As others have replied, Infinity is pretty good. it is not overly complex but it does have quite a few systems/options. As people mentioned there is hacking (which can be used to counter the opposing power armor and bots, or to create electronic stealth or other stuff), there is the multi-layered stealth system and counters, leaders, and maybe a couple other.
When your character moves everyone that can see you can shoot at you, which is why lots of terrain is good. Everyone one of your fighters has token, if you have 9 fighters, you have 9 tokens and can spend them on any character one turn at a time (all on the same one or spread out) - which presents some interesting options. But, of course, there are different kinds of tokens that can only be spent on those types of character.
I hope that helps give an idea of Infinity ‘complexity’. iI is a game full of interesting decisions and i like it but play it very rarely.
You didnt specify scale or size; skirmish or mass armies, regular 28mm-ish or 10-15mm. Besides 40k, Mantic games has Warpath as the mass army and a skirmish/dungeon crawl one also i think. i have not played them.
Dirtside 2 is by GZG, and is 10mm. the rules are free GZG game rules
i have played it a few times at conventions. It tries to be ‘realistic’ and deadly. But has no competitive scene and a more wargamey feel.
I am not aware of anything having a the store presence that 40k does.
Looking for something in the 25-30mm based on battle system terrain I have. Ideally looking for something more squad based than army based and more than just i move you move we fire at each other.
Anyone have thoughts on Kingdomino vs. Quest for El Dorado vs. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle? Kids have their 10th birthday coming up this week and I’m trying to think of a last second board game to fill out their gift list.
Kingdomino won the Spiel and looks like it could fit a good niche in our collection as a short game. On the other hand, Queendomino is coming out soon and looks to add a little depth to the game, which might make it a little more interesting.
Quest for El Dorado was nominated for the Spiel this year, and has a bit of take that (which my kids love). At first glance it appears to be a bit complicated though.
Harry Potter is co-op which also generally works well for us. I know they would enjoy the theme, but it’s a little bit pricier than the others and one of them hasn’t finished the series yet, so we’d probably need to hold off finishing it for spoilers. I don’t know how complex it gets towards the end of the “books” either.
King Domino is a good choice IMO partly b/c of it’s very simplicity, behind which lies some nice elegance. It’s “simple” in terms of each choice you make but fairly deep in terms of the ramifications. It’s easy to teach, plays quickly and has a decent amount of replayability, probably more so for kids. And hey if the kids like it, you can always add Queendomino later.
I have not tried either Quest for El Dorado or Hogwarts Battle, but I think King Domino is a good intro/light/kids game.
Also, I finally got to play Carson City which was as good as advertised and I will try to play it again.
Definitely take a look at Infinity then.
Best I can describe it is sci-fi tabletop Valkyria Chronicles. A lot of the rules are very similar to that game, specially the overall framework, so if you are familiar with it you have some conceptual ground covered.
I am stunned that you’ve only just now played Carson City! You of all people! I’mma have to go dig that out of the back of the closet now.
-Tom
Played Aeon’s End this weekend. 2 handed solo the first game against Ragnarok or whatever his name is. Beat him fairly easily. I then played him one mage and it came down to the wire and just ended up losing in a nail biter. Was a bit disappointed again that the nemesis’s in my original game were level 2, 5 and 5. So, ordered the expansions and the new version so I can get some harder foes.
Really enjoy the mechanics. I don’t like deck builders too often. Liked Shadowrun but it was just too hard. Dont like Legendary games.
This one is enjoyable with 2 mages, and a good challenge with one…like it quite a bit so far.
I think the Harry Potter game is real good. I think if you’re playing with them, there won’t be any problem layering in the new mechanics because of how gradually it happens.
Thanks for the recommendations. We’re going to go with Kingdomino for now, and keep an eye on Hogwarts Battle. Things are really busy right now so a shorter game is a bit more appealing.
Oh, and I popped over to the 7th Continent Kickstarter and found it’s up to $5.5 million at this point. They’ve also added “all the content” pledges for those who want, well, all the content without having to order a bunch of stuff individually as add-ons. It saves a few bucks over the add-on cost and combines shipping.
I’m still pretty firm on my decision not to back it at this point. I can’t see myself ordering anything less than all the expansions, which would end up at $250 + shipping. With 25,000 new copies being in circulation, I think my best bet is to try to play someone else’s copy and then look to eBay/BGG in a few years if I’m interested…
I’ve been playing through Hogwarts Battle for a while now. The mechanics aren’t bad, but it gets pretty difficult in the later books. It definitely takes some planning to get through the survivable games, but we’ve also had games where we had to restart after a couple rounds regardless of what we did.
My group is on book three of the Monster Box of Monsters expansion, and we’re currently 0 for 3 attempts to get through it.
I’m going to give a big thumbs up to Hogwarts Battles. Sorry, time zones and work made replying sooner impractical.
Anyhow I posted thoughts earlier in the thread that, from my phone, I’m not going to search. However I thought it did a good job of evoking theme, and layered complexity slowly enough to introduce new players easily. It can get pretty intense towards the end. But it has good mechanics, nice progression, and gives the narrative flavor you’d hope for, without really spoiling it.
I played 7th Continent again this weekend and got over it completely. Too much fiddling around for too little pay off. I’d rather have just watched a good movie.
And putting a “you lose” mechanic in a game that’s 15+ hours is insane. If the designer thinks we’d ever just “start over” at that point, they’re nuts.
It’s also surprisingly good at 4 players. I think it’s harder at 4 players than at 2. I mostly play with 2 players with my wife and we find it a great semi-challenging experience where we rarely lose but often feel close to losing. Good for a tired weeknight. At 4 players, the game feels longer and more involved, but because it also feels harder, that extra length just makes the game better. The experience scales up with the number of players really well. It’s my favorite co-op at the moment.
Thanks again for the feedback everyone. I’ll definitely keep it in mind nearer to Christmas time.
It’s really my fault for posting within a few hours of needing to make a decision. I was pretty set on Kingdomino when Hogwarts and El Dorado sprung to mind at the last second, otherwise I would have asked sooner.
I really think putting that curse as the introduction to the game was a mistake. Given that the length of the other curses seem significantly shorter, they could have had any of them building towards the long one. Maybe they were thinking “if we can only guarantee they’ll play one curse, then let’s make it epic” but I suspect it’s just the first one they designed so they threw in the kitchen sink.
I kind of spent my weekend in the black hole of miniatures and am just coming up for air. Man it is way too easy to get sucked down into that world. Everything looks awesome, but then I have to remind myself that nothing ever comes assembled or painted.
Juan, last question for you.
Knowing I already have a ton of terrain, would you still recommend starting with Icestorm or red veil or should I just buy some packs? I seriously have no idea where I would even start.
If this means a generic fantasy MMO set in their proprietary generic fantasy world (I can’t remember its generic fantasy name), then no thanks.
On the other hand, if this means first-person survival horror set in the world of Hey, That’s My Fish!, then bring it on.