The Big Board-Gaming Catch-All

Shop gave me Tales of the Arabian Nights for Christmas! I'm going to have to wait until next week to play it though

I'm getting that Penny Arcade app, Playdek has been consistently good.

Natus wrote:

Is Descent 2nd Ed really that good? I haven't really heard people raving about it until now. I'd heard that the original Descent was just...Decent (haw haw).

I like it quite a bit. It's the best dungeon crawler I've played.

Natus wrote:

Is Descent 2nd Ed really that good? I haven't really heard people raving about it until now. I'd heard that the original Descent was just...Decent (haw haw).

It's really good. Just avoid playing it with someone who has terminal Analysis Paralysis

SommerMatt wrote:

Playdek just released the PENNY ARCADE deckbuilding game on iOS.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/penn...

$4.99.

After playing it a bit and having teach games to friends, I feel like Penny Arcade is good for two situations.

1) Drunk laughs

2) Teaching newbies the basics of a deck-building game.

So not sure how the iOS one will do except for a cheap way to see if you like the game.

ccesarano wrote:

So not sure how the iOS one will do except for a cheap way to see if you like the game.

Asynch multiplayer is where it's at, and Playdek has been consistent with doing that on all their releases. But like you said, it's a good way to try the game before sinking $40 on it, so I'm sure they'll see a sales boost of the physical game like Days of Wonder has with TTR and Small World.

I started a catch-all thread for iOS boardgames.

http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/1...

(Triple cross-post combo!)

A new edition of ye olde small-unit card wargame Up Front is on Kickstarter, from the folks that 'started D-Day Dice and Airborne in Your Pocket.

It smashed its funding goal ages ago, and now it's all stretch rewards.

$40 gets you the base game (US vs. Ger) and all stretch rewards, $125 gets you the base game and all expansions (USSR, UK, Ita, Jpn, Fra) and all stretch rewards (and amounts in between get you the base game, expansion(s) of your choosing, and all stretch rewards). So you're looking at somewhere between 1,000+ and 2,000+ cards.

The stretch rewards are mainly other nationalities (e.g. Finns, Canadians, Poles, SS, USMC, etc), and the $200k stretch reward is a leather-bound rulebook. It's at $170k right now.

I never played the original, but I'm thinking about getting in on this, with Brits (so I can play proper Canucks) and maybe Soviets too (winter! Finns!). Deadline is January 2nd.

So last night I started to watch a How-To-Play video of Castle Panic. The game seems to be VERY simple, but most of all it looks like just the sort of co-op board game I love. I can't wait for Christmas so I can play my niece's present.

ccesarano wrote:

So last night I started to watch a How-To-Play video of Castle Panic. The game seems to be VERY simple, but most of all it looks like just the sort of co-op board game I love. I can't wait for Christmas so I can play my niece's present. :P

Castle Panic is dirt simple. And a whole lot of fun. The wife, girls and I played it a bunch. We have the expansion too, but haven't tried it with that yet.

Yeah, my son and I love us some Castle Panic. I hope we get the expansion for Christmas. They even have simplified rule modifications for younger players in the instruction book.

Nevin73 wrote:

Yeah, my son and I love us some Castle Panic. I hope we get the expansion for Christmas. They even have simplified rule modifications for younger players in the instruction book.

Even more simplified? Really?

Based on the video I saw the game basically goes like this:

- Draw up to five cards in your hand.
-- If you wish, discard a card and draw up again.
-- If you wish, trade cards with other players.

- Use cards against monsters in corresponding colors and zones (Red Knight in the Red Section, Knight row)

- Move all monsters forward one.
-- Knock down walls if they hit one.
-- Remove tower and monster if monster hits one.

- Draw two monster tokens.
-- Follow instructions on monster token, or roll a die to determine where you place the monster.

Move on to next player and repeat.

I GUESS you can get more simple than that, but I mean...damn, that be simple.

Maybe simplified isn't the right word. What the easier rules do is remove some of the higher-powered "bad guy" chits from the pool.

Played a bunch of Solforge the past two days since the Demo was posted on itunes.

I started a Catch-All: http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/1...

Grabbed a copy of 'War of the Ring' last night. So epic! Though whoever wrote the rules needs to learn a bit about writing concisely. 42 pages! I read the first few until I said "Nuts to this!" and got the 7 page, condensed rules off BGG.

I was wondering if anyone played it with 3+ people before. Does it work? Or is it really more of a 2 player game?

It's a 2 player game. Anything above that is just splitting up the units on one side between two people. I'm sure it could work fine, but why bother?

I'm not sure what they did to the rules in the second edition, but the rules in the first were kind of famously disorganized. I imagine a lot of the length in the second edition is because of examples and such. For reference, that's probably a good thing because one of the beauties of the game is that there's a ton of stuff going on, and the cards can set up some exception-heavy situations.

Worth learning though. It's one of my top 3 games of all time. I really need to get the second edition conversion kit and expansion one of these days.

The main problem with the rules is how repetitive it , explaining every rule twice, then explaining how every other rule effects that rule. It's a bad compromise between assuming the reader has zero prior knowledge of games, and that they are a zealotous rules lawyer. To illustrate:

Rule A: you can use the X cards to do Y. Therefore, when you need to do Y, you may play an X card.
Action phase B must be resolved before you may play an X card.
If the shadow player has played "Underpants of smiting", ignore the second paragraph on the X card.
Once the X card has been resolved, the free peoples player(s) may perform a small dance or jig.

Rule B: Dancing.
Players may dance after the successful playing of an X card, or when 3 sixes are rolled in combat (only two sixes are required to perform a dance if Gandalf is in play in the shire, or whenever the mood strikes them.

And so on for 42 pages.

I think they could have benefited from using a number and reference system like you see in some rulebooks (GMT games notably) or using more of a programming style of language if they wanted to be absolutely clear about the edge cases.

I'd see how you feel about the rules after you play. Might be that all the detail they go into helps when inevitable weird stuff comes up during the game. Probably also a response to the long rule clarification documents that were produced for the first edition.

That said, you better believe I wrote up my own rule summary sheet that I use when I'm teaching the game. The basic rules are generally straightforward. It's the cards that really complicate things (in a good way).

Work is light today and we're celebrating my brother's birthday tonight. I'm going to see if I can figure out the rules to Game of Thrones 2nd Ed.

I have too many games I haven't played yet but need to play.

ccesarano wrote:

Work is light today and we're celebrating my brother's birthday tonight. I'm going to see if I can figure out the rules to Game of Thrones 2nd Ed.

Please report in afterwards.

ccesarano wrote:

I have too many games I haven't played yet but need to play.

Tell me about it. Story of my middle-aged life.

Chaz wrote:

It's a 2 player game. Anything above that is just splitting up the units on one side between two people. I'm sure it could work fine, but why bother?

Because you might have 3 or 4 people who want to play? I've played with 3 total (me as Shadow vs 2 as Free People (not quite what the rulebook recommends)), and it worked great, even if I did lose at Mt. Doom on the very last tile draw.

ccesarano wrote:

Work is light today and we're celebrating my brother's birthday tonight. I'm going to see if I can figure out the rules to Game of Thrones 2nd Ed.

I have too many games I haven't played yet but need to play.

I played it for the first time a couple weeks ago with mostly non-boardgaming people. It went well, it's not too complex.

Last night we went over to a friend's house to celebrate my birthday (which is today) and we played St Petersburg and Kingsburg. Both great games that we haven't played in a wile but so, so good.

Gravey wrote:
Chaz wrote:

It's a 2 player game. Anything above that is just splitting up the units on one side between two people. I'm sure it could work fine, but why bother?

Because you might have 3 or 4 people who want to play? I've played with 3 total (me as Shadow vs 2 as Free People (not quite what the rulebook recommends)), and it worked great, even if I did lose at Mt. Doom on the very last tile draw.

There are other games that work better with 3 or 4 people for those situations. Got 4? Sounds like you should be playing Chaos in the Old World.

Alright, let me clarify: you might have 3 or 4 people who want to play War of the Ring together.

edosan wrote:

Last night we went over to a friend's house to celebrate my birthday (which is today) and we played St Petersburg and Kingsburg. Both great games that we haven't played in a wile but so, so good.

I was astonished how good St. Petersburg was when we played 4-player some months ago. Must get a copy for the homestead.

edosan wrote:

Last night we went over to a friend's house to celebrate my birthday (which is today) and we played St Petersburg and Kingsburg. Both great games that we haven't played in a wile but so, so good.

Have you played Kingsburg with the To Forge A Realm expansion? It's fantastic. Makes a good game really great.

So a buddy of mine dropped by last night with a fresh copy of Twilight Struggle. Wow. Two turns and two and a half hours later... Looks like a really neat game; I'm looking forward to really getting into the meat of it. The way you have to do things that benefit your opponent makes for some really interesting tension.

I did not get to play GoT last night, but that afforded me time to find the following video. I really wish there were more videos like this. Any company that can do it should make a video like this if they can.

Boudreaux wrote:
edosan wrote:

Last night we went over to a friend's house to celebrate my birthday (which is today) and we played St Petersburg and Kingsburg. Both great games that we haven't played in a wile but so, so good.

Have you played Kingsburg with the To Forge A Realm expansion? It's fantastic. Makes a good game really great.

I played Kingsburg once and thought it was fine. Does the expansion improve it so much? And are they both on iOS?

ccesarano wrote:

I did not get to play GoT last night, but that afforded me time to find the following video. I really wish there were more videos like this. Any company that can do it should make a video like this if they can.

They have always made great videos and generally great presentation. I think their whole presentation of Elder Signs: Omen on iOS is absolutely phenomenal. But it's taken them quite a few years and almost as many iterations to get AGoT to a good place (and I haven't played 2nd Ed yet). I could have wished that FFG had spent more time on design and less on window dressing, at least initially.