Front Page

Content

Authors

Game Index

Forums

Site Tools

Submissions

About

KK
Kevin Klemme
March 09, 2020
35174 2
Hot
KK
Kevin Klemme
January 27, 2020
20840 0
Hot
KK
Kevin Klemme
August 12, 2019
7430 0
Hot
O
oliverkinne
December 19, 2023
3981 0
Hot
O
oliverkinne
December 14, 2023
3508 0
Hot

Mycelia Board Game Review

Board Game Reviews
O
oliverkinne
December 12, 2023
2080 0
O
oliverkinne
December 07, 2023
2587 0

River Wild Board Game Review

Board Game Reviews
O
oliverkinne
December 05, 2023
2258 0
O
oliverkinne
November 30, 2023
2500 0
J
Jackwraith
November 29, 2023
3022 0
Hot
O
oliverkinne
November 28, 2023
1973 0
S
Spitfireixa
October 24, 2023
3698 0
Hot
O
oliverkinne
October 17, 2023
2626 0
O
oliverkinne
October 10, 2023
2463 0
O
oliverkinne
October 09, 2023
2291 0
O
oliverkinne
October 06, 2023
2510 0

Outback Crossing Review

Board Game Reviews
×
Bugs: Recent Topics Paging, Uploading Images & Preview (11 Dec 2020)

Recent Topics paging, uploading images and preview bugs require a patch which has not yet been released.

× Use the stickied threads for short updates.

Please consider adding your quick impressions and your rating to the game entry in our Board Game Directory after you post your thoughts so others can find them!

Please start new threads in the appropriate category for mini-session reports, discussions of specific games or other discussion starting posts.

What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

More
20 Aug 2014 10:52 #185463 by bfkiller

Seriously, I love how disruptive and controversial smaller, shorter games are with some folks. They cause so much angst and hand-wringing.

Huh. I thought all the angst here was about Kickstarter and FFG's business models.


Hey, I actually played some games! Hurray!

I hosted my annual gaming weekend where friends from back home spend a couple of nights at my place and we get drunk and chuck dice. The games played were:

ROBINSON CRUSOE: ADVENTURES ON THE CURSED ISLAND: I taught the Castaways scenario. No Friday or Dog. We were on the verge of victory - though some of us were getting pretty low on health - just so long as we survived the night with our piddly level 1 roof and level 1 weaponry. And odds were that we would survive. Roll the weather dice: 4 clouds, 2 of which are winter clouds, and a level 3 animal attack. Death and despair.

KING OF TOKYO: Played a couple of games. I like the simplicity of it so have never bought any of the expansion material.

FURY OF DRACULA: Dracula was cornered and slain. Due to many lucky guesses and a few clever deductions, Dracula's trail and even current location were usually known to us.

EPIC TINY KINGDOMS: I'd never heard of this Kickstarter title before. My friend backed it and built a print and play version that was quite impressive in quality. The game's a minimalist 4X set in a generic fantasy setting. I thought it was pretty good, though we played a rule or two incorrectly.

ROOM 25: This is one of my favorite light, shorter games. It usually generates some laughs, and my one buddy's incredulous face after pushing a suspicious-acting fellow prisoner into a mortal chamber was maybe the highlight of the weekend for me.

CITADELS: I still enjoy playing this but it always feels like it runs for about half an hour too long for what it is.

LOVE LETTER: Played just a couple of rounds waiting for another game to finish so my wife could try it.

FORBIDDEN DESERT: Neat little Pandemic-like co-operative game with neat little toy pieces. I don't know if this game will have longevity, but I thought it was pretty decent.

CAVE EVIL: I fell in love with the game when I subdued a harbiter that I then used to follow my necromancer to shit gore that I could then use for my invocations.

CLASH OF CULTURES: This was the first time I'd played it since trying it almost a year ago, but it all came back smoothly... a testament to the intuitiveness of many of the rules, as well as how well the rules are written.

Games that I didn't partake in that were played by others were: LETTERS FROM WHITECHAPEL, BLOOD BOWL: TEAM MANAGER, X-WING, and VALLEY OF THE KINGS.

Fantastic weekend.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Dr. Mabuse, wadenels, Gregarius

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
20 Aug 2014 10:57 #185464 by Jexik

SaMoKo wrote: Played Dominion for e first time in ages. The newer expansions make it far more interesting than it used to be, especially Dark Ages and Hinterlands.


I still play it now and then.

Dark Ages was definitely my favorite expansion. Not that it's a good card, but Rats is easily the most thematic card in Dominion.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
20 Aug 2014 11:00 #185465 by Bull Nakano
It's not that smaller games are bad, it's that Love Letter is a good game, so everyone is trying to top it, which is fine, but outside of a few Japanese designs, everyone's failing.

It's similar to the wake of Dominion, and the quality feels about the same too.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Michael Barnes

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
20 Aug 2014 11:05 - 20 Aug 2014 11:11 #185466 by ThirstyMan
Leaving aside, for one second, the arguments about whether 5 min games are worth the effort, I've been playing A Distant Plain solo. Now, I know that many are interested in Fire in the Lake, which I will definitely have a go at later on, but A Distant Plain is similar, in that you have factions that help each other but have separate win conditions.

Firstly, it is much harder than Andean Abyss or Cuba Libre because the AI is way more sophisticated. It doesn't just do blocking tactics, it does sneaky moves that you need to watch out for. The AI (as in all COIN games) can step in and replace a player if they need to leave or just get fed up during the game. As the AI is pretty smart, this is a major advantage. In ADP all factions have an AI control mechanism which you can use to get an idea of what the hell to do in the early game.

I've been playing solo, as the Taliban, very slowly. As a pure solo game you can choose the Coalition (Americans) or the Taliban the other factions are the drug Warlords and the Government. They all have different agendas. The interconnecting wheels and gears make this quite a brain burner especially the relationship between the Coalition and the Government.

The Coalition use Government resources and can move Government troops and police around even if the Government don't want them to. They also spend Government resources to do it. They can use US troops to push a military solution but the more US troops they use the harder it is to reach their victory conditions. Hence, their role is to try to use Government troops as much as possible and withdraw the US Troops (bit like Vietnam, I guess) from the theatre.

Right now the US and Government are kicking my ass in a stand up fight but Pakistan is looking a bit better for the Taliban as they are becoming far more accommodating to Taliban living in the border areas. The idea for the Taliban (or at least one of them) is to accumulate guerrillas in Pakistan where they can't be touched and then march into Afghanistan overwhelming the Government and the US. Car bomb the shit out of the border areas, road block some key roads and disappear before the US can get their act together. If the Taliban can drain the Government coffers, all the better.

It is definitely a good and immersive game with a narrative driven by card play (unlike Paths of Glory, the event cards exist in a common deck which all players can see...you play one event at a time). It will also teach you how difficult the war in Afghanistan actually was and why the military could not win it outright.

I am guessing Fire in the Lake is similar in style.
Last edit: 20 Aug 2014 11:11 by ThirstyMan.
The following user(s) said Thank You: VonTush, Not Sure

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
20 Aug 2014 11:06 #185467 by charlest

ldsdbomber wrote: yeah but theres gotta be a scale right? You could toss a coin, 2 seconds, easy to rack it up and play over. These 5-10 minute microgames feel more in line with coin tossing to me, but there are a good number of games more in line with the 30 minute thing. Street Soccer is great, and can be reracked for multiple plays. At the same time, what I rail against is the concept that while "waiting for the rest of the gang to show up" you somehow MUST FILL EVERY SINGLE SECOND with some kind of gaming activity. No, fuck that. Play a game on merit, not just for the sake of squeezing some shit in for the sake of it.


Tossing a coin is not enjoyable. Love Letter is.

If I want to play something interesting and have 20 minutes before someone is due to show up, why can't we play a few hands of Love Letter and have a laugh as someone gets stuck with the Princess early or someone is forced into Baroning with a Baron and knocked out.

Why do anything? Why not just sit in silence and wait for the other person to show up? Why is playing a short game inherently wrong?
The following user(s) said Thank You: Michael Barnes, RobertB, skrebs, Black Barney, Gregarius, black inferno

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
20 Aug 2014 11:08 #185468 by VonTush
I'll never set out to fill a game night with 20-30 minute games. One here or there, fine.
And I hate the term Microgame because it is selectively applied and really means nothing outside of trying to make a simple, quick, shallow game sound like something more than that.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
20 Aug 2014 11:08 #185469 by SaMoKo
Good games are good games, whatever the length is. I still enjoy a 20 minute game or Dvonn, which is about the length of Love Letter. Don't always have time for a longer game.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Michael Barnes, black inferno

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
20 Aug 2014 11:28 - 20 Aug 2014 11:29 #185472 by black inferno
Some of you on the last page are fashioning drastic value judgments re: shorter games. Why? I legit don't get it. Is it because you're unwilling - or unable - to ascribe any utility to these games other than their value as "fillers"? Is it because your recipe of a "game night" must be centered - without fail - around a long board game, and you can't imagine any other possible alternative? There's no way anyone could conceivably abstract or synthesize a different recipe for a game night? I mean, what is it? I'm not threatened by the notion of digging into a 4-hour long board game, so why are you guys threatened by short games? Why must their value be judged only as a condition of their relationship to longer, "meatier" games? I mean, explain it to me, I just don't get it.

A recent "game night" (we didn't call it that) with myself, my girlfriend and some of her friends: For Sale (x2), Dragon's Gold, Bohnanza, Love Letter, Liar's Dice, Can't Stop. It was straight up fun as hell. We had a fucking blast. Wish y'all could've been there. And let me tell you: it didn't feel any less substantial than if we'd dragged out a "legitimate" board game.

To extend Barnes' food analogy a little further: how is playing a series of short, social, interactive and easy-to-digest games any different than going to a tapas restaurant for dinner? Sometimes there's just something fun about ordering a series of really different small plates. You eat enough of them, you fill up - that's the whole point. You could fill up at a steakhouse, too - or play Die Macher - nothing wrong with that. Sometimes you just want to read poetry or short fiction instead of a novel, or queue up a bunch of TV episodes on Netflix instead of watch a movie - and nobody's going to make value judgments about that. So why are you making value judgments about this?
Last edit: 20 Aug 2014 11:29 by black inferno.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Michael Barnes, Egg Shen

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
20 Aug 2014 11:36 - 20 Aug 2014 11:38 #185473 by Michael Barnes
That'st he bottom line. A good game is a good game.

It's so funny though how some people are, like it's some kind of measure of game-dick size to huff and puff about how awful/shallow/pointless small games are, about how much better of a gamer somebody is (I guess) if they shun short/simple games...it ain't any different than the Eurogamers circa 2003 with the whole "These Games of Our" schtick. It's also the exact same thing as the whole "hardcore gamer" versus "casual gamer" business in video games...it's like Call of Duty fans getting angry and bent out of shape over the popularity of Angry Birds or whatever. LOOK HOW MUCH OF A GAMER I AM AS MEASURED BY THE GAMES I DON'T LIKE

I don't play short games because I have to fill every minute of time with games, the whole "filler" term is really not applicable. I play short games because I enjoy tight, focused, purpose-built designs that communicate their subject, theme or mechanics with the right degree of complexity and length. Sometimes that's two hours, sometimes that's 20 minutes.

Long, complex games can be like prog rock- noodling, showboating, endless technical displays, "insiders only" atmosphere...and short games can be like three minute pop songs. There's a reason both exist.

Anyone that beats the extreme "immersion, narrative, complexity, length, investment, depth" drum needs to stop. You want all that, you only need to own two games and then you can drop off of the forums:

1) Dungeons and Dragons
2) Advanced Squad Leader

Magic Realm if you want to go three. Maybe with a couple of kickers of some of GMT's top flight games like Navajo Wars or the COIN titles, maybe Up Front. If you want to get crazy, just get into the current Magic block and play competitively, getting involved with the meta. With these alone, you have a LIFETIME of all of the above and you will never have to worry about the popularity of Love Letter or whether or not it is actually a "game" again.

What's more, you can swing AC/DC and get any number of immersive, narrative, complex, long, deep, requiring investment board game-like games for your PC including but not limited to Civilization, Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings and so forth.

Or, you can chase all of that in modern designs, where you aren't going to find it and then you'll have something to complain about when something like Splendor comes out and folks are daring to enjoy it.

A recent "game night" (we didn't call it that) with myself, my girlfriend and some of her friends: For Sale (x2), Dragon's Gold, Bohnanza, Love Letter, Liar's Dice, Can't Stop. It was straight up fun as hell.

No no no Black Inferno. You were not doing it correctly. Everyone should have been heads-down over Twilight Imperium for the entire evening. You will need to notify your girlfriend and her friends that they were not actually having fun and what you were doing was actually shallow, pointless and WRONG.
Last edit: 20 Aug 2014 11:38 by Michael Barnes.
The following user(s) said Thank You: black inferno

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
20 Aug 2014 11:45 #185475 by VonTush

Michael Barnes wrote: I don't play short games because I have to fill every minute of time with games, the whole "filler" term is really not applicable. I play short games because I enjoy tight, focused, purpose-built designs that communicate their subject, theme or mechanics with the right degree of complexity and length. Sometimes that's two hours, sometimes that's 20 minutes.


This is why I think this current conversation is all FUBAR'ed. Microgame, Filler, Lighter Game...They're being used interchangeably or assumed one definition by one person and another by someone else.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

Moderators: Gary Sax
Time to create page: 0.869 seconds