Board Games

[bob]

Curious what everyone's take is on Discover: Lands Unknown:

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/e...-landing-page/

Apart from the game itself, the "selling" point is that every copy of the game is unique. From their website:

"While mechanics and some common components like meeples will be the same in every copy of the game, the vast majority of the cards, tiles, and tokens in your box will be randomized, selected from a vast pool of possible components. When you open your copy of Discover: Lands Unknown, you can never be sure what you'll find inside, and the combination will be different from every other copy in the world. In other words, Unique Games aren't like Legacy Games, which start with identical components, but become unique through gameplay. Unique Games have their own distinct mix of components in every box!"

Seems to me like a way to try to get people to buy multiple copies.

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by bob

Curious what everyone's take is on Discover: Lands Unknown:

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/e...-landing-page/

Apart from the game itself, the "selling" point is that every copy of the game is unique. From their website:

"While mechanics and some common components like meeples will be the same in every copy of the game, the vast majority of the cards, tiles, and tokens in your box will be randomized, selected from a vast pool of possible components. When you open your copy of Discover: Lands Unknown, you can never be sure what you'll find inside, and the combination will be different from every other copy in the world. In other words, Unique Games aren't like Legacy Games, which start with identical components, but become unique through gameplay. Unique Games have their own distinct mix of components in every box!"

Seems to me like a way to try to get people to buy multiple copies.

I'd also worry about balance. It is hard enough to get good balance in a limited/controlled universe. One overpowered card/piece combo can easily break a game.

It seems pretty impossible to design a game that would have necessary balance when you are randomly putting in pieces/cards/tiles from a huge pool.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by bob

Curious what everyone's take is on Discover: Lands Unknown:

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/e...-landing-page/

Apart from the game itself, the "selling" point is that every copy of the game is unique. From their website:

"While mechanics and some common components like meeples will be the same in every copy of the game, the vast majority of the cards, tiles, and tokens in your box will be randomized, selected from a vast pool of possible components. When you open your copy of Discover: Lands Unknown, you can never be sure what you'll find inside, and the combination will be different from every other copy in the world. In other words, Unique Games aren't like Legacy Games, which start with identical components, but become unique through gameplay. Unique Games have their own distinct mix of components in every box!"

Seems to me like a way to try to get people to buy multiple copies.

Like legacy this past year, unique seems to be the keyword for upcoming products. Dice Tower has talked a lot about Keyforge, a collectible card game with uniquely named characters in each deck. Seems more like a money grab to me than an twist on board game rules, but we shall see.



KeyForge First Impressions - with Tom Vasel | The Dice Tower


Sam vs. Tom: Keyforge | The Dice Tower

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by bob

Curious what everyone's take is on Discover: Lands Unknown:

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/e...-landing-page/

Apart from the game itself, the "selling" point is that every copy of the game is unique. From their website:

"While mechanics and some common components like meeples will be the same in every copy of the game, the vast majority of the cards, tiles, and tokens in your box will be randomized, selected from a vast pool of possible components. When you open your copy of Discover: Lands Unknown, you can never be sure what you'll find inside, and the combination will be different from every other copy in the world. In other words, Unique Games aren't like Legacy Games, which start with identical components, but become unique through gameplay. Unique Games have their own distinct mix of components in every box!"

Seems to me like a way to try to get people to buy multiple copies.

I'll just have to shake my head at this and move on without taking a serious look at it.

[Thomkal]

Pandemic now available on Steam for $10.

[tarcone]

If you are around St Louis today, Miniature Market is having a garage sale at their Manchester location. 10-10 today and 10-5 tomorrow.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by MIJB#19

I'll just have to shake my head at this and move on without taking a serious look at it.

My impression as well.

[Thomkal]

Humble Bumble has a Digital Tabletop Bundle for the next couple weeks. Includes Talisman and a couple of expansions, Pathfinder, Carcassone, Armello (if you pay $10), Sentinels of the Multiverse and a expansion, Ticket To Ride pack with several DLC's, Mysterium. Pretty good deal for $10 or less.

[henry296]

Any thoughts on Stockpile? The app version came out today and seems like a game I would like.

[tarcone]

One game I really enjoy is Star Trek: Fleet Captains. Lots of fun in that game. It uses the hero clix system, so you get some fantastic miniatures.
It is OOP and costs around $130 for the base (Federation and Klingons) and 2 expansions (Romulans and Dominion)

It is card assisted.

The other game I played recently and really liked was Brass: LanLancashire. It is a pure economic game. Fun game also.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I've got a Kickstarter game arriving in a couple months that I backed. It's a new retro version of the Fireball Island game from the '80s.

Kickstarter

[Carman Bulldog]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

I've got a Kickstarter game arriving in a couple months that I backed. It's a new retro version of the Fireball Island game from the '80s.

Kickstarter

Let me know how it is. I wavered back and forth quite a bit on that. I'm not sure what the game play will be like and whether the nostalgia factor where where off quickly. I'll probably pick it up eventually.

[AnalBumCover]

Sentinels of the Multiverse is on sale at Steam for $0.99 (99% off)

I screwed up and bought a 5-pack, thinking I was getting a bundle that included some ex-pacs. Instead, I found myself with 5 copies of the base game.

Since I'm still getting a good price on this game, I'm letting others benefit from my error. I'll gift away my other 4 copies to whomever PMs me their email address or Steam account.

[PilotMan]

PM sent


My message sent prematurely. You can use my steam of Topper too.

[AnalBumCover]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

PM sent


My message sent prematurely. You can use my steam of Topper too.

Let me know if you got it. I sent it to the email address on the PM.

[PilotMan]

Yep got it. Thanks

[NobodyHere]

So I was thinking of getting a board game for mostly solo play. Between Mage Knight and Gloomhaven which do you recommended? I was thinking of maybe Imperial Assault as well.

Also feel free to make any recommendations.

[Carman Bulldog]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

So I was thinking of getting a board game for mostly solo play. Between Mage Knight and Gloomhaven which do you recommended? I was thinking of maybe Imperial Assault as well.

Star Trek: Frontiers re-implements Mage Knight. I've never played it, but it gives you options as far as themes go.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

So I was thinking of getting a board game for mostly solo play. Between Mage Knight and Gloomhaven which do you recommended? I was thinking of maybe Imperial Assault as well.

Also feel free to make any recommendations.

Gloomhaven. Hands down.

[Danny]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

So I was thinking of getting a board game for mostly solo play. Between Mage Knight and Gloomhaven which do you recommended? I was thinking of maybe Imperial Assault as well.

Also feel free to make any recommendations.

How often will you be playing? Gloomhaven is a game I'd only recommend if you're going to play it regularly and get into the campaign

[Warhammer]

Gloomhaven I have not played, would love to, but I have heard it works better with a group. I can definitely vouch for Mage Knight being a very good solo game.

One of the things I like about Mage Knight, even if you know how to play it, it can still be tough to win due to luck of the draw and the map. Many other solo games, once you figure out the system you can crank out wins.

Another good solo game is Agricola. Yes, it is like old arcade games in which you try to beat your high score, but it is still very good.

[bob]

I don't normally listen to this podcast, so I'm not sure how good their takes normally are, but So Very Wrong About Games was pretty brutal with its review of Discover Lands Unknown.

[AnalBumCover]

Anyone get their hands on Arkham Horror Third Edition Board Game yet?

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by AnalBumCover

Anyone get their hands on Arkham Horror Third Edition Board Game yet?

I did! I actually got two by accident.

I haven't had a chance to play it yet, but I did read through the rules. To me, it looks like it's a combination of Akrham 2.0, Mansions of Madness, and Eldritch Horror. It borrows elements from all three games and combines them.

I'm really looking forward to playing it. Arkham 2.0 remains my favorite board game of all time. For all of its fiddliness and everything, I still love it and have played it over 40+ times.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by bob

I don't normally listen to this podcast, so I'm not sure how good their takes normally are, but So Very Wrong About Games was pretty brutal with its review of Discover Lands Unknown.

I'm waiting for the Dice Tower to review it-what did the podcast say about it?

[Shkspr]

Originally Posted by bob

I don't normally listen to this podcast, so I'm not sure how good their takes normally are, but So Very Wrong About Games was pretty brutal with its review of Discover Lands Unknown.

They probably just got the wrong cards in their set.

[Fidatelo]

I picked up Spirit Island yesterday, looking forward to trying it out soon solo.

[bob]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

I'm waiting for the Dice Tower to review it-what did the podcast say about it?

They did go out of their way to not spoil for those that care, but among their complaints:

1. No real narrative
2. Each terrain gets two scenarios, but they were very similar so the 2nd scenario felt pointless, so end result was not enough game for the price
3. The 5th scenario that is competitive was really awful
4. None of main parts of the game (resource management, crafting, combat) was any good
5. The unique thing didn't add to the game at all, and they speculated that it may have just been done as a trial run for piecing together unique games prior to the release of keyforge, which they expect to be a big money maker.

The other two things they said is their most fun was during scenario 5 because that meant they would never have to play this game again, and it receives their "Seafall of the Year" award.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by bob

"Seafall of the Year"

That's enough reason to go watch that review.
YouTube gives it as the #1 suggestion to watch.

[bob]

Dice Tower was not a fan.

And Fantasy Flight is having to recall some KeyForge decks for unfortunate generated names.

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/e.../archon-names/

[Shkspr]

The whole unique mechanic in Discover seems like it makes the game basically play out like a legacy game that skips past the part where the gaming group customizes their play components. As though the developers could have shipped the game with all the cards and tiles, and let the first few plays of the game determine which subset of components the purchasers end up with in the final post-legacy set, but they didn't want to spend the extra cash to ship all those components.

Speaking of Legacy games, Betrayal was released today, apparently. IGN has a walkthrough of the prologue and first chapter up on YouTube, and Amazon is offering the game for $60. I never upgraded from the first edition to the second, so I've got this coming Tuesday. Hopefully, It's something my brother in law and wife will enjoy playing more than once a year.

[Thomkal]

I've seen the Dice Tower review on Discover now, disappointed to see how it plays after so much hype. Ah well maybe Keyforge will be good...

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by bob

Dice Tower was not a fan.

And Fantasy Flight is having to recall some KeyForge decks for unfortunate generated names.

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/e.../archon-names/

That's just plain horrible. With both games.

Tom Vasel's review didn't even go deep into the random content bit (going in, I expected that to be the disappointing element)), it sounded like his/their main complaints made it sound like this game is just as random as the Game of Goose, Chutes & Ladders, or whatever there is no decision making involved as randomness is the only factor that determines what happens.

Randomness of events during play should be determined by a combination of the decision making of the players and standard randomizer elements inside a game: dice, a deck of cards, a bag with tokens, or whatever it is, as long as it's exactly the same in every copy of the game.
A board game that's designed as a pack of Panini stickers, a Pokémon Go egg or some such where you don't know in advance what you will get, that's either designed to milk the customer in buying a gazillion of copies or is bound to be a major disappointment for people that end up with inferior games compared to others, or feel like they didn't get the full experience with their sole copy.

* shake head, again, again, again, and yet one more time *

[Danny]

Discover lands unknown looks like a super mediocre game made worse by trying to make every game unique.

Keyforge looks like a very good game and the unique system works pretty wrll for that. The recall doesnt seem like a big deal as its only not allowed in tournament play (you can keep it and probably should, it may be valuable if the game really takes off).

[Fidatelo]

I took my sons (8 and 9) to a Keyforge pre-release event yesterday and we each picked up an archon deck. We all really enjoy it, and have played several times since. I'm still not really able to evaluate the relative strength of the random decks, since I'm playing with kids. They've picked up the game quite well, but I still like to think that I can out-play them

[Thomkal]

Dice Tower reviews Keyforge-Starter Set


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uujnHrxYV4

[MIJB#19]

Yesterday I went to the biggest board games fair of the Netherlands.

Actually noticed Discover Lands Unknown at one of the demo tables. It looked as much as a prototype as it did in the Dice Tower review. I didn't have any desire to try it though.

Another hyped game did blow me and the rest of the gang away. The Mind was, well, mindblowing. Shockingly it was the only purchase I made.

How to Rob a Bank was okay and we had a lot of fun with Just One (which was the only other purchase in our group). Other games that we tried were either "meh" (Dixit, Anchors Aweigh), plain horrible (Conex, Forbidden City) or "hilarious now, but will it stand the test of times?" (Shit Happens: 50 Shades of Shit).

[Thomkal]

Well don't leave us hanging MIJB, tell us about the Mind

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Well don't leave us hanging MIJB, tell us about the Mind

I don't want to steal MIJB's thunder, but from the last page of this thread:

Played an interesting new game this evening called "The Mind." It's a cooperative game with a deck of cards numbered 1 to 100. For the first round, everyone is dealt one card. In any order they would like, players play cards to the middle of the table with the goal of playing all cards in ascending order. If anyone ever plays a card out of order (that is, lower than the last played card), the team loses one of their four lives and play continues with the out of order card being the current card. The only exception to this is the "throwing star" - the team starts with one, and at any time a player can raise their hand, indicating they want to use it. If all other players agree and raise their hands as well, everyone discards their lowest numbered card. Once everyone is out of cards, if the team has any lives left the round is over and you proceed to the next round - whereupon each player gets two cards (round three is three cards, etc). After successfully beating certain rounds you earn additional lives (I think 2 and 5) and other rounds earn you additional throwing stars (1 and 6, I believe). If you make it through 8 rounds, you win.

The catch is that you cannot communicate while you play the game.

It was fascinating to play; while you could easily make up some method of non-verbal communication to cheese it, playing naturally was a hell of a lot of fun. The moments when everyone is staring at one another for 30 seconds after a 24 was thrown before anyone even moves toward playing another card are tense; can it really be possible that my 52 is the next lowest card at the table?!!?

After wiping out in round 5 the first time, our group of 5 players was able to make it to the eighth round on our last life with no throwing stars available. We managed to make it all the way through the 40 dealt cards in proper order to take down the win, and it was a damned satisfying feeling!

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Well don't leave us hanging MIJB, tell us about the Mind

Vince nailed it, really.

[MIJB#19]

We played The Mind with four (my two sisters, brother-in-law and I). Our first hand (ever) was immediately a crazy stare off. The person explaining the game to us reacted like he hadn't seen that in the previous day and a half of explaining the game. For good reason, though. While I was dealt the 100 and obviously sat back and tried to make clear there was no way I would ever throw my card on the table first, the three others were all convinced that with numbers from 1 to 100, theirs couldn't be the lowest...
Time likes to really stop in such a situation, so I think it was at most 45 seconds, but eventually one of my sisters decided to throw (I think) the 73 card on the table, which turned out to be the wrong play. We hit 1 in 125 odds of having 4 cards all of 70 or higher.

But shook it off as the test play. Attempt number two at level 1 went smoothly. Then on the second level with 2 cards (so 8 in total) we ran into another steep odds situation. I was dealt the 3 and decided to give the others a quick "going once, going twice, sold" (without realizing that could hint at having the 3), only to find out my brother-in-law forgot to check his cards before play started and was actually dealt the 1, in my enthusiasm, I went too fast before looking at what he was doing. In retrospect I overestimated the situation, the odds of not having any lower cards in play were just 1 in 8).

On the second play, in Level 3 or 4 we had one awesome swing where we somehow manage to pick up on each other that we still had 6 cards left, all in the 75+ range and we managed to get them laid down in the correct order, with no consecutive numbers, but mostly gaps of just 2 or 3 in between.

So, we started to get a good knack for what numbers would be the correct play after what kind of pauses and with what number of cards remaining. We stumbled on situations where we went from like 50 to 70 and the 72 was a split-second faster than the 70.

We didn't get deeper than Level 5 and decided to not overplay this while we too had to wait to get an opportunity to test the game. You can hint the others with your body language and eye contact, reaching out with your lowest card to lure the others into making the right play. And I do fear that it eventually may end up being basically everybody counting to 100 on their own. All in all, getting to the same state of mind was a cool experience.



Just One was on a whole different, yet somewhat similar level. It's a co-op party game, where one by one all the players get a card with 5 words and have to pick a number (1 through 5). The other players all have to write down 1 word on their own. After writing, all duplicates are wiped out and the remaining words form the hint for the player with the card. Play continues with everybody taking turn for picking a card and a number. Goal is to get as much correct cards as possible.

[bob]

Interesting re-skinning (plus more I’m sure) of V-Commandos in the Assassins Creed universe, just ass expensive due to the miniatures:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...ce/description

That’s a lot to invest for something not coming until 2020. And I liked V-Commandos.

[bob]

I've read a bunch more reviews* for Discover Lands Unknown and it seems to break down into two camps:

1. Experienced Gamer - doesn't like the game because its too light and lots of other games do similar things better. Basically, they've seen too much else to enjoy this.

2. Lightweight Gamer - has fun with it precisely because its lightweight and they haven't played anything similar.

So take that for what its worth. And while the theme is similar, I'm not sure the super critical comparisons of Discover Lands Unknown against 7th Continent are fair given that that game is much more expensive and basically unpurchasable at this point. Its not like you can read a review, decide 7th Continent sounds better, and buy that instead. Its a bit like comparing a Honda Accord with a Rolls Royce - the Rolls Royce might be a much better car, but if I can't buy it, who cares.

* - Note, these are player reviews, not critics. I think most critics fall into camp #1 above.

[bob]

Originally Posted by bob

And Fantasy Flight is having to recall some KeyForge decks for unfortunate generated names.

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/e.../archon-names/

Here's a link that shows so oddly named cards:

Amazing KeyForge Decks – Heavy Punch Games

I can see why something like "Titanflyer, the Farmer of Racism" was recalled. Conspiracy theory (there's one for everything) is they did this intentionally to get more press and buyers buying new cards looking for rare set names.

[panerd]

Any opinions on the junior versions of carcassonne and catan for a smart.6 year old? We play junior ticket to ride and it is perfect for him but i.thought carcassonne might be simple enough (rules wise not strategy) to not have to do the junior version. Anyone ever play either of them?

Any other recommendations up the same alley so to speak?

[henry296]

Catan junior was good for our six year old.

[AnalBumCover]

I picked up My Little Scythe. I'm hoping my 7yo will pick up the rules pretty easily.

[panerd]

Originally Posted by henry296

Catan junior was good for our six year old.

Thanks. Might get my first carcassonne as it looks like our 4 year olds might be able to play it as well. My wife loves Ticket to Ride: Journey. We may have a group of five gaming group when the boys get a little older that doesn't require me to leave the house.

[Warhammer]

Originally Posted by panerd

Thanks. Might get my first carcassonne as it looks like our 4 year olds might be able to play it as well. My wife loves Ticket to Ride: Journey. We may have a group of five gaming group when the boys get a little older that doesn't require me to leave the house.

I would not be afraid to roll with full blown Carcassonne with kids.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by Warhammer

I would not be afraid to roll with full blown Carcassonne with kids.

+1