Christmas present advice

karl_b wrote:I'd go with Splendor, just over KoT, bearing in mind the 2 playerability (new word).

I didn't notice a requirement for 2 playerability, if so Splendor is definitely the best choice from the list above

PaulC wrote:That said, Chaos Cards have Ticket to Ride: Europe at a temptingly-just-over-your-budget price of £26.85...

I immediately went to Chaos Cards...and it's out of stock.

Incidentally, 2 playerability isn't essential per se, I just said it could be cool to have something to play without worrying about inviting anyone 'round.  I'm surprised no one is backing Colt Express yet, what with its Spiel des Jahres victory, though of course an award win isn't a guarantee of quality (see the Oscars, the Mercury Prize, etc).  I'll wait to see if anyone else puts their 2 cents in before making a final decision.

Cheers!

PS - The aforementioned rule about winning not guaranteeing quality doesn't apply to skill, i.e. whoever won Pitchcar earned it, I'm sure!

Colonial Andy wrote:I'm surprised no one is backing Colt Express yet, what with its Spiel des Jahres victory, though of course an award win isn't a guarantee of quality (see the Oscars, the Mercury Prize, etc).

Colt Express is an excellent game, would highly recommend it as a light and fun game to play.

These are all solid choices. If it's a key consideration that the game be good with 2 players then I'd go for Splendor. I haven't played Blueprints, so can't offer an opinion on that, but I'd say all of the others are significantly better at a higher player count than that.

If its a 2 player game you want you need Twilight Struggle end of...

King of Tokyo, Splendor and Colt Express. All great. I didn't love code names tbh

Aneurin wrote:If its a 2 player game you want you need Twilight Struggle end of...

Not so good with more players though... :-)

Do any of them have that much replayability though? Compared to the gateway games like Carcassone, TTR, Catan?

Don't get me wrong I like Colt Express, KoT and Splendor but they don't have that wow factor for me.

Aneurin wrote:Do any of them have that much replayability though? Compared to the gateway games like Carcassone, TTR, Catan?  

Don't get me wrong I like Colt Express, KoT and Splendor but they don't have that wow factor for me.

I'll happily play a lot of Colt Express and Splendor. For me they're up there with those three. KoT is a bit more of an 'occasional' game for me (hence why I don't own it).

But if it's replayability you're after then obviously you want Star Realms (I've played well over 600 games of this, though most of them using the digital app)... :-)

PaulG wrote:

Aneurin wrote:If its a 2 player game you want you need Twilight Struggle end of...

Not so good with more players though... :-)

I think good 2 player games have to be designed around the '2 players' - and often in a 1Vs1 mode - not a 4/6 player game with less players. To me you either invest in a 2 player game or a 3+ player game.

Things like Descent, IA, Xwing, Armada, Dice Masters, Twilight Struggle, Flick em up - are 2 player games and are great.

I think to things like Pandemic - a great game for 4 players - but play it with two and the mechanics kind of suffer because you get your actions again much faster than the original mechanic planned... thus it makes the game easier (you get more cards quicker and don't have to rely on clever strategies or trading to meet objectives). We experienced something similar with Burgle Bros... If a bad thing happens after every player turn it becomes easier to deal with if you only have 1 event instead of 3 between your subsequent turns.

Some games limit the numbers of turns or possible actions in a game when playing with only 2. Or even add a dummy player (which basically means the game is designed to work with a minimum of 3 and it shows).

Aneurin wrote:

PaulG wrote:

Aneurin wrote:If its a 2 player game you want you need Twilight Struggle end of...

Not so good with more players though... :-)

I think good 2 player games have to be designed around the '2 players' - and often in a 1Vs1 mode - not a 4/6 player game with less players. To me you either invest in a 2 player game or a 3+ player game.

I broadly agree, but I think there are exceptions where a designer has managed to make it scale down nicely to 2 players. For me, Splendor is one of these. I'd also put things like Tigris & Euphrates and Castles of Burgundy in this category.

Neuroshima Hex works with 2 and 4 players... but the theme is very off putting for non-scifi addicts

Aneurin wrote:Neuroshima Hex works with 2 and 4 players... but the theme is very off putting for non-scifi addicts

Yes... and yes! I want to play some more of this in the new year.

Colonial Andy wrote:Hello again, SBGC.  I hope everyone who was able to make it to the University Arms last night had a lovely time.  Did PaulG sing?  Who won Pitchcar?

Anyway, I've narrowed my ideas for a Christmas gift for my friends down to 6 choices.  Colt Express was never mentioned in this thread, but I came across it as I browsed and thought it looked good.  I would appreciate it if people would cast their vote, which will help my final decision.  Thank you very much for all your advice.

1. Codenames
2. Blueprints
3. Gloom
4. Colt Express
5. King of Tokyo
6. Splendor

I really was wanting to go for Ticket to Ride, but I just can't afford it at the moment.  Thanks again, ladies and gents!

Colt Express is great, but I've never played the two player variant so can't comment. Splendor and Blueprints are both great, King of Tokyo I really like with more than two players, but not a fan of with two. Gloom's fun with two if you're the kind of people who like weaving stories. I've not played Codenames.

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who chipped in on this discussion. This weekend, Mrs Colonial and I finally had a chance to see our friends for a belated Christmas get together. They were bemused when first opening the copy of Splendor we bought them (he had only a vague idea about the premise, she'd never heard of it), but we ended up playing a couple games and they both really, really enjoyed it. Mrs Colonial and I did too - a simple game, but a heckuva lot of fun! Thanks again for all the input and advice.