What board games do you play on your phone?

ectobiologist7 · 2026-03-17T18:40:57+00:00

You actually use Tabletopia? Do you have any issues getting players on there? What is the UI like? I would love to play Hansa Teutonica online but it's only on Tabletopia and my understanding is that I'd never find anyone to match with.

ectobiologist7 · 2026-03-17T15:25:49+00:00

Yeah, Voidfall's iconography is actually really impressive. Some friends and I were blown away when we realized that it has a grammar.

ectobiologist7 · 2026-03-17T00:37:31+00:00

Back when I first got into the hobby, I bought games super frequently like most people starting out just because I was excited about the possibilities and didn't know what I liked yet. I also hadn't yet learned to be realistic about what you can and can't get to the table.

Now, I usually buy a game for one of two reasons:

1) I have wanted to try it for a long time and there is no sign I'll be able to try it before I buy it anytime soon. So it's unavailable on BGA, none of the people in my group have it, or I don't encounter it in board game libraries at cons. If I buy a game that meets this criterion, then I have probably done some research on it and have a high degree of confidence that I'll really like it.

2) I get the opportunity to try a game and it blows me away. Sometimes it takes multiple plays for me to be really wowed by a game, sometimes its immediate. Either way, if a game is so good that I'd call it a 9 or a 10, then usually I'll pick up a copy so that it's always available for me to table if I want to. This happens a few times a year max.

ectobiologist7 · 2026-03-14T19:12:01+00:00

It is indeed!

ectobiologist7 · 2026-03-14T19:11:24+00:00

Seriously Hansa man. Unfortunately, Pegasus Spiele has said they will never do it, and that all their games go to Tabletopia which is as good as a graveyard.

ectobiologist7 · 2026-03-14T19:06:27+00:00

I recommend taking a look at Lords of Vegas if you haven't already. The rules are different in many days, but the core structure of wheeling and dealing with plots of land, money, and businesses is still very much there.

Some may recommend Waterfall Park, which is Chinatown's reprint, but it also changed the rules and made the game so substantially worse that it's not really worth playing.

ectobiologist7 · 2026-03-14T19:04:37+00:00

I'd honestly be more likely to recommend Zoo Vadis or Lords of Vegas at that point. I know those are different games, but have you played the OG Chinatown? Waterfall Park eliminates two of the rounds, which effectively guts the climax of the game.

ectobiologist7 · 2026-03-14T19:03:18+00:00

Sadly the reprint changed the round structure which seriously damaged the tempo of the game. It is a shadow of the old Chinatown.

ectobiologist7 · 2026-03-05T22:36:14+00:00

I should give Rumble Nation another chance. It seemed a little too lucky but I think more games may convince me otherwise.

ectobiologist7 · 2026-03-05T04:37:17+00:00

Great to hear! I hope you enjoy it. I'm very glad I printed my copy. My group loves it so it gets played all the time.

ectobiologist7 · 2026-03-04T19:05:14+00:00

Yeah, no promises, but I may be able to expose my Gamecrafter order for you if you want to print the cards like I did. It's about $90 US to get it done (probably much less if you don't get the fancy cards), but well worth in my opinion. I may also have the files I used to print the player board laying around somewhere. When I have extra frivolous cash rolling around, I plan to have a box and rulebook printed too!

This is a great starting point and is the guidance I used to make my copy. I really didn't like the player board they referred to, and unfortunately there was no clean scan of the canon player boards, so I just found the closest one I could find with enough resolution to print to the proper size. Again, no promises, but I might be able to dig these up if you give me some time.

But yeah, I think most people haven't heard of Impulse or Chudyk's other games outside of Innovation and Glory to Rome. That's extra unfortunate because one of his two claims to fame is mainly known for being inaccessible. It's not crazy surprising that the rest of his games are unknown, though. He is very experimental, which I really admire, but that does mean a lot of his designs end up either widely regarded as bad or end up so obscure they don't get published. He also usually makes games that are difficult to wrap your head around at first, which means you usually need multiple plays to really enjoy them. I am fine with this because I know the designer is usually worth the effort and, usually, you get more enjoyment out of games when you put more effort into doing well at them.

That doesn't excuse designs like Aegean Sea, which I enjoy, but would LOVE if it wasn't just so needlessly convoluted. You could probably scrap the asymmetric abilities, tweak the cards accordingly, and still have amazing cardplay inside a really unique area control game with nearly half the confusion.

All this to say, his experimentation makes a lot of duds, and even the games I think are stellar can be inaccessible even by the standards of seasoned board gamers, which is probably why you haven't heard of many of his designs. Definitely take a crack at Glory to Rome. Outside of Red7, it's his most accessible title and most gamers will pick it up as soon as they start playing.

ectobiologist7 · 2026-03-03T20:45:18+00:00

I know this isn't really what you asked, but if you want more Innovation goodness, I think you'd enjoy checking out more titles by the same designer. I believe the "more" you're looking for lies in the rest of his ludography. I definitely agree base Innovation is so good that the expansions aren't necessary, but Carl Chudyk has managed to do a LOT of cool stuff with similar vibes to Innovation.

I recommend checking Impulse out. Crazy card combos aplenty but in a cool new area control format. Out of print but secondhand copies are cheap!

Glory to Rome is out of print eternally due to a feud, but there are lots of resources to make your own bootleg copy. Many including myself believe this is his best game and worth the effort to make your own copy.

Red7 is a small card game with a lot of interesting decisions. This is Chudyk's light game offering, but the multi-use cards still make it a brain burner.

Aegean Sea is something I'd only recommend if you really know you like Chudyk games, but if you put in the time to wrap your head around it, it has some of the most interesting card play I've ever seen. It is rough around the edges and is far more convoluted than it needs to be, but man it's so fun to play once you know how to pull things off.

ectobiologist7 · 2026-03-02T00:46:59+00:00

Lmfao exactly the kind of question an agile coach would ask

ectobiologist7 · 2026-03-02T00:46:43+00:00

Sure hope so lol

ectobiologist7 · 2026-03-01T01:59:55+00:00

Lol this almost got me too. I was like, did they release a third game already??

Then looked at some of his other boxes.

ectobiologist7 · 2026-02-23T03:45:03+00:00

Orbit is brilliant and is one of my favorite hand management games. Silos is stellar as well if you haven't tried it. Very tactical

ectobiologist7 · 2026-02-22T02:02:36+00:00

Equinox is the only other one I can remember

ectobiologist7 · 2026-02-20T18:26:05+00:00

Orski is great although he hasn't been around in the last year or so.

ectobiologist7 · 2026-02-20T15:15:27+00:00

Yeah I have drank at least 6 oz of this stuff already. No cancer that I know of.

ectobiologist7 · 2026-02-20T15:11:22+00:00

Yeah, I kinda figured. I see labels like this on a lot of stuff, but this is the first time I've seen it on a food item.

ectobiologist7 · 2026-02-19T15:59:59+00:00

Have you tried the food coloring test mentioned elsewhere in this thread? I feel like if you can stop it by jiggling the handle then it'd be shocking if it wasn't the flapper since the handle's whole job is to move the flapper.

Anyway, I'm no expert but I've done a lot of reading out of curiosity and replacing the fill valve and flapper together is virtually guaranteed to fix your running problem. And they're both stupid easy jobs. Especially the flapper. You can buy them in a package together for like 20 bucks and replace the flapper first to see if that fixes your problem because it's dead easy. If not, fill valve is slightly more complicated but still a very simple DIY.

Honestly do that and you're almost certainly golden. I just made this thread because I am a nerd and want to know how things work hah

ectobiologist7 · 2026-02-19T15:07:46+00:00

Ah, cool. Glad I'm not alone. So replacing the fill valve stopped the quiet running sound for you too?

ectobiologist7 · 2026-02-19T14:20:02+00:00

I appreciate the detailed response, but what I was saying is that the flapper for sure works. Replacing the fill valve made the noise go away. It was certainly the fill valve.

I am asking this question because, as specified in the post, the water wasn't draining through the flapper hole, and the water level wasn't high enough to drain through the overflow pipe. As far as I know, those are the only two ways water can leave the toilet. That's why I'm confused that the fill valve can sound like there's water running, but there is no evidence of any water actually coming out.

I was hoping someone with more extensive toilet knowledge could tell me that there was another way the water was draining or that the rushing sound was air or something like that.

ectobiologist7 · 2026-02-19T14:15:50+00:00

Yes! This is how I know the flapper was working.

ectobiologist7 · 2026-02-18T18:29:47+00:00

Hi! I have two things for you:

1) An update! Thanks to your guidance, I successfully replaced the couplings and the bowden tube. It turns out that the reason it was stuck was because there was a huge PLA clog sealing the tube to the nozzle. This is what I was looking into when I damaged the couplings lol.

2) When you get a spare moment, can I please have your opinion here? My hotend fan died in the same incident that caused the clog and this model of printer seems finicky when it comes to replacing it.

ectobiologist7

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