I think this discussion has answered my question: there really are not good options for me to play table games with people who think Clank! is too complex. For those people, I will just play social/filler games.
Basically, Clank! and Champions of Midgard will be my “entry level” table games, and if that’s too complex for the group, we can do something else.
Also, when I was sleeving Terraforming Mars, I noted that the standard game actually removes about a third of the cards for a simpler play experience. I was taught and have always played the more advanced version using the “Corporate Era” cards; I didn’t know there was a basic version. Does anyone have any experience with the basic game? Is it still enjoyable and is it appreciably faster/simpler than the advanced “Corporate Era” game?
haha I acknowledge your points regarding Ticket to Ride. Maybe I’m just bitter because I see all these awesome complex games that I’ll never play because my group will pout and fiddle with their phones as I explain the rules.
Hmm, that is tempting. But I doubt it’s worth the time. A friend of mine who’s got serious boardgaming chops has played through some of it and she’s got nothing good to say about it. And I like to think I learned my lesson about Rob Daviau games after the half-assed design of V Wars.
I thought Seafall was somewhat entertaining when viewed as a story-game, but frustrating and chaotic as a competitive game. There’s luck in strange places and the rules change out from under you in surprising ways that felt unfair to me. It also changes so often and so much that it’s hard to have feedback from the game on what good play actually is. I think if you play it primarily for the story it generates you’re much more likely to enjoy it. It’s a hell of a time investment with a not-very-satisfying return unfortunately.
@Sharpe – It probably hits your “light to medium” category, but it sounds to me like you might really like Kingsburg. It does lean on the Euro side, but there’s a pseudo-worker-placement mechanic with cutthroat blocking and a lot of interesting strategic decisions to make with building.
Games that might qualify in the Light category: Roll Through the Ages, Nations: The Dice Game, Citadels.
I will reinforce this. Seafall has serious problems. After 13 games my group threw in the towel. We opened the last box… which actually made the game worse retroactively.
I just finished my first solo game of Terraforming Mars and it was pretty good for a solo experience.
Solo is played with a standard (non-basic) setup, with 2 neutral city tiles and 2 neutral forest tiles randomly placed on the map. You have 14 generations (turns) to complete the terraforming of Mars by maxing out both temperature and Oxygen and also placing all 9 oceans. If you fail, you lose. If you succeed, tally up your victory points for a high score. The game strategy changes slightly as VP pumps like the biology and some science/tech cards and less important and just the grunt level build/money/energy/heat/forestry cards are more important. 14 turns is quite tight; I managed to win, but by the skin of my teeth and I was pretty well convinced I would lose for several turns before the end. A combo of lucky cards and cashing in on the engine I had built gave me the win. One bonus aspect here: compared to solo play of a co-op game like Eldritch Horror, TM was easier to set-up solo, and much less fiddly to play solo.
Tom, I’m not 100% sure you will love TM: either you will like it’s mechanics and tight integration with the terraforming theme, or alternatively you will fund the whole “corporations terraform Mars” theme a bit dry, especially solo. However, I dig it.
We actually did. The last 5 or 6 games we’d realized that we were just in the “sunk cost” trap. I was the runaway leader, and there was really no hope for the others to catch me.
So we decided to open the final box just to see. What was in there made us angry enough to take the whole box to the firepit.
It’s a tall order to balance a competitive legacy game; the best ones are always co-op.
The US map is pretty much a game for kids, but Ticket To Ride’s Australia map is an extremely vicious and competitive game for two players. The Nordic Countries version, for three players, is almost as good. Anyone who thinks that TtR has no non-obvious decisions will find themselves the loser on those maps.
No, it’s fundamentally a competitive game. Now, it’s not all doom and gloom, it was a fun game to play; the main problem is the catch-up mechanisms don’t work. There will eventually be a point where the leader continues to widen their lead, but you’re still facing an uphill climb of many many games to reach campaign conclusion.
An engineer friend of mine (a total stat nerds), did a digression graph of our campaign, and several others. They all showed that same pattern, and all reached a point where they stopped having fun.
I’ve sent out links before to How to Videos. I think about 3 will watch it. The good news is, my group varies from 2 to about 20 people and about 3-4 that are my learn a new game folks. They help me teach the others.
