What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

That 7 expansion thing is exactly why I never bought that Baseball Highlights game. It was an example of a game where the base game wasnt the complete game. The expansions were needed and if you added it up the cost for the full game was stupid expensive. Plus that sales model is damn annoying.

Got in a second play of Imperial Settlers and enjoyed it again. This is a "deluxe euro" where there's a fair chunk of playtime involved and a lot of decisions. Not a whole lot of player interaction in it, but what there is just really screwed my in my game last night playing the Japanese.

The Japanese are about wood, and Kyle gave me a warning that they're a little tougher to play than the others so I came in expecting a struggle, because I don't even really have the rules down yet. So early on I get a card that lets me produce wood in quantity, and everything is rolling. I'm building my country (out of wood) and getting enough stuff to make things work. But one of the fellow players showed up and razed my wood producing card and I was back to a slow roll again. A bit later I got a card that let me double any card that produces stuff so I was in good shape again (and I could use it to double my victory point production, a biggie late in the game) but that card too got razed. So I struggled a lot. But I made it work as best I could and in spite of a DFL at least I was in sight of the third-place player. Players 1 and 2 were way ahead of us.

The Japanese have the ability to store unlimited food, but I didn't see a food card all game. I built a town that let me store unlimited wood, no wood to be had because my only wood production card got killed. In hindsight I'd play the Japanese as all-wood-all-day next time, drafting cards solely for their ability to produce wood or convert to wood. It would really open up the game for them.

I like the game. I need to play it again soon so I don't forget the rules. It's a solid play.

S.

repoman wrote: That 7 expansion thing is exactly why I never bought that Baseball Highlights game. It was an example of a game where the base game wasnt the complete game. The expansions were needed and if you added it up the cost for the full game was stupid expensive. Plus that sales model is damn annoying.

The expansions definitely aren't *needed.* I've been playing it quite a bit with only the base game and it's still great. I do have a few expansions ordered, but my understanding is that they just add more options for upgrading your team via the drafting between rounds. The essential game is still the same, though. Er, there is the "coaches" expansion, where you have a coach that affects play aside from the drafting, but that's not really necessary at all. Could they have included some more of the extra cards in the base game? Sure, but then there would be more keywords to learn and integrate. I think it's a good mix to begin with.

Sag, we have a house rule that you draw four faction cards at the beginning, keep two, and reshuffle the others. Since faction cards vary widely and it's possible to never see the cards your civ relies on, this slightly increases the chance of starting with a helpful card.

I like Imperial Settlers but I really really hope the new 51st State fires it.

Legomancer wrote: Sag, we have a house rule that you draw four faction cards at the beginning, keep two, and reshuffle the others. Since faction cards vary widely and it's possible to never see the cards your civ relies on, this slightly increases the chance of starting with a helpful card.

I like Imperial Settlers but I really really hope the new 51st State fires it.

I went through my deck afterwards and there were only two food-producing cards in it. A bit of a surprise given their ability to store unlimited food. I like the idea though.

Just thought I'd mention that I dislike the iconography on the cards, surrounded by English text that makes it pointless. The cards could use a bigger font because . . . why not? . . . and just use the word Card and the word Food instead of having stupid icons that force your brain to keep switching gears for no reason. It's almost like the artist thought it would look more like a modern boardgame if they put emojis on the cards.

Sagrilarus wrote:

Legomancer wrote: Sag, we have a house rule that you draw four faction cards at the beginning, keep two, and reshuffle the others. Since faction cards vary widely and it's possible to never see the cards your civ relies on, this slightly increases the chance of starting with a helpful card.

I like Imperial Settlers but I really really hope the new 51st State fires it.

I went through my deck afterwards and there were only two food-producing cards in it. A bit of a surprise given their ability to store unlimited food. I like the idea though.

Just thought I'd mention the I HATE the iconography on the cards, surrounded by English text that makes it pointless. The cards could use a bigger font because . . . why not? . . . and just use the word Card and the word Food instead of having stupid icons that force your brain to keep switching gears for no reason. It's almost like the artist thought it would look more like a modern boardgame if they put emojis on the cards.

If I understand you correctly, it's icons with text beneath them explaining? That's what Argent does, and I actually kind of like it. It means it requires less explanation at the front end, since the icons aren't as cryptic. But it also allows experienced players to grasp what the cards do quickly. It sounds like Argent may have more moving parts, and that might make it a better candidate for that kind of treatment.

Last fall I did a full "season" of Baseball Highlights with some friends. It took like four hours, and was a lot of fun.

repoman wrote: That 7 expansion thing is exactly why I never bought that Baseball Highlights game. It was an example of a game where the base game wasnt the complete game. The expansions were needed and if you added it up the cost for the full game was stupid expensive. Plus that sales model is damn annoying.

The latest "super deluxe" edition has everything except the add-on teams, which have some variances in their starting 15 cards, but I don't feel like they are essential unless you are playing with more than 4 and in a league game.

The game with no expansions is definitely not incomplete- it's fully formed. The expansions add more choices in terms of who you draft and more complicated/conditional effects. Just a few new keywords.

Of them, Coaches is the one that changes things the most. I really like Magna Glove (advanced fielders) and Rally Cap (effects go off if you are ahead/behind.

san il defanso wrote: If I understand you correctly, it's icons with text beneath them explaining?

No, it's text and icons intermingled. There's maybe ten icons that are used in place of English words in the middle of sentences. As best I can tell it's the worst of both worlds.



Go ahead and read the card on the right and listen to your brain stutter when you shift from English to icons. It's not a dealbreaker or anything, just an odd choice of design. Maybe it flows more smoothly in Polish.

I suppose they save some text space.

That game angered me so much because of the size of the text. I realize I'm an old man and don't have the sharp vision of a 14-year-old, but considering half the card was wasted with irrelevant (excuse me, "thematic") artwork, they could have bumped that font up a size or two. I had trouble reading my own cards (icons notwithstanding) let alone anyone else's.

Sagrilarus wrote:

san il defanso wrote: If I understand you correctly, it's icons with text beneath them explaining?

No, it's text and icons intermingled. There's maybe ten icons that are used in place of English words in the middle of sentences. As best I can tell it's the worst of both worlds.

Go ahead and read the card on the right and listen to your brain stutter when you shift from English to icons. It's not a dealbreaker or anything, just an odd choice of design. Maybe it flows more smoothly in Polish.

I suppose they save some text space.

Geez, that's much more annoying.

Flick 'Em Up (with the excellent Stallion Canyon expansion) has been hitting my table again recently. My love for this game continues to burn and I talk it up some more in my first article at Geek & Sundry .

Sagrilarus wrote:

Legomancer wrote: Sag, we have a house rule that you draw four faction cards at the beginning, keep two, and reshuffle the others. Since faction cards vary widely and it's possible to never see the cards your civ relies on, this slightly increases the chance of starting with a helpful card.

I like Imperial Settlers but I really really hope the new 51st State fires it.

I went through my deck afterwards and there were only two food-producing cards in it. A bit of a surprise given their ability to store unlimited food. I like the idea though.

Just thought I'd mention that I dislike the iconography on the cards, surrounded by English text that makes it pointless. The cards could use a bigger font because . . . why not? . . . and just use the word Card and the word Food instead of having stupid icons that force your brain to keep switching gears for no reason. It's almost like the artist thought it would look more like a modern boardgame if they put emojis on the cards.

You're forgetting about the deals - I don't have the game present right now, but a number of Japanese cards have food that can be gained each turn if used as deals. (IE, the Gate pictured in a previous message). I enjoy playing as the Japanese - they have potential to score huge points more easily than other factions (maybe not the Alanteans, haven't played them yet) and usually the other player needs to raze key Japanese cards to keep them in check.

Played the Taliban in A Distant Plain mid week. Pretty similar experience to Andean Abyss but with more information to track. I lost, but took down the UN with me, via the magic of suicide bombs and IEDs. Used them in excess but couldn't get any bases built. The government won. I quite liked it but i find the tug of war a bit tiring after a while.

I went to a local boardgame Con on saturday (AIRECON) and didn't take any games with me because there was a library. The library was about 95% euro which was a bit disappointing, also my friend Dave and I managed to convince all of one other person at the Con to play a game with us, and neither of us are weird. We did play Betrayal at the House on the Hill, possibly the only AT title they had, and that was quite good. Some school kid played with us and I ended up one shotting the betrayer with a spear after shooting up on adrenaline. We also played Panamax and Istanbul. Both were ok;

Panamax has a horrible rule book and sort of ends up feeling a bit like a worker placement game despite having a action pool mechanic. The game also has a lot of dice that you rarely roll. It is sort of compelling and it does this rather magical thing of being a complex game that finishes in 90s minutes with out cutting any corners. I'd play it again, i found it abit frustrating, i couldn't do anything at all with the last action in the second round due to the board state, but pushing ships around is pretty cool.

Istanbul was probably the better of the two. It does some light euro things like having some resources and actions you take on tiles but it also has an old German game feel because you move around the board and have to plan board positioning of your character. Its also rather rules light and makes intuitive sense. Its rather low interaction and luck so i think a computational mind could work out the optimal move but its quite charming.

Wings of Glory WWI, two games, followed by three games of WWII. This was twelve players with the student strategic gaming group.

The World War II version is similar rule-wise, but plays very differently. We had a very good day of gaming.

S.

Couple of games of Kemet with the new expansion. I refuse to use the additional path of gods board with the priests and all the other crap - the table already has enough going on without that. I used the new pyramid power, the new battle cards, the game end condition, and for turn order we just do reverse VP chooses their own spot. Both 4 player games came in at about 2-2.5 hours total play time, I was happy with that. Everyone played at least once before but I did a rules summary the first game last weekend and had mostly the same players this week.

The game end condition is alot better. Playing first to 8 points and then one turn more to exceed that player's VP count really makes the 6 and 7 VP marks a thing to watch for. Before the expansion it ended at the top of the next action round once 8 points was reached I think, so there was always alot of fuckery going on that complete last round. Now it is more of a race for VP and speeds up the game. Still has a king making problem but games like this can't get around that with public VPs.

New battle cards really add to the hand management aspect too. Somehow adding two cards and forcing one more battle before you can grab back your full hand is alot trickier, kinda Game of Thrones in a way without the unique powers. Remembering that your opponent already played their 5 strength battle card is a pretty big deal.

I like the game. The minis are cool, battles are pretty tense, and there is plenty of variety in the tile choices. Not super great that there is so much silence at the table as everyone studies the 70ish total tech tiles available, but its still a very interactive game.

Another couple of games of Study in Emerald, first edition. Still a top 5 game for me after like half a dozen plays this year already. Great game but it sure can punish you if you have a new player on your side that isn't catching on fast, or if you just have some random player that wants to be coy and half ass things for either side the whole game, thereby guaranteeing his side loses. I've played the second edition version once and don't see a need to play it again, although for an hour long game its decent enough.

I recently bought Clockwork Wars with the expansion - looking forward to playing that soon. And eventually I'd like to try the new Star Wars game but I doubt I'd ever buy it, seems a little too dicey and in long two player games I try to avoid that.