Board Games
- Thread starter Balroc
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Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
OU Ariakas
Diet Dr. Pepper Enjoyer
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Bought and played 4 games of Pandemic, it is an intense game because you are truly behind from the start.
Burren
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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I feel ya there Hatorade. I got my brother a boardgame from a local store and it was $100. I didn't think much of it, but then I saw it was about $60 online and I got a little annoyed. I couldn't believe they jacked the price so much. I really want to support local stores - which also host games every night of the week - but it is usually much cheaper to buy online and wait 2 days.
Onoes
Trakanon Raider
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I just bought a pile of board games, basically everything recommended here, and while I've very happy with most, I didn't enjoy a couple of the highly totted ones. So, if anyone wants Agricola or Descent: Second Edition, I'll let them go for $40 with shipping ($60 each plus shipping on Amazon), just shoot me a PM. They are like new, in that they both have 5-10 hours played time. If not, I'll add them to my shelf of games I never play! 
I also made the mistake of spending a few hundred dollars in a game store. Really didn't expect prices to be 30% cheaper across the board online. Won't make that mistake again.
I also made the mistake of spending a few hundred dollars in a game store. Really didn't expect prices to be 30% cheaper across the board online. Won't make that mistake again.
Hatorade
A nice asshole.
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Likely buy descent from you but what didn't you like about it?I just bought a pile of board games, basically everything recommended here, and while I've very happy with most, I didn't enjoy a couple of the highly totted ones. So, if anyone wants Agricola or Descent: Second Edition, I'll let them go for $40 with shipping ($60 each plus shipping on Amazon), just shoot me a PM. They are like new, in that they both have 5-10 hours played time. If not, I'll add them to my shelf of games I never play!
I also made the mistake of spending a few hundred dollars in a game store. Really didn't expect prices to be 30% cheaper across the board online. Won't make that mistake again.
Being one of the other players that played with Onoes, he ran the game, while me and two others played in it. So we have slightly different perspectives from it. Main complaint from the players side, things felt really stacked against the players, which in turn, made us all be very defensive towards the guy running the game - Onoes. Now some people very much like that style of play, but if you arent a fan, it can get really brutal. It just seemed like a hard game for our group to get enjoyment out of as a whole. I think the game its self is a decent game, but you have to have a group of people that want that style of play.
Seananigans
Honorary Shit-PhD
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Weird, my group (four friends and me) really enjoys Descent. The fact that the DM guy (me in this case) has equivalent goals, and the overall balance of the winner's rewards seemed really well done IOO (in our opinions, lul). I'd almost just buy the master Ettin off of you because mine came with a slightly warped base.
To expound on that, it just seemed like while being the "loser" of any one quest can be considered a bummer, I guess our group meshes well enough that the journey is extremely fun, and if everyone is on roughly the same intelligence level, there's no point where either side's power just snowballs out of control and it becomes retarded. It all seems to fluxuate within an area where both sides always have a solid chance of winning with the right strategy, and then the dice add a bit of randomness to it.
A particular hilariously fun part for us was the first quest we did, Cardinal's Plight. I had ended the first encounter with two zombies out due to horrid rolls on raising them (so an average transition to encounter two, nobody really favored), so I had three total zombies munching on Koth while they scrambled to find the key. When they finally rescued him, he was at like 5 hp, and even despite a couple of rounds where I unloaded frenzies and blood rages, I still couldn't kill the fucker due to bad rolls on my FIVE attacks during those rounds, because they kept rolling insanely well on his defense. It just made for some "oh shit he's gonna die" and then "OH MY GOD HE LIVED LOL!" moments. Which honestly, are what we're looking for in board gaming. Fun shit.
So they won the first quest, and my sister's healer character got the Staff of Light. I really wanted the Staff of Shadow thing, but oh well! I'm aiming to win the next quest (which is an expansion side-quest that has a sweet reward), so I still have fun shit to look forward to, and they have a feather in their cap to be happy about.
To expound on that, it just seemed like while being the "loser" of any one quest can be considered a bummer, I guess our group meshes well enough that the journey is extremely fun, and if everyone is on roughly the same intelligence level, there's no point where either side's power just snowballs out of control and it becomes retarded. It all seems to fluxuate within an area where both sides always have a solid chance of winning with the right strategy, and then the dice add a bit of randomness to it.
A particular hilariously fun part for us was the first quest we did, Cardinal's Plight. I had ended the first encounter with two zombies out due to horrid rolls on raising them (so an average transition to encounter two, nobody really favored), so I had three total zombies munching on Koth while they scrambled to find the key. When they finally rescued him, he was at like 5 hp, and even despite a couple of rounds where I unloaded frenzies and blood rages, I still couldn't kill the fucker due to bad rolls on my FIVE attacks during those rounds, because they kept rolling insanely well on his defense. It just made for some "oh shit he's gonna die" and then "OH MY GOD HE LIVED LOL!" moments. Which honestly, are what we're looking for in board gaming. Fun shit.
So they won the first quest, and my sister's healer character got the Staff of Light. I really wanted the Staff of Shadow thing, but oh well! I'm aiming to win the next quest (which is an expansion side-quest that has a sweet reward), so I still have fun shit to look forward to, and they have a feather in their cap to be happy about.
Sumdain x
Trakanon Raider
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you may want to look at miniaturemarket.com for pretty cheap board games as well
The wife got me Zombicide for christmas which was lots of fun, i wish i would have jumped in on the kickstarter to get even more zombie minis. my copy of Sedition wars should show up soon hopefully studio mcvey said they would be shipping by the end of next week.
This showed up on kickstarter todayhttp://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...not/rivet-warsi've already bid in CMON makes some pretty awesome board games it seems.
i have a few games sitting in my closet i have yet to play spartacus blood and sand, locke and key (love the graphic novels), and just recently picked up star wars the LCG and netrunner LCG.
Really looking forward to the mansions of madness expansion since that was the game me and my group ended up playing the most and as i am almost always the keeper it seems a lot more interactive on my part.
this was random conglomeration of thoughts...
The wife got me Zombicide for christmas which was lots of fun, i wish i would have jumped in on the kickstarter to get even more zombie minis. my copy of Sedition wars should show up soon hopefully studio mcvey said they would be shipping by the end of next week.
This showed up on kickstarter todayhttp://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...not/rivet-warsi've already bid in CMON makes some pretty awesome board games it seems.
i have a few games sitting in my closet i have yet to play spartacus blood and sand, locke and key (love the graphic novels), and just recently picked up star wars the LCG and netrunner LCG.
Really looking forward to the mansions of madness expansion since that was the game me and my group ended up playing the most and as i am almost always the keeper it seems a lot more interactive on my part.
this was random conglomeration of thoughts...
Onoes
Trakanon Raider
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Hahah, Hey Golgatha
Yeah, I can tell you exactly what our session was like. As Golgatha said, we played 4 player, Myself as the bad guy, and 3 friends as the good guys. To his credit, Golgotha was the one who tended to laugh and go "are you kidding?", the other two guys were the ones wanting to flip the table. Basically, every turn had the players going "Fucking bullshit!" generally because of the random nature of the die rolls, or the goal of the map seeming stacked against them from the start. Then I would play one of my surprise screw you cards and the response was "Ohh great, yeah fantastic, so I'm not moving now and my turns over. Stupid.". Etc. Repeat 1,000 times.
So, despite the fact the players won probably 70-80% of the maps we played, they felt like it was too hard, or too random, and the only reason they won was a lucky die roll right at the wire (which was often true) and incessantly complained the entire time. I got the impression they were having no fun at all. After 6 hours of being the object of the groups disdain, I had pretty much said "Fuck ever running this again".
Imagine going out with some friends to play pool, and every time you lined up a shot someone shoved you and called you faggot. It felt like 6 hours of that from the game masters side of it.
I got the impression the players felt more like they were all trying to play a friendly game of pool and I was just holding up one end of the table, being a dick.
Is it a fun game? Probably, with the right group of people.
Is it a fun game with competitive players who get frustrated quickly? Most assuredly not.
As for Agricola - we all played it a few times, and liked it.
The only complaints -
A.) You feel like you are doing terribly the entire time most games (at least the few we played). Now, everyone feels like this, it felt really balanced (minus a few cards that seemed crazy good), but still, playing just kind of seemed, stressful?
B.) The Theme. Really hard to talk people into a game of being starving farmers. Time and time again people stated they really liked the mechanics, but the theme was unappealing.
It turned out Lords of Waterdeep was a similar style game (worker placement) that everyone connected it with more. It became apparent pretty fast which game would be reached for on future game nights, so I figured I may as well unload the ones that will otherwise sit on a shelf for the next 10 years.
Side note - Golgotha bought Small World: Underground (which is basically like second edition) a while back, and that ones been a big hit too, would definitely recommend!
Yeah, I can tell you exactly what our session was like. As Golgatha said, we played 4 player, Myself as the bad guy, and 3 friends as the good guys. To his credit, Golgotha was the one who tended to laugh and go "are you kidding?", the other two guys were the ones wanting to flip the table. Basically, every turn had the players going "Fucking bullshit!" generally because of the random nature of the die rolls, or the goal of the map seeming stacked against them from the start. Then I would play one of my surprise screw you cards and the response was "Ohh great, yeah fantastic, so I'm not moving now and my turns over. Stupid.". Etc. Repeat 1,000 times.
So, despite the fact the players won probably 70-80% of the maps we played, they felt like it was too hard, or too random, and the only reason they won was a lucky die roll right at the wire (which was often true) and incessantly complained the entire time. I got the impression they were having no fun at all. After 6 hours of being the object of the groups disdain, I had pretty much said "Fuck ever running this again".
Imagine going out with some friends to play pool, and every time you lined up a shot someone shoved you and called you faggot. It felt like 6 hours of that from the game masters side of it.
I got the impression the players felt more like they were all trying to play a friendly game of pool and I was just holding up one end of the table, being a dick.
Is it a fun game? Probably, with the right group of people.
Is it a fun game with competitive players who get frustrated quickly? Most assuredly not.
As for Agricola - we all played it a few times, and liked it.
The only complaints -
A.) You feel like you are doing terribly the entire time most games (at least the few we played). Now, everyone feels like this, it felt really balanced (minus a few cards that seemed crazy good), but still, playing just kind of seemed, stressful?
B.) The Theme. Really hard to talk people into a game of being starving farmers. Time and time again people stated they really liked the mechanics, but the theme was unappealing.
It turned out Lords of Waterdeep was a similar style game (worker placement) that everyone connected it with more. It became apparent pretty fast which game would be reached for on future game nights, so I figured I may as well unload the ones that will otherwise sit on a shelf for the next 10 years.
Side note - Golgotha bought Small World: Underground (which is basically like second edition) a while back, and that ones been a big hit too, would definitely recommend!
Mr Creed
Too old for this shit
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Some of you seem well informed about board games, maybe you can answer this question: My friends and I played a game called Warhammer quest pretty often like 15 years ago. It was a fun but horribly broken game (as in, few power checks and no balance). It is a fantasy dungeon crawl board game where the monsters and dungeon layout are randomized, no need for a DM. Are there any recent games with similar gameplay? We're mainly looking for Coop (no opposing factions or DM/monsters vs players) and some persistance would be nice. We tried the new D&D board game but that starts from zero every time you play again. In Warhammer quest you actually kept a character to play again if you wanted.
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I second this. I played this over the holidays with three others, I recommend 4 people play for maximum cock in ass potential.
Cutlery
Kill All the White People
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This just sounds like you game with complete douchenozzles. Some days the dice work for you and sometimes they don't, there's absolutely no sense in fucking crying about it.
I haven't even see that type of behavior in probably 20 years, when I was gaming with teenagers. And we remedied that problem by not inviting those people back, not letting them dictate what games to play.
Seananigans
Honorary Shit-PhD
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Yeah interesting. Descent is probably the most well balanced DM vs. Players board game I've come across, I've been impressed at the quest design, as have my friends. Oh well!
@Mr. Creed - I was going to suggest the D&D games (Ravenloft, Ashardalon, and that Drizzt one), but it sounds like you've tried them. Something my group did was house-rule a campaign into it. Basically we just did the quests in order, and recorded status at the end of each, and let them keep items, relics/whatever, and levels. Since the level-up mechanic is tough to begin with, it seemed to work. If you come across any other campaign type games that are fully cooperative, post them here, cause I'd be interested in them myself.
@Mr. Creed - I was going to suggest the D&D games (Ravenloft, Ashardalon, and that Drizzt one), but it sounds like you've tried them. Something my group did was house-rule a campaign into it. Basically we just did the quests in order, and recorded status at the end of each, and let them keep items, relics/whatever, and levels. Since the level-up mechanic is tough to begin with, it seemed to work. If you come across any other campaign type games that are fully cooperative, post them here, cause I'd be interested in them myself.
I mean, Onoes didne mention the part where he fucked up reading the rules, and was having the monsters take double attack actions for the whole first Act. So we might have had more fun if it had started balanced, but we didnt. So by the time we got to the more balanced gameplay, we just felt frustrated towards the game. Why I said I felt like its a solid game, just wouldnt work for our group again, which is why he is selling it.
Szlia
Member
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I played many games of Descent and while it was globally a fun experience, I can see how that can be frustrating for some. We started playing it after playing the Doom game that has similar mechanics so we had a sense of how we should play, but the first few times we played Doom we got decimated. It did not even feel unfair and that the DM was being a dick, it felt impossible. But when we understood that careful planning, skill synergy and line of signt management was critical, it went a lot better. When we started to have a good sense what to expect from attack rolls (like the shotgun being basically a melee weapon) thinks were almost in control, almost smooth. It's with this knowledge that we started playing Descent.
If you don't acquire that knowledge, it's a bit too easy for the DM to overwhelm the players, to pick on the weakest link or to throw wrenches (or in that specific case: boulders) in plans that require too many things to go perfectly. That last point is probably one of the little unfairness of the game: the DM knows the plan of the players so he has the best vantage point to make it fail and that can make him sound a little dickish (even if the dickishness is counterbalanced by his action points, his hand, his deck and some player skills).
If you don't acquire that knowledge, it's a bit too easy for the DM to overwhelm the players, to pick on the weakest link or to throw wrenches (or in that specific case: boulders) in plans that require too many things to go perfectly. That last point is probably one of the little unfairness of the game: the DM knows the plan of the players so he has the best vantage point to make it fail and that can make him sound a little dickish (even if the dickishness is counterbalanced by his action points, his hand, his deck and some player skills).
stupidmonkey
Not Smrt
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Picked up Blood Bowl: Team Manager and Legends of Andor.
Blood Bowl was to be expected for a card game. It's not a CCG to my knowledge so no real deck building which IMO is good since I wasn't looking to collect. They are releasing an expansion. It has you do 5 matches for the season and whoever has the most fans at the end wins. You can gain abilities and star players just like the tabletop or PC game. Cheating is a mandatory ability, while tackle, pass, and sprint are not. Sprint just means you can grab another card from the deck while discarding another or the card you picked up.
Legends of Andor is a co-op game and is good for newbs. It comes with 6 legends which basically consist of different tasks to complete and each one takes about an hour depending on players (2-4). The 6th legend is just blank cards to create your own. They do have an extra one online that's printable. Not much replay in the 1st and 2nd legend but the 3rd and 5th are much more random and open.
It just came out in December here so only Germans have done reviews thus far. It is in Englisch.
Blood Bowl was to be expected for a card game. It's not a CCG to my knowledge so no real deck building which IMO is good since I wasn't looking to collect. They are releasing an expansion. It has you do 5 matches for the season and whoever has the most fans at the end wins. You can gain abilities and star players just like the tabletop or PC game. Cheating is a mandatory ability, while tackle, pass, and sprint are not. Sprint just means you can grab another card from the deck while discarding another or the card you picked up.
Legends of Andor is a co-op game and is good for newbs. It comes with 6 legends which basically consist of different tasks to complete and each one takes about an hour depending on players (2-4). The 6th legend is just blank cards to create your own. They do have an extra one online that's printable. Not much replay in the 1st and 2nd legend but the 3rd and 5th are much more random and open.
It just came out in December here so only Germans have done reviews thus far. It is in Englisch.
Vaclav
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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Wife and I did that first time through as well - missed the distinction to players being allowed to double up and monsters having to split up their actions.
And on cheatsheets -http://www.headlesshollow.com/freebies_games.htmlis generally my goto for cheatsheets - IMO they tend to make the best and they cover MOST of the boardgames/CCGs out there.
Sumdain x
Trakanon Raider
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really liked BSG but chaos in the old world is horrible without the expansion unless you want to stay away from Khorne the entire game.
