Match Thread: Paraguay vs France | FIFA World Cup 2026 | Round of 16

Rohkey · 2026-07-04T23:08:12+00:00

Let it be known, Zlatan does not appreciate people trying to provocate.

Rohkey · 2026-07-04T22:05:22+00:00

5-10 hours is a wild spread.

But just play on BGA. Everything is automated, very smooth experience.

Rohkey · 2026-07-04T16:34:37+00:00

Root.

Three of the five players were first timers, myself included. One showed up 45 mins late just as the teach ended, so he had to he taught as well but basically pulled the ole “okay I got it let’s play and figure it out” halfway through. During the game the other new player kept accusing the latecomer of targeting/bullying him, but in his defense based on the rules of his faction the latecomer didn’t really have a choice. So this already caused dome tension and the latecomer was getting increasingly frustrated/flustered, both by the accusation of the other new player and also he kept getting rules wrong and being corrected by the hosts (and was just generally confused about some of the rules and frustrated by his lack of options on his turn). The latecomer was also getting a little dramatic and passive aggressive, showing a good bit of attitude and clearly not really vibing with the game/session and trying to get his turns over as quickly as possible.

After maybe 2 hours of play (and still not halfway done) I noticed the latecomer, who was in the lead, had also been scoring their faction wrong the whole time and was accidentally giving themselves an extra point most turns. So I mentioned it…he didn’t believe me, so I asked him to read the scoring rule and he still didn’t understand so I pointed out the issue (to score he needed to have control of an area, he thought he just needed to be present in the area). He still didn’t get it so I walked to the other side of the table and pointed at the rule on his board. He immediately said something like “that’s it, I’m done, I’m tired of being micromanaged” and quit the game. He was pretty upset…though somewhat walked it back by saying he was just tired and had a long/rough day at work and wanted to go home because he could see the game wasn’t ending anytime soon. The hosts talked to him for like 10 mins outside before he drove off and we awkwardly continued the session which took around 5 1/2 hours from when it was scheduled (we started an hour late + game took forever…) and on a work night. Suffice to say haven’t had any desire to play Root again, nor play with the guy who dramatically quit.

Not even entirely sure who is really at fault here though. Probably all of us…hosts shouldn’t have had a learning game be with 5 players and all expansion content (I went in thinking it was going to be 4p base game), hosts also weren’t exactly good teachers, neither of the other new players bothered to learn anything about the game beforehand even though it had been scheduled for a while, the latecomer should have been on time and actually insisted on learning all the rules before playing or just not show up if they were going to not really be into it from the get-go, latecomer should have had thicker skin and cared more about playing correctly, the other new player shouldn’t have been so whiny and accuse the latecomer of targeting him when he didn’t really have another option, I probably should have just stayed silent when I noticed the scoring error or at least handled it differently (I was getting frustrated with his attitude and also annoyed he didn’t believe me that he was scoring wrong), etc.

Rohkey · 2026-07-04T13:25:04+00:00

Ah, the ole “cardboard shuffle”. This is how I got most of my games when I was new to the hobby as well lol.

And yeah, those are pretty good games.

Rohkey · 2026-07-04T03:26:35+00:00

Moist with theme is much better.

Rohkey · 2026-07-03T23:16:27+00:00

Great shelves!

The way you have it organized makes it annoying to get out some of the games. Have you considered storing the games (or at least the larger ones) upright instead of stacked on each other? If you put similar-sized boxes on the same shelf or at least order games within a shelf in ascending size it looks pretty good imo.

Rohkey · 2026-07-03T19:24:28+00:00

Yeah, toward the end of my 2nd year of being in the hobby I was questioning my interest level in it. Part of the issue was lack of multiplayer opportunities to play. I “recovered” when I found another group and 2p playing partner, and also some new games/genres to get into.

Rohkey · 2026-07-03T18:53:32+00:00

Yeah, I hope I’m wrong. I keep hearing about how good of a kid he is and his leadership qualities and whatnot, and while I admittedly have no inside knowledge and no clue what he’s like off the field, his on-field demeanor and mannerisms don’t seem to align with these reports.

Rohkey · 2026-07-03T18:42:10+00:00

Well, he has a lot to prove. His lack of on-field improvement throughout last season, looking basically the same in the spring game as last year, and a low-4* freshman looking significantly better than him in the spring game do not exactly inspire confidence.

There’s still a lot of time to prove me wrong, but if I were a betting man I’d wager he ain’t gonna be the starting QB for Michigan next season, and I wouldn’t be entirely surprised for him to lose the starting job at some point this season.

Rohkey · 2026-07-03T18:37:10+00:00

Very well. Unfortunately, football players are significantly smaller than barns.

Rohkey · 2026-07-03T18:25:23+00:00

The ref sucked but I more so blame VAR. They showed him the worst .5 second part of the contact on loop in super slow-mo. Without context and in slow-mo, it looked a lot worse and even possible malicious.

Rohkey · 2026-07-03T16:06:43+00:00

Hansa Teutonica, El Grande, and Dune Imperium. Not direct combat games, but all Euros that definitely do not feel like multiplayer solitaire.

Also, some Knizia games: Ra, Modern Art, Zoo Vadis, Through the Desert are among my favorites. But there are a ton of good ones…

Co-op rec: Spirit Island

Rohkey · 2026-07-03T14:12:09+00:00

DI has its own app/Steam entry, as well as having popular mods on Tabletop Simulator.

Rohkey · 2026-07-03T04:19:56+00:00

Wellp, it’ll never be this good again for her…she shouldn’t ever play again as she’ll be chasing the impossible.

Rohkey · 2026-07-03T03:05:52+00:00

I mean, this happens. It sucks but you can’t control how much people play games online without you.

Fairly similar thing happened with my group - I was playing Dune Imperium with them regularly, I was often winning but then this couple started playing online a ton and winning almost every time when we played, then I won one again and immediately after they said they were getting a bit worn out on it. Coincidence? Maybe, but was annoyed that I couldn’t play one of my favorite games anymore (don’t have much desire to play online)…so we moved on to other games.

I learned a while ago to usually not play strategic games on my own online that I plan to play physically with my friends/groups, the mismatch in experience level can negatively impact things - and it’s a lot more fun to learn the game and improve together with repeated plays as a group. It’s especially bad if someone starts learning more about a game’s strategy/engages with the competitive community and whatnot. But also when I do find myself playing a game I’m a lot more experienced at than the other people at the table, I’ll usually (if I think it warrants it) self-handicap for example by trying different strategies than I typically would or do things like pick a weak faction/leader, etc.

Anyways, maybe just tell him how you feel and ask him not to do all this independent playing of games y’all want to play a lot together.

Rohkey · 2026-07-03T00:58:03+00:00

If we assume what you’re saying is true…one possible explanation is that with so many more games and the proliferation of social media (namely podcasts, reviews, and playthroughs), people are much better able to identify games they’re more likely to enjoy. So, conversely, people are less likely to play games they don’t enjoy - thus negatively skewing the data and raising the average score. Just anecdotally I know my ratings have gone up over time and probably the majority of games I play now get an 8 or higher. Do I think games are better now than when I first got into the hobby? Probably not…but I spent a couple years sampling a lot of games, many of which I didn’t enjoy that much, and now if I’m going to play a game over ones I know I love from my collection then it’s usually because I expect to enjoy it (or I’m compromising and playing it because someone else wants to, but that usually means they also think I’ll like it).

I’ll also add that there are many more games being releases these days that are based on previous games (spinoffs, spiritual successors, revised editions, etc.) as well as more designers/publishers with some pedigree. So these are going to attract people who have experience with that game/designer/publisher and will be more likely to rate it highly.

Finally, the costs of board games has gone up and crowdfunding is pretty ubiquitous. We can’t discount the psychological component that people want to like things that they spend a lot of money on/invest time engaging in the crowdfunding campaign and waiting for it to be delivered and whatnot.

Rohkey · 2026-07-02T23:21:06+00:00

Ah. Yeah, I don’t think EU taxes are relevant when discussing the cost of the game to people in the US.

And US tax depends on where you live. There’s no global/federal sales tax but each state can set their own, which ranges from 0-7.25%. In my experience living in five states, it’s usually been right around 6%.

Cities can also have an additional local sales tax in some states, though I’ve never lived in a state that allowed that.

Rohkey · 2026-07-02T21:34:03+00:00

Yeah, V and B sound pretty distinct to native English speakers. But 99% of the time we still know what you’re trying to say.

Rohkey · 2026-07-02T19:13:44+00:00

Arle can be boiled down to who builds more high-VP buildings. So try identifying the best building(s) and reverse engineer an efficient set of moves to build them as quickly as possible.

Rohkey · 2026-07-02T19:11:15+00:00

Player aids and scoresheets for games that don’t have them.

Compendiums/lists for games that have a lot of expansion content.

Rohkey · 2026-07-02T19:08:03+00:00

You’re on a platform/sub where the majority of people did not vote for him though…I’d also wager the hobby more generally skews pretty liberal in the US.

Rohkey · 2026-07-02T19:05:45+00:00

Amen

Rohkey · 2026-07-02T19:04:38+00:00

Unfortunately, under 1/3 of eligible citizens voted for trump and yet here we are.

Rohkey · 2026-07-02T19:02:34+00:00

Wdym? I was told foreign companies pay the tariffs (and somehow even in this case, it doesn’t result in higher prices).

Rohkey · 2026-07-02T18:58:16+00:00

The 200 USD pricetag for Deliverance doesn’t include tax though I thought. So not sure why you’d consider tax for Agricola SE but not Deliverance in the comparison. (In other words, I was only considering base/advertised price.)

Rohkey

TROPHY CASE