The Big Board-Gaming Catch-All

Keithustus wrote:

Looks like I can finally try Spirit Island: https://www.pcgamer.com/co-op-board-...
Has anyone tried this Steam edition?

Yes, it's pretty decent. It was rough in early access but they seem to have polished it up nicely with the 1.0 release.
Missing still are expansions and online play but both are on their roadmap.

Personally I'm really looking forward to Branch & Claw being on there because it's a lot of fiddly components in person–I strongly suspect the steam version will be the better way to play it. Well, once you can do multiplayer anyhow.

Keithustus wrote:

Looks like I can finally try Spirit Island: https://www.pcgamer.com/co-op-board-...
Has anyone tried this Steam edition?

I haven't played the digital version yet but I've watched my friend stream a couple of games since the 1.0 release and it looks very good. My friend also has the physical version and knows the game well. He mainly plays solo and hasn't brought out the physical version since getting the digital one.

There is a positive and detailed review over on Pixelated Cardboard https://www.pixelatedcardboard.com/s...

Wow. Spirit island has been one of my go to games for solo play in the last couple of months. I kinda like the tactile fiddliness with the physical components.

Prozac wrote:

Wow. Spirit island has been one of my go to games for solo play in the last couple of months. I kinda like the tactile fiddliness with the physical components.

Yeah, I can understand that. But I find there's enough components that it becomes a problem with the physcial game: things like remembering which colonists have activated, and that you need to pull an event each turn*, and the effects of the disease/wilds/ragefist tokens.

* Just a random example and certainly not because in my last game both me and the other player totally forgot about events even with the deck sitting right in front of us.

Prozac wrote:
chooka1 wrote:

I picked up Champions of Midgard the other day during the Amazon board games sale.

You didn't happen to get the Valhalla expansion did you?

It offsets a Lot of teh negative that people could find in this game and makes it pretty awesome.

Not yet. We played our first game. The family liked it but, initially, Lords of Waterdeep still the favorite worker placement. We will play Midgard again this week. I’ve read positive reviews of Valhalla with the caveat it makes the game longer.

MikeSands wrote:
Prozac wrote:

Wow. Spirit island has been one of my go to games for solo play in the last couple of months. I kinda like the tactile fiddliness with the physical components.

Yeah, I can understand that. But I find there's enough components that it becomes a problem with the physcial game: things like remembering which colonists have activated, and that you need to pull an event each turn*, and the effects of the disease/wilds/ragefist tokens.

* Just a random example and certainly not because in my last game both me and the other player totally forgot about events even with the deck sitting right in front of us.

We've played the physical version twice with very mixed results. Ultimately, the fiddliness kept jerking us out of the world of the game, so for me the PC adaptation may work better (at least solo).

I won a copy of Reavers of Midguard. Anyone know if it's worthwhile, or if I should just sell it?

We played the "intro" case file of Hellboy on family game night. Let's just say it was not fun. It felt like a slog.
We gave up after we had trouble figuring out how to manage the Confrontation. To be fair, however, we were all kind of tired when we started the game.

We'll probably give another case file a go before I decide to sell it but I'll have to watch a bunch more "How-To" videos before we do. What are other people's thoughts on the game?

Nevin73 wrote:

We played the "intro" case file of Hellboy on family game night. Let's just say it was not fun. It felt like a slog.
We gave up after we had trouble figuring out how to manage the Confrontation. To be fair, however, we were all kind of tired when we started the game.

We'll probably give another case file a go before I decide to sell it but I'll have to watch a bunch more "How-To" videos before we do. What are other people's thoughts on the game?

I gave it a try at gencon last year and the impressions were not favorable. Especially since we were right in the middle of gloomhaven and every dungeon crawler game got compared to the mighty GH.

trichy wrote:

I won a copy of Reavers of Midguard. Anyone know if it's worthwhile, or if I should just sell it?

I haven't played it personally, but I would recommend watching a how-to-play, or a let's-play, video to see if the game holds interest for you. I find myself doing that a lot lately to avoid purchasing games that don't jive with me.

Think we're done with gloomhaven. Basically reached the end. It lost a lot of it's shine over time but we still got a lot of play out of it.

Nevin73 wrote:

We'll probably give another case file a go before I decide to sell it but I'll have to watch a bunch more "How-To" videos before we do. What are other people's thoughts on the game?

I enjoy it, but that's as much due to being a Hellboy fan as anything else.

There's certainly certain characters who make much better teams, so that might be a factor. Taking Hellboy and Johann as the first two is a great combo (Hellboy for fighting/surviving and Johann for investigating clues). The other thing is that you generally need to move fast and try to push towards your objectives aggressively. Taking it slow generally means you go into the final confrontation with a worse starting state.

I don't recall the first scenario being very challenging when I first played it myself (some of the others sure are).

Apropos of PC adaptations of boardgames, I've been playing quite a bit of Blocks! Richard III, which is a favorite wargame of mine, though it has its share of issues. I've played through about ten games, and its at once really nifty and also the implementation is bizarrely inept. It isn't just crappy AI....it's a host of mistakes. I sent the developer a host of notes and we'll see what happens. They've already published Julius Caesar and Hammer of the Scots is out now in Early Access.

I will never understand how often board game digital adaptations are so poorly done. There are so many quality releases on PC/IOS, but an equal and baffling amount of crap releases where you can tell the developer basically took the money and ran. Or, in this case, maybe the developer just has to get up to speed. It's frustrating when a great game has been digitized (wonderful!) but remains undercooked, and is unlikely ever to receive the proper attention. Poor Blood Rage!

This Twilight Imperium skeptic has signed up for a 6-player bloodbath over VASSAL (TI4), so we'll see where that goes. Maybe the best way to play the TI games is digitally, despite all the beautiful sculpts.

Played our first game of the much-anticipated Scooby-Doo: Betrayal at Mystery Mansion today. The gang won pretty easily, but I think that was intentional. We were playing one of the simplest /easiest haunts. In this game, you pre-select one of five mysteries, which each randomly lead to one of five haunts.

High marks from the kids! I wish there were more cards and tiles, but it's going to be good for several fun sessions, and that's all you can ask.

Natus wrote:

Apropos of PC adaptations of boardgames, I've been playing quite a bit of Blocks! Richard III, which is a favorite wargame of mine, though it has its share of issues. I've played through about ten games, and its at once really nifty and also the implementation is bizarrely inept. It isn't just crappy AI....it's a host of mistakes. I sent the developer a host of notes and we'll see what happens. They've already published Julius Caesar and Hammer of the Scots is out now in Early Access...

I've recently had my eye on the digital adaptation of the Blocks! games from this developer (I have't played the physical games). It's a shame there are the issues you mention. I wonder if the later ones have improved or they will fix the issues you fed back to them?
Are the issues game breaking or is the game still worth playing, since I don't own the physical game? I'd be keen to hear if you get a response from the devs.

Neutrino wrote:
Natus wrote:

Apropos of PC adaptations of boardgames, I've been playing quite a bit of Blocks! Richard III, which is a favorite wargame of mine, though it has its share of issues. I've played through about ten games, and its at once really nifty and also the implementation is bizarrely inept. It isn't just crappy AI....it's a host of mistakes. I sent the developer a host of notes and we'll see what happens. They've already published Julius Caesar and Hammer of the Scots is out now in Early Access...

I've recently had my eye on the digital adaptation of the Blocks! games from this developer (I have't played the physical games). It's a shame there are the issues you mention. I wonder if the later ones have improved or they will fix the issues you fed back to them?
Are the issues game breaking or is the game still worth playing, since I don't own the physical game? I'd be keen to hear if you get a response from the devs.

So this is tough for me to answer, since I love the series and I have most of the Columbia Games designs, including East Front and Rommel in the Desert. I even playtested Richard III, which I adore simply because it's War of the Roses; Julius Caesar and Hammer of the Scots are actually stronger designs. So if the games go on sale, by all means grab them if they meet your price point. For now, they are great looking with real problems under the hood., which is fine for HotS since it's Early Access. There's no excuse for the issues R3 has, and so I've been posting on BGG, Steam, and Avalon Digital's forums to urge them to clean up their act. I have hopes they'll create some great digital block games, but look what HexWar did with Commands & Colors: Ancients and Asmodee Digital did with Terraforming Mars. Those are amazing games the developers never really got right, why I don't know.

Thanks for you reply and feedback Natus.

I will definitely keep an eye on the Blocks! games and perhaps wait for a sale before I take the plunge. Having read the Steam discussions for Blocks! Richard III it seems that the series is currently made by a single external developer for Avalon, perhaps explaining somewhat the time it is taking to fix issues.

This is what Avalon said back in May about their plans for the Block! series:

"the Blocks! team is made of one dev, plus support from us and CG on other aspects such as marketing, content, localization etc...

Clearly, this is not enough, and the team is rather understaffed in view of the number and flow of players questions and reactions. That is the main reason for the accumulated delays on the improvements to be done or on the release of the future titles.

We have discussed the situation with CG and agreed that we need to add new resources to the team, to bring more churning out power and address the various points and questions."

Original post here: Our Organization and Future Plans for Blocks!

It seems they have got the message, so let's hope they fix the issues that you and others have had playing their games.

Hi all, the recent susd video and a deep and abiding love of through the desert has lead me to want to try Go. Does anyone here play and have any recommended friendly sites to play on for a stone cold absolute beginner? Thank you!

I refreshed a few years ago with an award-winning program that you might have seen, "Many Faces of Go", but never stuck with it. The author has an app version, called "Igowin", which has a free demo, and both are recommended by the American Go Association. Igowin has a good teaching module that assumes you know nothing, and you start on 9x9 boards, as is traditional.

I received my kickstarted Mayday Games Crokinole board last night and invited a friend over for some social distanced test games. And oh, boy. I can see myself going whole hog into this game. I ordered some wax and some gliss powder for to create a smoother surface, but the two games we played were incredibly fun.

It's easy enough that I can get my kids into the game with no problem and have fun flicking pieces around, but it definitely takes on a new level of strategy when playing against someone good. Lots of small strategy choices to make every turn. The games are fast and furious and when you get into that groove and sink 3 shots into the hole in a row it feels incredible.

It's been a long time since I was this excited about a board game.

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ee3QV4fXsAgBIZK?format=jpg&name=large)

Crokinole is awesome. Have not played it since college, though. No board.

I looked at that crokinole kickstarter, but I couldn't see spending that much on a game I've never played. I'm interested in it, but I've never had the opportunity. I wonder if there's crokinole at PAX South somewhere, and I've just never seen it.

If you like shuffleboard, bocce, curling, lawn bowling, even croquet, or any similar games, crokinole will appeal to you. Just be aware, that board is 30" (about 75cm) across. You'll need a level card table or the like to play, although you could just put it on the floor. Scoring is dead easy, rules are simple, and competition is cut-throat and heart-breaking. A far better family game than Monopoly, that's for sure...

Crokinole is apparently a bit like Euchre, in that it's super popular and common in Canada and the Midwest, and more of a curiosity outside of that region.

I just played a first game of Forgotten Waters last night.

My goodness, it was fun (and funny). I really didn't expect that the story writing and voice acting in the app could work so well to draw you into the game and make it thrilling. And the humour in the story is genuinely funny - we had many laugh out loud moments at things that happened to our ridiculous pirates along the way. Very recommended.

The actual gameplay is simple: trying to gain treasures and certain skills for your pirate, selecting actions for the current location/situation you are in, and tracking various supplies. Action resolution is usually roll a die and add your skill to see how well you do and what happens. I think it's about the right level of lightness - any more and it would be too much to deal with on top of the story elements.

bbk1980 wrote:

Hi all, the recent susd video and a deep and abiding love of through the desert has lead me to want to try Go. Does anyone here play and have any recommended friendly sites to play on for a stone cold absolute beginner? Thank you!

I've recently started learning Go (timely SU&SD video!) I've only viewed a few learning videos on YouTube and I'm currently playing a game with my experienced Go friend on boardgamearena.com (the YouTube videos I watched are linked from the BGA site).

I'll have to check out the app Robear mentioned. Here's the BGA link where you can find some others to have a game with once you have the basics down https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel...

Thanks both. I am downloading igowin now before embarking on getting trounced on 9x9 grids for quite a while.

I tried Igowin Pro and found it pretty terrible for trying to learn from scratch, you can only play games, there are no lessons or training. Also it was designed for a phone screen so it can only do the crappy scale-up for tablets. I submitted for a refund.

I think Igowin HD is meant for tablets but I dont know if it has any better learning material.

Igowin Tutor was apparently a learning app but it's not available on my iPad.

Oh, that's bad news. Pretty sure that was the learning part of Many Faces that I liked so much...

It probably just needs to be recompiled for the newest iOSseses but their last updates for HD and Pro were 4 and 2 years ago respectively.