Zoe: First rule of battle, little one. Don't ever let 'em know where you are. Mal: Whoo-hoo! I'm right here! I'm right here! You want some of me? Yeah, you do! Come on! Come on! Aaah! Whoo-hoo! Zoe: Of course, there are other schools of thought...

'The Message'


Gaming 1: You are likely to be eaten by a grue

A thread for the discussion of games: board, LARP, MMORPG, video, tabletop RPG, game theory etc. etc. and all attendant news, developments and ancillary subjects thereof, as well as coordinating/scheduling games either online or IRL. All are welcome to chime in, talk about their favorite games or learn about gaming of any sort.

PLEASE TO WHITEFONT SPOILERS for video games, RPG modules or anything for which foreknowledge of events might lessen one's enjoyment of whatever gaming experience.


billytea - Feb 10, 2009 5:28:32 pm PST #1643 of 26133
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.

Are you saying you use all your initial turns to collect extra route cards, and then later turns to build on those routes? Or, in the original game, do you not have to decide between drawing color cards, drawing route cards, and building (as in the Europe version)?

No, you only get one action per turn in the original game too. (I've found the primary incentive to card hoarding is to avoid telegraphing your intentions too soon. Taking tracks piecemeal lets your opponents try to block you, either deliberately or because they realise the routes they want are under threat from you. But if they start taking your routes anyway, you need to get in there fast. Doesn't matter how many cards are in your hand if you have 30 points in routes leaving L.A. and it's become completely blocked.)

ETA: I think the strategy actually makes more sense in TtR:E. You can place stations too, so you can leapfrog the odd blockade (for a modest fee). Plus, the tunnels encourage more card hoarding, as does the chance of claiming the Stockholm-St Petersburg line. (If you throw out your long route at the start of the game, then maybe you can afford to be more opportunistic in the tracks you claim too, though at the expense of route points.)

Not sure how it would work in practice, though. The extra incentives to hoarding cards may just ensure your opponents keep a sizeable hand too. In that case, you can't really starve them as easily.


Volans - Feb 11, 2009 11:33:00 am PST #1644 of 26133
move out and draw fire

We only have TtR:E, so that may be part of it.

On another note, I have a vague description of a half-remembered game from like 30 years ago. Anyone up for helping me figure out what it was?

It was a board game about time travel. The board was a series of concentric rings, and each player's goal was to get colored dots on the rings to line up, thereby making the history of the universe the way they wanted it.


Laga - Feb 12, 2009 10:31:14 am PST #1645 of 26133
You should know I'm a big deal in the Resistance.

Was the board background black with multicolored dots? I'm not sure if I ever played it or only saw the description in Games magazine.


billytea - Feb 12, 2009 3:17:50 pm PST #1646 of 26133
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.

It was a board game about time travel. The board was a series of concentric rings, and each player's goal was to get colored dots on the rings to line up, thereby making the history of the universe the way they wanted it.

Raq, is this it? [link]


megan walker - Feb 12, 2009 7:08:13 pm PST #1647 of 26133
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist

There's no limit to the number of cards you can hold. So you simply draw cards on every turn, until you hold all your routes. By that time, you will probably hold several of your opponents' routes also, and may have cornered the market on one or two colors.

I'm still puzzling over this. And I think I misread it. DO you collect and hoard train color cards or route cards?


Volans - Feb 14, 2009 4:46:42 am PST #1648 of 26133
move out and draw fire

billytea, score! That is it, thank you!

Part of the reason I'm interested in looking at it again is that you have a team of people who are raw recruits, and you have to train them up before sending them into the "field" to screw with time. But because other players are doing the same, you have to balance the tradeoff between having them trained and keeping them out of the field, thus losing the time war.


Volans - Feb 14, 2009 4:48:36 am PST #1649 of 26133
move out and draw fire

Oh, and megan - you hoard color cards. Obviously the more wild cards you hold the better, but there's also the factor that there are more cards of some colors than others, so you can conceivably own a color.


megan walker - Feb 14, 2009 1:11:02 pm PST #1650 of 26133
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist

OK, I thought you were talking about routes.

But you have to build eventually, so I still don't really see how this would work in practice. Others will still be able to build early, and once you start building they'll be able to draw colors, so how do you catch up?


omnis_audis - Feb 16, 2009 4:51:48 pm PST #1651 of 26133
omnis, pursue. That's an order from a shy woman who can use M-16. - Shir

Oh the shame. I almost did it again. With sending my 360 off for repair, I was hoping they'd send a new one with an HDMI port. I pull it out of the box, read the letter telling me it's a different machine. I look on the back, and for a brief moment, look at the USB port for the wifi thing, and think "sweet! I got an HDMI... shit. Nope."

Clearly the top of the Pete list has affected me


Volans - Feb 17, 2009 6:48:36 am PST #1652 of 26133
move out and draw fire

We spent all weekend playing FPSs at a LAN party. I haven't done that in like 3 years, and am no longer l33t. Still, two different friends showed up at our place needing tea and sympathy, which came in the form of beer and fragging shit, so it was good.