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Messages - chwhite

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51
Other Games / Re: What do you call this hobby?
« on: November 30, 2012, 05:45:09 pm »
I just go with "board games", sort of along SirPeebles' lines.  "Analog games" is good too.  Maybe I'd modify it as "hobby board games" or "strategy board games" if I felt the need to delve deeper.

I think that "table-top games" implies RPGs to many people, so I wouldn't use that.  And "German-style" is a bit limiting, I think, since it leaves out stuff like wargames, abstract strategy, that nebulous category they call "Ameritrash", etc etc. 

52
General Discussion / Re: Fantasy (American) football?
« on: November 19, 2012, 11:31:02 pm »
I was projected to win my other league by 16 points.

Then Doug Martin happened.

So, in my other league, my opponent started Doug Martin that week... and I still won by a point.  This may have had less to do with m own fantasy prowess and more with the fact that my opponent kept the SF defense in on their bye week, and had two other slots with zero points scored.  I mean, I'm not the most active fantasy manager but it shouldn't be hard to make bye week substitutions!

53
General Discussion / Re: College football
« on: November 19, 2012, 03:34:39 pm »
I briefly followed college football the year Rutgers was good.

After the past few Big East raidings, the sport is pretty much dead to me now.  Which pretty much means I fit in, here in the northeast.

I remember that.  I was there for the night of the Louisville victory.  (I went to RU but am still bitter over the football team.  I root for ND because I was born there.)

So, this thread prompted me to just check in and see what the CFB world is like, and apparently Rutgers is 9-1, in all the rankings, and is about to jump ship to the Big "10".  Huh.  Which is a move that makes me feel vaguely dirty, but I obviously can't blame them in the least.  At least Penn State and Maryland will be natural rivals!  Oh, if only Penn State had made that northeastern conference they wanted to put together in the '80s.

I don't think this is enough to get me to really follow the sport again, but it was all a pleasant surprise.

(I went to a tiny liberal-arts school that cut football my senior year of high school.  However, I grew up in NJ and my dad went to Rutgers, so they've always been the obvious team to root for.)

54
General Discussion / Re: College football
« on: November 18, 2012, 06:21:49 pm »
I briefly followed college football the year Rutgers was good.

After the past few Big East raidings, the sport is pretty much dead to me now.  Which pretty much means I fit in, here in the northeast.

55
I've played all of the top 10.  In order of preference, with gaps where there's a big gap:

1. Dominon (of course)

2. Race for the Galaxy (definitely needs the first two expansions to come into its own, BoW is good but non-essential)
3. Small World (I thought Vinci was a brilliant idea, with gamebreaking flaws, and SW fixed every single one of them)
4. Agricola (these three are very close; Le Havre would beat out RFTG though)

5. 7 Wonders

6. Power Grid (as much as I prefer heavier games with maps, and Power Grid fits the bill at least on this list, something about having to calculate auctions down to the dollar doesn't quite do it for me as much)
7. Ticket to Ride (I actually like the Europe map best FWIW)
8. Settlers of Catan (yes it is fixed Monopoly, and there's nothing wrong with that)

9. Pandemic (co-ops aren't my thing)

10. Carcassone (I don't know why I hate this game, but I do)

I'll happily play the top 5 almost any time, and I'll agree to the top 8 most of the time.


56
General Discussion / Re: STAR WARS
« on: November 12, 2012, 07:17:57 pm »
I will say this for the prequels:  they got better as they went along.  Episode III was mostly kinda decent, actually.  II would have been passable without the romantic subplot, which was handled about as poorly as possible.  Episode I... the less said the better.

I assume at least some of you have seen the proposals to view Star Wars in machete order?  I think there's a lot of sense to it.

57
Other Games / Re: Short List for Buying New Game This Christmas
« on: November 12, 2012, 07:08:25 pm »
I would like to second Schneau's recommendation of St. Petersburg.  Fits your time frame, is substantially different than what you have, and IMO it works best with two (but is fine with 3 and 4 as well). My GF got it for me as an Xmas present (I had played it before, and had mentioned it as something that might work for the two of us) and it has been a great "couples game" for when we don't just play Scrabble again.

As for San Juan versus RFTG... personally I am all about RFTG and find San Juan kind of simple and easy, but the RFTG iconography can be a pretty high hurdle for people who aren't deep into the hobby.  I actually think San Juan is best with the full four players, because that forces you to get out of the Prospect-Build-Council City Hall-driven rut that happens most of the time.  (And it naturally nerfs the Library.)

58
General Discussion / Re: Winter
« on: October 29, 2012, 06:40:43 pm »
Fall > Winter > Summer >>>>>> Spring.

This may have something to do with seasonal allergies.

59
Other Games / Re: Donald X.'s new game Kingdom Builder
« on: October 23, 2012, 01:54:51 pm »
Brink of War has some detractors, and it is true that we stopped playing shortly after Brink of War came out (though that was also when we were getting into Isotropic, so, who knows).  TGS + RvI, though, unequivocally make RFTG a lot better, whereas BoW probably does but for a not-insubstantial-number it does not.

Prestige is somewhat tacked on and not necessarily balanced.  But it is fun, and there are several cards in BoW that fill important holes in the card set, such as the Mining Mole Uplifts and the other blue world 6-coster.  Yes, I am singling out the Mining Mole Uplifts.  It had always bothered me before there wasn't a brown Uplift world, but BoW gives you one!

60
General Discussion / Re: Favorite Webcomics
« on: October 22, 2012, 05:51:19 pm »
Buttersafe and SMBC are by far my two current favorites.  I still read Dr. McNinja, Questionable Content, and XKCD, but they've all slipped in quality over time and I may give them up at some point.  I feel like I ought to regularly read Kate Beaton, Dinosaur Comics and A Softer World, but only look at them occasionally.

There are others I used to read, but no longer.  The two worth mentioning, because they stopped updating rather than me losing interest, were Perry Bible Fellowship and Nobody Scores!

61
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Homage to the Best Card
« on: October 17, 2012, 09:38:51 pm »

62
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Silk Road is Awesome!
« on: October 13, 2012, 10:00:21 pm »
Hmm.  What about Silk Road and Gardens on the same board....how would that work?


Silk Road edges out Gardens on the head-to-head- especially if there are extra alt-VP cards, and since there are both SR and Gardens there are.  You want to get Silk Roads, then Gardens.

Gardens does have an edge over SR in games where a lot of the bloat comes from Curse and Copper instead, and of course you generally want both, but SR usually should be prioritized.

63
General Discussion / Re: Baseball playoffs, 2012!!
« on: October 13, 2012, 09:08:05 pm »
Sigh... TBS on the other hand, I am sure, is thrilled that all the large market teams made it through.

San Fransisco has 800,000 people. The greater bay area has ~3 million people split between two teams. Not quite large-market.

According to wikipedia, the Bay Area metro is 4.3 million, and they surely draw from Sacramento and other more rural parts of Northern CA.  Also I'm pretty sure the Giants have the lion's share of the fans in the area.

64
Dominion General Discussion / Re: What would make Scout better?
« on: October 10, 2012, 06:51:39 pm »
Navigator's obviously not a great card, but it's better than most people give it credit for.  Beyond the obvious Tunnel synergy, I often pick one up in low-or-no-trash engine games (especially ones where all the parts are at $5) for an early tempo boost.  It's a hard card to develop good play rules for, you just kinda need to see how much competition it has.

And of course it plays well with cards that benefit from lookahead, like Scrying Pool and Wishing Well.

65
Dominion General Discussion / Re: What would make Scout better?
« on: October 09, 2012, 02:31:51 pm »
Wow!  The best thing I can say about 'mute is that its an ok pickup on t3/t4 when you miss your familiar buy.

I'd be very interested to see your list of 12 cards with lesser utility.

Transmute is great later on in Familiar games, it can combo with Vineyards, sometimes if there are other curse-givers and a neat engine to build it can be useful, or with Dukes or other Alchemy-heavy setups... there are ways to make it work.

Anyway, the cards I'd consider worse than Transmute (mind you, this is not counting Dark Ages, which I've barely played- and also keep in mind that DA might boost the Mute a bit too, with stuff like Ruins -> Duchy for instance):
Thief
Scout
Counting House
Adventurer
Pirate Ship
Talisman
Explorer
Saboteur
Cache
Treasure Map
Stash

...Okay, I guess that's only eleven.  You could arguably throw Mandarin or PStone in for 12, though they're probably a tiny bit better.

66
Dominion General Discussion / Re: What would make Scout better?
« on: October 09, 2012, 12:26:36 pm »
Also, I don't particularly like the idea of Scout picking up Ruins and Shelters.  It would be useful for power balance in an all-random setup, but it just feels wrong for a card to refer to things that only work with specific other expansions.  It would be sort of like Salvager giving +$2 for Potion in the cost of the trashed card.  I guess thematically it'd make some sense for Scout to get Hovel and Necropolis, but as long as we're not going to let Baron discard an Overgrown Estate that should probably not happen.

67
Dominion General Discussion / Re: What would make Scout better?
« on: October 09, 2012, 12:17:23 pm »
Various ideas :

For Scout :
- Can pick up curses and ruins
- Cost $3
- Reveal 5 cards insted of 4 (but even...)

For counting house :
- +1 buy
- Discard your hand and draw from 0 to 4 cards in hand before you take the coppers.
- +$1
- You may gain a copper before you look through your discard pile

For transmute (yes) :
- +$1
- +1 card

But I agree that counting house don't especially need modification.

Transmute doesn't need those things to be a useful card.  I think adding +1 Action would be a nice buff, but the 'Mute already has more utility than probably a dozen cards or so.

68
Dominion General Discussion / Re: What would make Scout better?
« on: October 09, 2012, 12:12:58 pm »
Make it Action-Victory (for 0 VP), let it pick up Curses, and look at the top 5 cards instead.  Maybe drop it down to $3 and stick with just the top 4.

That should make it playable a reasonable percentage of the time.  Doesn't need to be a power card.

...

I really like the idea of giving Counting House +Buy, I'm a little surprised that hasn't been mentioned before to my knowledge.  It makes sense, given that I want a +Buy on Adventurer, too, and those cards are surprisingly similar in a number of ways (expensive terminals that do nothing but give you a potentially great but often unreliable amount of Treasure).

69
Dominion Isotropic / Re: Attention-whoring thread.... I did it!!
« on: October 07, 2012, 10:09:19 pm »
Could you guys all just stop playing for a month?  Thanks.

Level 53   60.771 ± 7.684   1   6826   Rabid ▲ 2
Level 50   58.725 ± 8.386   2   2397   -Stef-
Level 49   59.322 ± 9.744   3   4091   olneyce ▲ 1
58.373 ± 8.850   4   3547   Marin ▼ 1
56.998 ± 7.732   5   5852   Obi Wan Bonogi
Level 47   56.390 ± 8.658   6   377   tryderat
57.118 ± 9.468   7   4586   NinjaBus
Level 45   55.572 ± 9.701   8   8617   chwhite ▼ 1

Recently, I've basically only been playing just enough to keep above Level 45.  Sorry. :P

70
General Discussion / Re: Baseball playoffs, 2012!!
« on: October 05, 2012, 11:27:31 am »
First question, what do you think about the 1-game wildcard playoff system?  I'm a fan, it's gonna be super exciting.  A friend of mine still swears this is the worst thing that has happened to baseball.  Thoughts?

I think it's just great they've finally caught up to where the NFL was in 1978.

71
Other Games / Re: Picture Caption
« on: September 30, 2012, 10:50:35 pm »
I've heard it called Telephone Pictionary.

Same here.

72
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Stratified Random Kingdoms
« on: September 27, 2012, 05:12:52 pm »
I'd still like to hear people's thoughts. Anyone have a favorite way of choosing kingdoms at home?

Added challenge: best way to do stratified random kingdoms when strata ARE mutually exclusive (so randomizer piles can be divided up at home)?

Suggestions?
I generally avoid nasty attack cards like Torturer, Sea Hag or Ambassador.

The reason for this is twofold:
...

In fact, I will go as far as claiming that I hate all cards that mess with an opponent's deck. This kind of "here's a Witch, in your face!" conflict feels just very ameri to me. I don't need it, I don't want it. Dropping 7 Curses into an opponent's deck because of a lucky Familiar split doesn't make me happy. Outsmarting him with a sophisticated engine does.

I like setups which have multiple roads to victory. Attack cards are often so dominant that both players will get them and they exaggerate the first player bias.

If Cursers and Looters wouldn't have been part of the Dominion culture, that wouldn't have made me sad. In fact, it would have made me very happy as this would leave room for other interesting cards.

The problem with this is that Attacks- including and especially nasty ones like Ambassador, Torturer, and even Saboteur, give you more roads to victory and allow you to win with sophisticated engines.    In addition to the good things they do for you (deck-thinning for Amb, +Cards for Torturer, etc.), by slowing your opponent down they provide that crucial element- time- to build your clever engine and catch up.  Even Sab can be crucial here, by giving you a possible path to victory after your opponent has over half the Victory points.

Take these cards away, and you don't have a situation where you can "Outsmart [your opponent] with a sophisticated engine", you have an environment where the best plan all-too-often requires a maximum of BM+X and a minimum of creativity. 

Okay, I guess you could take away Familiar, that one is just swingy without being particularly interesting.  But I'd be sad to live in a world where PStone and Transmute were useful even less often than they already are.


73
General Discussion / Re: Fantasy (American) football?
« on: September 21, 2012, 11:56:02 am »
I swear I thought someone already took Andre Brown from waivers for some reason, so I didn't even bother looking for him.

Yeah, I would have needed to put in a waiver claim and hope I was at the head of the line.  I thought about it, then forgot about it, and boy that was a mistake.

74
Other Games / Re: Amazon Board Game Reviews
« on: September 21, 2012, 12:08:43 am »
Funnily enough, the two best Apples to Apples pairings I've seen both involved the same adjective:

Radiant Pond Scum, and
Radiant Marie Curie.

It's not great or anything but it's better than most "party games".

75
General Discussion / Re: Fantasy (American) football?
« on: September 21, 2012, 12:04:09 am »
I just want to say that the announcers for the Giants-Panthers game were notably better than usual.

And also, why oh why did I not bother to swap out Wilson from Brown when I had the chance?

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