I bought Eclipse on iOS, and it quickly passed from “this sure has a lot of nifty ideas” to “I don’t really feel like playing this again.” I like, for example, how the number of actions you can take each turn is limited by cash, and controlling more sectors increases the costs of actions, so there’s a big incentive to have a few, high-quality sectors rather than a lot of trash ones.
What I don’t like is that chance plays a very large role in combat, and losing a battle is near-crippling. A statistics-savvy player can stack the odds heavily in his favor, but a lot of players are not good at crunching the numbers, and make poor moves as a result. Another issue is that while players don’t get eliminated, they can get almost eliminated early, which sucks all the fun out of the game for the losing player.
It’s a terrible multiplayer iOS game, since by design there’s a lot of places where you need to pass control to another player for a short period. This is good for face-to-face since it keeps players involved, but bad when the game is long enough that it’s neigh impossible to get a real-time 3 player game going. The single player iOS experience is decent until you learn how to regularly stomp the AI players.
I want to play this top-three game, too!
Let’s see…
1) 7 Wonders – Civ Lite for 7 players!? What’s not to like?
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Pandemic – The best cooperative game, hands down.
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Kingsburg – The perfect balance of strategy and luck, rich mechanics, and great expansions.
Runners up:
Notre Dame (my favorite heavy euro)
Roll Through the Ages (pretty much as good at being Civ Lite as 7 Wonders)
Shadow Hunters (most hours per dollar ever spent, easily)
Manila (brilliantly unique game of wagering… out of print?)
Catacombs (dungeons of flicky! A raucous game)
Incan Gold (a perfect little light game)
Pillars of the Earth (my favorite worker placement, I think)
The Big Idea (Best thing Cheapass Games ever did by a mile. Play with creative folks and this is a priceless experience)
Sentinels of the Multiverse (can’t believe how hooked I’ve gotten on this – such a lovable game)
Metropolys (ingeniously elegant game)
Traumfabrik (AKA, Hollywood Blockbuster – the best auction game I know)
Galaxy Trucker (unlike anything else and stupidly fun)
Other games I admire: Dominion, Betrayal At House on the Hill, Eketorp, Olympus, Pirate’s Cove, Race for the Galaxy, Endeavor
jsnell
5963
Once upon a time I did play Liberte over and over again (some old stats say it was my top played game in 2002, with 33 matches). But of course the board game scene has changed since then. The concept of a thematic eurogame didn’t even exist at the time, so Liberte was something very special. I don’t know how it’d go over if published today as a new design. It has that typical “we didn’t really develop this properly, but it still works” feeling of Warfrog-era Martin Wallace games, and people are a bit less forgiving of that kind of thing today.
That said, the one thing I wouldn’t worry about is ganging up on the leader. It’s usually hard to say who is actually leading in a 5p or 6p game (and I’d never play Liberete with fewer players than that). Is it the player with the most VPs, the one with the best board position, or the one who gets the last reaction? What’s the value of starting round 4 with 2 red blocks in Paris vs. having a reserved spot in one of the VP spaces. Totally impossible to say, and even harder to believe that all players would agree on it. And even then, ganging up on the apparent leader doesn’t get you VPs. Usually e.g. the players in 5th and 6th positions will have their private little war over who wins the battle box and will save their action cards on the other player’s generals. People not in the fight for the battle box might reserve their action cards on securing tiebreak wins in the VP spots. And so on.
Case
5964
I write about push your luck games at Tested.
Pod
5965
This is a surprise, especially with delights like Galaxy Trucker on your list ;)
There’s usually a set, if not dominant, strategy (I think it’s ‘go for soldiers in the first week’? Haven’t played in years). And it’s very much a rich-get-richer kind of game. If you mess up early, you stuff gets destroyed, and then you’re way behind. Worst of all is that the track around the outside shows this off hugely, and the people at the bottom tend to feel really de-motivated when playing. I found the game improved by only tracking certain things on the outside track (basically everything not for building? Can’t remember) as it made the progression feel much more even and made the winner a bit more surprising.
Also: It really drags on and tends to overstay it’s welcome.
I do like rolling and placing, though :D
hepcat
5966
For coop, my go to game for the last year has been Flashpoint. I can’t believe how tense and exciting that game can be. The game includes both basic and advanced rules…but it’s no fun until you play advanced. Basic is for children, essentially.
But Sentinels of the Multiverse is just pure fun in a box, too.
Interesting! We played a 3 player game which might explain the difference. It seemed pretty clear who was about to make the strongest move at any given time, but I could see how more players would make that a lot harder to follow.
As for how it would go over today, it went over great with the three of us, and only one of us had played it before. I actually think Martin Wallace still makes games that feel underdeveloped. A Few Acres of Snow, for example, feels more complicated and confusing then it needs to be. Brass as well I think has way more going on then it needs to (as Age of Industry proved). But things like that silly / confusing fake link between those two locations in Brass is one of the endearing things about his designs, I think. It shows a strange dedication to theme and mechanics over accessibility. I imagine most publishers would round off that weird corner of the rules. I feel like a stodgy old-fart saying this, but I think those corners give his games character.
Pod
5968
MY girlfriend really dislikes Flashpoint, which is a shame; I really like it! As do my friends ;) I’m thinking about getting some of the expansions. Does anyone here have them?
ioticus
5969
So my Marco Kickstarter package came today and I received Abaddon, 51st State and Starship Merchants. Anyone play any of those? Anything good?
hepcat
5970
Every…single…one. The game just lends itself to modular releases. All you need to do to keep the game fresh is churn out new maps of different building types and it’s a brand new experience every time. That they also toss in additional little rules with most of these expansions that don’t overpower the game mechanics is just a plus. I’ve backed every single expansions since buying the base game a while back and I’ve loved each one.
So my Marco Kickstarter package came today and I received Abaddon, 51st State and Starship Merchants. Anyone play any of those? Anything good?
51st State is one of my all time favorite games…well…it was until the expansion/sequel/revamped version New Era came out. New Era has everything that 51st State has (with the exception of Leaders, which they dropped) but included interaction between players as you can attack other locations. The last expansion for both 51st State and New Era, Winter, recently came out and I’ve been dying to give it a shot. It adds some neat mechanics include random resources.
ioticus
5971
Hmm, sounds like New Era is the one to get. Can 51st State be combined with New Era to make a better game? Or should I dump 51st State and get New Era instead?
Scamper
5972
Those of you who like Cosmic should really give Dune or Rex a go. Dune influenced Cosmic and is a better game in all respects except maybe time to play.
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/245547/dune-compared-to-cosmic-encounter
ioticus
5973
I would love to play Dune or Rex (I own both) but no way in hell can I get 5 or more people together to play them.
I’ve never played Cosmic, but I’ve played Dune, and I really don’t like it, the combat system, or how chaotic it is. So I guess this is good reason to stay away from Cosmic as well.
ioticus
5975
I hated Cosmic but after reading the rules to Dune and Rex they seem like they would be awesome games!
hepcat
5976
This is one thing that really ticked me off. They redesigned the cards with completely new iconography so unless you use a cheat sheet to make the conversions on the fly while playing, it’s going to be more pain than it’s worth. But personally, New Era has more than enough game in it to fully replace 51st State. Plus, Winter comes with rules for using it with either 51st State or New Era.
Chaplin
5977
King of Tokyo– this is a great gem that is awesome for adults and kids, and by that I just don’t just mean adults playing with kids. It is a fine and quick game for adults only too (we gained a lot of attention at the local game store when playing a few weekends ago). Essentially it is a Richard Garfield game for 2 to 6 players where you play king of the hill with Kaiju like monsters (Godzilla, King Kong, etc) with a Yahtzee type resource/ combat mechanic. It is so simple, but you really have to make tough calls about when you need to heal up, generate energy for abilities, slap around the other monsters, or just try to roll some victory points. It is a quick game and probably best as a “filler” game, but it is a solid choice that went from blind discovery to top pick for family game night.
If thinking about purchasing it, consider the expansion pack part of the base game. It adds evolutions which add yet another layer to the strategy, but also differentiates the monsters (in the base set they are identical).
I don’t have them in my hands but whenever the most recent expansion’s Kickstarter rewards ship I will have every single one (I backed for the game + all expansion content). Probably not real helpful for your purposes, though. :)
Case, the ultimate push-your-luck game is Incan Gold (AKA, Diamant). It’s nothing but pushing your luck and while many of my friends think it’s too light, I think it’s brilliant. Check it out and expand on your lovely post! (By the way, would you recommend Infiltration?)
De gustibus, I guess. I agree that if you slip up and lose a building you’re almost always out of the game, which is not great. But I also think the mechanics (including the army token expansion) give you plenty of chances to avoid this; with new players I just make sure to emphasize the danger of losing the battle. I don’t know of any dominant strategies. I have a friend who claims that the Wizard’s Guild track (heavy combat) is always the best… and then he loses with it. I also think I would dispute the “rich-get-richer” description. There are only a few buildings that drastically make your dice rolling results better, and they come at the cost of other useful buildings. I think a more apt complaint is that a bad string of luck can sink you. Most people have their really bad round with really bad timing somewhere in the game, but it does suck when you get it three times in a row.
