On 10/17/2018 at 3:36 AM, GyldenDamgaard said:I kinda like Lords of Waterdeep in the traditional fantasy genre... short and sweet, with the options of spicing things up with the expansions.
I generally hate worker placement games, but I love Waterdeep.
I'm a big fan of Daily Magic Games and AEG. Both seem solid companies with fairly lighthearted games. but I've never been disappointing by the quality of the games i have received from them.
FFG used to be my number one games company, making up 95℅ of my collection. Now it's down to 50%.
I like CMON as a company, they get a mixed reputation as a high-quality components low-quality playtesting company but they do have some really great games. Now that they have Eric Lang (who designed many of FFGs greatest games) they are making games like rising sun and blood rage.
I really like plaid hat games as a company, good quality and a friendly company. Dead of winter is a really good game, the next crossroads game (gen 7) will be set in space and should hopefully give more of a BSG feel.
Kickstarter is a platform that has launched a lot of games, most companies on there are known for a single game so it makes sense to list games instead. Scythe, gloomhaven, KDM, cthulhu wars, xia, 7th continent, zombicide, this war of mine, eclipse etc.
In the UK we have games workshop and modiphius as our biggest answers to FFG.
while thinking about non-FFG games similar to IA I have to mention core space:
On 10/13/2018 at 8:39 AM, Golan Trevize said:If you wait November/December WizKids is going to publish Mage Knight Ultimate Edition that includes a reprint of the game plus all expansions. That's THE game!
Or, if you prefer Sci-Fi over Fantasy, pick up a copy of Star Trek: Frontiers. It's the reskinning of Mage Knight using Trek and will likely be available on the secondary market a bit more cheaply once some folks unload it to focus on the Mage Knight Ultimate Edition (because really it's not the sort of game you'd want two of in your inventory).
Also, for anyone at all new to boardgaming, I highly recommend the site:
BoardGameGeek
. I mean, it is
the
hub of the boardgame community. It's the best place to learn about any game, past present or future. It's ratings and reviews are top notch. You can often find play throughs and helpful fan-made player aides. I vet every new game I get curious about through BGG before I pull the trigger and buy it.
For me, I'm less about patroning specific board game companies and more about hunting down individual games I really, really like. Most companies make a wide array of games across different genres, and some will appeal to a particular gamer while others won't. I think any good game shelves needs to seek to add diversity to the library while screening new additions to only add those games that will get the table a lot. It can be a real trap just collecting games that look or feel really cool, because if you're gaming group just isn't getting it onto the table very often than it's a real bust (unless you're going pure "Collector"). I've picked up plenty of games in my time that I enjoyed but that just didn't click with my gaming group, so I ended up trading them away. Now I have a very good sense of what niches exist in our communal collection of games and a better sense what will click with us and see replayability and what won't, but it takes awhile to get there.
If you want a less overwhelming place to start, and you have a sense of what sort of gaming genres would click with your group, the following all come to mind as some exceptional games:
Exceptional Games from different genres:
- 4X Games: Eclipse; Heroes of Land, Sea, and Air
- Dungeon Crawler: Siege of the Citadel; Warhammer Quest; Mice & Mystics; Descent; Zombiecide
- Area Control: Scythe; War of the Ring; Terra Mystica; Carcassone; Power Grid
- Building: Alhambra; Galaxy Trucker
- Drafting: 7 Wonders
- Euro Strategy Game: Imhotep; Agricola/Caverna; Mage Knight/Star Trek: Frontiers
- Fast But Satisfying Card Games: Love Letter; Hanabi; and if you need a 2-Player Game: Lost Cities
- Bluffing Games: Spyfall; Codenames; Skull; Werewolf; Coup/Avalon; Secret Hitler; Battlestar Galactica; Cash N Gunsz
- Party Games: Telestrations (After Dark); Cards Against Humanity
- Puzzle: Ricochet Robots; Number 9
- Mystery: Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective; Scotland Yard
- Horror: Betrayal at House on the Hill; Mansions of Madness; Eldritch Horror
- Art: Dixit; Mysterium
- Sports: Blood Bowl
- Choose Your Own Adventure: Arabian Nights
- Racing: Formula D; Camel Cup
- Deckbuilding: Sushi Go; Dominion; Legendary _____
- Kids: Rhino Hero; Happy Salmon; Hey That's My Fish!; Spot It
1 hour ago, AllWingsStandyingBy said:Exceptional Games from different genres:
- 4X Games: Eclipse; Heroes of Land, Sea, and Air
- Dungeon Crawler: Siege of the Citadel; Warhammer Quest; Mice & Mystics; Descent; Zombiecide
- Area Control: Scythe; War of the Ring; Terra Mystica; Carcassone; Power Grid
- Building: Alhambra; Galaxy Trucker; Roll for the Galaxy
- Drafting: 7 Wonders
- Euro Strategy Game: Imhotep; Agricola/Caverna; Mage Knight/Star Trek: Frontiers; Lords of Waterdeep
- Fast But Satisfying Card Games: Love Letter; Hanabi; and if you need a 2-Player Game: Lost Cities; Red 7
- Bluffing Games: Spyfall; Codenames; Skull; Werewolf; Coup/Avalon; Secret Hitler; Battlestar Galactica; Cash N Gunsz
- Party Games: Telestrations (After Dark); Cards Against Humanity
- Puzzle: Ricochet Robots; Number 9
- Mystery: Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective; Scotland Yard
- Horror: Betrayal at House on the Hill; Mansions of Madness; Eldritch Horror
- Art: Dixit; Mysterium
- Sports: Blood Bowl
- Choose Your Own Adventure: Arabian Nights
- Racing: Formula D; Camel Cup; Flamme Rouge
- Deckbuilding: Sushi Go; Dominion; Legendary _____; Arctic Scavengers
- Kids: Rhino Hero; Happy Salmon; Hey That's My Fish!; Spot It
Added a couple that I feel are worth mentioning
It's a nice list but I wouldn't class zombicide as a dungeon crawler, it's a tower defence game.
I've heard that Warhammer Quest was a fun game, and the Silver Tower was just a revamped version or an expac to the original?
What about Sword and Sorcery? Anyone tried that out?
I played OG Warhammer Quest, but not the modern version that GW is putting out.
If you like that style of game but want a broader experience with an in-print title, then check out the Shadows of Brimstone line. It's a great open-ended sandbox of an RPG where the Old West meets Cthulhu.
It's only 2 major flaws are that the minis while sculpted well are just of a lower quality than a GW-tier kit so if that's your standard, SoB might not appeal, but if you're not too picky that way, you'll love it.
The other problem is that as far as I know, it doesn't have an "end game" mission, so as a player group you may want to agree on using one of the major boss monster missions as The Finale so you have somewhere logical to stop. Unless you like to just keep going on and on with all the various expansions using the same character, but you can make it worth either way.
Haven't physically played Sword and Sorcery but the short version to me looks like a more involved Descent/IA campaign in terms of complexity, so that's both good and bad depending on how your group likes bulkier combat options.
If you're at all interested in the new Assassin's Creed game, I got some interviews from demoists I knew at Spiel.
Looks like an interesting stealth-style dungeon crawler.
So to add to this discussion I came across a game on Kickstarter called Tainted Grail by Awaken Realms. I've played a few other games by them and have been very impressed. The polish is on par with FFG, but definitely ... more diverse and challenging.
Currently sitting at just under $3.4 million USD, and 28k backers with 10 days left. I've watched some reviews and play throughs on it and it seems pretty legit. Big on exploration, resource management and a unique card based combat system (similar but not a clone of Gloomhaven).. it looks to be pretty refreshing.
Oh it's also fully Co-Op or Solo, there is approximately 30-40 hours of gameplay in the base campaign, as well as a fully unlocked additional 30-40 hours of another campaign.
It has a bit of choose your own adventure, a lot of if you did this read this, but the decision tree is so diversified it loses any canned feeling very quickly. It ultimately feels as open world as you could get in a narrative style game, strong, strong RPG world building elements.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/awakenrealms/tainted-grail-the-fall-of-avalon
Definitely worth checking out, right now I am planning to back just trying to figure out if I want the added minis or not..
Oh also as an added bonus, Sorastro has promoted this game and said he will be painting the minis with tutorials
36 minutes ago, FrogTrigger said:So to add to this discussion I came across a game on Kickstarter called Tainted Grail by Awaken Realms. I've played a few other games by them and have been very impressed. The polish is on par with FFG, but definitely ... more diverse and challenging.
Currently sitting at just under $3.4 million USD, and 28k backers with 10 days left. I've watched some reviews and play throughs on it and it seems pretty legit. Big on exploration, resource management and a unique card based combat system (similar but not a clone of Gloomhaven).. it looks to be pretty refreshing.
Oh it's also fully Co-Op or Solo, there is approximately 30-40 hours of gameplay in the base campaign, as well as a fully unlocked additional 30-40 hours of another campaign.
It has a bit of choose your own adventure, a lot of if you did this read this, but the decision tree is so diversified it loses any canned feeling very quickly. It ultimately feels as open world as you could get in a narrative style game, strong, strong RPG world building elements.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/awakenrealms/tainted-grail-the-fall-of-avalon
Definitely worth checking out, right now I am planning to back just trying to figure out if I want the added minis or not..
Oh also as an added bonus, Sorastro has promoted this game and said he will be painting the minis with tutorials
Looks pretty cool, those minis are really impressive.
Not sure why all these Kickstarter campaigns are going on in December, though- I have Christmas presents to buy!
LoL. After the fatigue run of trying to paint IA, which I still have not completed and have come to terms that I never will
Only a handful of minis in a game is actually really appealing.
13 minutes ago, FrogTrigger said:LoL. After the fatigue run of trying to paint IA, which I still have not completed and have come to terms that I never will
I'm with ya. It took me about an exhausting and amazingly focused two months to get through Core-Bespin, and I've managed to paint subsequent waves in 1-7 days each, so I feel in my grove for IA.
But I started my Descent collection about a year ago, and I feel like I'm not even close yet. There are so many minis, it's unreal.
Still, at least there aren't any stormtroopers. That's one huge saving grace.
Edited by subtrendy2It's the 'uniform fatigue' that gets me. Though, I must be a glutton for punishment as I've started a Black Powder collection (Napoleonic era more specifically).
My IG/AM army in 40k has about 130 painted guardsmen, and about another 45 more to paint (not to mention vehicles).
I like the individual nature of the IA models, it takes about the same amount of time for a squad of Guardsmen or a single IA mini (or Batman mini out of Knights Models' Batman Game).
When I get disheartened, I always think back to an early Sorastro vid where he makes a comment about games like these demanding quality effort.
As a side question: Has anyone looked at Gangs of Rome?
15 hours ago, TheEldarGuy said:It's the 'uniform fatigue' that gets me. Though, I must be a glutton for punishment as I've started a Black Powder collection (Napoleonic era more specifically).
My IG/AM army in 40k has about 130 painted guardsmen, and about another 45 more to paint (not to mention vehicles).
I like the individual nature of the IA models, it takes about the same amount of time for a squad of Guardsmen or a single IA mini (or Batman mini out of Knights Models' Batman Game).
When I get disheartened, I always think back to an early Sorastro vid where he makes a comment about games like these demanding quality effort.
As a side question: Has anyone looked at Gangs of Rome?
Looks pretty interesting.
I really like the numeral dice.
On 10/11/2018 at 5:50 PM, a1bert said:We played the daylights (Daybreak) out of ONUWW. Was good for ~430 plays. We still play the Resistance/Avalon occasionally (when 5 players) - at 328 plays.
Have you played Secret Hitler? It’s quite good with 7-8 players, excellent for 9-10.
Just a FYI, Tainted Grail is currently at 4.7 million USD, putting it firmly in the top 5 and I believe challenging if not taking spot #4 already for top funded KS Board games of all time.
There is only three days left in the pledge, with a few more goals to hit for extended content. I am going to guess it finishes around 5.5 million.
If you are on the fence, or just hearing about this game now, you can pledge 1 dollar now, and update your pledge in the 'pledge manager' for a few months after the project ends. Give yourself some extra time to decide if you want to invest the money or not. I've done a lot of research on this game, watched a lot of play throughs, contributed in discussions and I have to say it really does feel and look like it will be a landmark style board game that people are going to point to as the 'new norm' for exploration/narrative co-op adventure games. Awaken Realms has a great track record so far and this is the culmination of their design process, combining many popular elements from their previous games and innovating the rest.
Right now they are offering the base game, as well as two expansion packs that take place in the same world but at different times (where your decisions in game one will directly affect the world in game 2) only for kickstarters. So if you are thinking I will wait and see what retail looks like, you will only be getting 1/3 of the content for this price. The designers have confirmed they expect retail to be as expensive if not more, for simply the base game and not all the stretch goals. So it really is good value.
It also isn't out until either August 2019 (which I am sure will be a little delayed as all KS games are) or May 2020 depending which shipping option you pick, so if you are invested in something right now you've got lots of time to wrap it up before the game is in your hands.
Alright, that's it, I hate to sound like a promo man for the game, but just after all the research I've done (and obviously this thread is evidence I've been actively searching for new, innovative co-op games) and how much investment I've seen from the creators, I wanted to do my part to spread the word.
They forgot to put some useful clothing on their female characters
Same with a lot of the male characters. I'm all for equality, so let's judge them all equally 😉
Can't be as bad as Kingdom Death Monster, right?
Tainted Grail finished with 4.94 million pounds or 6.277 million USD and over 41k followers. This makes it the fourth highest backed game in Kickstarter history.
Massive campaign, massive success. Really looking forward to getting my copy sometime next year.
On 12/24/2018 at 8:26 PM, aermet69 said:They forgot to put some useful clothing on their female characters
They received the same criticism for Nemesis (their previous Kickstarter game) as well. I saw a thread on BBG that got toxic to say the least. The game itself got high praise, but that whole situation turned me away from Nemesis and when I saw they were behind Tainted Grail I never gave the game any consideration.
This is maybe an obvious one for some people, but it's been about a year since the start of my first D&D campaign (I'm a player) and I can't believe I slept on this phenomenon so long.
If you play combat on a grid (as opposed to strictly verbally) it's actually not too dissimilar to Imperial Assault, albeit much more open-ended.
Here's our set-up, with a monitor inlaid into a custom-built table our DM made, this time in a fight against a dragon (from that old MegaBloks line):
As you can maybe see there, our characters are basically stones with character art on the inside. This month, we plan on using HeroForge to build custom minis for the player characters and have a painting party. The DM got herself a scary looking dragon to paint so she can join us as well.
But yeah, I've been having a blast with my gnome warlock, and even though we've been playing since last March, I feel like I just recently started to actually understand the rules within the last few weeks. Not that they're overly complicated (I mean, they
kinda
are, but I think most people here could handle them no problem) but I'd been focusing far more on the roleplaying, personally. Turns out my character is
significantly
better at combat than I previously knew, so that was something I had to explain to my party...