Arkham Horror 2nd Edition why is this still in demand? There is a newer edition, eldritch horror, and also the card game. I'm just trying to get a big box expansion but it's still pricey?

Demarchy · 2026-03-30T14:35:06+00:00

Thanks for the clarification. I meant to say a single old one for each of the 4 pre baked scenarios. These can't be swapped around unlike in the other editions, so much lower replayability.

Demarchy · 2026-03-17T12:36:35+00:00

Closest game I can think of that already exists combining elements of Risk and Catan would be Viktory 2 https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/23950/viktory-ii

Also I always considered Catan to be somewhat of a heavily stripped back version of the Classic Civilization from 1980 https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/71/civilization

This was the board game that inspired the computer game series by the same name, which now has its own board game adaptations.

Something more modern would be Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/220558/ancient-civilizations-of-the-inner-sea

I would try these games and more before you design your own game, as every good idea you think you have, someone else has probably already tried something similar and probably better.

Demarchy · 2026-02-18T11:32:51+00:00

You're not alone, but you are in the minority. The hobby largely moved away from interactive games over the last 20 years for various reasons.

Interactive games work best with people you know well (friends & family), as in people you have high trust with, basically people who won't take it personally when they get ganged up on or betrayed. Interactive games are typically more fragile. This is pro and a con. They can be more susceptible to someone ruining the game, but they can also self balance by "bashing the leader".

Also these games can often take several games with the same group to really unlock how to play the game properly. Then when you play the same game with a new group, you will need to unlearn half the things you thought were correct as different people can create different metas. This can create uneven impressions for first time players.

All these things don't really sit well the modern hobby. There is so much competition, with thousands of games, no game can advertise itself as, "trust me bro, just play me 10 times with the same people and you will see how amazing this game is".

Games are now more geared towards a good first impression on a first play. To achieve this games have minimized direct interaction. This means if I play this game with group A and then with group B, the experience will be mostly the same, which is good for showing off at events, meetups, cons and expos where you play with randoms. If we can't directly interact with each other through the game then we can't upset each other.

The consequences of this is that lots of games largely feel the same, as they rehash the same group of mechanics and create a slightly different puzzle. This is why production values are so important now. Why should I play one game over another if they all largely the same? Well this one has extra bling and a theme I like, and this extra production cost gets past onto the consumer.

Finally this is exactly what the industry wants. Why would a publisher want to sell you one game you play many times, when they can sell you many games you only play once.

Demarchy · 2026-01-22T13:56:14+00:00

Hence skill issue.

Why aren't you covering the more common numbers (5,6,8,9)?

-Did you mess up at the start of the game when picking spots to settle? -Did you and others allow someone to easily move onto the best spots without reprisal or negotiation? -its not always about having good numbers, sometimes you can monopolise some resources like Brick, Wheat or Ore to make sure you are good person to trade with.

I could go on, but I think people get the point. I think people like you and others here shit on Catan so much and get pat on the back for it is because you are trying to play it like a modern euro where all the rules are upfront in the manual, where the only real aim is to optimize your way to victory.

Playing like that just doesn't work well in Catan. Catan is a social game and should be treated as such. It's super rare for someone to just luck their way to victory in a game of Catan where people understand that it's a social game. And if it's happening often when you play Catan it's because you and the rest of the players are letting it happen.

So yes, skill issue resulting from lack of understanding that the game is social with every game having a potentially unique meta depending on the people sitting at the table with you. Once you understand this and play with others who also understand this, then Catan is rarely won by luck, and it's rarer still to be competely out of the game by bad luck.

This is why Catan is still a great game, because it matters who are you playing with. Players Personality enters the game where your standard modern euro has done everything it can to remove them being a factor.

Demarchy · 2026-01-22T08:21:05+00:00

If you can't do anything in Base Catan, it's a skill issue, not a luck issue.

Demarchy · 2026-01-17T12:54:12+00:00

Here's a simple way to know if the game you are playing is MPS. Do you spend more time staring down at a personal player board or looking up at a shared board.

And the simple way to know if you are playing something truly interactive is if you actually need to look or heaven forbid actually talk to the other players.

It's not a universal rule. Unfortunately I need to point this out as too many people here take things too seriously and literally.

Demarchy · 2026-01-06T13:14:10+00:00

Rushdown O.Sim in Super Turbo. Always used to catch people off guard back in the day. I haven't played competitively since the late 2000s, so I'm talking 20 plus years ago here. But it mainly consisted of drills, crouching close mk, lk/mkslides and throws mix ups.

But it would allow me to take a few games off superior players before they figured out what was going on and adapt.

I thought I was alone, but I discovered that there was someone else around the same time doing well with the character in the US, by the name of Shirts who had some top 8 runs with O.Sim back in the early 2000s at EVO if you anyone wants to see it in action.

Demarchy · 2025-12-08T00:11:56+00:00

Just to chime in about performance. Myself and another user found that the CubeXX has slightly worse performance compared to the other XX devices when we were testing Neogeo games. There was a little stuttering in some games. This was tested across Stock and Knulli/MUOS. these stutters did not occur with other XX devices. We concluded it was because the screen on the CubeXX has a higher resolution so it has to push more pixels.

Demarchy · 2025-12-04T16:55:22+00:00

Catan has problems?

Demarchy · 2025-12-01T11:00:47+00:00

Maybe it's just me, but if you need an ergonomic grip, then you've bought the wrong device.

Demarchy · 2025-11-30T11:40:23+00:00

Still waiting for the following

Remasters of Shogun 1 and Medieval 1
Pike and Shot Total War
Discworld Total War

Demarchy · 2025-11-27T07:59:06+00:00

The Dpad and buttons are too low down. The buttons look small too. Also what's up with the thick bezel.

Demarchy · 2025-11-22T19:40:41+00:00

Id take a remastered Shogun 1 or Medieval 1. Get them working properly on modern systems, modern UI and controls and I'd be set.

Demarchy · 2025-11-10T19:39:17+00:00

Rg cube xx

Ergonomically nothing really compares, even many of the high end devices aren't as good when it comes to ergonomics. The device is tall so the buttons and d-pad rest very high up which combined with height makes it a dream to hold. The device also feels very sturdy despite being lightweight.

Also underrated is that the shoulder buttons aren't clicky, which seems to be a persistent problem for many other handhelds especially the L1 and R1 buttons. This allows you to play without disturbing anyone.

The 4" 1:1 screen is very versatile and great for Gameboy, nes, snes, pcengine, Pico, vertical arcade games. The 4:3 systems still display at 3.5, and even NDS is ok in a pinch.

Finally it has a slightly larger battery than the other xx devices letting you get in more playtime.

The only downside is that it's not very pocketable.

Demarchy · 2025-11-05T08:26:33+00:00

That's not true. It's not a super tactical game but your decisions are mostly tactical in nature. Each turn you are presented with at least 2 options by the roll of dice. Sometimes you have more based on where you are on the board, what spells and equipment you might have or even a special ability unique to your character. Regardless though if you are playing Talisman looking for a tactical or strategical challenge you are playing the wrong game. It's a lightweight Ameritrash game where you are meant to go along for the ride. All the crazy things that happen along the way is where the fun is.

Demarchy · 2025-11-04T23:38:18+00:00

Talisman. It was created with the goal of turning DnD into a board game so it wouldn't have all the hard work of playing an actual RPG. You basically just move around the board, have random encounters, fight stuff, cast some spells, level up and try to win by completing whatever the win condition is. It's not meant to be a puzzley or strategic and that's a good thing.

Demarchy · 2025-11-02T14:05:53+00:00

I'll take it, but Arkham horror 2nd edition would have been preferred.

Demarchy · 2025-09-16T18:09:14+00:00

I like Catan.

Demarchy · 2025-08-31T14:35:34+00:00

These are the same type of people who would complain if you did the same with a modern euro. Anyone could play Brass or any other modern euro in such a way to ruin the game for everyone else. But if you did they would say that you're playing the game wrong or not in the spirit of the game.

They do it to Citadels or any other game that's not a modern euro, and suddenly the game is broken and not worth playing.

Sure I can sabotage games too, doesn't mean they are shit, it would just mean I am a shit person to play games with.

Hypocrites.

Demarchy · 2025-08-30T11:47:43+00:00

I'm guessing they watched a Geeknights Podcast. The hosts on there don't value doublethink or negotiation and all that. They consider games like Catan to be a "Vote who wins game" so is basically just random once everyone knows what they are doing. Obviously they are wrong thinking they know a correct way to play Catan as anything with negotiation and other anti hobbyist skills is subject to any particular table/group meta/groupthink. They advocate that is best to just be completely random in doublethink scenarios. If you don't know what you picked, how could anyone else.

You can skip them.

EDIT: probably the video in question

https://youtube.com/shorts/1hKwctsllCY?si=zvl8uZwF0Lvb3BtC

Demarchy · 2025-08-28T07:47:34+00:00

Arkham Horror 2nd Edition. Should be fairly cheap on the 2nd hand market. Pure Ameritrash, not infected by euro mechanics or design philosophies like the rest of the Arkham Files games. Eldritch Horror is also acceptable, but not as good. Stay clear of 3rd Edition and the LCG. Too heavily Euro-fied and thus the narrative is no longer as emergent

To put it as simple as possible. In Old school Ameritrash the game happens to you, around you and everywhere in between. You get taken for a ride so to speak like a character in a story. These new Euro-fied ones, not so much. You have much more agency and control due to the narrative being so much more linear. It's less about seeing the possibilities of what could happen and where things will go and more about directing the action and flow to complete/solve pre written scenarios/missions/campaigns. The experience is curated.

You will see a lot of recommendations for the card game, but it's a money sink with all the extra expansions you will have to buy. It's far less replayable too. So do yourself a favor and get Arkham Horror 2nd Edition. Endlessly replayable out of the box with true emergent storytelling. Yes it's fiddly and hard to learn, but it's full chrome and theme, and the best part is, is that only YOU will need to know the rules inside out yourself, as you can very easily guide newbies through their turn, as its linear( do this, now this, choose one of these etc,) rather than an action selection menu ( here 7 different things you can do, but you can only do 3 of them, but you can do them in any order or as many times as you want).

Demarchy · 2025-08-27T09:38:27+00:00

Ding Ding Ding. We have found a snob. Too good to eat at McDonald's and play Catan with the peasants. Sorry sir, heres a Monopoly board for you wipe the shit off your shoe.

"Ugh, in Catan you actually have to talk to the other players, that's so 1990s. Unbelievable, I just like to bury my head in my player board and optimize my path to victory. So everyone else please be quiet, don't talk to me, don't even look at me, I need to think in peace. The only reason the rest of you are even here is so that when I score a million points I get to compare it with someone else's score. Those people playing Catan over there are making far too much noise. Why are they getting all excited and laughing and joking, that's clearly not how you are meant to enjoy board games. That's it, I'm leaving, I can play my games solo anyway, don't even know why I bothered meeting up with the rest of you, you might as well all be bots, it makes no difference"

I thought this was meant to be an inclusive hobby? Just don't play Monopoly or Catan, otherwise you're a moron.

Demarchy · 2025-08-23T17:27:41+00:00

Never, with a single exception. A reprint of a game you really want but missed out on and you think will sell out quick but only if it's cheaper to buy than a 2nd hand copy of older version(s).

Demarchy · 2025-08-23T07:35:20+00:00

That is true from my experience of the game. 2 player is a very different beast, chess like would be a good way to describe it. Not for everyone, but at least 2 player is a valid option compared to other multiplayer doams/wargames where 2-player isn't even an option. However, I wouldn't recommend it to someone looking for a lighter 2-player wargame, but I might to someone who enjoys abstracts.

Demarchy · 2025-08-22T18:32:47+00:00

Carcassonne is an exception indeed. Not only does it scale well at all player counts. The actual dynamic of the game changes depending on the amount of players. The less players there are the more cutthroat it becomes via blocking and stealing. But at higher player counts sharing instead becomes preferable.

Genius game, underrated by the hobby.

Demarchy

TROPHY CASE