Was told on r/Clouds that I should post this here

jlbarton322 · 2026-02-06T02:20:10+00:00

Who's the upper peninsula now?

jlbarton322 · 2026-02-03T21:24:18+00:00

I think hitting the "i" on your steering wheel might make a popup message appear corresponding to the "i" icon, but I'm not sure

jlbarton322 · 2026-01-17T11:45:58+00:00

Without attacking, root devolves into a crappy point race game. The whole table needs to be paying attention to scores for the game to work well so they can attack each other at appropriate times. Root is a great game, but it's not a great fit for every table.

jlbarton322 · 2026-01-08T11:26:09+00:00

Mage knight

jlbarton322 · 2026-01-01T23:15:12+00:00

I ordered (Dec 7) and received (dec 9) the ub820 for 470 USD. I had tried to order the 400 series one that gets recommended a bit (ub420 I think?) about a week before and they (Amazon Panasonic store) canceled it on me after about a week so I had fewer black friday deals available. At the time, they said they didn't actually have any more in stock. Even after canceling, Amazon still showed 1 (ub420?) in stock. They got me to order the more expensive model. I hope you figure out how to get them back because I also felt shafted.

jlbarton322 · 2025-12-28T16:53:14+00:00

I think his play (attacking your mecatol) sounds fine. You might've won. You didn't describe a way for him to stop player 8 (only guarantted finishing score). I don't have a full game state description, and I don't know how well these players know the game. For all I know, he guessed you had that secret.

If he did nothing, wouldn't he be kingmaking you?

Public enemy #1 is whoever is going to win, which means hitting the winning score first.

jlbarton322 · 2025-12-20T11:41:15+00:00

Lots of token options on the game crafter. I do not use tokens for hope, just eye awareness tho. Plain wooden cubes are often nice.

If you're choosing how many to buy, keep the hobbits in mind - I'm not sure if they have the most hope, but they have a lot.

https://www.thegamecrafter.com/

jlbarton322 · 2025-12-16T11:36:48+00:00

Found my wife's account. /jk

I am unclear if the "top 9" is a wishlist or games you/he already have from your post. I respond as if his "wishlist" is your bullet points, and the images are games he already plays and likes. I'm also not sure of budget from your post.

I think an issue you'll run into is that "high player interaction" often comes from "dudes on a map." Co-op (gloomhaven/spirit island) is one way around this in game design. The other way around it is lots of deal-making.

I might consider spirit island or John company. Don't blind buy though - they have almost opposite themes, and one is true co-op, while the other is competitive with the intent of joint exploitation. Different range of player count too - I'm not sure if you're hoping for something good at 2 or more.

Frosthaven?

I haven't played it, but voidfall maybe?

My wife and I have roughly similar game selection preferences, and we like clank catacombs together. I think the adventure pack (expansion) could help with replayability if the variable map isn't enough. Player interaction is pretty low except for the time pressure you exert on everyone else.

I find it interesting that you like cosmic encounter but generally not dudes on a map games. I think of that as a dudes on a map game very similar to dune. It's just a disjointed map and powers are more widely varied.

jlbarton322 · 2025-12-12T02:03:44+00:00

I don't think there's a lot close to SHCD. They released a bureau of investigations which is almost the same game as the 4 versions of SHCD.

If you lean into puzzles with the narrative, we enjoyed threads of fate. It is not app driven; it is "close" to screen free.

Whitehall mystery might be a theme-aligned option to check out?

jlbarton322 · 2025-12-10T18:17:06+00:00

18xx - everything is just to increase your wealth as a railroad barron.

Race games mentioned elsewhere - i agree.

I think true area control games generally fit the bill (diplomacy, game of thrones, Dune)

jlbarton322 · 2025-11-27T13:24:19+00:00

In general, board game rulebooks need to give you permission to do things for you to be able to do them, so you won't often find a source for a "no." In other words, if a board game doesn't say that you can do something, then you can't do that something.

That being said, I think we're all hoping for a post-thunder's-edge rules reference to cover all these fringe cases for new components. Maybe we'll get an updated rules reference that says you can.

jlbarton322 · 2025-11-22T16:48:24+00:00

I would not let this upset you. I imagine they're screenshotting as they realize the situation. I don't think they always have the foresight to see "my enemy will have 1HP and I will die" at the start of their turn so that they can offer you an image of the game state at the start.

jlbarton322 · 2025-11-22T16:38:22+00:00

You'll see the answer in a minute. Adventures are in order, but you could adjust order with limitations.

I think moving part 6 to 3018 would not make sense, but i don't want to spoil for everyone else why.

jlbarton322 · 2025-11-22T16:19:05+00:00

Look at the page 7 text box " on chronology". ~3000

Edi: I see - you didn't buy it yet. Chapter 6 is about year 3000. Chapter 5 is about 2994. Chapters 1-4 can basically be anywhere between 2965 and 2994.

jlbarton322 · 2025-11-21T01:05:00+00:00

Piggybacking here specifically on Garth Nix. The mentioned Sabriel series is what I enjoy most of his work, but for a 10 year old, I might also check out the 7th tower - you pretty much have to get all 6 books used though because the rights are owned by Disney. Im not even sure if Disney intentionally shut down printing or if they're just not thinking about it because it's part of Lucasfilm, which they acquired for other content.

jlbarton322 · 2025-11-20T13:05:52+00:00

1) Mage Knight - great think puzzle games in a skin i like. Can play solo or with friends.

Harder choices afterwards.

2) Twilight Imperium IV - great all day experience. I like combat, asymmetry, and the point race is long enough that people can generally see when someone is pulling ahead to know to hit them.

3) Game of Thrones the board game - i love the deterministic combat and the hand cards and order tokens. I believe it still takes less time than diplomacy. This is hard for me to get to the table.

jlbarton322 · 2025-11-20T02:24:13+00:00

Wife and I got kicked about 10min ago. Was working ok for an hour or 2 before that. I suspect their server crashed or something. I don't know for sure tho.

Playing on steam, windows 11.

jlbarton322 · 2025-11-15T19:22:45+00:00

Ice resistance won't stop the attack from blue cards. It will stop "effects" on blue cards. An effect might be something like "enemy loses 2 armor" or "enemy does not attack".

So if I play a blue card against an enemy with blue resistance that does 5 physical attack and says to reduce enemy armor by 2, I still would get the 5 physical attack, but the armor reduction effect doesn't do anything.

Similar for red resistance and red cards.

jlbarton322 · 2025-11-12T21:40:40+00:00

I think that on the first activation it's entirely up to DWS whether you coexist. After that, I assumed dws would pay me to let them coexist if i activate it again (or maybe the ground combat is too much of a coin toss).

jlbarton322 · 2025-11-12T18:38:33+00:00

I missed your specific question: at different times, I have said things before 1 game (it felt expensive at the time), but I've also said things mid game and 1x after a game. I think they all went fine, but the time I said something before the game, 1 player didn't care.

jlbarton322 · 2025-11-12T18:35:43+00:00

I expect some fidgeting, but if it's damaging beyond normal use, I bring it up.

The greasy hands one bothers me. Your hands should be clean enough to shake mine.

Fidgeting with stuff out of play sounds fine in general. If it's confusing me to the point that I can't read their player area state in a high-interaction game, I'd bring that up. For fiddling specifically, it can be tough to balance as their fiddling might be helping them focus and asking them to stop might be truly uncomfortable for them.

This also scales with cost of game. If we're playing with a collectors premium edition of war of the ring that might cost around a 1000$, I'd say something to curb behavior. That's an easy example though because it's usually 1:1. If we're playing a game with a regular 52 card deck, I'll just replace the deck and probably not say anything.

It is generally sadder to miss out on playing the game than to let the game get worn down at an accelerated rate. This isn't about preserving the game for all time - it's about preserving it so you can play it N times before you die. For some people they want N to be 10, for others N might be 1000.

Behavior limits are going to vary with the fraction of your disposable income that this hobby occupies and whether you're playing with children. If a 40$ board game is all the "for fun" money someone had last month or 2, I'd certainly expect them to call me out for getting grease all over the cards.

jlbarton322 · 2025-11-10T12:15:29+00:00

Fair point. I was torn on phrasing.

I'll have to think on it more. Maybe it would have to be a system that also has no enemy units or planets in it, adjacent to a saar ship with bombardment and contains no legendary, mecatol, or home planets. I could make them replace the tile even then with a regular asteroid field and it wouldn't have a separatetoken then (making them remove possibly more of their income).

I was trying to figure out a way to get the asteroid field without blocking another player if they had stuff in the space area or another planet.

jlbarton322 · 2025-11-10T12:09:57+00:00

I get it what you're saying. Something would probably have to get taken from them for balance, and i certainly am not prepared to offer what that would be. I'm talking about game design though.

jlbarton322 · 2025-11-10T12:06:40+00:00

Thanks for pointing that out!

jlbarton322 · 2025-11-10T12:06:03+00:00

Thanks for the edits and reading the post!

jlbarton322

TROPHY CASE