5781

Got it. I can’t agree with the overwhelmingly positive rating on bgg because it’s all fanboys. And I can’t agree with someone who I don’t believe can be called a fanboy because of his critical reviews in the past (and yes, I’m familiar with his history having followed his reviews for years) because he is, according to you, a fanboy.

I love the internet.

Ah well, I will suggest others follow your advice though and not place that much stock in one person’s opinion. :;

Grab the walkthrough manual and just start following along. It really isn’t that bad once you get started. The rules actually make sense in the context of the game as you play. Plus, there are more than a few tutorial videos on youtube and bgg that can help you make sense of it.

5782

Don’t be a drama queen, Hep. I didn’t say you weren’t entitled to your opinion or that you were wrong. We’re all allowed to voice opinions here.

I don’t really care if anyone puts any stock in my opinion either. In fact, I hope people play things and figure things out for themselves like I did/do.

I am sure my dislike of Mage Knight is not going to send Vlaada to the poor house.

Why are you so mad that I don’t like Mage Knight?

I really enjoy Clash of Cultures right now. You can say you don’t like it and I’ll tip my hat to ya and point out that you are right, it is difficult to track all of those damn bonuses from advancements.

5783

Every hand has the possibility of at minimum 5 movement points. Narratively, you should be thinking of cards like action points. They limit what you can do in a period of time. Moving across the map quickly is the exceptional turn. That’s why doing so requires spells, advanced actions, or specific cards (as well as planning, deck building, and using your hand well). It’s not that they’re periodically stuck, it’s that they’re periodically super mobile.

Strategically, the only turn you should really get hand screwage from lack of movement is the first turn. Other than that, you actively choose where to be when the round ends. You also know what cards are remaining in your deck and where you position yourself as a consequence. There’s still some luck in hand draws, but it’s not too great, certainly no more than in other deck-building games or CCGs / LCGs for that matter.

The deck building element is interesting because you’re balancing multiple economies (move, attack, block, mana w/ spells, and how much you buy into ranged attacks). I don’t think pulling one out would make the game more interesting.

There are points I don’t agree with in there, but on the whole I think this review nails it if you go into Mage Knight hoping for a fair and deeply competitive game. I love Mage Knight as a cooperative game. It’s also fun solo. And it’s serviceable in competitive mode. It’s a bit too much luck for me, but even in competitive, there’s enough story-generation in the system that I enjoy the experience (more than the competition).

Edit: After I posted this, I realized I feel this same way about EVERY competitive Vlaada Chvatl game I’ve played. Dungeon Lords and Galaxy Truckers are also two games I enjoy, but the scoring and competition in both games seems secondary to the experience of playing through the game itself. Space Alert and Mage Knight are my two favorite games by him. Space Alert is cooperative and I usually play Mage Knight cooperatively as well.

5784

Mage Knight as a cooperative game. It’s also fun solo.

That may be the crux of my issue with Mage Knight as I don’t really care for coop board games and I don’t really see the point of solo board games.

5785

This one’s on my radar. What do you like about it?

5786

I have to agree on Mage Knight. I respect the game and it is so elegant, but I never really want to play it that much these days. It just lacks any sense of excitement. It’s almost too precise and too measured. I never gent that sense of tension or excitement from the game.

That and the set up really is a drag.

5787

Does exploration very well. Fairly easy combat rules (once you get it into your thick skull that you cannot attack out of forests).

It feels a little less luck-driven than Through the Ages.

All techs are available to all players to purchase, so no one gets the ONE classic army.

5788

Oh, I don’t care that you dislike it (although for someone who claims to also not care that others have a different opinion, you certainly made sure to reply to each and every post that disagreed with your opinion), I just get annoyed when the tired old internet tactic of discounting any contrary opinion as being born out of “fanboyism” is trotted out.

But I need to remind myself it’s going to happen from time to time and just let it go without calling it out. Cheers!

5789

Nightgaunt,

The Axis & Allies you can consider is the “1941” version that was released last summer. It still has the same deep rules, but they are rock solid now. This version is the short and sweet version of A&A. There are a lot less territories, less income, no techs, no Strategic Bombing. My experienced gaming group has played it in 1 hour sessions, 2, and less than an hour.

I played it with a very sharp 12 year old and he loved it and grasped it without any trouble, and even had to help his 46 year old dad (not me) on the rules, lol.

It can be found dirt cheap too. I think I bought mine for less than $20. I actually bought 2 copes to get more units.

5790

Nightgaunt,

The Axis & Allies you can consider is the “1941” version that was released last summer. It still has the same deep rules, but they are rock solid now. This version is the short and sweet version of A&A. There are a lot less territories, less income, no techs, no Strategic Bombing. My experienced gaming group has played it in 1 hour sessions, 2, and less than an hour.

I played it with a very sharp 12 year old and he loved it and grasped it without any trouble, and even had to help his 46 year old dad (not me) on the rules, lol.

It can be found dirt cheap too. I think I bought mine for less than $20. I actually bought 2 copes to get more units.

5791

How does NetRunner hold up to casual play?

5792

In its previous form, it was considered one of the best (if not the best) casual format games, because the game worked very well right out of the starter boxes. In fact, many suggested that Netrunner was a CCG that really didn’t improve much with deckbuilding - that the best part of the game was really had by opening a couple of starters and boosters.

As FFG does not appear to have changed much from the original Netrunner formulation, I would assume that its version is equally suitable for casual play.

5793

Serling, I think Netrunner is a wonderful game for both casual and tourney play. The LCG format makes it easy to keep up to date. It is a great game of bluffing, both on the part of the corp and the runner.

5794

That’s kind of what draws me to it.

Thanks guys. I’ll probably look into giving it a go. I need a small, handy 1v1 game I can just bring along with me, and this looks like it’ll have as much depth and complexity as anything else I’ve seen on the market. It doesn’t look that hard to learn either, as long as you get by that obnoxious jargon.

5795

The hardest part to learn are the steps of a run, which are laid out in a nice flowchart in the FAQ and rulebook. The game is very playable right out of the box, so you’d only need the decks you want to play and some tokens for bits/advancement counters/virus tokens. Pennies work nicely for this.

5796

I agree with others that it was fun before deck building (though it got more fun with deck building). It doesn’t seem as combo driven a game as Magic, which might be why the deckbuilding isn’t as important. Another non-deckbuilding game that might work for your conditions is Yomi. It has no deckbuilding, but it does have 10 characters so there’s plenty of variety, and it’s small enough (both for carrying and playing space) that you can play it on a plane without too much trouble.

5797

Ended up getting my son Wizard Kings. Thanks for the suggestion, Scamper!

He definitely loved the look of Axis & Allies (1941), but we decided it was too long of a game. And he was intrigued by D-Day Dice, but uncertain if it had enough variety. I may still get that for us to play sometime. Anyone played it?

And he practically cried when I showed him Heroscape and then told him that you pretty much couldn’t get it for a reasonable price anymore (without the Marvel license, which he’s unenthused about).

5798

Yeah, but even the full set is acceptable for me to lug around, I think. I always carry a bag with me, so as long as I can fit all the bits and pieces in there, sans the inexplicably huge box, I don’t even have to consider parsing anything out. Which is pretty cool, since I assume you could get simultaneous, parallel games going with the multiple decks and characters included?

5799

Not quite. There are 10-12 neutral cards for each side (corp/runner) that would be used in every deck. Until you get at least one of the ‘Data Packs’ you really need those neutral cards to round out the playable decks and there are only enough neutral cards for one deck at a time. So you’ll really only be able to field one corp and one runner deck out of the base box initially.

5800

Hope he likes it. Nothing better than helping out a father and son. My three-year-old daughter is very excited about playing games. She wants to play MY games. LOL. Can’t wait til she is a bit older.

I don’t find D-Day Dice all that interesting. I am not a huge fan of Coop games, so take that with a grain of salt.

No chance of getting him to play Memoir 44?

One other outside chance would be War of the Ring if either of you are into the Lord of the Rings thing (I’m not).