Rotghroth Rhapsody RCCCL Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 If we're suggesting board games, some of my favorites are: Kingsburg Drakon Power Grid Carcassonne Actually come to think of it, there are a lot I could mention here, so I'll leave it at that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Alorael at Large Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 Settlers is indeed a game of strategy. It's not a game of strategy on in the same vein as chess, but a good Catan player will beat a bad Catan player most of the time. (A friend who's a self-proclaimed master has a 50% win rate in four player games.) Dominion is almost nothing like Settlers, but it's very fun. It's like a trading card game, except you have the same starting decks and you buy cards during the game from the bank. Then they started releasing expansions, so now you have to collect again. Bang! is a fun party game. It has no pretense of balance, but you can play with large numbers of people and you can play very loudly. —Alorael, who cannot stand Carcassonne. It falls into the category of games that require you to memorize the game in order to be skillful, and he finds that property infuriating. He also can't enjoy NetHack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotghroth Rhapsody RCCCL Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 Originally Posted By: one dollar per day short —Alorael, who cannot stand Carcassonne. It falls into the category of games that require you to memorize the game in order to be skillful, and he finds that property infuriating. He also can't enjoy NetHack. My friends and I typically play the big box version of Carcassonne, which includes all of the expansions, though we don't use all of the expansion rules, mainly just all of the extra tiles. With that many tiles, memorization is somewhat moot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Mea Tulpa Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 More or less agreed, especially about NetHack being infuriating in a bad way. Other games I'd toss on the pile: - Modern Art (essentially a bidding game, but with interesting interactions; even better if you play with the rule that every painting put up for auction must first be named) - Guillotine (slight luck, more emphasis on card valuation, and with hilarious illustrations, especially in light of History of the World Part I) - Blue Moon City (all about card management and adapting to different situations) - Samurai (a very smart tile placement game -- but don't worry, Alorael, the tiles are placed on a pre-existing map and there's nothing to memorize) - Race for the Galaxy (I initially hated this one due to its absurd overreliance on complex iconography over English words, but this is a robust, remarkably well-balanced and replayable game. As a reference point, it is a card game with some similarities to Puerto Rico, because it was made by one of the developers of San Juan (the card game version of Puerto Rico) after some of his ideas were rejected as being too complex.) - Purely for flavor I'll throw in Lunch Money: there aren't a lot of games whose cards feature Blair Witch-style pictures of little girls along with phrases like "Jesus hates you and so do I." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast Dantius Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Chess >> Every other board game ever. Search your feelings. You know it to be true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall A less presumptuous name. Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Chess has a limited number of possible permutations with no luck involved. In theory, it bores me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast Dantius Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Originally Posted By: Master1 Chess has a limited number of possible permutations with no luck involved. In theory, it bores me. Um, all board games have a finite number of possible permutations. Granted, most are obscenely large, but they are still finite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ineffable Wingbolt Tirien Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES ... pictures of little girls along with phrases like "Jesus hates you and so do I." Jesus and little girls hate Slarty? Chess is the best board game ever made, and will remain so unless Jeff makes a Exile board game. Triple sniped! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast Dintiradan Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Yeah, Settlers is very much dependant on luck, a bit too much in my opinion. But even so, there's strategy. For a common example, think poker. Duck luck will win you the hand, but strategy will win you the tournament. At any rate, Settlers is not LCR. Originally Posted By: Alorael Alorael, who cannot stand Carcassonne. It falls into the category of games that require you to memorize the game in order to be skillful, and he finds that property infuriating. He also can't enjoy NetHack. Carc usually acts as a filler game, so counting tiles has never come up before in my games (but then, my family doesn't like playing with those complicated farmers, so your experiences might be different). If it's a problem, either establish an honour system of 'no tile counting', or print off a sheet of all the different tiles and give it to each player. (Also, good to know I'm not the only one on the Geek.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Alorael at Large Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 I don't want to count how many of each tile has already come up either, honestly. It's for similar reasons that I can't really enjoy playing bridge. I've played Guillotine, Samurai, and Lunch Money. The first just seemed too luck-based, the second was excellent the one time I had a chance to play it, and the third would be fun if the mechanical effects of the cards were actually printed on the cards. —Alorael, who in fact owns only Guillotine of the three. It was a gift, and it's one he could live without since he'd rather not have other people ask to play it. Oddly, while Bang! is just about as random, more of the randomness is based on human decisions made from incomplete information, so it's somehow more fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Rowen Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 I prefer to place last during Settlers of Catan. Then again that might be because I never getting to place first. Stupid weighted dice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Mea Tulpa Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 I own Samurai if you ever feel like a game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast VCH Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES Originally Posted By: VCH Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES a good theory-relevant game like Settlers of Catan You're joking right? That game is all about getting the best spots on the board early. If you think Settlers is only about getting the best spots on the board early, then you haven't been playing against strong opponents. I would crush you that is a challenge Socratic moment: if you are so certain that you can crush me, then surely the game isn't all about getting the best spots on the board early. Or did you mean "I would crush you... unless the turn order is more advantageous for you"? I would crush you because I'm a master cheat, think David Blaine skills. I've always found Dominion to be too much of a loner game. There isn't enough interaction with your opponents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Andraste Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Get the Intrigue or Alchemy expansions. There's plenty of interaction cards there. Like Possession. Soooo awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast VCH Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Originally Posted By: Andraste Get the Intrigue or Alchemy expansions. There's plenty of interaction cards there. Like Possession. Soooo awesome. I'll look into that, thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast Dintiradan Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 /me wishes his family would actually want to play Dominion... or any other game I own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Student of Trinity Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 I like Carcassonne because I like the look of the tiles. All those goofy little brown cities, close together. It seems like a place I'd really like to live. Or visit as a tourist. I visited the real Carcassonne once. I had never heard of the place, and this was before the game came out. My wife and I saw it out the window driving past on the Autoroute, and we decided to come back to check it out the next day. It's quite cool. The cafés there also offer cassoulet, which is a bean and duckleg casserole whose active ingredient is apparently some very tasty kind of grease. Delicious, but it's not trivial to finish a bowl. Anyway, Carcassonne is this little walled city on a hill. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, and this one really stands out. You don't see things like that much anymore. It actually looks quite a lot like the cities in the game. Except it is not surrounded by lots of other similar cities of really weird shapes, or encircled by ridiculously twisty roads. Nor are there any gigantic wooden people in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Lilith Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Originally Posted By: Andraste Get the Intrigue or Alchemy expansions. There's plenty of interaction cards there. Like Possession. Soooo awesome. it's a pity some of them actually make the game less fun in practice people don't complain that you're not allowed to trip up your opponents in a 100-metre sprint Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Alorael at Large Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Having played Dominion with very different sets of cards, I have to say that while I wouldn't always want to play without interaction, it's fun to play unimpeded races for points. It's interesting how differently games can play out depending on the cards available. Some are long and carefully calculated, some are mad dashes for land, and some are just all about spite. —Alorael, who should also plug Ra. It's a simple bidding game. It's a game that some people just will not understand or play and some people will love. Possibly it's also a litmus test for some sort of fiscal or business acumen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast Dintiradan Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 My favourite game of Dominion had both the Witch and the Sea Hag from Seaside. The winner had -1 points. (Was Chapel in the game? I think so, but not sure.) I haven't played Intrigue or Alchemy -- I know there are cards that let you pick on the player to your left. Are there any cards that let you pick on whoever you want? I hope not; ignoring that design space is one of the interesting things about Dominion. Players can't just hose the winning player, they actually have to change their decks to discourage the winning player's strategy. Ra is the only bidding game I don't outright dislike. I don't mind if bidding is a component of the game (Chicago Express, Power Grid, A Game of Thrones, even Santiago with its bribes). But I usually don't like it when the entire game is bidding. I'm a terrible Fist of Dragonstones player. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Andraste Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 From Intrigue, Masquerade, Minion, Torturer, and Saboteur all affect all players. However, I wouldn't recommend playing with Saboteur because it will ruin friendships and destroy lives. It's a really jerky card. :Edit: There's also Swindler. Now THATS a terrible card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotghroth Rhapsody RCCCL Posted September 10, 2010 Share Posted September 10, 2010 I also like Ra. I like the way the bidding chip you used goes to the next auction winner. Another game I like, that doesn't see much play, is Shadows Over Camelot. It's a game where everyone works together, but there may or may not be a traitor amongst the players. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Aran Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES Originally Posted By: VCH Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES a good theory-relevant game like Settlers of Catan You're joking right? That game is all about getting the best spots on the board early. If you think Settlers is only about getting the best spots on the board early, then you haven't been playing against strong opponents. In fact, there actually is a Settlers of Catan World Championship. I'm not making this up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Lilith Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 there is also a rock-paper-scissors world championship people will pretty much just use any excuse to compete with each other Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast Dantius Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 Originally Posted By: Lilith there is also a rock-paper-scissors world championship people will pretty much just use any excuse to feel superior to others FYT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Student of Trinity Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 Man, competing in the rock-paper-scissors world championship would be such a huge mistake. Because somebody is going to win it, and they are going to win by having a highly improbable string of victories. And so if I compete, I am very likely to lose miserably against a guy that is apparently practically unbeatable. At rock. Paper. Scissors. I would feel so bad. Until the next year, when that same guy most likely tanks, and somebody else appears unbeatable. It's a lot like running a mutual fund. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast Dintiradan Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 http://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~darse/rsbpc.html For such a simple toy game, it's pretty nifty. The Nash equilibrium is simple: play each option with probability 1/3. So if you're making a RoShamBo bot that will be facing bots made by people as intelligent or more than you, you'd want your bot to play randomly. The fun part comes in when your bot is in a tournament filled with both 'intelligent' bots and deliberately suboptimal bots. How can your bot's strategy exploit the 'stupid' bots without opening up a weakness to the 'intelligent' bots? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Lilith Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 Originally Posted By: Student of Trinity Until the next year, when that same guy most likely tanks, and somebody else appears unbeatable. It's a lot like running a mutual fund. there's a reason i'm investing in index funds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Student of Trinity Posted September 22, 2010 Share Posted September 22, 2010 Well, but Dintiradan does have a point about exploiting the idiots instead of beating the smart people. There's probably a Nobel Memorial Prize waiting for the first person to convincingly model stupidity. There may well be a lot more money in artificial stupidity than there will ever be in artificial intelligence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Lilith Posted September 22, 2010 Share Posted September 22, 2010 edgar allan poe wrote a short story about that once Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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