I have only played Machi Koro once, with the expansion, but it was a miserable 3+ hour affair with no meaningful decisions and a lot of seesawing back and forth until someone finally managed to luck into enough cash to just win outright before someone else could steal it. I am sure it doesn’t typically go quite that long but why risk it?
Villages of Valeria is a better version of Machi Koro. Only played a few games of MK but it was enough for me. Each one definitely didn’t last over an hour though!
I would get a Valeria Card Kingdoms rather than Machi Koro. It plays a lot better and is not broken like Machi Koro.
Oh I was beaten to the punch by @rowe33!
Oops, it’s Valeria Card Kingdoms. Villages is the newer game that I decided not to back.
@malkav11 Have you enjoyed the Mindthief class? Any regrets?
@Don_Quixote Did you get your GH campaign started? What class did you pick?
Mindthief is fucking awesome. A bit squishy and not super likely to get a lot of kills but also very flexible and you get to mind control friends and enemies alike. Or, at level 4, get your Cronenberg on.
The augments and mind control sound awesome, plus the summons. Just worried my party will get themselves killed if I don’t have lots of healing available. The Tinkerer does have some pretty cool gadgets though. Will probably finally decide right when we’re about to start.
The Tinkerer does offer strong healing and hand refresh, but is quite slow and has limited damage dealing capabilities. Most classes do have some self healing and/or shielding capabilities, and the Mindthief can get an augment that offers some mild ranged healing. I have to assume it works out without the Tinkerer, possibly through better damage output or such. Just gotta play around it. We love ours, though.
Flash Point Fire Rescue! It has an ‘easy mode’ and kids love firefighters right? The BBG community age is 8+.
It’s a solitaire game but you can play it with others. ;)
We love Flashpoint. Got all the expansions. I play it solo and it’s one of my favs and my 11 year old and I play occasionally and he loves playing the dog.
Very good game.
I haven’t gotten it to the table yet. I’m looking at this Sunday or next Wednesday. I did finish reading the rules and going over all the disparate “rules we played wrong” threads on BGG, though.
Also, I’ve been tinkering with a way to increase the drop-in/drop-out potential of the game. I have a few different boardgaming groups I play with, and a few people in each group that are interested. I highly doubt any of them are down for a 70+ game campaign. I was discussing this with one of those friends, and he mentioned Trello would work, so I looked into it. The apps for Android and iOS are pretty slick, as are the regular/mobile websites. It also doesn’t ask for any Facebook or whatever integration. My sample Gloomhaven Campaign board is here:
https://trello.com/b/XcQ9ozCV/sample-gloomhaven-campaign-project.
Finally got Forbidden Stars to the table and it’d an absolutely terrific space conquest game. It does feel a bit like a streamlined TI3, though it lacks the richness of the space opera that TI3 has. Forbidden Stars is much more fighty, and while that looses some flavor, it makes it much more reasonable to actually play. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who likes the idea of using a military industrial complex to conquer the galaxy. :)
We played a two player game and it worked well. In fact, I think two might be ideal for FS. Combat is interesting, but a bit long if you were just an onlooker I suspect.
Don’t let people talk you into something more complex or balanced or whatever. Machi Koro is almost certainly the game you want. A 7 and 8 year old can absolutely play it. Get the new Machi Koro Bright Lights, Big City edition. It is a refined version of the original with most of the cards from the expansions. It’s true that some sessions can go unexpectedly long, but the new edition does things to mitigate that. I got Machi Koro last Christmas for my brother’s family–who hardly play board games at all–and this Christmas they told me how much they love it. Don’t listen to the haters or hobbyists, they’ve forgotten the delights of simple, transparent, responsive, joyful gaming.
There is no joy in Machi Koro. Only suffering and despond.
Valeria Card Kingdoms is very similar to Machi Koro and I think kids will find it appealing especially if they like fantasy more than building a town. It is not hard to explain and I think a 7 and 8 year old could handle it (the first game would be a learning game).
Here is video explaining how to play the game if anyone wants a peek to help decide:
I played Machi Koro with an 11 year old boy and boys seem to like to pick the cards that attack other players (which is the broken part of Machi Koro - without the expansion). He won the game easily destroying all the adults who were thinking we would take it easier on the younger players. : )
Now, if my wife was playing I would choose Machi Koro and remove the attacking cards.
Newb question: what’s TI3?
Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition
The attack cards are definitely the broken part of the expansion, also.
Ah, thanks.
Agreed, abandon all hope ye who enter in…
Also it’s a game without hidden information where the most important thing is the big numbers on the cards in front of you. I’m fairly sure my four year old could play it, but I’m not quite that sadistic.
This is another miserable game. The big difference is that Machi Koro just feels like it goes on for interminably days, TI3 actually does.
New York 1901 looks like it might be good as well as Flashpoint Fire Rescue