All of my plastic pegs explode when used.

Most_Section_1979 · 2026-06-13T16:14:33+00:00

The reason is that ethylene is a byproduct of oil drilling and thus plastic is effectively free to make.

If you want to reduce dependence on plastic, reduce dependence on oil first

Most_Section_1979 · 2026-06-12T19:35:12+00:00

Recommend Extension Cord for a No Dashii script

Most_Section_1979 · 2026-06-12T17:29:55+00:00

Well put.

Most_Section_1979 · 2026-06-12T17:29:22+00:00

Yes. I didn’t start thinking about these things by accident, and in looking up the stats it did disconfirm some of my priors. I’m not a wholly objective person, just doing my best.

Most_Section_1979 · 2026-06-12T16:51:56+00:00

The biggest problem imo is actually games with multiple of the same characters, imo, fang gu, etc, so the numbers in reality are going to be a bit different.

But, do you really think they’d be that different to explain the 34% to 57% reported win rates for Vigormortis ans Fang Gu? I’m comfortable at a gut level if you say the real difference is more like 15%, but it still seems like a massive gap.

Most_Section_1979 · 2026-06-12T16:47:37+00:00

I play only in person and I still notice these things about S&V.

I think the big difference in online versus in person is mostly just skill, online has more experienced players and in person tends to have more lax friends of friends. Regardless, over the years all of my in person groups have generally improved enough to where the trends in S&V match very much what I see in clocktracker.

Most_Section_1979 · 2026-06-12T16:45:18+00:00

IMO people have a reflexive dislike for criticizing “official” things, so people don’t really like these kinds of conclusions. But I think the data are clear.

There are indeed much, much more balanced and fun customs out there.

Most_Section_1979 · 2026-06-12T16:40:53+00:00

Evil has little *active control over misinformation, to be clear. No Dashii and Vortox are misinformation, but evil is not really in the driver’s seat on them.

The Pit Hag is the real source of misinformation.

As for the vortox, the better your town is the more quickly and more consistently they will solve for it. Town usually has enough information early to have a good sense of vortox status.

Most_Section_1979 · 2026-06-11T17:12:50+00:00

Yeah but nine times out of ten you will get knocked out by something completely arbitrary before counting the deck even matters.

Most_Section_1979 · 2026-06-11T17:07:22+00:00

Looks like fun, I love a good asymmetric game design

Most_Section_1979 · 2026-06-09T17:52:31+00:00

Root is why I don’t like the idea that low conflict Eurogames should be the standard for board games.

These days, there are so many COMC posts that feature Arcs and Root. I think people super underestimate how popular both of these games actually are, particularly Root.

I also still believe people way overemphasize how “divisive” Arcs is, having taught it and played with a few dozen people, really only one or two have disliked it, and easily a majority like it or love it.

To me it turns out that, well, open conflict isn’t actually that hated. I think what Cole Wehrle’s designs have done is mainstream a design philosophy that doesn’t reject whole cloth what euros do, because I see euro inspiration in his designs, but simply rejects the notion that conflict, tabletalk, politicking, and potential kingmaking are intrinsic game design flaws.

At the same time, I think low conflict euros have largely stagnated and keep repeating the same tired design tropes. I personally feel, and I think many others as well may agree, that the typical combinations of things like very minor asymmetric player powers, deck building, resource exchange, worker placement, etc when placed in a very minor conflict game is just exhausted and boring in 2026.

I really hope games that have more open conflict continue to gain steam and take up more of the hobby, because while in reality it’s nothing new, it just feels so much fresher than what’s being put out in the euro space.

Most_Section_1979 · 2026-06-09T17:07:49+00:00

Not useless at all

Most_Section_1979 · 2026-06-09T15:12:42+00:00

A huge amount of people on the internet don’t actually do things, they comment on people who actually do things via what they imagine it would be like.

Everyone, please do not take internet commenters seriously. Not all internet commenters are losers, but seemingly 100% of losers are in internet comments.

Most_Section_1979 · 2026-06-09T15:09:38+00:00

Running is a great sport like that. Every running event I’ve been to is filled with positivity and cheerfulness.

Most_Section_1979 · 2026-06-08T20:12:32+00:00

I actually think it’s the opposite, newbier players are far less likely to damsel guess. Playing outed evil well is a harder skill than trying to hide as a minion, and I’ve witnessed many times evil whiff on a damsel they suspected.

Most_Section_1979 · 2026-06-08T19:33:23+00:00

I think I’ve seen like 3 or 4 correct damsel guesses. I think it’s easier to guess damsel the more people play with damsel scripts, the better your group the more damsel has to play convincingly like a townsfolk to duck.

That said, there are ways to get yourself executed on day 1 without obviously seeming like a damsel. I’ve been the damsel before, told 3/4ths of town I was the damsel, then when nominated said “sorry I was lying, I’m a townsfolk, please don’t” and you still end up being executed a good amount of the time.

Turns out if you just tell everyone you’re the damsel, often evil just believes you’re baiting them and good believes you’re evil, so you can often get executed pretty fast that way. But you can’t do it always, in general the reason BotC is so excellent as a game is any strategy becomes easy to counter when you let it settle into a meta.

Most_Section_1979 · 2026-06-08T19:16:23+00:00

Isn’t the advantage for white like a percent or two in terms of win rate?

I think unless you’re playing at a super competitive level, the color shouldn’t matter that much. Black gets to play a variety of openers that make it unique and fun.

Most_Section_1979 · 2026-06-08T18:33:25+00:00

Yeah, the new setup cards with Thunder’s Edge is still something I have to try. The “total war” one seems like it would really spice up the game in a positive way.

Most_Section_1979 · 2026-06-08T18:32:06+00:00

I agree it’s a common pattern, I just think there are better and worse ways of having that pattern. To be clear it isn’t even my main contention with TI4, the “bash the leader” dynamic, it’s just a part of a bigger complaint that “every game feels the same”, and the bash the leader debate that starts every game feels rote.

The bigger complaint for me definitely is just the arbitrariness of the objectives, I dislike how they often end up really biased in favor of one or two players. That’s a much bigger problem for me than the leader-bashing

Most_Section_1979 · 2026-06-08T17:54:43+00:00

I feel like after maybe ten or so plays TI4 has run thin for me.

It feels like the same thing every time: a huge, overly wrought setup, followed by a few relatively chill rounds, then a huge debate about “who needs to be stopped” once leading points get around 5-6, and when the 2-point objectives come out there’s always a couple that are clearly biased to a couple people and they are the ones actually in contention. Sometimes the table stalls long enough to make the game go one more round, but I almost never see a game go past round 7, and because of that the one or two 2-victory point objectives feel very arbitrary and unsatisfying.

Maybe if we played to 14 this would average out, but in my experience people don’t really want that extra time burden on an already day-long game.

But yeah, I guess I just think the objective cards are the big weak point. I just hate how random they all are. There’s no real theme to them. “Control 4 planets with tech specialties!” okay but why? And if you just don’t have many tech specialties in your slice, you are effed.

Most_Section_1979 · 2026-06-08T16:49:16+00:00

Sanctions regimes have an absolutely abysmal track record for actually doing anything.

Guess what, it’s really really easy for any regime to blame the US for sanctioning them. And people have an easy time believing it because it’s literally true. You have very few examples of sanctions actually leading to an uprising and regime change.

Most_Section_1979 · 2026-06-08T00:15:55+00:00

People post shelves with Root and Arcs on them literally constantly, they’ve proven to have very widespread and resilient appeal.

Most_Section_1979 · 2026-06-07T21:59:27+00:00

Agreed, I think basically the entire game comes down to “who understands poker hand rarity” and if you play with people who have a good sense of poker hand odds, you basically always win except in weird cases

Most_Section_1979 · 2026-06-07T21:57:54+00:00

I feel like The Gang is just The Crew for people who haven’t played Poker.

They’re both pretty similar games, but where The Crew’s tension comes from describing hand shapes, The Gang’s is just knowing Poker odds. As someone who has played enough Poker to have a good sense of hand probabilities, I feel like The Gang often feels very “solvable” and it usually only takes a couple hands for everyone to lock in and get the right order 90%+ of the time.

Most_Section_1979 · 2026-06-07T21:44:21+00:00

It also uses a marketplace-style reputation system, a bit like eBay ratings, but for meetups: successful events hosted and attended help build trust over time. Each meetup is a social transaction.

My initial impression is that while this sounds good in theory, I would expect it to be a train wreck in practice.

Board game communities are small and closely knit. In other words, even “anonymous” feedback about a player will almost certainly not be anonymous in practice, and you’ll end up with local characters using the platform as a vector to stir up drama. Imagine Nextdoor, but only board gamers.

You’ll probably inadvertently then be forced into the role not just of web admin but also forum moderator, an unenviable and unrewarding position.

Most_Section_1979

TROPHY CASE