I just want to make sure everyone knows about this excellent website.
Games include (but are not limited to):
Dominion
Stone Age
Puerto Rico
Coleretto
Haggis
Dragonheart
Hawaii
Troyes
Real time play with excellent implemenations. Free. User friendly. Nice community. New games coming all the time.
It’s probably not as good as brettspeilwelt but… Java’s all buggy on my machine for some reason so I want people to go to boardgamearena instead.
Also, if you enjoy medium-to-heavy eurogames themed around political intrigue, equally well playable with 2 3 or 4 players, check out Troyes! It is my new favorite, and I am no good at it at all so now is the time to hit me up for a game. User name is Speusippus.
There’s no requirement to own the game. (Each game is licensed from the publisher, by the way.) While there’s not a tutorial, there is associated with each game a link to a pdf of the game’s instruction booklet.
Most of those games are from Europe (hence the term euro-games). They tend to feature less direct confrontation but there are still subtle ways to mess up your opponents. Usually they eschew player elimination for a scoring mechanic.
Unfortunately, this website only has the original and the first expansion, whereas isotropic has all the expansions. But I hear (haven’t seen for myself) that boardgamearena’s UI is easier to deal with and the card artwork more faithful to the original…
But yeah, most who know both like isotropic better for dominion.
BTW I’ve been wondering something about isotropic. I’ve been reluctant to jump into all the expansions over there because I don’t know the cards. At boardgamearena, mouseover text lets you get caught up to speed fairly quickly. Is there some such mouseover text or other means of in-game explanation of cards that let’s you figure out your first several games with expansion cards on the fly? Or does one really need to read up on them beforehand and come well prepared with complete knowledge of all possible cards?
I don’t really care about the artwork so long as the cards all play the same way. your site’s UI is a little nicer, with clear win/loss records and what not showing.
Also, yes. Mousing over at Isotropic gives you the expansion it’s from and the card’s details.
Edit x2: If you want to wade into Isotropic, shoot me a PM and I’ll play a few games with the basic set or only one or two expansions. I’m Mr. Splashypants there.
For a win/loss record, head on over to CouncilRoom.com. There’s way more data than anybody should reasonably want there. You can analyze which cards you win with, which cards others win with, which turns they’re bought, and all kinds of easily misused information.
