OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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

Post by baelthazar »

hepcat wrote: Mon Apr 26, 2021 9:51 am I'm looking forward to another game soon. If anyone is interested in playing it on TSS sometime with us, let me know. I'd be happy to teach it.
How long did it last? I am super interested, but find my schedule tends to be kinda kooky.

Grrrr.... this makes me want the game more. Do you feel the solo it worth it? I guess I can look past Neo-conservative BS.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

Our game lasted about 4 hours. But about 90 minutes of that was spent on rules teaching, then about an hour was spent on referring to/explaining rules and why I did what I did at certain times so that the other player could better understand the nuance of the game. Once you know the rules though, it can move very quickly.

The solo is fantastic as long as you realize it's not there to win itself, it's there to keep YOU from winning. And it does that with a long series of triggers that you check on its turn. If it sees you're ahead in something that could grab you a win, it will do the logical thing to keep you from getting the victory condition. If the deck runs out before you declare victory, it wins. So it's not perfect, but it's a hell of a lot better than I expected. It's been doing things like blocking me in the west from a regime change by creating theocracies that decimate the region (I simplify the results, but you get the gist).

If you're ever eager to learn the game, just let me know. I can even just give you a quick overview...which would still probably be a good hour at least. It's a heavy game.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Skinypupy »

Today has been the gaming equivalent of sad trombone.

I finally busted out two games from my shelf of shame that I've been meaning to get around to for a while. First up was Paladins of the West Kingdom. I spent about 2.5 hours reading through the manual twice (and still came away completely confused) then watching a playthrough. I got everything set up, and started fumbling my way through a solo game. About midway through (and about the 10th time I had to refer to the rulebook to try and piece together how the fuck the AI works), my brain pretty much said "Yeah...we hate this". Finished the game, packed it up, and back on the shelf it went. Would be surprised if it sees the table again. Seems like one that might be fun if you had someone who could help explain it while you're playing. Trying to figure it all out on your own? Not so much. Doesn't help that neither the theme, the artwork, or the general level of complexity really do much for me.

After that debacle, we broke out Tiny Epic Tactics, which the kids have been bugging me to play for a couple weeks. I picked it up mainly because Final Fantasy Tactics is one of my favorite games, and it compared favorably to that in a few reviews. Our experience in a word...meh. While it does share a few similarities, the overall gameplay isn't particularly compelling and quickly grew dull. While I haven't played it yet, the solo game doesn't seem like it will add much to the proceedings, as it has you shuffling through pre-built "dungeons" while also trying to fight off AI-controlled opponents.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Smoove_B »

Skinypupy wrote: Sun May 02, 2021 1:45 pm Seems like one that might be fun if you had someone who could help explain it while you're playing. Trying to figure it all out on your own? Not so much.
This is why I rely on Youtube so much. I can read manuals but I need to see it all in action to make the connections. Its pretty rare for me to just learn a game from reading anymore.

In the before times I would sit down with a buddy and we'd slowly go through everything in person to learn games; we just don't have that luxury anymore (and I don't think we will for a while, regardless of COVID).
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hentzau »

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

Post by Fardaza »

After moving across country, being disabled with an auto-immune disease, setting up a new office/gaming area, missing boxes, and other life stuff, I finally broke out Gloomhaven again!

It had been about 8 months, so I spent the better part of 3 hours just reviewing what my group of worthy adventurers had thus far accomplished. I also needed to refamiliarize myself with all the moving parts! I may eventually use Gloomhaven Helper, but I'm still one of those purists that insists on using what the devs game me.

I decided to play scenario #8 Gloomhaven Warehouse. In all my earlier sessions, I soloed 3 characters at the same time. I decided to try only 2 on my first foray back into the depths and really enjoyed it more. Less fiddly. My group of Brute and Tinkerer handily defeated the baddies. Back to town for some R & R.

Several tough sounding scenarios presented themselves, but we decided to tackle #27 Ruinous Rift. Brute and Mindthief tried it. Having never played the Mindthief before, it was tough. First lost scenario in 10 tries. However, the Brute reached his personal goal by
Spoiler:
killing a sun demon, the last of 6 demons
He then retired when we got back to town. This unlocked the 4 Triangles character, and we regrouped. I didn't want to attempt this tough scenario with another new character, so I chose to retry it with Cragheart and Tinkerer. What a great battle!! Unfortunately, we lost again. This time it was on the next to last move! :cry:
Spoiler:
Hail still had all 6 hit points. A frost demon gated in, walked over a poison trap, lined up a ranged +3 shot (WHAT?), added a +2 frost modifier, and fired. The scenario was to be won or lost on the monster attack deck modifier. (The last demon to act could not possibly attack her.) A +1 card was drawn. One 6-point shot took her down after 9.9 rounds! :grund: Major disappointment. I mean come on, how often does a frost demon draw the ranged attack card, get a +2 modifier from the last round, and get a +1 attack card too!
Major disappointment. Not sure if I'll replay the scenario a 3rd time with a duo or try with a trio or even a quartet. I may also just simply reduce the level and try again with this duo since they were so close. The first attempt with the Brute and Mindthief ended on only turn 7 of 10.

But all in all, it was a fun weekend. Getting to retire my first character and looking through the new one's cards was exciting. Sleeving all the cards took a long time, but I was happy and considered it part of the enjoyment. I'm not the kind of gamer that needs to rush through everything. I like to stop and smell the cardboard. :D
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by coopasonic »

I got to play Flamme Rouge this weekend. It was only my third play and the first with hills. I like the hills. I also totally misplayed the hills. My 11yo lucked into the right strategy (in my oh so very humble opinion) and though I was able to come back, he won by one space. I had a 50% chance of getting the card I needed in the final shuffle and fate was not on my side. I want to play it more with more people but the rest of the family doesn't feel the same.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Malificent »

Wife and I just finished our first campaign of Sleeping Gods. It was a blast and we're looking forward to starting another campaign. We're just getting to the point where we:
  • Have a hold of combat. It's taken us a while to get the hang of properly using synergy tokens and figuring out when to focus on breaking damage slots/end of round abilities instead of trying to kill a monster out right.
  • Really grasp the challenge mechanism. It was an adjustment to get comfortable with the idea that sometimes it was okay to suffer the failure mechanism because we'd get the result of the choice anyway. We spent way too much fatigue early on desperately trying to succeed at every roll and ignoring choices we thought we would fail.Balancing out fatigue vs character damage vs status token vs ship damage is a really fun mechanism.
  • Learned how to take notes. We didn't take many at first, then we started taking notes on all keyword locations. Towards the end, we realized we also really needed to mark where we got certain quests so that we could go back and get them again in another campaign if we failed to do them the first time around.
We scored a 95 on our first session - I have no idea whether that's good. I do know I need to find a better way to organize quests - I had a sloppy pile of keywords that I spent more time than probably necessary searching every time we explored.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by AWS260 »

I had a fun evening with my local game group last night. We played a mini-tournament of Trick Shot, a tactical ice hockey game with some of the most charming miniatures I've ever seen. It's fast and fun, with a lot of push-your-luck dice-rolling.

Then we closed the night with a couple games of Regicide, a short co-op game played with a regular deck of cards. It's really clever: you fight through a pile jacks, queens, and kings, using the other cards as your weapons. Cards inflict damage based on their value, and give another bonus based on suit. Clubs do double damage, spades protect you from taking damage, diamonds let you draw new cards, and hearts shuffle the discard pile back into the draw deck. I'd never heard of the game before, and I was incredibly impressed.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by AWS260 »

Tonight confirmed that Star Wars: Rebellion remains one of my favorite games of all time.

We had a fantastic time. Jan Dodonna found Yoda on Dagobah and became the galaxy's least likely padawan. General Rieekan was captured and turned to the dark side. And the rebels managed to move the rebel base right out from under the Death Star's nose to avoid defeat.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by RMC »

AWS260 wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 12:26 am Tonight confirmed that Star Wars: Rebellion remains one of my favorite games of all time.

We had a fantastic time. Jan Dodonna found Yoda on Dagobah and became the galaxy's least likely padawan. General Rieekan was captured and turned to the dark side. And the rebels managed to move the rebel base right out from under the Death Star's nose to avoid defeat.
I have to get my child into this one, I even have the expansion and have never played it. Do you play with the expansion or without?
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Zarathud »

With the expansion. It makes combat better.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by AWS260 »

Yes, we've had the expansion for a year or two now and always use it. Although I don't think you need to get it right away - we enjoyed the game plenty before we had it.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by RMC »

AWS260 wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 5:41 pm Yes, we've had the expansion for a year or two now and always use it. Although I don't think you need to get it right away - we enjoyed the game plenty before we had it.
I have the expansion, just never played with it. :)
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Skinypupy »

Lots and lots of Middara last weekend for me. It has made a fantastic first impression (will post more thoughts in the solo thread later today), and I can't wait to keep going with the campaign.
AWS260 wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 12:26 am Tonight confirmed that Star Wars: Rebellion remains one of my favorite games of all time.
This has been on my Shelf of Shame since Christmas. No one in my house would be interested in a complex 2-3 hour Star Wars board game, and I can't really wrap my head around the solo mode (even though I've read through the rules about 8 times now).
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by paulbaxter »

I picked up the Cosmic Eons expansion for Cosmic Encounter recently and played it for the first time with my boys this weekend. It's the first expansion we've bought, and we all thought the set of aliens was a total riot. Even if you got one that doesn't especially win, they are a hoot. The game ended up with a winner hanging on the result of Klutz dropping ships and seeing where they landed.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Anonymous Bosch »

paulbaxter wrote: Mon May 10, 2021 9:33 pm I picked up the Cosmic Eons expansion for Cosmic Encounter recently and played it for the first time with my boys this weekend. It's the first expansion we've bought, and we all thought the set of aliens was a total riot. Even if you got one that doesn't especially win, they are a hoot. The game ended up with a winner hanging on the result of Klutz dropping ships and seeing where they landed.
Amen.

Cosmic Encounter remains my absolute favourite tabletop game, all the more so when played with the right crowd. It provides such an utterly unique and unpredictably amusing experience each and every time, especially with expansions. It still blows my mind that it's now been around in one form or another for almost 45 years.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by AWS260 »

I got to play Cosmic Frog this weekend, for the first time in quite a while. We had a great group for it: combative but friendly, which meant tons of entertaining frog-on-frog beatdowns. I ended up in second, and more importantly I punched a friend's frog into the Sixth Dimension, which is about as hard as you can punch a frog in Cosmic Frog. Great game.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by RMC »

Got to play four player Too Many Bones. We did the base easiest Tyrant, Nom. I still hate that end battle, it just irks me. We won, but it was a cheese fest, as the Mech character had buffed Defense and Dex, and had an ability that caused bleed. We only used one base Gearloc, and 3 non base ones. We used Tink, Nugget(I played), the rage base guy, and the "mech".

Overall love the game and we have all of the expansions, and have not really used them. It's a really fun game, just a high barrier to entry since the game is so darn expensive.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

What I love about TMB is that I'll see a character and think "he/she doesn't look interesting"...then I'll play them and almost immediately discover some cool skill path that I love. Tantrum (the rage guy) was like that for me. I didn't think I'd enjoy him because of the rage dice and because I usually don't like pure fighter classes, but once I started I realized he could be a powerhouse with the right build.

Some of the Tyrants seem unbalanced, I will admit. I've been playing Splice and Dice's "build your own tyrant" variant that has you build him up as you play. It's a lot of fun.

And I still haven't tried the other variant in Splice and Dice that's pretty much an entirely different game. After I get a little further in Middara, I need to give that a go.

oh, and side note: be careful with that trove box. I'm already getting some splitting on one of the corners of a shelf. It's the one with the cards. I put so many in there that I was pushing against the back side of it when pulling them out. That ended up putting a little tear in the corner.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by AWS260 »

Last night I played I'm the Boss!, a game that is basically all negotiation, all the time.

Every turn, you're given a large pile of money and have to negotiate a deal among multiple players to split the money. If you can't reach agreement, the deal collapses and no one gets anything. You also have a hand of cards with special powers that can shift the balance of power and give youmore leverage in a negotiation. The gameplay is very simple overall, and it generally boils down to a lot of shouting and rapid deal-making. It was a bunch of fun for our group, although it's definitely not for everyone.

While I'm the Boss! is a really good game, I think I still prefer Intrigue in the pantheon of mean negotiation games.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

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Last night I played Stationfall on TTS. I recently backed the game on Kickstarter, and after trying it online, I'm glad that I did.

In our game, I was the Stowaway, who crawls through vents and tries to transmit the station's secrets to the media on Earth. Unfortunately, she was knocked unconscious by a robot drone early in the game, and I never managed to revive her. The rest of the game was a comedy of chaos: the Operative kept starting fires; the Digital Assistant (a character that is a computer virus) was created in the mainframe and spread to the datapads of a couple of characters, but was wiped out when those characters entered the strong magnetic fields of the Physics Lab; the Billionaire kept losing his space-pug; someone turned off the station cameras, allowing characters to attack each other with impunity; the Telepathic Rat was stuck in a room on fire, with no humans to telepathically control because they were all unconscious. Miraculously, no one unleashed Project X from the vault.

At the end, the game was won by the Clones, who successfully escaped (well, two of the three) to tell Earth about their bizarre creation in a zero-gravity laboratory. The Telepathic Rat came in a close second: she didn't escape, but her victory conditions were all predicated on chaos and death, of which we had plenty.

It's a crazy game, in which you can control a dozen characters and choose from a score of potential actions. One friend I was playing with said that it was almost like a roleplaying game, and I think there's some truth to that. It is very much its own creature, and I'm looking forward to owning a physical copy.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Holman »

My son and I have played Imperial Struggle twice this week. It's a strategy game of the eighteenth-century rivalry between Britain and France, and we both love it. (Caveat: I have always been a nerd for this period of history.)

This is the spiritual sequel to Twilight Struggle, coming from the same designers. However, other than a world map featuring spaces linked by connections and marked for ownership, there are really no features in common between this game and its predecessor. There is an event deck, but it plays a different role than in TS. Each round involves a player choosing an investment tile (these come from a randomized pool each turn, and some better are than others) and spending its different types of points (diplomatic, military, or economic) for different types of actions. Separate national decks for government ministers (i.e. temporary abilities) mean that both countries feel different in play.

It's also a big step up in complexity from Twilight Struggle, with more systems interacting and the map featuring different types of spaces (rather than just rival sides' control as in TS). It's great fun when you learn how it works, and the sense of a plausible, emergent alternate history is strong.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by AWS260 »

Today I played my first 18xx game, 1889: History of Shikoku Railways. (The original plan was to play 1849, but the other folks decided that one would be too hard/mean for my first game.)

1889 is a neat game that uses a very specific economic and stock market model to simulate the growth of rail networks in Shikoku, the smallest of the main Japanese islands, in the late 19th century. It's mainly about managing the flow of capital so that the rail companies you control can expand their networks and buy better locomotives as technology improves.

I ended up winning our 3-player game, although I can't pretend that I knew what I was doing. I started 2 companies in locations that were relatively close, so that each could use the others' tracks and grow as efficiently as possible. They were never the most valuable or profitable companies in the game, but they stayed close to the top and generated enough income to let me invest heavily in another high-value company.

It was a fun time, and the stock element especially engaged my brain in ways that I haven't really experienced in games before. On the downside, some of the rules seemed arbitrary and game-y. For example, a company is not allowed to ditch an old locomotive from its stable to make room for a newer, better version. And you not allowed to directly inject money into a company that's starving for cash -- instead you have to spend your money starting up a new company and use financial shenanigans to move money between the two.

Still, I enjoyed myself and would very much be up for more 18xx games in the future. I can see why people get sucked in to this genre.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

Saturday I had a three player day.

We started with Destinies, an app driven game from the folks who gave us the app driven Chronicles of Crime, Lucky Duck Games.

It's an easy game to learn/teach. The rules are only about 10 pages of large text with plenty of examples. In short, you choose a character (generic types like Huntsman or Noble) and read the back of their card. You never show anyone else what is on that card, but everything else is open to the public during play. Each card has some clues as to how you can achieve your "Destiny" (i.e. end game condition) during play, and you visit places and people as you play to find out more.

There are a lot of cards with QR codes that often give you an option to use them in different ways depending on the scenario, which bodes well for new scenarios in the app as they won't require new physical components in most cases. Every map tile and card could/hopefully will be reused in future scenarios but with a different story.

I won because I forgot to inform one of the players that the game was cooperative/competitive. So he was playing for the good of the group, while the other player and I were playing to win. The look on his face when I mentioned I was now heading off to start my end game after getting the stuff I needed to start it will haunt me to my dying day.

Overall I like it. It's not Mansions of Madness level of greatness, but it is a decent app driven game that isn't terribly expensive (the miniatures are more 15mm scale...maybe even smaller...and they're aren't a lot). So I could see purchasing new expansions either via the app alone, or in a small, cheap box like you see with Chronicles of Crime. I think they're also releasing a community scenario building tool, so I hope to get my hands on some quality scenarios through that as well.

Then we broke out Ruins of Arnak. We've discussed this one a few times, but it is a solid worker placement/deck builder. Fun game.

Finally Zarathud had brought his copy of Dinogenics so we dove into it. I'd played with him before, but it was new to Seppe (our third player). I always enjoy this game. It's a solid worker placement game as well. I lost, but I had a lot of fun. And it was pretty close.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by LordMortis »

Then we broke out Ruins of Arnak.
I've been playing this on BGA. I'm enjoying trying to learn the balance of the game. I'm a long ways off and there definitely is a balance to struck between exploring, card management, and climbing the archeology tree.

I've managed to in person gaming for the first time in forever. We went back to Terraforming Mars and judging by the love the cards have seen since the last time I've played, they've come out of isolation a lot sooner than I did. I was a little disappointed to find that even in a three player game if you don't pursue science (draw)/space tag (brute power) combo, you will generally lose to those who do. That was known to be foregone conclusion in a two player game. I like to explore the different strengths of different things (and there are so many different things) but when the typical game an hour per player, being nothing but delightful company game after game will take all the fun out of it. Still it's the game of ubiquity in our small gaming group, so that's what we play.

I may have to go look for new games now that I am coming out of hibernation.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

I was a little disappointed to find that even in a three player game if you don't pursue science (draw)/space tag (brute power) combo, you will generally lose to those who do.
I have to wonder if this is an actual limitation in the game, or if it's something that could be overcome with another strategy? In chess there are powerful moves that might seem insurmountable...until someone comes up with a countermove that can defeat it. i.e. is the game really broken? or is it just waiting for a player to find a better strategy?
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by LordMortis »

hepcat wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 3:42 pm I have to wonder if this is an actual limitation in the game, or if it's something that could be overcome with another strategy? In chess there are powerful moves that might seem insurmountable...until someone comes up with a countermove that can defeat it. i.e. is the game really broken? or is it just waiting for a player to find a better strategy?
In a two player game there is no better strategy. If you aren't taking grabbing science/space then the other guy is taking what you don't and building a machine you can't keep up with. The more players, the more competition there is for this "best" strategy, and the more room for hate drafting, the less effective it is. I think a four players it's viable to de emphasize science/space at least on turn 1 and even 2 to see if there is enough competition.

Before it became more and more obvious that science/space tag combo was the preferred direction, the more fun the game was for me precisely because there is so much going on. So much to explore but at the core of that exploration (in a two and usually three player game) is getting more card (science) and consolidating power toward victory points outside of terraforming (space).

I still enjoy it enough to not roll my eyes it being the game of ubiquity but the magic is gone unless we're doing 4 players and in a 4 players game, two rounds is a full day of gaming.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by AWS260 »

LordMortis wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 1:44 pm
Then we broke out Ruins of Arnak.
I've been playing this on BGA. I'm enjoying trying to learn the balance of the game. I'm a long ways off and there definitely is a balance to struck between exploring, card management, and climbing the archeology tree.
I was turned off by this game when it was first announced, just because the theme seems so tired. But I've heard really good things about it since then, so maybe I should give it a try.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by LordMortis »

AWS260 wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 4:23 pm
LordMortis wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 1:44 pm
Then we broke out Ruins of Arnak.
I've been playing this on BGA. I'm enjoying trying to learn the balance of the game. I'm a long ways off and there definitely is a balance to struck between exploring, card management, and climbing the archeology tree.
I was turned off by this game when it was first announced, just because the theme seems so tired. But I've heard really good things about it since then, so maybe I should give it a try.
My only hurmph with it on BGA is that people think too long. But that's my hurmph with most games of BGA. The games aren't social so taking 2 -3 minutes to take simple turns will make me twitch. In person, people won't take that long, and you're social.

I'm still "discovering" the game, so it's possible I'm having a honey moon with it will grow bored. But I've played maybe six or eight times, which is sometimes all you get out of a game before you put it away, and I'm still enjoying it and still learning it. There is a balancing act between three kinds of playing. Playing to explore sites, playing to manage the deck you are building, playing to advance your archeology research. And I am fascinated at how I still don't seem grog it as well as I should. There are only five rounds to the game, you can only explore twice a round (barring card fortune) and your deck size is only six cards, five of which are in hand. Yet for all its simplicity, it's not a game you just map out after a few plays. Or at least I sure haven't.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

LordMortis wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 4:21 pm
hepcat wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 3:42 pm I have to wonder if this is an actual limitation in the game, or if it's something that could be overcome with another strategy? In chess there are powerful moves that might seem insurmountable...until someone comes up with a countermove that can defeat it. i.e. is the game really broken? or is it just waiting for a player to find a better strategy?
In a two player game there is no better strategy. If you aren't taking grabbing science/space then the other guy is taking what you don't and building a machine you can't keep up with. The more players, the more competition there is for this "best" strategy, and the more room for hate drafting, the less effective it is. I think a four players it's viable to de emphasize science/space at least on turn 1 and even 2 to see if there is enough competition.
I’m not convinced this is true. I’ve been looking around BGG, a place where you’re going to find a lot of power players who scrutinize every aspect of a game and aren’t afraid to shout it from the rooftops, and I don’t see any talk about this beyond some general strategies you can try. :?

Also, some expansions might give your group some new strategies. I like Colonies so far. I need to try the others someday soon.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Zarathud »

LordMortis wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 1:44 pm
Then we broke out Ruins of Arnak.
I've been playing this on BGA. I'm enjoying trying to learn the balance of the game. I'm a long ways off and there definitely is a balance to struck between exploring, card management, and climbing the archeology tree.
Ruins of Arnak caters to the BGG crowd with its mix of popular game mechanics. After playing, I described it as the girl at the bar wearing the short red skirt and heels leaning over the bar with the “come hither” look. Even if she’s not your type (or gender), the game has your attention.

Arnak will leave you breathless and hungry for more too — at 5 turns you’re just getting an engine going when the game ends abruptly. Or in my case a card draw that keeps leading to fear.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by AWS260 »

I succumbed to your persuasive powers and played Arnak on BGA tonight. It's good!

And it's an interesting contrast to Dune Imperium, the other recent mash-up of deck builder + worker placement. I'm in no position to properly compare them after just one play of Arnak and two of Imperium, but my initial impression is that Arnak has more interesting systems meshing together, but Dune Imp has more direct competition/conflict.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by Zarathud »

I like Dune Imperium better, but I see how Arnak would be catnip to those who love Euros.

My weaknesses come down to engine builders, combos, placement, and 4Xs.
"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." - Albert Einstein
"I don't stand by anything." - Trump
“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” - John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St Andrews, 2/1/1867
“It is the impractical things in this tumultuous hell-scape of a world that matter most. A book, a name, chicken soup. They help us remember that, even in our darkest hour, life is still to be savored.” - Poe, Altered Carbon
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by YellowKing »

Yeah while I like the theme and style of Arnak better, I found Dune: Imperium to be the more rewarding experience. Arnak is all about running an efficient race to the top, while Dune: Imperium is more of a street brawl, scrounging for every point. I enjoyed the puzzle of trying to outwit the AI in Dune more than the puzzle of building the most efficient engine in Arnak.

That said, I have yet to try the solo campaign stuff for Arnak, and that could certainly add a new twist. Even though I prefer Dune, Arnak is still a great game that I'm glad I have in my collection
Last edited by YellowKing on Tue May 25, 2021 9:44 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by LordMortis »

hepcat wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 6:31 pm I’m not convinced this is true. I’ve been looking around BGG, a place where you’re going to find a lot of power players who scrutinize every aspect of a game and aren’t afraid to shout it from the rooftops, and I don’t see any talk about this beyond some general strategies you can try. :?
We've played the game a lot and my group has played a lot more than I have. My preference is to explore different starts and I'm finding the results pretty consistent. Luck can overcome science draw to space tag pursuit. If you nerfed the tactic of the game by removing Jehovian victory points/and a few space tags or some of the high power science tags (which we have discussed) it would be overcome, otherwise it's overly relying on luck and band luck (in a two player game)

Also, some expansions might give your group some new strategies. I like Colonies so far. I need to try the others someday soon.
All of the expansions! They are all good. Random starting board. Expansions do not dilute the science/space tag primary strategy though. The only thing that dilutes it is having more players at the table. The more people who assign value to the science/space tags as the primary game advancement the less valuable pursuing them is.
Zarathud wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 8:14 pm Arnak will leave you breathless and hungry for more too — at 5 turns you’re just getting an engine going when the game ends abruptly. Or in my case a card draw that keeps leading to fear.
Very much so, especially when you play on line and aren't concentrating on turns... or especially when I play on line and amn't concentrating on turns. :oops:



Never Tried Dune Imperium. I would like to subscribe to the newsletter.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

We can set up a TSS game of Dune Imperium if you want to try it. Zarathud, Seppe, RMC and I have played before using TSS and it worked fine. Except for the fact that I want to usually flip the table 2 turns into the game when I realized i'm way behind.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by LordMortis »

hepcat wrote: Tue May 25, 2021 10:00 am We can set up a TSS game of Dune Imperium if you want to try it. Zarathud, Seppe, RMC and I have played before using TSS and it worked fine. Except for the fact that I want to usually flip the table 2 turns into the game when I realized i'm way behind.
If you guys are doing regular TSS games, maybe it's time for me to buy it. I saw no point in TSS with no TSS community regularly playing.

Maybe we can find a TSS version TM and I can show you how brutal only one person collecting science tags/space tags can be in two player game. :) Note: This is in the drafting game, where a majority of cards are seen by both players... right up until a card draw engine is working for one of the players. If you don't draft, much of the depth of the game goes, but so does the need to compete for a singular purpose.
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by hepcat »

Add me to your steam friend's list if I'm not already on it.

https://steamcommunity.com/id/hepcat/

I also owe Malificent a TSS game day for TMB. I've not forgotten!
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Re: OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Post by LordMortis »

Will do my best to remember when I get home. I see there is a TM for TSS but I don't know how any of that works as I don't own TSS yet.

I do see this though

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 2423747394
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