The Big Board-Gaming Catch-All

mumford wrote:

When the rest of the expansions and what not show up in October will it be worth it to go back into the game?

this is really odd to me.

if you don't think you are likely to still be playing the game after 6 months, you probably shouldn't get the expansions.

heck, you probably should not get the game at all.

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they just announced a few bundles for the optional buy-ins, in that you can order all of the game play ones for 120$ instead of 127$.

which seems a bit silly to me as a "deal" but hey any saving is a good saving, right? and apparently it lowers the shipping cost as well.

I'm still waiting and will make my final decision on the last day. my instinct/drive is to go all-in but since i'm between contracts right now, i'm being a bit more fiscally responsible(or at least pretending to be for another 2 days)

GrandmaFunk wrote:

this is really odd to me.

if you don't think you are likely to still be playing the game after 6 months, you probably shouldn't get the expansions.

heck, you probably should not get the game at all.

Hmm, let me try to elaborate on my thought process here.

It looks like 7th Continent is kind of like a big adventure game in which you're exploring this massive world. I'm super into that idea and it looks right up my alley. If I get the game in March I'm going to play it and get through at least one of the curses. Will my familiarity with the game impact my enjoyment of a follow up play through? There are different curses, but I'm not sure how much those change a given play through of the game.

Then, about six months later, the rest of the expansions and optional buys will come out. My understanding is you can drop those into the base game and it'll change things up a bit. There will also be new curses with additional areas to explore, along with that really big expansion that seems pretty substantial.

Is it worth it to play the base game without everything?

Based upon what I've read, people who've played the game from the first Kickstarter seem pretty into getting more expansions. That seems pretty promising, and has me leaning toward getting the core game in March and then revisiting when everything else comes out in October.

Got past the first part (after which you remove the tiles and start with a new one based on which direction you go) of the starter phase of 7th Continent on Saturday in a two person game with my friend. Plays really well with two people. Pretty much decided I will not get a copy of my own and we will just continue to play his copy. I may regret it later, but too many other games coming and I blew too much $ on the portable gaming table.

I also introduced him to the AHCG and he seemed to like it pretty well.

Lanterns or Karuba?

(for another family game)

One of my friends was able to snag a copy of Dead of Winter: Warring Colonies, and brought it to a game night we had with 9 people. Since most of us are fans of the 2 base games, it was almost mandatory to play it, here are my thoughts: First off, don't start it after people's bedtimes. Some rules changes are important, and there are plenty of new things to be aware of, so tired people might get snippy about missing a rule or have to be reminded of them a hundred times.
Some of the changes from the base game: You can no longer directly attack other Survivors. You don't put any Betrayal secret objectives into play. Two people are taking their turns at the same time. Your only move for each Survivor is done at the beginning of the player turns, and it alternates between the two colonies, moving one Survivor at a time. You can use your move action to go to one of the zombie spots at the enemy colony. Each colony gets 'Bullets' to be used as a representation of colonial strength. You can spend bullets to send other colony's survivors back to their home territory. After the players take their actions, there is a Colony Combat phase, where colony leaders use tactics cards, bullets, number of survivors and a combat dice roll to see who stays where.
With 9 players (or any odd number), we used the "Lone Wolf" variant, which keeps the number of people in each colony even. One player really wanted to do that role, so it worked out well for him, but I think he was feeling a little detached from the game after a while. He goes first in each round, and so has the longest wait time after his actions are done. He also has his own objective, drawn from a different set of secret objective piles, and three mission that he works on completing. He may contribute to the Crisis (which is global, across both colonies and the Lone Wolf), and has his own Morale value to worry about.
Our main objective was a cool one, we had to be king of the hill, with the hill being one of the 6 locations. We'd determine which colony was the winner of a location based on number of survivors there from each Colony. This would force a combat at that location every time we had a representative from each colony before deciding who would win, giving one last chance to kill or chase off the other side. This was a bit of a problem when considering the 'move opposing colony's survivor for 1 bullet' rule (and you can't move the active player's survivors) since one side (mine) had a lot more bullets than the other, and there is no way to respond to that pushing, which is especially bad on the last player's activation.
We called it a little early, because people were getting too tired, but one player was brand-new to the game, and he enjoyed it. The veteran players overall enjoyed it, but the chasing off mechanic was a bit problematic, and the set up took a long time (a big part of that is it being the first time playing). I liked it enough to get myself a copy of it, now I just need to figure out the best way to store it all for a quicker set up time.

mumford wrote:

One thing I'm pondering is do I just have everything ship with Wave 2, or should I get the core game in March so I can play that? When the rest of the expansions and what not show up in October will it be worth it to go back into the game?

If you've got plenty to keep you busy I'd just wait till wave 2. Honestly though, adding the expansions in at a later date is just fine. The base game is great and as you're playing more curses the expansion stuff will fit right in. Honestly learning the structure of the game and playing a curse or two with 0 expansions would be a good thing.

Skiptron wrote:
mumford wrote:

One thing I'm pondering is do I just have everything ship with Wave 2, or should I get the core game in March so I can play that? When the rest of the expansions and what not show up in October will it be worth it to go back into the game?

If you've got plenty to keep you busy I'd just wait till wave 2. Honestly though, adding the expansions in at a later date is just fine. The base game is great and as you're playing more curses the expansion stuff will fit right in. Honestly learning the structure of the game and playing a curse or two with 0 expansions would be a good thing.

Cool, perfect. Was planning on pulling this out with my wife in the evenings. I'm running through the print and play from the first Kickstarter to see how it works. Looks pretty nifty so far.

I work at an art school library, and we have a small, very small, board game collection for student use. I want to fill it out, and may have some leeway to do so. But I need your help!

There are three categories of games that I think would be valuable for this collection: gateway games, games with art themes, and games with notable art/graphic design. I've come up with these longlists:

Gateway games

Spoiler:

7 Wonders
Carcassonne
Citadels
Codenames
Coup: Deluxe Edition
Dixit
Forbidden Island
Hive
King of Tokyo
Love Letter
One Night Ultimate Werewolf
Pandemic
Skull
Small World
Stone Age
Takenoko
Ticket to Ride

Art-themed games

Spoiler:

A Fake Artist Goes to New York
Fresco
The Gallerist
Hungry Hungry Hipsters (well, it's art-student-themed)
Kanagawa
Modern Art

Games with notable art/graphic design

Spoiler:

...and then we held hands
Cave Evil
Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards
The Mushroom Eaters
Tokaido
Tsuro

Now I ask you if you have any recommendations?

Cottage Garden would be a good addition.

Ascension for your notable art/graphic design category The early sets especially.

Bubblefuzz wrote:

Lanterns or Karuba?

(for another family game)

Both are good, but if you want only one I would definitely go Karuba. More replayable, more interesting for whole families.

Gravey, a few thoughts:

Gateway Games have become almost too large a category to mention, but a few additions would be:

Kingdomino
Karuba
Kingdom Builder

and I'd probably take away

Hive
Small World

For notable art/graphic design:

Archipelago
Sagrada
Inis (easily the best choice for this list)
Dixit, again
Mysterium
Mage Knight
Seasons or Lords of Dixit
Catacombs (3rd ed.) or Catacombs & Castles for something more whimsical

I would include Pret-a-Poter for games about Art (fashion).

I would add Isarabi, Dixit (or Mysterium), and Toakido for art and graphic design.

Also including Cave Evil - awesome!

For the Art-Themed games, I feel like I must mention Bob Ross: Art of Chill Game

I'd suggest Abyss for the art, but then again, I don't know what art styles you folks go for.

Gateway, essential, I wasn't sure what to call it. A set of games for non-gamers to enjoy themselves and see what the hobby has to offer (we already have a copy of Catan).

For art, I'm open to all suggestions and interpretations. Personally, anything by Naïade should be a shoe-in, but I think the overlap for "great art in a board game" and "great art for an art school" would be pretty slim.

Graphic design, I think, is an easier sell: games that are exercises in clear and effective graphic design are, I would suggest, valuable for students to see another medium where their skills are used (or, more often, sorely needed).

Gravey wrote:

Gateway, essential, I wasn't sure what to call it. A set of games for non-gamers to enjoy themselves and see what the hobby has to offer (we already have a copy of Catan).

For art, I'm open to all suggestions and interpretations. Personally, anything by Naïade should be a shoe-in, but I think the overlap for "great art in a board game" and "great art for an art school" would be pretty slim.

Graphic design, I think, is an easier sell: games that are exercises in clear and effective graphic design are, I would suggest, valuable for students to see another medium where their skills are used (or, more often, sorely needed).

I would add Splendor and/or Century: Spice Road to the gateway. I second Inis (in a big big way), Dixit, and Mysterium for design, along with Cottage Garden and King Domino for both categories.

As a designer working in print studios / freelance for a long old time now, I'm finding the art and graphic design of games fascinating. Having only really looked at board games again in the last year or two I feel I've missed out on so much and am loving the catch up. Even if not playing as much as would like am at least enjoying the exploring of the design involved.

Print might be struggling these days, but something I've always enjoyed working with is it's tactile nature. You name it, interesting stocks, different laminations, spot UV, embossing etc, etc. I have alway been keen to explore in day to day design (if the client can afford it ). I'm enjoying the same thing about the games am trying out for the first time. The feel of the print finishes and componenets are as appealing a design element as the look of it all for me.

Gravey wrote:

Graphic design, I think, is an easier sell: games that are exercises in clear and effective graphic design are, I would suggest, valuable for students to see another medium where their skills are used (or, more often, sorely needed).

Pretty much covered it here, but to me there is a difference between being lush to look at and being good design. For a design student, should be all about the UI.

On the look of games, even with my very limited exposure I can spot a game that has had a non designer, maybe even the illustrator do the graphic design, which here and there appears to be an afterthought. Mostly only little things that probably would only niggle a few, but it seems to be there for sure. Bad fonts, element placement and spacing next to as pretty a picture as you like, it's going to look off.

Taking a look at your Gateway style games Gravey I'd say at least some could definitely double up in the graphics group. You've listed many of those because they are so easy to pick up and understand, an important part of that probably because of the user friendly art and design... I guess?

An example I'd suggest adding to the introductory games / good graphic design combo would be Quirkle. Those tiles = bold, tactile, easy visuals with an entry level game.

If I was being pretentious, I can do that... I'd bring up Monopoly again... A brand and board so recognisable, even when it's attached to such a tedious game, has to be doing something right on the graphic design front. Oh and the humble deck of regular playing cards. Not that you'll want to add those to a lending collection!

Probably uninformed waffling on the gaming front, but genuinely am finding this all interesting. Let us know how it goes Gravey.

For some reason I think Castles of Mad King Ludwig will fit in the graphic design category.

I'd second Abyss and Dixit for the beautiful illustrations.
And add Scythe.

For-Ex is now available. It centers around international currency exchange and embracing butterfly-effect mechanisms that require planning contracts several turns in the future. The creator calls it "too nerdy and niche even for 18XX gamers." It's one of those weird games that piques my interest in spite of appearing to be the driest game imaginable.

Delbin wrote:

For-Ex is now available. It centers around international currency exchange and embracing butterfly-effect mechanisms that require planning contracts several turns in the future. The creator calls it "too nerdy and niche even for 18XX gamers." It's one of those weird games that piques my interest in spite of appearing to be the driest game imaginable.

My primary gaming group is drooling over it (even though we mostly dislike 18xx games).

I was with you right up to international currenc..zzzzzz

Nope. No use! Can't get through the title without drifting off. You have fun though :p

I love the everliving s#it out of this game in theory. Not sure I want to play it in practice.

Zwickle wrote:

And add Scythe.

Oh goodness, how did I forget that? Yes, absolutely.

Delbin wrote:

For-Ex is now available. It centers around international currency exchange and embracing butterfly-effect mechanisms that require planning contracts several turns in the future. The creator calls it "too nerdy and niche even for 18XX gamers." It's one of those weird games that piques my interest in spite of appearing to be the driest game imaginable.

IMAGE(https://media1.giphy.com/media/V4Qwt8nNaf2xO/giphy.gif)

Minarchist wrote:
Zwickle wrote:

And add Scythe.

Oh goodness, how did I forget that? Yes, absolutely.

I was genuinely surprised that it hadn't been mentioned yet.

So far Charterstone and Pandemic Legacy season 2 reviews are all very positive!

I'm stoked from Charterstone. I'm desperately hoping that it gives me the game experience I wanted from Seafall.

Does anyone want a copy of the Evolution video game? Kickstarter backer survey is out so I have one copy to give away. It’s your choice of either a beta copy now or a release copy next spring, and either iOS, Android, or Steam (PC or Mac). PM me with a sentence on why Evolution is such an awesome game and I’ll pick my favourite or randomly or something (non-grinders only).

Edit: Awarded! Thanks for the sentences!