Board Games!

[mith]

It's been too long since I played Pandemic solo. But that's because I've been playing too much LotR LCG. ~shakes fist at Balrog~

[zoraster]

speaking of gaming up in dallas, do you game just with friends or what type of gaming group scene is there?

[Nexus]

I didn't realise that you could play Pandemic solo...

[Sudo_Nym]

Any coop game can be played solo. Since all the players are cooperative anyway, playing all the players by yourself doesn't change a ton.

[Debonair Danny DiPietro]

My brother picked up Lords of Waterdeep this last week, I only got to play one game on Tuesday but I see a lot of potential in it.

[Chevre]

The most recent Tabletop (Last Night on Earth) was semi-interesting.

[Xalxe]

Oh, I forgot to watch that.

[Shmugen]

I'm a fan of Lords. Enjoy, and see if you can snag the promo card somewhere!

[T-Bone]

Fan of 7 Wonders, Dominion, I think I saw some other games mentioned in this thread that I've played and for the life of me can't think of their names. One is the game where it becomes 1 player vs. everyone else, and the other is this galactic domination game that sees you take control of one of many, many races of alien...I can't remember the name of either game though...

[xRECKONERx]

Betrayal at House on the Hill? Twilight Imperium?

[hasdgfas]

Cosmic Encounter?

[Sudo_Nym]

Eclipse?

[Shmugen]

All excellent games.

[hasdgfas]

Scotland Yard is also an excellent game.

[xRECKONERx]

It really is.

[Sudo_Nym]

I just got Nuns on the Run, which is sort of reverse Scotland Yard. That's pretty fun, too.

[xRECKONERx]

if anyone would like to help design the Smallworld mini I'm running, I'm looking for helpers

[mykonian]

So THAT'S why he was bitching about TTR being "just card drawing and luck" last night.

I think I agree here. Unless I'm mistaken, it seems to me the dominant strategy in ticket to ride is rather obvious.

[zoraster]

Which is...?

[hitogoroshi]

Well yeah there's one dominant strategy, it's to use tickets to get points.

TTR is a tactical game, not a strategic one. Not an especially deep tactical game, but more than nothing. Talking about the strategy of it is like saying there's a 'strategy' for Yahtzee. They're not really strategy games, its about mentally estimating probabilities. The difference is that TTR involves other people so it's a little less solvable.

[animorpherv1]

I don't know how many of you would even be interested in this, but Here's a download so you can play board games on your computer. Completely free, and has a huge library of modules (games). It also lets you play online vs. others as well.

[zoraster]

Well yeah there's one dominant strategy, it's to use tickets to get points.

TTR is a tactical game, not a strategic one. Not an especially deep tactical game, but more than nothing. Talking about the strategy of it is like saying there's a 'strategy' for Yahtzee. They're not really strategy games, its about mentally estimating probabilities. The difference is that TTR involves other people so it's a little less solvable.

Comparing TTR to Yahtzee is ridiculous. And saying "the dominant strategy is to get tickets to get points" is a little like saying "the object of football is to score touchdowns." It's "correct" insofar as it goes... the person who uses tickets to get points is going to win in most games just like the team that scores more touchdowns wins most games. But it's not really a strategy.

No, TTR isn't chess. It has an element of luck, and there are certainly better and worse ways to approach the game (duh?). It has both tactical and strategic elements, though it certainly leans tactical. But there are a lot of things going on. It's less "solvable" than a lot of worker games, for example. It's less "solvable" than Dominion or other deck building games. Scarcity of resources (tickets, cards, and routes) plays a huge part in any game where people know what they're doing. You have to be, to a large degree, flexible in the game.

[Sudo_Nym]

And a lot of it is about figuring out what your opponent is trying to do, and stopping them. I'll put down on the Nashville-Atlanta, New Orleans-Houston, or Toronto-Sault Ste Marie lines, even if I don't need them, just because those are the "choke" points for a lot of other routes, and it can be a long way around.

[mykonian]

Well yeah there's one dominant strategy, it's to use tickets to get points.

TTR is a tactical game, not a strategic one. Not an especially deep tactical game, but more than nothing. Talking about the strategy of it is like saying there's a 'strategy' for Yahtzee. They're not really strategy games, its about mentally estimating probabilities. The difference is that TTR involves other people so it's a little less solvable.

Yahtzee has the strategy choice (which isn't obvious to everybody) where you either go for the bonus or go for 4 of a kind etc.

The europe version might have some rules different to others, I don't know. But there you really can't go without your large route pretty much, gives simply too many points. Further, getting new routes asap (where the "p" is determined by routes which you have to take since they could easily get blocked by others) is pretty much mandatory. The only real choice you have is afterwards, at what point you show off which routes you actually have.

[T-Bone]

Cosmic Encounter?

Betrayal at House on the Hill?

Yes and yes.