Tabletop games thread

[jubal1]

Yep, you’ll need 10 d12 (12 sided) dice and some miniatures to play it, and possibly some terrain to play around. But…

If you really want to minimise the cost there’s no reason you couldn’t

1 - use a dice rolling app on your phone
2 - Get a $4 pack of army men from a dollar shop
3 - use some paperbacks as terrain.

I have a pdf of the rules which comes with the book I bought and there are tutorials on YouTube.

[jubal1]

Lol, it has occurred to me that there’s possibly a place for a beer fuelled Scottish Guy reviews boardgames podcast. Something combines 2 of my favourite things.

[ivan]

I play bridge, it s easy to learn how to play but the bidding system is extremely complicated with lots of rules and exceptions and exceptional situations you have to communicate through bidding. I’m pretty crap at it, as you also need recall and strategy skills. It is fun thought when you win the bid- your partner lays thier cards on the table and you have to steer the ship home on your own.

I would recommend it, can be a funny crowd though, you can’t play with anyone as it takes ages to learn how to bid. The trick is to find cool people to play with- I think bridge is famous for being stuffy.

[ivan]

Impressive! Do you have Axis and Allies board game? I used to love playing that game.

[slipton]

@jubal1

The points where luck is a true deciding factor are few and far between, high value doubles tend to even out over a single game and aways over a series, and getting the exact values needed to create an anchor or hit (or avoid a hit) don’t really happen very often if you’re playing with someone who has a grasp of basic strategy. So really, despite the dice rolls, its still very much a strategic game where the winner is usually the one who maximizes the benefit of the rolls they get.

Great observations. The most obvious way to see that the luck element is minimal is to watch a 10 game match between a beginner and an advanced player. It’s quite common to see scores of 10-0 and 9-1. For every single board layout, there is an optimal move for every single roll of the dice. It takes a lot of playing to start seeing the board as a whole and making these optimal moves.

I’ve taught several friends how to play and I’m always proud when they make the first move that I consider a beginner progressing - instead of moving to make a hit, they decide against it for position.

[Ancient_Mariner]

Played a lot of bridge in my 20s and 30s. Found a wonderful partner and we played some great bridge until she got her PhD and moved interstate. Have not played since.
Tournament poker is my thing now.

[jubal1]

@slipton

instead of moving to make a hit, they decide against it for position.

Yeah, realising that control is more important than delaying an opponent is one of the first strategies people realise after playing a while.