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I played the new Dominion Seaside expansion tonight, and it's absolutely excellent.

There are several different ways to build your economy, including the traditional treasure cards, but there are also some cards you can chain to get 5 - 8, and you can use pirate ships, which you can use to attack and build a separate economy (that can't be touched by attacking cards) or boost your money in a turn. More successful attacks = more money collected to boost subsequent rounds with. In one game with 3 players, all three economies got built: one with lot of treasure cards, one with pirate ship cards and a lot of tokens that had been built up, and one with chainable cards that all gave +1 coin, to the point where the player was regularly laying down chains worth 4 - 8. That seemed pretty unusual, and most other games I've played, the cards selected dictate one type of economy and that's it.

It has some good defensive cards included too, and the duration mechanics where cards last for two turns are pretty good. There are also three cards that, effectively, let you send things to sea in one way or another, protecting them from other players but making them a bit harder to use yourself. The designers picked some mechanics that really fit the theme well.

We found that games can go on for a long time compared to the basic set or Intrigue, and even when you play like bastards with lots of attack cards, it's still always enjoyable (We didn't like Intrigue so much - any game with the saboteur in and not enough defensive cards basically got forced into poverty and repelled people from the more interesting, expensive cards).

One other really nice thing is the silver embargo tokens. By using an embargo card, you can place an embargo piece on any stack. Any player then buying from that stack also has to take curses corresponding to every embargo on it. It can make getting the estates and duchys almost pointless :)

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Dominion exists as a (sort of) video game on the German website BrettspielWelt. www.brettspielwelt.de

I wrote up a quick and dirty guide on another forum:

It's possible to play Dominion online [so]at work[/so] through the German website BrettspielWelt. Quick and dirty guide on getting started:

  • Download/install the client
  • Start up client
  • type /sound off
  • there are a few game icons on the left. click more >> and choose Dominion
  • double click an empty table. empty tables have no usernames to the right of "Dominion", while tables with players will have gender icons + usernames.
  • a game menu should pop up. click join
  • make any changes you'd like.
    -to choose a pre-determined set, click the arrow to the left of "set" to cycle through some predetermined sets.
    -to choose a random set, click the arrow to the left of "randomset" to cycle through some of the pools of cards that you can random from
    -you cannot cherry-pick specific cards. not all cards are included. no seaside cards are implemented, and a small number of intrigue cards are in.
    when you have chosen something you're happy with, click the box to the left of the arrow.
  • if you are okay with the set, wait for someone to say in chat "darf ich?" or "may I join?" respond "yes."
  • click start

I do not recommend this website to Dominion beginners.

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I picked up Imperial 2030 after hearing about Chris, Jake, Vanaman and Gaynor (coincidentally my Nana's Christian Name) playing it, it's one of the most gorgeous board/card games I have ever seen, probably gonna play it this weekend.

Also played my first game of Dominion this afternoon, it's ace. Also, I'm done with Catan for the time being.

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Here's one for all Ubergeeks:

DriveThru RGP Online Store has Haiti charity relief bundle!

For a $20 donation you get $1000 of PDFs to download.

whoah.

A lot of amateur tat in there obviously, but also a silly amount of good stuff. And it's for Haiti.

Here's what I'll be downloading first.

3:16 award winning military scifi: 'Starship Troopers... with pathos'

Trail of Cthulu Players guide.: reworking of Call of Cthulu, using the excellent GUMSHOE sleuthing system.

Serenity RPG: because... yeah.

Shaolin Squirrels: Nuts of fury. I have no idea what this is but the title made me giggle. Silly.

Labyrinths and Lycanthropes: very funny and quite clever parody of original D&D.

Chronica Feudalis: historical Age of Chivalry game. Did the homework, then made it fun.

Oh and at least one zombie apocalypse game. Dunno which one yet.

And I expect there are some more gems hiding in there too. Don't think about it, just donate damn it.

Edited by DanJW

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Me and some friends started an irregular board game session recently. We started off playing Catan but as there were 8 of us we decided to play as teams of two. I have to say, it made that game far more enjoyable! Discussing your plans and having someone to confer about trade deals etc adds a lot to it in my opinion.

The other game we've been playing is an old one from the 30's called Buccaneer. You control a ship and the aim is to collect 20 points in treasure with various pieces worth different amounts and only 2 pieces can be carried at a time back to your port.

You each start with your ship in a port and you have to travel to the centre of the board which is treasure island. Here you basically get a chance card, mostly either treasure or bad luck. The ships movement is based on a deck of cards of black and red crew members. Each card has a number. All added together makes your movement score and that total minus the total of the minority colour cards is your fighting score (during the game you can modify this by going around and dropping off unwanted crew cards and picking up more of another colour. Basically a strong ship has a crew all of one colour, hence no negative modifier). The fighting strength is kept secret until battle and players exchange strengths in secret.

Another interesting mechanic is that you can move any amount of squares in your movement range in whatever direction you want from the port, but at the end of your turn you have to point the ship in which direction you want to travel next go. If you wanted to change direction next go before moving, you would only be able to turn and face the new direction and therefore lose a turns movement (and become an easier target for others looking to steal their treasure rather than find it themselves!).

The set we're playing with is from around the 50's, all of it is incredibly dog-eared and all the cards are damaged in some way, but that somehow adds to it's pirate-ness!

Looks pretty pricey to get your hands on it in it's original guise now (I don't think it's worth the ebay prices I've seen) but definitely an interesting game if you get to try it.

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So My housemates and I started our first game of Imperial 2030 earlier, despite not managing to finish tonight (we plan to finish tomorrow evening). Though in the play time I have managed to bankrupt and recover the economy of China, as well as Blockading India in via my control of Russia and China. Both of which are pictured below.

4301608381_a474d9f9ba_b.jpg

4301608385_4ed5dffbbc_b.jpg

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I just want to say how fantastic Imperial 2030 is, the balance is fantastic, also the lack of luck is a great thing. Two of my housemates and I have had an epic first game going on for the past 3 days, now we have picked up the momentum and seem to be heading towards the end game tomorrow.

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I found out about a week ago that my university has a board games society, which is pretty great probably gonna go next week. There is one slight annoyance which is the fact it is on GTA night, I expect I shall alternate between that and GTA or something.

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BOO! Just do what I do and set up a separate board game night with your friends. Last week we decided that the time was right to expand upon Space Trucker (which is awesome, PS) and added in all five expansions at once, having never seen one of them before. The chaos was all-consuming. The very first turn of our first flight, my entire ship was destroyed. Somehow through the remaining two flights I managed to scrape enough spacebucks to come in second overall. Bizzare, but wholly enjoyable.

Then we played a bunch of Kill Doctor Lucky, which I'd always wanted to try but have never had the opportunity. For those not in the know, it's basically Clue (or Cluedo to you Euro folks) but backwards. All the players secretly hate this doctor, but for some reason are gathered at his house for a party. The power goes out and everyone simultaneously decides this is their chance to off the guy. The goal then becomes to intercept the doctor as he wanders from room to room of his manor and kill him without his dog or any of the other guests (players) noticing you. You use cards with certain numbers of "murder points" to try to kill him any time you're alone in a room with him and noone has a line of sight to you, but of course the other players can play distraction cards of equal point value to throw a wrench in your plans right before you succeed. Whoever finally actually kills the old bastard wins. The game was typically over in about 45 minutes when we were playing, so we got about 3 games in before calling it a night. Great fun for a quick diversion.

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BOO! Just do what I do and set up a separate board game night with your friends. Last week we decided that the time was right to expand upon Space Trucker (which is awesome, PS) and added in all five expansions at once, having never seen one of them before. The chaos was all-consuming. The very first turn of our first flight, my entire ship was destroyed. Somehow through the remaining two flights I managed to scrape enough spacebucks to come in second overall. Bizzare, but wholly enjoyable.

Then we played a bunch of Kill Doctor Lucky, which I'd always wanted to try but have never had the opportunity. For those not in the know, it's basically Clue (or Cluedo to you Euro folks) but backwards. All the players secretly hate this doctor, but for some reason are gathered at his house for a party. The power goes out and everyone simultaneously decides this is their chance to off the guy. The goal then becomes to intercept the doctor as he wanders from room to room of his manor and kill him without his dog or any of the other guests (players) noticing you. You use cards with certain numbers of "murder points" to try to kill him any time you're alone in a room with him and noone has a line of sight to you, but of course the other players can play distraction cards of equal point value to throw a wrench in your plans right before you succeed. Whoever finally actually kills the old bastard wins. The game was typically over in about 45 minutes when we were playing, so we got about 3 games in before calling it a night. Great fun for a quick diversion.

We have that too, though a few of our friends wouldn't be able to play certain games, as in people who take multiple minutes to take a turn in Catan, wouldn't be able to finish a game of Imperial 2030, though I may make an effort to introduce a few friends from our video gaming society into boardgames.

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I picked up Infinite City this week, and it's alright. Definitely a level down from more involved strategy like Power Grid, but fun to play.

It's pretty simple because the rules are mostly on the tiles, and this means that it's something like a hybrid of Carcassonne and Fluxx. I generally dislike randomness like that, but noone seemed to be able to fuck with a strategy too much.

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After a bit of a hiatus (while he films his new sketch show) Rab 'Consolvania' Florence has started posting again to Downtime Town!

Video review of Horus Heresy and Summoner Wars and also a short text review of Starcraft: The Board Game.

I love Rab. In a wrong way.

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Some great suggestions in here!

Summoner Wars is pretty great, but as with any tactical game it's hard to find people to play with unless you're already lucky enough to have those kind of friends "pre-installed".

On the blasphemous topic of video games that resemble board games, check out Culdcept if you can find a copy. Plays like a combination of Monopoly and Magic: the Gathering, with the kind of direct confrontation the Monopoly formula needs for it to not always be obvious who's going to win. The Culdcept titles make for pretty awful Japanese video games, but my roommate and I have found that they make a pretty sweet video board game in multiplayer.

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How about the Battlestar Galactica board game? It's interesting. It's a little slow at times, but there's a cool "mafia" element to it. Some people know they are cylons and have to try to subvert the other players without them identifying them. There's a lot of backstabbing.

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I played BSG once and have frineds that have played it a lot. It seems far more of a BSG storytelling engine than a strategy game, which is okay, but buyer beware :tup:

I picked up Through The Desert a few weeks back. It looks incredibly complex when you see the amount of pieces that go down during a game, but it actually has a straightforward ruleset and the board is quite simple to read at any point (Like a lot of boardgames, not suitable for colour blind people though). It's basically a route building game, but you're not locked to preset routes like in Ticket To Ride.

I also got Infinite City, which is a tile laying game about an art deco, futuristic city, and involves a *lot* of fucking with each other. Most of the rules are printed on the tiles and followed as you played them, which makes it pretty easy to pick up. The design isn't perfect, as the tiles have tiny fonts, which coupled with viewing angles mean some players can struggle to read them. Some tiles are also a bit ambiguous, but it's generally not difficult for players to reach an agreement on how to play them in a given game, and it is good fun.

Sometimes you think you're building an unassailable position, then it gets dismantled in a few turns. It balances fairly well in that if one player is set upon by all of the others, then a clear leader will tend to emerge, so it's more advantageous to try and even the field than bully people. In terms of strategy and luck, Infinite City is basically somewhere between Carcassonne and Fluxx.

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Yesterday I played with a bunch of friends, new games for me were:

Villa Paletti: A pretty cool, quick tower building game.

Saboteur: Again another quick one. It's pretty cool, working on a similar principle of antagonists/good guys, along with the tile matching of Carcassonne.

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I WOULD play a bunch of roleplaying games like D&D and such, but I live in an area where basically no one wants to do that. ;(

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I play Pathfinder with a few guys each Tuesday. It's my first time playing D&D outside of Infinity Engine games, and this campaign started about 3 months ago, so I'm still learning the rules.

I also play board games with the wife, on occasion. Usually Scrabble, or Risk.

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Saboteur: Again another quick one. It's pretty cool, working on a similar principle of antagonists/good guys, along with the tile matching of Carcassonne.

:tup::tup: Ooh, good one. That's a regular at the game shop boardgame nights I go to, and it's getting harder to get hold of too. Typically, the only copies I can find are around £16 on ebay. No suppliers seem to have it.

Edit: Boardgame Geek! Of course!

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I WOULD play a bunch of roleplaying games like D&D and such, but I live in an area where basically no one wants to do that. ;(

Pick up a copy of Castle Ravenloft, it's supposedly a great introduction to new players. I'm thinking of getting a copy when there is stock in the UK.

:tup::tup: Ooh, good one. That's a regular at the game shop boardgame nights I go to, and it's getting harder to get hold of too. Typically, the only copies I can find are around £16 on ebay. No suppliers seem to have it.

Edit: Boardgame Geek! Of course!

Yeah Saboteur is great, I think the second round we played at boardgamecamp was among the best I have played, hving pegged Ross as a Saboteur from the start, it was clear that he made it very clear that he was a saboteur. The game works well as a mechanic, but what really makes it stand out is the interaction between the players.

I've recently picked up both Battlestar Galactica (which remains unplayed) and Weinhandler. The latter is a quick and solid game, again something we played at boardgamecamp, I'd recommend picking up a copy, especially as it's fairly cheap.

I'm looking to pick up: Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game, Castle Ravenloft (as previously mentioned), The upcoming Civilization licence (from the designer of Arkham Horror) and Starcraft. Also if any of you guys happen to be on Manchester (UK) on a Tuesday evening in term-time you should come play board games in Richmond Park (in Fallowfield).

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Pick up a copy of Castle Ravenloft, it's supposedly a great introduction to new players. I'm thinking of getting a copy when there is stock in the UK.
Oh gods, I sympathize. In fact, where I live is pretty much a desert as far as things I like to do goes. I FEEL YOUR PAIN. :violin:

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I play a variety of non-video-thingies, such as Magic: The Gathering, Ascension (a newcard/board game made from some professional Magic players), and other board games such as Doom, Munchkin Quest, Domain and Risk.

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Bringing this back from the dead to ask for some recommendations for cheap and two-player capable games. It's pretty easy to find the latter using websites like BoardGameGeek, but there's no easy way to search for prices alongside that degree of specificity. Obviously prices aren't going to be the same everywhere, but I just mean relatively inexpensive stuff.

The main reason I ask is because 1) I'm an unemployed college student and 2) my interest in board games is limited to just an activity with my girlfriend. Given that criteria, I hope there's something out there for us.

I've played with the idea of just buying a few premade Magic decks and trading them back and forth to create some variety. I also recently picked up Forbidden Island, which is a surprisingly basic yet potentially complex game that's pretty good with two and supports up to four players. I grabbed that one for only $12, which is definitely in my financial wheelhouse. While that's a pretty high expectation budget-wise, I wouldn't mind paying... maybe $30 for something quite good.

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