You guys have convinced me to create an account. “Timemaster Tim”
I’m not really a Euro game player but I want to learn. What are two or three popular games I should be watching Watch It Played videos to learn?
What are good gateway Euros? Hmm.
Of stuff that is on BGA, I would say Azul is a good gateway game to get used to concepts like applying the rules and scoring.
For getting a handle on basic resource gathering and resource expending gameplay, either Splendor (old and busted but still considered a staple) or Century: Spice Road.
For medium games that have a tutorial on BGA, Lost Ruins of Arnak, Pandemic (co-op), Race for the Galaxy.
Also I should mention they now have Great Western Trail, another game I love, which I have played live.
Is anyone interested in some live gaming as opposed to the asynchronous? If so, what are your available/preferred times/days?
I wouldn’t call it a gateway, but Troyes is amazing, not too heavy, and is on BGA.
Man, I had pretty much forgotten about BGA (in fact, I got a “Living Dead” achievement just now for logging in after such a long absence).
It’s great to hear that they apparently have it working well on mobile now. I remember one of the reasons the old group eventually faded was that it was inconvenient to have to get to a computer to take each turn.
Anyway, happy to give it another shot now and learn some games (tried to join the Ark Nova linked above, but it shows as abandoned).
Make sure you’re in “Turn Based” mode when creating a table, not “Real Time” mode. “Real Time” tables expire after a while if you don’t start them. “Turn Based” ones last forever. As far as I can tell, there is no difference on BGA between a “Turn Based” and a “Real Time” game except that you’re only allowed to be in one “Real Time” game at a time.
If you are looking to ease into Euros, I might suggest the BGA ‘casual games’ category - generally light on rules/complexity so that may help.
Honestly the site has almost a historical overview of ‘gateway’ games through time - catan, ticket to ride, carcasonne to splendor azul and such as was mentioned above.
I believe the most popular game there now (this info is posted somewhere on the site…) is ark nova, not a place to start though.
As to real time vs turn based, the main difference is essentially how long before you are ‘out of time’ (minutes vs days). At that point other players can kick you out and your ‘reputation’ is damaged - some people will not play with people with bad reputation. Even when setting up a game you can exclude players on this criterion.
I just posted an innovation game exclusively to the qt3 group. That is another way new games can be limited in their options. (I realize now I set up the game with expansions… if someone wants to play without , let me know or just invite me directly).
BGA has a ton of options yet has its detractors for a variety of reasons. Some (including me) prefer the always free always asynchronous Yucata.de (fully English despite German domain name - fully German too!)
One cool thing I realized last night is that you can play games with a hotseat.
I was curious about Spacebase last night, so played a hotseat game with myself and was able to figure out the general rules and flow of the game.
I can’t let someone go through life without playing Kingdom Builder or Castles Of Burgundy!
- The Castles of Burgundy: Poddster victory! • Board Game Arena
- Kingdom Builder: Poddster victory! • Board Game Arena
Someone else feel free to join, as 3 is a good number for both games. It’s a turn based game. Kingdom Builder you can quite quickly pick up just by playing, tbh. Burgundy might need a quick reading of the rules or a video or something.
(Though thinking about it I learnt by just winging it on Yucata!)
I’ll give Castles a try! Did a quick rules read-through, and there’s a lot there, but the basic turn sequence looks straightforward enough. I’m sure I’ll miss lots of stuff the first time through but it’ll be fun to learn!
The digital implementations allow you to wing some really complex board games, simply because they present you ONLY the things you can do, whereas real life (or things like tabletop sim) allow you to “anything” :)
I played through a full game of Anachrony on BGA and I’m still none the wiser on the actual rules. :)
So is there a way to find out what games are open in our group? Since no one expressed interest in live/real time gaming, I might try out some of the asynchronous games. Is there a list?
Edit: I found the “recent activity” tab which shows the recently opened games.
Any interest in me hosting an asynch game of something heavyish? Agricola, Feast for Odin, Gaia Project, Great Western Trail? I promise to only kick your collective butts into next week, not next year (I have played all of these many many times).
Or maybe something medium I haven’t played a bajillion times? Stone Age, Marco Polo, Tzolkin?
I would like to try Great Western Trail
Also happy to try Stone Age
I’ve played a reasonable number of games of Great Western Trail, but rarely do all that well. I’d be happy to play a game of that (or many other things), definitely async.
I haven’t played any of them but would be willing to give any a try if you are okay with somebody trying to figure things out as we go.
OK I will start a game of Great Western Trail.
Here is a link to the BGA page, which has a link to a tutorial video:
I created a game for 4 players, standard settings, limited to QT3. It’s now “searching for players”. I don’t know how to link the game so you guys can sign up but presumably if you look for a Great Western Trail game it will pop up.
I joined, but you can share the link by going to your game and clicking an open, available seat, and snagging the ‘get link’ button :)