Board Games (Reviews, Rules, Regulations, Random)

[fretgod99]

15 hours ago, Tk3 said:

Can someone explain the "legacy" version of games?

Basically just an expansion?

No. It’s a stand-alone version of a game. By and large, it plays very similarly to the base game except at certain points (when you’re instructed to do so) you uncover new rules or open up new options that pretty significantly change the game. And they’re typically relatively permanent changes. So by the time you finish your play through, it’s a completely different beast than what you started with.

You can really only play through a game once, but there are typically many stages, so you definitely get your money’s worth.

For instance, Pandemic plays through 12 months. If you win the scenario the first month, you move on. If not, you play it one more time. Win or lose the second time, you move on. So you get at minimum 12 and at maximum 24 plays of Pandemic Legacy Season 1. But after each game (win or lose) you make some choices that permanently change how you play the next time and beyond. It adds a ton. Ups the tension in a really fun, creative way.

[The Gnat]

On 11/25/2017 at 1:14 AM, fretgod99 said:

No. It’s a stand-alone version of a game. By and large, it plays very similarly to the base game except at certain points (when you’re instructed to do so) you uncover new rules or open up new options that pretty significantly change the game. And they’re typically relatively permanent changes. So by the time you finish your play through, it’s a completely different beast than what you started with.

You can really only play through a game once, but there are typically many stages, so you definitely get your money’s worth.

For instance, Pandemic plays through 12 months. If you win the scenario the first month, you move on. If not, you play it one more time. Win or lose the second time, you move on. So you get at minimum 12 and at maximum 24 plays of Pandemic Legacy Season 1. But after each game (win or lose) you make some choices that permanently change how you play the next time and beyond. It adds a ton. Ups the tension in a really fun, creative way.

@Tk3 - That's how I'd describe it as well. I'd also add in that with the price tag for Pandemic Legacy Season 1 when it came out or Season 2 now, they are worth it. Even though you're paying $75 for a game that you play at most 24 times (and you hope it isn't that many), it's such an experience. If every game lasts 1 hour and you play 16 games (let's say), that's 16 hours, multiply that by how many people you have playing, and it's actually a really solid deal for something that is such an experience. If you have 4 people playing, that's about $1.17 per person per hour, if you think about going to a movie, even if it's a 3 hour movie on a $5 ticket Tuesday, per person it's still $1.67 per hour for the experience. I'd say that Pandemic is almost a movie like experience in how it creates it story, which is a ton of fun.

However, skip Seafall if you're looking at Legacy games, there are more better ones out there now.

[skywindO2]

Played years 3 and 4 of the Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle game. It was okay but there was definitely some things that irked me. I didn't like that it was the same villains and starter cards each year. I guess the expansion has a rule to fix this but not being able to clear the purchasable cards is no fun. Definitely seems like a good game for non-gamers and HP fans but lacked some of the depth that I like from other games. I think it might be a fundamental problem with deck building games though. I love co-op games though and would be interested in trying the latter years too, I don't think I'd want to replay the earlier years at all. 

Played a game of Terra Mystica over the weekend too. That's a damn good game but I don't think I could play it that often. The depth to it is really great and even though I got last place in the end, I felt like I accomplished something. 

Also played a couple of games of Deception: Murder in Hong Kong and Mysterium. I got away with murder in deception and solved my own murder in Mysterium. Mysterium is definitely one of my favorite games and I loved playing with the new expansion art. 

[skywindO2]

Speaking of deck building games though, anyone try Clank? We were gonna try it and didn't have time. 

[The Gnat]

32 minutes ago, skywindO2 said:

Speaking of deck building games though, anyone try Clank? We were gonna try it and didn't have time. 

I haven't yet, but I really want to try it. I actually want to try Clank in Space as I like that theming with the mechanic better.

 

EDITED: Was going to say that Xenoshyft: Onslaught is a good deck building game if you're looking for one. Space marines fighting off waves of bug aliens going after the base.

Also, Pandemic Legacy Season 2 Update:

Played March, April, and once in May. The game is great, the story is flowing really well and it feels like a Pandemic game set in the same world, but while the mechanics are familiar the game feels enough different from the base game or even Season One to make it feel needed as a game if you've enjoyed the first game. It's not just more of the same. No spoilers with anything of course since it's probably worth most people playing it at least once.

[The Gnat]

29 minutes ago, skywindO2 said:

Played a game of Terra Mystica over the weekend too. That's a damn good game but I don't think I could play it that often. The depth to it is really great and even though I got last place in the end, I felt like I accomplished something. 

Haven't played this game yet, but I've been a little but curious about it. Reason you couldn't play it often, too much depth/heaviness to the game/time?

30 minutes ago, skywindO2 said:

Also played a couple of games of Deception: Murder in Hong Kong and Mysterium. I got away with murder in deception and solved my own murder in Mysterium. Mysterium is definitely one of my favorite games and I loved playing with the new expansion art. 

Both of those are great games. I don't own either yet though I'm tempted to get both. I know people who own both which is some of the reason why I haven't bought them yet.

[skywindO2]

2 hours ago, The Gnat said:

Haven't played this game yet, but I've been a little but curious about it. Reason you couldn't play it often, too much depth/heaviness to the game/time?

Pretty much, yeah. Our playthrough was about 3 hours too. I think it's one of the best/most well designed game I've played and there's a lot of variance in each game given the different races and how they interact with each other, so there's plenty of reasons to play it multiple times but the experience can be really draining so more than one play in a session is unlikely. 

[Malfatron]

What are some really good 1 player board games (either on a board or adapted for the android?). Replayability is key

Edited November 28, 2017 by MathMan

[Dome]

27 minutes ago, MathMan said:

What are some really good 1 player board games (either on a board or adapted for the android?). Replayability is key

Subjective, but I've had fun playing Arkham Horror solo. I usually play with a small group, but when you play alone you end up controlling about 3-5 characters (player preference). The game plays the same as if you we're playing with a group but it's really hard if you only control one character.  The game was designed with solo play in mind though. It's not adapted for Android, but I think there's an app that'll keep track of your characters stats, inventory, and money and whatnot while you play. 

[fretgod99]

41 minutes ago, MathMan said:

What are some really good 1 player board games (either on a board or adapted for the android?). Replayability is key

One Deck Dungeon is fun. I sometimes play HP Hogwarts Battle and control two.

[fretgod99]

10 hours ago, skywindO2 said:

Played years 3 and 4 of the Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle game. It was okay but there was definitely some things that irked me. I didn't like that it was the same villains and starter cards each year. I guess the expansion has a rule to fix this but not being able to clear the purchasable cards is no fun. Definitely seems like a good game for non-gamers and HP fans but lacked some of the depth that I like from other games. I think it might be a fundamental problem with deck building games though. I love co-op games though and would be interested in trying the latter years too, I don't think I'd want to replay the earlier years at all. 

You're not supposed to replay the early years. That's basically to introduce people to the mechanics of the game. The replayability is all in Book 7, plus my wife and I added a few things to make it more difficult. Then the expansion came out. You don't need to make that more difficult!

There is an optional rule to clear the store once; one player can forego their opportunity to purchase something to reset the store. Works well if there are a ton of really high cost cards and no way to readily generate those resources.

But yeah, you don't really get into the meat of that game until Books 5, 6, and 7. And like I said, Book 7 is actually where the game is intended to live.

[The Gnat]

12 hours ago, MathMan said:

What are some really good 1 player board games (either on a board or adapted for the android?). Replayability is key

Onirim has been fun for me, a simple abstract game, but challenging. It has a good app for it with one of the expansions in it, the base board game comes with seven expansions so it has variety and replayability.

[theJ]

On 11/27/2017 at 10:21 PM, fretgod99 said:

You're not supposed to replay the early years. That's basically to introduce people to the mechanics of the game. The replayability is all in Book 7, plus my wife and I added a few things to make it more difficult. Then the expansion came out. You don't need to make that more difficult!

There is an optional rule to clear the store once; one player can forego their opportunity to purchase something to reset the store. Works well if there are a ton of really high cost cards and no way to readily generate those resources.

But yeah, you don't really get into the meat of that game until Books 5, 6, and 7. And like I said, Book 7 is actually where the game is intended to live.

I just bought this for my wife for Christmas.  She's a big HP fan.  Thanks for the tips!

[The Gnat]

Got Hanabi to the table last night. Two player games of that are more difficult than three or four players. It was a ton of fun though, first game we did great, and the second game, cards didn't come out in the right order. Hanabi is a fun game in that you know what the other players have, but don't know what you have in your hand, so you're giving out clues and trying to play fireworks from 1 to 5 in 5 different colors. It's much headier with two players because of the limited number of clues.

Carcassone also got to the table, that's just a classic mid-weight game.

[The Gnat]

Played: Say Bye to the Villains last Friday.

Really fun game. It's challenging, and working with imperfect information you and the other players control a team of samurai (one each) who have 10 days to prepare to beat down villains. The game works well as it plays fast, as it's cooperative, and as the Villains all have abilities as to the heroes. Everyone is trying to guess what might end up being the villains speed, strength, and life as it compares to yours. The game seemed really replayable as well, which is nice for a cheap/small card game.