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Random jank you want to play for no particular reason

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12 Mar 2018 08:58 #265361 by Erik Twice
I've been making a list of games I would like to own to get an idea of what my collection might look like. I put games on different colums. One is the games I already own, another are the games I'm very sure I want to get and on the third the games I'm interested on but I don't really know if I want.

And then there's the jank.

The jank are games that I know I won't play or that I know aren't very good but for some reason intrigue me. You know, second-rate wargames with a cool theme, old SPI titles that were not that great on release and are now beyond outdated. Stuff like that. And I thought it would be interesting to share. Here a couple of mine:

Spanish Main:
This is one of the least-known Francis Tresham designs. It has a mechanic in which players draw from a face-up deck and when they play cards they put them on top of that deck which seems super nifty and I like the theme. Does it actually have much going for it? Well, a few people seem to like but nobody seems to love it. Still, intriguing.

Time Agent: This game has the best premise in all of gaming and it has its fans. But it doesn't seem like it's really that interesting or that involved, it doesn't seem anyone would play this over their favourite heavy, 6-player games. In other words "I would rather play Dune"

So, what games are your in your jank list?
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12 Mar 2018 09:01 - 12 Mar 2018 09:04 #265362 by Mr. White
Oh man, older games that I missed would be a great source of titles for this category. What would rise to the top though is SPI's Sword and Sorcery.



I actually had a copy at one point several years back. Of course, it never got played, so I passed it on.
Last edit: 12 Mar 2018 09:04 by Mr. White.

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12 Mar 2018 10:02 - 12 Mar 2018 10:03 #265381 by Count Orlok

Erik Twice wrote: Time Agent: This game has the best premise in all of gaming and it has its fans. But it doesn't seem like it's really that interesting or that involved, it doesn't seem anyone would play this over their favourite heavy, 6-player games. In other words "I would rather play Dune"


I played Time Agent a couple of years ago, and had a pretty good time. It's an interesting design, but I do think it would really benefit from some updates, especially to its graphic design (which is extremely busy). I don't remember too much really, but there is some nice asymmetry, but the combat was a bit bland, and the game dragged on for quite a while.
Last edit: 12 Mar 2018 10:03 by Count Orlok.
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12 Mar 2018 10:16 #265386 by Erik Twice
Great pick! Apparently MMP once looked at a possible remake, though it didn't come through. It actually reminds me of another "janky game": Feudal Lords (Sengoku Daimyo). It's a multiplayer wargame/economics game representing the Japanese period. MMP also looked into bringing it over, but ultimately didn't. Apparently you can print it, the files are at Boardgamegeek and it has been translated. But one wonders how good it actually is, some people love it, others wonder if it's "too simply to have meat" while others claim the event cards need to be accounted for. A couple people I trust like it. Nobody has played it enough to truly say.

Except the Japanese. The game has been reprinted twice, including in 2014. So there might be something there!



Now that I think about it...man, I could build this game. I really liked making my copy of Dune and while Civilization is next, I think it would be fun to make it and bring it over to the club at least once.

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12 Mar 2018 10:20 #265387 by the_jake_1973
Blood Royale and most of my AH Bookcase games like Conquistador, Flight Leader, and Firepower.
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12 Mar 2018 10:39 #265390 by ChristopherMD
Some huge-arsed wargame that takes 2 days to complete.

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12 Mar 2018 11:26 #265396 by Mr. White

the_jake_1973 wrote: Blood Royale and most of my AH Bookcase games like Conquistador, Flight Leader, and Firepower.


Blood Royale is a great option. As is AH's Road Kill.
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12 Mar 2018 11:39 #265398 by Jackwraith
The Hellgame. Constantly. It probably takes too long for what it is, there's all kinds of random shit that completely destroys a properly executed strategy, the mechanics aren't especially innovative... but it's fun, dripping with theme, and I've enjoyed every game I've ever played of it.

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12 Mar 2018 11:42 #265399 by Shellhead
Snapshot. It is a small toad that has been gathering dust on my shelf forever. Like, it only gets the dust knocked off when I move, and hasn't actually been played since maybe 1982. Snapshot is a game of zero-g tactical combat inside a pair of docked spaceships, using a slightly streamlined version of the Traveler rpg combat system. There are a few scenarios to play. Aside from the fiddliness of zero-g movement and large selection of weapons, there is nothing special about the game. It uses the same 15mm scale as the maps for Asteroid and Azanti High Lightning, so it might be fun to run a double-blind Snapshot game using my two sets of maps for Asteroid.

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12 Mar 2018 12:46 #265416 by Black Barney
Finally! A random jank thread! I've been dying for one of these.

Today in my office I noticed that one of the urinals is lower than the other, which is weird cuz there are no kids here. Then I noticed there were two grab bars on the side of the urinal. There are handicap urinals?? Why would someone use that instead of just going into the handicap stall and sit down? How does it work? The gymnastics involved with propping yourself up and going pee seems Cirque-de-Soleil-like to me. You can either stand or you can't. I don't get it. Has anyone ever seen one of these things used? How does it work?
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12 Mar 2018 12:49 #265417 by Count Orlok
I once bought a cheap used copy of Car Wars from a retail store for $5, only to open it and find a mess of expansions, flat cardboard counters, and no rules. I eventually got a copy of the rules from a friend, but never managed to play that copy, which I shamefully threw away during a move. I like the idea of the game, but it's probably not that playable without a dedicated group, which seems impossible these days.

Star Fleet Battles is pretty similar, although I ended up playing a lot of Federation Commander.

For whatever reason, I've always been fascinating with these games from the 70's and 80's. For awhile I was collecting them, but wisely stopped when I realized I wasn't playing any of them.

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12 Mar 2018 13:02 #265423 by Erik Twice
I actually got a copy of Car Wars somewhat recently. The game is actually pretty good and quite simple, the issue is the lack of editing and the lack of focus on ease of play. For example, a sheet marking the speed of the cars or actually having ready-made cars would help massively. There's a good game there hidden below too many 1980s "more is better" ideology.

I think the original Car Wars release, with was the simplest, may actually be the best. No need for so many different kinds of flamethrowers

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12 Mar 2018 13:42 #265436 by boothwah

Black Barney wrote: Finally! A random jank thread! I've been dying for one of these.

Today in my office I noticed that one of the urinals is lower than the other, which is weird cuz there are no kids here. Then I noticed there were two grab bars on the side of the urinal. There are handicap urinals?? Why would someone use that instead of just going into the handicap stall and sit down? How does it work? The gymnastics involved with propping yourself up and going pee seems Cirque-de-Soleil-like to me. You can either stand or you can't. I don't get it. Has anyone ever seen one of these things used? How does it work?


This reminds me of the braille on the keypads on the drivethrough atm's at my bank branches over the years.

I don't know why, but your urinal musings remind me of my middle school friend, Ramon Pyatt, who once ran up behind a kid who was pissing between two football players, and shook him by the shoulders, so that he whipped piss back and forth and splashed the jocks, and then sprinted out of the restroom.
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12 Mar 2018 13:45 #265437 by Count Orlok
I think Car Wars and Star Fleet Battles suffered from the same problem: bloat. Each expansion added more rules, more technologies, and complications. They would be manageable if you were there from the beginning, with complexity slowly inching up, but reading the compiled rules was a nightmare. I remember trying to read the Car Wars rules and it had all these exceptions for hovercraft and helicopters and a bunch of shit I wans't interested in. Combined with the fact that my used copy had no discernible order or labeling and it just made it a chore to try and decipher.

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12 Mar 2018 13:56 #265442 by Shellhead
I steered clear of Star Fleet Battles, but I can vouch for Car Wars collapsing under the weight of too many expansions. My breaking point was the flame-cloud ejector, which was too good for its weight and cost. The collisions also tended to cause strife at the table, as the conforming movement aspect of the collision seemed too open to interpretation. And sometimes a winner was disqualified after we audited the vehicles after a match. Still, we played the hell out of Car Wars for nearly a decade, and there were some incredible moments that I still recall fondly.

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