What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

No Brimstone this Friday because we started the RPG. Saturday wasn't the all-time classic of the past couple of weeks but was still pretty decent. It didn't start too well. I packed Elder Sign because it was the best fitting game to fill the box and stop BBTM falling open. I have Rune Age so I think I need to learn that one and swap it in.

Don't ever play Elder Sign with slow players. Peas and rice, it took over three hours (Omens of Ice version). Mechanically, the game worked really well, and I liked that the GOO stops you from just tooling up to the end fight by requiring you get at least half the required Elder Signs or auto-lose (and I think I would house rule that to all GOOs). Narratively it was a tense, gripping battle with the fight against Ithacqua being determined by the last possible roll by the last surviving player (we lost) but the fun had been sucked out of the game about 90 minutes before then.

After that, a different group of us had a go at Paris Connection which it turns out is a genuinely fast playing and fun game. I spent most turns trading stocks and the mechanism for that is clever. You can gain one or two stocks of a colour, in exchange for one stock of a different colour. This meant that one turn I traded away a stock I wanted (because I wanted all my stock at that point) so I could get two of a slightly less great stock, then next turn trade that back for two of the good one. Of course, putting your stock out means it's there for others to grab. I think as we learn the game more those strategies will play out but people had a lot of fun running trains out to nowhere to devalue the stock in those colours, or block off what looked like juicy routes etc. I think it was worth the $18 it cost for sure.

Last Saturday game was Terraforming Mars with four players (one new). The new player was fine with doing the "full" game (non-beginner corps and research drafting) and she did really well, coming in second. I washed out in last place trying to make some microbe engine work, and the winner had the highest score I ever saw (for four players) with 88 points. This did raise the issue of a fragility in the game- one of the players, who played before, still didn't place tiles on the board in any meaningful amount. I believe the game was playtested on the assumption that players would try to compete on those- if one player at the table isn't filling the board, it leaves more opportunities to the others, and then it's a city-engine race. I still enjoyed the game.

Sunday was some bonus gaming. I went to a friend's house to help check that tabletop simulator was installed correctly and we did a learning game of Star Wars Armada, I threw two 200 pt fleets together using what I had in the box and we had at it. He enjoyed it, and I think there might be room to play some 2vs2 style with others. After that we ran some 1st level Brimstone which we failed at both missions but it was fun.

cross posted from the Trashfest NE thread:

My friend Matt and I came on Saturday and had a great time. Here was our dance card:

Thunder Alley - I enjoy TF because I can often get stuff played that doesn't go over well with my other groups because it's too "random" or "long" or whatever. This is a good example. Matt and I both love this, but it's a bitch trying to get it on the table. So playing with Jeff and Mike was great, and I even pulled out a win.

Terraforming Mars - I shouldn't have brought this cause it ain't AT and it's not like I can't get it played elsewhere but I LIKE IT SO MUCH. Played with Matt, Andrew, and Jason and I managed to fall into some serious plant synergy. They all liked it a bunch.

The Dragon and Flagon - The same group from TM plus Nick got this one in, which was perfect for the occasion. There was mug-throwing, table-pushing, cannon-fire, and a lot of folks were swingers, as in "to swing". a great, sloppy time.

Cosmic Encounter - Same group played this one. I'm not a fan but they'd played my games so I was happy to oblige. I picked the "fun" power over the "good" one, and my ability to swap the encounter cards and Jason's ability to make me show mine first made for some interesting combos. We ended up sharing the victory.

Codenames Pictures - played while we were waiting for other games to wrap up, and we were joined by Matthew. My first time playing the pictures incarnation, and I liked it. More or less than the word version, I can't say, but I think it will be easier for some folks to get into.

Mechs vs Minions - Matthew taught this to Matt, Saul, and me. I had heard all about this hotness but didn't know what it actually was until it was apparently all sold out. The production is, of course, beautiful, and the game was a lot of fun. We didn't have too much problem in our scenario until Saul's mech got hit with a lot of damage and we had to work around it. But we managed to stem the minion tide to victory. A lot of fun.

Ice Cool - Al taught this flicking game to Mindy, Matt, and Me, and it was a riot. Such simple dumbness, such fun.

Cockroach Poker - Best way to close out the night. Me, Matt, Mindy, Saul, Ray, and Al. Move of the game was when Saul tried to give a card to Matt, not realizing Matt had started that card in the first place.

Had a great time! Didn't get to play with a lot of folks (some got tied up in super long games) but it was great seeing everyone.

From some posts lately, I know the F:AT crowd will find this exciting. I tried to put together a coworker game day Saturday, and thought I had only one other player. As we started setting up Star Wars: Rebellion, coworker #2 showed up, and SW: Rebellion turned into Castles of Burgundy. I had browbeat them into something or other the last time we played, and I like Castles of Burgundy, so we played that. My plan of maximizing occupied areas gave me the hammerlock on third place, with the scores being something like 210-190-170. For me, Castles of Burgundy is about as good as a 'frowning at your player mat' sort of game gets.

Played a game of Warhammer 40k for the league. I lost 6-1 against a Cult Mechanicus with allied Custodes. I had to okay the Custodes because they are only legal in Unbound play, which is not allowed in the league. This is the first time I had played this person and I think he is one of the top players in the region. Fun game, but I really had no shot against a much better force. I think for future leagues I need to filter down to competitive lists before choosing something that I find suitably fluffy/has models I like/etc. because the Infernal Tetrad is having a really hard time dishing out enough attacks to compensate.

RobertB wrote: Castles of Burgundy is about as good as a 'frowning at your player mat' sort of game gets.

Ugh, maybe. If I see a scoring track and an individual player mat I generally try to run away. There was a guy at one game group who used to say that CoB was like Catan, only better, and it always made me so mad. I've played it once and that's enough for the rest of my life. Although I'm sure I could be conned into it again some day.

I like Brew Crafters okay. It's really just the light to middleweight Euros that get to me.

... ok so I bought Terra Mystica a year ago and haven't played it once.

I bought Pandemic: Legacy Season 1 2-3 weeks ago and haven't played it once.

I'm realizing now I need to be excited to play a game. It's the only way it'll see the table.

So that being said, can someone talk to me about Star Wars: Rebellion? I know nothing about it but I think it might be fit the bill.

...i'm also thinking of finally buying Twilight Struggle again.

Rebellion is pretty Awesome. Gorgeous pieces and board. It is incredibly thematic, exciting to play and tells a memorable story every time. On the down side it takes a relatively long time, is limited to two players, and especially on the first few plays can be a bit overwhelming. It's not that there are too many rules, or over complicated game play, it's just that there are so many things to consider when planning out your moves that it can be a bit intimidating. Basically, if you have two people who are Star Wars fans and have some time to play I say GO FOR IT!

On my vast experience of one play, I'd second the thumbs up for Rebellion. Played it once and bought it right away, completely violating my rule (more like a guideline) of buying games that my family won't play. Who knows, I still might talk my daughter into it.

Why don't you get Twilight Struggle on Ipad? Everyone who owns an Ipad should own Twilight Struggle on it. If you don't own an Ipad, you should get one so that you can play Twilight Struggle. Or buy your gf one for Christmas. With Twilight Struggle.

Rebellion is a typical game that you're more excited to buy and unwrap and imagine how you're gonna play it than to play. Disclaimer: I have never owned or played it.

4 players, homegrown garden soup and pulled pork sandwiches makes for a good sunday.

Alien Frontiers. I like so much about that game, except that you cannot plan on other people's turns. You take your dice, roll them and then sit and figure out what combinations of dice will work to get you a colony. The end game is alittle bit of a drag too, as everyone struggles to make sure they are putting at least 1 colony on the board a turn, which makes for kind of samey turns. still I really enjoy Alien Frontiers. I haven't looked at any expansions.

Argent w/Mancers. Its been a couple months since we've played, mostly because usually I open the box, see the piles of stuff and close the box again. but after a rough first turn remembering rules (I was frantically searching for the rule on who goes first on later turns...until 1 player remembered it was a bell tower card that hadn't come up) what fun. I had spells that flipped the rooms to the other side and allowed me to rearrange everything, steal people's mana and steal people's mages. The spells weren't used very much (other than stealing Mana) but the threat of them was enough to scare people from dicking with my guys. We had a setup where gold was no-where to be found and research/int/wisdom was abundant. I think people had alittle hangover from Alien Frontiers, and wouldn't look at their options until their turn came around....which draaags the game out. usually they are better, but oh well.

Finally got a chance to play Specter Ops. I liked it quite a bit. Specifically it feels like a movie scene. The artwork and mechanics do a good job of doing something different with the hidden movement genre and the result plays out well. Unfortunately there were a couple things I didn't like about it that keep me from purchasing it. Primarily, I just can't mentally reconcile the line-of-sight rules. I understand mechanically why hunters can only see orthogonally, but I don't like it. There's tension in the idea that the agent could be diagonally adjacent to a hunter and the tactical implications that come with that are interesting, but it rings a bit hollow that a hunter can't be arsed to check his corners. Secondly, the setting is very well executed but it does very little for me. I've been weighing the effort to retheme the game into Indiana Jones infiltrating a Nazi compound to "reacquire" some ancient relics, but the line-of-sight thing just bothers me a little bit too much to put in the effort. My possible work-around would be hunters can always see the 8 spots (4 diagonal, 4 orthogonal) adjacent to themselves and give the agent a couple extra hit points, but I don't love the game enough to sink the hours into finding out if that idea doesn't work.

So I do like the game and will happily play it, but it won't end up on my shelf because if I don't stand directly in front of it I won't see it and it won't get played.

Legomancer wrote:
Ice Cool - Al taught this flicking game to Mindy, Matt, and Me, and it was a riot. Such simple dumbness, such fun.

Bought this one for our oldest's birthday and it hit the table two nights in a row. Lots of laughs.

Played our first two games of Sekigahara tonight. I won the first as Tokugawa in week 4, when my regular opponent forgot about the Forced March rule and left Osaka open after having recruited most of the Mori already. The lone unit remaining wasn't enough and got wiped out when I swooped in with some Kame forces and captured the Toyotomi heir.

The second game went the distance, as I couldn't get my cards coordinated well enough to be as aggressive as Tokugawa should usually be. The Uesugi wiped out most of the Mate in the east before Tokugawa marched in and cleaned house, eventually taking not only the Uesugi castle, but all of the resource points in the eastern third of the map. I had had the good fortune to recruit the Maeda heavily (3 and 4 blocks per muster), so I camped out in the northwest with substantial armies, daring Ishida to come out and play. He finally did, by passing the Maeda to try to bring Tokugawa to a showdown, but the latter evaded him for a couple weeks, and I finally won on points, 17 to 12.

As I'd hoped, this is a really good offering from GMT. The rules are quite simple, but the depth of the hand management is enormous. In that respect, it's much like Go. This will definitely become a regular in the rotation.

Southernman wrote:

mads b. wrote: Also played the first scenario of the new Arkham Horror card game. This has lots of narrative, but it seems like it also delivers when it comes to game play. Especially the use of bad cards in your deck (weaknesses) is nice. It feels a bit like the Warhammer Quest card game in that it really seems to grow as you progress through a campaign. But less procedural, I think, and obviously an entirely different kind of story.

What do you think the replayability of this will be, because of the specific story line scenarios I thought it would be low and didn't want to get into and then have to buy expansions regularly to play it ?

I'm not quite sure. I beat the first scenario after just two tries, but that was on easy/standard and I do want to try with other decks. I hope that because each deck is a specific character playing with a different deck will also feel like a somewhat different story. I know that I personally am going to buy some more for this game, but I also really like to get new stories for games that I already have.

Jackwraith wrote: Played our first two games of Sekigahara tonight. I won the first as Tokugawa in week 4, when my regular opponent forgot about the Forced March rule and left Osaka open after having recruited most of the Mori already. The lone unit remaining wasn't enough and got wiped out when I swooped in with some Kame forces and captured the Toyotomi heir.

The second game went the distance, as I couldn't get my cards coordinated well enough to be as aggressive as Tokugawa should usually be. The Uesugi wiped out most of the Mate in the east before Tokugawa marched in and cleaned house, eventually taking not only the Uesugi castle, but all of the resource points in the eastern third of the map. I had had the good fortune to recruit the Maeda heavily (3 and 4 blocks per muster), so I camped out in the northwest with substantial armies, daring Ishida to come out and play. He finally did, by passing the Maeda to try to bring Tokugawa to a showdown, but the latter evaded him for a couple weeks, and I finally won on points, 17 to 12.

As I'd hoped, this is a really good offering from GMT. The rules are quite simple, but the depth of the hand management is enormous. In that respect, it's much like Go. This will definitely become a regular in the rotation.

I've never won by capturing toyotomi. I miss this game a lot. You really need an opponent that is into Japanese history to make this shine though, so I had to sadly let this one go.