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InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)D
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Comments
121
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • As usual, it depends:

    Splendor pros:

    • Plays 2-4 (vs strictly 2 for Duel)
    • Simpler rules, easier to teach
    • Larger chips, better tactility
    • Expansion available

    Splendor Duel pros:

    • Rules and components optimized for 2p
    • Nicer card art (subjective)
    • More decisions, more interesting draft, multiple win conditions
    • Much smaller box, reasonably sized for the game (unlike the original)

    If you plan on playing with more than 2 then original Splendor is the obvious choice. It's still a decent choice even if you will only ever play at 2 but value the simplicity and purity of the original design.

    Duel is a more interesting game thanks to the new draft and multiple win conditions. "More" and "more interesting" is not automatically better under all circumstances though.

    Personally I am keeping both even though we almost always play at 2. We play Duel more but sometimes I just want to play regular Splendor and Duel is not a 1-1 replacement.

    The Duel box conveniently fits inside the original's box (insert tossed). I am no longer planning to get the Cities of Splendor expansion thoguh, Duel is filling the "Splendor with more stuff" space nicely.

    For 7 Wonders it's more clear cut, Duel is a much better option for 2p.

    For Agricola the two games are almost too different to compare. All Creatures (big box) is great in its own way but doesn't feel like a replacement for the original.

  • Picked up Deep Rock Galactic based on recommendations in another thread, not very good at it yet but it's a lot of fun!

  • Baby Splendor is great, Bruno Cathala doing what he does best!

  • We tried the 2-player variant of Cat in the Box. It works fine but it left me feeling that a better 2p variant should be possible. Seems too easy to tie the tricks and avoid paradoxes. Might be our lack of experience with the game, maybe it's different with a more aggressive playstyle? I have some ideas for tweaking it but I want to play it more first to better understand the game.

    Would love to hear other experiences, especially about the 2p variant.

    Also learned Challengers, online only on BGA so far but thinking about picking it up. Love it when a game doubles down on a core idea and makes it work. In this case it's focusing entirely on the deckbuilding portion of deckbuilders with with the round playing out mostly automatically, sort of like in auto-battler video games. It also reminded me of some other games I like: Tea for 2 and Baseball Highlights: 2045.

  • That video is more about managing the a large deck by splitting it and doing it to casino standards, meant it more as an interesting tidbit than a tutorial.

    This 2 minute video explains the shuffle itself in detail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvLE_MCNOe4

  • Table-riffle, split into smaller decks if needed. Easy to learn and not too bad on the cards since you bend them much less than you'd with a regular riffle.

    I enjoyed watching this video about how the pros do it.

  • Did you ever play Chuck Yeager's Air Combat? That was the flight sim of the same era that gave me similar vibes.

  • To be fair Ascension is really good too and they have done some cool stuff with the trade row in some sets for example the day/night cards in War of Shadows. I didn't include Ascension in my island picks but I would be very happy if it turned up on the beach, especially if it's my favorite sets!

  • Funny timing, I learned about the original about an hour ago and just finished playing a couple games on BGA. Very fun game! Reminds me of auto-battlers and Tea for 2.

    This is the fastest I've gone from not knowing about a game to being excited about the sequel/expansion.

  • Stunts (1990, DOS) is what has stayed with me the most. Crappy graphics, unrealistic controls even for its time, buggy physics (a wrong move could launch you into the stratosphere) but for some reason we stayed up all night taking turns trying to shave one more second off the lap record on our favorite track.

  • Mottainai and maybe War Chest. Or if I have some basic tools I could make my own War Chest set.A bunch of dice preferably in multiple colors and a standard deck of cards (or one of those fancy decks with extra suits and symbols) would be a great treasure too.

  • We are 99% 2p so if I want to play it I pretty much have to buy it.

    Naturally I spend a lot of time researching before I buy. Having a good digital implementation (especially on BGA or Yucata) is extremely helpful and it's probably the best way to sell me a game.

  • Varieties of human appendages and protrusions are exciting to us but probably pretty boring for a changeling.

  • I like your picks! Make sure to check out Newton if haven't already. I almost passed it over because of the boring looking box and only picked it up because of a sale and "well, it's a Luciani, can't be too bad".It's one of our favorites now. It has tracks and map (and a tree!) similar to Tiletum, card market and play which is different from Lorenzo but very cool in its own way and neat interactions between parts of the board. The 2nd edition has some expansions included that are easy to mix in. There is also a digital version on Yucata.

    What's your usual player count? I skipped Furnace so far because I am not sure how well it would work at 2.

  • Yaye, new 2F game, hope we see more details soon. Looks like a Friday/Finished sized box right? I wonder how that board will fit in there. Or maybe it's bigger, hard to tell from the pics.

    Space frogs made me think of Raumpatrouille (tv show) and Cosmic Frog.

  • Another one: if it needs a pause button it's 'lite.

    (I am willing to give Necrodancer an honorary pass)

  • Played Nethack for many years but switched to Crawl eventually. Lately I've been playing Brogue too. Never ascended in any of them but that doesn't keep me from enjoying them.

    Must have: HJKL navigation (including diagonal). Big plus: terminal mode. Not a fan of tiles but I've grown to like Brogue's hybrid approach. I think I am ok with it because it's done so tastefully.I've gotten spoiled by auto-explore and other travel aids in Crawl and Brogue, hard to go back to Nethack now. I am sure there are some variants that have it, I will look around at some point.

    For a while I played Nethack using an Emacs interface, that was pretty neat but it hasn't kept up with later versions.

    A few communities I am finding on https://browse.feddit.de/:https://lemmy.world/c/roguelikedevhttps://lemmy.sdf.org/c/nethackhttps://lemmy.world/c/crawlhttps://lemmy.world/c/dcss

  • Thanks for the review!Brass is still in my "intimidation zone". Since you also mention Tzolk'in which is one of my favorites, how would you compare rules complexity between the two?

  • Our homemade Can't Stop board. The pieces were borrowed from Coimbra.