The Big Board-Gaming Catch-All

Dice City is simliar in that you roll some dice, which trigger buildings in your city, which then gives you resources that allow you to buy more buildings. However, there are a couple differences that make Dice City more fun in my opinion.

1) Your city is laid out in a 6x6 grid format where the rows are colors and the columns are numbers (I might have that backwards). You roll 6 colored dice that correspond to each of the rows and then trigger which ever building on that color row matches the number on the dice. So if the red dice is a 4 then it triggers whatever is on row "red" column 4. This adds some strategy to how you place your new buildings when you acquire them as you know you will only get to trigger 1 building per row (usually) and some cards give bonuses depending on other cards in the row.

2) Along with upgrading your city you also use buildings to attack other players building and disable them, fight enemy troops for victory points, and purchase cargo ships for victory points.

Instead of being about finishing landmarks, Dice City is about having the highest victory points when the end game is triggered and there are multiple ways to achieve that. You could be passive and just trigger buildings for points, focus on army building to take out enemy armies, or collect a ton of resources to purchase the cargo ships.

I liked Dice City's weird trigger mechanics, but man was it ever a single player game that you happened to be playing in the presence of other people. The obscure blocking mechanic was hardly used the few times I played....

Did you find you were interacting more often?

No, it definitely has a solitaire feel to it. I don't mind those types of games though.

I'd also agree that Dice City falls into the 'competitive solitaire' type. Its ok I like the genre. There's good company like Castles of Burgundy, Roll through the Ages (mostly), Roll and Race for the Galaxy' games I've played (not played the newest); most point-salad type games.

Now that I think about it a lot of the games I enjoy are very solitaire like. Ascension, 7 wonders, roll and writes, sushi go, dice forge. I guess even when I play games I try to be antisocial.

Sushi Go seems a lot more strategic in its cutthroatedness than the others of those I’ve played, probably because the UI, for lack of a better term, is simple enough to allow for very careful and malevolent play.

I don't mind a solitaire game so long as I don't have to sit around and wait while others take their turn. A lot of Roll and Writes do their turns simultaneously. I can't think of many examples atm but I think that's key to keeping a solitaire game fun.

I had a cold so I cancelled last night's game night, but I did some solo gaming instead.

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I played Maquis again. It's a really great single-player game about operating the resistance in Nazi-occupied France. You have 15 days to accomplish 2 randomly dealt objectives, without getting all your people arrested or running out of morale.

Some of the objectives are quite puzzle like, because you are extremely limited in how many resources you can generate in a given turn. I played the same objectives three times before I was able to accomplish it, as there was basically a specific way I had to go about things in order to accomplish my goals in time.

This is a great game for Solo play. I cannot recommend it enough.

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Then I played my copy of Squire for Hire. It's a filler game where you are trying to get the job of squire so you have to show how adept you are at packing a backpack full of treasures. Each card you draw has different treasure and junk and you play the cards onto the table to expand your backpack, while covering up previous junk (worth negative points) and trying to sort items of similar type next to each other.

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Each squire has different scoring conditions, they value different treasure more and there's only two cards to choose from each turn so you can't always get the most optimal play at the time you need it. But figuring that out is the squire job!

While I think this is a cute game, I don't feel like it has much to offer aside from being a filler game that takes only 15 minutes to play. You puzzle out how to place your pieces, and hope to score high. I don't see much changing from game to game.

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I capped off the night with a game of Parks. The kickstarter expansion to Parks just launched, and I already backed it so I felt it was high time I finally played my copy of the base game. In Parks you are hikers visiting the US National parks. You have to collect resources along the trail in order to collect the Parks for your records. In the single player game, there are park rangers who go through sweeping up resources before you can get to them and triggering events that throw wrenches into your plans.

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On the third season, one of the Park rangers totally skipped the entire trail, heading from the first space all the way to the end, thus cutting the whole season's duration in half. It was ridiculous.

But nevertheless, I visited some great parks--scored in the Novice area (not unsuccessful, but not terribly successful either). A fair bit of randomness prevented me from doing better (like the fact that that the extra park purchase tile didn't come up until the final season), but all in all I enjoyed the game quite a bit.

The theme of this game is great. You have canteens and gear that helps you visit more parks, and you walk the trail and experience nature. I definitely enjoyed this game enough to justify picking up the expansion. Now I need to play with people.

The artwork I have seen in Parks is just so lovely.

Broke out The Isle of Cats tonight, solo. It's a game of rescuing cats on your ship before the evil Lord Vesh arrives and... well they don't really get into the dark backstory, so I guess you can insert whatever dark motive here as suits your play group. Maybe he skins all the cats alive and makes their fur into a coat. Or maybe he just shows up and drives all the cats off the island so he can stay there alone. It's not really clear.

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Anyway, story aside, it's a polyomino game where you buy cards that can be used to rescue cats, raise your initiative, gain more food (to buy more cards) or take treasure or Oshax (wild) cats. You try to match colors on your boat, and fill rooms, and cover up rats in order to score the most points at the end of the game. Additionally, you'll discover lessons which are objectives, and they can be either secret and personal or public and shared that increase your score.

When you play solo, you play against a deck of cards who scores varying points based on what you do on your ship, as well as simultaneously eliminating options by discarding rescue-able cats (as if another player had taken them).

In the end, I didn't fill up enough rooms, gave the AI a few too many points and scored only 64 to their 75. It was my first game however, so I'm certain to do better next time.

I find the solo game actually very engaging. I see how the game might play with other human, but when you play solo you are expected to intentionally play in such a way that the AI scores badly (since their score is based on your board) in addition to playing the normal game about scoring the most points you can. That's an interesting dilemma that makes the game quite a bit more strategic.

Anyway... This isn't exactly a light game, as there's quite a few interlocking mechanisms (though it does have a family mode with fewer rules) but I can definitely see how it's cutesy motif and solo gameplay won't appeal to some members of my play group.

I liked it though. (That's probably why I bought it)

Frahg wrote:

Broke out The Isle of Cats

Very interested in this. My wife doesn't get into a lot of gaming but does enjoy polyomino style games, Barenpark, Patchwork and the like. I was aware this was more complex so good to know there is a family mode, also solo mode... Bonus!

Couple of older Euro games that are new to me at this week's meet up.

First up was updated Splotter game Bus, which I thought was great and defo want to play again. Fairly simple rules, but lots of thinking required! Didn't get into the time altering mechanic much, next time. The chap who brought it also has Food Chain Magnate and Roads & Boats... Want to try those too, though looks like they might make my brain actually melt!

Next was Castles of Burgundy. Not so great for me, the game underneath seems decent but had to fight the poor graphic design with tiny iconography and limited colour palette which was pretty difficult to differentiate under pub lighting. All led to lots of squinting and errors made by players. I'd be interested to see how much that has changed in the updated edition and if that means improved playability.

It could do with the same treatment as the Bus board, as nice and quirky as the original looks, the new Bus design is super simple and easy to read, clean but still with a certain charm about it.

Bubblefuzz wrote:

First up was updated Splotter game Bus, which I thought was great and defo want to play again. Fairly simple rules, but lots of thinking required! Didn't get into the time altering mechanic much, next time. The chap who brought it also has Food Chain Magnate and Roads & Boats... Want to try those too, though looks like they might make my brain actually melt!

It could do with the same treatment as the Bus board, as nice and quirky as the original looks, the new Bus design is super simple and easy to read, clean but still with a certain charm about it.

This is super exciting to me as I picked up the reprint of Bus and I wasn't sure how it was going to play. Haven't had a chance to get it to the table but I'm definitely one of those who like a brain-burning game. I own Food Chain Magnate as well. I almost picked up the reprint of Roads and Boats... I sort of regret missing it.

Anyhoo...

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This weekend was a lot more solo gaming. Couldn't get the Aftermath group together, so I just explored the solo modes of games on my shelf again.

On Saturday, I played Circadians: First Light. I made the mistake of only using half my table as the other half was covered in stuff, and boy did I regret it. There's so many boards and things that it needs room to breathe.

Circadians (7.8 Geek Score, ~500 ratings) is another worker placement by Garphill Games and lead design is by X of the West Kingdom co-designer SJ MacDonald. I don't really know how they divvy up work, Shem Phillips is credited as Game Development, but SJ MacDonald is now the only name on the outside of the box, so this seems to be like his first solo/lead project.

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It's a worker placement/engine builder where you have to generate resources in order to afford the actions you spend your workers on. You buy dice (workers), and then over time invest them into the board (to get special dispensations, or to converse with the natives) which permanently loses you the workers and you have to generate more. It's a weird loop, and there's a lot to keep track of. You need to get your resources, take the action when the space is open and not taken by another player, the more actions you use your dice for the more acting costs you (each die placed has a cost) and then you have to plan to lose dice at certain times and replace them...

I found myself running out of dice at times, and other times with more dice then I could afford to play and other times blocked by the AI. There's only eight turns, but it's enough time to get an engine running so you can afford more and better actions and it feels satisfying. The rulebook was a bit of a slog to find things in when I had questions during the game, but I felt like it was an alright read up front.

I don't know if they'll make this one into a trilogy though. Is it having success? Who can tell.

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On Sunday I played a lot more games.

I played Town Builder: Coerdoven (7.4 ~250 ratings). I just adore this game. It's a quick, single deck drafting game where you take two actions each turn and attempt to build up the best town. Cards can become coins, foundations (which will later become scoring buildings once built) and resources, and each card has a unique cost, and potentially some special ability. There are central scoring objectives, some of which don't become apparent until mid-way through the game, but most of your score is in what cards you build. It's part denial game, part luck of the offering (and forecasting future need) and part just making good use of your limited time.

And it's super quick. Solo, because there's no AI it's just discarding a couple cards, the game plays in 10 minutes.

I don't own this premium edition, I just have the cards without the mat, but I love this game so much I might upgrade if I can find it.

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Next I played Nautilion (7.3 ~900 ratings). It's a solo-only (well two player, but most people say it's best solo) submarine game where you are racing the clock to build a crew and arrive at the evil island, before the evil ship (going the other way) lands at your happy island. It's in the Oniverse series, which started out with Onirim (a game I have not played, but is reasonably well regarded)

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Honestly, I wasn't impressed. I feel like the game is sort of predetermined. There are dice and they control what happens each turn, but I still feel like the amount of information available at the start of the game, means you pretty much know what you have to do and you hope the dice play fair. The first play through I lost, but I played again after gaining some experience and won easily.

That said, there are a ton of modules. Different ships to make the game harder, different rules to expand the complexity of the game, so maybe I'll find an experience I'm much happier with. I love the art work though. The big bad reminds me of Day of the Tentacle....

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The pièce de résistance of the day, was Cosmic Run: Regeneration (7.6 ~200 ratings). I was interested in this enough to buy it but I wasn't sure if it would live up to it's high marks. I decided to play two-player (by myself) instead of the solo rules, because the solo rules seemed to change the game pretty dramatically.

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I had a blast. It's a yahtzee-esque game where you're just trying to roll sets of numbers and assign them, but it's also got multiple paths to victory and racing against the other players. A lot of the game, at least later, is push-your-luck. Can you use your six dice to get five-of-a-kind and progress on the 5 planet? You can recruit aliens to give you some dice manipulation, but the powers aren't permanent--they're one time use--then you have to retire the aliens and if you retire them in sets you make bonus points. It had a fair bit going on and I really enjoyed the play through.

I also had the allies expansion which was part of the kickstarter version that I acquired. It has this weird mechanic where you get the ally that matches the number you rolled (1-6), but you can't use it until your next turn so it's possible it will get stolen from you if someone else rolls that same number. So an ally could bounce between players, or you could end up with a bunch of different allies because the other player keeps rolling the same number or same small pool of numbers. It was interesting to keep trading the powers back and forth and hoping that you get to keep it long enough to use it. I enjoyed it. I could see it being a little random in four player games where allies might bounce around a lot more, but still... none of the powers were game breaking, and one was even to copy another's power.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this game and I can't wait to expose my group to it. Too much solo gaming of late!

Enjoy Bus! I think it's lighter than the other Splotters mentioned, but defo still pretty thinky. Kind of my ideal puzzely weight really.

Frahg wrote:

Next I played Nautilion (7.3 ~900 ratings). It's a solo-only (well two player, but most people say it's best solo) submarine game where you are racing the clock to build a crew and arrive at the evil island, before the evil ship (going the other way) lands at your happy island. It's in the Oniverse series, which started out with Onirim (a game I have not played, but is reasonably well regarded)

IMAGE(https://cf.geekdo-images.com/imagepage/img/Iigd8UbPIvdOsaZMCIQouBmUaBw=/fit-in/900x600/filters:no_upscale()/pic3222016.png)

Honestly, I wasn't impressed. I feel like the game is sort of predetermined. There are dice and they control what happens each turn, but I still feel like the amount of information available at the start of the game, means you pretty much know what you have to do and you hope the dice play fair. The first play through I lost, but I played again after gaining some experience and won easily.

That said, there are a ton of modules. Different ships to make the game harder, different rules to expand the complexity of the game, so maybe I'll find an experience I'm much happier with. I love the art work though. The big bad reminds me of Day of the Tentacle....

I also love the artwork of the Oniverse series and enjoy the simplicity of the series. Hence I have picked up all five of the Oniverse square box games in latter half of 2019 after loving Onirim. I think you're right, mixing in the box expansions is the way to go for replay value. As well as 1 player, there are 2 player variants in the box, but sometimes my son and I just play the solo mode together. I'll let him take lead and I'll offer tips along the way. Have played the initial mode of Castellion half dozen times in this way last few days. Now we've got the knack both I and we will be moving onto the different modes.

With these Oniverse games I'm not too worried about the difficulty of gameplay though, it's more about them being games that are quick, chill and tactile. All that shuffling in Onirim gets pretty zen

Finally got a chance to play my Root Underworld expansion yesterday. Played on the new Lake map with the Moles, Crows, Otters and Vagabond. Ended up being a really close game. I was not expecting how fast the Crows could start racking up points if they were not held in check early...that will not happen again now that I know Looking forward to playing the Mountain map sometime soon.

I finished up the Scythe Rise of Fenris campaign last night.

Great fun, and I'd recommend for any Scythe fans who don't already have it. Not only is it a fun story (with rules variants) to play through, afterwards you have a big pile of modules you can use in regular games. There's a few that I think will always come out for me now.

The only issue we had was that there's one player in our group who outclassed the rest of us all, and they won handily (and won most of the individual games too). However, that's not really on the game (and indeed it has some mechanisms to help out with those cases).

jigsawhc wrote:

Finally got a chance to play my Root Underworld expansion yesterday. Played on the new Lake map with the Moles, Crows, Otters and Vagabond. Ended up being a really close game. I was not expecting how fast the Crows could start racking up points if they were not held in check early...that will not happen again now that I know Looking forward to playing the Mountain map sometime soon.

I got Underworld to the table last week. We stuck with the normal map since it's only our third play with this group. Played with Moles, Eyrie, Crows, and one of the new Vagabonds - the owl who focuses on adventuring. I had a lot of fun playing as the corvids and you're not kidding about the ramp up! I went from 1 VP to tied with the pack in one turn, then leapfrogged them, and almost won it in a dramatic final turn. Came up to 29 VP and didn't roll high enough to take out the last roost I needed. The Vagabond came home with the prize since we didn't really keep her in check. It just feels mean to be the first aggressor against them. I think we're going to play it again this week, possibly on a new map this time.

We've also gotten in a couple plays of Oceans and really enjoyed it. One of the others in our group was a fisheries and wildlife major so he was super happy with the theme. The Reef variant game we played was solid, and is definitely the right place to start, but the Deep cards really bring it into a whole new level. The scenario cards also shake up your strategy from game to game in interesting ways. I'm excited to get this one to the table again, even though I think I've placed last in both games we've played.

My group is play Root tomorrow. We will have for copies and some of them will have both expansions. I doubt I'll play the new faction but I've barely touch the base factions anyways.

Played Maracaibo for the first time multiplayer--four player. It was amazing.

We played with the campaign, which--while fun--I think undercuts the competitive aspect of the game. If you play with the story, just take "winning" a little less seriously. We had one guy reveal a story tile only to have his whole turn ruined by the changing landscape of the board. It's a very random piece of an otherwise great game.

That said, the overall game was amazing. The field was within 5 points of each other at the end, despite the fact that the scores were 166-171; AND with some very different approaches to victory. I focused heavily on quests and exploration, one guy focused on a single nation's combat and another focused on a balanced combat between three nations. Finally, the last guy had a very balanced play overall with some combat, some questing, and quite a few upgrades.

The game was quite a bit longer--3 hours--as everyone except me was learning for the first time, and we all chose to get the extra village actions upgrade (2+/5+) and slog our way through the Caribbean. I compared it to Food Chain Magnate's reveal of money in the game mid-way through. We all chose to add $300 and thus the game was much longer than it could have been....

Highly recommend this game. It's as good if not better than Great Western Trail and certainly better than Blackout: Hong Kong. I love Pfister's games...

pyxistyx wrote:

*singing*

"Goonnna be....iiin a card game.... doot doot doot....."

(or MY copy of a specific card game, anyway )

Spoiler:

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Charmed and Dangerous wrote:

We are so excited to introduce the first of our Legends cards. These special cards will showcase unique and powerful people that do not come from myth or fairy tale.

This card features the first winner in our "Facets of a Princess" challenge held during our Kickstarter. The winners of this challenge were able to select their class and receive a custom, and fully playable, Princess Card featuring their likeness. Each piece is hand rendered by amazing artist Christian St. Pierre!

Please join me in welcoming Princess Saga Mackenzie, the Stiletto Shadowblade, to the Charmed and Dangerous family!

Sweet!!!

Has anyone here heard of Chaosmos? Last night I was browsing reddit/boardgames right before I fell asleep, and I came across a post about their Kickstarter for the new expansion. I was so tired I didn't even read the post, just left my phone on that page until this morning.

Now that I've read about it and watched some videos, I am super hot to trot! This game seems right up my alley. It's kind of an exploration and bluffing game, with some inspiration from Cosmic Encounter. It kind of seems like if you took Cosmic Encounter and built more of a game around those bones instead of just straight negotiation, etc. I backed it all-in, base game plus expansion plus upgrades.

Turns out it is based less on Cosmic Encounter than I imagined, as it's a real-world adaptation of a game played in the YA Sci-Fi novel Interstellar Pig. Guess I'll need to add that to my reading list!

The Kickstarter has 8 more days to go.

Played Pillars of the Earth, 5 players last night. Seems like it's an oldie but a goodie as it goes, enjoyed.

After getting into the games a couple years ago, I think am slowly finding my way now through all the thousands of choices. Genres and mechanics still learning maybe, but at least in terms of game complexity. Am thinking Middleweight, if bgg weight anything to go by at all average 3.0 is my sweet spot I reckon.

Anyone else find a preference for a type of game mechanic, complexity lvl, theme or whatever that they've discovered over time?

Interstellar Pig was a great book that I read in 8th grade or something (many years ago). I don't know how well it holds up today, however.

Played Unmatched last night. That is a fun little game with a great gimmick. Take any two of the characters they offer and you battle them out. We had Bigfoot smash Bruce Lee, King Arthur beat Alice (from Wonderland), and Medusa defeat King Arthur.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Has anyone here heard of Chaosmos? Last night I was browsing reddit/boardgames right before I fell asleep, and I came across a post about their Kickstarter for the new expansion. I was so tired I didn't even read the post, just left my phone on that page until this morning.

Now that I've read about it and watched some videos, I am super hot to trot! This game seems right up my alley. It's kind of an exploration and bluffing game, with some inspiration from Cosmic Encounter. It kind of seems like if you took Cosmic Encounter and built more of a game around those bones instead of just straight negotiation, etc. I backed it all-in, base game plus expansion plus upgrades.

Yes - Chaosmos came out several years ago and never really drew much attention. We played it a couple of times at a local con and immediately took a shine to it. It's unlike any other game I've ever played, and has a lot of rules and cards that are bonkers and can make the game very asymmetric. It does work best with more players. Cosmic Encounter is a good comparison point, it does have a similar approach.

Bubblefuzz wrote:

Played Pillars of the Earth, 5 players last night. Seems like it's an oldie but a goodie as it goes, enjoyed.

After getting into the games a couple years ago, I think am slowly finding my way now through all the thousands of choices. Genres and mechanics still learning maybe, but at least in terms of game complexity. Am thinking Middleweight, if bgg weight anything to go by at all average 3.0 is my sweet spot I reckon.

Anyone else find a preference for a type of game mechanic, complexity lvl, theme or whatever that they've discovered over time?

Good conversation topic. For me, it depends on mood and players (or lack thereof). I don't think I skew towards any single mechanic or another, with the exception of high, unmitigated luck, games, which I do not care for. Things I prize in a game.

(1) It makes me think. Some people love Solitaire. Heck, as an only child, I played it growing up. It doesn't matter if I am tired, fresh, drunk, or sober, I want to use my brain for deduction, planning, deceit, or even second-guessing two turns later how stupid I was to have made an earlier decision (or less frequently, how clever). This works great solo but can be very "other human dependant" for other games. Analysis paralysis players will start to sap the enjoyment if it happens every single turn. Learning a game? Cool. I think I am pretty patient. After that, sh*t or get off the pot.

(2) If it is a competitive multiplayer, there is some level of player interaction. I do not enjoy playing 7 Wonders. That may be sacrilege to many, but I know it isn't for me. It is so hard to get a feel where anyone else stands. I was looking forward to playing Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North, based on reviews and my loving 51st State. As mentioned earlier in the thread, it was too solitary. Really well-designed game, though and I would give it another shot. A second example using party games: Just One vs. Wavelength. Just One is a great party game. With the right group, we both laugh like crazy and discuss the outcome afterward. But during play? Silence and non-communication, which the game requires. Wavelength, on the other hand, is constant communication, deliberation, and debate pre-decision, mid-decision, and post-decision. If I had a group of 6, I would pick Wavelength every single time and it would hardly be a decision.

(3) It sticks with me. I think about a game that was just played and/or I look forward to another play to see what I would do differently or try out next time. Solo, coop, or competitive, I appreciate a game that lasts.

(4) Set up time. This feels petty in theory, but this has really been a thing with me lately. A well-designed box or game that makes getting it to the table in a reasonable amount of time is really appreciated. I flipping love A Feast for Odin. I love it as a solo game. If I had a dedicated play space, I would play it a lot more. As is, I play it, leave it out on the kitchen table for as many days and my wife allows, then pack it up and forget about it again for a while, as it loses out to other quicker unbox and rebox games. Wingspan right now clicks a lot of that. It is also why there are some games I prefer to play on TTS over in person.

(5) Contextual Play Time. Man, there are some terrific games that I have played once that I loved. Theme + Style + Theme + Crunch. I played Escape Plan with a bunch of GWJers. Mechanics and theme were well matched. Really agonizing decisions. But, we didn't know the rules. We made a lot of mistakes. It took a looooooog time. I knew it would play much faster next time! Now I have forgotten everything I learned and just remember how long it took to set up and play and the tablespace it occupies.

(6) Complexity is in the details. I looked at your cutoff of average 3 weight and it would remove a number of games I really love to play. Terraforming Mars, Gloomhaven, A Feast, Twilight Struggle, a dozen more. These are all games that are a blast to play once you learn enough that the veil of 40 options a turn ceases to be scary. Sometimes that is one play, others more. But there is a lot to that arbitrary number, in that often those games come with other things that I am just not in the mood to tackle - set up, longer teaching, etc. that means they don't get played as much. Do I want to play, at best, one game of Twilight Struggle that may be forced to end early or 3 games of Watergate + one other in the same time period?

(7) Good solo mode. Wingspan, Architects/Paladins of the West Kingdom, Marvel Champions are all in heavy play cycles for me now. All have very good multiplayer and solo gameplay. I can learn a game with a good solo mode that allows me to teach it more quickly with friends.

I tend to agree with everything you said bhchrist. Especially the set up part. It's one of the reasons I love gloomhaven on tabletop simulator so much. The set up time is negligible compared the main game.

Edit: The one caveat is I don't mind luck based games. Quacks of Quelidenburg(?) is one that I really enjoy because it's both luck based and requires some strategy.

Boudreaux wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

Has anyone here heard of Chaosmos? Last night I was browsing reddit/boardgames right before I fell asleep, and I came across a post about their Kickstarter for the new expansion. I was so tired I didn't even read the post, just left my phone on that page until this morning.

Now that I've read about it and watched some videos, I am super hot to trot! This game seems right up my alley. It's kind of an exploration and bluffing game, with some inspiration from Cosmic Encounter. It kind of seems like if you took Cosmic Encounter and built more of a game around those bones instead of just straight negotiation, etc. I backed it all-in, base game plus expansion plus upgrades.

Yes - Chaosmos came out several years ago and never really drew much attention. We played it a couple of times at a local con and immediately took a shine to it. It's unlike any other game I've ever played, and has a lot of rules and cards that are bonkers and can make the game very asymmetric. It does work best with more players. Cosmic Encounter is a good comparison point, it does have a similar approach.

Unique, truly indie games like this and Xia are pure catnip for me.

Maybe a curveball for this thread, but the wife and I tried out the Royal Game of Ur, thrown together with whatever was handy, and for a 4500 year-old game it's not bad.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/l8tgbx1.jpg)

The rules are vaguely backgammon-ish; the wiki goes into details. All you need is the board and bunch of two-sided markers (seven for each players as pieces, and four more to function as d2s - we used scrabble tiles). It's a good gambling game - more luck than skill, but there is strategy and every game is kind of different. One game takes 5-10 minutes.

All in all, worth the (minimal) effort.

bhchrist wrote:
Bubblefuzz wrote:

After getting into the games a couple years ago, I think am slowly finding my way now through all the thousands of choices. Genres and mechanics still learning maybe, but at least in terms of game complexity. Am thinking Middleweight, if bgg weight anything to go by at all average 3.0 is my sweet spot I reckon.

Anyone else find a preference for a type of game mechanic, complexity lvl, theme or whatever that they've discovered over time?

(6) Complexity is in the details. I looked at your cutoff of average 3 weight and it would remove a number of games I really love to play. Terraforming Mars, Gloomhaven, A Feast, Twilight Struggle, a dozen more. These are all games that are a blast to play once you learn enough that the veil of 40 options a turn ceases to be scary. Sometimes that is one play, others more. But there is a lot to that arbitrary number, in that often those games come with other things that I am just not in the mood to tackle - set up, longer teaching, etc. that means they don't get played as much. Do I want to play, at best, one game of Twilight Struggle that may be forced to end early or 3 games of Watergate + one other in the same time period?

Reading this and thinking on it a little more, it's less a cut off and more about a complexity level feel comfy with at group trying games for the first time, and confident will have it sussed by the end of that learning game. Also 3 would be an average I guess, thinking about what have played over last year or so - in my head this kind of weight has included Dino Island, Blood Rage, Inis, Bus, Pillars of the Earth, maybe Roll Player on the lower end, and stuff like Scythe and Great Western Trail on the higher end of that average.

That's not to say I don't enjoy trying heavier games, for example Co2 Second Chance, a great time, but had I got to grips with the rules and was it likely that game would get played soon enough I wouldn't have forgotten everything? No and it hasn't.

The lighter side too there are exceptions. I don't generally like party games, any game with Werewolf in the title for example it's going to be one of my least favourite games to play, but Just One I like. I enjoy lighter games like Splendor, Ticket to Ride also but those I get to play with family, so when with gaming friends or group then I like a bit more challenge.

Then there's solo gaming. Something I've grown to enjoy chilling with as much as video games, if not more so the recently. All of the above kind of goes out the window when soloing, where anything goes in terms of complexity. One of my favourite solo games to date have sampled has been Spirit Island on the higher end and other end I can happily go simpler with stuff don't have to think about too much with stuff like the oniverse series, or a couple PnP recently got into being Sprawlopolis and Orchard.

I've waffled, but basically on average that plucked 3.0 thinking about it is for a particular type of gaming situation. Multiplayer with a mix of folks. Games I can wrap my head around within a couple turns and get to actually play the game alongside the learning in that 60-120 minutes first play.

bhchrist wrote:
Bubblefuzz wrote:

Anyone else find a preference for a type of game mechanic, complexity lvl, theme or whatever that they've discovered over time?

(4) Set up time. This feels petty in theory, but this has really been a thing with me lately. A well-designed box or game that makes getting it to the table in a reasonable amount of time is really appreciated. I flipping love A Feast for Odin. I love it as a solo game. If I had a dedicated play space, I would play it a lot more. As is, I play it, leave it out on the kitchen table for as many days and my wife allows, then pack it up and forget about it again for a while, as it loses out to other quicker unbox and rebox games. Wingspan right now clicks a lot of that. It is also why there are some games I prefer to play on TTS over in person.

*poof* Time for a random post. I love this whole discussion topic! I also agree with most of what you laid out, bhchrist, but realized that I personally have a strong (not necessarily contradictory?) reaction to the issue of set up time. My very favorite game experiences involve unpacking all the bits from a stuffed box and setting them up in advance of an epic game session. Once a game like that is done (assuming games are over for the day) I enjoy methodically putting everything away in its place after everyone has left. It’s a privilege to have the time and space to do this—when the opportunity presents itself—and one that I savor nearly as much as the actual game time with friends and family. Scythe is my current favorite for this; just a couple weeks ago I got to play Runewars (1e.) for the first time in over a decade. Now that I think about it, it’s a lot like the enjoyment I get from preparing and cleaning up after meals prepared for friends and family. And of course, it’s possible to enjoy setup/cleanup but not have the opportunity to play the big, unwieldy games that require it, which is its own kind of bummer.
All that aside, I certainly admire games whose designers clearly considered ease of setup and cleanup, and the way those games fit more easily into our lives. Just also wanted to share my love of setting up those great big glorious games that take over the whole table and afternoon. Fun topic, and great responses! *foop*

Finn, move to Houston and I'll let you set up and put away all the games.