Board games, who hasn't played a game of Monoply as a child? Who hasn't at one time or the other flung the Risk board through the room after his entire family, even his dad that promised he wouldn't atacked, stabbed him in the back.
Today, being somewhat older, most people seem to forget about boardgames, some consider it boring, some would call it an inferior medium compared to video games and yet even more would call it entertainment for nerds. In the natural order of things it is normal people that call starcraft 2 players nerds but it is starcraft 2 players that laugh at the back of the boardgamers. Truly we are the lowest on the social ladder, but perhaps undeserved? Afterall is a boardgame not enjoyed sitting around the table sharing witty banter as one proceeds to construct a farm, raise armies or construct a railroad, whatever the theme might be.
Truth be told i like when a new game is released, a game i have looked forward to for a long time but there really isn't anything like buying a new boardgame and going over the individual pieces, often crafted with the greatest of care.
Now this isn't a thread dedicated to my love of boardgames both old and new, but rather a thread for like minded people to share their love of boardgames and to hopefully entice a few more people to endulge in the world of boardgames.
The average kind of person that you can expect to find at a session of boardgaming.
An always important part of getting into boardgaming is finding out what boardgame is right for you. The type of boardgame depends on what you like and what your possible companions like. Dropping down a game of Arkham Horror for a bunch of people expecting Monoply is never a good idea.
Still, just because people expect Monoply doesn't mean you should give them Monopoly. Here are a few games expected to be suitable for the Monoply-crowd whilst at the same time involving a little more player contribution then rolling a dice and saying yes or no to a property purchase. Most of the games ill mention here are games i own myself, a few i will place here just out of fame.
Beginner games
Settlers of Catan
Settlers of Catan is a pretty well known boardgame and rightly so. It's easy to explain and easy to play yet at the same time it makes players get involved, it allows players to make long term plans and influence the degree of luck involved.
In Settlers of Catan the goal is to, as one might guess, settle the island of Catan. By placing towns and cities adjacent to resources players increase the liklihood of obtaining those resources wich are in turn used to construct roads, towns and cities. All of these things are worth points and the first player to obtain 10 points wins the game. An average game will last you about 2 hours. It is quite family friendly in the fact that no player can ever be knocked out of the game. Nothing spoils the fun as quikly as a person sitting at the table moaning about how he is out of the game and how it's unfair.
Agricola
Agricola is a game that revolves around building a farm. The theme itself might sound dull but the game itself is anything but. The game is quite popular within the world of boardgaming as a new-player friendly boardgame, and in my opinion even better then Settlers. It hasn't however achieved the same fame as Settlers.
The theme of the game is building a farm as stated earlier, but the actuall gameplay revolves around carefully planning your next moves. As the game progresses the harvesting rotations become more and more frequent and you find yourself stressed in choosing between expanding your farm and feeding your family. The game soon gives you the feeling of having to juggle a dozen balls and you know that dropping a single one means the whole damn thing is gonna come crashing down on you.
This game is also very friendly in that it doesn't allow players to be knocked out of the game, it only works with a point system. The only off-putting factor for some is that there is very little direct interaction. Players build their own farms and fight somewhat over who gets to the resources first but there is very little direct interaction.
A huge plus for the game is it's scaleability. It's rules allow for a very basic game and a massively complex game. In the very simply rules you won't be needing much of each other but the more complex the game gets, the more options people get for screwing each other over. The downside is somewhat fixed as the game gets more complex but at the same time the more complex it gets, the more it loses it's charm of being a simply and acceseable game. But as stated, you can scale it perfectly to the crowd that gathers at the table.
Carcassonne
Carcassone is a game of placing tiles. Once again i warn you not to let such a brief theme description put you off. Again a friendly game in that it also works by points and never knocks players permanently out of the game.
Personally i never cared much for it, but i have found that many players do enjoy it quite a bit and it is rather popular so i felt that despite my feelings it did deserve a mention. In Carcassonne players take turns placing tiles adjacent to other tiles and slowly but surely spell out a map. The game can be explained in less then 5 minutes but then again, so can chess.
The only rule for placing tiles is that they have to "make sense". A road does not sudenly transition into a city and a city does not have a field of grass in the center.
As players place tiles they get to place their peoples on a tile and when the image that said tile paints out is completed (like a city completly finished) a player collects all the points, counted by the number of tiles in total and modified by the type of tiles (cities are worth more then roads for example).
The trick is that a player cannot remove his peoples and as a result players begin to wage the benefits and downsides to placing their tiles in order to finish their own creations and collect points, or place tiles in such a strange fashion that it becomes very difficult for other players to finish their creations, if not outright impossible at times. A clever game of manipulating the playing field and trapping the other players pieces.
Advanced games
These games i call advanced but the title can be deceptive. Some of these games involve a greater strategic depth then the beginner games but for some it is the theme that i consider "advanced". The truth is that your mom isn't likely to be intrested in waging intergalactic warfare but wouldn't mind building a farm.
Cosmic encounter
Cosmic encounter is an old game, several decades old to be exact. In this game of intergalactic warfare players attempt to establish a total of 5 colonies on foreign planets.
Despite it's theme this game revolves around mind games. As far as mind games go i have never played a game that captures it so perfectly. The game comes down to bluffing, double bluffing or being an idiot, not bluffing, whilst your opponent thinks your bluffing, and winning anyway.
Players attempt to use atack cards and negotiate cards to fight their way to galactic victory. Forging alliances when they need them and stabbing people in the back when they are done with them.
The theme of the game can be offputting to some but all the times i have played the game people grasped it within 10 minutes of playing. A game lasts about 1 hour and is easily played several times in a night.
The twist that makes Cosmic such an amazing game is the addition of aliens. Each player receives a unique alien race that they play. Each alien race has a unique power wich changes how the player should play and this makes every game completly different. What about an alien race that has to lose in order to win? What about an alien race that wins when it has lost all of it's ships? The addition of alien races makes the game completly unique everytime you play is and provides near infinite replayability.
Axis and Allies
If i had to sum up Axis and Allies, and i feel like i have to, it would have to be Risk on steroids. It has more rules, more pieces, more dices and more theme then Risk. Where in Risk each player takes on the role of a nameless dictator bent on world domination fighting against similarly shadowy figures, everyone players very specfic countries in this boardgame of world domination.
Three players take on the role of America, England and Russia as the Allied forces. Two players take on the role of Germany and Japan as the Axis forces.
If i had to critique this game for anything it is that perhaps it is a bit to historically accurate. Germany get's to have all the fun and field massive armies wich he will naturally shove down Russia's throat as Russia tries to field a massive army of soldiers in an attempt to halt an enemy who has tanks.
Japan gets to smack America around for a turn or two but quikly finds himself on the receiving end of the pain stick. England will find that with all of it's colonies it is actually best off just building a lot of planes and bombarding the shit out of Germany.
So basically, just like history. The problem is that you will find most of your games to go like that. Axis and Allies is a fun game to play but after 5 games you will have seen most of the variations and after that people will have to force themselves to do some crazy things to spur things up.
Still, if you are a fan of alternative history then it's a fun game. What happens if Germany invades the UK? What if Japan invades Russia? There are certainly some variations to be done before things get repetitive.
Dominion
Domion can be called a collectable card game without the steep price, but that would be silly.
Domion is a very popular game but also very acceseable. Just like all the games in the beginner section nobody can be knocked out of the game before it ends. So why is it in the advanced section? Well that's because it's a card game, and not everyone loves playing with cards. Personally i love cards but i can understand that a game that comes with 200+ cards and that's it, it can be scary.
In Dominion everyone begins with the same cards, a few copper cards wich can be used to buy cards. At the start of the game there are 10 stacks of 10 different cards face up on the table. Every game can have a different combination of cards because each set of Domion has 25 different cards and 10 of each.
Players shuffle their tiny deck and draw a starting hand of cards. They then use their money cards (copper, silver, gold) to buy some cards from the table and add these to their deck. When the deck is fully depleted they give it a good shake and draw again. This process repeats for everyone and slowly but surely the decks begin to bulge and more importantly, they begin to diverge.
There are many styles of decks that players can construct. Some players might like the kind of decks that can quikly grow, others like decks that consist mostly of high priced cards. Some other players might enjoy building massive decks that are so smoothly constructed that they can take more then 50 different actions every game. And yet again other players might prefer a deck of cards that does little more then fuck over their fellow players. It's intresting to see how each player goes into a different direction and how each deck works off each other.
Disregarding the fact that it's a card game, it's no more difficult to learn then most of the beginner games.
Mansions of madness
You have to understand i adore mansions of madness. No i LOVE mansions of madness. The theme of this game is itself the biggest selling point.
The game takes place in the world of H.P Lovecraft. Not everyone is familiar with his writing but those that are often adore the thick gloomy atmosphere. For those not familiar H.P Lovecraft was a writer who is best known for his horror writing and his particular style. His horror did not focus on gore and shock but rather the fraility of the human mind. Terror and fear stood at the center of his writing as his human protoganists attempted to battle star born gods so alien that simply seeing them would drive most men insane. The famous Cthulu for example, is his creation.
In this game for 5 players a team of 4 investigators attempt to find their way through a mansion as one player taking the role of overlord attempts to make their life a litteral living nightmare. Investigators might one game find themselves flooded by zombies and the next victim to monsters from a different dimension. All the while investigators run through the mansion searching for clues to unravel the mystery.
All the while a thick layer of theme is spread all across the game. Combat is resolved via cards that explain exactly what happens in short, yet well written pieces of story. One needs not be a great roleplayer or a dungeon and dragons veteran to visualise their investigator ripping off a monsters tentacle with this bare hands as the gore sprays across his face.
The game has two downsides. The settup time is a bitch with a good half hour for each scenario. The second downside is the fact that each game of mansions consists of carefully constructing a scenario, aka the story you are playing. The problem with this is that you only get 5 stories in the box. We went through these 5 stories in little more then 3 weeks and after that it's just not as much fun. There isn't a lot of excitement if you allready know the story. Expansions are on the way but truth be told, i feel like they should have just given me more scenarios right out of the box.
Upsides are that this is probably the best themed game in the world and the miniatures are god damn incredible. I don't hype all that much about game pieces but holy shit, these are incredible. I can only imagine how great the game would look if someone took the time to paint them.
Descent
To round all of this off is a game that i don't actually own yet but hope to soon do. You can call this game Dungeons and Dragons light or maybe Diablo the boardgame. This is a game of dungeon exploring, killing monsters and getting phat lewt.
Each player takes on the role of a hero and in a party of 4 you attempt to make your way through a dungeon whilst one player being the overlord (yes, same company) controls the dungeons. From it's traps to it's monsters the overlord attempts to kill the heroes at every turn.
For those intrested in the game i might add that i have been told that it's best played with an expansion called Road to Legend wich turns the game from loose dungeons into an overarching storyline where players cross over a worldmap in a campaign against the overlord that can last many months.
I am afraid i can't tell all that much more since i don't actually own it yet.
That took a long time but let's hope it was worth it. I shall leave it on a final tip, read the rule book, practice explaining the rules, and keep it under 10-15 minutes. Last thing you want to do is bore the people out of your house when you went through blood sweat and tears just to get them to sit around and player a boardgame with you.
These were the games i felt most important to share but i have a few more in my collection and even some good ones that really aught to be mentioned. I shall keep those for later posts. Meanwhile i hope that everyone that loves boardgames as much as i do proceeds to discuss their own favorite games and i hope many more people can get intrested in this often ignored hobby.
Agricola is absolutely *not* a beginner's game; it's a lot more in-depth than one might realize and is not the best way to initiate people into the world of board games. That said, it is an *amazing* game and I play it as often as I can. Power Grid is another outstanding game (though stay away from the "Factory" version, it has nothing to do with the actual game). Yet another recommendation I'd like to throw out is Arkham Horror, a co-op game for 1-8 players in which you save (or fail to save) the world from Lovecraftian old ones.
If anyone is interested in learning about cool games, boardgamegeek.com is a great place to look.
Yeah my problem is that my friends just aren't interested in sitting down to play a board game for 5 hours. I would love to get a game of Risk going: I own a board but have never actually played a proper game because no-one wants to play with me
Those hooters are stupid huge. ot: Very nice post!! I have played Settlers many many times and really like that game. I've heard day9 talk of dominion but have never heard/experienced anything to do with it elsewhere and I've also heard of axis&allies but never played. MoM and Descent look really complex! I'm not sure if I'll ever play those games, but thanks for teaching me something new
Excellent post, i enjoyed reading through this even though i will probably never play any of them, it's not easy to keep people interested in things they have no knowledge about for long.
I recently watched http://cinemassacre.com/2011/06/10/board-james-key-to-the-kingdom/ and was ridiculously excited. I never wanted to play a boardgame as much as I wanted to play that, it seemed like... Like fun. Goold old clean fun. Kindergarden fun, before you became self-aware and started noticing shit.
Out of the games you listed I've only played a&a to any real extent, and I enjoyed it (Played settlers once, but only for half an hour and no one knew what they were doing, and Carcassonne once but i didn't like it). I couldn't find people to play often, so I invested in the 1997 computer game. Definitely worth $4.
It basically takes the intrigue and lack of random from diplomacy and merges it with more fun things like bidding for special abilities, and having character cards with effects to make battles more interesting.
Also Lannister is overpowered because they have to be able to fight a 3vs1 and stalemate :p
On June 29 2011 00:59 Osmoses wrote: I recently watched http://cinemassacre.com/2011/06/10/board-james-key-to-the-kingdom/ and was ridiculously excited. I never wanted to play a boardgame as much as I wanted to play that, it seemed like... Like fun. Goold old clean fun. Kindergarden fun, before you became self-aware and started noticing shit.
I love watching board james. I want to try that weapons and warriors game.
On June 29 2011 01:03 chomsky wrote: Some (most) of those games look incredibly complicated. Don't you get bored of playing a game that requires so much setup? I'm a Scrabble guy myself
Nope. These games are always really exciting if you can play them with a group of friends that you know won't get red in the face and flip the table.
Me and my friends have probably played at least 150 games of agricola. Have tried some of the other games here, but agricola keeps us entertained because of the great variation each playthrough. There are so many cards that create an almost unlimited amount of combinations that affect the game greatly.
Not a huge fan of Catan, but the other games on that list are pretty good! Also, when you get Descent, I advise you to add these houserules: 1. Players get 2 minutes of discussion/swapping items/planning time, before their turn, after that they can't change plans anymore. For every 10 seconds of time they discuss longer, the Overlord gets a threat token. I wouldn't say forbidden to talk during their turns (it is a game played for fun, after all), but definitely don't allow them to think up a completely new plan after every failed dice roll. 2. Use D20's or some other form of marker for your health and fatigue tokens. You'll be moving these around so often it tends to get messy and take long.
These two rules can speed up play tremendously, and shouldn't affect actual gameplay or enjoyment thereof negatively at all. The problem is when you're playing Descent, an already long-ass game, with people who micromanage every single turn down to the detail and then reset their plans as soon as they get one roll that isn't good enough. If they have to declare their actions before they start their turn, you avoid having some players draw every turn out into a 20-minute ordeal.
Before those changes, we'd regularly need 6-7 hours just to play one short mission. We can now do those same missions in 3 hours.
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Another boardgame people here might like is Space Alert. It's very different from typical boardgames in that it utilizes a CD track to set the pace of the game - it's a real-time strategy boardgame. Basic idea: You're 3-5 crewmembers on a spaceship. It's under attack. Go and survive for 13 turns.
You do this by manipulating energy through the ship and using this energy to fire weapons, charge shields and launch missiles, as well as guide combat droids to internal threats and defects. The way this is accomplished is by laying down 'planning cards' (move left, use elevator, action A, action B, etc) simultaneously, while the CD track is playing and announcing threats left and right.
After 10 minutes of intense teamwork, communication and crisis management, you reset the board to its initial state, turn over the player's cards and resolve the actions. During this phase (which is not timed), you get to see if your masterplan that you've so hastily set up ...actually works. (Read: You get to see how badly you failed.) Points are awarded upon survival for certain feats, but just completing a mission is a feat upon itself.
Do play - If you like cooperative games - If you like a bit of controlled chaos, frantic teamwork and working under pressure. - If you're up for a challenge - If you're looking for the perfect middle ground between boardgames and videogames.
Don't play - If you don't like failing - If you have players in your group that can't see the fun in being the one that accidentally killed the entire crew, or seeing someone else do that. - If you have neighbors. They -will- be woken up once an enemy attacks your middle deck, destroying the elevator and disrupting your entire plan for the mission.
One of my favorite games to play.
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Bragging mode: Current collection: - Dominion + Intrige - Catan + Cities and Knights - Carcassonne - Mr Jack - Descent - Puerto Rico - Agricola - Risk - Heroscape RotV, BftU. - Saboteur - Space Alert - Citadels + Dark lands expansion - Roborally - Chess
I think Chess was excluded cause it's a 2 player board game.
It's also nowhere near as approachable as these other games, and genuinely takes some learning before the actual game starts being fun.
Some players are humans, some are cylons. As humans you have to jump to get away and even landing on New Caprica in the expansion for a while. Losing all your food, population, morale or fuel means the cylons win. Having cylons break into the control room or, if i remember correctly - blow up too much of the ship, also results in a loss for the human players.
The most intresting aspect of the game is how you have to try to find infiltrating cylons and imprisonate or send them out the airlock. The cylons on the other hand must try to sabotage skill checks etc and have the humans lose as much resource, nukes and whatnot as they can. At the same time they must seem like they are humans or try to blame their actions on someone else. Finally reveal themselves with a powerful attack on the ship, a loss of resources etc. This usually means getting flamed by the human players as they are mad you tricked them.
Have fun shouting at your friends trying to explain you are not guilty of the failed skill check or trying to convince them the president is in fact a killer robot.
OMYGOSH I'VE PLAYED A BUNCH OF THESE GAMES lol...in addition to settlers, agricola, dominion, and carcassonne i've also played puerto rico, ticket to ride, and power grid ^^ my family loves these games...the whole extended family....
Talisman. I had my dad's old set from the early 80s and brought it to school for me and my friends to fuck around with between classes. Really fun, especially with all the expansions when you've got a long night ready.
I can't believe OP didn't mention Puerto Rico, great game that has a cool turn system (each round players choose what "role" they want to play, which shapes what happens that round as well as what bonuses the players get).
Edit- Catan and Carcassone are also great games :D I've wanted to pick up a copy of cosmic encounter for a while now.
It is actually quite nice, once you get over the hurdle of the insane learning curve.. Just like the PC version.
Also, I played Settlers of Catan (the Knights and Cities version) with some of my friends at the Go club (high dan Go players - 7D and 5Dpro) and let me tell you: with theese kind of players it is NOT a beginner game!
Settlers. That is all. Actually, I don't know if Battletech really counts as a boardgame, but it's completely amazing. And I'm surprised that I didn't see RoboRally (I didn't look closely). Such an amazing game, made by the creator of Magic: The Gathering.
EDIT: One of my dad's best friends owns a physical gamestore. I've at least heard of basically every game mentioned in the thread so far. I know he likes BSG and I've seen Agricola and Power grid many times.
This is a card game, for 2 to 5 players. This is a strategy game, with a big part of psychology included. Quite difficult at first, but enjoyable right from the start. Some tournaments have been organized on this game, because, this as competitive material. I recommend it to all if you liked Dominion. This is like Dominion with a much deeper skill ceiling.
Dungeon Twister
A very competitive strategy board game. Made to be played in 1v1. Very deep skilli ceilling. Lots of tournaments around the world.
Both thoses games are not casual and fits if you like challenges, competitivity and game balance.
EDIT :
Had to add this one; THE BEST GAME I'VE EVER PLAYED.
This game is old and difficult to find, but what a gem !! You can play 6 VERY different races (I mean this is absolutely crazy how the perspective of the game are totally changing from one race to another.) This is a game of alliances and betrayal. This game is difficult to learn and impossible to master. Play this with 4 or 5 of your friends, a game can last a whole night, but trust me, this is so amazing !!
On June 29 2011 00:41 Tachyon wrote: Why didn't the list include chess? =( Best board game ever made, and most complex.
Chess: 10^40 legal positions, 10^120 possible games Go: 2.1×10^170 legal positions, 1.9x10^481 (conservative estimate of average number of moves: 200) possible, legal, games.
I personally love 'Munchkin' and 'Grave Robbers from Outer Space'. Hilarious games, but aren't exactly board games, they're card games. You can play them on a board, though, if you wish.
You can't be a geek if you're not a hardcore boardgame fan!! Anyone plays Bang! ? It's a fun game of cards where you have to guess the other persons identity (sheriff, outlaw, renegade, adjoint). Simple but fun game. My friends and I initiated another friend to Settlers of Catan Online, and he hasn't left his computer in what.... 4 days now? XD
Recently a friend of mine became a hardcore boardgame player, here is a list of the games I have played with him and a couple of other friends:
-Robo Rally -Descent -Betrayal at House on the Hill -Merchants & Marauders -Frag -Yggdrasil -Power Grid -Settlers -Warhammer Quest -Chaos in the old world -Arkham Horror -Mall of Horror -Last Night on earth -Zombies!!
And probably a couple more that i don't remember, but all of them are pretty dam good, some of them you have to be a little into board games to have fun but deffinetly you guys should try them
On June 29 2011 01:14 Ahmose wrote: Boardgames I've always played (excluding RPGs, because some people use grids) are
Risk
Fuck this game. Oh sure, it's fun for the first few turns. You formulate a strategy. You watch 2 people clash over tiny ass Australia. Then 2 people decide "hey, we're not completely in each others way, let's ally." And then the game goes straight downhill. Gdamn alliances.
On June 29 2011 00:52 ManicMarine wrote: Yeah my problem is that my friends just aren't interested in sitting down to play a board game for 5 hours. I would love to get a game of Risk going: I own a board but have never actually played a proper game because no-one wants to play with me
Feels bad man.
A decent amount of the listed games (and similar ones) take no longer than an hour or 90 minutes of playtime.
On June 29 2011 01:03 chomsky wrote: Some (most) of those games look incredibly complicated. Don't you get bored of playing a game that requires so much setup? I'm a Scrabble guy myself
There are plenty of these kinds of games that don't take a tremendous amount of setup time. Carcassone from the OP would be a good example of a game that takes almost no setup time.
I mean for most video games there is loading time and also the time it takes to find an opponent or even just start up your system and get the game running.
I think often board game setup time is exaggerated, when it's usually less of a hassle than most make it out to be.
I've played most of the games mentioned in the thread here. I hold a weekly, or sometimes twice a week, board game night at my place where we play a lot of these games (anyone in the San Diego area is always welcome to join us)
the games i really enjoy (although usually only once per year since GothCon only happens on easter...) are plenty! Most of them have been mentioned in the thread but i'll list some of my favourites.
Settlers
Nobrainer. It's just the best boardgame out there. Play it with a couple of friends and trade dem resources brah!
Twilight Imperium
For the more advanced board-gamer, a session can take up to 20~ hours. You can win either through sheer warpower, politics or clever use of tech. I recommend it to everyone with some passion!
Svea Rike
For the Swedes. Most of you probably played the computergame back in the 90's, if you liked it, play the boardgame. It's hilarious and the warfare is pretty damn hard. Lots of history in there too so you'll probably learn something aswell!
Ricochet Robot
Requires you to think alot but it's very fun and hectic! You count the minimum steps to bounce your robot across the board to certain symbols. You'll set your brain on fire.
I got into so many games because of weekly DnD meetings at one of the local stores, they had an other building in the same strip mall dedicated to gaming rooms,some for table top games like warhammer etc and they would hold tourneys and different stuff all throughout the week.
This is where I first got into Magic the gathering in the alpha stage.The guy who ran the gamin part turned our dnd group on to it when it first came out so much fun there.
I wonder if a board game/lan cafe would be a viable business model here in Tucson. On that note anyone have such a store in there area?
Would be cool to set up some table top stuff during/after a Arizona lan or something.(any lan actually ^_^)
Edit: Am I invited over next time im in your area semioldguy? Lets get some after event table top gaming going .....so much better than poker imo.
On June 29 2011 00:50 RoosterSamurai wrote: Also, I love Axis & Allies. But good luck getting anyone to play that game... x.x
Wrong side of the pacific We own (and play): Axis & Allies, Axis & Allies Europe, Axis & Allies Pacific, Axis & Allies 50th Anniversary and Axis & Allies Europe 1940, Axis & Allies Pacific 1940 to be combined to ONE BIG: Axis & Allies World (we call it that way^^, with Italy, France, China and ANZAC as playable factions (some though not for 1player)):
Overall - way too many (me and my 4-5 boardgame friends own): Stuff mentioned in this thread: Zombies Munchkin Settlers Risk Carcassone Bang! Citadels (dont play it really, one guy hates it, since everyone bands against him) Dominion Descent (+ shitton of expansions) Memoir '44 A Game of Thrones Hero's Quest (+ 2? expansions - at least the ogre one!) Battlestar Galactica (+Pegasus Talisman (old version & new version) Runebound Chaos in the old world Last Night on Earth Arkham Horror (+ King in Yellow & Dunwich) Twilight Imperium (+ Shattered Empire - THERE'S A NEW ADDON SINCE MAY??? :D) Starcraft: The Boardgame (+ BW)
Others:
World of Warcraft: The Boardgame (+ BC) Doom (basically Descent in the Doom universe - more deadly for the players!) Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring Space Hulk Limited 3rd Edition (fuck yeah!) Android Space Quest (the original/old one) Tide of Iron Mystery of the Abbey Blue Moon City Fury of Dracula Order of the Stick (didnt play that one yet ) Shadows over Camelot (basically the predecessor of BSG) Junta (old & new version) Pandemic Cash & Guns (with the Yakuza expansion)
shitton of other & older stuff I (and probably no one else) dont remember (Elfenroads, Shogun, Fief, Incognito,Civilization ...)
Oh and yeah - we do play Warhammer Fantasy Battles (though everyone owns a 40k army we havent played that in ~5-6 years), and normal P&P RPGs (Warhammer FRPG, Midgard (a German RPG where I know the developers))
Has someone played Horus Heresy or Dungeons & Dragons: Conquest of Nerath? I found pictures (while searching for English names^^) and those look kind of interesting.
On June 29 2011 00:52 ManicMarine wrote: Yeah my problem is that my friends just aren't interested in sitting down to play a board game for 5 hours. I would love to get a game of Risk going: I own a board but have never actually played a proper game because no-one wants to play with me
Feels bad man.
A decent amount of the listed games (and similar ones) take no longer than an hour or 90 minutes of playtime.
On June 29 2011 01:03 chomsky wrote: Some (most) of those games look incredibly complicated. Don't you get bored of playing a game that requires so much setup? I'm a Scrabble guy myself
There are plenty of these kinds of games that don't take a tremendous amount of setup time. Carcassone from the OP would be a good example of a game that takes almost no setup time.
I mean for most video games there is loading time and also the time it takes to find an opponent or even just start up your system and get the game running.
I think often board game setup time is exaggerated, when it's usually less of a hassle than most make it out to be.
I just now 'got' your icon. I have no idea how I never realized this before.
Pandemic Co-Op game where you save the world from the spread of a deadly virus. Multiple difficulty levels, and ample room for house-rules/modification for more or less challenge. Expansion includes pitting one player as the bio-terrorist against the others.
Small World A point-based map-conquest game where no player is eliminated, but simply chooses a new army when his old one is broken, also has several expansions with more races and special abilities. (Small World Underground is an entirely new similar game coming out soon)
Munchkin Create your character and fight monsters while stabbing your friends in the back in a race to level 10. There are several versions of this game including Kuthulu, Vampires, etc, each with pretty funny text.
This thread just reminded me of the boardgame i used to love as a kid but i cant remember the name of it for the life of me, you had hexagon island pieces set up in the middle and every turn a piece of the island would sink and you remove a hexagon piece, the objective was to get your guys off the island onto a boat to safety and you had sea monsters you could control each turn to try and kill/sink the ships of your opponents. Anyone know the name of it? would love to get this again.
On June 29 2011 06:55 hicser wrote: This thread just reminded me of the boardgame i used to love as a kid but i cant remember the name of it for the life of me, you had hexagon island pieces set up in the middle and every turn a piece of the island would sink and you remove a hexagon piece, the objective was to get your guys off the island onto a boat to safety and you had sea monsters you could control each turn to try and kill/sink the ships of your opponents. Anyone know the name of it? would love to get this again.
it's kinda like Risk, but without dice.the map is Europe at 1900, the players represent the "global players" of that time and try to gain control of 50+% of europe. before each turn, there is an extensive phase of players talking with each other, planning attacks, forging alliances, preparing backstabs, etc. during this phase each player notes down orders for each unit, and after that phase all moves are evaluated and executed simultaneously.
it takes quite a long time to finish one game, but it's a lot of fun
Pandemic was just mentioned by "plays" a few posts above, and I would also vouch for this one. Average game length is reasonable at 1 hour or less, and it's a cooperative game. I think it's quite fun.
Twilight Imperium is a ridiculous game. I only had the opportunity to play it once, and it's pretty awesome, but god damn it takes forever.
Your #1 goal in any game of monopoly should be to buy either all 4 railroads or the 3 orange properties, with 3 houses on each.
Reason being, you are more likely to land on an orange property than any other property in the game, between jail, chance, railroads etc. And houses are absurdly cheap on orange, with 3 houses being the sweet spot for the quickest return on your investment (this is true on almost every color group except blue iirc).
Railroads are ALWAYS a safe option and have the fastest return value of any property. If you buy all 4 it only takes someone land on one 4 times until your making big money.
Ignore brown, blue and green properties. For brown, it has one of the lowest exposures on the board and the houses are expensive for their return. For blue and green the houses are way too expensive, and blue is the biggest moneysink in the game.
If you cant get orange, red, maroon and light blue are also good options. I think the order would be Red>Lightbloo>maroon Though if you cant get orange its better to leave it contested than give it to any one person for almost any trade except railroads.
If you get orange and railroads you basically cant lose unless your obscenely unlucky.
An OLD boardgame that you'd probably find only on ebay now... I still have my set from when I was a child. It's very addictive and challenging.
THIS! I just played this game again recently and it is SOOOO fun and addicting. If you can find one of these on Ebay GET IT NOW! Hard to find game but well worth it.
Most all of the games I love to play are already in this thread, and I'm really wanting to get Pandemic as my next acquisition. The only one I have seen that I think is fun to play, and pretty noobie friendly is
Acquire
A pretty fun game of diversifying investments, memory, and screwing over other with insider information on potential mergers. The theme and the gameplay are easy to grasp for those new to gaming.
How does this list not include Diplomacy or Advanced Civilization (Avalon Hill, not Sid Meyers ripping them off) ? Advanced Civ is out of print and hard to find, but it's still one of the best board games ever made, and Diplomacy is one of the most deep strategic games ever made.
At least AntiLegend has heard of Diplomacy, the game of manipulation to the highest degree. You get very very few armies, and have to manipulate the others help you, though no contracts with other players are binding, making intense backstabs, double teams, and sinister play a must.
Axis and Allies is okay, it is a good game, but the inherent unevenness detracts from the gameplay. It's essentially a 3 vs 2 game, making any long game favor the allies as they get 150% the income of the axis, while the axis almost have to knock out one of the opponents before the 2nd turn just to stay on even footing, making it more a game of whether or not the allies can hold out more than an actually deep strategic game.
With Advanced Civ and Diplomacy, even though you are fighting against the other players, you still need help from your enemies in order to win. This dynamic is extremely fun and complex, as you have to weigh how much of a leg up you are giving your enemies versus how much it will help you (or harm you through backstab). You have to keep your friends close, and your enemies closer (and backstab them before they do the same to you)..
I've heard of Diplomacy, and bought a computer game version of it once (that sucked) but never had the chance to play it. I've heard it's really deep with a good group of players though. It would probably be an "advanced" game tho huh? I mean, sign me up, but hard to get players for it.
An OLD boardgame that you'd probably find only on ebay now... I still have my set from when I was a child. It's very addictive and challenging.
ZOMBIES!!!
My childhood <3 I hate my parents because they throwed it away when i moved out -.- Managed to save the models though. Those idiots didn't know that this game is not edited anymore.
Fyrewolf I have played the old Civilization (not Advanced though) and I have to say it's one of the most boring games out there
I also disagree with your A&A statement. Have you played some other versions / starting setups included in those versions? I think there's even one where Japan has more money compared to the US. Thanks to secondary objectives (which yield greater income if fullfilled) But 2nd turn sounds incredible early. Imho too early. Sure there's the occasional scenario when the German Luftwaffe kills every British fleet and Germany is able to invade England in turn 2 - but it doesnt really happen that often and just basically means autowin for the Axis.
I think the real "decision" is with America & Japan, if they want to fight each other or turn east/west respectively. They decide what type of game you have.
Oh might be important - we dont play with research/technologies.
On June 29 2011 05:27 FuDDx wrote: Edit: Am I invited over next time im in your area semioldguy? Lets get some after event table top gaming going .....so much better than poker imo.
Of course! My home is always open for boardgaming. (just bring some magic tricks )
I'm not surprised and I don't imagine too many people do get it, which I am completely okay with. It's mostly for me, the ones who do get it are fellow enthusiasts.
On June 29 2011 07:28 lozarian wrote: I see a few people have the SC board game - is it any good? I've kinda wanted to get it for a while.
I like it a lot. It has a fair amount of complexity and a high-ish learning curve, but once you get a couple games under your belt it's a lot of fun. It plays best with the Broodwar expansion (somehow this shouldn't come as a surprise) but the base game is very good too. The minis are awesome for any Starcraft fan. But be warned that a game does usually last a couple hours, combined with the complexity just be aware of who you are playing the game with when you are first learning the game.
On June 29 2011 06:55 hicser wrote: This thread just reminded me of the boardgame i used to love as a kid but i cant remember the name of it for the life of me, you had hexagon island pieces set up in the middle and every turn a piece of the island would sink and you remove a hexagon piece, the objective was to get your guys off the island onto a boat to safety and you had sea monsters you could control each turn to try and kill/sink the ships of your opponents. Anyone know the name of it? would love to get this again.
Currently, my favorite board game is Puerto Rico and most of the people I play with agree with me. I also enjoy Agricola, Power Grid, El Grande, and Dominion. I used to play a lot of Settlers, but really it's not in depth enough for me anymore, but it is indeed a great starter game.
Also, one of my favorite games to play is called Dixit...it's a very fun game that almost anyone can find enjoyment out of, and it has a ton of replayablitiy. To me it's the king of the "party" games, definitely better than Apples to Apples.
And for the record, Risk + Monopoly are two of the most overrated and overplayed board games of all time. I hate these games with a passion, even though they are somewhat decent.
Does anyone else like that one train game Ticket to Ride?
Holy shit I could play that for hours.
EDIT: Apparently imbc is the only other person in this thread who has had the great fortune to play that game. There's a reason why it won Germany's Game of the Year award. And Germans love their boardgames!
Some games i like that i havent seen mentioned yet, though i might be mistaken, are Shadows Over Camelot and i think its called Stoneage. The first one is hella fun!
edit: Also forgot to add, Taluva! It's a short 10-15 minute 2-4 player game and the board is really pretty!
On June 29 2011 12:18 Empyrean wrote: Does anyone else like that one train game Ticket to Ride?
Holy shit I could play that for hours.
EDIT: Apparently imbc is the only other person in this thread who has had the great fortune to play that game. There's a reason why it won Germany's Game of the Year award. And Germans love their boardgames!
I have heard a lot about it, but never played it. Also, I think there is a pro-scene for it in France.
On June 29 2011 12:18 Empyrean wrote: Does anyone else like that one train game Ticket to Ride?
Holy shit I could play that for hours.
EDIT: Apparently imbc is the only other person in this thread who has had the great fortune to play that game. There's a reason why it won Germany's Game of the Year award. And Germans love their boardgames!
Sadly I find it a bit to easy, we usually have to add handicaps to make it an actual game, otherwise we usually just have 4 people doing their own thing never interacting.
this thread has 1 of the best OP i hv seen so far =))))))
i used to play in board games night in my match faculty... Dominion or Bang are commons but we do play all sort of thing: Shadow hunter, risk, Battle star, blah blah blah... There are hundred of boxes in mathsoc that u can rent out anytime (for free) with ur student ID.
Hey guys, this thread inspired me to mull over the idea of a game night. Let me know what you think, please. Also, sorry TC, don't mean to subtract any attention from this thread if I am.
I'm a HUGE Dominion fan. Super fun gameplay and the Intrigue and Prosperity expansions add a lot of depth to the game. Seaside has some fun cards too, but none of my friends play with Alchemy because it's quite gimmicky.
I also recommend the game Puerto Rico, it's a fun city-building/economic game similar to Settlers of Catan.
Diplomacy is a great game if you have 4-6 hours of free time with 6 of your friends... however don't be surprised if people fight or rage-quit as the game goes on
And Risk of course is always a classic. Playing with secret missions is fun because it encourages players to consider the balance of power and prevents the game from becoming a ridiculously long 1v1 fight. Sort of like this:
Hey guys, this thread inspired me to mull over the idea of a game night. Let me know what you think, please. Also, sorry TC, don't mean to subtract any attention from this thread if I am.
It's an excellent site with a lot of really good boardgames ported for online play, including Carcassonne and many others from the OP and other posts so far.
Some games lose a lot when played not in person but others much less so. Dominion, Carcassonne and Race for the Galaxy would all fall in the latter category in my opinion... although few things are as satisfying as hearing someone swear loudly at a play you just made.
Also check out http://www.f2fgaming.com/ If you want to play the excellent Hammer of the Scots online. Sadly, I couldn't get any of my not-right-here friends to sign up so I've barely done anything with it.
Although one could just jump over to that great resource Board Game Geek (hereafter BGG) A few games I'd like to add that (I think) haven't been mentioned thus far:
A simply outstanding game for up to 6 people. GMT Games always puts out terrific product and they themselves are a terrific company, but Leaping Lemmings is amazing. It has a cute, fun theme: genetically engineered lemming throw themselves off a cliff to gain points for style!
This alone grabs members of my gaming group that would normally shy away from what lies underneath: a clever race-style strategy game that is as surprisingly deep and complex as the rules are exceedingly simple.
For those of you who liked Twilight Imperium and don't mind a really long game, Paths of Glory well deserves its reputation as one of the best WW1 games out there. The rules are extremely complex; be prepared to get it wrong on your first play-through even if you keep the book handy. It is a 2-player only game, but I've never finished a game in under 16 hours of play time. Get the player's guide, available on BGG.
It's a card-driven game, which makes it extremely unpredictable and keeps it fresh. Oh, and the fact that you simply won't play it enough for it to get stale. Gotta go to work sometime, right?
For those unfamiliar with the card-driven game (henceforth CDG) mechanic, you get cards which can be used in a variety of ways to do different things. There are a large number of cards, and you get them in hands, which you must play out in their entirety before you get new ones*. This creates a great deal of variety in the possible action each player can take and fully compensates for the typical "god view" in terms of bluff, feints and daring maneuvers.
*I realize some games can result in not all cards being played, but in these cases, the remaining cards are discarded thus the basic concept holds true.
Another 2 player only game, Washington's War is the recent remake of We The People. It's a card driven game of the American Revolution. For those who played We The People, "remake" might be a deceptive choice of word. "Major Patch" might be better. It's a different game. I've played them both although my copy of We The People, sadly, is now in an unplayable state.
The main thing about Washington's War? A strategic war game that plays in under 2 hours (one you learn the rules). Seriously. How many of you have friends that shy aware from the more "grognard" boardgames, or even boardgames in general because they simply "take too long"? I've even seen that sentiment mentioned in this thread a couple of times.
Under 2 hours for a superb strategic game. 'nuf said. Oh, and set up is fast too.
Before you start writing me off as a GMT fanboy, I present... Nanuk! Despite my rabid obsession with GURPS, I think that Steve Jackson Games is very hit-or-miss with their tabletop board and card games. In my opinion, Nanuk is an absolute hit. Easy to play, easier to learn, clever and *fast* makes it a brilliant filler game for any game night.
At its heart, Nanuk is a betting and bidding game. You've got to assess what cards you need, what cards are available and whether a given bid is reasonable or not (depending on what you want)... and what the rest of the table will think as well.
Gather sets of cards! Argue about whether that's a heron or a phoenix! Yell DOOM!! a lot!
It's great fun. By the way, despite the face that the rules state up to 8 players, I've played it with up to 11 and had no reduction in fun... you just may need to house rule that the person in the middle of the clump that didn't get to bid last round starts the bidding.
This is hands-down my favourite game that I've ever played. If you organize your pieces well, set-up is fast but the game can take a while. It's a Block Game of Rommel's North African campaign and it's brilliant. Feint, deception and sheer nerve are critical. Battles are rarely conclusive and are almost always a means to tie up enemy troops or to present a threat that has to be dealt with. You've got to think ahead. Every move is critical and nearly every game is really close. Rarely is the game over until the last turn is played.
For those unfamiliar with the Block Game type, well, it's like Stratego. Your pieces are on wooden blocks and are deployed facing you so your opponents may know the number of units you have but not the type or their strength, creating a type of fog of war.
Below I've got a few pictures of my games in case anyone wants an opinion on a specific game, or further thoughts on the above-mentioned games. I am aware that "cursory" barely begins to do justice to the lack of real information given above. I've never liked the typical categories of "Euro" and "Grognard" etc. so I've taken the liberty to assigning them to groups as I do when introducing them to the people who come to my game nights.
Party Games: These are games that are simple to learn and play, can be played with lots of (read: at least 4) people and are either fairly fast or can be interrupted easily. Simple does not equate to easy, incidentally.
Casual Games: These are games that are a little more complicated to learn and play but are generally gentle on the new guy. Some (Pandemic) are cooperative; none should really leave anyone feeling abused or upset unless you have a particularly sensitive group or a particularly nasty group.
Competitive Games: These games are cut-throat. Whereas in Casual Games you are competing with one another (again, Pandemic being the exception), in these games you are out to beat the crap out of each other. Some people, and I imagine Starcraft players would fit this mould, don't mind being the new guy in these games. Some people do, especially if they are new to board games.
2-player Games: These games are all specifically 2-player only. Most of them are Competitive Games. Most of them are Really Really Competitive Games. 2-player games tend to be that way.
HeroQuest was SO GOOD!! I really loved playing that. Sadly I never owned it myself Settlers of Catan and it's expansions were fun for a couple of years but have been gathering dust for some years now. Haven't played it in ages. Puerto Rico is always a fun game to play and doesn't last to long so it can be played fairly easy in between. Munchkin is just really funny. Have a few beers with it and it becomes even more fun Diplomacy I just can't understand how some people say they finished a game in 4 hours. Some of our games lasted a whole weekend and almost all at least a whole saturday. Twilight Imperium always looked very interesting to me but sadly I have never had the pleasure to actually play it sofar.
A game of Thrones is for me the ultimate game. I enjoy it every time I play and there are so many different possibilities it never bores me. I have the original, both official expansions (Clash of kings, Storm of swords) and the fan made 9 player expansion Feast of crows that can be downloaded here
Lately I haven't played that much unfortunately but with summer rolling in perhaps it's time to put some serious effort into playing more and hopefully come up with a new great D&D quest to revive our group.
On June 29 2011 12:18 Empyrean wrote: Does anyone else like that one train game Ticket to Ride?
Holy shit I could play that for hours.
EDIT: Apparently imbc is the only other person in this thread who has had the great fortune to play that game. There's a reason why it won Germany's Game of the Year award. And Germans love their boardgames!
Ticket to Ride is indeed a very fun game. Not to serious or difficult. Great to play as a casual game with friends or family. It's also very easy to explain and serves a great purpose in luring new people into the world of tabletop gaming
I like Settlers of Catan a lot, been playing with many of my friends in the last 2 years (since i discovered it). It's really fun and i like it because it's duration is decent (should finish in 1h max 1.5h). Beside i really think of it as being competitive (and we even keep score), none of the other games i played (not many) gave me the feeling.
On June 29 2011 12:18 Empyrean wrote: Does anyone else like that one train game Ticket to Ride?
Holy shit I could play that for hours.
EDIT: Apparently imbc is the only other person in this thread who has had the great fortune to play that game. There's a reason why it won Germany's Game of the Year award. And Germans love their boardgames!
I've played quite a lot of Ticket to Ride. We have an edition that takes place in Germany (also includes passangers, which is a additional way to get points). I like the game but I think the more you are playing (5 people is max) the more fun it gets. 2-3 is not enough, 4 is borderline and 5 is great!
Sadly, in the edition we're playing the long north/south missions are worth so many points that it's almost never a good idea to go for many short missions. Also, having a railway north/south in the Germany-version, you are very well set to make a few last round mission picks that will be already done due to your extensive spread. Since we're almost always the same group playing, everybody knows this tactics wins 9/10 times and everybody is fighting over those critical lines that you need to complete north/south. I think we've broken the game for ourselves but i still enjoy the hell out of it.
Other games I enjoy alot: Settlers of Catan Bonanza Spank the Monkey+Cash is Kong (though we rarely finish since it takes forever with 4+ players). Munchkin & Munckin the Boardgame Factory Fun - Awesome game and my favorite atm. Citadels
Oh, there are a few more but I forget...right now it's mostly Munchkin the Boardgame and Factory Fun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Crusade German version was named "Star Quest", probably to relate it to Hero's Quest (which we played too as kids) - Apart from the gamemaster there can be 3 players - Squads of Commander + 4 Marines (Red, Yellow or Blue). - Each marine can be equiped with a different weapon: Plasma (railgun like), Assault (rifle) or Missile Launcher (Main target dmg + less damage on all adjacent) - Commander has his own set of weapons to choose: Axe+Pistol (balanced), Power Sword+Power Glove (Yes, it's called power glove, full out melee carnage) or Bolter gun (ranged) - Each Unit can "Move" once and "Fire" once per turn - Equipment Cards: 4 general ones each color can choose and 3 unique ones for each Squad, range from permanent buffs (e.g.: heavy weapons don't restraining your movement, +melee power for the commander) or usable things (grenades, medikit, bio scanner, ...) - Order Cards: 6 overall, each squad can only choose from 4 of those. Things like 2x "Move", 2x "Fire", etc. - Enemies range form yout general Grunts with a weapon up to Dreadnoughts which are mechs using a 2x2 field to stand, equipped with 2-3(4?) weapons at the same time.
I'm a mac user and I googled "dominion official mac version" just to find that one of the search results on the first page linked to a weaki about Starcraft 2 lol. I've played a game of player vs player online already after seeing this thread. Any idea where I can get a version for mac to please me until the game arrives?
Man, there needs to be more classic board games online to play with friends. I'd love to try Twilight Imperium but no one in my regular gaming group would go for that kind of game.
i host a boardgame gathering in hk and play every week. I have been doing a lot of heavy games like agricola, le havre, brass and tichu. I have been quite active on BSW since 2000 too. but it is a little bit disappointing that it seems that there is not much fun games this year. for instance, arc 2 of race for the galaxy doesnt look good.
perhaps we should have a BSW player list for TLers so that we can play against each other ?
and day9 is a boardgame fan, i guess. i would love to play him one day
I love playing boardgames. You can find me at www.brettspielwelt.de (BSW) as blubshizzle
I really like to play Imperial and Puerto rico. Since imperial has not been mentioned i'll post some pics.
"Old" Imperial
Imperial 2030
There is an old Imperial(europe) and Imperial 2030(world). Both are very well playable but hard to figure out at first. The game is more of an investor game then a war game but you need a little bit of both to win. For 2-6 players but i think 3/4 is the best. IMO this might be one of the best investor/war combo game out there atm.
On June 29 2011 04:53 semioldguy wrote: I've played most of the games mentioned in the thread here. I hold a weekly, or sometimes twice a week, board game night at my place where we play a lot of these games (anyone in the San Diego area is always welcome to join us)
Total new system - much faster - more compact - more dessitions (4-6 hrs instead of 14) Only 4 player max now !!!! But simply best new boardgame since agricula.
Dominion is addictiiiiiive. We have all the expansions between us, and I generally force myself not to play because my housemates and I have lost many an evening to it. There'sa couple of degenerative cards but the fact that the deck changes each game is brilliant.
Total new system - much faster - more compact - more dessitions (4-6 hrs instead of 14) Only 4 player max now !!!! But simply best new boardgame since agricula.
I've had this since christmas (so it's not super new ) and it really isn't 4-6 hours once you get the hang of it. Our first play through took like 8 hours but now when people know what to do, what does what we can easily do it in 2-3h It does have a very clear time limit in the tech victory you simply can't hop around forever or someone will get that one, aswell as the tech scales so ridiculously that once you reach tier 3/4 defending a capital becomes really really hard.
Oh M fucking G where is Risk? EVeryone knows the most intense game with 8 people playing, lasts 4-5 hours and is exciting till the last move is Risk (only sucks if you have below 5 players)
On June 29 2011 12:18 Empyrean wrote: Does anyone else like that one train game Ticket to Ride?
Holy shit I could play that for hours.
EDIT: Apparently imbc is the only other person in this thread who has had the great fortune to play that game. There's a reason why it won Germany's Game of the Year award. And Germans love their boardgames!
family got it like last christmas..
I played a bunch of games and developed some strategies where I just crushed them like 6 games in a row then I quit when everyone started adopting the same strategies.
All in all it depends a lot on the starting cards you pick up which kinda sucks and its pretty hard to screw people once you know what all of the destination cards are without max people anyway
On June 30 2011 01:22 Mykill wrote: Do not play Apples to Apples unless you wish to see how bad the common sense of your friends may be when it comes to deciding categories.
Bang! is a great game, so is bananagrams. Catan is obviously good and so is Acension:godspell something like that...
Whenever I play that game I try to go with the funniest/absurd answers so at least I can get some laughs out of it.
It's really all about knowing the people you're playing with though. If you know how they choose their cards then you can cater to that (although you do need good hands half the time and people who actually KNOW people on the cards).
I tend to do well against adults when I know the people but when you start to throw in kids like my siblings are it just becomes a randomfest which is no fun
I would like your opinion on Dominion and the expansion that you have if you won't mind. Nice collection
I actually own all the expansions, except for Cornucopia, the newest one. I really enjoy it and it's been one of my favorites. The first night I brought it home my roommates and I played it until dawn the next day, and only stopped because we had to go to work. You'll have to start with the base set or Intrigue, and I'd personally recommend the Original set. Intirgue has a few cards I don't really like. Seaside is the pictured expansion, which I like a lot (each of the expansion adds a new element/theme to the game) though I think Prosperity is probably adds the most to the base game. I'd stay away from Alchemy, it's a little odd and the mechanics are parasitic.
Regardless if you haven't played the base game should do you wonders for a while and you can look at expansions after. I would definitely recommend picking it up though. It's been popular with both gamers and non-gamers in my experience.
I actually think having too many expansions makes the setup too fiddly (which is why I only keep two boxes in the main closet). Having to take out and get cards from 4+ boxes each time you want to set up a new game feels too fiddly for me. Two sets for me offer a nice variety of potential strategies without the hassle of shuffling around boxes.
On June 29 2011 12:18 Empyrean wrote: Does anyone else like that one train game Ticket to Ride?
Holy shit I could play that for hours.
EDIT: Apparently imbc is the only other person in this thread who has had the great fortune to play that game. There's a reason why it won Germany's Game of the Year award. And Germans love their boardgames!
I enjoy TTR quite a lot, though I would rather play some of the edition other than the original. TTR: Europe/Nordic Countries/Marklin each add some more elements to the game that make it more interesting to me and my group once you get the base game down. I'd say they are well worth looking into if you enjoy Ticket to Ride.
@Picklesicle Thanks. Also as an owner of both the first and third editions of Space Hulk, what do you like about each over the other? I've been wanting to play that game for so long though I know noone who owns it that I'd be able to try it for myself. It's also pricey and two players is not a number I often have (we usually have more) which means my two player games get tot he table less often, and Twilight Struggle tends to be the go to 2-player game of choice.
Back in the day, whenever me and my friends got together outside of school we would always start a risk game at some point in the night. Start being the key word. Out of the dozens of games played, I don't think we ever finished one XD It just takes so damn long!
I'm owning the shit out of those two and they're damn good. SC takes a lot of space (as in, the board can get huge) and time but is great. The thing I like the most there is the fact that strategies from the computer game work just as well there (reaver drops, mutaling etc.). AoC is faster and simpler but has outstanding immersion and atmosphere.
Risk 2210, take risk, add in a bit of magic the gathering, with a 5 turns per player cap = WIN! It's by far the best of all the risk variants I've tried. It's my favourite board game thus far.
Warcraft 3 = Awesome board game, 30-45mins a game, great fun, especially for folks who aren't really into board games, since if they get rolled, the waiting time isnt bad.
On June 30 2011 08:18 semioldguy wrote: I actually own all the expansions, except for Cornucopia, the newest one. I really enjoy it and it's been one of my favorites. The first night I brought it home my roommates and I played it until dawn the next day, and only stopped because we had to go to work. You'll have to start with the base set or Intrigue, and I'd personally recommend the Original set. Intirgue has a few cards I don't really like. Seaside is the pictured expansion, which I like a lot (each of the expansion adds a new element/theme to the game) though I think Prosperity is probably adds the most to the base game. I'd stay away from Alchemy, it's a little odd and the mechanics are parasitic.
I wish I had friends that were that into boardgames or gaming in general. I occasionally get to play a game or two (maybe once every two weeks), and most of the time it's a simple, short one.
On June 30 2011 08:18 semioldguy wrote: I actually own all the expansions, except for Cornucopia, the newest one. I really enjoy it and it's been one of my favorites. The first night I brought it home my roommates and I played it until dawn the next day, and only stopped because we had to go to work. You'll have to start with the base set or Intrigue, and I'd personally recommend the Original set. Intirgue has a few cards I don't really like. Seaside is the pictured expansion, which I like a lot (each of the expansion adds a new element/theme to the game) though I think Prosperity is probably adds the most to the base game. I'd stay away from Alchemy, it's a little odd and the mechanics are parasitic.
I wish I had friends that were that into boardgames or gaming in general. I occasionally get to play a game or two (maybe once every two weeks), and most of the time it's a simple, short one.
It's not that hard to get people into boardgames. FFG is realeasing some really cool ones that might appeal to a broader audience as well as complete nerds: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/
Hardest, most awesome boardgame ever. Last week we played a 2v2, took us something like 8 h to finish it! It´s an absolutly insane brain teaser. Gotta love it!
On July 01 2011 06:11 Zhou wrote: Hmm... if one has a limited disposable income, which dominions expansions would one get if he got the base dominions, and then one or two others? :S
I don't know everything there is too know about Dominion but from what i hear:
Intrigue is good Seaside is good Prosperity is amazing Alchemy is horrible
I only have the base set and Intrigue so i really can't speak from experience but the general opinion seems to be that you should get whatever you like just not Alchemy.
Haven't heard much about the new Capricopia set so can't say anything about that one either.
I've played Puerto Rico a couple of times, a great game. I gave my mother a game of Carcasonne for christmas so we play that when I visit them. While I enjoy Risk on occasions, it's really a very basic game, the dies plays too large a role in your success and and many of the moves are programmed choices. The skillcap is really low so to speak.
A good game that hasn't been mentioned yet:
You buy and sell art through auctions held in different fashions, and through tactitionary the paintings from the different artists increase or decrease in value. You can play it in a myriad of different ways, plainly sell art and make your fortune that way, or speculate in ruining the other peoples efforts and so on. It's a bit like Puerto Rico in that there is no wrong strategy, only poor execution of it.
Alchemy is good but the problem is most people don't read the alchemy rules that suggest that at least 3 kingdom cards are alchemy if you are playing with alchemy.
Once our playgroup implemented that suggestion from the alchemy rules the alchemy cards started being used a lot more.
I guess the main problem with alchemy is the fact the cards complement themselves more than other sets so it is a set in a bottle. Which makes it poor. But it is enjoyable when it works.
I really like Cornucopia though a lot of the cards work great through the whole mix of cards.
FWIW I rather liked Alchemy as well BUT only if the persons playing know the set, and agree to only add Alchemy and no other expansions. I have all expansions released in Dutch (Cornucopia is not yet released over here, no date yet....).
My wife and I usually play a totally random draw, and we have put all expansions in the base box (it fits! really!), so we get the craziest combinations. I'm still amazed that every combination of 10 cards seems to work really well.
If you like Dominion, but are not afraid of something a bit more tactical, you should also try out Race for the Galaxy and expansions. Start with the base game and be sure to give it some time -- the rules are not the simplest, but boy is it worth it. One of the most strategic 30 minute 2-player games I've ever played, and it's still a game I can play at any time. In fact you could try it out by using the excellent AI here, although you should be prepared to lose a lot....
Chess: The Classic. Probably the game I'm best at of all games. (Usually around 1400 on ELO-rated sites.) The only game that compares is Go, though I've not played enough to be anything better than awful at it.
Diplomacy: Hectic, infuriating, and brilliant. If I had six other people to play with, I'd play a game every weekend (if you're anywhere near Alexandria, VA and want to get a game going, let me know, lol).
Risk: My first game after Chess. I'm the [NC]..YellOw of Risk, racking up a huge number of 2nd place finishes with only a few wins. (I'm the guy who jumps first in the end-game showdown, which is a sure way to lose.)
Other Games I Play:
Really, if it has a board and rules, I'm in. A few that I've played and played well:
Settlers of Catan: IMO it's better without the massive number of expansions that have been added on, since those really tend to introduce more of a luck element.
Pente: Starting in high school, a friend and I played a massive number of games which I believe now stands at 73-71 in his favor. We basically worked out the whole opening theory of the game by practice - although I've now forgotten it. It's a great game for everyone - simple enough to play that a 6 year old can be pretty good intuitively, but enough potential for fairly high-level play to possible.
One Game I Hate:
Stratego: I'm not saying it's a bad game, necessarily, but I have never won a game of Stratego in my life. I even managed to lose to a (now ex) girlfriend who doesn't play strategy games.
On June 30 2011 08:18 semioldguy wrote: @Picklesicle Thanks. Also as an owner of both the first and third editions of Space Hulk, what do you like about each over the other? I've been wanting to play that game for so long though I know noone who owns it that I'd be able to try it for myself. It's also pricey and two players is not a number I often have (we usually have more) which means my two player games get tot he table less often, and Twilight Struggle tends to be the go to 2-player game of choice.
We played the new (3rd ed.) Space Hulk with 3 players - 2 controlled one squad each, while the last one controlled the Tyrannids. It was quite fun (similiar to Descent, Doom, Hero Quest, Space Quest, ...) We also played a custom (selfmade) scenario since we have everything except the miniatures twice (ebay yeah!).
But I agree with you that 2player games are "stupid". We have 5-6 players most of the time so that even 4player games cannot played in a good way
On June 29 2011 15:17 Picklesicle wrote: Casual Games: <image of Race for the Galaxy> Competitive Games: <image of Dominion>
Are you seriously suggesting RftG as a casual game instead of a competitive one, and Dominion vice versa? That's funny, I always thought of them as the other way around. Guess it depends a lot on your gaming group?
Most people I try to introduce either one to are enchanted by Dominion and put off by RftG; especially if they see that it's easy to learn the basic rules of Dominion and be a bit competitive, while it's almost a necessity to have played the game a lot to win from a strong RftG player.
Other than that, great post -- now I need to find that Lemmings game over here somewhere
On June 29 2011 15:17 Picklesicle wrote: Casual Games: <image of Race for the Galaxy> Competitive Games: <image of Dominion>
Are you seriously suggesting RftG as a casual game instead of a competitive one, and Dominion vice versa? That's funny, I always thought of them as the other way around. Guess it depends a lot on your gaming group?
Most people I try to introduce either one to are enchanted by Dominion and put off by RftG; especially if they see that it's easy to learn the basic rules of Dominion and be a bit competitive, while it's almost a necessity to have played the game a lot to win from a strong RftG player.
Other than that, great post -- now I need to find that Lemmings game over here somewhere
Your point is well-made and taken. I wasn't very explicit in this, but naturally, you are correct, my made-up-on-my-own categories are rather... subjective (other than 2-player games, for obvious reasons).
To my mind and most of my group, while you may lose a bunch at RftG, you're rarely getting directly attacked in-game. Even if you have the expansion pack that allows for military takeovers, they don't come in to play that often and I never ever start anyone off with anything more than the basic set and maybe The Gathering Storm and you always feel like you are getting somewhere; even if you're quickly falling behind that player who has been allowed to get his Consume-Produce machine going you're still playing along, happily putting down cards.
I find that the biggest hurdle with Race is the just learning to read the cards. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the Player Aids that come in the box have this awkward position of being too confusing for a new player and unnecessary for a seasoned player.
Dominion, if you use one of the pre-fab sets, has been fine for us but if you draw a set with some of the more vicious attack cards... although I can have seen new players have a great time throwing down Thief after Torturer after Swindler with no hope of winning but gleefully watching everyone else squirm.
But yes, those two could very easily switch. I didn't mean to imply that Dominion was inaccessible, absolutely not. Dominion is a fantastic game with which to introduce people to the wonderful world of tabletop games, and an excellent game in its own right. Just don't put Chapel out on their first game.
Hum dont know if it´s mentioned (went through the thread quickly) I am not even sure if you can call it a boardgame but i feel it should be mentioned in here.
Im talking about "World in Flames" by Australian Design Group It´s a epic ww2 game that can take from 20 hours to 200 hours to finish.
On June 30 2011 00:23 blubshizzle wrote: I love playing boardgames. You can find me at www.brettspielwelt.de (BSW) as blubshizzle
I really like to play Imperial and Puerto rico. Since imperial has not been mentioned i'll post some pics.
"Old" Imperial
Imperial 2030
There is an old Imperial(europe) and Imperial 2030(world). Both are very well playable but hard to figure out at first. The game is more of an investor game then a war game but you need a little bit of both to win. For 2-6 players but i think 3/4 is the best. IMO this might be one of the best investor/war combo game out there atm.
Imperial is an amazing game. I though would highly advise playing with modified rules. The way the game is set up doesn't allow for a lot of investment choices but you can just allow everyone to invest in countries after their turns, making for much more interesting gameplay.
On June 29 2011 12:18 Empyrean wrote: Does anyone else like that one train game Ticket to Ride?
Holy shit I could play that for hours.
EDIT: Apparently imbc is the only other person in this thread who has had the great fortune to play that game. There's a reason why it won Germany's Game of the Year award. And Germans love their boardgames!
I got this game yo! My wife loves it! We play a lot with a friends. I prefer the European version, but my wife like the US version best. A great game either way, but I like the balance and slightly added depth of the European version a little more.
On July 01 2011 09:48 Loss wrote: Hum dont know if it´s mentioned (went through the thread quickly) I am not even sure if you can call it a boardgame but i feel it should be mentioned in here.
Im talking about "World in Flames" by Australian Design Group It´s a epic ww2 game that can take from 20 hours to 200 hours to finish.
@Picklesicle Thanks. Also as an owner of both the first and third editions of Space Hulk, what do you like about each over the other? I've been wanting to play that game for so long though I know noone who owns it that I'd be able to try it for myself. It's also pricey and two players is not a number I often have (we usually have more) which means my two player games get tot he table less often, and Twilight Struggle tends to be the go to 2-player game of choice.
Well, I'm actually going to preface by saying that if I could, I would likely trade one of my Space Hulk sets for Twilight Struggle. I am watching the GMT posts like a hawk for when they reprint it.
Your post implies you haven't played the game, period, so I'll give a brief overview. You have a map, built to specifications laid out by the scenario. You have deployment of marines and genestealers. Marine squads are always outnumbered by genestealers but have the advantage of ranged weaponry and being strong when in a defensive posture. Genestealers move very fast and excel at beating the crap out of marines in melee. An element of the unknown is added to the marine side in that Genestealers can be moved around as "blips", representing an [to the marine player] unknown number of genestealers.
Typically, missions in which the marines must go on the offensive are genestealer-favored. Conversely, missions in which the marines are on the defensive are generally marine-favored.
The game is played in turns, one side and then the other. Actions are carried out by spending Action Points (APs), and every unit has the potential to be moved, but each unit has to take all its movement at once; you cannot bounce back and forth between units. Marines can, with some preparation, even take [limited] actions on the genestealer turn in response to specific genestealer actions.
Scenario objectives are usually pretty clear and the game plays fast. You may get a couple of subtleties wrong on your first game or two but they are rarely game-breaking. Most scenarios even play so fast it is usually reasonable to be able to get in 2 games, so that each player gets a chance to play both sides.
Set up is not so fast. Make sure you have plenty of space and work together (or ahead) to set up. Typically this means that you'll often end up playing many of the same scenarios because they're familiar which means faster set up.
Between the editions, I'll give mention to the fact that the pieces in the new edition are beyond gorgeous... almost too beautiful. If I'm going to bring a set of Space Hulk to anywhere other than my own game table I'll always bring the older set which has pieces that while not nearly as pretty are, quite frankly, far more practical and I am far less likely to lose tiny pieces or be terrified that my pieces are going to break in transit.
As for gameplay, the rules really haven't changed that much and the changes themselves are mixed. Without going into specifics, I'll say that I think that the rules pretty much hit a solid point with at the Second Edition (Revised) stage some 13+ years ago. The new rules add very little, primarily affecting the mechanics and tweaking the probabilities of Marine actions. The main exception is the new Flamer Rule, which, honestly, is stupid and poorly conceived OR badly written. Either way, not good.
Otherwise, really the main difference is that while you can play all the old pre-fab missions with the new set (although you'll need access to the write-ups; not hard in the Digital Age), you can't easily play the new missions with the old set. Not can't play, just can't easily play. And let me tell you, there are lots of new missions and they rock. Mission building (like map-making in SC!) is a huge part of the Space Hulk community, and although I have done any in over 15 years, it is fun. But regardless, the in-the-box missions are numerous and generally well-designed.
It occurs to me that I have rather failed to actually answer your question as asked... I do apologize. More to the point, then: The second edition has more practical pieces, but because the piece selection is slightly smaller, many of the missions may seem similar. This is really not an issue because unless you're going to commit a week to playing through every mission in order in one sitting you're likely never ever going to notice, and even if you do, there are enough differences in the maps that it is just fine.
The third edition is, basically, a "collector's edition". It's gorgeous. The new pieces are brilliant additions: simple, to the point and they add something that wasn't there but doesn't feel out of place. The new missions utilize them well. The new rules are geared towards making play go faster, but not much beyond that. The genestealer blips are now worth 1, 2 or 3 genestealers as opposed to 0 - 6 genestealers. This may seem like a massive difference but it really isn't as big a deal as one might think on most maps.
If you want, the BGG marketplace has a copy of the old Space Hulk up for $50 now. BGG Space Hulk 1989 link.
Sorry for the rambling post, I hope somewhere in there is the information you were looking for.
Really quality thread, will definitely be checking back in the future.
My friends and I play a ton of catan, though we usually favor playing with the cities and knights expansion, just because of the extra level of complexity it adds. And while I haven't played much recently, I love a good game of chess.
On June 30 2011 08:18 semioldguy wrote: @Picklesicle Thanks. Also as an owner of both the first and third editions of Space Hulk, what do you like about each over the other? I've been wanting to play that game for so long though I know noone who owns it that I'd be able to try it for myself. It's also pricey and two players is not a number I often have (we usually have more) which means my two player games get tot he table less often, and Twilight Struggle tends to be the go to 2-player game of choice.
We played the new (3rd ed.) Space Hulk with 3 players - 2 controlled one squad each, while the last one controlled the Tyrannids. It was quite fun (similiar to Descent, Doom, Hero Quest, Space Quest, ...) We also played a custom (selfmade) scenario since we have everything except the miniatures twice (ebay yeah!).
But I agree with you that 2player games are "stupid". We have 5-6 players most of the time so that even 4player games cannot played in a good way
Yeah, we've done before, too, usually with either Cleanse and Burn or that one mission where one squad has to get the CAT to the other squad. Yeah. That one.
I also always have more than 2 people at my game nights, typically ranging from 5 to as many as 15. Sometimes we split into smaller groups but most often, 2 player games are played when something is specifically set up or when I'm just sitting around with another friend originally for reasons other than board games. I play as often as my schedule will allow (not that often), and I tend to focus heavily on 2-player games outside my game nights, specifically Hammer of the Scots, Rommel in the Desert, Washington's War and Hannibal.
5-6 is a tricky number. There are some excellent games out there for 5-6 players, like Leaping Lemmings!! I can't emphasize how much I love that game. One that I actually have yet to see mentioned is Illuminati. While it bogs down to an absolute crawl at 7, I think it plays its best in the 4-6 range. BGG Illuminati link.
I've lent my copy out and need to get it back, actually...
Hacker is in a similar vein and of course, there's always Wizard Kings. I have a lot to say about Wizard Kings, but I'm not to subject anyone to that unsolicited.
But I do agree that the selection of games for more than 4 players can be a bit thin, at least if you want some variety in style of game.
On July 01 2011 09:48 Loss wrote: Hum dont know if it´s mentioned (went through the thread quickly) I am not even sure if you can call it a boardgame but i feel it should be mentioned in here.
Im talking about "World in Flames" by Australian Design Group It´s a epic ww2 game that can take from 20 hours to 200 hours to finish.
On July 01 2011 06:52 Kamuy wrote: I love settlers of catan. Does anyone know a good free platform to play this online? All the ones ive seen are pay sites.
Try this, although it only gives you access to the basic game with a free account.
Great thread. +1 to Carcassonne, and and obligatory +1 to chess.
I'm more a fan of abstract strategy games myself... Lately I've been enjoying the crap out of Hive and Abalone, as well as Pentago. One of these days I'll memorize the characters on Shogi pieces and learn to play that too, it looks like it could be really awesome once you're good (and have a good opponent). Edit: and to each their own, but I like 2 player games much better. Probably just a result of rarely finding myself in situations where several people all have a few hours to play a game with me...
Do the cards get as much wear and tear as I've heard? If so, should I buy card sleeves and what size?
Also, I found this Dominion server! http://dominion.isotropic.org/ This randomizes between all the expansions and the base set. The bottom Require Card(s): doesn't seem to function properly but its still a very good server using the beta version of the game for artwork!
Another question:
Is Peddler from Prosperity OP? In every game its in that I've played on isotropic everyone has to rush for it or be left in the dust. It seems to be practically 4 cards in one.
And yes the cards do get wear and tear, ESPECIALLY copper/silver/estates and such.
About peddler: it's pretty good I guess, I havnt used it so much so cant really comment. Anyway if you want to talk about OP cards, Chapel (trash up to 4 cards) is the single best card in the game, without a doubt. You can build such OP hands with it.
Originally a swedish boardgame from 1985. You take the role of a hero who is to venture into "Drakborgen" (The Dragon Fortress/Dungeon/Lair/Keep or whatever...) to find treasure and then to get out. The hero who has the most treasure and got out alive is the winner.
This game is pretty hilarious. If you've played Rogue games like Angband or Nethack, this is it in boardgame format. The game really plays against you, many times the game doesn't even have a winner since everyone just dies. You can get stuff like "The Following Shadow" as soon as turn 1, which forces you to roll a d12 at the start of your turn, roll a 1 and it's gameover for you, or how about "Fang Crawler", encounter it and you get poisoned which deals one point of damage each turn, a pretty good amount of hp in this game is 12, most heroes have less than that. Very few heroes have the ability to heal and those who do can usually only heal one point once during the game, or skip their turn for one point of health.
I like it because you can abuse rules and abilities all you want, the chance of winning is so low it's ridiculous. You can technically win easy by picking up any treasure at all and leave immediately, because your opponents will most likely die you have a high chance of winning, but where's the fun in that
The translated english version is called Dungeonquest. There are remakes of this made past the year 2000, but they are dumbed down and not as much fun in my opinion.
Does anyone remember dominoes? Well, I play Triominos! It uses triangle shaped pieces instead, it's actually a lot of fun. I'll update this post later, I'm on my iPod at the moment.
I played Settlers a few times and got owned hard. Just too luck-based*. ._. It's a fun game when everybody is drunk, but against people who count the number of resources you have, and therefore deny trading...
There was one game, where the only numbers that wouldn't get me resources were 2, 6 and 12. The dice went like this: 6 6 2 (me) 7 7 12 (me) 7 2 6 (me) ... I counted. I didn't get anything for 12 rounds. I'm still bitter about this game, as you might notice.
On July 01 2011 11:26 Iranon wrote: Great thread. +1 to Carcassonne, and and obligatory +1 to chess.
I'm more a fan of abstract strategy games myself... Lately I've been enjoying the crap out of Hive and Abalone, as well as Pentago. One of these days I'll memorize the characters on Shogi pieces and learn to play that too, it looks like it could be really awesome once you're good (and have a good opponent). Edit: and to each their own, but I like 2 player games much better. Probably just a result of rarely finding myself in situations where several people all have a few hours to play a game with me...
I just got my hands on Abalone myself, and with some of the variant set-ups suggested to me, it's been good!
Potentially funny story: I borrowed Abalone from a colleague of mine in exchange for Hammer of the Scots and Iluminati. He's a Go player and I'm a former chess player so we were chatting about games at a gig and he started talking about this game "abalone". I stopped and stared at him and said, what, like the shellfish? He didn't know what I was talking about, till eventually he just went out to his car and got the game (it was in his trunk) and handed it to me. I was so confused as to why an abstract territory-control game would be named after a shellfish till I read the box and realized I was operating in the wrong language. Heh.
I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on Hive. I have the basic set with no expansion pieces and while I enjoy it (and it is very good for taking on picnics, camping trips etc. along with Army of Frogs), after some 30-40 games I've rather come to the conclusion that the first player, which for traditions' sake we'll call "White", has a significant advantage over the second player, which for traditions' sake we'll call "Black". In fact, it seems that assuming White doesn't blunder, the best Black can do is play for a draw. I'm happy to be wrong on this matter; after all, this same [utterly fallacious] thought prevailed in chess for decades if not more and was taught to aspiring chess players as recently as 20 years ago (including myself). But it does seem that that initial tempo advantage carries a tremendous amount of weight.
I was broken of my misguided training when some 20+ years ago when I was playing in my first tournament past my Novice tourney and I was utterly crushed by Stanley Ong in 17 moves. French Defense. It was my second game of the tournament and I was so shocked that I lost as white that I just sat there and stared at the board till the officials ushered me away. In truth, I played badly, but regardless, the lesson was learned even if from an inconclusive game.
On July 01 2011 21:27 3FFA wrote: Thanks for the quick review of Dominion.
Do the cards get as much wear and tear as I've heard? If so, should I buy card sleeves and what size?
Also, I found this Dominion server! http://dominion.isotropic.org/ This randomizes between all the expansions and the base set. The bottom Require Card(s): doesn't seem to function properly but its still a very good server using the beta version of the game for artwork!
Another question:
Is Peddler from Prosperity OP? In every game its in that I've played on isotropic everyone has to rush for it or be left in the dust. It seems to be practically 4 cards in one.
Thanks for any responses
If you're just looking for a card selector to play the game on a tabletop, I use this. But to play the game online, I really stand by BSW, which a few other people have also given credit to and even how to contact them on said site.
As has already been answered, yes the cards do get a lot of wear and tear, but I would recommend against card sleeves as it makes storing them in the handy slots provided more difficult. The cards are of a high quality and will stand up for a good bit of abuse, never fear. I've had my base set and Intrigue for some 2+ years now, playing on average 8 games a month with them and they are still just fine.
On July 01 2011 22:36 ChrisXIV wrote: I played Settlers a few times and got owned hard. Just too luck-based*. ._. It's a fun game when everybody is drunk, but against people who count the number of resources you have, and therefore deny trading...
There was one game, where the only numbers that wouldn't get me resources were 2, 6 and 12. The dice went like this: 6 6 2 (me) 7 7 12 (me) 7 2 6 (me) ... I counted. I didn't get anything for 12 rounds. I'm still bitter about this game, as you might notice.
Amusingly, after years of playing I finally bought Settlers, as in just 6 months ago. I spent a long time decrying its failings as a game of any real skill above that of The Game of Life, but I have since come around to accept it as a legitimately good game.
I think that ultimately, many games in which die-rolling is a critical mechanic can lead to some very frustrating games when the dice don't "behave", and I hear you there!
My argument used to be that assuming statistically average die results, in most games of Settlers (base set only, no expansions), the probable winner could be determined after the first round due to resource distribution relative to proximity to trading ports. Which, unless I'm completely failing to read you correctly, is a similar grief to yours. Not exactly the same, just similar. My argument utterly fails for a few reasons: 1) The number of dice rolls made in a game of Settlers isn't nearly enough by many orders of magnitude to expect results anywhere close to the theoretic distribution. 2) Skilled Catan players will all see the same things and can direct the flow of the game through trading (or the refusal to do so).
So I have since relaxed and come to love the Settlers.
The dice still make me mad sometimes, though. I try to keep it in check, but I'm only human. A drink does help, though.
I played a Battletech tournament game many years back and was losing very badly because the dice were really not playing in my favor, despite the fact that I was strategically and tactically out-maneuvering my opponent. I started nerdraging and grousing about the scenario and the inherent advantages of my opponents position... then I got my mid-game reinforcements (per the scenario) and simultaneously, the dice turned. My opponent was the picture of grace itself at what should have been a foregone conclusion in his favor became a massacre of his remaining forces. I always just remember that game when I start to get mad at dice rolls or card draws.
Citadels is awesome, yes. The funny thing is the game goes through a couple of stages, depending on experience with the game.
1. Just got the game, game revolves around using the murderer/thief well. Game is awesome and fun. 2. Players start noticing that killing and thieving doesn't nessarily help them win, just makes the other player lose. Purple buildings are everything now. Game is 'boring, luck based, shallow'. 3. Players finally figure out that you can pull off amazing bluffs (and win) if you heavily incorporate table-talk into your play and get them to not suspect you or gang up on someone else. Game is suddenly skill-based and awesome again.
Luckily, I'm in stage 3 with most of the people I play with;)
On July 01 2011 10:42 Picklesicle wrote: Well, I'm actually going to preface by saying that if I could, I would likely trade one of my Space Hulk sets for Twilight Struggle. I am watching the GMT posts like a hawk for when they reprint it.
From what I hear, Twilight Struggle is due for its reprint this August (at least that's what I recall reading on BGG recently). And of course it's a game I'd highly recommend, as long as you have a second player often enough to play it with.
Also much thanks regarding the Space Hulk additions, very informative/helpful!
On June 29 2011 08:16 Zocat wrote: Fyrewolf I have played the old Civilization (not Advanced though) and I have to say it's one of the most boring games out there
I don't even remember playing civilization vanilla, but it must have been pretty bad with only 1 trade card in most piles, only non-tradable calamities, tech cards run out etc. But with the expansion pack making it advanced civilization (and western extension map!) it is without a doubt the best game ever made. Only reason it's so unknown is because it's been out of print forever and mostly older people have played it.
I guess some people would complain it takes too long, but that what makes a game epic in my book.
My first game where I actually knew all of the cards . I made up a nice gardens deck strategy on the fly and it worked brilliantly. Who knew that buying masses of 3 cards + masses of coppers while accepting every curse and copper thrown at me(I felt like a beggar ) could actually end up with a result this great?! :D
Also, I really think that the one sea expansion(I forget the name ) is the best from my online experience so far. Now, any ideas for how to teach my friends and family this game? I'm considering showing a youtube video that teaches them in just 5 minutes(where they can pause/rewind and ask me questions). I heard that the rule book is ugly which is one of the reasons I'm considering a youtube video. My older brother(I'm a teenager) is coming home tomorrow where I'm going to introduce him to Dominion and see what he thinks before I buy it (I need someone to play it with me ). Any tips to introducing new players? I will be learning along side of course but mostly just to memorize the real pictures.
My first game where I actually knew all of the cards . I made up a nice gardens deck strategy on the fly and it worked brilliantly. Who knew that buying masses of 3 cards + masses of coppers while accepting every curse and copper thrown at me(I felt like a beggar ) could actually end up with a result this great?! :D
Also, I really think that the one sea expansion(I forget the name ) is the best from my online experience so far. Now, any ideas for how to teach my friends and family this game? I'm considering showing a youtube video that teaches them in just 5 minutes(where they can pause/rewind and ask me questions). I heard that the rule book is ugly which is one of the reasons I'm considering a youtube video. My older brother(I'm a teenager) is coming home tomorrow where I'm going to introduce him to Dominion and see what he thinks before I buy it (I need someone to play it with me ). Any tips to introducing new players? I will be learning along side of course but mostly just to memorize the real pictures.
If you think the Youtube video will work, go for it.
Otherwise, I actually think the rule book for the Base Set/Intrigue is really nice. I think the quality of the rule books steadily declines and the one for Alchemy is downright unreadable. I read rulebooks at night in bed to help myself to sleep (I kid you not) and that one kept me awake trying to decipher the typos, utter lack of punctuation and general uselessness contained therein.
My personal method for teaching the game to new people is to + Show Spoiler +
start with either the Base Set or Intrigue and lay out the table (including dealing the initial hand), without setting out the Kingdom cards. I then select a set of Kingdom cards to cover the range of types of cards there are.
Explain a hand: 5 cards drawn from the top of your deck. Explain the types of cards (Treasure, Victory, Action, Kingdom). Explain how the game ends and what the goal is. Now explain each type of card. I always start with Victory because it's easy: they give you points, but [generally] clog up your deck. Then I like to move on the Treasure because it is also easy: it counts as money to buy stuff.
Then Action cards. Show an example of each of +cards, +actions, +money, +buys and trash. Explain that the game goes in phases per player: actions then buys. I find that this is often a big initial question. Actions, then buys.
Explain each type and make sure to note that if several options exist, then go in order down the card. Also note that anything "special" is pretty darn self-explanatory on the card. Make sure that people understand that +money gives virtual money. You don't get to pick up a treasure card. Try not to go into strategy, stick to the mechanics of the game. This is particularly important for Trashing. Certainly show what can be done (like Remodel, Bridge and Workshop), but shy away from getting too strategy-y. The AH HA moments in Dominion are glorious, as you yourself note...
Show that some Kingdom cards have multiple types (like Great Hall, Nobles and Harem), if you have those kinds of cards. Now show Attack cards, give a brief explanation of how they work (pretty self-explanatory on the card) and then show Defense cards. If you're using intrigue be sure to point out that Secret Chamber doesn't actually stop the attack. Don't worry about Curse cards: if there is an Attack card that utilizes them someone will ask. Deal with it then. Do tell people that at least for their first couple of games, if they ever have enough money to buy a Province, then buy a damn Province. It's like building workers in Starcraft: until you understand the subtlety of when not to build workers, then just keep building workers!
Now lay out 10 Kingdom cards and play the game. If people aren't quite comfortable yet, play two or three rounds with cards face up (it'll go fast and you can get to a real game sooner if you accommodate peoples' initial discomfort) then get into it. If you or anyone else is aware of the Chapel strategy, do not play your first game with Chapel on the table!
If you want to be nice, you can teach the Chapel strat later when people are hooked and excited and analyzing left and right... or you can be a little meaner and "teach" them the Chapel strat the next time it hits the table. I tend to go for the former, but that's because I'm me.
Spoilered so that those who know all about Dominion don't have to wade through this.
The most important thing, in my opinion, when teaching any game, is to have a clear idea of the steps through which you want to teach it. Don't let yourself get majorly sidetracked from this: you may get bombarded with questions (I have no idea what you or your family is like), but if you start jumping all over the place, you'll probably get frustrated and your audience will almost definitely get lost and confused. Stick to the plan. Dominion is a very simple game at heart, and you can walk through it in 10-20 minutes depending on your audience.
I never let people read the rulebook. There is only one rulebook, there are several people and it can be an absolute snooze fest as they struggle through a ton of information, half of wich is not needed.
For example i play a lot of board games and thus read a lot of rulebooks. After a while you begin to kinda see repeating paterns in game design and you can quikly understand the rule and the reason for a rule. A single read is often all i need.
Then i proceed to go over it in my head till i think i can explain the basics in a few minutes. Some times i even leave out rules on purpose because i think they are too tiny to mention and we will get to them when we get to them.
funny i just saw this topic literally 20 minutes after online ordering the dominion box set (game plus two expansions) and cosmic encounter from amazon.
I did this because I downloaded Acension on the iphone $4.99 and it rocks - although games are very short you can complete one in like 5 minutes - so it got me interested again ( I had Carcasonne both app and board game but I didn't really enjoy it much ) and had me watching review youtube videos from the dice tower and that guy highly rated both Cosmic Encounters and Dominion..
On July 01 2011 10:42 Picklesicle wrote: Well, I'm actually going to preface by saying that if I could, I would likely trade one of my Space Hulk sets for Twilight Struggle. I am watching the GMT posts like a hawk for when they reprint it.
From what I hear, Twilight Struggle is due for its reprint this August (at least that's what I recall reading on BGG recently). And of course it's a game I'd highly recommend, as long as you have a second player often enough to play it with.
Also much thanks regarding the Space Hulk additions, very informative/helpful!
Cheers.
I'm curious as to your opinion on 3 games you own:
Smallworld
Power Grid
Merchants & Marauders
I have played none of the above, although I have watched a game of Smallworld.
I also made a post in reply in Iranon re. Hive and would be curious as your thoughts on that game as well. Unlike the previous 3, I do have preconceived notions on it but I'd like to compare notes, as it were.
I cant believe no one has mentioned Cluedo..wtf The object of the basic game is for players to strategically move around the game board (a mansion), in the guise of one of the game's six characters, collecting clues from which to deduce which suspect murdered the game's perpetual victim: Dr. Black (Mr. Boddy in North American versions), and with which weapon and in what room.
The most mainstream of all board games IMO, maybe after monopoly, but a lot more fun. Very easy to grasp, little rules, almost not a real board-game, but can be hillarious, especially if you're having drinks while playing.
Probably my all time favorite board game! I'll let the wikipedia article explain the game. I don't want to inadvertantly spoil anything. :D Betrayal at House on the Hill (Wikipedia)
I just saw Mansions of Madness yesterday and I really want to play. Seems like a mix between Betrayal and Arkham Horror, but that is from my first impression of it.
Wow, what an amazing write up and thread! Props to the OP. I like board games, but I always feel like it is too difficult to get enough people together at the same time to play. Especially with more "geeky" games.
I read through this thread a bit fast, but I didn't see anyone mentions the web series Board James! It's from the same guy who does the Angry Video Game Nerd series. Pretty entertaining, check it out:http://cinemassacre.com/category/boardjames/
Total new system - much faster - more compact - more dessitions (4-6 hrs instead of 14) Only 4 player max now !!!! But simply best new boardgame since agricula.
I've had this since christmas (so it's not super new ) and it really isn't 4-6 hours once you get the hang of it. Our first play through took like 8 hours but now when people know what to do, what does what we can easily do it in 2-3h It does have a very clear time limit in the tech victory you simply can't hop around forever or someone will get that one, aswell as the tech scales so ridiculously that once you reach tier 3/4 defending a capital becomes really really hard.
Oooo I will have to take a look at this. I was very skeptical of the previous Civ board game, after all I never was a fan of the video game series until the latest game, Civ V. Finally a buddy of mine convinced me to play and it was epic. Though after attempting to play it like 4 times I still don't think we ever managed to finish a single game. A shorter version would be great.
This is the column that will see me looking at Arkham Horror, the board game based on H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. It’s a column I only feel prepared to write after spending a few years with the game. You’ve been asking for it, and I live to serve.
I get asked about Arkham Horror all the time. When someone starts taking an interest in board games, it seems that Arkham Horror is a game that draws their eye more than most. I think I know why. People who like board games are probably a bit more likely to be geeky and into reading books than people who don’t. And many of those people will have read Lovecraft. A board game based on Lovecraft’s work is a very attractive prospect, partly because you ask yourself just how a board game could possibly capture the crawling horror and hopelessness of that world.
When I get asked that question – “Hey, man. How is Arkham Horror?” – I know now what to say. This column is that answer in long form.
Arkham Horror is a game for 1-8 players. Each player takes control of an investigator who is tasked with exploring Arkham, collecting clues, and closing the terrible gates that will call forth a Great Old One. No, wait. Let me go again at this. Each player takes control of a set of statistics, has the job of moving around a board picking up tokens that represent “clues”, and must visit spaces on the board that become important as and when a very mechanical card-based AI system decides. Both of these descriptions are simultaneously accurate.
As you visit locations in Arkham, your investigator will have Lovecraftian encounters, as the great scheme unfolds around you. Some of these encounters will test your investigator’s mettle. No, wait. Let me try that again. As you hit spaces on the board, you will draw cards that will describe loose and disconnected events, written by game designers in a “Lovecraft style”. These will sometimes ask you to consult your set of statistics in order to make a dice roll that will decide your fate. All of this is correct.
As the gates open, terrible creatures emerge from the worlds beyond. These creatures, these eldritch impossibilities, start to crawl and leap and bound around Arkham. Their goal is clear – they will send the investigators to the hospital, or the asylum. Actually, wait. Another go-over. As the game progresses, cards will decide when and where cardboard tokens featuring illustrations of monsters appear. These tokens also feature some statistics. Your set of statistics will battle against these statistics through the process of rolling some dice. Occasionally the dice will show unsatisfactory results, and will move your set of statistics to a space on the board that will increase one of those statistics so your game can continue.
Your investigators will stop the Great Old One from rising from its sleep if they manage to close all the gates, but if they fail in their task, if things in Arkham get out of control, the Great Old One will rise and either destroy the universe or engage the investigators in an almost hopeless final battle. No, actually, hold. One more time. Your set of statistics will share in a victory if you visit the mechanically chosen locations in an efficient manner, and stay lucky with a decent amount of dice rolls. However, if some poor rolls are made and you fail to visit the board’s spaces in an optimal way, you will most likely see out the game with a final bout of dice rolling against a set of statistics that is a far greater set of bastards than your set. And that’s the game. All of this.
I would never recommend Arkham Horror to anybody.
There’s a myth that circulates about this game. It’s a massive fucking lie. People say that “IF YOU LOVE LOVECRAFT, YOU WILL ADORE THIS GAME.” It is a crock of shit. Loving Lovecraft is no indicator of whether or not you’ll like this game. Hell, no. So I wouldn’t even recommend it to a Lovecraft fan. If a new gamer ever asks me for a list of games they might like, Arkham Horror wouldn’t pop up on that list even if that list was so long it could fill a Necronomicon. Is this game recommended? No. Let’s get that straight. Let’s give that its own line in the column, and underline it, and put it in bold.
Is Arkham Horror recommended? No.
So Arkham Horror is a bad game, then. We’ve established that. Right? We’re all on board with that now. Arkham Horror, the game that spawned a million expansions, is a bad game. We’ve nailed that down, right? Wrong. Wrong. Arkham Horror is a gaming treasure, a work of dark genius, a terrible unapproachable unfriendly beautiful bastard of a game. Arkham Horror is quite, quite brilliant, and I’m quite in love with it.
How can all of this be simultaneously true?
WHY BOARD GAMES ARE DIFFERENT
We’re on a PC gaming site here. We’re all guys who play computer games. Board games aren’t computer games, and not only because we play them on a table, and worry about someone spilling a drink on them. We often love board games for different reasons than we love computer games.
Sometimes, you’ll read a review of a computer game that might read something like this:
“I thought this game would be ACE! But, I was bummed (Always knew you were a bum! – Ed) out when I realised that there was no sense of immersion! Immersion means when you’re totally into something, and there was no sense of that! Immersion, I mean! I always felt like I was playing a game, because all that gamey stuff like life points and stuff were all so in your face! And the only thing I want in my face is Megan Fox’s bo**bs, know what I mean lads?! The mechanics of the game were so distracting! Mechanics means, like, the way the game works! (I wish you’d get some work done! – Ed (SNIP! – Senior Ed))”
Board games are different. Sure, while you might love a board game for the sense of immersion it provides, or the way the game lifts off the table and fills the room, you also might love it for how beautiful the mechanics are. It’s like looking inside a clockwork watch. That fascination, as you see how all the pieces fit together, how everything is timed to perfection, how balanced it all is. With a beautiful board game design, you can love it for that craftsmanship you can feel with every turn. Take Scotland Yard, with its beautiful hidden movement system. Or Pandemic, with its clever and thematic “shuffle and place back on TOP” mechanic.
Or Arkham Horror, with its million moving parts coming together to simulate a terrible alien intelligence.
THE GAME KNOWS
That’s what we often say when we play Arkham Horror.
“The Game Knows.”
In our last game, Joanne’s investigator was sent to hospital after an attack by a Gug. Suddenly, monsters who had stubbornly refused to move for the entire game started to head south, gathering outside the hospital gates, blocking Joanne in.
“The Game Knows.”
My character, a private eye, found a unique item. “Hey,” I said, foolishly. “If I take this unique item to the Silver Twilight Lodge, I can complete my plot!” The very next card we picked up told us that a gate was to open on Silver Twilight Lodge. Monsters spilled out.
“The Game Knows.”
The joy, strangely, is not in the theme. It’s not really about that. The joy is in how the game’s mechanics make the theme work. The joy is in seeing the cogs and wheels turning, spitting out monsters, making you believe that there must be some intelligence at work. How can the game know when the game doesn’t know? How have the designers made this game know? How have the designers made us know this game can’t know, but think it does? That’s where the beauty of Arkham Horror lies. That’s what you need to love, before you can love it.
You see, all that stuff I explained earlier, about what’s happening thematically and what’s actually happening mechanically, is the reason why you can’t recommend Arkham Horror to anyone who is new to board games. AH doesn’t deliver theme up front – it delivers heavy mechanics, and then those mechanics start to build the feel of the theme. It’s a weird dynamic. I hated the game when I first played it. I was chugging these pieces around, doing all this administration work for the game AI. Move this here, then put that there, then these monsters move down here, and these monsters move up here… The theme was nowhere. It was all rules and headaches and consulting flowcharts. But now, a long time later, with the rules down pat and the mechanics flowing quickly, I can admire that AI. I can listen to the hum of the engine. I can see how it delivers that Lovecraftian hopelessness not through flavour text on the cards, but through the elaborate tick-tocking of a clockwork terror machine, designed to break you the fuck down.
Some people, though, will never see past the surface of the bookkeeping and will just feel the clumsy clunk-clunking of an overly complex boredom machine. And that is perfectly understandable. Not everyone enjoys geeking out over the inner workings of something. It’s possible that some of these people love Lovecraft, and are looking for some instant horror, but only find the maddening dancing of Chekaroolz, the Mad God of How The Fuck Do You Close A Gate? Believe me, loving Lovecraft has nothing to do with whether this game works for you or not. Arkham Horror is a game for people who love board games. Its a game for people who love how board games work. The Lovecraft stuff comes later, much later, but then it comes hard and comes right. The game is alive, and thinks impossible thoughts.
So, that question…
“Hey, man. How is Arkham Horror?”
My answer?
“Ask it yourself.”
Also great fun (I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet), especially if you can get the maximum number of players (though you can also have one person control more than one piece):
Ugh, I can't believe how so many of you guys still enjoy playing dominion. Don't you find that normally the best strategy is just to buy silver when you have less than six, gold when you have less than 8, and if you have 2 just get cellars (of course they would have to be in the game to buy them). I hate goofing around "trying out" different strategies like stacking villages and witches, when I know I could just be using a better strategy. Try Thunderstone if you like dominion, it's also a deck building game.
I haven't read through all 8 pages but here are some games I found always interesting:
-Union Pacific -Ticket to Ride -Kremlin -Stone Age -Notre Dame -7 Wonders -Power Grid: Factory Manager -Neuroshima Hex -Ingenious
On July 01 2011 10:42 Picklesicle wrote: Well, I'm actually going to preface by saying that if I could, I would likely trade one of my Space Hulk sets for Twilight Struggle. I am watching the GMT posts like a hawk for when they reprint it.
From what I hear, Twilight Struggle is due for its reprint this August (at least that's what I recall reading on BGG recently). And of course it's a game I'd highly recommend, as long as you have a second player often enough to play it with.
Also much thanks regarding the Space Hulk additions, very informative/helpful!
I absolutely LOVE TS, my copy is pretty banged up, if they reprint in August I'm gonna have to pick it up and see if I can trade my current copy for Cash 'n Guns, or Robo Rally or something. There's a game like TS called Labyrinth: War on Terror. It's made by the same people, but I found it to just be a worse version of TS. However, some of my friends who like TS, swear by it, so it might be worth checking it out.
On July 03 2011 01:14 Picklesicle wrote: I'm curious as to your opinion on 3 games you own:
Smallworld
Power Grid
Merchants & Marauders
I have played none of the above, although I have watched a game of Smallworld.
I also made a post in reply in Iranon re. Hive and would be curious as your thoughts on that game as well. Unlike the previous 3, I do have preconceived notions on it but I'd like to compare notes, as it were.
I tried my best to keep the descriptions short while still getting across the basic game elements and what I enjoy. The very, very short of it is that I like them all and would rate them each somewhere in the top half of my collection.
Smallword is essentially a wargame that doesn't really feel like a wargame. Though I say this about several games I own and ones I like, so maybe I'm more of a wargamer at heart than I realize (ex: I love Dominant Species, but it's really a war game in Eurogame clothes). But now I'm trailing from the point.
Anyway, I really liked Small World when we got it, and like it a little bit less now, though still enjoy it. You having watched a game I'm going to skip over some of the basics. It's very tactical in how you deploy your units and when to send one race into decline and take charge with a new race. Each race/special ability combination allows for different strategies and tactics throughout the game and from game to game. Looking at the race/ability combos coming up should give an idea of areas that may be less or more safe and for planning where you intend to go or select next.
It's a game of area control where it is difficult to develop a very safe or secure position, there is plenty of opportunity for player politics, alliances (then backstabbing), etc. Controlling more spaces and the successful use of any special abilities is how you get points and after a predetermined amount of turns the game ends.
Power Grid has gone through phases with me. There are times when I really like it and times when I don't. And burnout isn't really the issue, though I couldn't pinpoint what is. The game is centered around the auction mechanic in bidding for power plants, though jockeying for player position, both on the map and for turn order, is central to the game as well.
It's very mathy, in that calculating the maximum amount you can spend in each phase to still have enough money to do everything else you need to do later that turn and leading into the next as not having enough money during a phase of a turn will set you back a lot. Knowing who you need to make purchases before and after during each turn is very important as well.
We've found it hard to come back in the game from too far behind, but most people enjoy it. High strategy level, though with gamers this is less of a concern, and the better management and development of you cash flow is what the game is about.
This is one of my favorites at the moment. Luck can play a larger factor in this game than many I own, but there is still strategy and while the game system is balanced, each individual game might not be depending on what happens (I don't know how to better explain that). The components are beautiful and the game is what I would essentially describe as a role playing adaption to a board game where each player is a captain doing something in the Caribbean.
You can be a pirate, merchant, or some mix between the two and with slight variations on each. It's very open-ended as to how you want to play which is why we really like it. There are so many options of what you can do (though like in Arkham Horror, a lot of those things you can do are distractions from what the best things to do are). It's less a game about winning or finding the best strategy and more about the experience of playing the game.
It plays best with three or four players and games often last around 2-3 hours. The replayabiliy has been high for us, with most games being quite different from one another. Two players games of it are fun as well, but just a different experience than having more player-ships out in the sea.
You also get some cool stories out of it that make certain games memorable. For example, in one game there was a storm on the seas for the turn and one of my opponents who had a Galleon (the largest purchasable ship) decided he could weather the storm and continue toward his current mission. I was nearby to his heading, and in my Sloop (the smallest ship, but also highly maneuverable) I decided to go attack him and take over his Galleon. From the storm damage and my captain's skill I managed to Board his ship and enter crew to crew combat where I killed his captain and took over his ship. So I had taken over his ship which he had spent so much gold on with my ship which was worth very little.
I like Hive a lot. It's one of my favorite abstracts. Though I like it less with the Mosquito and Ladybug. I wish I knew others who liked it and could play it well. Knowing when to place a piece and when to move an existing piece is important and which one. Finding which of your opponents placement areas and pieces are the largest threats, sometime this is very easy to determine, but other times less so, and it's difficult to keep him from doing anything at all since each piece moves so differently. You might be able to stop him using his ant, but often he might be able to use a grasshopper to similar result and both plays likely can't be stopped by the same play.
Hive is kind of like Chess in a way where you have perfect information and need to be able to plan a few steps ahead taking into consideration the possibility of your opponent's options.
I tried my best to keep the descriptions short while still getting across the basic game elements and what I enjoy. The very, very short of it is that I like them all and would rate them each somewhere in the top half of my collection.
Smallword is essentially a wargame that doesn't really feel like a wargame. Though I say this about several games I own and ones I like, so maybe I'm more of a wargamer at heart than I realize (ex: I love Dominant Species, but it's really a war game in Eurogame clothes). But now I'm trailing from the point.
Anyway, I really liked Small World when we got it, and like it a little bit less now, though still enjoy it. You having watched a game I'm going to skip over some of the basics. It's very tactical in how you deploy your units and when to send one race into decline and take charge with a new race. Each race/special ability combination allows for different strategies and tactics throughout the game and from game to game. Looking at the race/ability combos coming up should give an idea of areas that may be less or more safe and for planning where you intend to go or select next.
It's a game of area control where it is difficult to develop a very safe or secure position, there is plenty of opportunity for player politics, alliances (then backstabbing), etc. Controlling more spaces and the successful use of any special abilities is how you get points and after a predetermined amount of turns the game ends.
Power Grid has gone through phases with me. There are times when I really like it and times when I don't. And burnout isn't really the issue, though I couldn't pinpoint what is. The game is centered around the auction mechanic in bidding for power plants, though jockeying for player position, both on the map and for turn order, is central to the game as well.
It's very mathy, in that calculating the maximum amount you can spend in each phase to still have enough money to do everything else you need to do later that turn and leading into the next as not having enough money during a phase of a turn will set you back a lot. Knowing who you need to make purchases before and after during each turn is very important as well.
We've found it hard to come back in the game from too far behind, but most people enjoy it. High strategy level, though with gamers this is less of a concern, and the better management and development of you cash flow is what the game is about.
This is one of my favorites at the moment. Luck can play a larger factor in this game than many I own, but there is still strategy and while the game system is balanced, each individual game might not be depending on what happens (I don't know how to better explain that). The components are beautiful and the game is what I would essentially describe as a role playing adaption to a board game where each player is a captain doing something in the Caribbean.
You can be a pirate, merchant, or some mix between the two and with slight variations on each. It's very open-ended as to how you want to play which is why we really like it. There are so many options of what you can do (though like in Arkham Horror, a lot of those things you can do are distractions from what the best things to do are). It's less a game about winning or finding the best strategy and more about the experience of playing the game.
It plays best with three or four players and games often last around 2-3 hours. The replayabiliy has been high for us, with most games being quite different from one another. Two players games of it are fun as well, but just a different experience than having more player-ships out in the sea.
You also get some cool stories out of it that make certain games memorable. For example, in one game there was a storm on the seas for the turn and one of my opponents who had a Galleon (the largest purchasable ship) decided he could weather the storm and continue toward his current mission. I was nearby to his heading, and in my Sloop (the smallest ship, but also highly maneuverable) I decided to go attack him and take over his Galleon. From the storm damage and my captain's skill I managed to Board his ship and enter crew to crew combat where I killed his captain and took over his ship. So I had taken over his ship which he had spent so much gold on with my ship which was worth very little.
I like Hive a lot. It's one of my favorite abstracts. Though I like it less with the Mosquito and Ladybug. I wish I knew others who liked it and could play it well. Knowing when to place a piece and when to move an existing piece is important and which one. Finding which of your opponents placement areas and pieces are the largest threats, sometime this is very easy to determine, but other times less so, and it's difficult to keep him from doing anything at all since each piece moves so differently. You might be able to stop him using his ant, but often he might be able to use a grasshopper to similar result and both plays likely can't be stopped by the same play.
Hive is kind of like Chess in a way where you have perfect information and need to be able to plan a few steps ahead taking into consideration the possibility of your opponent's options.
Thanks. That was very helpful. I've been teetering re. Merchants & Marauders based on the reviews, similarly with Power Grid.
As for Hive, I've actually put in some 30-40 games of Hive. Would you say that the initial tempo of the first player is extremely significant? Specifically, it seems to me (although I might be wrong) that the assuming the first player does not blunder, the second player can at best play for a draw? Thoughts?
I am a huge Dominion fan. We had a local tournament here in Canberra back in February and a few friends and I actually spent some time studying the game competitively (buy a lot of silver!). Been playing the Cornucopia expansion a ton lately and its a really fun take on the game, everything is just really well designed.
Friend of mine has a massive board game collection that we play on a weekly basis, just from what I can remember:
Dominion, Ascension, Settlers, Puerto Rico, Agricola, Race for the Galaxy, Carcassonne, Seven Wonders, Colisseum, Stone Age, Shadows of Camelot, Killer Rabbits from Space, Smallworld, Hey Thats My Fish, Alhambra, Shogun, Civilization (original and new versions), House on Haunted Hill, Ticket to Ride, Power Grid, Robo Rally, Thurn and Taxes and at least a dozen more. Not counting the mini card games like Guillotine, Colouretto and Burn in Hell.
I also have the starcraft board game and its great fun, incredibly deep. Just takes 6 hours to play the damn thing and the brood war expansion costs $90 .
On July 03 2011 04:33 Fumanchu wrote: Ugh, I can't believe how so many of you guys still enjoy playing dominion. Don't you find that normally the best strategy is just to buy silver when you have less than six, gold when you have less than 8, and if you have 2 just get cellars (of course they would have to be in the game to buy them). I hate goofing around "trying out" different strategies like stacking villages and witches, when I know I could just be using a better strategy. Try Thunderstone if you like dominion, it's also a deck building game.
I haven't read through all 8 pages but here are some games I found always interesting:
-Union Pacific -Ticket to Ride -Kremlin -Stone Age -Notre Dame -7 Wonders -Power Grid: Factory Manager -Neuroshima Hex -Ingenious
On July 01 2011 10:42 Picklesicle wrote: Well, I'm actually going to preface by saying that if I could, I would likely trade one of my Space Hulk sets for Twilight Struggle. I am watching the GMT posts like a hawk for when they reprint it.
From what I hear, Twilight Struggle is due for its reprint this August (at least that's what I recall reading on BGG recently). And of course it's a game I'd highly recommend, as long as you have a second player often enough to play it with.
Also much thanks regarding the Space Hulk additions, very informative/helpful!
I absolutely LOVE TS, my copy is pretty banged up, if they reprint in August I'm gonna have to pick it up and see if I can trade my current copy for Cash 'n Guns, or Robo Rally or something. There's a game like TS called Labyrinth: War on Terror. It's made by the same people, but I found it to just be a worse version of TS. However, some of my friends who like TS, swear by it, so it might be worth checking it out.
P.S. Am I the only one who hates Imperial?
The typical "big money" strategy (only silver, gold, provinces or dutchies) in Dominion isn't so much the best strategy as it is the standard that other decks are compared to because it works well and you can do it with every set of kingdom cards. However, most well-executed other strategies beat it.
It's like the 4gate of Dominion. If a strat can't beat 4gate even when you know it's coming, it's a bad strat - opponents can consistently beat it using an easy strategy that's always available. However, there are builds out there that thoroughly beat a 4gater once it is held off. Finding those is what Dominion is really about.
Even if you stick largely with the standard Big Money strategy, in most cases one or two well picked action cards can already give you an edge. Then there's cards like Witch, Saboteur, Thief, etc that royally mess up a deck made up of only money and with no way to cycle cards. In my opinion, if the 'standard' strategy always wins when you play, it's because you/others let it win. It takes a bit of a shift in mindset, but what did it for me was when I realized that there was a possibility between "only money" and "huge +action/+card chain deck" (Villages, etc) / "gimmick deck"(Gardens deck, Dukes, etc) - and that in many cases, the middle ground was stronger than either of those.
Basically, to come back to Starcraft again, if you're gonna do a DT opening, you don't ONLY build council, shrine and non-stop DT's - first you make sure you have the necessary economy to progress after the harass does or doesn't do damage. The same goes for Dominion. Silvers/Golds/trashing Coppers is your economy and regardless of what else you do, you are going to need it (barring a few decks that can only be pulled off in very specific circumstances). The action cards would be your tech, if it were. They decide how you are going to play largely, but the basis is still your money.
One definite downside to Dominion, however, is that individual player's playstyles can break the game a bit. If there are two players in a group of four that just love getting +action/+buy string up, chances are 3 piles of cards will run out before any other strategy is possible. They're like 6 pools in this regard: the game pretty much ends after 4 minutes when someone does this, regarless of what your plan was.
Anyone have any recommendation for a good 2 player board game? It doesnt have to specifically cater to 2 players but I find games that are tailored for it to be more advanced.
Im looking for something that is mostly skill based but can still have a luck factor. Like im aware that a lot of board games deal with dice rolling or card drawing so its unavoidable and im fine with games such as mahjong where luck is a factor. But I want a game also like mahjong where decision making and skill can impact the outcome of the game and an experienced/better player will win majority of the time.
I've been looking at Carcassonne. It sounds like an interesting game and I can see the strategic elements. But I guess im looking for something more advanced. I noticed the Starcraft board game, wondering if thats actually a good game or if teamliquid members are just biased towards it.
Im never been a big board game player. I've only played the most mainstream ones like monopoly or risk. This thread kind of got me curious about trying other board games out but I dont want to invest like 100 dollars into a board game already. Which is why board games like starcraft might not be ideal for me.
Thanks if anyone can make any recommendations for me.
This is the column that will see me looking at Arkham Horror, the board game based on H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. It’s a column I only feel prepared to write after spending a few years with the game. You’ve been asking for it, and I live to serve.
I get asked about Arkham Horror all the time. When someone starts taking an interest in board games, it seems that Arkham Horror is a game that draws their eye more than most. I think I know why. People who like board games are probably a bit more likely to be geeky and into reading books than people who don’t. And many of those people will have read Lovecraft. A board game based on Lovecraft’s work is a very attractive prospect, partly because you ask yourself just how a board game could possibly capture the crawling horror and hopelessness of that world.
When I get asked that question – “Hey, man. How is Arkham Horror?” – I know now what to say. This column is that answer in long form.
Arkham Horror is a game for 1-8 players. Each player takes control of an investigator who is tasked with exploring Arkham, collecting clues, and closing the terrible gates that will call forth a Great Old One. No, wait. Let me go again at this. Each player takes control of a set of statistics, has the job of moving around a board picking up tokens that represent “clues”, and must visit spaces on the board that become important as and when a very mechanical card-based AI system decides. Both of these descriptions are simultaneously accurate.
As you visit locations in Arkham, your investigator will have Lovecraftian encounters, as the great scheme unfolds around you. Some of these encounters will test your investigator’s mettle. No, wait. Let me try that again. As you hit spaces on the board, you will draw cards that will describe loose and disconnected events, written by game designers in a “Lovecraft style”. These will sometimes ask you to consult your set of statistics in order to make a dice roll that will decide your fate. All of this is correct.
As the gates open, terrible creatures emerge from the worlds beyond. These creatures, these eldritch impossibilities, start to crawl and leap and bound around Arkham. Their goal is clear – they will send the investigators to the hospital, or the asylum. Actually, wait. Another go-over. As the game progresses, cards will decide when and where cardboard tokens featuring illustrations of monsters appear. These tokens also feature some statistics. Your set of statistics will battle against these statistics through the process of rolling some dice. Occasionally the dice will show unsatisfactory results, and will move your set of statistics to a space on the board that will increase one of those statistics so your game can continue.
Your investigators will stop the Great Old One from rising from its sleep if they manage to close all the gates, but if they fail in their task, if things in Arkham get out of control, the Great Old One will rise and either destroy the universe or engage the investigators in an almost hopeless final battle. No, actually, hold. One more time. Your set of statistics will share in a victory if you visit the mechanically chosen locations in an efficient manner, and stay lucky with a decent amount of dice rolls. However, if some poor rolls are made and you fail to visit the board’s spaces in an optimal way, you will most likely see out the game with a final bout of dice rolling against a set of statistics that is a far greater set of bastards than your set. And that’s the game. All of this.
I would never recommend Arkham Horror to anybody.
There’s a myth that circulates about this game. It’s a massive fucking lie. People say that “IF YOU LOVE LOVECRAFT, YOU WILL ADORE THIS GAME.” It is a crock of shit. Loving Lovecraft is no indicator of whether or not you’ll like this game. Hell, no. So I wouldn’t even recommend it to a Lovecraft fan. If a new gamer ever asks me for a list of games they might like, Arkham Horror wouldn’t pop up on that list even if that list was so long it could fill a Necronomicon. Is this game recommended? No. Let’s get that straight. Let’s give that its own line in the column, and underline it, and put it in bold.
Is Arkham Horror recommended? No.
So Arkham Horror is a bad game, then. We’ve established that. Right? We’re all on board with that now. Arkham Horror, the game that spawned a million expansions, is a bad game. We’ve nailed that down, right? Wrong. Wrong. Arkham Horror is a gaming treasure, a work of dark genius, a terrible unapproachable unfriendly beautiful bastard of a game. Arkham Horror is quite, quite brilliant, and I’m quite in love with it.
How can all of this be simultaneously true?
WHY BOARD GAMES ARE DIFFERENT
We’re on a PC gaming site here. We’re all guys who play computer games. Board games aren’t computer games, and not only because we play them on a table, and worry about someone spilling a drink on them. We often love board games for different reasons than we love computer games.
Sometimes, you’ll read a review of a computer game that might read something like this:
“I thought this game would be ACE! But, I was bummed (Always knew you were a bum! – Ed) out when I realised that there was no sense of immersion! Immersion means when you’re totally into something, and there was no sense of that! Immersion, I mean! I always felt like I was playing a game, because all that gamey stuff like life points and stuff were all so in your face! And the only thing I want in my face is Megan Fox’s bo**bs, know what I mean lads?! The mechanics of the game were so distracting! Mechanics means, like, the way the game works! (I wish you’d get some work done! – Ed (SNIP! – Senior Ed))”
Board games are different. Sure, while you might love a board game for the sense of immersion it provides, or the way the game lifts off the table and fills the room, you also might love it for how beautiful the mechanics are. It’s like looking inside a clockwork watch. That fascination, as you see how all the pieces fit together, how everything is timed to perfection, how balanced it all is. With a beautiful board game design, you can love it for that craftsmanship you can feel with every turn. Take Scotland Yard, with its beautiful hidden movement system. Or Pandemic, with its clever and thematic “shuffle and place back on TOP” mechanic.
Or Arkham Horror, with its million moving parts coming together to simulate a terrible alien intelligence.
THE GAME KNOWS
That’s what we often say when we play Arkham Horror.
“The Game Knows.”
In our last game, Joanne’s investigator was sent to hospital after an attack by a Gug. Suddenly, monsters who had stubbornly refused to move for the entire game started to head south, gathering outside the hospital gates, blocking Joanne in.
“The Game Knows.”
My character, a private eye, found a unique item. “Hey,” I said, foolishly. “If I take this unique item to the Silver Twilight Lodge, I can complete my plot!” The very next card we picked up told us that a gate was to open on Silver Twilight Lodge. Monsters spilled out.
“The Game Knows.”
The joy, strangely, is not in the theme. It’s not really about that. The joy is in how the game’s mechanics make the theme work. The joy is in seeing the cogs and wheels turning, spitting out monsters, making you believe that there must be some intelligence at work. How can the game know when the game doesn’t know? How have the designers made this game know? How have the designers made us know this game can’t know, but think it does? That’s where the beauty of Arkham Horror lies. That’s what you need to love, before you can love it.
You see, all that stuff I explained earlier, about what’s happening thematically and what’s actually happening mechanically, is the reason why you can’t recommend Arkham Horror to anyone who is new to board games. AH doesn’t deliver theme up front – it delivers heavy mechanics, and then those mechanics start to build the feel of the theme. It’s a weird dynamic. I hated the game when I first played it. I was chugging these pieces around, doing all this administration work for the game AI. Move this here, then put that there, then these monsters move down here, and these monsters move up here… The theme was nowhere. It was all rules and headaches and consulting flowcharts. But now, a long time later, with the rules down pat and the mechanics flowing quickly, I can admire that AI. I can listen to the hum of the engine. I can see how it delivers that Lovecraftian hopelessness not through flavour text on the cards, but through the elaborate tick-tocking of a clockwork terror machine, designed to break you the fuck down.
Some people, though, will never see past the surface of the bookkeeping and will just feel the clumsy clunk-clunking of an overly complex boredom machine. And that is perfectly understandable. Not everyone enjoys geeking out over the inner workings of something. It’s possible that some of these people love Lovecraft, and are looking for some instant horror, but only find the maddening dancing of Chekaroolz, the Mad God of How The Fuck Do You Close A Gate? Believe me, loving Lovecraft has nothing to do with whether this game works for you or not. Arkham Horror is a game for people who love board games. Its a game for people who love how board games work. The Lovecraft stuff comes later, much later, but then it comes hard and comes right. The game is alive, and thinks impossible thoughts.
So, that question…
“Hey, man. How is Arkham Horror?”
My answer?
“Ask it yourself.”
Also great fun (I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet), especially if you can get the maximum number of players (though you can also have one person control more than one piece):
On July 05 2011 22:58 Fumble wrote: Anyone have any recommendation for a good 2 player board game? It doesnt have to specifically cater to 2 players but I find games that are tailored for it to be more advanced.
Im looking for something that is mostly skill based but can still have a luck factor. Like im aware that a lot of board games deal with dice rolling or card drawing so its unavoidable and im fine with games such as mahjong where luck is a factor. But I want a game also like mahjong where decision making and skill can impact the outcome of the game and an experienced/better player will win majority of the time.
I've been looking at Carcassonne. It sounds like an interesting game and I can see the strategic elements. But I guess im looking for something more advanced. I noticed the Starcraft board game, wondering if thats actually a good game or if teamliquid members are just biased towards it.
Im never been a big board game player. I've only played the most mainstream ones like monopoly or risk. This thread kind of got me curious about trying other board games out but I dont want to invest like 100 dollars into a board game already. Which is why board games like starcraft might not be ideal for me.
Thanks if anyone can make any recommendations for me.
Well, if you want a challenge you could always try Advanced Squad Leader. It's one of the best boardgames since 1985. The rulebook costs $80 but you don't need it as starter packs come with the rules you need for certain engagements. Only after you tried them out and liked them you should go for a rulebook which contains all the advanced rules etc. (rulebook has over 200 pages)
This is the column that will see me looking at Arkham Horror, the board game based on H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. It’s a column I only feel prepared to write after spending a few years with the game. You’ve been asking for it, and I live to serve.
I get asked about Arkham Horror all the time. When someone starts taking an interest in board games, it seems that Arkham Horror is a game that draws their eye more than most. I think I know why. People who like board games are probably a bit more likely to be geeky and into reading books than people who don’t. And many of those people will have read Lovecraft. A board game based on Lovecraft’s work is a very attractive prospect, partly because you ask yourself just how a board game could possibly capture the crawling horror and hopelessness of that world.
When I get asked that question – “Hey, man. How is Arkham Horror?” – I know now what to say. This column is that answer in long form.
Arkham Horror is a game for 1-8 players. Each player takes control of an investigator who is tasked with exploring Arkham, collecting clues, and closing the terrible gates that will call forth a Great Old One. No, wait. Let me go again at this. Each player takes control of a set of statistics, has the job of moving around a board picking up tokens that represent “clues”, and must visit spaces on the board that become important as and when a very mechanical card-based AI system decides. Both of these descriptions are simultaneously accurate.
As you visit locations in Arkham, your investigator will have Lovecraftian encounters, as the great scheme unfolds around you. Some of these encounters will test your investigator’s mettle. No, wait. Let me try that again. As you hit spaces on the board, you will draw cards that will describe loose and disconnected events, written by game designers in a “Lovecraft style”. These will sometimes ask you to consult your set of statistics in order to make a dice roll that will decide your fate. All of this is correct.
As the gates open, terrible creatures emerge from the worlds beyond. These creatures, these eldritch impossibilities, start to crawl and leap and bound around Arkham. Their goal is clear – they will send the investigators to the hospital, or the asylum. Actually, wait. Another go-over. As the game progresses, cards will decide when and where cardboard tokens featuring illustrations of monsters appear. These tokens also feature some statistics. Your set of statistics will battle against these statistics through the process of rolling some dice. Occasionally the dice will show unsatisfactory results, and will move your set of statistics to a space on the board that will increase one of those statistics so your game can continue.
Your investigators will stop the Great Old One from rising from its sleep if they manage to close all the gates, but if they fail in their task, if things in Arkham get out of control, the Great Old One will rise and either destroy the universe or engage the investigators in an almost hopeless final battle. No, actually, hold. One more time. Your set of statistics will share in a victory if you visit the mechanically chosen locations in an efficient manner, and stay lucky with a decent amount of dice rolls. However, if some poor rolls are made and you fail to visit the board’s spaces in an optimal way, you will most likely see out the game with a final bout of dice rolling against a set of statistics that is a far greater set of bastards than your set. And that’s the game. All of this.
I would never recommend Arkham Horror to anybody.
There’s a myth that circulates about this game. It’s a massive fucking lie. People say that “IF YOU LOVE LOVECRAFT, YOU WILL ADORE THIS GAME.” It is a crock of shit. Loving Lovecraft is no indicator of whether or not you’ll like this game. Hell, no. So I wouldn’t even recommend it to a Lovecraft fan. If a new gamer ever asks me for a list of games they might like, Arkham Horror wouldn’t pop up on that list even if that list was so long it could fill a Necronomicon. Is this game recommended? No. Let’s get that straight. Let’s give that its own line in the column, and underline it, and put it in bold.
Is Arkham Horror recommended? No.
So Arkham Horror is a bad game, then. We’ve established that. Right? We’re all on board with that now. Arkham Horror, the game that spawned a million expansions, is a bad game. We’ve nailed that down, right? Wrong. Wrong. Arkham Horror is a gaming treasure, a work of dark genius, a terrible unapproachable unfriendly beautiful bastard of a game. Arkham Horror is quite, quite brilliant, and I’m quite in love with it.
How can all of this be simultaneously true?
WHY BOARD GAMES ARE DIFFERENT
We’re on a PC gaming site here. We’re all guys who play computer games. Board games aren’t computer games, and not only because we play them on a table, and worry about someone spilling a drink on them. We often love board games for different reasons than we love computer games.
Sometimes, you’ll read a review of a computer game that might read something like this:
“I thought this game would be ACE! But, I was bummed (Always knew you were a bum! – Ed) out when I realised that there was no sense of immersion! Immersion means when you’re totally into something, and there was no sense of that! Immersion, I mean! I always felt like I was playing a game, because all that gamey stuff like life points and stuff were all so in your face! And the only thing I want in my face is Megan Fox’s bo**bs, know what I mean lads?! The mechanics of the game were so distracting! Mechanics means, like, the way the game works! (I wish you’d get some work done! – Ed (SNIP! – Senior Ed))”
Board games are different. Sure, while you might love a board game for the sense of immersion it provides, or the way the game lifts off the table and fills the room, you also might love it for how beautiful the mechanics are. It’s like looking inside a clockwork watch. That fascination, as you see how all the pieces fit together, how everything is timed to perfection, how balanced it all is. With a beautiful board game design, you can love it for that craftsmanship you can feel with every turn. Take Scotland Yard, with its beautiful hidden movement system. Or Pandemic, with its clever and thematic “shuffle and place back on TOP” mechanic.
Or Arkham Horror, with its million moving parts coming together to simulate a terrible alien intelligence.
THE GAME KNOWS
That’s what we often say when we play Arkham Horror.
“The Game Knows.”
In our last game, Joanne’s investigator was sent to hospital after an attack by a Gug. Suddenly, monsters who had stubbornly refused to move for the entire game started to head south, gathering outside the hospital gates, blocking Joanne in.
“The Game Knows.”
My character, a private eye, found a unique item. “Hey,” I said, foolishly. “If I take this unique item to the Silver Twilight Lodge, I can complete my plot!” The very next card we picked up told us that a gate was to open on Silver Twilight Lodge. Monsters spilled out.
“The Game Knows.”
The joy, strangely, is not in the theme. It’s not really about that. The joy is in how the game’s mechanics make the theme work. The joy is in seeing the cogs and wheels turning, spitting out monsters, making you believe that there must be some intelligence at work. How can the game know when the game doesn’t know? How have the designers made this game know? How have the designers made us know this game can’t know, but think it does? That’s where the beauty of Arkham Horror lies. That’s what you need to love, before you can love it.
You see, all that stuff I explained earlier, about what’s happening thematically and what’s actually happening mechanically, is the reason why you can’t recommend Arkham Horror to anyone who is new to board games. AH doesn’t deliver theme up front – it delivers heavy mechanics, and then those mechanics start to build the feel of the theme. It’s a weird dynamic. I hated the game when I first played it. I was chugging these pieces around, doing all this administration work for the game AI. Move this here, then put that there, then these monsters move down here, and these monsters move up here… The theme was nowhere. It was all rules and headaches and consulting flowcharts. But now, a long time later, with the rules down pat and the mechanics flowing quickly, I can admire that AI. I can listen to the hum of the engine. I can see how it delivers that Lovecraftian hopelessness not through flavour text on the cards, but through the elaborate tick-tocking of a clockwork terror machine, designed to break you the fuck down.
Some people, though, will never see past the surface of the bookkeeping and will just feel the clumsy clunk-clunking of an overly complex boredom machine. And that is perfectly understandable. Not everyone enjoys geeking out over the inner workings of something. It’s possible that some of these people love Lovecraft, and are looking for some instant horror, but only find the maddening dancing of Chekaroolz, the Mad God of How The Fuck Do You Close A Gate? Believe me, loving Lovecraft has nothing to do with whether this game works for you or not. Arkham Horror is a game for people who love board games. Its a game for people who love how board games work. The Lovecraft stuff comes later, much later, but then it comes hard and comes right. The game is alive, and thinks impossible thoughts.
So, that question…
“Hey, man. How is Arkham Horror?”
My answer?
“Ask it yourself.”
Also great fun (I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet), especially if you can get the maximum number of players (though you can also have one person control more than one piece):
Also, Risk is a terrible game.
I love Arkham Do you play it online?
AH is great. If you like it you could also check out the Call of Cthulhu LCG, awesome fun.
On July 05 2011 22:58 Fumble wrote: Anyone have any recommendation for a good 2 player board game? It doesnt have to specifically cater to 2 players but I find games that are tailored for it to be more advanced.
Im looking for something that is mostly skill based but can still have a luck factor. Like im aware that a lot of board games deal with dice rolling or card drawing so its unavoidable and im fine with games such as mahjong where luck is a factor. But I want a game also like mahjong where decision making and skill can impact the outcome of the game and an experienced/better player will win majority of the time.
I've been looking at Carcassonne. It sounds like an interesting game and I can see the strategic elements. But I guess im looking for something more advanced. I noticed the Starcraft board game, wondering if thats actually a good game or if teamliquid members are just biased towards it.
Im never been a big board game player. I've only played the most mainstream ones like monopoly or risk. This thread kind of got me curious about trying other board games out but I dont want to invest like 100 dollars into a board game already. Which is why board games like starcraft might not be ideal for me.
Thanks if anyone can make any recommendations for me.
Perhaps "Summoner Wars" would be something for you.
To sum it up it is essentially a 2 player card game without the expectation of buying tons and tons of booster packs to play it or be good at it.
You buy the basic game (or the master set to wich i linked) and that sets you back either 12 dollar or 30 dollar (basic and master respective). In these sets are race decks. Think the basic fantasy staple. Tundra orcs, phoenix elves, goblins, but even a few more unique decks like the cloaks, a deck of thieves.
Anyway, in this card game both players pick a different race filled with a summoner (the leader of a race) commons (cannon fodder but each has a unique ability) and champions (in the middle between the summoner and commons).
Players draw from their deck and place units on the field. Units on the field can be moved and used to atack. Some units are ranged, others are melee and yet some others are casters but those are more rare.
Combined with some magic cards players attempt to fight their way through to the other side and kill the enemy summoner. Whoever kills the other summoner first wins the game.
The game has often been summed up as a mix between collectable card games (minus the collectable) and chess. There is a bit of luck involved with the drawing of cards but the player who uses his cards in a more effective way will end up taking the win most of the time. The luck of cards is diminished by the fact that in your average game, you will go through the entire deck.
The biggest selling point of the game is it's excellent balance but also how incredibly unique each race is.
Some races blitz across the board and are hyper agressive. Some races are more defensive and prefer to build a huge line of walls and wait till the enemy has wasted most of his cards. Some races try to win the game with a handfull of strong units. Other races flood the board with cheap. Some races never move their summoner, other races focus almost exclusively on properly using the summoner. Some races don't even care if they lose their units as they can bring them back just as easily whilst for other races, every lost unit is crippeling.
It's an intresting 1v1 game wich doesn't take long to play, has a mix of luck and skill but leaning more towards skill and perhaps most importantly, doesn't cost a lot of money to play. For as little as 12 dollar you will be ready to play the game.
Best of all i suppose is that this game lets you sink as much money into it as you want, or as little. 12 dollars is hardly a big investment so if it's not your thing then it won't leave you begging for money as most boardgames tend to do. If you love the game there are more then a dozen completly unique races that you can buy whenever you feel like it, all expanding on the game.
A pretty good video review if you are left with any doubts or questions:
Im at work right now so cant see the video but i've been reading reviews about the game and it sounds awesome. Might be exactly what im looking for. I have a question though. Is this a card game where you have to constantly buy booster packs like pokemon or magic the gathering. Or is this more where you just have to buy the next expansion pack to keep up like killer bunnies (not sure if u've heard of the card game)? In killer bunnies, you buy the starter pack then they come out with new expansion packs here and there. So you just purchase the next expansion pack to get ALL the cards. In pokemon lets say, you would be forced to buy booster pack after booster pack just to get even a fraction of cards available.
Edit: Thanks for the recommendation, really appreciate it. Nice thread btw. Been looking for something to do with my gf while just hanging out at my place and this thread made me realize that a board game would be perfect to fill in that time.
On July 06 2011 03:00 Fumble wrote: Im at work right now so cant see the video but i've been reading reviews about the game and it sounds awesome. Might be exactly what im looking for. I have a question though. Is this a card game where you have to constantly buy booster packs like pokemon or magic the gathering. Or is this more where you just have to buy the next expansion pack to keep up like killer bunnies (not sure if u've heard of the card game)? In killer bunnies, you buy the starter pack then they come out with new expansion packs here and there. So you just purchase the next expansion pack to get ALL the cards. In pokemon lets say, you would be forced to buy booster pack after booster pack just to get even a fraction of cards available. Also where would you get this game? Seems like you can only order it online and after looking at their official site, the master set costs 50 dollars.
Edit: Thanks for the recommendation, really appreciate it. Nice thread btw. Been looking for something to do with my gf while just hanging out at my place and this thread made me realize that a board game would be perfect to fill in that time.
Could be that the price is higher, i just went off what it said on the link to boardgamegeek but i suppose those prices might be a bit lower.
If you want to get this game you can either order it from somewhere or you can find your local gameshop give them a call or drop by in person and ask them to order the game for you. The closest gameshop to my home isn't all that big but they are often more then happy to order games for me and give me a call when they get them in, i think most game shops would be nice enough to do that.
As for your question on wether it's boosters or killer bunnies (don't know the game but going off your description) it is definitly more like killer bunnies. You don't have to buy a ton of boosters and then still not get all the cards.
Every so often they release one of two things:
1) A new race, this includes all the cards for that race, there are no others, nothing random. What you see is what you get, no having million doubles.
2) A race expansion.
A new race pretty much explains itself but a race expansion might need some clarification. A race expansion contains a set of cards in the theme of that race and allows you the option to tweak the deck of that race.
If you only have the phoenix elves then when you play them you don't have to tweak or change anything, you just play with the entire phoenix elf deck. If you have the phoenix elf expansion then you have extra cards wich allow you to tweak the deck, like swap a certain group of common cards out for another type of common.
These expansion decks should be considered side-grades. They are not an improvement for a race, they just offer more options. The cards aren't better or worse, they are just equall but different. Like i said, a side-grade. You can play the game perfectly with just the basic race decks.
So no need to waste a billion dollars on boosters because when you buy a deck you know exactly what it contains. Never opening a pack of cards and not having a clue what's in it or finding that you allready have all the cards in them and just wasted money. If you buy an undead deck you have all the undead cards, if you buy a cloak deck then you have all the cloak cards.
The master set contains 6 different races, the original basic set comes in 2 versions, one having the Tundra orcs and Phoenix elves and another having the Cave goblins and the Guild dwarves.
Not really sure what would be the better option for you. Just buying one of the original versions is probably cheaper and if you really like it you can always get the master set later since it has noone of the same races in it.
On July 05 2011 22:58 Fumble wrote: Anyone have any recommendation for a good 2 player board game? It doesnt have to specifically cater to 2 players but I find games that are tailored for it to be more advanced.
Im looking for something that is mostly skill based but can still have a luck factor. Like im aware that a lot of board games deal with dice rolling or card drawing so its unavoidable and im fine with games such as mahjong where luck is a factor. But I want a game also like mahjong where decision making and skill can impact the outcome of the game and an experienced/better player will win majority of the time.
I've been looking at Carcassonne. It sounds like an interesting game and I can see the strategic elements. But I guess im looking for something more advanced. I noticed the Starcraft board game, wondering if thats actually a good game or if teamliquid members are just biased towards it.
Im never been a big board game player. I've only played the most mainstream ones like monopoly or risk. This thread kind of got me curious about trying other board games out but I dont want to invest like 100 dollars into a board game already. Which is why board games like starcraft might not be ideal for me.
Thanks if anyone can make any recommendations for me.
As said by Manitou and Zalz, both Advanced Squad Leader and Summoner Wars are good games that might be what you want. Zalz has any discussion of Summoner Wars well in hand and I don't know enough about ASL to say anything meaningful (I've only played it twice).
But 2-player games being my specialty, I will also jump in here and these are my recommendations:
Hive Hive is an elegant game with simple, clear rules and an incredibly easy set-up. It also travels very very well. Strategically, it has some considerable depth. Just how deep, I am still exploring but at ~USD25 it's hard to go wrong here. There's been some discussion of Hive right here and the BGG forums are always an incredible resource. Ultimately, to quote another poster, it is like a game of chess in that you are trying to checkmate your opponent but thematically it is a lot more accessible and fairly easy to get to a point that you can feel like you basically know what you are doing. There is no luck here, although I maintain that once you both know the basics of strategy for the game the second player is at a disadvantage. Despite that, this is a fun and engaging game that can be played at the game table, on a picnic or even in bed.
Dominion. Dominion has been discussed at length in this thread, and it is a popular game for good reason. It can accommodate up to 4 players with one of the full sets (Base Set or Intrigue) or up to 6 with both. But it also plays very well with 2 and as has been repeated multiple times here, it is accessible, easy to learn, strategically interesting and most importantly, fun! I'll readily admit that some cards simply don't play that well with two but I don't think that detracts from the game at all. Only one set is really needed though the expansions really do add to the game. Some here would recommend the base set over Intrigue to start and some the other way. You can try the game out with (or without) some of us here at BSW. There is some luck involved in card draws from your deck but since the only person responsible for building that deck is you, you manage the probabilities involved! The cost of either the base set of Intrigue is ~USD40. You'll need at least one.
You've already mentioned Carcassonne, which is an excellent choice and plays very well with 2. I wouldn't dismiss it as too simple: there's a lot going on there and the very cheap expansions add a lot to the game as you delve its depths. The core game itself is only ~USD20.
If you're looking to get even more complex, though, then try out Memoir 44. I'm going to steal from semioldguy and say that games like Dominant Species (an outstanding game, by the way) and Leaping Lemmings are wargames dressed up like Eurogames. Memoir 44 is an eurogame dressed up like a wargame. Multiple scenarios can be played on a blank (and therefore customizable) board. The game is driven by cards and dice, giving it an element of [player-managed] luck. Games play fast and the rules are not that difficult... additionally, people who often swear to not be into wargames seem to have a tendency to enjoy it. I'm not a huge fan myself but I can appreciate a good game design. This is a very brief writeup of the system used for it and the next game I am going to mention. Look to the BGG reviews for more info; I've only played about 6 real games of it. At ~USD50 for the base set (which is substantial) the game is something you may want to research but isn't so expensive [relatively speaking: boardgames aren't cheap, but they're comparable to video games] that you'll always have a bitter taste in your mouth about the cost.
Also from the designer of Memoir 44 is Commands and Colors! There's a whole host of these games; I've just linked to one of them. These are simple, fast strategy games.
I talked about Space Hulk at length in an earlier post. Set-up takes an annoyingly long time and this can easily be a deal-breaker when looking for a fun game for you and your gf. If you do go for it, hunt down a copy of the older version for USD50 or so. I paid a ridiculous USD100 for the new edition because I bought it as soon as it came out but it is now even more exorbitantly expensive and only of interest to collectors and Games Workshops enthusiasts.
If you want to start to get even more hardcore, look to one of two great options: Washington's War is one of my absolute favorite games. I talked about it a bit earlier in the thread. This is a Card-Driven Game, making it incredibly replayable. There are many games like it, but the beauty of this one is that it is simple (very few exceptions to the basic rules), set-up is fast and it is strategically very deep. Battles are decided by die roll so in coordination with the cards there is luck involved. Ultimately, this is a game of territory control (not dissimilar from Go!), with the armies as tools to that territory control. And once you know the game, it'll play in under 2 hours. It costs ~USD60.
and then there's Hammer of the Scots or Richard 3, both excellent entryways into block games. They both set up fast, are easy to grasp and play pretty quickly. Hammer of the Scots is older and considered a classic. Richard 3 has many very similar mechanics and plays faster. Lots of die rolling but tactical and strategic acumen are of paramount importance. Although there are those on BGG that would crucify me as a heretic, I think the newer Richard 3 is easier to learn. Both cost ~USD60 from the publisher (Columbia Games) but you often find them for ~USD40 elsewhere.
I ordered Space Empires 4X through the P500 system but unfortunately shipping was delayed through unavoidable circumstances outside of GMT's control and I have not yet received it. Supposedly it is pretty good with 2 players in testing but I don't know. I'll post my thoughts when I have something worthwhile to say on it.
I'd suggest going to your local games club (many games stores will double as this) and finding out when their games nights are and just playing some of these games there. You'll find some great people who'll be more than happy to help. You'll also find some... less helpful people, but that's par for the course. You play Starcraft. You understand.
Note: I'm bumping this thread rather than starting a new one because, to my mind, my post isn't worth a new thread; moreover the target audience would be the readers and contributors of this thread anyway. Oh, and I would be referencing it to boot.
That superb games company, GMT, is having their fall sale.
In short, GMT is offering 20% off all their games (not games by other companies sold through their website). This is in addition to any ongoing sales or specials that may be in effect for the games (e.g. from their specials page). For frequent customers such as myself, they're offering 50% off on a number of games equal to the number of P500 purchases + Show Spoiler +
(P500 games are GMT's clever pre-sale system. In essence, it allows them to check for interest, gives a discount for pre-orders to overly excited customers like myself and permits gamers to preview a game in development before deciding to buy it)
this year +1.
They're also reinstituting their unemployment offer, where, should you have lost your job recently, they will send you 2 games for free. There is also a 50% off offer for people who have been out of work for a long time.
Based on what people have said in thread before, I thought I'd post some quick thoughts on some of the games, except Urban Sprawl that I have yet to play. However, board game night soon!
Dominant Species might just be my new favorite multi-player (i.e. 3+) game. A startlingly clever game that appears complicated on the surface but actually plays very easily. Not simply, mind you. Strategically this game is vast and challenging; an ever-changing board makes it tactically interesting too. Thematically, each player guides one type of creature (Mammal, Insect, Reptile, Amphibian, Bird or Arachnid) to dominance as the ever-encroaching ice age squeezes the available territory and resources. Mechanically, you try to gather up VPs through controlling territory and resources. Each player has a limited number of Action Points that they allocate in a planning phase to decide all their actions the subsequent action phase. You can increase the number of pieces you have in play (possibly allowing you to dominate an area), move or add resources on the board, add territory to the board, attack each other and so on. Some people complain that the pieces are too utilitarian, but I actually really like their simple elegance. They communicate their purpose clearly and well. My only two complaints are their choice of terminology when describing who has control on a particular piece of territory ("Dominance" vs "Dominant"? Really?) and that the RAW mean the game is just a bit too long.+ Show Spoiler +
Please be aware that I don't mind games that are appropriately long. I play hardcore historical war simulations after all. But there's a difference between a long game and a game that plays too long. The RAW on this are the latter.
For Zocat, I'd highly recommend this as an option for that 5-6 player game you were looking for.
Space Empires was... well, let's just say I have mixed feelings about. It's a good game, but with just slightly too many details and pieces are just a bit too difficult to handle easily for all they need to do. It's much better suited to a computer game. I'm not saying don't get it. I know a good many people who love it. I'm just saying get a playtest in first. There's a lot of "hidden" information, but with chits instead of blocks (as popularized by the Block Game series of wargames), it can be really finicky to move units around and keep values hidden. It's a popular game at clubs, so finding someone to play it with shouldn't be too hard. The rules are excellent and while there are a few too many major random factors for a solid competitive game (oh crap! I unleashed a doomsday machine near my core worlds!), it still is a ton of fun. Setting up takes a while, and more frequently than one would like there's a snafu in moving pieces without revealing something (oop! you didn't see those cloaked units under there, did you?) or keeping track of what tech has been revealed on what units and which unit has what tech etc. For me, it's a game I play on occasion with good friends but it rarely hits the table. Rarely enough that with 20/20 hindsight, I probably wouldn't have bought the game and would have stuck to playing it at clubs. In fact, 5 of my 7 plays have been at the club.
And then there's Twilight Struggle. At long, long last I own this simply outstanding game. A 2-player card-driven game modeling the Cold War, it is nothing short of brilliant. The reprint's rules have an annoying number of typos and the section on scoring is poorly written, with some serious omissions (I had to look up a community-created player aid to actually have a chance of getting it right) but the game itself is superlative. It plays smoothly and quickly (though the game itself seems to sit in the 2-4 hour range), and is really challenging and fun. While not as overwhelming as Paths of Glory, there are sufficient options open to each player that is becomes much harder to easily predict your opponent's plans and movements and creating multiple threats and coercing your opponent to play into your hands is much more subtle than many other games of its type.
i suddenly remembered this thread today! its because of the OP that i bought my first boardgames (outside of monopoly and risk)! im slowly expanding my collection and plan to get more of the games mentioned here!
its just a really simple trivia slash gambling game, it can be taught and learned in less than 5 minutes. its great fun and can be played by by 3 to 20 (or more) players (you can play in teams)! i bring this out during family gatherings and even some house parties, people just love it! its the gambling (betting) aspect that excites people hehe there's an expansion pack that provides more trivia questions but i think its already out of print. there's a new version of this game recently released its called Wits and Wagers Party! definitely getting it the second its available here.
Settlers of Catan
an extremely popular game thats been thorougly discussed many times in this thread! i got introduced to this via this thread and bought my own copy still playing it every now and then, fun, simple and and friendly! thanks to the OP!
and this is shocking, i cant believe nobody mentioned this yet...
the first edition of this came out in the 1980s. the current incarnation is being produced by Fantasy Flight Games. they already have a lot of expansions packs (3 "big box" expansions and 4 "small box" expansions) the most recent one coming out just this year. my friends and i have been playing this game and its expansions everytime we can for the past few weeks, we cant get enough of it! this game rocks! the way i would describe it is that its an RPG slash RACING game. You get a random character, power him/her up by getting spells, fighting monsters and getting items (like in an RPG) and when you're strong enough you try to get to the center of the board and reach the "Crown of Command!" while the other players will be trying to get ahead of you (this is the "racing" aspect) by slowing you down and trying killing you >_< every expansion adds more characters and sometimes a whole new board that contains a new area (such as a dungeon!) that attaches to the main gameboard, how cool is that!?
my other friends describe at as a cross between DnD and Snakes and Ladders (lol?) but we all agree its very fun to play if you're into fantasy and adventure and if you enjoy RPGs and Player v. Player then you'll this
also the gameboard comes with miniatures (that represent the characters) and im starting to want to get into minipainting just to paint them and make them look awesome! tl;dr im really addicted to this game right now coz its really good, get it too! :D
one genius game that wasent mentioned yet is Innovation, a card game where you rise trough the epochs of mankinds development from stoneage to computerization, you build your civilization with the cards you get (each one represents one invention) which makes for near infinite replayability because your cards interact with each other.
One culture might make lots of points by starting out with the wheel, working its way up trough algebra , astronomy into bioengineering , while anotehr player might try to destroy the board with fire , archery , steam engines and nuclear fission.
best played with 3-4 players, i recommend you check it out.
On August 20 2012 17:56 Irratonalys wrote: one genius game that wasent mentioned yet is Innovation, a card game where you rise trough the epochs of mankinds development from stoneage to computerization, you build your civilization with the cards you get (each one represents one invention) which makes for near infinite replayability because your cards interact with each other.
One culture might make lots of points by starting out with the wheel, working its way up trough algebra , astronomy into bioengineering , while anotehr player might try to destroy the board with fire , archery , steam engines and nuclear fission.
best played with 3-4 players, i recommend you check it out.
On July 05 2011 22:58 Fumble wrote: Anyone have any recommendation for a good 2 player board game? It doesnt have to specifically cater to 2 players but I find games that are tailored for it to be more advanced.
Im looking for something that is mostly skill based but can still have a luck factor. Like im aware that a lot of board games deal with dice rolling or card drawing so its unavoidable and im fine with games such as mahjong where luck is a factor. But I want a game also like mahjong where decision making and skill can impact the outcome of the game and an experienced/better player will win majority of the time.
I've been looking at Carcassonne. It sounds like an interesting game and I can see the strategic elements. But I guess im looking for something more advanced. I noticed the Starcraft board game, wondering if thats actually a good game or if teamliquid members are just biased towards it.
Im never been a big board game player. I've only played the most mainstream ones like monopoly or risk. This thread kind of got me curious about trying other board games out but I dont want to invest like 100 dollars into a board game already. Which is why board games like starcraft might not be ideal for me.
Thanks if anyone can make any recommendations for me.
Paths of Glory is the single best boardgame I have played, hands down. It is highly complex, but still a 'casual' wargame (if such a term exists). It is basically a very complex version of Risk. You don't have to be an armchar general to appreciate its grand strategy.
It is about world war 1. One player is Central Powers and one is the Allies (the Entente). It is a card-driven game (CDG) which is very good since it has all the deck-building elements and strategies of games like Dominion, but that is only one part of the game, then there is all the movement and combat of armies.
The full game scenario takes about 8 hours for new players, once you've played some 10+ games you can usualy nail it around 4-5 hours, and then even less.
It is highly historical, but of course alot of "what-ifs" and you are free to pursue the war in any way you want. For example, you can aim to bring down the Tsar early or bring in America as early as possible, delay the entry of Italy, send serbians into germany, etc.. since it is so epic-spanning, the strategies are endless and you can truly never master it, yet it is perfectly balanced (esp. with the official Historical Variant) so that while there are dice rolls, truly the most strategic player wins.
I've had some epic games where the germans had conquered everything in france except paris, and they sieged paris for about a whole year untill it eventually was grinded down, only to be reconquered by combined forces of british and americans when they arrived in late 1917. In another game the germans hardly touched france, they only occupied a few spaces in france but rather sent nearly all their focus on Russia to bring the Tsar down as quickly as possible to avoid the dreaded two-front war.
Once you've played it, any other boardgame feels boring. (Except maybe twilight struggle, another ace)
I played Eclipse the other day. It's a strategy/economy game of galactic conquest. You can play as Terrans or multiple alien races with different strengths or weaknesses. You explore and seize new galaxies to harvest resources from, research new technologies, build battle spaceships, customize and equip them to your liking, and send them to conquer territory. The combat system works by rolling dice and involves ships of multiple different types with very customizable abilities. The player who has the most victory points after nine turns wins. Victory points can be gained in battle, by researching technologies, by forcefully taking artifacts from neutral civilizations, and by holding territory. Both an aggressive militaristic style and a defensive, economy-based approach can lead to victory. The game is very complex. There's a fuckton of rules and pieces to set up, and the game takes 30-60 minutes per player to complete, so you better make sure that players are serious. However, gameplay is very rewarding. There are lots of options and possible courses of action to prioritize to make the best of your limited resources. Attaching a fat new plasma cannon or shield generator to your ships and sending them to battle is a lot of fun. It was the first time playing for all four of us, and we all agreed Eclipse is a fantastic game. I'm very much looking forward to playing again.
Paths of Glory looks amazing; shame it's so expensive (on amazon anyway).
Seeing as this is a board game thread, and it hasn't been mentioned yet, I thought I'd point out Wil Wheaton's show TableTop. First episode had Day[9] as a guest, which is how I first heard of the show (via the thread on TL).
Eclipse is awesome, however there are some elements I just don't like.. for example, the strength of each alien race is highly dependent on the players mindset. Also the luck factor, for example, drawing the über hull-upgrade early on lets you easily crush any ancients, and drawing a supernova as the Hylden (? the science guys) gives you such a huge advantage.
In our games everyone is usually quite defensive, because the first player who invades someone else usually just gets stabbed in the back. Untill the last rounds, because then it's pure chaos.
The luck factor in the dice is also quite infuriating, but I guess not much to do.
Still its a game with great quality and probably my second favorite 3+ player game after agricola.
On August 20 2012 20:18 Shiragaku wrote: Monopoly can be a surprisingly competitive and game of skill if you play it right and get past relying on the dice to do your work.
I do not understand this, can you elaborate? In my opinion it's nothing but basic concept and soo much dice luck, but I'll be glad to be convinced otherwise.
On August 20 2012 20:18 Shiragaku wrote: Monopoly can be a surprisingly competitive and game of skill if you play it right and get past relying on the dice to do your work.
I do not understand this, can you elaborate? In my opinion it's nothing but basic concept and soo much dice luck, but I'll be glad to be convinced otherwise.
The vast majority (easily over 90%) of people play monopoly wrong, and don't follow the rules in the booklet.
The real monopoly game has an auction system which adds strategy and is designed to shorten gametime. Because people in general don't know/care about this rule, Monopoly becomes the massive grindfest of 4 hours where people keep going in circles until they get bored with it.
You can actually be good at "real" monopoly, but the game that most people play has no skill to it.
On August 20 2012 20:18 Shiragaku wrote: Monopoly can be a surprisingly competitive and game of skill if you play it right and get past relying on the dice to do your work.
I do not understand this, can you elaborate? In my opinion it's nothing but basic concept and soo much dice luck, but I'll be glad to be convinced otherwise.
The vast majority (easily over 90%) of people play monopoly wrong, and don't follow the rules in the booklet.
The real monopoly game has an auction system which adds strategy and is designed to shorten gametime. Because people in general don't know/care about this rule, Monopoly becomes the massive grindfest of 4 hours where people keep going in circles until they get bored with it.
You can actually be good at "real" monopoly, but the game that most people play has no skill to it.
This is the most important rule that people look over:
BUYING PROPERTY Top of Page
Whenever you land on an unowned property you may buy that property from the Bank at its printed price. You receive the Title Deed card showing ownership. Place the title deed card face up in front of you. If you do not wish to buy the property, the Bank sells it at through an auction to the highest bidder. The high bidder pays the Bank the amount of the bid in cash and receives the Title Deed card for that property. Any player, including the one who declined the option to buy it at the printed price, may bid. Bidding may start at any price.
Other than that, people creating a pot for the free parking space are unnecessarily extending the game time too with an unfair way to get ahead or get out of trouble.
Back when I was in college (3 months ago ha!) my roommate and I held a weekly board game night with a few of our close friends and coworkers. We played a lot of the games mentioned in the OP like: Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan, and Dominion.
On August 20 2012 20:18 Shiragaku wrote: Monopoly can be a surprisingly competitive and game of skill if you play it right and get past relying on the dice to do your work.
I do not understand this, can you elaborate? In my opinion it's nothing but basic concept and soo much dice luck, but I'll be glad to be convinced otherwise.
The vast majority (easily over 90%) of people play monopoly wrong, and don't follow the rules in the booklet.
The real monopoly game has an auction system which adds strategy and is designed to shorten gametime. Because people in general don't know/care about this rule, Monopoly becomes the massive grindfest of 4 hours where people keep going in circles until they get bored with it.
You can actually be good at "real" monopoly, but the game that most people play has no skill to it.
This is the most important rule that people look over:
BUYING PROPERTY Top of Page
Whenever you land on an unowned property you may buy that property from the Bank at its printed price. You receive the Title Deed card showing ownership. Place the title deed card face up in front of you. If you do not wish to buy the property, the Bank sells it at through an auction to the highest bidder. The high bidder pays the Bank the amount of the bid in cash and receives the Title Deed card for that property. Any player, including the one who declined the option to buy it at the printed price, may bid. Bidding may start at any price.
Other than that, people creating a pot for the free parking space are unnecessarily extending the game time too with an unfair way to get ahead or get out of trouble.
Sadly, when you try to use that tactic, people often get annoyed and call you a tryhard. It is like Halo, a very competitive game but people do not realize it. However, playing with students of economics can be really fun.
On August 20 2012 20:18 Shiragaku wrote: Monopoly can be a surprisingly competitive and game of skill if you play it right and get past relying on the dice to do your work.
I do not understand this, can you elaborate? In my opinion it's nothing but basic concept and soo much dice luck, but I'll be glad to be convinced otherwise.
The vast majority (easily over 90%) of people play monopoly wrong, and don't follow the rules in the booklet.
The real monopoly game has an auction system which adds strategy and is designed to shorten gametime. Because people in general don't know/care about this rule, Monopoly becomes the massive grindfest of 4 hours where people keep going in circles until they get bored with it.
You can actually be good at "real" monopoly, but the game that most people play has no skill to it.
This is the most important rule that people look over:
BUYING PROPERTY Top of Page
Whenever you land on an unowned property you may buy that property from the Bank at its printed price. You receive the Title Deed card showing ownership. Place the title deed card face up in front of you. If you do not wish to buy the property, the Bank sells it at through an auction to the highest bidder. The high bidder pays the Bank the amount of the bid in cash and receives the Title Deed card for that property. Any player, including the one who declined the option to buy it at the printed price, may bid. Bidding may start at any price.
Other than that, people creating a pot for the free parking space are unnecessarily extending the game time too with an unfair way to get ahead or get out of trouble.
Sadly, when you try to use that tactic, people often get annoyed and call you a tryhard. It is like Halo, a very competitive game but people do not realize it. However, playing with students of economics can be really fun.
What's the significance behind that rule? Whenever I play with people, they just buy anything they land on and the issue never even comes up. Or are you saying it's advantageous to let it go to auction in some cases?
On August 20 2012 20:18 Shiragaku wrote: Monopoly can be a surprisingly competitive and game of skill if you play it right and get past relying on the dice to do your work.
I do not understand this, can you elaborate? In my opinion it's nothing but basic concept and soo much dice luck, but I'll be glad to be convinced otherwise.
The vast majority (easily over 90%) of people play monopoly wrong, and don't follow the rules in the booklet.
The real monopoly game has an auction system which adds strategy and is designed to shorten gametime. Because people in general don't know/care about this rule, Monopoly becomes the massive grindfest of 4 hours where people keep going in circles until they get bored with it.
You can actually be good at "real" monopoly, but the game that most people play has no skill to it.
This is the most important rule that people look over:
BUYING PROPERTY Top of Page
Whenever you land on an unowned property you may buy that property from the Bank at its printed price. You receive the Title Deed card showing ownership. Place the title deed card face up in front of you. If you do not wish to buy the property, the Bank sells it at through an auction to the highest bidder. The high bidder pays the Bank the amount of the bid in cash and receives the Title Deed card for that property. Any player, including the one who declined the option to buy it at the printed price, may bid. Bidding may start at any price.
Other than that, people creating a pot for the free parking space are unnecessarily extending the game time too with an unfair way to get ahead or get out of trouble.
Sadly, when you try to use that tactic, people often get annoyed and call you a tryhard. It is like Halo, a very competitive game but people do not realize it. However, playing with students of economics can be really fun.
What's the significance behind that rule? Whenever I play with people, they just buy anything they land on and the issue never even comes up. Or are you saying it's advantageous to let it go to auction in some cases?
You can get properties for cheaper. There are spaces that are mathematically superior to others, so if you can pass over bad places and let people waste money on them (or you get them cheap), you can get a big advantage.
Dominion is insanely good. Everyone should play it :X
Is there anyway to play risk like the stock boardgame (none of that shitty fake shit) online with other people? Like it would be sick if we got a TL risk game going (legit risk, you move pieces and roll dice etc).
Some people demonize Twilight Imperium, true it takes long but not that long. And its awesome, here is equation to estimate how long the game will take.
Everything in hours:
Base = numbers of players +1 with Imperial Stragtegy Card: -1 with Councilors option: +1 with distant suns option: +1 playing for the first time +1 (+2 sometimes)
So 6players with two expansions but without distant suns and councilors = 7 hours which is reasonable for advanced boardgamers, its nowehere close 20hours mentioned in this thread.
Man I completely forgot this thread existed. I've finally started playing boardgames.
I picked up Hawaii and I have to say it's an excellent game if you like strategy. I've only played 1vs1 so far and the conclusion have been that it seems it would be even more fun with more people, so I guess I'll make an expanded post with more information about the game later on. In short, though, it's pure strategy with no randomness (apart from the setup) on your decisions. No pesky dice or other silly nonsense
I enjoyed arkham the first times I played it, but then it got kinda boring, I find the game mechanics to be boring. The quality is awesome though, the atmosphere is superb, but it just isn't interesting enough. Plus, I never understod how the otherworlds can be easier/"friendlier" than arkham itself, which I feel is wierd.
I love board games, this thread is a great inspiration!
Having all the experts here: which board game comes closest to the browsergame weewar.com? It is basically turn based strategy like Panzer General - stone/scissors/paper unit war game on an hexagonal shaped map with towns to capture where you can build additional troops. Very strategical. Just check the website and spectate a running game for a few seconds - you immediately see what I am looking for.
More strategical and less rng and territorial control based than risk.
On August 27 2012 19:45 Artrey wrote: I love board games, this thread is a great inspiration!
Having all the experts here: which board game comes closest to the browsergame weewar.com? It is basically turn based strategy like Panzer General - stone/scissors/paper unit war game on an hexagonal shaped map with towns to capture where you can build additional troops. Very strategical. Just check the website and spectate a running game for a few seconds - you immediately see what I am looking for.
More strategical and less rng and territorial control based than risk.
Edit: I guess there's quite a bit of RNG in that you throw dice for hits in Memoir (something that turns me off personally), but it's still a great game.
I worked on a SC2 version of GO, but of course, I never finished it. Like everything I do (T.T is my middle name XD). The problems was all the language stuff that will get you errors and are just a lot of silly work. Also, multiplayer testing is not possible alone, so I had to ask someone all the time (or get 2 accounts run at the same time).
This is one of my favourite games. Its not for the faint hearted because it can take forever if you play with people who procrastinate. It's basically a much superior/more complex version of risk with armies, multiple types of units to buy and A NINJA! Theres a massive amount of alliances and backstabbing that can will take place which leads to a lot of fun.
The only issue is getting enough people together for 5+ hours to get a good game in.
Its recently been re-released as Ikusa and is also called Samurai Swords on some of the older boards.
I played now 3 times the Game of thrones board game and deffinetely recommend it if you can gather 4 to 6 players
The amount of backstabbing and broken alliances at the last minute is just hilarious , the game shines when you play 5 or 6 though , if theres less Baratheon has easy time to take the south and win.
I also recommend FORMULA D , is the best racing board game ever and you have lots of circuits to buy!
On August 27 2012 20:57 Meatloaf wrote: I played now 3 times the Game of thrones board game and deffinetely recommend it if you can gather 4 to 6 players
The amount of backstabbing and broken alliances at the last minute is just hilarious , the game shines when you play 5 or 6 though , if theres less Baratheon has easy time to take the south and win.
I also recommend FORMULA D , is the best racing board game ever and you have lots of circuits to buy!
I asked on last page if the GoT board game has spoilers in it for those who haven't read the books.
Can you confirm whether there are any spoilers in the board game?
On August 27 2012 20:57 Meatloaf wrote: I played now 3 times the Game of thrones board game and deffinetely recommend it if you can gather 4 to 6 players
The amount of backstabbing and broken alliances at the last minute is just hilarious , the game shines when you play 5 or 6 though , if theres less Baratheon has easy time to take the south and win.
I also recommend FORMULA D , is the best racing board game ever and you have lots of circuits to buy!
I asked on last page if the GoT board game has spoilers in it for those who haven't read the books.
Can you confirm whether there are any spoilers in the board game?
well you have the characters cards with some quotes in the bottom. But I dont remember any of them being major spoilers of anything.
Its actually a mixture of Risk and Diplomacy ,its like diplomacy in that everyone declares orders "hidden" and theres little to no luck involved in the outcome of battles/politics.Its mostly a game of politics , armies and conquering territories so you wont get massive spoilers from the story in the books/series in any way I think.
On August 27 2012 19:08 Silvanel wrote: Some people demonize Twilight Imperium, true it takes long but not that long. And its awesome, here is equation to estimate how long the game will take.
Everything in hours:
Base = numbers of players +1 with Imperial Stragtegy Card: -1 with Councilors option: +1 with distant suns option: +1 playing for the first time +1 (+2 sometimes)
So 6players with two expansions but without distant suns and councilors = 7 hours which is reasonable for advanced boardgamers, its nowehere close 20hours mentioned in this thread.
You forgot the factor of *2, which has to be applied to the base if you have indecisive players (and no one who keeps the game going)
Lately, we have mostly been playing with 3 players, and thus my experience is limited, but do councilors actually add that much for you? When we were using them, usually an certain configuration of councilors would always be played, namely the ones immune to killing, or anything that can potentially give you a bonus, but can't be killed. But that was probably due to our 3 player games, as it's almost impossible there to get so many points via a councilor to win against the two others combined
On August 21 2012 10:34 Ratch! wrote: Try playing Scrabble in your second language (obviously in that language edition)
Interestingly, many top-level (English) Scrabble players don't speak English at all, they just memorized the acceptable word lists. Scrabble is no fun when you're terrible at it, reasonably fun when you're average at it, and crushingly fun-less when you're really good at it.
On June 29 2011 04:53 semioldguy wrote: I've played most of the games mentioned in the thread here. I hold a weekly, or sometimes twice a week, board game night at my place where we play a lot of these games (anyone in the San Diego area is always welcome to join us)
On August 27 2012 23:22 Dknight wrote: What are some good 2 player games? Need something new to play with my girlfriend. Zombie related would be awesome.
On August 27 2012 19:45 Artrey wrote: I love board games, this thread is a great inspiration!
Having all the experts here: which board game comes closest to the browsergame weewar.com? It is basically turn based strategy like Panzer General - stone/scissors/paper unit war game on an hexagonal shaped map with towns to capture where you can build additional troops. Very strategical. Just check the website and spectate a running game for a few seconds - you immediately see what I am looking for.
More strategical and less rng and territorial control based than risk.
Edit: I guess there's quite a bit of RNG in that you throw dice for hits in Memoir (something that turns me off personally), but it's still a great game.
Looks pretty cool, I'll get back to that one. But I agree with you, something without rolls would be preferred. After some googleing, I am actually surprised that it seems like nobody brought a direct adaption of the weewar concept to a board game yet.
Man, I always wanted to buy Starcraft The Board Game, then they stopped producing it and suddenly it was impossible to buy
My list:
Twilight Imperium Descent Agricola Warhammer Invasion Stronghold Anima Talisman Lord of the Rings
Might have forgotten a couple of games. My favourite one is Twilight Imperium, although I've only played it twice, and we never did finish it. Agricola is my most played game, it's simple enough, and fun.
My university friends like to get together a couple times every year for a "serious" board-gaming night, and it's always a fantastic event. We have the popular ones like Risk, Monopoly, Settlers of Catan, and Ticket to Ride (both NA and EU map versions). We also tried Power Grid, Diplomacy and Agricola. There's one more game that I vaguely remember playing but I don't remember the name of it... it involved picking like 5 cards out of a deck that you customize, which had resource cards worth 1/2/3 that you can buy stuff with, the end goal was to have the highest total value somehow, yeah... don't remember the name.
Diplomacy was my favourite though, I remember one game where I got Turkey, allied with Russia, then backstabbed one friend per turn for 3 turns to eat my territory westward while my Russia friend was busy defending his western front. I eventually ate the entire map clockwise and won LOL oh the fun times.
On August 28 2012 05:19 OpticalShot wrote: My university friends like to get together a couple times every year for a "serious" board-gaming night, and it's always a fantastic event. We have the popular ones like Risk, Monopoly, Settlers of Catan, and Ticket to Ride (both NA and EU map versions). We also tried Power Grid, Diplomacy and Agricola. There's one more game that I vaguely remember playing but I don't remember the name of it... it involved picking like 5 cards out of a deck that you customize, which had resource cards worth 1/2/3 that you can buy stuff with, the end goal was to have the highest total value somehow, yeah... don't remember the name.
My favourite is Princes of Florence with Agricola close 2nd. In PoF I really like the auction system, as when you play it with same ppl, it will balance different strats itself.
Totally awesome game. In principle it is the Napoleonic Wars and you can play as France, England, Russia, Prussia, Austria, Spain and Turkey. You are completely free to do whatever you want in the game, goal is to be the first to reach a set number of victory points, which can be gained by forging alliances, winning battles, etc. but stuff like breaking alliances or declaring war will cost you points. So you have to be careful what you do.
The game can take for weeks since the grand campaign which involves all nations ranges from 1805 to 1814 whith every month being one turn. The game is fascinating but can also be quite difficult since it is very detailed, which often leads to discussion about the rules, which in turn is sometimes more interesting than the game itself.
This is game where you need the right people, who are really into these kinds of strategy game but then its great. In our old group we ended up making in game contracts which copuld be several pages long, so you had to be really good at negotiating stuff and being diplomatic with the right guys.
It is a great combination between diplomacy and strategic movement of troops and the right battle tactics.
I've played many of the games listed here. Here are some thoughts on those listed:
I like Dominion but it has some flaws. Decisions are often reduced based on card interactions from other players and as mentioned before opponents who have a certain agenda/play style set the pace of the game, not ones own decisions. Also, recovering M:tG players often only want to play Dominion. As someone who has a large collection and likes playing a diversity of games this can sometimes be a problem. It's a game that has some brilliant mechanics but I don't end up playing it more than a few times a year.
7 Wonders has one of the best mechanics I've seen to handle large groups of gamers. It's a game that takes the same amount of time to play with 1 player as with 7. The only downside is people not paying enough attention to the sets neighboring players are building and denying appropriate cards. All in all a fun game.
Puerto Rico has some pretty strong replay-ability as one can win by one of a few strategies (builder-centric, shipping centric, hybrid). Very little luck is involved however the rigid turn order can limit ones options. I do like the mechanic where everyone benefits from most actions (save the prospector).
Small World has most often been described to me as "Fantasy Risk". I find this description apt. It has some differing mechanics that I like from the races/powers that change game mechanics to the tactical choice of when to go into decline. The biggest reason this has gone out of favor is the hidden victory points. In my opinion, players more often make emotional choices as to whom to attack over the "best" choice making counting points a necessity for everyone. If playing with a group that is of varying skill levels the emotional decision making happens more often.
Power Grid is a nice auction game that has good elements of resource and economy management. The expansion maps/plants help make the game more replay-able for me.
Settlers of Catan is a good "gateway drug" board game. It's light enough to be accessible to people who don't game often but complex enough that people need to think out their turns and see where others can potentially pull victory points from. I'd say Carcassonne falls into the same category.
Merchants & Marauders is a game that I'm still finding as fun as the first time I've played it, however I did play it incorrectly the first few play throughs. I inadvertently thought event cards came with each players turn, not each round so things cycled rather quickly. I'd be interested to hear what semioldguy's thoughts are on the NPC ships and how little they interact with the board. They moved enough with accelerated events but it seems like not enough without.
Cosmic Encounter is a game I've been playing since the mid-90's. I was lucky enough to find a cheap Mayfair edition with all the expansions a couple years ago. How are the expansions in the new version compared to the Mayfair one?
Here are a few game recommendations that haven't been talked about or talked about in depth:
Caylus: Great turn mechanics, plenty to do, interesting game throttle. Many different elements come together to make a good worker placement game. Elements of this have even been incorporated into the new-ish Wizards of the Coast worker placement fantasy game "Lords of Waterdeep".
At the Gates of Loyang: good economic game by game designing golden boy Uwe Rosenberg. Cards that boost your economy or interaction are chosen at the beginning of the round then you set to planting goods in your fields and selling goods at market to regular and irregular customers. I like the random but not too random element of it as well as the scoring system (pay 1 cash to progress 1 vp/turn, then have an option to pay extra money based on what vp spot you'd move to).
Amun Re is a good auction game that doesn't feel like it drags on too much. I like how the different stages of the game are paced around auctions and farming.
Alhambra is a very accessible but strategic game based around purchasing 6 different flavors of building tiles to add to ones Alhambra. Players compete to gain the most of each of the 6 by the time each of 3 scoring rounds appear. This game is pretty similar to Ticket to Ride as you spend a lot of time accumulating the proper cards in your hand before you act. Conversely, you're rewarded with an extra action for buying a building tile with exact change which adds an interesting element to the game.
London is another economic game where one is working to rebuild London after the Great Fire. Players add cards to their building display to decrease poverty, increase money, etc. but by running their city each column adds to their poverty as do their hand. The game becomes a balance between doing actions that reduce poverty like buying districts and running their city to gain victory points & money.
Fearsome Floors is a pretty light hearted game where players are pitted with getting their pieces out of a castle run by a maniacal mad scientist. It's pretty accessible to new gamers/not strategic minded gamers but adds enough elements of cooperation and interaction where players can either collude to keep their pieces alive with other players or make a deal and backstab. Each player has a few tokens each double sided with 2 numbers totaling 7. Once the token moves the printed value on one side it flips over to move the other number (or less) the subsequent turn. While the players scramble to get their tokens off the board there is a monster that is trying to eat everyone in their way.
Peleponnes is a great pseudo-auction game where players each try to expand their civilization by adding their choice of many building tiles or land tiles each turn. These tiles add to their resources which allow them to build buildings or eventually accumulate luxury goods which add flexibility. Along the way one of five natural disasters happen which affect each civilization, as well as harvests which can wipe out populations if you don't have enough to feed your populous. An added benefit is the game takes less than an hour to play.
Some party games: Celebrity and Telephone-Pictionary both have good "board game" variants in Time's Up! and Telestrations. There's also a (in my opinion) better version of Apples to Apples called Say Anything where people use white boards to answer reader questions instead of pre-set cards dealt out randomly. This allows the game to turn more into a "get to know you" game and eliminates the imbalance of "power cards" some social circles deem "auto-win".
I'm always up for board gaming if there are other like minded people in the Washington DC area.
Just wanted to say that anyone who lives in Toronto or ever visits Toronto should check out the cafe Snakes and Lattes which is basically huge board game café which has pretty much every board game that has been mentioned at least, and servers that can explain any game that you don't know to you in a very simple way. It's one of my favourite places to take people in Toronto, and is easily accessible from the transit system.
One Swedish board game I really like is Svea Rike (Which means "Kingdom of Svea", old name of Sweden). I don't think it has been translated into English, but if it ever gets translated (Or that you one day learn Swedish), I absolutely recommend that you give it a try. While learning the rules in the first place might be hard, it is easy to play once you learned them.
In short, in the game each player controls a family (I don't know a better translation for the Swedish word "ätt") over the course of 16 regents lifetime's and the goal is to gain as much power as possible before the game ends. There is lots of strategy involved in this, since you have to decide what actions should you do to get as much power as possible.
While it's playable with 2 persons, the more persons that plays the better, especially in war-times
Hi I'm a huge boardgame fan I've played most of games listed here. Since I'm from Czech my alltime favorites are from the author Vlaada Chavatil games like Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization, Galaxy Trucker, Mage Knight: Board Game Anyone heard or played waiting for opinions: ))
I think most boardgames I love and loved to play are already mentioned but one: as a kid i got Omega Virus and it has a "computer" on the board that tells you what happened and insults (on a kids level) the players. A few years ago I saw it on ebay for 1€ and bought it and it was quite fun for some Nostalgia.
Also the best game I played in the last year is DixIt, similar to nobody is perfect but without all the writing-hassle and more creativity. I am at work and can't write a decent review or explanation but it is the only game that I know that takes like 1 minute to explain, does not really favor veterans over new players but still requires all your creativity and knowledge about the other players.
I played 'uluru' for the first time last week. Not a game for when you are a bit tired and drunk. And really, really harsh on the first-time-players.
And we had another session of Twilight Imperium, which I won. Got lucky with my secret objective and the player with the warsun race never chose to flatten my HW but preferred to camp on Metacol Rex.
princes of florence is probably my best auction game. I wish i could play it online. It's probably the best mind game too as you can try to play your opponent's game by trying to raise items but beware it can be a game breaker too. Anyway everyone should try it if they can find a copy.
I'm curious what TL would suggest for cooperative, or at least non-directly competitive boardgames. My housemates and I are all getting more into board games, but one of my friends gets really frustrated when losing games like Game of Thrones or Munchkin. He doesn't like the direct opposition and so doesn't enjoy the games.
Personally, I'd rather steer us towards games that are still competitive, but you don't directly "fuck with" the other players. I'm thinking games like Puerto Rico and Agricola (haven't played, just going by the reviews) and would love other suggestions in that category.
Also, if there are any strait up cooperative games that are simply amazing, I'd love to hear about those as well.
On September 29 2012 14:10 Critter wrote: I'm curious what TL would suggest for cooperative, or at least non-directly competitive boardgames. My housemates and I are all getting more into board games, but one of my friends gets really frustrated when losing games like Game of Thrones or Munchkin. He doesn't like the direct opposition and so doesn't enjoy the games.
Personally, I'd rather steer us towards games that are still competitive, but you don't directly "fuck with" the other players. I'm thinking games like Puerto Rico and Agricola (haven't played, just going by the reviews) and would love other suggestions in that category.
Also, if there are any strait up cooperative games that are simply amazing, I'd love to hear about those as well.
Well I would suggest something like Battlestar Galactica my favorite co-op(best in 5 players) and then we have Arkham Horror which doesn't include the "traitor" mechanic. Those two are pretty long shorter ones are Ghost Stories or Pandemic.
Games from Uwe Rosenberg (Agrocola, Le Havre, Ora et Labora) don't have much direct player interaction generally euro games have the feeling everyone plays on his turf another author I like is Stefan Feld(The Castles of Burgundy, In the Year of the Dragon, Macao, Notre Dame)
On September 29 2012 14:10 Critter wrote: I'm curious what TL would suggest for cooperative, or at least non-directly competitive boardgames. My housemates and I are all getting more into board games, but one of my friends gets really frustrated when losing games like Game of Thrones or Munchkin. He doesn't like the direct opposition and so doesn't enjoy the games.
Personally, I'd rather steer us towards games that are still competitive, but you don't directly "fuck with" the other players. I'm thinking games like Puerto Rico and Agricola (haven't played, just going by the reviews) and would love other suggestions in that category.
Also, if there are any strait up cooperative games that are simply amazing, I'd love to hear about those as well.
On September 29 2012 14:10 Critter wrote: I'm curious what TL would suggest for cooperative, or at least non-directly competitive boardgames. My housemates and I are all getting more into board games, but one of my friends gets really frustrated when losing games like Game of Thrones or Munchkin. He doesn't like the direct opposition and so doesn't enjoy the games.
Personally, I'd rather steer us towards games that are still competitive, but you don't directly "fuck with" the other players. I'm thinking games like Puerto Rico and Agricola (haven't played, just going by the reviews) and would love other suggestions in that category.
Also, if there are any strait up cooperative games that are simply amazing, I'd love to hear about those as well.
Pandemic is quite good. Cooperate and save the world from deadly diseases before time runs out.
On September 29 2012 14:10 Critter wrote: I'm curious what TL would suggest for cooperative, or at least non-directly competitive boardgames. My housemates and I are all getting more into board games, but one of my friends gets really frustrated when losing games like Game of Thrones or Munchkin. He doesn't like the direct opposition and so doesn't enjoy the games.
Personally, I'd rather steer us towards games that are still competitive, but you don't directly "fuck with" the other players. I'm thinking games like Puerto Rico and Agricola (haven't played, just going by the reviews) and would love other suggestions in that category.
Also, if there are any strait up cooperative games that are simply amazing, I'd love to hear about those as well.
Pandemic is quite good. Cooperate and save the world from deadly diseases before time runs out.
Also quite good: Arkham Horror. Work together to save the world from the Elder Gods!
On September 29 2012 14:10 Critter wrote: I'm curious what TL would suggest for cooperative, or at least non-directly competitive boardgames. My housemates and I are all getting more into board games, but one of my friends gets really frustrated when losing games like Game of Thrones or Munchkin. He doesn't like the direct opposition and so doesn't enjoy the games.
Personally, I'd rather steer us towards games that are still competitive, but you don't directly "fuck with" the other players. I'm thinking games like Puerto Rico and Agricola (haven't played, just going by the reviews) and would love other suggestions in that category.
Also, if there are any strait up cooperative games that are simply amazing, I'd love to hear about those as well.
Pandemic is quite good. Cooperate and save the world from deadly diseases before time runs out.
Also quite good: Arkham Horror. Work together to save the world from the Elder Gods!
Never actually played it myself. We tried playing Arkham Horror together with all the expansions one time. However, the setup time was literally a Lovecraftian horror, so we figured "fuck that" and played Smallworld instead :D. But yeah, everyone says it's a classic so it's probably highly recommended..
On September 29 2012 14:10 Critter wrote: I'm curious what TL would suggest for cooperative, or at least non-directly competitive boardgames. My housemates and I are all getting more into board games, but one of my friends gets really frustrated when losing games like Game of Thrones or Munchkin. He doesn't like the direct opposition and so doesn't enjoy the games.
Personally, I'd rather steer us towards games that are still competitive, but you don't directly "fuck with" the other players. I'm thinking games like Puerto Rico and Agricola (haven't played, just going by the reviews) and would love other suggestions in that category.
Also, if there are any strait up cooperative games that are simply amazing, I'd love to hear about those as well.
Puerto Rico, or perhaps even Dominion tbh. Attacks are global, so you dont feel targeted personally. Phase-picking might not directly target other players, but its clearly an important part of the game to mess up other players phases. Otherwise I second Pandemic, hands down the best co-op game I played. Arkham requires a certain kind of persons to play :p
On September 29 2012 14:10 Critter wrote: I'm curious what TL would suggest for cooperative, or at least non-directly competitive boardgames. My housemates and I are all getting more into board games, but one of my friends gets really frustrated when losing games like Game of Thrones or Munchkin. He doesn't like the direct opposition and so doesn't enjoy the games.
Personally, I'd rather steer us towards games that are still competitive, but you don't directly "fuck with" the other players. I'm thinking games like Puerto Rico and Agricola (haven't played, just going by the reviews) and would love other suggestions in that category.
Also, if there are any strait up cooperative games that are simply amazing, I'd love to hear about those as well.
Pandemic is quite good. Cooperate and save the world from deadly diseases before time runs out.
Also quite good: Arkham Horror. Work together to save the world from the Elder Gods!
Never actually played it myself. We tried playing Arkham Horror together with all the expansions one time. However, the setup time was literally a Lovecraftian horror, so we figured "fuck that" and played Smallworld instead :D. But yeah, everyone says it's a classic so it's probably highly recommended..
The game has a stunning atmosphere if you read the lore on the cards and your character. Yea the setup can by annoying but if the game is well packed and if you prepared it for the x-time it gets pretty fast. :D Talking about smallworld anybody played the new expansion realms?
On September 29 2012 14:10 Critter wrote: I'm curious what TL would suggest for cooperative, or at least non-directly competitive boardgames. My housemates and I are all getting more into board games, but one of my friends gets really frustrated when losing games like Game of Thrones or Munchkin. He doesn't like the direct opposition and so doesn't enjoy the games.
Personally, I'd rather steer us towards games that are still competitive, but you don't directly "fuck with" the other players. I'm thinking games like Puerto Rico and Agricola (haven't played, just going by the reviews) and would love other suggestions in that category.
Also, if there are any strait up cooperative games that are simply amazing, I'd love to hear about those as well.
Pandemic is quite good. Cooperate and save the world from deadly diseases before time runs out.
Also quite good: Arkham Horror. Work together to save the world from the Elder Gods!
Never actually played it myself. We tried playing Arkham Horror together with all the expansions one time. However, the setup time was literally a Lovecraftian horror, so we figured "fuck that" and played Smallworld instead :D. But yeah, everyone says it's a classic so it's probably highly recommended..
The game has a stunning atmosphere if you read the lore on the cards and your character. Yea the setup can by annoying but if the game is well packed and if you prepared it for the x-time it gets pretty fast. :D Talking about smallworld anybody played the new expansion realms?
Took em out of a gaming bar last time I was at a convention to take a peek. Didnt play with them, but the overall feeling was that the races was stronger than the standard set. MY gaming club got the extra race packages, and they fit in well with the standard box.
On September 29 2012 14:10 Critter wrote: I'm curious what TL would suggest for cooperative, or at least non-directly competitive boardgames. My housemates and I are all getting more into board games, but one of my friends gets really frustrated when losing games like Game of Thrones or Munchkin. He doesn't like the direct opposition and so doesn't enjoy the games.
Personally, I'd rather steer us towards games that are still competitive, but you don't directly "fuck with" the other players. I'm thinking games like Puerto Rico and Agricola (haven't played, just going by the reviews) and would love other suggestions in that category.
Also, if there are any strait up cooperative games that are simply amazing, I'd love to hear about those as well.
Shadows over Camelot and Battlestar Galactica are GREAT GAMES for that kind of people, they are cooperative but also invovlve some compettion (traitor ) aspects , but either way You win or lose as a team. Great game for people who hate attacking others and exploiting their weaknesess. Arkham horror is another great game, but in this there is no traitor aspect, instead players play toghter vs a game. However i would advice You to try BattleStar galactica is a great challaneging game with lots of fun, that people otherwise hating boradgames came to love.
Pandemic and Ghost Stories are kinda similiar to Arham horror in a sense that is "players vs game" kind of play, they are simpler in designe though ( not necessarly in a difficulty as Ghost Stories is kinda difficult to win).
Played 7 Wonders for the first time yesterday (my cousin is big on board games so we always play them when we have a family gathering pretty much once every 3 months or so). Screwed myself by not investing in enough tech in the first round.
On September 29 2012 14:10 Critter wrote: I'm curious what TL would suggest for cooperative, or at least non-directly competitive boardgames. My housemates and I are all getting more into board games, but one of my friends gets really frustrated when losing games like Game of Thrones or Munchkin. He doesn't like the direct opposition and so doesn't enjoy the games.
Personally, I'd rather steer us towards games that are still competitive, but you don't directly "fuck with" the other players. I'm thinking games like Puerto Rico and Agricola (haven't played, just going by the reviews) and would love other suggestions in that category.
Also, if there are any strait up cooperative games that are simply amazing, I'd love to hear about those as well.
I'm going with Arkham as well.
You're playing all together against the game and it's incredible hard. Sometimes the game just outright fucks you and you have no chance. It's hard (pretty much) every single time and obviously you can adjust how hard you want it to be by adding expansions and stuff but it's really funny in general. I'd say when I play it with my friends we're lose more often than winning and at least half the wins we get feel lucky :p
I'm usually the kind of guy who likes to play some kind of koop rather than free for all kind of games as well. For me it's no matter what kind of koop as in whether it's 2v2v2 or 3v3 or 6vgame as long as it's competitive / challenging and it really is.
On September 30 2012 04:20 Tiegrr wrote: Played 7 Wonders for the first time yesterday (my cousin is big on board games so we always play them when we have a family gathering pretty much once every 3 months or so). Screwed myself by not investing in enough tech in the first round.
Tech is not a must to win in 7 wonders, but it is one of those things you need to keep an eye of for so no one gets an insane amount. I win a majority of my 7 wonders games, and I seldom go into tech.
Thanks for all the suggestions, give me a lot to look over at work tonight. Pandemic seems like a sure thing, and I think I'd love Shadows Over Camelot/BSG (though I'd have to sell my friend on them).
I'm curious what the differences are between Arkham Horror and Elder Signs (which we saw on Tabletop). Elder Signs is one that my roommate was interested in, and what little I've read about them they seem quite similar, so I'm just curious what how they differ.
On October 01 2012 10:38 Critter wrote: Thanks for all the suggestions, give me a lot to look over at work tonight. Pandemic seems like a sure thing, and I think I'd love Shadows Over Camelot/BSG (though I'd have to sell my friend on them).
I'm curious what the differences are between Arkham Horror and Elder Signs (which we saw on Tabletop). Elder Signs is one that my roommate was interested in, and what little I've read about them they seem quite similar, so I'm just curious what how they differ.
Both of them are co-op games based on lovecrafts books. The main difference is that Arkham is more "epic" the box is bigger (more content) you play on the streets of a whole city. Signs take place in a museum the main mechanic is still there dices. Signs have a lower difficulty nevertheless the game can really fuck you up sometimes also the playtime is shorter. I'm waiting if there will be any expansion coming up in Essen.
Signs is a smaller version of Arkham with some different mechanics but the feeling after you play it is the same fantastic!
I've been watching Tabletop over the past weeks whenever a new episode was released and bought a few games that were featured there so far (Small World, Dixit and Pandemic)
Since I (after a quick look) haven't found a mention of it here so far, you should really check out this webseries
The first episode is about Small World and has Wil Wheaton (host), Day9, Grant Imahara and Jenna Busch as players
I love Tabletop, fantastic show, and is a large factor in what got my housemates more into boardgames. I really enjoy a lot of the stuff Geek and Sundry does.
We recently got Pandemic and Red Dragon Inn 2 (that one was a birthday present) and have enjoyed both quite a bit. I also bought Arkham Horror ($32 on Think Geek as opposed to $60 at the local game shop... I'll pay slightly extra for local games but that mark up is rediculous), at TL's suggestion and it just arrived today. Hopefully we'll be able to play it tomorrow for the first time.
I've heard that first time AH players should start with Azathoth as the god they are trying to beat, and that there is some sort of outside rule guide that's supposed to be vastly superior to the in box one. Are either of these true? Any other advice for a group that has no one who has played AH before?
I'm still trying to convince one of my housemates to give BSG a try as I would greatly prefer that setting to Shadows Over Camelot, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to convince him.
SC:BW is the freaking best, most challenging boardgame i´ve ever played!
Can´t believe it´s not on the initial list. I mean, we´re a starcraft forum! :p But other than that i completely agree with the OP. Also have to play Munchkin again, so much fun.
I'm a huge board game geek, and I especially love the various Risk variants, Catan games, and Axis&Allies series. However, I've been curious if any Risk afficionados out there have had a chance to try out the new StarCraft Risk, and could talk about how it's unique, what version of risk it's most similar to, would you reccommend it or is it worth buying, etc.?
I own Risk 2210AD (5 rounds, earth, moon, and underwater continents, commanders and cards, d6 and d8 dice), LOTR Risk (leaders granting +1, cards, towers that give defenders edge, ring to mordor depth of strategy for game time limit and win scenarios of capture vs delivery to mount mordor), Risk GodStorm (mythology theme, god commanders such as Loki, Zues, Ares, etc with different abilities, dead units go to underworld and actions there affect the land of the living), SW orig trilogy Risk (3 factions: empire rebels and hutts, each with different win-objectives, death star, light vs dark force meter, cards, ships ((d8 and d6, +1, rerolls)), d6 and d8), SW Clone wars Risk (2 factions: separatists vs republic, basic risk but with ships ((d8 and d6, +1, rerolls)) and cards, with the addition of an interesting element: "Intiate order 66", where the longer the game goes on, the more likely seperatists win, as when the initiate 66, you roll a d8 for every territory, and those places that roll high enough, odds increase as game goes on, the reps units switch to separatist units, but the emperor is placed down and the republic must kill emperor to win, separatists must annihilate rebels) and Classic Risk, to name a few that I'm familiar with.
Lol fighting over monopoly games? Fuck yea! game almost has as much post game BM as Starcraft love the shit , other than that there were few others i wouldnt be able to name now Table top view pc game and an actual table top obviously have a lot in common.
I've been into Risk forever, haven;t played a lot due to it not being casually friendly and long and causes fights lol. But I never lost a game.
Recently got into settlers and won my first 2 games lol. Such a fun game to be drinking and such. I forgot how fun board games are. I need to go buy 3-4 and get friends and start drinking and having a baord game night.
Also not sure if it counts as a board game per say, but its absolutely amazing to play and drink, and a high skill cap, and very accessible. That game is:
Crokinole
Crokinole ( /ˈkroʊkɨnoʊl/ KROH-ki-nohl) is an action board game similar in various ways to pitchnut, carrom, marbles, and shove ha'penny, with elements of shuffleboard and curling reduced to table-top size. Players take turns shooting discs across the circular playing surface, trying to have their discs land in the higher-scoring regions of the board, while also attempting to knock away opposing discs.
Only Downside is the board will run you 150$. You can make your own and buy the peices, or find a used one for 20-50$ at a yard sale though. Definitly try it out if you havent!!!
Settlers of Catan: Drunkards and Wenches. Look up a set of drinking rules or invent them in house, depending on any expansion you might have.
Crokinole should definitely count as a board game. Making a circular surface is the only tough part of building your own board. Jigsaw, drill and an old lazy susan. eZpZ.
SC:BW is the freaking best, most challenging boardgame i´ve ever played!
Can´t believe it´s not on the initial list. I mean, we´re a starcraft forum! :p But other than that i completely agree with the OP. Also have to play Munchkin again, so much fun.
SC challenging? I have had people accidentally win at it (other players pointed out possible moves to the GF of one of our regulars that was playing for the 2nd time or so). You can also get f*cked up hard by retarded moves of your opponents.
Try Twilight Imperium for something a lot more complex than SC
I tottaly agree with Rimstalker, Twilight Imperium is both more challenging and more fun to play than Stacraft Boardgame. The latter has some serious design flaws, while Twilight Imperium is among the best if not the best boardgame ever made. TI is complex yet easy to learn it demands a lot of thought and is super fun to play.
On November 10 2012 03:37 DuncanIdaho wrote: I'm a huge board game geek, and I especially love the various Risk variants, Catan games, and Axis&Allies series. However, I've been curious if any Risk afficionados out there have had a chance to try out the new StarCraft Risk, and could talk about how it's unique, what version of risk it's most similar to, would you reccommend it or is it worth buying, etc.?
I own Risk 2210AD (5 rounds, earth, moon, and underwater continents, commanders and cards, d6 and d8 dice), LOTR Risk (leaders granting +1, cards, towers that give defenders edge, ring to mordor depth of strategy for game time limit and win scenarios of capture vs delivery to mount mordor), Risk GodStorm (mythology theme, god commanders such as Loki, Zues, Ares, etc with different abilities, dead units go to underworld and actions there affect the land of the living), SW orig trilogy Risk (3 factions: empire rebels and hutts, each with different win-objectives, death star, light vs dark force meter, cards, ships ((d8 and d6, +1, rerolls)), d6 and d8), SW Clone wars Risk (2 factions: separatists vs republic, basic risk but with ships ((d8 and d6, +1, rerolls)) and cards, with the addition of an interesting element: "Intiate order 66", where the longer the game goes on, the more likely seperatists win, as when the initiate 66, you roll a d8 for every territory, and those places that roll high enough, odds increase as game goes on, the reps units switch to separatist units, but the emperor is placed down and the republic must kill emperor to win, separatists must annihilate rebels) and Classic Risk, to name a few that I'm familiar with.
Okay, so I'm going to answer my own question, in case any of you were wondering the same thing, hehe
My best friend bought Risk: Starcraft Collector's Edition as a present for me, and then he, my brother, and I played a game. He was protoss, my brother terran, and I zerg (I main as Zerg in SC2 and SC2:HotS, so wtf not... :p ). Now, first thing we noticed, is the board layout, although starcraft flavored, is freaking basic Risk, just flipped horizontally. Char, at top left, worth 7 armies, is essentially Asia, and Korhal top middle worth 5, Europe. Aiur worth 5 at top right, N.A. (and by the way, there is an Alaska-Kamatchka off-the-board-edges link) and Aiur has 3 entrances, to the top middle with Korhal (Europe) a la greenland, the aforementioned off-the-board link to Char (Asia), and a southern entrance to, you guessed it, something quite similar to S.A., a 4 territory zone called "Shakuras" worth 2 armies, at the bottom right corner of the board. Also, Shakuras, at bottom right, is linked to a zone at the middle bottom, worth 3 armies, called Mar Sara (africa) which has a link also to the northern edges of the zone to southern Korhal (Europe) and to the top left, a satellite zone of Char (Asia) called "Ate" (essentially, the Middle East territory of classic Risk. Furthermore, there's also a small, 4 territory zone at the bottom left, "Zerus" (australia) that is only linked to the southern border of Char (Asia). So, yay, no changes to the map, gistually speaking, from Classic risk, perhaps a boring feature of this game, though arguably pseudo balanced in that regard, or at least, no less imbalanced than Classic Risk.
Now, on to what this game adds to the Risk genre: Mineral patches- of the 42 territories, 15 are randomly drawn from the deck to start with a mineral patch. These make such territories worth "2" when counting up territories and dividing by 3 for the reinforcement phase of your turn. So yeah, kinda neat, I like this addition of randomly reconfiguring strategic positions for each game to consider taking/defending. Also, you start with a base, it gets no extra defense (something we tried later in a house rule to augment, was to pull out some d8s from another Risk game to consider using as defense when bases are attacked), and all it does is give you an extra army during reinforcement phase, to place wherever, assuming you control it (and you get 1 for any other bases you've taken from opponents and still hold at the start of your turn).
Furthermore, the win-scenario requires that in addition to 3 achievements (i'll explain shortly), you must also control your starting base in order to win. So, the achievements are also interesting. They're similar to the achievements of the updated Classic Risk, except that the 8 possible acheivements you can choose from are essentially public domain until a player acheives it. (e.g., control char, take over an entire continent you didnt own a single territory at the start of the turn, all in one turn, control 11 of the 15 mineral territories, take 4 mineral territories in the same turn, control 18 territories, etc.) So this is kinda neat, in that anyone can aspire for 3 of the acheivements of their choosing, and it's a race to get it before someone else does. I have no complaints there, and also like this addition to the Risk genre.
Also, each race has its own deck of 14 cards, which you get one from your deck at the end of your turn if you ate your vegetables and were a good boy/girl that turn, as in most Risk variants. The cards have special abilities, and also star values of 1-2 stars. You can either use the ability (e.g., Before attacking on your turn- Roll a d6- add that many units to a territory of your choosing, Play after an opponent declares an invasion on one of your territories, remove d6 units from his attacking territory, AND for the most part, all 3 decks have similar acting cards with a few race-specific abilities, like psi-storm (kills a bunch of stuff), burrow ((defensive "you can't attack this" and tunneling claws "i'll scuttle under this territory and hit the territory behind it)), and lift-off ((move your cc base to another territory even if it's under enemy control)), that aren't replicated in other decks). As for the stars, there's a scale for turning in those for extra armies instead of using the ability, giving you the option of turning in cards worth 2-10 stars total, giving you 2-30 extra armies, which is a slightly new way to do bonus reinforcements. I've looked around, and some people are starting to claim that imbalances may exist between racial decks, but I don't have too much of an issue with this part of the game, it seems balanced enough, and after all, the cards in question are very few and the odds of getting them are low, ultimately).
Also, you get a hero, that doesnt count as an army, but augments your forces by letting them add +1 to the highest die roll on either attack or defense, for that territory they're participating in. Typical addition to most modern Risk variants, no surprises/gripes there.
The issue I do have with this game, however, is the reward system for the achievements. It feels broken. The achievements are separated into "silver" and "gold" acheivements, and the 4 silver achievements have 1 of 4 random perks: gauranteed card (regardless of if you met the requirements to earn one this turn), extra reinforcement move each turn, free sneaky reinforcement move ON YOUR TURN BEFORE ATTACKING (possibly broken, but not the end of the world, necessarily) and Xel'Naga Tower (makes your units in that territory and all adjacent territories get +1 to highest die roll for attacking into such a territory or defending in such a territory, AND stacks with other such abilities ((i.e., +1 for this turn cards, +1 for the hero, etc.). Now, for the 4 Gold Achievements Rewards: +2 units during reinforcement (no complaints here, kind neat though, and hell, gold acheivements are supposedly hard to complete, so hell you earned it, right?), Xel'Naga Tower (same as the silver one, essentially there are 2 in the game you can get), but these last two gold achievement rewards, that I have HUGE issues with, are potentially the rule additions to the variant of Risk that I feel are broken: Additional Attack Die, and Additional Defense Die. The game comes with 3 red dice, 2 black dice, and a red transparent die and also a black transparent die. The transparent dies are for these two achievements. Essentially, if you get either of these achievements, you win, unless you're completely underwhelmed by the opponents, and if that's the case you probably wouldn't meet the requirements for such gold achievements in the first place. The way it works: Roll the extra attack die IN ADDITION to your usual dice (or the transparent black defense die, if you got the defense die reward), and replace the lowest die roll with your transparent die roll.
Essentially, you're rolling 4 dice vs 2 dice if you're the attacker, or you're getting 3 dice to defend vs 3 attack dice, if you've gotten the defense version, and remember, defenders win ties.
So... Back to that game we played. My friend who bought the game, goes first. Keep in mind, in 3player version, we divide the 42 territories amongst us evenly, 14 a player. He goes first, and has a rather decent first turn, taking over the Mar Sara (africa) and Shakuras (s.a.) continents. This qualifies for the achievement "control two planets" (planets=continents) and he gets a xel naga tower reward perk. Okay, no biggie, but he places it in the middle of africa and goes on to hold it for the first round, yet loses the sharkuras (southamerican) continent, while my brother and I duke it out over the rest of the asia/europe/north-america/australia parts of the map, and nothing too noteworthy occurs for either of us on the first round. Round 2, my friend takes back south america and has every border territory (the north of africa and the mexico-southamerica border quite heavily fortified. This is great on his part, a typical, not-too greedy, but tactically sound strategy. However, he now qualified for the gold perk, "control 18 territories", and gets the extra defense die perk. So... essentially we then can't attack the guy, because africa has +1 from the xelnaga tower, the mexico border has +1 due to his hero's presence there, AND he rolls 3 defense die, to our 3 attack dice, AND as per usual, defenders win ties. He then proceeds to be the unstoppable force and goes on to win the game in round 3 by capturing a few more mineral fields, qualifying for the silver achievement of "control 8 mineral fields" and with 3 acheivements, and still controlling his base (which was tucked away nicely in madagascar), he met the win requirement and thus this was the shortest ever game of risk I've ever played, which was over in 1 hour... lmao
So, yeah... Needs houserules to balance, but overall, it's fun, despite the broken-ness. Any suggestions for house-rule balances?
EDIT: Some ideas I had: The "control 18 territories" gold acheivement seems too easy to get in a 3player game, where everyone starts with 14 territories, although in a 4+player game, where people start with 10 to 11 or fewer territories, perhaps this is fine, but maybe in a 3 player game we need either some neutral armies eating up some of our starting territory count, or to increase the number of territories requirement for that achievement, to, say, 21 territories, but just leave it at 18 for 4+ player games. IDK. And maybe some of the other achievements need to also be scaled up for the 3player game, to make it a tad more difficult to get any uber-perks early on, such as the additional die roll perk.
Or, perhaps rethinking the additional die-roll perk, such that it still gives the perk-recipient an advantage, but not quite so game-breaking... Maybe let opponents in battles versus such a player, say, re-roll any and all 1's, and if they get some card that grants that very ability, let it "stack" to include rerolling any and all 1's and 2's? :/ I will say the achievements feel balanced in 4+ player games, which were likely what the game developers had in mind, though it should scale as the number of players changes. Perhaps, even, in a 6-player game, the achievement requirements are too high, and may need to be scaled down, though I've yet to be able to get 6 players to play with, yet... What do you guys think?
Out of the box campaign mode, a playtime per quest closer to 2 hours than the usual 6 (in 1st edition), and objective-based gameplay for both the Heroes and the Overlord. (Objectives other than "get to this room, kill this big monster and don't die along the way.") You'd think a lot of depth had to be sacrificed to cut playtime by that much, but it turns out that the removal of monster spawning and the introduction of quest objectives were already enough and not much (if anything) was lost in the transition. Spawning mostly functioned as a way for the Overlord to delay the Heroes, not kill them, and having to keep line of sight to all the corners of the map to prevent spawns just slowed the Hero turn down SO much. Definitely don't miss that. The quest objectives make sure that if too many turns go by, the Overlord just wins. Most appreciated feature: Quests are divided into two Encounters: parts of the dungeon that have their own objective. The outcome of Encounter 1 decides the starting conditions for Encounter 2. The upshot of this is that you need less space, it keeps things exciting and offers some strategic considerations, AND you can just stop playing mid-quest and continue on Encounter 2 some other time. Highly recommend for those that want to scratch that dungeon crawling itch but can't always sit down for 6 hours to do it!
This is as close to a Starcraft boardgame as I've played. Modular, variable hex game board, 6 unit types, resource gathering, area/map control, etc. The best thing is that it's surprisingly short for a game with considerable tactical depth, and because it is VP-based (instead of elimination-based) the game stays exciting until the end and only very rarely will a player be eliminated from the game before it ends.
From what I understand this thread isn't for logical/abstract games with rather simple/generic boards (like chess grid, hex grid)? I used to call them board games too but judging by this thread I was wrong.
On January 14 2013 03:32 Chaosu wrote: From what I understand this thread isn't for logical/abstract games with rather simple/generic boards (like chess grid, hex grid)? I used to call them board games too but judging by this thread I was wrong.
They're board games alright, typically falling under the category of abstract boardgames. Games like Hive would also apply. I'm just guessing that this thread was most probably created to shed light on the lesser known and more modern board games - everyone already knows chess, checkers, chutes'n'ladders and monopoly exist so there's really no point in discussing them (if there is something about chess specifically, like strategy, a chess-only thread might be more suitable.)
I guess if you had to categorize, "modern board games" would mostly fall into three categories: 1. Euro games. Simple mechanics leading to difficult decisions. Focus on simplicity, elegance, typically no direct player confrontation. "Mathy and dry" if you ask some - Theme follows Mechanics.. Examples: Caylus, Puerto Rico, Settlers of Catan, Stone Age, etc. 2. American-style games. High on theme and plastic bits. Mechanics are often designed to fit a theme (simulate, represent, symbolize, etc..) Lots of dice, more room for chance-driven events/outcomes. Games tend to be (over)complicated for pure Eurogamer's tastes. If it involves zombies, fantasy settings, little plastic miniature tanks or cthulhu, chances are it's an American style game. Jokingly referred to as "Ameritrash" (alluding to the amount of shit that comes in the box and/or the unelegant, unwieldy nature of the bloated rulesets that tend to accompany these games. Abstracts. Close to Eurogames, but no theme whatsoever. Examples: Heroscape, Descent, Axis&Allies, Wiz-War, Last Night on Earth, Arkham Horror, etc...
3. Abstracts + Unclassified. This is a relatively small segment of the market. Mostly because there seems to be an unwritten rule that games either need Zombies in them (American), or it needs to be a "trading in the mediterranean" game. (Euro).
Thanks for a detailed reply. I think abstract is the key word here. I know that everyone knows chess or checkers but there are also modern abstract board games and some of the older are still played cometitively: Hex, Reversi(Othello), Four in a row(Line4), Gomoku(Five in a Row), Connect6, Twixt PP, Lines of Action, Oware just to name a few. I'll keep an eye on this topic, maybe I'll find someone like-minded one day as I understand your focus is on non-abstract games.
I love reading about all those board games, they all seem so much fun and very creative.
It's a shame I'm a pityful friendless loser becaume not only these games are expensive, in my case at least I usually have a hard time convincing my relatives to play board games, especially when there's a thousand rules to learn.
That makes me wonder why in 2013 there's still no online gaming platform specialized in licensed board games. I guess the big companies don't wanna push their products to be online too much, so they can keep selling physical games. But on the other hand, people like me will never buy most of their 50$ products anyway and I'd certainly be willing to pay 5$ to play them online. Hell, even Steam could make a ton of money with those. I don't think the 500.000 variations of video game Monopoly decreased MB's sales in any way.
So if anyone wanna start a million dollar business, here was one free idea :D
On January 15 2013 12:12 lepape wrote: I love reading about all those board games, they all seem so much fun and very creative.
It's a shame I'm a pityful friendless loser becaume not only these games are usually expensive, in my case at least I usually have a hard time convincing my relatives to play board games, especially when there's a thousand rules.
That makes me wonder why in 2013 there's still no online gaming platform specialized in licensed board games. I guess the big companies don't wanna push their products to be online too much, so they can keep selling physical games. But on the other hand, people like me will never buy most of their 50$ products anyway, but I'd certainly be willing to pay 5$ to play them online. Hell, even Steam could make a ton of money with those. I don't think the 500.000 variations of video game Monopoly decreased MB's sales in any way.
So if anyone wanna start a million dollar business, here was one free idea :D
Well I think the biggest part of playing a board game isn't the game or the rules; it's sitting around a table with friends. To be honest most board games I've played (not that many) are pretty lame as far as actually being a good game. They rely almost entirely on luck and decisions that you couldn't know are going to screw you over when you make them. The fun part is laughing when bad stuff happens to other people for no reason and that's just no fun online.
On January 15 2013 12:12 lepape wrote: I love reading about all those board games, they all seem so much fun and very creative.
It's a shame I'm a pityful friendless loser becaume not only these games are usually expensive, in my case at least I usually have a hard time convincing my relatives to play board games, especially when there's a thousand rules.
That makes me wonder why in 2013 there's still no online gaming platform specialized in licensed board games. I guess the big companies don't wanna push their products to be online too much, so they can keep selling physical games. But on the other hand, people like me will never buy most of their 50$ products anyway, but I'd certainly be willing to pay 5$ to play them online. Hell, even Steam could make a ton of money with those. I don't think the 500.000 variations of video game Monopoly decreased MB's sales in any way.
So if anyone wanna start a million dollar business, here was one free idea :D
Well I think the biggest part of playing a board game isn't the game or the rules; it's sitting around a table with friends. To be honest most board games I've played (not that many) are pretty lame as far as actually being a good game. They rely almost entirely on luck and decisions that you couldn't know are going to screw you over when you make them. The fun part is laughing when bad stuff happens to other people for no reason and that's just no fun online.
I agree, playing with people you like will enhance any game experience, it doesnt matter if it's a video game played in LAN or a board game. Hell, the social aspect can even make some horrible, flawed games suddenly seem like fun (Monopoly, Risk).
Still, at the end of the day, I believe good gameplay can be fun in any context. Mafia is an amazing game that truly shines in the real world, but it also has a fair amount of success online. It's just that well conceived.
I am deciding on my first board game and I'm between Battles of Westeros and Carcassone. I want carcassone because I live with my brother and we're pretty competitive on what we play, so I rhink a game like BoW would fit well and be played more often than carcassone.
On the other hand, carcassonne is half the price, but I don't think I'd play as much as BoW because I'd have to gather friends to play and such. I tried to search on reddit and BGG but I still can't decide.
How good is carcassonne as a gateway Board Game? Would Battles of Westeros be too complicated to invite friends to play? replay value?
This is a great thread. I forget how great it is. I really need a pack of carcassonne, box of settlers of Catan, box of Twilight Imperium and some friends who like that stuff ASAP lol.
On January 15 2013 20:08 antilyon wrote: How good is carcassonne as a gateway Board Game? Would Battles of Westeros be too complicated to invite friends to play? replay value?
It's SUCH a great gateway, it's so easy to play, such a casual, 'coffee table' game. It's awesome.
On June 29 2011 12:18 Empyrean wrote: Does anyone else like that one train game Ticket to Ride?
Holy shit I could play that for hours.
EDIT: Apparently imbc is the only other person in this thread who has had the great fortune to play that game. There's a reason why it won Germany's Game of the Year award. And Germans love their boardgames!
was coming here to post about this game... our german exchange student got it for christmas (north america version) and we played a couple games... i thought it was really fun, but they all called me a cutthroat asshole and won't play anymore now
hum i scrolled around the whole thread .. and is aw no mentions of
blood bowl Very complicated football game but can be very fun 1 game takes like 1 hours if you knwo what our doing.... not conting the hours you can pass painting your toons
warning ... very rage inducing as players in your team can die from a block or injury or crowd surf.And if its your star player .. you will be pissed ,you have to manage money cheerleaders and a lto fo things .. really well made pretty balanced too,if your not playing halflings .... and maybe goblins lol
On January 15 2013 20:08 antilyon wrote: I am deciding on my first board game and I'm between Battles of Westeros and Carcassone. I want carcassone because I live with my brother and we're pretty competitive on what we play, so I rhink a game like BoW would fit well and be played more often than carcassone.
On the other hand, carcassonne is half the price, but I don't think I'd play as much as BoW because I'd have to gather friends to play and such. I tried to search on reddit and BGG but I still can't decide.
How good is carcassonne as a gateway Board Game? Would Battles of Westeros be too complicated to invite friends to play? replay value?
Generaly speaking party games and cooperative games are much better for casuals. Especially for girls. Hardcore strategic games which are most compettive are TERRIBLE for casuals and girls. So if Your goal is to play some hardcore strategic games go for BoW (which isnt really that good or hardcore IMHo but its a start), if You would rather play with a lot of friends new to board/card gaming-then go for carcassone.
For newbies: Bang, Munchikin,Ticket to ride, Settlers of Catan etc. For hardcore strategic players:Twilight Imperium, Game of Thrones, Power Grid etc. Middle ground (strategic and fun for casuals and girls):Battlestar galactica, Shadows over Camelot, and to some lesser degree Arkham Horror.
On January 15 2013 20:08 antilyon wrote: I am deciding on my first board game and I'm between Battles of Westeros and Carcassone. I want carcassone because I live with my brother and we're pretty competitive on what we play, so I rhink a game like BoW would fit well and be played more often than carcassone.
On the other hand, carcassonne is half the price, but I don't think I'd play as much as BoW because I'd have to gather friends to play and such. I tried to search on reddit and BGG but I still can't decide.
How good is carcassonne as a gateway Board Game? Would Battles of Westeros be too complicated to invite friends to play? replay value?
Generaly speaking party games and cooperative games are much better for casuals. Especially for girls. Hardcore strategic games which are most compettive are TERRIBLE for casuals and girls. So if Your goal is to play some hardcore strategic games go for BoW (which isnt really that good or hardcore IMHo but its a start), if You would rather play with a lot of friends new to board/card gaming-then go for carcassone.
For newbies: Bang, Munchikin,Ticket to ride, Settlers of Catan etc. For hardcore strategic players:Twilight Imperium, Game of Thrones, Power Grid etc. Middle ground (strategic and fun for casuals and girls):Battlestar galactica, Shadows over Camelot, and to some lesser degree Arkham Horror.
I bolded the games i would recommend.
Thanks for the advice, I went for carcassonne and I'm loving it.
I don't think it's been mentioned at all in this thread but my favorite boardgame right now is Dominant Species. It's everything I love about boardgames (epic scale, conflict, decision making, rich in theme). It's typically a 4ish player game but plays surprisingly well with only 2. I play with the gf all the time and both love it. Worth checking out at the very least.
Ah board games, my friends have only recently got into them but we now meet at least once a week to get a session in... My collection right now...
1. Catan + Seafarers + Cities & Knights 2. Shadows over Camelot + Merlin's company 3. Cosmic Encounter 4. Eclipse 5. Agricola 6. 7 Wonders + Leaders + Cities 7. Small World Underground 8. Summoner Wars (Master Set) 9. Descent 2.0 10. No Thanks 11. Incan Gold
Anyways... I need recommendations for new games, note that my friends have 1. Dominion 2. Rex 3. Game of Thrones 4. Citadels 5. Warrior Knights 6. Battlestar Galactica 7. Thunderstone
Right now I'm thinking my next game should be one or more of the following: 1. Alhambra 2. Terra Mystica 3. T'Zolkin 4. Kingsburg 5. Elder Sign
Noting that my group is generally 4-6 people, had some really big gatherings in the past but I like trying to get everyone to the same game rather than having multiple games going around.
On January 19 2013 03:18 JFlame wrote: ... Anyways... I need recommendations for new games...
Right now I'm thinking my next game should be one or more of the following: 1. Alhambra 2. Terra Mystica 3. T'Zolkin 4. Kingsburg 5. Elder Sign
Noting that my group is generally 4-6 people, had some really big gatherings in the past but I like trying to get everyone to the same game rather than having multiple games going around.
Which of the games in your collection are the ones you and/or your group most enjoy? Looking at your list Lords of Waterdeep might be something you guys enjoy, as it's a similar depth level to a lot of those games on the list and is a well designed game. Cash'n'Guns and/or The Resistance might be worth looking at for you guys as well, both being games with similar mechanics to Shadows over Camelot and Battlestar Galactica. What sort of gaming element or aspects are you looking for as I'd like to toss out a few recommendations more tailored to your wants.
On January 19 2013 03:18 JFlame wrote: ... Anyways... I need recommendations for new games...
Right now I'm thinking my next game should be one or more of the following: 1. Alhambra 2. Terra Mystica 3. T'Zolkin 4. Kingsburg 5. Elder Sign
Noting that my group is generally 4-6 people, had some really big gatherings in the past but I like trying to get everyone to the same game rather than having multiple games going around.
Which of the games in your collection are the ones you and/or your group most enjoy? Looking at your list Lords of Waterdeep might be something you guys enjoy, as it's a similar depth level to a lot of those games on the list and is a well designed game. Cash'n'Guns and/or The Resistance might be worth looking at for you guys as well, both being games with similar mechanics to Shadows over Camelot and Battlestar Galactica. What sort of gaming element or aspects are you looking for as I'd like to toss out a few recommendations more tailored to your wants.
Ah forgot that my friend does have The Resistance and we prefer it to Cash'n'Guns.
I'd say some of the group have short attention spans so complex games generally don't come out too often. Camelot has been a popular pick for most nights, somehow battlestar has been 'thumbed down' for one of the people, but we only played it once so I think it's too quick to judge. He was the 'cylon' in that game so his perspective was simply just different from the rest of ours. Note our group is 3 couples...
Game of thrones also ended up being a disaster as turns just took so long to come around that people just lost interest/got frustrated. Plus the girls just don't like to 'fight' other people, which according to BGG is 'typical'.
Anyways, I'm more trying to get 'different' types of games so that we have a variety to play (though to be honest I'm only consider Elder sign cause it's coop and people seem to enjoy that). Cosmic encounter for the most part has gone over well. 7 wonders is generally well liked, though we play it less now and consider it more of a 'filler' due to its ease of play and being less 'meaty'.
My issue with getting waterdeep is that the mechanic seems similar to Agricola (worker placement) and Terra Mystica or T'Zolkin's worker placement (sort of) mechanics interest me more.
I like to bring board games to my gf's sister's house, but some days she really doesn't have the focus to play something like waterdeep or smallworld. Does anyone know of some games that take less focus or attention span to play, but don't sacrifice fun? For clarification, sometimes she just gets overwhelmed by choices/rules. I'd prefer not to sacrifice too much depth of game play if possible, though.
On July 03 2013 10:38 KaoReal wrote: I like to bring board games to my gf's sister's house, but some days she really doesn't have the focus to play something like waterdeep or smallworld. Does anyone know of some games that take less focus or attention span to play, but don't sacrifice fun? For clarification, sometimes she just gets overwhelmed by choices/rules. I'd prefer not to sacrifice too much depth of game play if possible, though.
Pickomino, granted it's mostly fun with more people than just 2.
I played a lot of Lords of Waterdeep and Twilight Struggle over the summer... LoW is fun.. although a bit too luck-based at times. Looking forward to the expansion, it seems to be adding a lot more variety to the game.
Twilight Struggle's manual is one of the worst things I've ever seen, and the game itself isn't that great either. I really don't understand why it's so highly rated
Does anyone know of a board game where you all talk about your decisions, and then you write them down and put them on a piece of paper and all the moves happen at once? I believe its a war game. That's all I really remember about it. Anyone know what this board game name is?
On April 19 2014 11:15 SCC-Just wrote: Does anyone know of a board game where you all talk about your decisions, and then you write them down and put them on a piece of paper and all the moves happen at once? I believe its a war game. That's all I really remember about it. Anyone know what this board game name is?
On April 19 2014 11:15 SCC-Just wrote: Does anyone know of a board game where you all talk about your decisions, and then you write them down and put them on a piece of paper and all the moves happen at once? I believe its a war game. That's all I really remember about it. Anyone know what this board game name is?
Sounds like diplomacy.
It was Diplomacy. I got it and played it with friends and it was really fun. Are there any other games like this you guys would recommend.
Game of Thrones is some what similar in that you put down secret orders all at once and then reveal them at the same time, and diplomacy can play a huge role in who wins. StarCraft: The board game also uses simultaneous order reveals. I haven't played Strike of the Eagle, but some people say it has some mechanics shared with Diplomacy.
On a different note, GMT Games is running a 50% off sale thru May 9th.
Boardgamegeek.com is basically THE site to go to find board games both old and new and get recommendations, and if you are looking for a good online board game retailer who has good prices, coolstuffinc.com is one of my favorites.
On May 04 2014 23:56 karazax wrote: Game of Thrones is some what similar in that you put down secret orders all at once and then reveal them at the same time
The vassal engine is a great way to play a whole plethora of games with buddies over the internet. I use it to play in a Dreadball league with some people, but the options are limitless.
There's an OP concerning the vassal engine but it dates back to 2010-12 I think...
Twilight struggle is the gatewaydrug into wargames.
Anyone else a wargamer here on TL?
Recently played a few campaigns of Eastfront 2 (EF2), and was having so much fun we bought WF2 + EuF2. Anyone else tried this monster-setup? four big game maps and all theaters... so baller.
GMT Games Begins Kickstarter to Bring Twilight Struggle to Digital GMT Games has had a slightly rocky road in bringing their huge catalog, and especially the much-loved Twilight Struggle to the digital realm. You may remember that a PC version of Twilight Struggle was in the works for years (we first mentioned it back in March of 2011) before they shelved the project in March of 2014.
Today begins the next phase of Twilight Stuggle for digital: it's on Kickstarter. Better yet, the digital partner porting it is none other than Playdek. Yes, the same guys who did Agricola and Lords of Waterdeep will now be creating Twilight Struggle as well.
GMT has set a funding goal of $50K and are planning on developing the game for PC, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS devices, but that's not all. Designers Ananda Gupta and Jason Matthews have created a new expansion for Twilight Struggle called Twilight Struggle: What if? that focuses on alternate starting situations for the US and USSR. Some examples: What if Chiang's forces held on in southern China or what in the Western Allies had reached Berlin first?
The expansion will be for both the digital and cardboard versions of the game, and will be available to everyone, however Kickstarter backers will get a version with different, exclusive artwork and will receive the expansion before it hits retail outlets.
If you're curious (and who isn't) head on over to the kickstarter and check out all the info there.
Started collecting boardgames as well as card games during the last month. It's kinda hard to collect the good ones in our country cuz boardgames aren't a huge thing out here. Anyway, here is our (me and my 4 siblings) collection thus far:
1. Settlers Of Catan + 5-6 Player Expansion Pack. I'm actually waiting for the shops to be open again so I can buy acrylic and have it laser cut so we have our own board holder.
2. 7 Wonders + Cities Expansion pack. This game is really fun, though we're putting it on hold first cuz the cards are losing their gloss and it's tough to find the proper sleeves in here (65mm x 100mm). Most shops sell card sleeves for Magic: the Gathering and Cardfight Vanguard.
3. King of Tokyo. Some quick fun. The pace is actually really good and the replay value is great as well. We managed to sleeve it up with matte sleeves but now the cards won't fit in the box since they're slightly larger, I had to use an extra MtG deckbox to hold the cards for now. Looking into buying foam and cutting up our own custom "box inside".
4. Munchkins. I haven't touched this one so far. Gameplay time seems longer than usual (2-3 hours) but seems fun.
So for now, I'm looking into sleeving up our card games. We do have Neutral Grounds and Courtside and other hobby shops around but they rarely stock on card sleeves that are not the usual size. I'm also considering buying from Amazon but I'm not sure if they will deliver to my door or they'll leave it with our Bureau of Customs (and those guys are corrupt as fuck).
I think things are looking up in here. A hobbyshop recently opened near us and they let people play their open copies of board/card games and even help you out in starting your collection based on your usual playgroup. There's also cafe near us that lets you rent board/cardgames (they have a LOT) as long as you buy food/drinks and the staff even teaches how the game is played. Hopefully hobby shops stock up on board/card games soon.
As of now I'm looking for Coup, similar to Bang but the roles are hidden and players can bluff, adding a layer to the fun.
Is there any interest in having a TL Board Game Night? We can play all of these games online and for free with the Vassal Engine. I'd love to try Twilight Empire out or host a Catan night. Could be fun!
My family has fallen in love with Dominion! Over the last two Christmas's we've played probably 20 hours worth of it and that with only 3 expansions. Definitely worth picking up if you haven't already.
On January 04 2015 13:13 SilverSkyLark wrote: Bumping this! :D
Started collecting boardgames as well as card games during the last month. It's kinda hard to collect the good ones in our country cuz boardgames aren't a huge thing out here. Anyway, here is our (me and my 4 siblings) collection thus far:
1. Settlers Of Catan + 5-6 Player Expansion Pack. I'm actually waiting for the shops to be open again so I can buy acrylic and have it laser cut so we have our own board holder.
2. 7 Wonders + Cities Expansion pack. This game is really fun, though we're putting it on hold first cuz the cards are losing their gloss and it's tough to find the proper sleeves in here (65mm x 100mm). Most shops sell card sleeves for Magic: the Gathering and Cardfight Vanguard.
3. King of Tokyo. Some quick fun. The pace is actually really good and the replay value is great as well. We managed to sleeve it up with matte sleeves but now the cards won't fit in the box since they're slightly larger, I had to use an extra MtG deckbox to hold the cards for now. Looking into buying foam and cutting up our own custom "box inside".
4. Munchkins. I haven't touched this one so far. Gameplay time seems longer than usual (2-3 hours) but seems fun.
So for now, I'm looking into sleeving up our card games. We do have Neutral Grounds and Courtside and other hobby shops around but they rarely stock on card sleeves that are not the usual size. I'm also considering buying from Amazon but I'm not sure if they will deliver to my door or they'll leave it with our Bureau of Customs (and those guys are corrupt as fuck).
I think things are looking up in here. A hobbyshop recently opened near us and they let people play their open copies of board/card games and even help you out in starting your collection based on your usual playgroup. There's also cafe near us that lets you rent board/cardgames (they have a LOT) as long as you buy food/drinks and the staff even teaches how the game is played. Hopefully hobby shops stock up on board/card games soon.
As of now I'm looking for Coup, similar to Bang but the roles are hidden and players can bluff, adding a layer to the fun.
IMO, the 5+6 player thing for settlers makes the game a lot less fun. It makes hand management a lot harder without adding anything but more players. My group usually plays it with sea farers and cities and knights when we play it (all of us has played the base game to death)
On January 04 2015 13:13 SilverSkyLark wrote: Bumping this! :D
Started collecting boardgames as well as card games during the last month. It's kinda hard to collect the good ones in our country cuz boardgames aren't a huge thing out here. Anyway, here is our (me and my 4 siblings) collection thus far:
1. Settlers Of Catan + 5-6 Player Expansion Pack. I'm actually waiting for the shops to be open again so I can buy acrylic and have it laser cut so we have our own board holder.
2. 7 Wonders + Cities Expansion pack. This game is really fun, though we're putting it on hold first cuz the cards are losing their gloss and it's tough to find the proper sleeves in here (65mm x 100mm). Most shops sell card sleeves for Magic: the Gathering and Cardfight Vanguard.
3. King of Tokyo. Some quick fun. The pace is actually really good and the replay value is great as well. We managed to sleeve it up with matte sleeves but now the cards won't fit in the box since they're slightly larger, I had to use an extra MtG deckbox to hold the cards for now. Looking into buying foam and cutting up our own custom "box inside".
4. Munchkins. I haven't touched this one so far. Gameplay time seems longer than usual (2-3 hours) but seems fun.
So for now, I'm looking into sleeving up our card games. We do have Neutral Grounds and Courtside and other hobby shops around but they rarely stock on card sleeves that are not the usual size. I'm also considering buying from Amazon but I'm not sure if they will deliver to my door or they'll leave it with our Bureau of Customs (and those guys are corrupt as fuck).
I think things are looking up in here. A hobbyshop recently opened near us and they let people play their open copies of board/card games and even help you out in starting your collection based on your usual playgroup. There's also cafe near us that lets you rent board/cardgames (they have a LOT) as long as you buy food/drinks and the staff even teaches how the game is played. Hopefully hobby shops stock up on board/card games soon.
As of now I'm looking for Coup, similar to Bang but the roles are hidden and players can bluff, adding a layer to the fun.
IMO, the 5+6 player thing for settlers makes the game a lot less fun. It makes hand management a lot harder without adding anything but more players. My group usually plays it with sea farers and cities and knights when we play it (all of us has played the base game to death)
Duly noted. Pardon the newbie question, but would Sea Farers and Cities and Knights still be limited to 4 players max? I saw those two recently at a hobby store in a mall we frequent but I got discouraged by the price tag (around 65USD) and the fact that we haven't played the base game as much yet and we're already looking at an expansion set.
For six player games, I prefer Resistance, Avalon, Battlestar Galactica (with daybreak only), cash'n'guns & Spyfall (the best one out of them). I heavily skew them towards traitor hidden role games because otherwise turns drag on and take too long. Five players: I play Kemet, Terra mystica, Descent 2.0, Last Will. Three - Four players: Tragedy Looper, Aliens Legendary Encounters, Seasons, Shinobi Wa-taah! Two players: Android Netrunner, Mage Wars, Doomtown, Mage Knight Solo player: Mage Knight
On January 04 2015 13:13 SilverSkyLark wrote: Bumping this! :D
Started collecting boardgames as well as card games during the last month. It's kinda hard to collect the good ones in our country cuz boardgames aren't a huge thing out here. Anyway, here is our (me and my 4 siblings) collection thus far:
1. Settlers Of Catan + 5-6 Player Expansion Pack. I'm actually waiting for the shops to be open again so I can buy acrylic and have it laser cut so we have our own board holder.
2. 7 Wonders + Cities Expansion pack. This game is really fun, though we're putting it on hold first cuz the cards are losing their gloss and it's tough to find the proper sleeves in here (65mm x 100mm). Most shops sell card sleeves for Magic: the Gathering and Cardfight Vanguard.
3. King of Tokyo. Some quick fun. The pace is actually really good and the replay value is great as well. We managed to sleeve it up with matte sleeves but now the cards won't fit in the box since they're slightly larger, I had to use an extra MtG deckbox to hold the cards for now. Looking into buying foam and cutting up our own custom "box inside".
4. Munchkins. I haven't touched this one so far. Gameplay time seems longer than usual (2-3 hours) but seems fun.
So for now, I'm looking into sleeving up our card games. We do have Neutral Grounds and Courtside and other hobby shops around but they rarely stock on card sleeves that are not the usual size. I'm also considering buying from Amazon but I'm not sure if they will deliver to my door or they'll leave it with our Bureau of Customs (and those guys are corrupt as fuck).
I think things are looking up in here. A hobbyshop recently opened near us and they let people play their open copies of board/card games and even help you out in starting your collection based on your usual playgroup. There's also cafe near us that lets you rent board/cardgames (they have a LOT) as long as you buy food/drinks and the staff even teaches how the game is played. Hopefully hobby shops stock up on board/card games soon.
As of now I'm looking for Coup, similar to Bang but the roles are hidden and players can bluff, adding a layer to the fun.
IMO, the 5+6 player thing for settlers makes the game a lot less fun. It makes hand management a lot harder without adding anything but more players. My group usually plays it with sea farers and cities and knights when we play it (all of us has played the base game to death)
Duly noted. Pardon the newbie question, but would Sea Farers and Cities and Knights still be limited to 4 players max? I saw those two recently at a hobby store in a mall we frequent but I got discouraged by the price tag (around 65USD) and the fact that we haven't played the base game as much yet and we're already looking at an expansion set.
I personally don't enjoy sea farers all that much on its own but once you add in Cities in Knights the game takes on an entire new style of play. New resources, punishment by Catan being raided, merchant token, the strategy that comes with your positioning even more given islands are in play. It is totally worth it.
Been painting the figures for the first 2, so all I have played so far is Warhammer 40,000 conquest, which is pretty fun. Different Warhammer factions, different warlord commanders for the factions, and interesting game play with the option to win by conquering 3 planets with matching icons, or killing off the opposing warlord.
On January 05 2015 06:05 KissBlade wrote: For six player games, I prefer Resistance, Avalon, Battlestar Galactica (with daybreak only), cash'n'guns & Spyfall (the best one out of them). I heavily skew them towards traitor hidden role games because otherwise turns drag on and take too long. Five players: I play Kemet, Terra mystica, Descent 2.0, Last Will. Three - Four players: Tragedy Looper, Aliens Legendary Encounters, Seasons, Shinobi Wa-taah! Two players: Android Netrunner, Mage Wars, Doomtown, Mage Knight Solo player: Mage Knight
how do you find time(and money) to play both Netrunner and Doomtown?
anyways, I was at a very mild house party at New Year's Eve and we played 5 and 6 player Resistance: Avalon. It was awesome, tough I was a little worried that not everyone will like it. I got it in November, but didn't have the opportunity to play it before. Fortunately I kind of rehearsed a tutorial before the game night, so teaching the game went smooth.
My friend made a ripoff of Avalon once, replaced the characters and roles with characters from the King Arthur Legends. I didn't get it the first few times but it was sure fun getting to learn it.
On January 06 2015 22:44 SilverSkyLark wrote: My friend made a ripoff of Avalon once, replaced the characters and roles with characters from the King Arthur Legends. I didn't get it the first few times but it was sure fun getting to learn it.
Been painting the figures for the first 2, so all I have played so far is Warhammer 40,000 conquest, which is pretty fun. Different Warhammer factions, different warlord commanders for the factions, and interesting game play with the option to win by conquering 3 planets with matching icons, or killing off the opposing warlord.
Is Arcadia Quest good? Looks similar to Super Dungeon Explore!?!
On January 06 2015 22:44 SilverSkyLark wrote: My friend made a ripoff of Avalon once, replaced the characters and roles with characters from the King Arthur Legends. I didn't get it the first few times but it was sure fun getting to learn it.
what? :D he didn't have put a lot of effort in it, because it's already about Arthur and co.
it seems that games with hidden roles and can accommodate a lot of players (4-5+) with easy mechanics to pick up are the best ones to use. A lot of social interaction (mindgames + politics) that gives more depth to the game.
If one wants to play a game for 5+ people with very minimal rules required, I think Cards Against Humanity would be a great pickup.
Been painting the figures for the first 2, so all I have played so far is Warhammer 40,000 conquest, which is pretty fun. Different Warhammer factions, different warlord commanders for the factions, and interesting game play with the option to win by conquering 3 planets with matching icons, or killing off the opposing warlord.
Is Arcadia Quest good? Looks similar to Super Dungeon Explore!?!
I haven't played yet, still finishing up painting the models, and also working on Imperial Assault miniatures too. Arcadia Quest is up to 4 players, each player drafts 3 heroes and then you compete against each other to complete quests and fight each other's heroes, while taking turns controlling the monsters when opposing heroes move into range of them. It has a campaign with some randomness in what quests will show up where you can upgrade heroes in between scenarios. The models look similar, but it's not Dark Consul vs heroes like Super Dungeon Explore.
Speaking of miniature games, the Conan miniature board game is about to hit kickstarter on the 12th, based on the original books, not the movies or modern adaptations. It is being released by a French company called Monolith. They have hired a lot of sculptors who worked for Rackham Miniatures before they went pre-painted and plastic and fell off drastically in quality and demand.
Preview of Conan miniature painted by studio artist: + Show Spoiler +
Hey guys, I got this Android App called Better Settlers and I'm using it to generate a relatively random and fair board for Settlers of Catan (base set). Is anyone else familiar with that app? It didn't have a read me so I assumed that the gold/yellow ones are wheat, dark green would be wood, light green would be wool, red would be clay bricks, and silver would be ore. I also noticed that sometimes it places the two red probability circles next to one another, making the game imbalanced.
How do you guys generate the tiles for your Catan games?
Your assumptions about what each color represents are correct.
As for Better Settlers itself, it's OK. You have three options for generating Catan boards:
1) Pure random. This is what people do at the highest level, and is best for those very experienced with the game. This obviously makes no guarantees whatsoever about equity or fairness. Sometimes people play pure random where 6/8 can't touch, or the 6/8 can't all be on the same resource, which makes it a little more palatable.
2) By the rules of the game. Their rules are quite fine to follow, but these boards tend to get boring after a while.
3) Better Settlers (or other comparable programs), which does a pretty fine job of finding a balance between 1 and 2. You'll notice that whenever the 6/8 are adjacent, the 2 or 12 is on that point too.
The problem if you play with (3) too much is that it's always safe. Every resource will always be at least somewhat available. You won't have situations where brick is 12/11/4 and the 4 is behind a desert, or situations where all sheep hexes are adjacent. Those games are exciting for experienced players as something new and fresh.
That being said, if you just want to guarantee a decently balanced board and don't want to make the game about the board, then (2) and (3) are both fine. If I'm playing with people relatively newer to boardgames, I always go with (2) or (3). If I'm playing with other very experienced Catan players, we usually just do pure random and agree to reroll if everyone has a consensus that it's terrible. (Of course we do this before determining turn order ... )
...what? Do you mean putting down your settlements and roads when you only know the numbers but not what resources you're going on? That sounds like one of the worst ideas ever.
On January 05 2015 06:05 KissBlade wrote: For six player games, I prefer Resistance, Avalon, Battlestar Galactica (with daybreak only), cash'n'guns & Spyfall (the best one out of them). I heavily skew them towards traitor hidden role games because otherwise turns drag on and take too long. Five players: I play Kemet, Terra mystica, Descent 2.0, Last Will. Three - Four players: Tragedy Looper, Aliens Legendary Encounters, Seasons, Shinobi Wa-taah! Two players: Android Netrunner, Mage Wars, Doomtown, Mage Knight Solo player: Mage Knight
how do you find time(and money) to play both Netrunner and Doomtown?
Who says I get to play them? :D
Lol, well doomtown I'm likely not going to get into. I bought the base and the expansion but there doesn't seem to be a lot of life for the game here. Netrunner I just play with friends when they come over early. I probably should dip out of that train though because I already own too many two player games ...
On January 08 2015 11:03 GrandInquisitor wrote: ...what? Do you mean putting down your settlements and roads when you only know the numbers but not what resources you're going on? That sounds like one of the worst ideas ever.
Might have misread how the randomly generated games are supposed to work. So the sequence would go: -- generate a map (resource placement + the number thing) -- roll for order of settlement placement?
I play a lot of Terra Mystica. And it's probably my groups favorite game. Love the new expansion, I play a bit online as well on Snellman if anyone wants to play. Been playing lots of different board games though not just TM(not for lack of trying :D)
On January 08 2015 11:03 GrandInquisitor wrote: ...what? Do you mean putting down your settlements and roads when you only know the numbers but not what resources you're going on? That sounds like one of the worst ideas ever.
Might have misread how the randomly generated games are supposed to work. So the sequence would go: -- generate a map (resource placement + the number thing) -- roll for order of settlement placement?
I'm not sure that there's actually a specific order for determining turn order vs map generation (they are both just part of pre-game setup), but yes, we always make the map first (numbers + resources) then roll for settlement placement order. This way people get to make objections to the map under the veil of ignorance (rather than p1 favoring a map because it's got a 6/8/9 spot or something).
On January 08 2015 11:03 GrandInquisitor wrote: ...what? Do you mean putting down your settlements and roads when you only know the numbers but not what resources you're going on? That sounds like one of the worst ideas ever.
Might have misread how the randomly generated games are supposed to work. So the sequence would go: -- generate a map (resource placement + the number thing) -- roll for order of settlement placement?
I'm not sure that there's actually a specific order for determining turn order vs map generation (they are both just part of pre-game setup), but yes, we always make the map first (numbers + resources) then roll for settlement placement order. This way people get to make objections to the map under the veil of ignorance (rather than p1 favoring a map because it's got a 6/8/9 spot or something).
On January 04 2015 13:13 SilverSkyLark wrote: Bumping this! :D
Started collecting boardgames as well as card games during the last month. It's kinda hard to collect the good ones in our country cuz boardgames aren't a huge thing out here. Anyway, here is our (me and my 4 siblings) collection thus far:
1. Settlers Of Catan + 5-6 Player Expansion Pack. I'm actually waiting for the shops to be open again so I can buy acrylic and have it laser cut so we have our own board holder.
2. 7 Wonders + Cities Expansion pack. This game is really fun, though we're putting it on hold first cuz the cards are losing their gloss and it's tough to find the proper sleeves in here (65mm x 100mm). Most shops sell card sleeves for Magic: the Gathering and Cardfight Vanguard.
3. King of Tokyo. Some quick fun. The pace is actually really good and the replay value is great as well. We managed to sleeve it up with matte sleeves but now the cards won't fit in the box since they're slightly larger, I had to use an extra MtG deckbox to hold the cards for now. Looking into buying foam and cutting up our own custom "box inside".
4. Munchkins. I haven't touched this one so far. Gameplay time seems longer than usual (2-3 hours) but seems fun.
So for now, I'm looking into sleeving up our card games. We do have Neutral Grounds and Courtside and other hobby shops around but they rarely stock on card sleeves that are not the usual size. I'm also considering buying from Amazon but I'm not sure if they will deliver to my door or they'll leave it with our Bureau of Customs (and those guys are corrupt as fuck).
I think things are looking up in here. A hobbyshop recently opened near us and they let people play their open copies of board/card games and even help you out in starting your collection based on your usual playgroup. There's also cafe near us that lets you rent board/cardgames (they have a LOT) as long as you buy food/drinks and the staff even teaches how the game is played. Hopefully hobby shops stock up on board/card games soon.
As of now I'm looking for Coup, similar to Bang but the roles are hidden and players can bluff, adding a layer to the fun.
IMO, the 5+6 player thing for settlers makes the game a lot less fun. It makes hand management a lot harder without adding anything but more players. My group usually plays it with sea farers and cities and knights when we play it (all of us has played the base game to death)
Duly noted. Pardon the newbie question, but would Sea Farers and Cities and Knights still be limited to 4 players max? I saw those two recently at a hobby store in a mall we frequent but I got discouraged by the price tag (around 65USD) and the fact that we haven't played the base game as much yet and we're already looking at an expansion set.
Yes it is still limited to 4 players. As mentioned by someone else, Sea Farers on itself isn't that great, it's the Cities and Knights and the increased board size that together make it a more strategic game with more options. That said, I think it will be better for you to get a lot of playtime of the original game under your belt before deciding whether to invest in the expansions or not. (And make sure you get versions compatible with your base game)
Bought Tragedy Looper over the holidays and played it on Friday. Definitely a fun game. Playing through the starter missions definitely favouring the good guys, as the mastermind is limited on the sub plot usage, but it's a fun game that definitely starts discussions/arguments!
The Conan kickstarter is live now and smashing thru stretch goals at an impressive rate. Here is what is included so far with new stuff unlocking every day: + Show Spoiler +
king pledge: base pledge is everything except for the very bottom section.
Already at less than a dollar per miniature value, not even including the value of the game and game components.
On January 08 2015 11:03 GrandInquisitor wrote: ...what? Do you mean putting down your settlements and roads when you only know the numbers but not what resources you're going on? That sounds like one of the worst ideas ever.
A buddy of mine has two variations he plays.
All the # tiles are face down and you see the resources and place your stuff accordingly
Or the Resource tiles are face down but you see the #'s and place your stuff accordingly.
Its done for a insane challenge, and it can be extremely entertaining but its also insanely hard.
I mean, if by insanely hard, you mean, insanely luck-based, then sure. Part of the challenge of Catan is balancing competing needs of resource diversity and number diversity, then adjusting your gameplay to compensate accordingly. Those variants seem like they remove that aspect of the game completely; in the latter, settlement placement is just an optimization issue of trying to maximize your number diversity since you have literally no other information to go on.
People can play with whatever variants they want but those don't seem like they'd be any fun for me. It would be like playing poker where your bets each hand were determined randomly.
On January 08 2015 11:03 GrandInquisitor wrote: ...what? Do you mean putting down your settlements and roads when you only know the numbers but not what resources you're going on? That sounds like one of the worst ideas ever.
A buddy of mine has two variations he plays.
All the # tiles are face down and you see the resources and place your stuff accordingly
Or the Resource tiles are face down but you see the #'s and place your stuff accordingly.
Its done for a insane challenge, and it can be extremely entertaining but its also insanely hard.
I've been playing Catan again with my siblings and we've used a Catan Map Generator Application on Android, what we do is we decide if a map is "fair enough" (no 6/8s side by side, no desert tile in the center of the board, etc) and then determine who goes first using Chwazi (a good app) or dice rolls. Then we follow the rules for setting down initial settlements and roads. It gets tricky from time to time when you're not getting the usual Bell Curve on dice rolls so even if you get the statistically "best" initial settlement spots, you'd still get screwed over by Dice Rolls that deviate from the usual distribution. I've never actually won a game against my siblings. There was even a time where I had 10 points but I lost the Largest Army and Longest Road cards.
Also, may be a bit off topic since it's strictly a card game, but Munchkin is a really good game. The base set is pretty entertaining and can provide numerous good playthroughs without feeling boring or repetitive. We also got the Need for Steed expansion set, but we've only had 1 playthough and we haven't experienced how traps, curses, lures, and steeds affect game play yet. You can also add Munchkin Legends expansion sets if I'm not mistaken. Can be played by 3-6 players.
Another good card game would be Munchkin Loot Letter. I think it's a spoof of the Love Letter card game, but you try to get the highest valued card by the end of the round or knock everyone else out to win the round. Box says that 2-4 players can play this but we've found 2 player games a bit boring.
Coup is also a good game. You have to eliminate other players by using 2 "roles" you get (only you can see your roles) and you can bluff certain actions that only certain roles can do but not necessarily roles you have. You can also call people on their bluffs and challenge their actions. It's a very good game of deception and deduction. Can be played by 2-5/6 players, but we suggest 4+ players since 2-3 player games tend to get bland really fast.
Planning to get King of New York next after I get sleeves for our Coup and 7 Wonders + Cities Expansion set.
Sup. We got a copy of Coup, Sushi Go!, a locally made card game Politricks, The Resistance (w/ The Inquisitor).
Coup gets boring easily esp if no one wants to get in the way of other players actions unless it's directly against them. For example, no one would interfere with Player A Assassinating Player B even if there are other players that are Contessas. Everyone can fake being a Duke and race to 7 coins and Coup someone.
Sushi Go! Is a very fast to learn, fast to play card game. It's a good pick and pass card game where you have to think on you feet because you always get a new set of cards. You can't count cards because not all cards get played. Very very good game for any size and it scale well with any amount of players (2-5 players are recommended iirc, too lazy to go check).
Politricks is a card game produced locally and it takes a jab at my country's horrible state of politics. Flavor and Art are both spot on. You have to get the most amount of votes by doing several underhanded ticks. However, the lack of a comprehensive rule book discussing card actions in depth and certain interactions (See Munchkin: Loot Letter) was really a downer for me. Sent a message to the game page, they replied that they themselves cannot agree on several in depth rules, and that a large issue they're encountering is that most of the players are not following the basic rules.
We haven't played Resistance yet. If I'm not mistaken, we'll get to playtest it tomorrow as we'll get 5 players.
EDIT: I realized we misunderstood the rules back in my previous post and I should have won once I hit my 10 points. I think we'll get expansions for Catan. Can I get opinions from everyone on which expansions they enjoyed? Thanks.
EPT![[image loading]](http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/8072/bradpitt201101.jpg)
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) and it really isn't 4-6 hours once you get the hang of it. Our first play through took like 8 hours but now when people know what to do, what does what we can easily do it in 2-3h It does have a very clear time limit in the tech victory you simply can't hop around forever or someone will get that one, aswell as the tech scales so ridiculously that once you reach tier 3/4 defending a capital becomes really really hard. ![[image loading]](http://www.thestrong.org/online-collections/images/Z003/Z00360/Z0036060.jpg)
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