Well, they’ve done a decent job of just sticking to situations where you had four plausible sides. (Except for Fire in the Lake and Liberty or Death). It’s not like they took WWII and said, ok, here are four sides: US, Britain, Germany, USSR. Go!
Plus, sometimes historical situations force games into certain mechanics. Do you think it’s a coincidence that MMORPGs all have three classes: tank, healer DPS? Only if you think that it’s a total coincidence that there were historically clerics, fighters, and wizards/rogues in those times!
Uh, Imperial Assault is a historical boardgame and Descent is a 3D FPS? Hello?
I just picked up a copy of “The Expanse” based on the TV show based on the books. It steals generously from the COIN system, but is greatly simplified (and hopefully shorter). I’ll let you know how it goes if I ever get it to the table. Oh, and the four sides are UN, MCR, OPA, and ProtoGen.
Played Modern Art last night and it was better than I expected. A bidding game where the values of the items (paintings) vary depending on how many of that type (artist) are purchased, with aggregate values over 4 rounds. The auctions are of several different types, including open, secret bid, one time offer, fixed price, and double auction. This is a relatively simple and elegant game and I ended up liking it quite a bit. There’s good auction/bluff/poker action plus a small economic aspect which adds some depth.
Oh, yeah, I’ve played that, it’s practically a classic. I don’t enjoy it that much, myself, because I constantly underbid for everything, and so I never do very well. Even considering I know that I always underbid, I still always underbid.
I always think, “Well, this painting is probably worth $80, so I’ll bid $40, so I get half the value and the person I’m buying it from gets half the value. Fair!” And then somebody buys it for $90.
You mentioned Liberty or Death and Fire in the Lake, but Falling Sky seems a little silly to be shoehorned in there too, and neither the Directorate nor the Syndicate feel like they’re worth being entire independent factions in Cuba Libre. I dunno.
They’re not the same system. Imperial Assault is a significant refinement of Descent (2.0) and is a better game in pretty much every way. But theme does matter, and I know some people would rather do fantasy dungeon crawls.
Modern Art is a great game, but it can be a bit intuitive for new players. A big part of the strategy is when to sell the paintings in your hand so you get the most auction money for them. I won the last game I played despite barely buying any paintings at all. That said, I really love the game. Its classic Knizia, and one of the best auction games ever made. As a bonus, the new CMON edition is one of the most beautiful games in my collection.
I bought 3 of the DND games, 2 of them the painted miniature collector edition. Haven’t unboxed em, they were super sale price at Amazon a week or two back. Got the really big one for $110. Think that was ToA, might have been the horrors one. Hoping to play with my nephews over Christmas.
With all the IA and Descent talk in here, it’s worth pointing out that they are 4vs1 games (not full co-o like the DnD boardgames or Gloomhaven) out of the box, but they have both had a co-op app version released if that’s more your jam.
To be clear, both Descent and Imperial Assault have free companion apps that ‘play’ the part of the overlord/Empire.
I’m not sure the comparison between the D&D Adventure Game system and those FFG is totally apt. They look similar at a distance, but are trying to do something different. Descent and IA are miniature/dungeon crawl games with some complexity (that also support skirmish play). The D&D adventure games are streamlined co-op games, closer in feel to something like Forbidden Island but with a Tolkien fantasy theme.
I have two of the older D&D games, and I don’t really recommend them. I felt I had to significantly house ruled them, although I believe Tomb of Annihilation is a better version of the game.
Yeah! Modern Art is fantastic with the right group! I’ve had @JoshL’s problem that some players don’t understand how to value paintings, and even just one person doing weird valuations can really throw off the game. But when everyone is gelling with it I think it’s a blast. It’s also one of Knizia’s most thematic designs. The systems really sell the idea that the art market is a racket so well.
If you haven’t played it, I would strongly recommend checking out Knizia’s game Ra. Its theme doesn’t really make sense, but it’s also a pure auction game like Modern Art. However, due to the bidding mechanic, poor valuations doesn’t really give a big advantage to other players. It also has a “push your luck” element to the bidding that I think makes it really exciting. It’s probably my favorite Knizia game and definitely my favorite auction game.
This discussion has taken an interesting twist right in to something I’ve been thinking about.
My boys (8 & 10) have been wanting to try out some D&D style games (they want to join me on my Pathfinder campaign)
So I was thinking I could supplement this for the time with a D&D style board game like: D&D Legend of Drizzt
or Talisman
So… would you all suggest that instead of one of the above I go with Descent ?
Also been thinking about Clank
Overall we enjoy co-op group games. Where 4 players can work together. Although pure co-op isn’t required.
Gloomhaven. I didn’t like it precisely because I prefer actual RPG gaming over what it provides. As a substitute I think it might work pretty well.
I also have Mice and Mystics, which I play with my kids. It’s a little too much on the mechanics side though, so you need to just let a few rules here and there slide and enjoy it as though you don’t care about getting the rules correct.
Yeah Clank! is not co-op, nothing like D&D. But it is fun, it’s still a game I’d recommend in general. I want to say eight is probably too young, and even ten is probably pushing it, but I could be wrong about that and don’t know your kids in particular of course.
