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Messages - dirk2112
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811
« on: March 04, 2016, 06:13:00 AM »
The Mayor is the one that we have struggled with the most to categorize. We've had to decide that in order for a follower to collect points for a feature he must have a "quantum" in the feature. The Mayor only has a quantum value when coupled with a pennant. All other followers carry their quantum with them. The Mayor is not able to score in any other feature but does provide a presence, and establishes ownership. For example, you cannot enter a city directly if a Mayor is already there. So there is difference between ownership and quantum. We allow the Mayor to cap a tower for example. On a Tower you don't need a quantum, just the presence of a follower - and the Mayor is a follower. He could be placed on a cloister, for example, but since he provides no quantum he would not be able to collect the points. He would block any other follower from being placed there though. The same could be said for a farm.
So when any rule says do one thing or another with a follower, for us, the Mayor, Wagon and Big Follower are included. My wife bought me the collection of mini expansions. I found this great post (above) by Carcking in the old forum, but I still have questions. 1. My son played the Crop Circle with a shield. He said he wanted us to add a meeple to a city. My wife ONLY had a mayor left and all of her cities already had knights. Per rule, "It may only be deployed to a city in which there is currently no knight", leads me to believe that my wife doesn't have to play her Mayor in the city. That seems like utter horsecrap as you can have a mayor and knight in the same city with "clever tile placement". 2. If what Carcking said is true, a farm crop circle could force you to put a mayor, wagon, or Abbott on a farm. Since the shepherd is not a follower, am I correct in assuming you can't force him up or down with a crop circle? Or is he a follower in this instance like he is with the dragon? 3. I don't have this, but in the halflings expansion there is a wild card crop circle. Can you use that one to force meeple onto or off of a cloister?
812
« on: March 03, 2016, 12:15:08 PM »
I enjoy a game of Takenoko every now and again, but not enough to buy the Chibis expansion.
I agree and the expansion doesn't look great in my opinion. The wife wants it for an anniversary gift because the Panda is lonely or something. Anyway when it arrives I'll post on the I hate the postman thread. 
813
« on: March 03, 2016, 11:03:47 AM »
Takenoko is a tile placement game that has some worker placement aspects to it. I will say this game is very visually appealing and this is a great gateway game for non-gamer females. The object of the game is to complete 9 cards. Cards contain 1 of 3 different functions 1) Irrigated Tile placement (maybe 3 red tiles in a row), 2) Bamboo growth (Get the gardener to grow a 4 piece tall yellow bamboo stalk), 3) Feed the panda (2 green bamboo pieces). During your turn you roll a nice wooden dice to see what the weather will be like. Based on that you can take various actions. Most of the time we are hoping for the sun (which gives you 3 actions) or the "?" which lets you pick the weather. Afterward you can do any of the following actions 1) Place a tile 2) Irrigate a tile 3) Move the gardener 4) Move the Panda or 5) Take another card. The first player to complete 9 cards wins. In the original rules it was easy for a player to complete 9 Panda cards and win since those are the easier to complete. The expansion changed the rule so that you get 3 points for every set of cards (Panda, gardener, tile) you complete. We don't have the expansion yet, but play with the updated rules. Pros: - Quality components
- Great artwork
- Easy to teach
- A way to get the female non-gamer to play
- Great theme
- Inexpensive considering the components
Cons: - Small Ticket to Ride sized cards
- Like Catan (and apparently Splendor
 ) it can feel a bit samey - There is a lot of luck involved in both the weather and the card drawing*
- Check your man card at the door
* The game lets you complete cards through other people's actions. So if you have a card that says you get 4 points if there is a certain tile configuration on the board and someone else puts the tile down, you get credit for it. Even if that configuration has been down all game you get credit for it. We played a game where my wife completed her 9 cards and my son had his last turn to try to beat her score. He rolled the die and it turned to the wind symbol which lets you take the same action twice. He drew 2 cards and both happened to be already on the board and he won.
814
« on: March 03, 2016, 10:31:37 AM »
I've been considering getting Lanterns, mostly because it looks very junglegirl-friendly (being described as almost meditation, and with the Chinese theme). As a tile-laying game, it obviously isn't as deep strategically as Carcassonne or even Cacao, but it seems like it would be a pleasant game to play with non-gamers, with a nice theme and nice artwork. Can you elaborate some more on why you didn't like it?
Have you played Takenoko yet? That is my wife's favorite game. I was going to put a review out for it here in a few days, but I can probably hammer one out today. Anyway both are Asian themed tile placement games where you get points for completing cards. In Lanterns the strategy is to line up your tiles to get the cards you need without giving anyone else cards they need. That is it... There is a bit more to Takenoko and it is a prettier game IMHO. Had we played Lanterns before Takenoko, we may have liked it more.
815
« on: March 03, 2016, 05:48:21 AM »
It's probably due to that head injury I sustained in 1955. I don't recommend hanging a clock while standing on a toilet.
816
« on: March 03, 2016, 05:34:31 AM »
The game doesn't end when someone gets 15 points. If player 2 gets 15 points, player 3 and 4 get one more turn to try and outscore player 2.
The problem with being player 4 is you are at the mercy of the other 3 players. When the game starts player 1 basically gets the first choice of the 4 cheapest cards available as he/she will be able to acquire the purchase price the fastest. Player 2 can go for the second best card available and will get first dibs on the card flipped after Player 1's purchase. Player 3 will probably see what player 1 and 2 are going for and can plan to get the 3rd best card. If the 3rd best card is too expensive, he/she can reserve one of the other cards and basically throw off player 1 or 2. All this has happened before player 4's turn. On the second turn, regardless of player 4's plan, there may not be enough gems left to do anything.
This is just my experience with the people I have played with. Your group may be totally different.
817
« on: March 03, 2016, 05:11:22 AM »
Being the 4th player is bad. I can't imagine being 5th or 6th.
Glad you like it!
818
« on: March 03, 2016, 04:36:32 AM »
I got mine tomorrow.
 I had to read that twice.
819
« on: March 03, 2016, 04:25:17 AM »
Splendor was a Spiels des Jahres runner up in 2014. It lost to Camel Up. That is all I knew about it prior to playing it. Looking at the box doesn't really make you want to play the game. From appearances, it looks like some sort of Bejeweled card game with poker chips. The theme is apparently you and your opponents open jewelry stores and see who can get the most Nobles to visit your store. That is it.... or is it? A few weeks ago we were playing game demos at one of the local stores. After being bored to death playing another popular game (Lanterns), we had about 45 minutes left so we needed a quick game to try. I picked the box up and told my family that this game was runner up to Camel Up (a game my son loves). My wife was most interested in playing the game as she loves bejeweled. As we were setting the game up (which is very quick), the nearby Star Wars miniature gamers stopped to tell us that Splendor was awesome. Usually those folks can't be bothered from measuring the distances between their command ships, but they honestly seemed to love this little game. We read the rules, set it up, played, and boxed it back up in under 45 minutes. I think that might be a record for us. My son won as he figured out a good early strategy was to hog all of the emeralds . I was surprised at how fun the game was. My wife said that she really enjoyed it too. What was surprising was that my son also loved it and not just because he won. He said something along the lines of, "We need to get this game. Do you think Amazon has it?" Yes yelling "Amazon" in a brick or mortar store is not the best thing to do. We explained to him that we had fun trying the games in the store, so paying more wasn't really a big deal and we should support local businesses. Time for Pros and Cons Pros: - Fun (I can't explain to you why I like this game and I doubt anyone else can either... it is just fun)
- Fast
- Easy to learn
- Box holds contents very well
- Little gems would have been better, but the poker chips work really well. They have some weight to them
Cons: - First player has slight advantage.
- If playing 4 players, the last player has a big disadvantage
- The nobles aren't listed anywhere (if you know anyone off the top of your head from my picture besides Henry VIII, kudos to you)
After playing this and Camel Up a few dozen times, I feel as though this is the better game. The reason I feel that this lost to Camel Up is on theme. Camel Up has a great theme whereas this game's theme almost prevented me from trying it. Who wants to run a jewelry store? After awhile though, you get used to the theme. We find ourselves saying things like, "Yeah you won, but whose store did Mary Stuart, Catherine de' Medici, and Machiavelli visit?" Other notes: There was a 4 nobles expansion for this game that can be found on Ebay for $$. We don't have it, but it doesn't appear to add much to the game so I don't think I will bother unless I can get it for $5 or less.
820
« on: March 02, 2016, 11:34:33 AM »
With 10,000 tiles, it is going to take you a few hours. Hopefully you have more volunteers. Too bad I can't stop by and "help myself" to some of those tiles... err umm help clean up. Let's see, fly to Copenhagen and its only a 3 hour drive through the cool bridge/tunnel. Afterward drive 3 more hours to Oslo to knock 3 countries off of my bucket list..... No way would I do that in March
821
« on: March 02, 2016, 10:51:00 AM »
822
« on: March 01, 2016, 06:14:58 AM »
I don't know about your area, but a number of board game stores near us have this on their DEMO table. You can play it with 2 players and have a good time. You can play a full game in ~45 minutes, so you won't have to spend all day in the store. You will know within 15 minutes if it is for you or not.
Thanks for the merit! I'll probably throw a couple of other mini-reviews up here on future dates. Takenoko or Splendor may be up next.
823
« on: March 01, 2016, 06:07:43 AM »
Great Scott!
dirk2112, what game is that from? I am a huge Back To The Future fan 
JungleBoy already answered you, but I was just going to say check out the reviews on YouTube to see if Colt Express is right for you. It is pseudo programmatic and that turns some people off. Any strategy you have can quickly go out the window. We really enjoy it. I will say that the game plays ok with 3 people, but it definitely gets better the more people you add. Its one of the few games where no one seems to mind finishing in last place.
824
« on: March 01, 2016, 05:49:31 AM »
That's great - but I thought it was Dan 
Sorry, I was quoting Back to the Future for my picture. I am unfamiliar with B-Sieged so I will have to check out the reviews.
825
« on: March 01, 2016, 05:37:43 AM »
Great Scott!
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