainous.
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YellowKing
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by YellowKing »

RMC wrote:So games Color Blind people should not play?
Absolutely!

We have a red/green color blind guy in our group, and it's made me far more sensitive to games that don't include symbols or contrast options for color blind gamers. Obviously that's not an option in this game which is based specifically on color, but it's surprising how many titles out there don't even make an attempt when it's so prevalent (estimated 1 in 12 males).

On the flip side, I'm always impressed when games do take it into consideration. For example, in Hoplomachus: Victorum the dice colors indicate the probability of a hit. But in a subtle design choice, the borders on each face of the die also reflect the number of sides which have a hit icon. It's really a genius little addition.
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hentzau
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hentzau »

AWS260 wrote:Some good family gaming this holiday weekend.

I died my way to a close victory in Village.

Image

My better half absolutely crushed me at Trickerion.

Image
I love Village. I haven’t played it in years though.
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Fardaza
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Fardaza »

Fishbelly wrote: Tue Dec 27, 2022 11:53 am
Fardaza wrote: Mon Dec 26, 2022 11:38 pm I just finished my 2nd campaign playthrough in Sleeping Gods. This game went much smoother than the first time! I really enjoyed it.

It's time to move to something else for a bit though. So, here comes Roll Player Adventures. I got everything sleeved and set up this evening. I'll begin the adventure tomorrow!

Did your second playthrough of Sleeping Gods include a lot of overlap from the first campaign? I played (and enjoyed) the game when it first came out, but worry I'd run into too many scenarios I'd already experienced. I've been letting it "sleep" for a time, hoping with distance the repeated material won't bother me when I dig it back out.
I only found 3 totems in the first playthrough. I found 12 in the second, and only one of those was the same. My score went from 43 to 126 as I was figuring out better ways of doing things. There are still about 4 or 5 maps that I haven't even been to and a couple others that I barely explored. I do have the Tides of Ruin expansion where some of those unseen maps come from. I haven't even read the Dungeons expansion rulebook, let alone add those sites in.

I think there are 75 different totems. I've only found 14. There will be plenty of new stuff to explore when I go back to it!
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AWS260
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by AWS260 »

hentzau wrote: Wed Dec 28, 2022 11:25 am I love Village. I haven’t played it in years though.
I'm pretty sure that Village is my forever game. I always, always have a great time with it.
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TheMix
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by TheMix »

YellowKing wrote: Tue Dec 27, 2022 6:47 pm
RMC wrote:So games Color Blind people should not play?
Absolutely!

We have a red/green color blind guy in our group, and it's made me far more sensitive to games that don't include symbols or contrast options for color blind gamers. Obviously that's not an option in this game which is based specifically on color, but it's surprising how many titles out there don't even make an attempt when it's so prevalent (estimated 1 in 12 males).

On the flip side, I'm always impressed when games do take it into consideration. For example, in Hoplomachus: Victorum the dice colors indicate the probability of a hit. But in a subtle design choice, the borders on each face of the die also reflect the number of sides which have a hit icon. It's really a genius little addition.
Stay away from Dungeon Degenerates. I'm not color blind, yet still struggle with it. Pretty sure the makers do/did a LOT of hallucinogens. :shock: :D

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baelthazar
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by baelthazar »

TheMix wrote: Wed Dec 28, 2022 1:56 pm
Stay away from Dungeon Degenerates. I'm not color blind, yet still struggle with it. Pretty sure the makers do/did a LOT of hallucinogens. :shock: :D
I owned this for years and never played it. I kept hearing about how great it was. But every time I thought about playing it, the colors gave me a headache (along with the god awful funky smell of the game itself).
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TheMix
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by TheMix »

I've only played the beginning mission a few times, but I enjoyed it.

The colors though... yowza. And you have to keep track of both the "background" color of an area to figure out what region it's in, as well as the "border" color since that also tells you stuff.

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tylertoo
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by tylertoo »

I went into a Barnes and Noble earlier this week and they were selling new board games for 50% off. What I really wanted (Wingspan, Dune Imperium) were gone but I impetuously walked out with NIS half price copies of Lost Ruins of Arnak and Imperium Classics.

Now, I have a bit of remorse because a) neither game has ever really interested me - I chose them because they are well-reviewed and popular, not because I really wanted them; and b) backlog.

So... should I return them? I still can, I have the receipt. But such a bargain!
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