Dominion Strategy Forum
Miscellaneous => Other Games => Topic started by: GendoIkari on November 24, 2015, 01:52:50 pm
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Full list of stuff I played; "New" meaning I hadn't played it before:
- (New) Nyet! - A really fun trick-taking card game. Will definitely be getting it; though there's 2 different editions which actually aren't the exact same game, so I need to figure out which is better.
- Temporum - I taught this 3 times, to continue my mission of getting this to be more popular. Went over pretty well; one group in particular thought it was really great.
- (New) Between Cities - A drafting game with a really neat concept where you are working with your left and right-hand opponents; though ultimately playing for yourself. Not very deep, but a great game.
- (New) The Curse of the Black Die - I got to play this one with Tom Vasel! It's not a great game though.
- Mysterium - Talked about this one last year, though it's available in English now.
- (New) Aqua Sphere - A Stefan Feld game. If you like Feld like I do, you'll like it. But not my favorite Feld.
- Russian Railroads - Still one of my favorite worker placement style games.
- Betrayal at House on the Hill - One of the only non-serious games that I like.
- (New) Dimension - This was one of the new and most popular games there. Like Ricochet Robots, it's not as much of a board game as it is a race to solve a logic puzzle. But it's great.
- (New) Bruges - The other new Feld that I learned. This one is among my favorites; can't wait to play it again.
- Castles of Burgundy - Taught this to some people; always great.
- Dominion - Played 1.5 games of this, one all Adventures the other mostly Adventures. The second game didn't have time to finish, but I feel like I can claim victory on account of both my opponents opening Port vs my Spice Merchant, and by the time we quit I had no Coppers, a Hireling in play, and plenty of Gold. And a Rogue since it was the only $5.
- (New) Codenames - Another of the most popular ones there. Thanks to the forum games section, I knew this one already.
- Stone Age - A classic.
- (New) Camel Up - This was really popular last year. A very light game, but plenty of fun.
- Tichu - I want to play this more; a unique twist on trick-taking games.
- Innovation - Hadn't played this one in a couple of years. Good stuff.
- (New) Dr. Eureka - Very similar to Dimension, but with a small dexterity component too.
- (New) 504 - The other really popular/new one. The idea is that there's 504 different variations on how you can play the game, I think by having 9 different setups, each with 8 different sets of rules, each with 7 different somethings. Not quite sure on the specifics. I played 1 of the versions, which I thought was a great game. But maybe not good enough that I feel the need to try out the other 503 options. I'm assuming some variations aren't as good as others.
- (New) Pandemic: The Cure - I like this better than regular Pandemic!
- (New) Fuse - A neat co-op game where you have exactly 10 minutes to defuse a bunch of bombs with dice-rolling. You can just use any 10 minute timer to play, but there's an app that makes the experience more fun. Definitely one I want to get. Comes out next month.
In addition to those, I taught but didn't play Galaxy Trucker and Roll for the Galaxy.
The biggest winners for me were Bruges and Pandemic: The Cure. There is an interesting trend I've noticed over the last couple years... non-Euro-style games, focusing on stuff other than deep strategy, are starting to become more and more popular. I mean really going back to 2010 when Dixit won the Spiel des Jahres. I think Dixit is a great game, but it's far from a euro-strategy game. Then Hanabi and Camel Up also... Hanabi is of course deep strategy, but nothing like most classic Euros. And the most popular games at the con this year were almost all non-serious games. The #1 most popular game? Evil Genius: Deathray; followed by Codenames.
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- Tichu - I want to play this more; a unique twist on trick-taking games.
A lot of trick-taking enthusiasts would complain here. Tichu belongs to a separate genre of games, namely climbing games. There are plenty of those (especially in China; probably they had similar role there as trick-taking games did in medieval Europe), so in case you mean the base mechanic then I fail to see the unique twist here.
That said, Tichu is one of the all-time greats I would recommend everyone to play.
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- Tichu - I want to play this more; a unique twist on trick-taking games.
A lot of trick-taking enthusiasts would complain here. Tichu belongs to a separate genre of games, namely climbing games. There are plenty of those (especially in China; probably they had similar role there as trick-taking games did in medieval Europe), so in case you mean the base mechanic then I fail to see the unique twist here.
That said, Tichu is one of the all-time greats I would recommend everyone to play.
Yeah my friends who taught it to me refer to it as a "ladder climbing game". I can see the difference; it means that you must play higher than the previous play, as opposed to following a specific suit like you would in a trick-taking game. That and a trick isn't just one go-around of plays. But in the end you do still take a set of cards that can be called a "trick". I guess if I were to teach it to people who know trick-taking but don't know this sort of thing, I would say that it's similar to a trick-taking game but different.
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- (New) 504 - The other really popular/new one. The idea is that there's 504 different variations on how you can play the game, I think by having 9 different setups, each with 8 different sets of rules, each with 7 different somethings. Not quite sure on the specifics. I played 1 of the versions, which I thought was a great game. But maybe not good enough that I feel the need to try out the other 503 options. I'm assuming some variations aren't as good as others.
There are 9 modules, and you choose one to determine victory points/conditions, one to determine economy, and one to add flavour, or something. I love the idea, but I don't think I'll ever be eager to play it.
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I played 504 once and the combination I played (798 i believe) worked very badly. The game was supposed to last 5 rounds, but no further moves where possible after 3, except for buying stock.
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I've had a couple of games of 504 and think the lesson is that you do get a new game each time but each isn't going to be as good as a properly play tested and balanced game. The games seem moderately short (about 5 turns) so they don't take long, which sounds fine, but the preparation time and rule learning for a new combination seems long for a 5 turn game.
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[I can see the difference; it means that you must play higher than the previous play, as opposed to following a specific suit like you would in a trick-taking game. That and a trick isn't just one go-around of plays.
The latter is the real difference. Following the suit is not part of the definition by any means, and indeed some trick-taking games do not force that.
But in the end you do still take a set of cards that can be called a "trick".
Tichu indeed results in players picking up something you could call tricks, but quite a few of the climbing games ignore the played cards altogether, often not even counting who was the last one to play cards in that set. One rather common goal is simply to be the first one without any cards left.