What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

Battleball didn't last long in our house. It's competition was too great. The kids got way more toy time out of Heroscape, plus the diversity and depth of Heroscape's gameplay puts the limited Battleball to shame. Had they come out with a few teams then maybe they would have had something. Those two can only go head-to-head so many times...

Plus, I play a bunch of BloodBowl, so all my fantasy sport itches get the full spa treatment.

Some mixed reports here summarizing the last couple of weeks.

Cthulhu Wars again with 4 and I tried Black Goat twice in a row. The first time was a disaster and Cthulhu destroyed everyone because Crawling Chaos wasn't aggressive enough. The second game was alot closer with 3 only, Yellow Sign, Black Goat, and CC. CC won with a 5 point lead over me as Black Goat and bullied the board most of the game with the pre-battle abilities. Goat is pretty tough for me to get a grasp on because they have no pre-battle or post-battle abilities that encourage conflict and thats normally my style. I like the game alot still and appreciate the different factions and strategy for each side. However it definitely needs more than 4 factions or it is just too repetitive of a game I think. Especially if it comes down to the end reveal of Elder Signs the game feels a little lacking, like luck of the draw won you the game instead of playing well. I still plan on throwing more money at it in a couple of weeks to get some of the new factions and independent monsters to use. Any game with asymmetric factions and powers will have me hooked.

Churchill next for a full game, I was Churchill and the experienced player was Stalin with a noob as FDR. I don't like this game. I can kinda see how people like it, but it isn't very fun for me. The conference table and the trick taking is really the core of the game with success in points often relying on a d10 roll. The fucked up scoring and end conditions take a while to get used to and force players to act sub-optimally and avoid points. The board is crowded with shit that you won't comprehend the importance of until at least your third game or worse, and will affect the score. It takes 3-4 hours for a full game and the decisions just aren't enough for me given the time put into it. I take 2-4 issues each conference and most of them allow me to allocate troops and roll a single dice to determine how many points I get. The real strategy is in the trick taking and that just doesn't do it for me. Not sure what else to say other than I'd rather not play this again.

Tammany Hall was last night. Wow was this a terrible game. I've played it about 5 times before, always with 3-4 players. I kinda liked the game going into last night but it is such a crunchy game that constantly forces players to count each fucking immigrant group every placement that I don't want to play it often. Last night we had 5 and I went first and another player went for the same immigrant group as me. We ended the first election with him having the majority and I had close to equal the favors, the other players went unchallenged in their respective groups. The next round was just as bad where I had no chance of going after either of the other 3 groups bc. they each had 7-10 favor chips, so I stuck with fighting for the original group. And so the game went with me and the other guy fighting for one group the rest of the game, both of us far far behind in points and lacking the ability to break into the other groups. Nobody else seriously challenged each other, they had no incentive to and were happy with owning one group and moving into the weakened areas. And slowly the others started moving in our districts until by the third and fourth election we had between 0-2 districts each. We even talked about how to avoid this but there was no way to stop fighting each other and move into other areas because the other 3 players were so dominant in their immigrant groups. After round 1 the game was over for 2 of the 5 players and the game continued for another hour. Probably one of the worst gaming experiences I've had due to the design of the game itself.

Second game of Blood Rage with 3. I still don't understand the love for this game other than the minis look cool and it plays in 90 minutes or less. It is still crunchy on the points, ie should I quest or upgrade my ships for points or plan for Ragnorak,etc, and is surprisingly short on flavor despite the minis. The variety of ways to score bothers me because it reminds me of Euro games where I can sell X good for 3VP or do something like take Y action for 4VP and has little to do with how the other players act or that we're all fighting for the same pool of points and therefore I have to really understand what your strategy is in order to win. Blood Rage is alot different from that and allows everyone to pursue their own strategy and score possibly equivalent points because the points are not from a shared pool as much as other area control games and as a result the game is more focused on optimizing your score each turn. Also nothing about the game other than the minis really feels like a battle/area control game. Compare this to Chaos in the Old World where each faction has a very unique flavor of cards and upgrades, and not just the +1-3 upgrades that Blood Rage offers. I like Cthulhu Wars alot more than this one despite recently buying into the late kickstarter offering. I'll probably try it with all the extras and sell it quickly afterwards but I still don't get it.

Eminent Domain deserves a mention too here since I'm on a rant. First play of this one and to be fair the game owner said I probably wouldn't like it because it lacks interaction. Wow was he right. I really hated this game and somehow it took 2 hours to play a 3 player game, I blame the other noob that took forever on his turns. I'm a huge sci-fi fan and love Glory to Rome so I was hoping this was somehow a mix of the two. Nope, this game is very solitary in nature and aggression against the other players is generally not possible. Definitely not my type of game.

Just to end on a high note got in 2 plays of Twilight Struggle too. One against my long time nemesis who wins 75% of our games. I did pretty well most of the game as the US and in turn 9 I had a hand full of soviet events that awarded between 1-2 VP to the Soviets. My opponent was doing poorly in the Americas, Asia, Africa, and we split Europe and the ME. Next turn he gets that fucking card War Games and wins with 8 VP. Great game even though I lost. My other play was against a friend that has only played it twice. We had fun and he stuck around for a while as the Soviets until about the start of the Late War and lost on points.

Another game of Bolide last night, and we were pounding the shit out of each other. No one opened up a lead so there were favored lines that everyone was fighting for each turn. Roma track, so the turns aren't too bad.

My car limped across the line, only one car was healthy at the end of the race. But I had a shot at the last turn, had to overthrust and fight for a position to take the lead, and I did engine damage.

The more I play this game the more I realize how dynamic it can be. Your first play is cold, because you don't know how to work it yet. And unfortunately for most Eurogames that's the end of it -- you don't play games second and third times, certainly not on consecutive weeks or even consecutive months because everyone brought four boxes that they want to get played. So you don't learn how to press your luck, how to get ahead even when your opponent is playing well. A much better game than it gets credit for.

S.

sagrilarus wrote: you don't play games second and third times, certainly not on consecutive weeks or even consecutive months because everyone brought four boxes that they want to get played. So you don't learn how to press your luck, how to get ahead even when your opponent is playing well

Amen, brother! An ironic problem that plagues the hobby more & more as we all bask in this golden age of gaming...

I've been playing quite a bit of the small deckbuilder, Cthulhu Realms. The Star Realms crazed never caught on with me. A cursory glance of the game didn't make it seem all that special. Well, if it plays anything like it's 1.5 big brother, then fuck...I've been missing out. It's why you gotta play the games...sometimes the rules and reviews don't do the actual gameplay justice. Other times I'm just a lazy idiot. Thems the breaks.

Anywho, I like how fast you can ramp up in Cthuhlu Realms. After a few turns you're able to pull of some great combos and devastating attacks. It feels really vicious and if you're not careful you can get knocked out before you know it. You can't waste turns trying to build a perfect engine. I like that. The addition of having buildings that stay in play is also another thing I love in a deckbuilder. It seems like this game took the chassis of Ascension and put a supercharged engine under the hood. For me that's a good thing.

I'm a fan of deckbuilders, esepcially with two players, and Cthulhu Realms is quickly becoming a favorite. The icons take a game or two to grasp, but after that it's fast, smooth and mean playing. The artwork is great and I'm hoping the game gets expanded a bit. I'd go all in at this point.

Dutch wrote:

sagrilarus wrote: you don't play games second and third times, certainly not on consecutive weeks or even consecutive months because everyone brought four boxes that they want to get played. So you don't learn how to press your luck, how to get ahead even when your opponent is playing well

Amen, brother! An ironic problem that plagues the hobby more & more as we all bask in this golden age of gaming...

This, my friend, is why most of the Circus owns very few games, has not bought games often in the last ten years, and relies upon me for their primary exposure to the greater hobby. I hold most of the cards, and thus, we play games 10-50 times before retiring them for a while.

#IamLegend

Jesus, Scott... I know you played a bunch of meh games but god damn do I envy your gaming lifestyle.

That was the past 2-3 weeks. Normally I get a 2 player game of Twilight Struggle/Hannibal once a week, a weeknight of either one 4 hour game or 2 two hour games with 5, then most saturdays I do 9-3. No kids, wife that loves gym classes = games for me.

Twlight Struggle ONCE A WEEK!? I'm lucky if I get it once a year

I'm glad to see there's an upside when you have a wife that loves her trainer

sup shawl. Been in the darkness of no internet in a new city, but now I am back (people on this site tend to declare comebacks for some reason, maybe its a Ken thing).

I played some games this weekend and they were all good, but perhaps not world defining;

Shogun - The Dirk watisname euro one. Not played Wallenstein but i quite liked this. Its a master class in information rationing with its orders system. Gives you enough to think strategically but hides enough to force risks. The cube tower is awesome and the whole thing makes you feel really smart. The downside is underneath the gloss its a take that style multiplayer wargame where everyone jumps on whoever is momentarily weakest and tries to avoid being the punch bag. The result of this is you basically want to turtle through the middle hour of the game and then swing hard at the end. The game might be better if it cut the middle hour out.

Two Rooms and a Boom. First i walked on way across a corridor, then I walked the other, and then a third time, then i blew up with my lover. I thought this was pretty funny, its definitely a bit different and worth it for that alone. Can easily be dominated by whoever shouts loudest though.

Spyfall - I was rubbish, my first question (what did you do last year) gave away the first game, turns out if some of the other players know the places sheet really well you have to stick to super vague questions like 'what are you doing with that?'. Not sold as yet, seems to be a group think game. If you are in on it, could be fun, if not isn't quite as funny or involving.

51st State - picked this up on ebay for some lose change as i like tableau builders and Legomancer suggested it was reasonable. Enjoyed the game but it was much less interactive than i expected. My Appalachians couldn't get gas for love nor money. Ended up with a rather defective strategy. The rules and iconography are a bit of a mess.

Black Barney wrote: Twlight Struggle ONCE A WEEK!? I'm lucky if I get it once a year

Sounds like your twilights are reduced to Struggle With Jimmy LOL

@Duke: I thought the EXACT same thing about 2RaaB. Dumb, funny, and dominated by the loudest voice (which is usually the least capable). My limited experience with Spyfall makes me think it's pretty much Guess Who: CIA edition.

I used to play Twilight Struggle several times a week, back when I was in an apartment and discovered the guy downstairs also played games. I could honestly care less if I ever played it again. If anyone is wondering if there's ever a point in which you could get tired of the game, yes, it's there.

Josh Look wrote: I used to play Twilight Struggle several times a week, back when I was in an apartment and discovered the guy downstairs also played games. I could honestly care less if I ever played it again. If anyone is wondering if there's ever a point in which you could get tired of the game, yes, it's there.

I think that Twilight Struggle is the one game I cannot tire of. At least I haven't yet, and I have played it a few hundred times.

Gary Sax wrote: Jesus, Scott... I know you played a bunch of meh games but god damn do I envy your gaming lifestyle.

Shit, he didn't even play Cave Evil. Down week.

The game that has been eating my brain for the past month is Triumph & Tragedy, from GMT. For those who don't know, it's a dedicated 3-player wargame about the European Theater in WWII. It's a block game, with a simple, crunchy economic system that integrates terrain, technology and diplomacy flawlessly.

Uncharacteristically, the game begins in 1936 instead of '39. This allows the players time to customize their forces, seed the map of Europe with diplomatic ties, and develop their industry and secret weapons before the big balloon goes up.

What makes this game tick is that the 3 rival powers are the British (with France as a satellite), the Germans (with Italy as a satellite), and the Soviets. The USA is reduced to a potential diplomatic satellite for the Brits. If you've ever played a strategic scale WWII game, you'll appreciate the impact of this design choice: instead of just sitting back and waiting for the USA to arrive on a time-table with infinite tons of war materiel (as they do in Europe Engulfed and elsewhere), the scrappy Brits in T&T have to beg, borrow and steal to both fend off their rivals and tempt the Americans to join.

The fact that it's a 3-way tug of war means that the historical battle-lines of WW2 might not evolve: there might be a war between the Soviets & the Brits with the Germans sitting on the sidelines... though this is far less likely than the typical Germany sandwich you get just like in all other ETO games. Still, it makes for a very tense balance of power as everyone gobbles up some minor nations and builds for war.

Victory is determined immediately if you take two major enemy capitals (London, Berlin, Moscow, Paris, Rome, Leningrad, Baku, or Delhi). Alternately, you can win a peaceful auto-victory, or determine the winner on points after 1945.

In the four games I've played, I lost to a Russian economic victory and a British military victory. I won with a German military victory (via Sealion) and a British military victory (I took Rome and snatched an undefended Baku from the Sovs). I can't wait to play it again.