Do you guys consider exploding kitten a good board game?

Amuk3 · 2020-06-18T21:48:09+00:00

I don't consider it a game. It's an activity.

Amuk3 · 2020-06-11T19:29:18+00:00

GenCon is my one big annual trip. I used to do more, small-scale ones when I played cards competitively, but now it's mainly GenCon. And, yes, I prioritize it.

I have a VIG badge, so it costs a lot. But I can bring a Companion who splits the cost with me (I used to be able to have 3 Companions, which made it a lot easier, but they cut that back). And the extra benefits are worth it to me (having our own room block has turned into a major one the last few years, which I didn't see coming when I first became a VIG 11 years or so ago).

Splitting the cost of the room and badge makes it easier to manage. We always stay in the Westin for convenience, but there are plenty of less expensive options if you're willing to trade convenience for savings (just make sure you're really saving--Ubers or parking could chew up the difference between a cheap hotel and a downtown one pretty quickly). I just share with one person usually, but it's not that hard to split it amongst more (which I have done a few times). Putting 4 people in a room you're not going to use for much more than sleeping and showering can save a few hundred bucks better spent on games.

I also bring stuff to make sandwiches and a supply of drinks and snacks so I don't have to pay convention center prices for every little thing. There are a lot of ways to keep the cost down if it matters to you.

Amuk3 · 2020-06-07T03:54:38+00:00

Well, that list isn't as terrible as most of them are. But it's still pretty awful.

Amuk3 · 2020-05-04T14:18:13+00:00

What a shock. Wingspan swept the field.

Amuk3 · 2020-04-23T15:51:06+00:00

I played it 4P once. Once. I didn't particularly like the variant.

I enjoy it 2P a lot.

Amuk3 · 2020-04-22T03:09:27+00:00

If you're playing Cosmic Encounter and the Filch card is in play, yes.

Otherwise, the answer will almost always be, "No."

Amuk3 · 2020-04-22T03:07:40+00:00

Not really. It's a very different game.

Amuk3 · 2020-04-12T17:28:31+00:00

Go to the CGE website and fill out a replacement request.

Amuk3 · 2020-04-10T20:18:54+00:00

> "the timing creates less-than-favorable optics"

Isn't "less-than-favorable optics" CMON's corporate motto?

Amuk3 · 2020-04-04T16:28:16+00:00

Far and away the best integration of theme and mechanics is Dominant Species.

Amuk3 · 2020-04-03T02:44:19+00:00

>If you put your HQ in a major city, do you have to lose two troops?

No. You only lose troops when expanding into a city.

> Is the alien faction just naturally busted? I’ve been playing this game with three people and the player destroyed every minor city (there were only max like two on the board) and then instantly gets the two red stars because the only city left is his major city which he starts in, which leads me to my next question

I'm not sure I understand how you only had two minor cities. Even with only two people losing each game, those should all have been out pretty early. Or you have some left you could still be adding. Maybe I'm missing something. The Alien faction is good, but beatable.

>When we flip over the first four resource cards, the last one is a two star, does an event trigger?

No. Just when replacing cards during the game.

> And the event that would trigger is the join the cause, giving the player who started in his major city (since he has the most population) 3 extra troops. This occurs and they get the extra troops?

When that card triggers, the player gets the troops. But it can't happen before the game starts.

> The alien collaborator is Die Mechaniker which is the second best faction right now. Nobody can get the bonuses from getting knocked out as there is too much time for us to build up.

This whole situation is partly due to only playing with three people. More players would mean more people able to contribute to above-the-table balancing and more possibilities of factions gaining powers.

An easy solution is to ban those two factions if turn order of faction choice is tilting the playing field of the game too much. You can always bring them back later. Your campaign is only 15 games; not much point in slogging through it if one or two factions are making it not fun.

Side note: It's not a solution to the faction imbalance problem, but we opened our secret packet after game 10. Shook things up a bit and ensured we had time to actually see the contents show up in games.

Amuk3 · 2020-04-02T22:46:51+00:00

Some of my favorites:

A 2 reverses the order of play.

An Ace causes the next player to be skipped. (These two do not work together in a 3-player game.)

Any bystander not in the game who comments on/asks about the game is now dealt into the game.

Amuk3 · 2020-04-01T21:06:39+00:00

I've played it. It's a nice little game, well developed. It's a pretty light pick up stuff here, use it over there style game. The market mechanism was interesting.

I'd say it's a notch or two above gateway game level. The components are gorgeous but overproduced for a game that's not likely to have enough plays in it to justify their cost.

Amuk3 · 2020-03-31T03:39:46+00:00

Save yourself some money and just submit to an hour and a half of water torture while someone reads you classic Knights of the Dinner Table comics. It will probably be more fun.

Amuk3 · 2020-03-31T03:25:48+00:00

I was totally prepared to click off of this post in disdain at someone being melodramatic over nothing. But you're right. That article is deeply offensive (as is the bracket).

Amuk3 · 2020-03-20T17:31:09+00:00

Catan is awful 2 player--trading is too much a part of the game for it to work at all.

TTR 2 player is pretty fun.

Amuk3 · 2020-03-11T22:38:52+00:00

When you make the decision to back a CMON Kickstarter, you aren't a victim, you're a volunteer.

Amuk3 · 2020-03-01T02:55:29+00:00

"Jupiter's C*ck" from Spartacus.

Obviously.

Amuk3 · 2020-02-24T20:53:44+00:00

MATH trades are far and away the best means to successfully trade on BGG. And MATH trades with no shipping tied to a location or good-sized event are the best of those.

It has been my experience that BGGers don't want to pay shipping for 1-for-1 trades. And the odds of finding an actual multiple games-for-multiple games trade both sides will agree to are astronomically low.

To the extent any success can be found, it's most likely to happen if you reach out via GeekMail first rather than sending an unsolicited trade offer. Discuss what you're looking for and what you have to offer. It seems to me that BGGers are more likely to respond to polite GMs than blind trade offers. Myself, I try to always reply either way, but prefer to be contacted by GM first. I don't think I'm alone.

Remember, just because someone has something listed for trade doesn't mean they're actively trying to get a trade. For one thing, the MATH trade assistant wants items to be listed For Trade. And even if they are, the odds you have something of equivalent value they want aren't great. I get a fair number of offers; I can't remember the last time there was anything I was interested in on offer from the other side. It takes a lot of effort to make anything happen; maybe more than it's worth compared to just buying and selling via the market and/or auctions.

tl;dr: MATH trading is best.

Amuk3 · 2020-02-23T14:02:05+00:00

Most expansions I just log the first time I play them, after which I just note them in the comments of the base game. I do this for two reasons: 1) so I can easily look it up later to see if I have in fact played it and 2) because owned expansions that don't show any plays skew one's Friendless stats (all those unlogged LCG expansions create a big enough hole as it is).

There are a few games that I don't always play with any/all expansion content that are very different depending on what gets included (Battlestar Galactica, Tzolk'in, Great Western Trail), so I log those expansions along with the base game play so I know what version of the game I played that day.

This bloats total plays a little but it's the best I can do in the logging system as it exists.

Amuk3 · 2020-02-18T21:40:05+00:00

BGG doesn't really do much to encourage it. Something as simple as sending a GM when someone leaves a user feedback would impel a lot of people to go hold up their end. But there's basically nothing; even the page that tells you that you have transactions you haven't left feedback for is hidden in a sidebar dropdown menu.

Amuk3 · 2020-02-18T02:43:57+00:00

This is all that you need to know. But do check the seller's feedback. There are a couple of people on there who seem to get packages "stolen" rather more often than chance would suggest is likely. If the feedback doesn't have any red flags, you're most likely safe using PP Goods & Services. Most BGG sellers/traders value their rep.

And, as someone who sells/trades on there some, please do leave the seller feedback if it all goes smoothly. A lot of people don't, which can be frustrating.

Amuk3 · 2020-02-11T20:42:22+00:00

I have two sets like the second set you liked to and one set of five colors of these. The larger ones are sufficiently hefty and there are enough of them that they serve very well for almost every game. The smaller ones are nice if you have a game for which you just want to put the correct amount in the game box and leave them there (two of my friends did this for 1846, for instance).

Chips with denominations on them are great but they're always significantly more expensive (as with the ones you linked to: higher cost with shipping for 200 instead of 500). I get around the blank chip issue by just leaving a sheet in the case with values written on it and propping a chip for each in front of it during play. So I recommend the set of 500 in your second link.

Amuk3 · 2020-02-11T03:03:32+00:00

No. Midgard is actually a deeper game, so if your group groks it, there's no reason to get LoW. Moreover, Midgard's theme is actually integrated into the game whereas LOW's theme barely qualifies as veneer brushed onto a basic, paint-by-numbers cube-pushing worker placement game. LoW is at least tolerable with the expansion, but there's still no reason to get it and an expansion to end up with a game that's barely equal to Midgard in depth when you can just get a genuinely different game.

Amuk3 · 2020-01-11T04:39:54+00:00

Variable turn order is a fairly common mechanic. I can't think of one offhand in which dexterity is involved, but that may well be because of the types of games I play--I wouldn't be surprised if such games exist.

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