The Big Board-Gaming Catch-All

Feegle wrote:
MikeSands wrote:
Fredrik_S wrote:

I don't understand why not just use the general supply?

I think the economy is limited in order to model the population getting sick of all the factions engaged in civil war

The closed economy also leads to some pretty interesting gameplay. In one of our games, a player had a card with a really powerful ability that burned two favour. The same player was working on victory conditions that didn't really require them to have or use favour. They screwed the rest of us by essentially destroying the favour economy to the point where the rest of us couldn't really do what we needed to. (It wasn't a broken power, and it took time - they had to raise the favour, then burn it at a rate of one power use per turn - but we were all feeling the pinch.)

Ah. I think I get it. I really appreciate all the responses to my questions. I forwarded everything to my group and they are now excited to give it another try. The first, tutorial, play through was kind of a disaster, but you guys have reinvigorated their interest in it. Hopefully our next play of it goes better.

Cool, hope the next game is more fun, Fredrik_S

I tracked down a copy of Red Outpost which arrived yesterday. I'm quite looking forward to trying it out. If you haven't heard of it, it's a worker placement/production style game but with the twist that you are running a 1960s secret soviet space colony. The rules are packed with lots of neat bits to emphasize the communist theme (both good and bad), and it looks like most of your points will come from being the leader who makes the workers most happy. The art's also great, riffing on the heroic communist pastoral style all the way through.

Just got a FedEx notice from Hasbro HTS-Chino (Chino, CA) so I guess the reprint of HeroQuest is almost here. I’m not really excited about it—roll and move 80s mediocrity can’t be overcome by cool stuff and quests—but if I can use it as a warmup game for my kids I’ll feel far more confident they’ll be ready for me to finally break open Gloomhaven for them.

My copy of HeroQuest arrived today!

We tried out Oath again with all your suggestions and explanations and it went a LOT better this time. I think we got 95% of all the rules right and we all had fun this time. One of the players had figured out a really good economy and was set to strike out when one of the exiles found an advisor that when he targeted another player to banish and wins the target would lose all their secrets except one. Take that together with losing half of their favor it was devastating to their plans. The same player stole the royal scepter and made himself a citizen and won the game that way.

So yea.. we had a lot more fun this time and with your help and advice salvaged the game from being sold off. Oath's definitely going on the table again.

One question about the Chronicles. The player who won do they HAVE to be the chancellor next time we play or do they get first dib on it or just random like first game setup?

Unboxed 2021 print of HeroQuest Game System that arrived yesterday. Summary:

- it’s 1990 HeroQuest mechanically in all things such as rules, cards, quests
- there have been very very minor changes to some enemies like renaming and changing the figures of some
- the miniatures are all slightly larger and more robust. The doors are full solid plastic instead of narrow cardboard arches on top of plastic bases, so I’m confident they can take more abuse than the old ones
- there’s three new quest books, some new player characters, and new monsters, but maybe not part of the standard retail package.

It’s really pretty much just a reprint with better components and a bit more content. No major revisions out of the box. Poking around online, it seems like there’s 20 years of ideas on BGG and elsewhere to fix some of the systemic issues with the original rules such as the suggestion to replace 2d6 movement with d6+6 movement. Actually pretty excited to get my kids and a friend’s together and go through it with them.

Fredrik_S wrote:

One question about the Chronicles. The player who won do they HAVE to be the chancellor next time we play or do they get first dib on it or just random like first game setup?

It's just suggested. I have definitely found it enjoyable to do this (when possible).

Also great to hear you got more out of it the second go.

The legacy/chronicle element of Oath seems to really want the winner to be the next Chancellor, that's kind of the narrative of each game. Any sites controlled by the winner become the Cradle for the next game, their advisors drive the changes to the World deck, etc. That's also how some of the metagaming and kingmaking come into play - "If you help me become Chancellor, I'll reward you with Citizenship in the next game." That has come into play in several of our games.

Keithustus wrote:

Unboxed 2021 print of HeroQuest Game System that arrived yesterday. Summary:

- it’s 1990 HeroQuest mechanically in all things such as rules, cards, quests
- there have been very very minor changes to some enemies like renaming and changing the figures of some
- the miniatures are all slightly larger and more robust. The doors are full solid plastic instead of narrow cardboard arches on top of plastic bases, so I’m confident they can take more abuse than the old ones
- there’s three new quest books, some new player characters, and new monsters, but maybe not part of the standard retail package.

It’s really pretty much just a reprint with better components and a bit more content. No major revisions out of the box. Poking around online, it seems like there’s 20 years of ideas on BGG and elsewhere to fix some of the systemic issues with the original rules such as the suggestion to replace 2d6 movement with d6+6 movement. Actually pretty excited to get my kids and a friend’s together and go through it with them.

I got mine as well. I've played through the first two missions with my kids (5 1/2 and 4), obviously with a fair bit of adjusting of the rules Mostly I'm letting them know if they might have the option to cast a spell and I've been avoiding the roaming monsters and just letting them find treasure if they search. That said they've been having a lot of fun with it so far. My son has been asking for it daily!

Overall I think the quality is pretty good, although the figure trays are horrid. Many of the figures are far too difficult to get out. I've repurposed a plano box I had for my Descent 2nd edition monsters for this. Cardboard generally feels like standard Avalon Hill fare, meaning not terribly high quality. The minis are pretty awesome though and I love that they now have male and female versions of the heroes.

If I didn't have kids I would have not splurged on this, but I think we'll be able to have a lot of fun with it. Given the overall simplicity of the rules in the first place I find it much easier to on the fly tweak this to work with my younger kids over something more complex like Descent; it doesn't feel like we're losing the core "fun" of the game even with slimming it down a bit.

Fedaykin... Nevin... anyone... what is your take on Tainted Grail? I have it, but it's still in shrink and trying to decide on whether to keep it or unload it.

If you've played it, what do you think about it? What do you like or not like?

We still haven't finished Jaws of the Lion so don't need to start a new campaign game right now, but I reaaaaaaaaly want to open it if we're going to keep it.

-BEP

I wrote our first chronicle. I kinda wish I had used a ruler or something to keep the lines straighter. Oh well.

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FD32Rd3WYAM4tVW?format=jpg&name=medium)

The Chronicle in my set is way messier.

Your post inspired me to do some Oath stats! Turns out I've only played 14 games... seems like a few more!

7 oathkeeper victories, 4 visions, and 2 successors.
Seems like my table likes the oaths of supremacy and protection (5 each).
Added lots of arcane and discord, smattering of the others. Our empire is definitely lousy with wizards, so that tracks.

bepnewt wrote:

Fedaykin... Nevin... anyone... what is your take on Tainted Grail? I have it, but it's still in shrink and trying to decide on whether to keep it or unload it.

If you've played it, what do you think about it? What do you like or not like?

We still haven't finished Jaws of the Lion so don't need to start a new campaign game right now, but I reaaaaaaaaly want to open it if we're going to keep it.

-BEP

So is mine, I'm sorry to say. I haven't been in the headspace lately to dive into a game that complicated.

A couple of my friends picked up HeroQuest which meant that I didn't have to. Gonna be a few weeks before we all get together to play again but I'm looking forward to giving it a try.

One of them was telling me that since he knows our other friend will be opening his and he'll get to play that, he's thinking about just keeping his sealed. Honestly, that might not be a bad idea with the way game prices go these days. Which got me thinking, what's the most expensive board game you own? I know immediately that mine is Camp Grizzly with all the expansions, unfortunately not the Kickstarter exclusive stuff! I'll also never sale it, which makes it kind of a moot point.

Played Lords of Vegas (with expansion) this week, 4p. Brilliant fun, I've not played many games where random trading of pretty much anything you like is a thing.

I went all in on Return to Dark Tower, so when that arrives it will be my most expensive board game.

Got HeroQuest on the table for my 8 year old nephew. We started with The Rescue of Sir Ragnar and I had him run all 4 characters. Pretty successful play, Ragnar was rescued and we both had a good time.

Looking for suggestions:

My 10 year old is absolutely obsessed with maps and real life geography. Any suggestions on boardgames that would appeal to this? Preferably real world locations, but not a must.

El-Producto wrote:

Looking for suggestions:

My 10 year old is absolutely obsessed with maps and real life geography. Any suggestions on boardgames that would appeal to this? Preferably real world locations, but not a must.

Off the top of my head:

Real World Maps:
- Ticket to Ride(s)
- Pandemic
- Risk/Risk Legacy

Non-Real World:
- Carcassonne?

Create your Own:
- How to Host a Dungeon
- The Quiet Year

El-Producto wrote:

Looking for suggestions:

My 10 year old is absolutely obsessed with maps and real life geography. Any suggestions on boardgames that would appeal to this? Preferably real world locations, but not a must.

My suggestions probably lean a bit on the older side and are off the beaten track, but who knows what will light the fire?

I totally agree with Trachalio about Risk and Pandemic (any of the real-world variations). I would also suggest Conquest of Paradise, a 4x game set in ancient Polynesia and maybe just maybe the latest versions of the Milton Bradley Gamemaster series: Fortress America, Shogun (now Ikusa), and Conquest of the Empire. Those are made for younger players and have big, beautiful maps.

The Quiet Year is cool because in the process of playing, you and the other players draw a map.

Vote for Quiet year here too. My son and I played it a few times last year. Was good fun, allowed us to be very creative with story / map drawing. He's same age as your lad. I have a photo of one of our maps on my phone somewhere...

The 10 days series would be great, but I just checked and being out of print, they are going for too much money on eBay right now. Looks like you can get 10 days in the USA for not exorbitant $$ still, but the others are too pricy for what they are.

El-Producto wrote:

Looking for suggestions:

My 10 year old is absolutely obsessed with maps and real life geography. Any suggestions on boardgames that would appeal to this? Preferably real world locations, but not a must.

Maybe Sleeping Gods? You sail around a map of a fantasy world looking for a way home. Might be a little heavy for a ten year old, but the core of the game is story book encounters which they should be able to handle okay. Also there are a few stories that go to a more PG-13 sort of place too.

I'm actually thinking Risk.. he's playing a flash game called territorial.io that seems similar.

I haven't played Risk in ages, but I remember it being a bit one note... and long.

Simple game mechanics might be nice, how is the new Risk?

For general mappage I'm a fan of Cartographers. It's a flip-and-write game where each player draws their own maps based on the revealed patterns, trying to earn the most points. I enjoy a good map and I love the process of creating my own map in this game. Doesn't tie into the real world geography but hits on the map making side!

Not exactly real world geography but I do enjoy the map that gets created in Civilization: A New Dawn.

Some of my favorite maps come from the Railways of the World series, particularly the European map if you can find it.

Others are high on my list but they are not generally available right now.

El-Producto wrote:

I'm actually thinking Risk.. he's playing a flash game called territorial.io that seems similar.

I haven't played Risk in ages, but I remember it being a bit one note... and long.

The good news is they solved that problem. The folks at Hasbro took all they learned from the decade+ they spent making licensed variants and used that experience to overhaul the base game. The bad news is that edition had some issues with sub-par components and sold like absolute crap, so now I think they're back to the old one-note rules that take forever because that's a proven product. But if you can find the version where the army pieces are kind of confusing plastic arrows the rules are actually really solid.

Or just find those rules and use them with any copy of plain Risk... I expect they're online on some wiki or at Board Game Geek or something.

If your kid likes map and is starting to get into Geography, I think the "10 days in" series of games are fun.

Ugh.. well looks like they are out of print... going to leave this here anyways in case you can find one.

Vargen wrote:
El-Producto wrote:

I'm actually thinking Risk.. he's playing a flash game called territorial.io that seems similar.

I haven't played Risk in ages, but I remember it being a bit one note... and long.

The good news is they solved that problem. The folks at Hasbro took all they learned from the decade+ they spent making licensed variants and used that experience to overhaul the base game. The bad news is that edition had some issues with sub-par components and sold like absolute crap, so now I think they're back to the old one-note rules that take forever because that's a proven product. But if you can find the version where the army pieces are kind of confusing plastic arrows the rules are actually really solid.

Or just find those rules and use them with any copy of plain Risk... I expect they're online on some wiki or at Board Game Geek or something.

I believe it shouldn't be too hard to get a copy of Risk Legacy. I believe it is the first of the Legacy games to come out so there isn't a story component unless you make one up to explain how you nuked Australia that one time, for instance. It forever changes your board as well as adding a bunch of cool stuff. They revamped winning so it's a Victory Point system which can reduce the length, or you can always just go total conquest.