I started crying
5 Likes
I think itās kind of absurd to try and force a bot into a game like Oath in the first place, so Iām not entirely surprised by that flowchart.
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We recently played Nidavellir 4 player for the first time and itās quite stark how distinct the game is from a two player game. For one the extra competitiveness and the guarantee that someone will end with the objective duffer card means you need to recalibrate your ideas in the game. Secondly it seems like the scores of things are much more weighted for the larger players games. In the case of the major set collection aspect in a four player game completing a full set will account for half your score but the similarly difficult task in a 2 player game will get you maybe a less than a third of your score. Very interesting.
We also played some kingdom builder (bga) which by first look feels like an easy breezy game but after a while can become quite vicious and mathy.
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Kingdom Builder is great, but does BGA allow the important house rule of removing the Lords VP card from the game? Itās even used by Donald X himself.
I donāt think so because we had the lords card in our game!
Yeah, honestly, I think that can give a bad impression. The game is better without it.
1 Like
I just cleared up my Hellboy session, which I managed to win this time! It wasnāt a clean victory (poor Abe will need to heal up for a while), but we took out the boss by the skin of our teeth.
This time around I knew I needed to make a concerted effort to get the (tiny) map explored and cleared out quickly; we needed to try to avoid the bossā ambush at all costs. Unfortunately we kept drawing enemy spawns back at the starting tile and with frog swarms in the mix, we couldnāt afford to let them come to us.
Thankfully HB was able to rush back and squash a few frogs, which let Abe push ahead some, but another ambush meant more time spent fighting, and we needed to take time to examine a clue and clear up the last frog. This gave the earlier spawns time to catch up, and that culminated in a brutal fracas thanks to some comically bad defense rolls.
By the time I sorted that out, HB and Abe were hurt (HB had injuries), and we had one pip left on the doom clock. If I was going to rest, we were going to eat the bossā ambush, simple as that. My only hope was to risk moving straight to the doom phase in hopes of triggering the last case card (which I didnāt get to reveal last time). I decided to risk it, pulled Abeās unique Doom card which caused no spawns or clock movement, meaning I ended the round with no enemies and a fully explored board!
On revealing the card, I was afforded one free, final rest (heals!) before placing the boss one room away. Iāll spare you the play-by-play, but HB largely played punching bags with the boss while Abe went full gunslinger ripping apart the minions trying to swarm in. He landed the BRPD face three times in one round, meaning he ended up taking SIX shoot actions, his strongest skill. Rather than take out the minions, he focused it all on the boss, killing it dead and then getting torn to absolute shreds for his efforts.
With Abe knocked out, it was up to HB, who was battered pretty badly. The remaining enemies wouldnāt generally be much trouble, but he was suffering serious defense wounds, so every attack really counted. Thankfully, he managed to pull it off, and the mission was ended successfully, if barely.
6 Likes
Tried out The Lost Ruins of Arnak tonight. I was setting up for a solo game, but my wife thought it looked interesting and joined in. Took us a bit to get started, as I was setting it up as a learning game, so I had to keep referring to the rulebook, but it actually flows along pretty easily, with just a few references needed as new symbols showed up.
I got pretty far along the research track, but my wife defeated two guardians to my one, and managed to buy more and higher value cards than I did. We only played four of the five rounds, as it was getting late, but thatās pretty good for us and a new game when starting after 9:00. She won, 41 - 37. Very close, and just a couple of different decisions (or one more round) could haveade the difference. Fun so far. Look forward to trying it again.
5 Likes
What is the problem with it? (Just to be clear this is the card which gives 12 gold for a majority in a quadrant and 6 to second place right?)
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Just that it involves more counting, and that specific kind of area control doesnāt really work in Kingdom builder.
If I can find somewhere Donald X talks about it in more detail I will, but this is what a quick Google turned up:
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1117163/article/15135572#15135572
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I played Root for the first time tonight. I didnāt think it would be my cup of tea, but a friend had got it for his birthday and was keen to give it a whirl, so we dove into a learning gameā¦
My fears were not unfounded ā that is a lot to take in and attempt to reason about.
Iām actually genuinely dumbfounded that this is a popular game ā Iām happy to accept that itās good, but I simply canāt fathom how so many people would be into a game this complicated. (I think that if I started explaining it to the average person, theyād run a mile.)
I look forward to playing some more, but only because I like my friend : )
7 Likes
Donāt underestimate the power of Kyle Ferrinās charming art 
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It has cost me a great deal of money, ever since Vast. No regrets.
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I think you are right, but I also see how the game can be very compelling. The problem with asymmetrical warfare is that you have to understand not only the rules of your faction, but the rules of the others. I believe that if you take it as it goes, Root does very well what it intends to, but there is a price, and absolutely not everybody is willing to pass that toll. It is what they call in video games a gamersā game.
My advice would be to go through the app first, and/or watch a few playthroughs on YouTube as well, to grasp the general workings of each faction, and then get it to the table. But it is definitely a game that not everybody is willing to learn, or teach. Needs a bit of prepping.
2 Likes
Another round of Hellboy tonight, and a nail-biter of a victory again, but this time on my first attempt. Feels pretty good to have the crummy outcome be the remaining surprise for that case. The game is really sinking its hooks into me now, as Iām starting to get the sense that this ramp-up to a tense finale is pretty carefully baked into the cadence of the case structure, and without feeling artificial about it.
I took Red, Liz and Abe this time and my god is Liz a hoot! Her ability is an amazingly fun risk-reward mechanism that just begs you to play her at āthe red lineā. Thatās just what I did and she blew the heck up and nearly burned the whole mansion down in the process. This is actually what allowed me to win, as the endless swarms of minions needed to funnel through the inferno, taking fairly significant damage in the process.
Thereās an awful lot to toy with among just these three, so Iām pretty eager to get Kraus into the mix.
ā
This evening I set up the Macau GP in Rallyman GT for a little more solo fun. Iām running a 4 car grid on a two-lane track and plan to run 3 laps. My car (the one Iāll be logging times with) will run a qualifying lap once the other cars have had their chance. To that end, the orange car finished their āhotā lap with 6m49s on the clock. They ran a pretty great lap if you ignore the fact that they exploded any time they needed to tap the brakes.
Iāll clear out the remaining qualifiers tomorrow morning over coffee, set the pole/grid and then flip a coin for our starting weather. Hoping to get the race done tomorrow night.
3 Likes
Forgot to save our almost complete run of Dice Throne Adventures scenario 3 last week so tonight we ended up trying out Nemesis in full coop instead as I was too dispirited to redo DTA. We didnāt get all that far (maybe four turns in) as my girlfriend was having terrible internet issues and none of us had played before, but we all agreed that it was fun and weād like to finish it out next time. We left off with noise everywhere and no sign of any of the rooms we needed to do two of three of our objectives as well as all our ammo exhausted except for one shot of the medicās needler, which does no actual damage. We did at least manage to confirm we were headed for Earth and had two working engines. If we can figure out where the lab and comms room are, get research items to the former, grab an egg beyond what we need for research, and bail while the ship explodes? Without dying or getting infected? Weāre golden. Yeah, right.
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I got my qualifying laps done this morning for my Macau GP in Rallyman GT. My car took the pole, but that wasnāt saying much as we all drove like our wheels were hot butter.
Coin toss meant weāll be starting in the rain so weāre all set up with wet tires, and with three laps in the race, we might actually see some strategic pitting.
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Got a 3 player game of Spirit Island. Basic spirits, no blight card and no adversary for our first irl play. We got the victory on terror level 3.
Need to add some complexity next time
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I think Root appeals to the modern gamer trend of Uber assymetry. It part to that Terra Mystica / Twilight Imperium / Cosmic Encounter school of thinking: make everyone compete on such a different level that you canāt possibly respond in the same way that your opponent attacked you.
I donāt think itās even that complicated. Granted, you need to trust everyone will understand their player board, but beyond that it teaches itself by a process of trial and error. If itās with gamers not confident to learn their player board and dive in, itās definitely an intimidating experience. But I think thatās down to confidence to wing it rather than the weight of complexity.
The player board is amazing in how much it explains. I love how the teach for root is about the basic mechanisms, then the rest is all right there in front of each player. You can teach the game whilst barely mentioning the factions.
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How would you say that works with the comment (from Quinns and others) that for any faction A thereās a faction B which needs to know how to stop them or theyāll run away with the game? That was with the original box, so perhaps itās been fixed by rules updates or expansionsā¦
2 Likes