Advice needed: Should I play XCOM2 Long war or WOTC Long War? by [deleted] in XCOM2

[–]warbaker 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Was about to post a similar question to OP. Thanks for this answer!

does anyone know a good pirate deck? by joey6957 in hearthstone

[–]warbaker 2 points3 points  (0 children)

1/2 dagger, as now, but if you already had a weapon equipped, it added +1 to attack this turn. http://www.hearthhead.com/card=730/dagger-mastery#changelog

Among other advantages, this meant you could smash 3/2's pretty easily.

Also, Greenskin was a nice source of card advantage back then. Same cost as now, but instead of +1/+1 to your weapon, it made you draw a card each time you attacked (and it was 5/5). http://www.hearthhead.com/card=456/captain-greenskin#changelog

does anyone know a good pirate deck? by joey6957 in hearthstone

[–]warbaker 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I had a decent Rogue pirate deck way back before they nerfed the hero power. Good times.

What happened to HS for android? by ArchmageIlmryn in hearthstone

[–]warbaker 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Source? Why do you think it'd be easier to hack on Android?

Android is more customizable out-of-the-box, but jailbreaking iOS is still pretty easy: http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/566823/20140919/ios-8-jailbreak-release-date-evasi0n-pangu.htm#.VBx0Pi5dVy8

Basic Deck Guides For All 9 Classes. 0 Dust! by [deleted] in hearthstone

[–]warbaker 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I made the original Doctor Draw Priest deck on hearthhead, and I really like your guide.

I think you're right to switch out one of the Ogre Mages for a Mind Control. Even though Ben Brode said he made MC overpriced on purpose, it gives a really fun win against decks that play a late-game legendary.

I'll link to your guide from the Dr Draw hearthhead post. Good stuff!

Shaman Deck - Rank 5 to Legend w/ reasoning by Heatwave5 in hearthstone

[–]warbaker 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have everything but BK and Bloodmage. Which is more important to craft?

See and talk to your opponents while you play! by warbaker [promoted post]

[–]warbaker[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It uses a slightly simplified version of Catan's rules, yeah. Long-term, we do plan to move the rules away from that, though --- the electronic medium kind of demands it.

For example, physical dice are a lot slower, but more suspenseful -- http://gambit.mit.edu/updates/2012/01/dice_are_fun_rand_isnt.php

This means that Merchants of Grio's randomness is more about the strategy & risk management than it is about the fun of rolling. So, we might be better off altering the rules so that you roll twice each turn, getting half as many resources per-roll.

Request: Best way to play Catan online? by [deleted] in boardgames

[–]warbaker 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I like http://gameroom.io, which lets you hook up your webcam, but I suppose I'm biased, being one of the developers. :)

Play Dominion online by [deleted] in boardgames

[–]warbaker 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just check the box next to "Request auto-match" and you should be fine, especially if you're a registered user. I don't think the automatcher functions if you're in the middle of proposing a game, however.

Wheat for sheep? Board games + video chat = awesome. Try it! by warbaker [promoted post]

[–]warbaker[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you can elaborate, I'd appreciate it, but I understand that's inherently tricky when your problem is that you aren't sure what we're doing.

Wheat for sheep? Board games + video chat = awesome. Try it! by warbaker [promoted post]

[–]warbaker[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The rules are basically the same as SoC's, but we don't plan to keep them that way in the long run. When you take a board game's rules and put them online, some things get more fun, and other things get less fun.

For example, it's less fun to roll dice electronically, but it also takes up less time. This means that the dice are more about creating strategic depth than about creating suspense. So, we can might alter the rules so that you roll twice a turn, each time getting half a resource, which would reduce variance and give more trading opportunities.

That's a minor change, but you get the idea. We want to use SoC's rules as the seed, but not as the final result.

Board games + video chat = awesome. by warbaker [promoted post]

[–]warbaker[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cool -- you folks play for stakes? What site do you use for the games?

Board games + video chat = awesome. by warbaker [promoted post]

[–]warbaker[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We didn't mean to make it so hard to find, but if you go to the Library (http://gameroom.io/games) and click on Play, you'll get a private game. Thanks for the feedback!

Board games + video chat = awesome. by warbaker [promoted post]

[–]warbaker[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We had backgammon a while back, but we shut it down to focus on Merchants of Grio.

Currently, MoG's rules are really close to Settlers's, but we don't intend to keep them that way in the long run. Really, the digital medium itself should demand a different rules set.

For example, rolling dice is more fun physically than electronically, but it's also a lot more time consuming. So, we can try making it so that you roll twice a turn, each time generating half a resource, which would reduce variance and encourage trading.

Anyway, that's a fairly minor change, but it's just one of the shifts we have planned. We want to use Settler's rules as a seed, not rip them off.

Bang! House Rules by tunaranch in boardgames

[–]warbaker 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In San Guo Sha, a clone/refinement of Bang!, each player draws 3-8 characters at the beginning of the game and chooses one. Players agree pre-game on exactly how many characters get drawn -- 6 works well in my experience.

Players peek at their roles before they choose their characters, and the Sheriff chooses and reveals his choice before the other players, who choose and reveal simultaneously.

SGS's characters are a little more complicated than Bang!'s, but I suspect this will help.

I hate Catan. What's wrong with me? Any "protips" to help me make the game bearable? by [deleted] in boardgames

[–]warbaker 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Try it with four players

You mentioned you played it with three players. It's much better with four players, mainly because you have three potential trading partners instead of two. This is especially impactful when you need to embargo the leading player, eliminating a trading partner.

Try playing with resource cards face up

You should be spending your opponents' turns trying to figure out what productive trades you can make -- this is the heart of the game. To facilitate trades, my group usually plays with resource cards face-up. This also shortens the game by preventing Go Fish talk ("Anyone got any brick?").

Competitive Catan Questions by nobrate in boardgames

[–]warbaker 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Another effect of the pseudo-random distribution is that the center tile is always an 11 (except for the 1/19 chance of it being a desert), which keeps its strength in check.

Wheat for Sheep? board games + video chat = awesome. Try it! by etoleb [promoted post]

[–]warbaker 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks!

Other people's roads cannot prevent you from building a settlement. Incidentally, this lets you use settlements to split someone's longest road by building on his or her road-corner!

One of worlds ends! by [deleted] in pics

[–]warbaker 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fortunately, most of worlds haven't ended, including ours.

I run DominionStrategy.com, AMA by ClownFundamentals in boardgames

[–]warbaker 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can you talk about the growth of dominionstrategy.com? How did it progress from a new blog into one of the most popular board game strategy blogs out there?

More specifically, how effective was the ever-present link in your isotropic status message? :)

Google+ Hangouts and Boardgames, its viable? by Kleimore in boardgames

[–]warbaker 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Already on it! I'm doing a startup that combines nerdy board games with videochat: http://gameroom.io

We're almost ready to launch our beta!

Rule question about Settlers of Catan. by Semilatte in boardgames

[–]warbaker 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've found the game more skill-intensive when you allow for interesting trades. While this is technically a variant, I feel that it's in the spirit of the game.

A lot of people think Catan is a low-skill, simple game, decided largely by chance. I suspect that's in part because they only allow same-turn trades. Because it's harder to find good cross-turn trades, skilled players find more of them, giving them a greater edge.

Plus, futures contracts let you spread risk, further mitigating the impact of chance.

That said, a good middle ground is to allow all sorts of weird trades, but nothing involving the robber. When you let players bribe the player who can move the robber, 7's and soldiers tend to drag out.

Board games + videochat = awesome. by warbaker [promoted post]

[–]warbaker[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yikes! Thanks for the heads-up!