Support NeoGAF

[FnordChan]

Dominion games are very short and you can tear through them in 20-30 minutes. They also have that "you can't eat just one" quality that'll have you playing more than one game at a time, guaranteed. I can't speak for the expansions, yet, but apparently they're pretty great as well.

FnordChan

 

[platypotamus]

Shorter, most of the time a lot shorter. It varies a lot based on which Kingdom Cards are in the game, but the longest you're likely to see a round of Dominion go (in my experience) is about 40 mins. 20 is more common. We tend to play multiple goes in a row.

 

[Cyan]

Awesome, sounds like exactly what I want.

Thanks for the info.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

Awesome, sounds like exactly what I want.

Thanks for the info.

Also, if your players don't care for the RftG theme you can go with San Juan.

 

[Evlar]

Any opinions on Runewars? I have the urge to buy something ridiculously big.

 

[Neverfade]

Any opinions on Runewars? I have the urge to buy something ridiculously big.

Do it. Now.

What else do you wanna know about it?

 

[AstroLad]

Yeah Dominion is definitely one of those games where you never play just one round. Much like RftG it's a tad of a chore to set up (not huge, but still) and the games are quick so you always want to play another.

 

[StoOgE]

Yeah Dominion is definitely one of those games where you never play just one round. Much like RftG it's a tad of a chore to set up (not huge, but still) and the games are quick so you always want to play another.

Really? With the insert and the storage of the box I think it is the easiest game to set up. I mean, you literally just sit some cards out and go.

It is a pain in the ass to put things in order the first time though. I mean, why the fuck are the cards all jumbled up? But once you set the box up setting up the actual game is 60 seconds tops.

But yes, your average game is 20-30 minutes. The rules are extremely easy, ignore the "first game" set up that it suggests. I find the "interactive" one to be very very good.

I haven't played the expansions, but I think they are next on my to get list.

 

[AstroLad]

SEASIDE

 

[StoOgE]

SEASIDE

I don't have it yet

I just watched a video.. there's a fucking pirate ship?

SOLD.

Oooh, that embargo card looks like fun too.

I need to stop reading this thread.

 

[platypotamus]

It is a pain in the ass to put things in order the first time though. I mean, why the fuck are the cards all jumbled up? But once you set the box up setting up the actual game is 60 seconds tops.

Say that once you're including cards from all the expansions at once. Shuffling all the damn randomizers, finding the chosen cards amongst the three boxes. I really need an organizational solution to the game, because it's a pain to deal with at this point.

 

[StoOgE]

Say that once you're including cards from all the expansions at once. Shuffling all the damn randomizers, finding the chosen cards amongst the three boxes. I really need an organizational solution to the game, because it's a pain to deal with at this point.

I guess that is true. At this point I only have 25 randomizers (why do they give you randomizer cards for the money and victory cards?) .. and only one box to go through.

Do they change the card color or anything for the different games? At least then you know which box to dig through?

 

[ultron87]

It is a pain in the ass to put things in order the first time though. I mean, why the fuck are the cards all jumbled up? But once you set the box up setting up the actual game is 60 seconds tops.

I was really mad at myself when I realized that the seemingly random assortment of cards I had just sorted into their proper slots was actually the deck of randomizers. I think I might have literally facepalmed at that moment.

 

[StoOgE]

I was really mad at myself when I realized that the seemingly random assortment of cards I had just sorted into their proper slots was actually the deck of randomizers. I think I might have literally facepalmed at that moment.

I got about halfway through it before I realized that as well. I was like "Why the fuck are these cards all singles".

Aside from that though there really are some of the decks where you get 4 cards here, 6 more in another pack.

 

[platypotamus]

Do they change the card color or anything for the different games? At least then you know which box to dig through?

There's a little symbol on the card. You've got in the base set a little castle or something, I think? Intrigue has a little mask thing, and Seaside has... I don't remember, probably a ship?

 

[Neverfade]

Ugh. Retailer renegged on selling me a War of the Ring: Collectors edition.

Seriously, if anyone sees a copy, PM me.

 

[StoOgE]

Ugh. Retailer renegged on selling me a War of the Ring: Collectors edition.

Seriously, if anyone sees a copy, PM me.

What is up with FFG only running single runs of the base games?

I've seen several of their games where the base game is out of print but they keep pumping out expansions.

 

[Neverfade]

What is up with FFG only running single runs of the base games?

I've seen several of their games where the base game is out of print but they keep pumping out expansions.

Well that's the idea of a collectors edition. You'd be hard pressed to find a place where you couldn't order any non-special edition of their games in their catalog. At the very least they do frequent reprints of those.

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

What is up with FFG only running single runs of the base games?

I've seen several of their games where the base game is out of print but they keep pumping out expansions.

My guess is you haven't seen WotR:CE yet.

This is why it's only one print run:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4hoi45ZVLw

 

[BattleMonkey]

What is up with FFG only running single runs of the base games?

I've seen several of their games where the base game is out of print but they keep pumping out expansions.

FFG games sell really well, and they usually go through multiple printings. It may seem like they are out of print for long time, but they just tend to have constant cycles of selling out and reprinting. Descent I believe has been reprinted like 7 times :lol

It also takes time, especially the big board games because of all the components and it's all made overseas, so you got about a 3-4 month production schedule to delivery to deal with.

They rarely do single runs of their games, only some special sets or slow sellers never get reprinted. War of Ring CE is a very rare release for them.

 

[AstroLad]

speaking of holy grailish type games:
-what's up with the dune non-branded reprint?
-what's up with the house on haunted hill reprint? can i open up my original copy yet?
-any other noteworthy reprints? full metal planete? lol)

 

[Neverfade]

speaking of holy grailish type games:
-what's up with the dune non-branded reprint?

Hopefully they're waiting as long as possible in hopes that someone dies and the rights can get gobbled up!

 

[RayStorm]

(why do they give you randomizer cards for the money and victory cards?)

They are not just randomizers but also indicators of a stack being emptied.

I guess there is no clear cut overview about the room of thrones (Thronsaal)-card and how it interacts with the other cards including both expansions?

 

[AstroLad]

They are not just randomizers but also indicators of a stack being emptied.

I think I did that at first, but they look so similar that it just led to unnecessary confusion. I just swap in the white cards now whenever there's an empty.

In PAX East news, looks like there'll be a Catan tourney now too. Not much of a Cataner myself, but hopefully this means they keep expanding the tournament options. Closed a deal on Monday that was going to take me all month, so my chances of attending now shot up from 30% to about 80% whoo.

 

[StoOgE]

Strange. We've just been playing with missing stacks once one gets emptied. I guess we could just turn over the cards so you see an upside down card when a stack is emptied?

I guess the idea is to keep it easier to tell once the 3 stacks have been emptied and the game is over?

 

[AstroLad]

yep, that's what the blank cards are for. it's not that hard to keep track obviously, or count to three, but if you're playing with a really crazy set you can get distracted and it can be useful as a quick reminder

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

Today's Penny Arcade:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/3/5/

 

[FnordChan]

My Holy Grail game is Wiz-War, which Tom Jolly says is due to be reprinted in 2011, as the rights to the game have finally been wrested away from Chessex, who have been sitting on it for the past decade or so. Sigh. There's a chance a friend of mine will go crazy and get a homebrew deck printed up on standard playing cards and that I'll go crazy along with him, but I'd just as soon buy a nice new edition.

Neverfade, if you're committed to dropping $400 on the Collector's Edition of War of the Ring, you may want to go ahead and suck up the extra $200 buy it off of BGG while it's still available there.

FnordChan

 

[RayStorm]

I think I did that at first, but they look so similar that it just led to unnecessary confusion. I just swap in the white cards now whenever there's an empty.

Well, the face side of the cards is pretty much exactly the same, that's why you turn them upside down.
That works rather well actually. And if I don't err, it's also the way it's explained (at least in the german manual).

 

[AstroLad]

Gotcha. I think in the English manual they tell you to use blanks, or maybe they give you a choice. What would you use the blanks for otherwise? (Assuming you have blanks.) I am like a proud Native American board gamer--I use every part of the game, unlike you wasteful Europeans.

 

[Neverfade]

Nabbed WotR:CE.

Didn't pay the absorbent BGG Marketplace prices, but I did pay more than I should have.

 

[StoOgE]

So, I played my first game of Twilight Struggle after work today.

I enjoyed it, but we were both kind of pawing around in the dark not really understanding the impacts of what was going to happen. We'll play again either tomorrow or later next week. I think I have a decent grasp of what is going on in the game strategy wise now, but by the time I figured it out I had made some pretty clear mistakes early in the game.

Speaking of War of the Ring.. how is that for a 2 player game? I will need a bigger table or a folding table to play it on, but I feel that I should have at least one giant super nerdy game, and I'm more likely to talk one person into it than 3-4.

 

[Neverfade]

So, I played my first game of Twilight Struggle after work today.

I enjoyed it, but we were both kind of pawing around in the dark not really understanding the impacts of what was going to happen. We'll play again either tomorrow or later next week. I think I have a decent grasp of what is going on in the game strategy wise now, but by the time I figured it out I had made some pretty clear mistakes early in the game.

Speaking of War of the Ring.. how is that for a 2 player game? I will need a bigger table or a folding table to play it on, but I feel that I should have at least one giant super nerdy game.

War of the Ring is designed for 2. The 3 and 4 player ruleset is slapped on to... increase sales? I dunno. it's sloppy.

 

[StoOgE]

War of the Ring is designed for 2. The 3 and 4 player ruleset is slapped on to... increase sales? I dunno. it's sloppy.

I've read a bit about it and it seems interesting given that one side isn't really trying to win the war so much as survive long enough for the Hobbits to sneak into Mordor.

I might put it on my list of things to get next time. It seems that a new printing is going to come out next month so I probably need to jump on it quickly since FFG seem to sell out pretty quickly.

 

[platypotamus]

No well in hell I let Cheetos dude from the Penny Arcade anywhere near my board games. WTF.

Awesome poker face though.

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

Nabbed WotR:CE.

Didn't pay the absorbent BGG Marketplace prices, but I did pay more than I should have.

Congrats, tis a mighty fine set.

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

No well in hell I let Cheetos dude from the Penny Arcade anywhere near my board games. WTF.

Awesome poker face though.

That is pretty much me if I pull a Cylon loyalty card in BSG.

 

[Flynn]

Just played:

Thunderstone: Cool, but ugly, cards poorly laid out.
Dungeon Lords: Brilliant Brilliance
El Grande: Classic goodness.

I missed out on a game of Antiquity. Not sure if it'll get opened again this weekend. *sniff*

 

[RayStorm]

Gotcha. I think in the English manual they tell you to use blanks, or maybe they give you a choice. What would you use the blanks for otherwise? (Assuming you have blanks.) I am like a proud Native American board gamer--I use every part of the game, unlike you wasteful Europeans.

Well, they are obviously to keep the box in balance! If those blank cards didn't exist, the box would crumble. Crumble, I tell you! You are indeed lucky that it hasn't happened to you yet. You should never ever remove them!

 

[AstroLad]

played some intrigue tonight. i like intrigue but i definitely like seaside better. first game we played with the recommended deconstruction set and it was a pretty brutal combination of cards. i'm playing galaxy trucker + big expansion next! let dominion percolate a bit

 

[Neverfade]

We shuffled all the randomizers and came up with a pretty hard set as well. A single +buy card in bridge and only 2 + action cards I believe. Led to a frustrating hand for myself. I bought one too many of something and couldn't really recover. My roomate gobbled up nobles and won with both an impressively constructed deck and a devestating FOUR chain nobles, cycling through a good portion of his cards :lol .

 

[StoOgE]

I played Dominion with my parents today. I swung by for lunch and brought the game. My mom was a little upset because she wanted me to bring Ticket to Ride (she calls it 'the train game').

To make a long story short, next time I am ordering from CSI I have to add another copy of Dominion to it for them. I think we played it about 5 times. Funny, I had to practically drag my dad kicking and screaming to play it the first time.

My dad really got the hang of it towards the end. I was winning pretty easily in the last game while he just fiddled with his deck using the remodel card extensively.. he hadn't really gone for any scoring cards while I had picked up a few here and there... then he went on an absolute run and ransacked the scoring cards over the next 4-5 turns. I think he wound up scoring somewhere in the 70's which is much higher than I've ever seen someone pull.

I told him there were expansions and he got kind of excited (he loved the random decks making for a different game each time).. but I think my mom put the kibosh on expansions anytime soon.

I feel sorry for my poor mother :lol

 

[Flynn]

I got to play a game of Antiquity. I'm still not playing up to par, but at least my town wasn't filled with graves this go-round.

 

[ultron87]

Played Dominion last night. I managed to get my entire deck in my hand due to a fantastic combination of Thrones Rooms, Council Chambers and Villages. I didn't win (because I ended the game too early), but it was still totally awesome.

 

[GDJustin]

I gotta say... my wife and I have had several Dominion play sessions, and I just don't think it works that great for two.

I mean, it works okay. It's not like the 2P variant has to be shoe-horned into the game or anything. I just don't think the experience scales down to 2P very elegantly. Neither of us like playing Dominion 2P as much as Caracassonne or Lost Cities, which are our only other Eurogames.

- With just 2P it's very easy to keep a running score total in your head at all time. Yes this is possible with 3-4, but tougher. In 2P it's almost harder to NOT know what the score total is. This means we can know when to end / not end the game. Some might view this as a plus, but for us it makes the entire game more boring.

- Attack cards lose some of their oomph, and their value. A Thief in a 4P game gives you lots of opportunity to pick up some coins. But in 2P, not so much. Yet it still costs the same in 2P.

- With only 2P there are frequent delays as one of us finishes our turn before the other has finished reshuffling. With turns passing back and forth you are *literally* shuffling the entire time. No time to sit back, relax, eat a chip, etc. In our last session almost every turn a thief or spy would be laid and the other person had to say "hold on" and delay everything as they finished reshuffling.

- In 2P there is limited need to buy cards to react to your opponent. You only have one other deck strategy to counter. If your opponent doesn't buy militias, no need to buy libraries (or moats). If they don't buy thiefs, no need for moats or +coin actions.

~~~

I have yet to play with more than 2, but from our 2P sessions I can see how a bigger group brings out the elegance of the game's design to a greater degree. More vying for desirable Actions, more tough decisions (if only one of four people is buying attacks, do you still stack moats?), etc. A friend is having a BG night next weekend and I hope to get some 4P Dominion going for the first time.

We're pretty spoiled by Caracassonne, which scales BRILLIANTLY from 2 - 6. The more I read about other games, the more it seems this is the exception, not the rule.

 

[AstroLad]

I was actually going to post a thread on BGG asking for suggestions on 2p card combinations, because I'm sure some sets work great with two (obviously no attack cards, for starters).

The best scaling game, no question, 2-5, is RftG. But that's because the 2p variant is so pure and beautiful. But yes, usually games have a very narrow sweet spot of one or two different player counts at most.

 

[GDJustin]

I don't think deck strategies are that different for 2P Dominion than 3 - 4.

The only attack card in the base game that the user benefits from is thief (can steal coins). The others basically just harass your opponents, so they're as valuable in 2P as they are 3 - 4. Only thief is objectively less useful in 2P.

But certainly seems like attacks would be more fun in 3 - 4. In a 2P game the wife and I just both stack a few moats, and almost every turn the attack would be nullified. But with 3 - 4 you're probably bound to nab someone, every turn.

 

[AstroLad]

got my pax tix in the mail today. wife is excited about playing in dominion and robo rally tourneys so here's hoping we're lucky enough to actually make it out

 

[XiaNaphryz]

 

[StoOgE]

Regarding Dominion,

how are you supposed to handle players on different "turns". When are you supposed to discard your hand and draw the next one? Because with some attack cards this could lead to someone having a 4 card hand if they are supposed to discard something back into their deck (I forget the card, but the one where you have to put a VP card back on top of your deck). If you do this and then play a card that allows an extra card you are just going to be picking your card back up and back into your hand.

We've been playing it where people do the actions after their "turn". Is this not correct? Are you supposed to just get your new deck right away and any attack cards apply to that new deck no matter what "turn" you are on?