Diluted Game Opinions Galore! Reverse Recommendations And Other Madness
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This is my first GeekList and designed for those of us with short attention spans and an irrational love of ordered lists.
Sometimes, researching a game on BoardGameGeek isn't enough to figure out the general positives and negatives of a game. For example, I have spent plenty of time reading about Shogun. The entire time I was under the impression that it is primarily a game on territory. After making a post on the Recommendations forum, I now have learned that there is a huge Economic component that may even outweigh the territorial aspect of the game.
The point of this GeekList is to take a game and do a "Reverse Recommendation" of it. Instead of describing what type of game you want and then being given a game name, the purpose of this List is to state a game and then provide quick tibits (both positive and negative) that describe its various aspects. Each game's description/aspects should use the following key:
+ means a generally positive thing
- means a generally negative thing
+/- means that the thing could go either way
For example, one might say the following about Alhambra:
+/- Light Euro-style game
+ Short play time
+ Scales well with all players
+ 2-Player is surprisingly fun
- Essentially multiplayer solitaire
+ Very easy to teach to new players
Feel free to add games and your comments. I will do my best to try to condense people's comments into the original game post once there are enough replies. Let's make this a good GeekList!
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+
Short play time
Scales well with all players
2-Player is surprisingly fun
Very easy to teach to new players
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Essentially multiplayer solitaire
+/-
Light Euro-style game
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2.
Board Game: Arkham Horror
[Average Rating:7.32 Overall Rank:237]
[Average Rating:7.32 Unranked]
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+
Theme. Feels like a tense movie as much as a game.
Very popular AT! game. Not hard to find players at least for myself.
Not difficult to play IF you have an experienced player.
-
Hard to learn with only the rulebook. Complicated rules and hard-to-follow rulebook.
Solo play with one investigator difficult. See variants or draw one Mythos card every four turns.
Anti-climactic endgame in base set.
+/-
Luck-dependent, in that a few bad card draws can be devastating.
As much a 1920's pulp theme as traditional Lovecraft.
Long, meaty, game.
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+
Great theme and plenty of it
Great miniatures
Modular board helps with replayability
-
Issues with card quality
Does not scale well with more than 2-3 players
Soundtrack is horrible
+/-
Lots of luck involved
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4.
Board Game: Memoir '44
[Average Rating:7.54 Overall Rank:117]
[Average Rating:7.54 Unranked]
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+
Excellent variety of scenarios
Great components
Good light wargame that is easy to teach to others
-
Long setup time
Luck plays a pretty significant role
Card draw can really affect the game's outcome
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Chris Jay
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
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+
Short play time (~45-60 minutes)
Deep (but not trackable) economic system
Variety of auction styles
Tons of fun (with the right group)
"... makes me want to rock out" (apologies to Art Brut)
-
First play can be unintuitive
Mayfair components are uglyunderwhelming
+/-
Theme
All auctions, all the time
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6.
Board Game: Pandemic
[Average Rating:7.66 Overall Rank:73]
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+
Brilliant mechanic for outbreaks and subsequent infections
Great co-op action
Quick play time
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Possible replayability concerns?
Components are too big for the board!
Game seems to get harder the more players you add
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John Di Ponio
United States
Lake Orion
MI
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+
EXCELLENT Rule set
Great componenets
Customizable squads
Design-your-own scenario possibilities
EXPANDABILITY
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minatures are a bit fiddly on the base (easily fixed)
small amount of scenarios out of the box
+/-
Little deeper than Memoir44/Battlelore
Not as deep as most hex & Counter wargames
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8.
Board Game: Torres
[Average Rating:7.17 Overall Rank:402]
Chris Jay
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
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+
Deep, expandable game system
Attractive components
Wealth of options for creative play
Building game!
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AP-prone
Convoluted, meandering scoring track
Weak theme
+/-
Not your typical SDJ winner
Different editions have radically different graphical styles, which may appeal more or less to various players
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9.
Board Game: Vikings
[Average Rating:7.28 Overall Rank:308]
Breno K.
Brazil
BrasÃlia
Distrito Federal
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+ Works well with 2, 3 or 4 players (and I'm usually picky about this)
Original gameplay with nice new mechanisms (the wheel, emphasis on resource placement, etc)
Great production values (all shiny greeeeen)
Tile-and-meeple draw assure a different match every time.
- Theme is very pasted on
Takes a little while to explain the game for a mid-weight title
+/- Usually the players have to choose between sub-optimal combinations of tile-and-meeple, and sometimes rounds will be flooded with bad tiles/meeples. Since the tiles drawn are for all the players, it isn't really luck, though.
Comes with silly beginner rules that should be ignored. Everyone that is into the hobby enough to visit BGG regularly should go straight for the advanced game ("weak" boatsmen, special tiles for the most expensive set, etc).
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