I like Codenames, but if your group wants something a little heavier I strongly recommend Decrypto:
I agree with you, it’s just more true and more of a focal point in Root. Hitting the leader is what you’re doing on more turns and has more of an effect on the overall winner than it does in Chaos.
I also agree that you really need to change up factions regularly. I don’t think any of them are the sort of faction design that rewards deep invested research, but that gives the upshot that you can try a new one each game and do okay. This is pretty different than Chaos in the Old World or Rising Sun, both of which reward multiple plays of the same faction to figure out and master their mechanics on top of their focus on beating on the leader.
Infested,
Khorne was just the easiest example the counter to that is just pushing away troops with the other god (sorry I don’t remember who that is off the top of my head). It’s just been my experience in my 20+ games that it is difficult to gang up on someone in that game.
Tom,
I don’t have as many plays as you in Root so I’m only going off of the 2 real games I’ve played. You gang up on the cats so they can’t build or fight, the cats can’t switch to crafting for a win. In Chaos if you’re getting beat out in one area there are 3 others to work at (special,area control, or cultist prayer). Also, Root seems very particularly balanced so that if one player is not doing well the game just kind of falls apart (it least for them if not everyone). The game feels much more programmed to me than other guys on a map and I understand that is intentional and probably necessary. You have to keep everyone in check.
Nice!
- Does Great Western Trail need an expansion? It’s already a hodgepodge of systems and mechanics.
- Mansions of Madness definitely doesn’t need an expansion. Leave it to FFG to take something that was notable for its simplicity and elegance and layer crap upon crap upon crap on top of it until it’s a grey goo of worthless minis and indistinguishable map tiles. JUST RELEASE MORE DIGITAL SCENARIOS! STOP MAKING BOXES OF WORTHLESS STUFF!
- Kanban is an interesting game, but like all Lacerda games has too much going on. The Driver’s Edition has a minor rule change and a less colorful board. Meh.
- I’m intrigued by Sintra, because Azul was so great. But I wish they didn’t make it look like an expansion. And for such a niche theme, it’s odd to have a new one with Sagrada barely cool from the presses. Couldn’t Kiesling think of something besides stained glass? I fear this one is not going to feel much different than Azul.
- If there’s one thing that’s constant in life besides death and taxes, it’s more Munchkin!
Seriously. I don’t even get why they do this from a business perspective. Surely there’s more profit in the digital DLCs for $5?
It wouldn’t even be that bad if the DLC release wasn’t so glacial. It’s what, one scenario every 10 months?
I all but guarantee there’s way more profit in big boxes full of plastic, actually. I still don’t get why there’s so little digital scenario support otherwise, though. I think the first edition got almost as many print on demand scenarios as it did boxed ones, and those are basically the same concept.
Yes! Decrypto is the only word game I’ve bought in the last 19 years.
Resigning has been an official rule (and a controversial one!) right from the 1st edition of TtA.
FFG did a talk at GDC last year about Mansions 2.0 and a friend who was there said it was brought up by an audience member. I did a quick search for the video, but couldn’t find it. I did find a page mentioning it with a .PDF, which looks like it might have been their slide show presentation. In any case, I remember (I could be wrong in my memory, though) his description being basically two things: one, that their data showed that 90% of games played in these hybrid systems are the first scenario, so it wasn’t really worth it to just build more, and two, that they didn’t really do the ‘build a toolset so it’s easier to pump DLC out’, so each scenario requires a lot more work than it seems. Anyway here’s the link.
That’s the sort of thing I was figuring - the scenarios were probably actually significant work and the margins on their sales therefore wouldn’t be great. And if they’re going to do that they’d rather use them to sell a pile of cardboard and plastic.
But yeah, in general, the answer to “why isn’t X profit-driven business doing X, they would make way more money!” is that they wouldn’t actually make way more money. I am not saying companies never have institutional blind spots or make poor business decisions but it’s also true that they do generally look at these things and have data we don’t. And what benefits us as individual or even aggregate consumers may not be (indeed often is not) most profitable.
I’m…not sure I buy their explanation.
And even if it’s true, I think they’re underestimating the number of people who would have bought a $5 DLC but say “fuck that” to a $30 expansion for two scenarios.
Except that the user community promptly generated such a tool:
That’s awesome, I did not know that!
I think the gist of that part of the answer, though, was that they are a board game company, not a software company, so building things that way just didn’t occur to them (which is funny when you consider FFG is synonymous with massive amounts of expansions)? It doesn’t surprise me that some tech geek boardgamer came up with it in their spare time, heh.
As I said before, though- I wasn’t actually there, and it was all described to me secondhand. When my friend told me that was a talk he was attending, my first response was “during the Q&A, ask them why they don’t release more digital scenarios!”.
I’m going to push back on this a little. Not because your entirely wrong, but because that border has blurred.
One of the features of X-wing 2.0 was app integration. One of the things they are using this for is for variations and events. Restrictions on pilots, ships, upgrades, etc. for example one mode is only ships and crew that were available at Yavin. Thematic play event sthat are even used for competitive events.
So they have already shown they are willing and able to use digital modes to supplement the physical product. And FFG is directly releasing this app. So if they wanted to make a $5 digiital scenario pack, they could. And they didn’t do so. But they can not credibly claim, at this point, that they never considered or would be completely unable to deliver so. They have already done so in other lines.
I will note that the app, and all scenarios are free for X-wing. So slightly different model than what you suggest, but though the business model differs, the actual deliverable does not.
Yeah, I’ll agree they are getting better at it. But when all this was in initial development, not so much (why I used the past-tense in that last post, but I didn’t make that clear enough). And hell, even some established software houses have trouble with this- reading about what a nightmare Destiny 1 was to work on because of shitty ill-thought-out tools was somewhat eye opening.
Now all this is reminding me I want to watch a video of that talk, if it exists. I’m speaking third-hand for an event I was no where near! I’ll try too look deeper later if I have time.
I’m actually pumped for the expansion as it has a cool time travel map. I’m not sure if it works as I haven’t seen any rules, but I like the idea for 2 team one in the past and one in the present and things the past team does alters the present.
And I think you’re underestimating the number of people who like minis.
Also, even for those of us who don’t, it’s not like you literally get nothing but the two digital scenarios. The new monsters, items, playable characters, and so on all significantly increase the variety of play experience presented. Not to the same per-scenario degree as new scenarios, for sure, but in all scenarios. I’m not trying to convince you you should buy these expansions if you don’t value that enough, but I think the idea that there’s no need for anything but new digital scenarios is incorrect.
Where do you find the scenarios?
I found this thread with reviews, etc. There’s a link to a wiki. I’m sure with some poking you’ll find them.