What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

I love that when you get some of the treasure or advanced inventions it can be like the sky opening in RC. Like the hearth in the first scenario which is all about nasty weather.

Played at game of The U.S. Civil War today against my nemesis. There is just no way to complete a campaign game in one day so we opted for the 1862 scenario which is six turns long.

I liked it quit a bit but was a little frustrated with the supply rules and their effects. The game, as a whole, is really very simple for one of its scope so for the supply to be so confusing and obtuse seems a shame. In any case, I think we worked them out, and if not no big deal, and had a great time. Some people were disappointed that there is very little of the political aspect in the game but to tell the truth, the playing field is so large and the options of what to do so varied that one less thing to worry about did not seem to me to be a negative. Of course, maybe if played the game 20 times or more it might be missed more but hey....when am I going to play a game like this 20 or more times?

I, as the Confederates, was doing pretty good for the first three turns but then The Nemesis got his blue bellies into gear and pummeled his way to victory. A fun afternoon by any measure.

^yeah, the river supply rules looked a little convoluted to me, even in the basic game. Also, it looked like it was ok to go off on a tramp about somewhere else minimally connected over long distance to a river or city but as soon as you suffered a defeat you were in deep trouble?

Friday night a few of us got together to do some big table gaming at one of our houses, so first up was
Shadows of Brimstone Swamps of Death. We did the basic mission, and am fairly sure broke a few rules, because I did not want to go digging for the FAQ to suggest to the rancher that no, he does not get a free extra attack for every model he kills with the swinging rifle. Focused just on the game. I was worried that the "stand and roll dice" combat would put some people off but the response was positive, especially when two characters both sprouted tails from corruption hits. I may have to dig into the Hexcrawl stuff I printed out, and also research options to help the Indian Scout player not fall two levels behind everyone else.

Zombicide was next, with another prison mission from the S2 set. This one had a real puzzle setup where you have to toggle the prison door to open (which activates a spawn inside the prison) with a rotating "murder room" as we dubbed it. You have to split the group, so we had two of us left behind in the prison, in which four beserker runners spawned, so there were some cat & mouse games. We ended the game with my character running into the switch room to rotate the room closed (winning condition), and what looked like a certain death post-game, but we called it a win because we got the mission req done. Dogs were added in this set, which did not cause a great deal of trouble.

Saturday gaming had a decent mix of games.
Isle of Skye, still really enjoying this game. I think I prefer the four player game, if only for the additional round because building more stuff is fun. One player was able to make a really big lake score 36 points over the game but still only won by two points. He scored no points at all in the first round. I generally don't do well with auction type stuff but the trading phase in this game makes some sense to me. I was a few points behind the lead two, but I had a good time.

Chaos in the Old World which was excellent as always. We were playing an older set without Horned Rat so this was a four player game, and we had one new player whom we gave Khorne. Khorne won on dial, ahead of Tzeench who had a shot at winning if he'd also got the tick (winning the tiebreaker on points), Nurgle lapped the scoreboard easily with Provender but we had all held him back by denying ruination the turn before. Recriminations post-game, of course.

Onitama which I P&P'd with some scavenged components. Only two games but it's interesting enough, and small enough. I think the retail release is over-produced; this could be a really nice pocket game that would fit in a Braverats size tin/box.

Hanabi in which, even with constant table talk (new player, rusty players) the three of us could not communicate at all. "Why did you tell me that these were fours" "Because he just discarded a four, and the other copy was your next discard" "I thought that meant you wanted me to play it." "..." Antoine Bauza is 0/4 for me at this point.

Dead Man's Draw which was a nice antidote to Hanabi. It's a light game, but has enough choices to be fun.

No Thanks which seemed to be beyond the understanding of 2/3 of us. I think I need to bring Rhino Hero next time.

I found Heroes of Normandie for ridiculously cheap at Miniature Market's brick store due to a large amount of box damage, and I tore it into that solo this weekend.

The first scenario was kind of iffy and not that interesting, but things came together in the second. I definitely see some of the aspects that warrant Barnes' comparison to Earth Reborn. I enjoyed it quite a bit and I dig how fast paced it is and deadly, in combination with some detailed sub-rules and systems that bring out a strong tactical approach.

I love the thing where you get to move units you didn't activate during the round which makes up for the gamey limiting factor of only being able to order a subset of your force. I dig the card play too as it adds a touch of chaos and unpredictability that goes a long way.

The only thing I'm not totally in love with is that I wish it took itself just one notch more seriously. I don't want it to be a sim but I wish it was more Kelly's Heroes or even Sgt. Rock than Ace Ventura (I can't even think of a WW2 comparison here).

Good game though and I'll definitely be picking up expansions at some point (D-day!).

Another game of 504. This is starting to feel like Prototype: The Board Game, in which each session you can play a different almost-but-not-quite-there game. It's like getting most of Kickstarter in one handy box. I won't refuse to play it, but it's looking more like a novelty and something to wow designers than something to actually have fun with.

Also got in more plays of El Grande (always a treat), The Bloody Inn (a lot of fun), and Imperial Settlers with the Atlanteans. I noted before that the game kind of wants you to construct faction decks with the Atlanteans and I'm just not interested in doing that. Instead we included them and their own faction deck and that's it. It worked well without having to gum up the rest of the game. Still, I'm foreseeing the road ahead for this game and it's looking more and more that the new 51st State edition will probably replace it for me.

Legomancer wrote: Another game of 504. This is starting to feel like Prototype: The Board Game, in which each session you can play a different almost-but-not-quite-there game. It's like getting most of Kickstarter in one handy box. I won't refuse to play it, but it's looking more like a novelty and something to wow designers than something to actually have fun with.

I don't see how 504 can really rise beyond the level of busy work. By the very nature of the design, the components need to be generic and independent of theme, and there is no place for thematic chrome rules. That leaves each game as a set of procedures to follow, without any sense of narrative or purpose, beyond efficient obedience to the rules.

charlest wrote:

The only thing I'm not totally in love with is that I wish it took itself just one notch more seriously. I don't want it to be a sim but I wish it was more Kelly's Heroes or even Sgt. Rock than Ace Ventura (I can't even think of a WW2 comparison here)

Hogan's Heroes.

repoman wrote:

charlest wrote:

The only thing I'm not totally in love with is that I wish it took itself just one notch more seriously. I don't want it to be a sim but I wish it was more Kelly's Heroes or even Sgt. Rock than Ace Ventura (I can't even think of a WW2 comparison here)

Hogan's Heroes.

Yes! Thanks.

I think the more comic book tone is one of the key things that sets HoN apart from Combat Commander, Band of Brothers, Conflict of Heroes, etc. etc. etc....all those stern-faced, oh-so-serious WARGAMES. It still has simulation-y stuff, but it usually lands on the side of a more cinematic and/or ridiculous version of WW2. I actually wouldn't mind if it were even more comic booky. Of course, you can get that Hellboy-esque expansion or the Guardian Chronicles flats to add actual comic book stuff into it.

It is totally like a cleaned up Earth Reborn, but cast as a squad based wargame instead of a hero focused adventure game.

They aren't very good scenario writers...a couple of them are pretty good, some of them (like the one with the dog) have a great idea but poor execution. Some of the ones in Shadows are better, but it's not too hard to just whip up a random firefight.

D-Day is good, it's just three scenarios (all better than in the base game) but it also gives you some new terrain other than bocage.

I'm not a big comic book guy, but I have a stack of 70's and 80's Sgt. Rock and none of them are quite as goofy as rescuing a dog for the Commander.

The Unknown Soldier, Haunted Tank can be thrown in as well. Over the top and super hero-y, sure, but not slapstick.

Between rules refresh, rules additions, and interruptions, my wife, a mutual friend, and I got through only one "age" in Age of Conan with all the (non-Kickstarter) expansion material thrown in. AoC is already something less than optimally streamlined, at least in my experience, so an expansion focused on "more" may be adding without improving. I wasn't expecting the expansion to "fix" the game--and I don't think I'll be disappointed in that--but there are some interesting ideas (the spies in the "regular" expansion, the gods in the Kickstarter-only material) that I'm willing to stick with it. What I'm really on the fence about is whether the selling point--the enhanced role for Conan--actually makes his role any more meaningful or whether it's just more to do and to track. Instead of the base game's Adventure cards, there are, in the expansion, both all-new Adventure and Story cards; Conan can essentially be "lured away" from his destination by the geographically appropriate Story card (which all players can have up to 2 of and which non-Conan players can use on their turn), gains experience, and (if a new Story test is successful) grants the card player a reward and opens up a new Conan bidding among the players. It's . . . more to do, anyway.

I tried out Elder Sign. Man, this game is terrible. Yahtzee plastered with a nerdy theme. Scratch that, it's worse than Yahtzee because there's more rolling and less die-picking. There are thousands of dice games that are more interesting than this.

Also, who designed the "search" option? 50% chance to do nothing on your turn and lose health? That's dumb.

You're playing it wrong.

JEM wrote: You're playing it wrong.

Wrong rules-wise or wrong as in "it's not a dice game like Yahtzee"?