The Thread Where We Are Board Game Geeks

Carcasonne is fine. I dunno. It's nice enough, a bit Zen.

carcassonne is great, as is settlers of catan, which i play lots online (http://catan.jsettlers.org/index.html--not buggy like it used to be!).

i play this occasionally too: http://www.blokus.com/index.htm ...cool spatial stuff. there's a similar game that i've played irl that's like it but 3d which is great but totally hurts my brane.

links to addictive board games that can be played online, please! i always need new addictions.

One board game I liked a lot but is apparently hard to buy new now is RoboRally. Is it true you can't buy it anymore?

i've only ever played risk really.

Chris I have added you as a GEEKBUDDY. What is Big Boggle?

http://www.brettspielwelt.info/ is the one with pretty much every nu-school boardgame ever, though I agree with chris that it's kinda daunting sometimes. You might like Puerto Rico J?

Main interests there is Carcassonne, perhaps predictably. I managed to get the PC edition cheap on ebay so I can hone my skills against the AI before playing with people I don't know (and the inevitable pwnage).

Big Boggle is like regular Boggle but with 5x5.

About Scrabble practice ruining Big Boggle, I have to comment that I dominate by going for the big eight letter words and completely neglecting the tiny ones. So I think memorizing obscure combinations of two or three letters isn't essential to Boggle the way it is to Scrabble, given the point distribution. Geekiness!!!

One board game I liked a lot but is apparently hard to buy new now is RoboRally. Is it true you can't buy it anymore?
RoboRally went out of print, but I believe that a new edition of it just came out.

Ticket To Ride is very, very light (and isn't it one of those games where the 2nd version, Europe, fixed some problems in the first?) but it's certainly fun enough.

Juliaa would still like Puerto Rico.

This is how I managed to convince my ex to play, and he spent all his time trying to make his courtyard symmetrical, and somehow he won, despite generally not being very good at games.

Oltremare is okay, I think I might just be tired of free-trading games.

But I actually haven't played that many "conquer the world" type games. I'm sure there's a relevant GeekList on BGG.

Louis XIV, still.
Ingenius a bit (That wacky Knizia and his ridiculously simple ideas!)
Goldbrau, which is just the daftest, most sweetly inconsequential thing ever to play with beer and laughing when you're done with realer games, it says "the cleverest businessman wins" on the box but nothing could be further from the truth. I really like it!

http://www.somethingawful.com/index.php?a=3818

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/4829/captainawesomeie3.jpg

Played Settlers of Catan over the weekend while in Southend with friends, and it was wicked, so yesterday I bought us a copy, too.

I miss playing Settlers of Catan.
Also, Cranium, but mostly for the blue cards that made you draw things with your eyes closed or build stuff out of clay that went moldy after a couple years.
Also, Poleconomy, because it's horribly designed so there's no way everyone playing doesn't become a millionaire, even/especially during inflation. It was probably a neo-con invention meant to bring all the fun of uncapped capitalism to the family board game, but as it's the most boring premise for a game ever (think Monopoly without any sense of charity, community chest, or housing) I doubt any little kids were ever converted.

If you like Settlers, then I would recommend Puerto Rico, made by the same people. German board games rock!

i like scrabble

Puerto Rico wasn't made by the same people (different designer, different publisher), but it is a significantly awesome game. A little tricky to learn at first but everyone I've shown it to gets the idea about halfway through the first game and ends up loving it.

Is anybody here on Little Golem?

Thanks to a random Berkeley dude liquidating his massive game collection at fire sale prices my gaming shelf is well stock for the coming winter months. Some favorites and recommendations for your game nights.

Pandemic. Four player cooperative disease eradication. It's you (and bros) vs the board. The board wins about 60% of the time. Tense and easy to teach. If you have kids there is a similar but slightly lighter game called Forbidden Island.

Dominion. A non collectible card game where all players are building their decks in real time from a shared pool of 10 kingdom cards. No two games are ever alike thanks to a randomizer deck that changes the kingdom card lineup.

Dixit. A surrealist visual improvement of Apples to Apples. Won a "game of the year" award in Germany which is kinda a big deal. Players take turns telling a story then laying down an image from their hand. Each other player selects an image from their hand that matches the story. Everyone guesses which is the storyteller's card. You have to be vague and clever but not overly so.

Anyone else have any recommendations?

I like those 3 games. Panademic seems a bit less strategic but then again that can be a good for some groups of people (like a group with lots of BGG newbs).

Off the top of my head I'd suggest Bang the Bullet. It can be very random (low strategy) but it is very fun, especially with a large group.

A bunch of Euro strategy games that are in the top 100 games list on BoardGameGeek.com are fun (browse all games and the list should come up).

RoboRally is a really solid game

I tried to make a board game thread earlier this year but it didn't last very long

has anyone here played 'The Making of the President 1960' or whatever it's called

(is the book that well known that calling the board game that makes sense? what was wrong with NIXON V KENNEDY exactly?)

I've played Twilight Struggle by the same guys that did Making of the President.

It's really fun (if you play USSR)

Hope this helps!!1

has anyone here played 'The Making of the President 1960' or whatever it's called

bf and i tried it once & thought it was p boring? seemed to take 4ever... but also we are really bad about not reading the rules properly and all at once, so end up wasting a lot of time arguing over the rules later, while playing.

I agree with you about Pandemic, sometimes it feels more like group puzzle solving than game playing. I try to stress to new players that you should take YOUR turn and only give advice when asked. Don't be a butt-in-ski. My advice is rarely heeded.

More gamez...

Arkham Horror Another coop game, this one set in the Lovecraft Cthulhu universe. You play investigators attempting to seal otherworldly portals before the great old one (end boss) is awakened. Great theme, kinda fiddly, and plays up to 8 people (about 1 hour per player :( )

Carson City Very strategic game where you place cowboy workers on the board to build the town of Carson City. Unlike other WP games like Caylus or Stone Age spots on the board can be dueled for, creating a lot of player interaction and fun. This is probably my favorite game right now.

I was reading recently about a co-op called something like SPACE ATTACK in which there was a strict timer for each individual player to get their move in or pass, so as to cut down on the solitaire-by-committee aspect...

5 games of Cash N Guns last night.

A perfect home from the bar at 2am wake the neighbors screaming "don't shoot me! take the fucking money!!" game.

wait a sec this version with the foam guns is better

http://www.pixelpark.co.nz/images/asmodee/cash-n-guns.jpg

i really want for the nixon v kennedy game to be fun because the subject matter means it is possibly the only board game in the world my girlfriend might ever play

hm

Had a meeting in Santa Cruz yesterday and stopped by Game-A-Lot afterward. Clerk mentioned they just got in two copies of Settlers of America: Trails to Rails, one went on hold and they had the other for sale. The "cult of the new" kicked in and I impulsively bought it.

Later that night I brought it to the table for a four player game. The "Settlers meets Ticket To Ride" label doesn't really fit. It's more of a medium-light pick up and deliver game with a Catan backbone. Trading and player interaction are minimized by gold and 3:1 bank trading. The upside to this is swings in dice rolls are definitely minimized. I need a few more plays of this to figure out how much I like it. Probably should have played before I bought it but such is life!

On that topic what's the last game you've purchased impulsively? Is it a new favorite or gathering dust next to the Twilight version of Scene-It?

I just bought ILLUMINATI! for the Viceroy. Anyone played it?

Frequently, 25 or so years ago. Requires at least 4 to be fun. Preferably 6+.

Played this last night and it's pure laughs and dumb luck.
http://www.zmangames.com/boardgames/files/arabian_nights/AN_cover.jpg

http://www.zmangames.com/boardgames/tales_arabian_nights.htm

Hey, I want a new game. These are the one's I've had my eye on, which should I get? Plus for good with 2 players, since 99% of the time that is what I play with.

*Dominion
*Fresco
*Pandemic
*Small World
*Stone Age
*Zombie State: Diplomecy of the Dead

I love Pandemic, but it's not amazing with only 2 players (tho it is doable).

I'm leaning towards Fresco, it just looks cool from what I've read. But I've always wanted to play Dominion though.

Small World is fun but really overrated; not great for replayability.

Dominion's great but I've never played with 2. Pandemic for 2 is good. Don't know the rest.

I like Stone Age, but I'm not sure how good it is with two players. I think maybe Dominion would be your best bet out of that bunch if you're planning on playing a lot of two player games, but I haven't played Fresco or Zombie State.

You can play Dominion online at http://dominion.isotropic.org/ if you really want to try it out.

I don't know with board games thread we're supposed to post on these days.

I was thinking about why I'd soured so hard on Arkham, and realised that the expansions had driven a wedge between what was fun to do (complete your personal missions, pick a random investigator, role play, join Silver Twilight or the Black Goat, explore new locations, introduce new players) and what gave you any hope of victory - the last few games we played just felt like such a chore, like work.

I was reading recently about a co-op called something like SPACE ATTACK in which there was a strict timer for each individual player to get their move in or pass, so as to cut down on the solitaire-by-committee aspect...

― Gravel Puzzleworth, Thursday, July 29, 2010 4:42 PM (10 months ago) Bookmark

Also this is called SPACE ALERT and it is utterly fantastic: frantic and hilarious, both very sociable and very strategic - if you live in London COME AND PLAY THIS WITH ME

I need to play more boardgames. For the last while I have been obsessing about Bobby Lee, Columbia Games' two player wooden block American Civil War game. Sadly I don't really have anyone with the time to play it (and don't really have the time for it myself either).

may I suggest

http://cgi.ebay.com/LITTLE-BURRO-GAME-Go-Teepee-warren-built-rite-/380174399578#ht_500wt_732

has anyone got any ore? i will give you two hay for ore.

i posted on the rolling thread earlier this week and was bummed that no one responded. recently got Tsuro and Game of Thrones LCG.

ok, three hay for ore.

I need to play more boardgames. For the last while I have been obsessing about Bobby Lee, Columbia Games' two player wooden block American Civil War game. Sadly I don't really have anyone with the time to play it (and don't really have the time for it myself either).

I actually bought this very game in highschool and played with all my nerd friends! It was so much fun, I wish I knew where it was today (probably thrown out sometime over the years).

i'll give you ore for a brick + wood fuiud

i have no brick so fu2

what is the best 1 player board game?

xbox 360

http://img.printfection.com/1/1364/4270433/PRNe7.jpg

pplz who think they're super insider nerds bc they play settlers of catan - terrible savages?

possibly, but hating on catan has to be the ultimate challops

i like catan but i understand why ppl hate on it -- it gets boring after the 200th game or so

More like 20th game.

I mostly don't like the trading aspect.

I don't think I've ever played Catan, it is my secret shame as a board game geek. I got indoctrinated by boardgame hipsters and never got around to filling in the gaps.

have never gotten sick of catan!

Carson City Very strategic game where you place cowboy workers on the board to build the town of Carson City. Unlike other WP games like Caylus or Stone Age spots on the board can be dueled for, creating a lot of player interaction and fun. This is probably my favorite game right now.

this is a dope game imo

been playing tons of nerdy boardgames.

favourites:
agricola
troyes
hansa teutonica
roll through the ages
dominion
death angel
arkham horror

medium:
pandemic
merchants and marauders
1960: the making of a president
cosmic encounter

less into:
race for the galaxy
survivor
factory manager
caylus
power grid
7 wonders
dixit
small world

i really wanted to try race for the galaxy - you don't recommend?

i honestly cant tell if arkham horror is terrible or if were just really bad at playing it

Carson City felt unbalanced

There's some game where you dock 3 boats and watch out for pirates. It was really fun. It might of had a chinese name

Some people love Race for the Galaxy - to me it's just not intuitive enough: good strategy requires too much mathy counting in your head.

Arkham Horror is wonderful - but silly. Helps to have someone who really knows the game running the show.

that reminds me -- if anyone knows of a youtube video that shows an Arkham Horror demonstration game, plz post it here. I've played 4 games already and I still barely understand it.

you using the BGG forums/videos?
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/15987/arkham-horror

Arkham horror - the major things that I have seen new players having trouble with are:

1) Combat. It's tricky to remember what all the icons mean, and what order things happen, especially if the player fails to kill on their swing. Possible confusions: there's no second horror check, monster heals fully each round, player can attack again or flee but exhausted equipment/spells remain exhausted, Resistances/Immunities do not apply to basic damage from Fight.

It might be worth going through some trial combats for each player before the game starts, both to ensure everyone gets it, and to help people be realistic about what they can and can't kill.

2) Turn order. Mythos happens at the end of the turn, even though it feels like the beginning. Someone needs to be absolutely on top of the cycle of upkeep-movement-ark enc-oth world enc-mythos, and ensure it's kept to. You *do* get an Other World Encounter the turn you enter a gate, *unless* it opens on your head.

3) "Exhaust" - this is probably easier for your players if they're experienced and you can just say that it means "tap", rather than discard.

4) Monster limit, terror, and the outskirts. This is fine if you have an experienced player, but if not, someone needs to make this their job and do it well, so that everyone else can safely ignore it.

Some other common misconceptions it might be worth clearing up before starting play are: closing vs sealing gates, how focus works, the difference between fight checks and combat checks and sneak vs evade.

It's a good game (maybe a great game!) but the expansions ruin it - one is okay, any more than that and it becomes far different and worse.

yeah one of the mistakes i think we made is in ~always~ playing with an expansion (dunwich iirc) which just makes the game both too long and too complex to get right away.

like i think we keep getting one vital think wrong each time, like whether you can seal a gate as soon as you return through it or have to wait a turn or the effects of some of the mythos cards, making sure everyone is adjusting their stats at the correct time &c &c

This is a very comprehensive flowchart for Arkham Horror turn sequence that really helped me wrap my head around all the specific details when I first started playing.

Is it ever possible to win before the monster appears? It seems like there's always more monsters/gates opening than players to kill + close them.

before the monster boss whatever appears

my relatively new roommate is a big board game fan and we play pretty often.

sean gramophone didn't them, i guess, i guess, but we're big fans of power grid, race for the galaxy AND 7 wonders. 7 wonders in particular is good fun because you can play in only 30 minutes or so (good for super cool guys like me who need to finish the game so they can make some fucking animated gifs). besides that, we also play

dominion
pandemic
merchants and marauders
tigris & euphrates

there's a new one we're getting in the mail in a month or two. apparently it's one of the top-rated games on boardgamegeek, but it's been out of print for some time. the reprint should be complete soon. it's called Twilight Struggle, and it's about the COLD WAR, YESSSSS

i understand Twilight Struggle to be like 1960, but Cold War-themed instead of Nixon vs Kennedy.

I'm actually really surprised to see it's now #1 on BGG. I bought 1960 and have been disappointed with it - just isn't as much um... FUN as i wish it were.

This was a boardgame at one time and was converted into a single player PC game. Probably my favorite. The AI is outstanding.

http://forcedmarchgames.com/

http://forcedmarchgames.com/graphics/tool_area_screenshot.jpg

Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble is kinda a single player board game, tho also PC

just spent a couple weeks playing tons of dominion, reallly fun at first but i think you need the expansion packs--Jeff was saying upthread that he hates settlers because of the trading but, jeez, thats the best part of the game; unless you have attack cards in dominion there's almost no player-to-player interaction which makes the game super boring and not a fun social activity that ends in hurt feelings and spilled wine

my roommate is reaaaaaaaaaaally into dominion so i try to avoid it when i can, even though it's fun (otherwise i will be playing 3-7 games of dominion every night for many months).

but you should know of this: http://dominion.isotropic.org/
online dominion. it includes all of the expansion packs, i believe, otherwise plays just like dominion. there's handy mouseover explanations for each of the cards.

we stopped using the cards a long time ago and now we bust out the computers to play. if you ever see "KARL MALONE" on there, that's me.

i think pandemic is a great game btw zs

I've only played it twice, but yeah I lie it too! I'd be interested to hear recommendations for co-op style games. There was a print-and-play game that I used to play with my old hometown friends that involved defending a building from hordes of zombies, but the name escapes me.

LIKE it

Pandemic is brilliant.

Anyone played Genoa? Pretty difficult to get one's head round on first playing. I'd be interested to hear if anyone has persevered with it.

Is it ever possible to win before the monster appears? It seems like there's always more monsters/gates opening than players to kill + close them.

It's honestly a big problem with AH that after a while it gets far too easy!

My thing for the last year has been SPACE ALERT - for me it's been revelatory in how it joins up the strengths of Arkham, Pandemic and Camelot* into one super-satisfying and glorious 25 minute co-operate game.

*:(I'm not actually sure Shadows Over Camelot has any strengths, I'm just listing it for completeness)

Thread in which we are also CCG geeks. Was going to post this in the stuff worth reading about video games thread but probably a better fit here (also feel like this thread needs more action). About sexism in the CCG (partic MTG) community: http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/misc/22786_To_My_Someday_Daughter.html

when boardgames meet art:

http://www.imma.ie/en/page_212423.htm

I got to play a game of this, but as is the way of these things we were chucked out of the gallery after initial setup and playing one move. I was nevertheless clearly going to win.

a drunken late night purchase of Panzer General: Allied Assault on Xbox Live led to a decision by me and my roommate to purchase some sort of war game, boardgame style. He's the expert on this shit, and has narrowed down the options to:

Memoir '44
Wilderness War
Combat Commandeer: Europe

anyone have any opinions on those three, or other suggestions?

I've played card driven games like Wilderness War and they are imo the must fun due to the tough decision making that has to be done every turn. My favorite game in that style is http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/234/hannibal-rome-vs-carthage. If WW is anything like Hannibal then I'd recommend it.

gonna pick up death angel & citadels

Citadels was fun but it takes at least 3 players. Four is probably better.

I got Thunderstone: Dragonspire for xmas. That game is awesome and more interesting than Dominion which has similar mechanics but lacks story because it feels too much like a speedy card game. Thunderstone can take a while to put away and it can be difficult for newbs but it's more interesting.

ZS did you pick up memoir 44 in the end?

i recently got command and colors: napoleonics (also a richard borg game) and it's crazy fun. simple enough that i think i could maybe browbeat someone i know irl into learning/playing.

also just got a battered old copy of avalon hill's the arab-israeli wars. read the rules last night, gonna fuck around w/ it tonight. the weapon effectiveness chart is a thing of beauty.

xpost, a few weeks after i posted that my life blew up and i had to move out. i'm not sure if my old roommate ever got a physical copy of Memoir 44 or not. we still play online on occasion, though. it's good, relatively lightweight (compared to a game like Combat Commandeer, at least) fun.

Have been waiting the better part of a decade for the computer version of World in Flames. All my actual board games are hiding in my Dad's garage.

i check the world in flames forum every now and then and the computer version has been put back at least a year iirc. kinda done with ww2 tbh

i recently got command and colors: napoleonics

i had the Ancients version of this, fun. Completely routed the Roman center in Zama but couldn't finish them. ended up losing

avalon hill's the arab-israeli wars

i had this as well! The Jordanians had their Centurion tanks which were a straight up match against the Israelis. Bar-Lev was a pretty great game on the '73 war.

what you playing y'all

7 wonders

is it good? I've picked it up/put it back a half dozen times in teh past month.

wiz war & the resistance for me

Just got Carcassonne big box for my birthday, played with my son a bit, but can't convince my wife to join in.

I have played a lot of 7 Wonders. It's better with the Leaders expansion, though. Resistance can suck it.

why u haet resistance

It's unbalanced. If you don't play with the power cards, the spies always win (unless there's some meta-BS going). If you do play with them, it gives the resistance an advantage. Plus the games always seem to devolve into people shouting over each other, and that just gives me a headache.

no-one playing risk: legacy?

should we expect the legacy concept to be applied to other franchises?

anyone following wil wheaton's high production value youtube series, tabletop?

Yeah, it's pretty good. I'm surprised by the games that I find myself watching all the way through (Settlers of Catan, Railroad), and the ones I get bored with quickly (Castle Panic). Most of all it shows that the people you play games with are at least as important as the game itself.

Link?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9QtdiRJYro

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4F80C7D2DC8D9B6C&feature=plcp

http://tabletop.geekandsundry.com/

I wish there was an iOS OGRE app.

did you kickstart ogre, spencer

that vid makes small world look like so much fun! should i buy it??

has anyone played 7 wonders? it's really fun and pretty fast - you can play a game in 30-45 mins, so you can do a few rounds in one sitting. good times.

^my next purchase I think

Went to visit my board game geek friend last weekend, and played two cracking games - Cyclades and King of Tokyo. I'd like to become a board game geek myself, but a) they're very expensive and b) I'm not sure how many of my London friends I could convince to play such things.

Finding ppl to play with consistently is the hardest part ime

don't be fooled - Small World sucks.

yeah we own it and have played it once

king of tokyo is rad; just the right lightness and funnness. there's an expansion incoming which gives the different monsters different powers. dunno if that'll be better or worse

monthly game night for us tonight. played monopoly deal (fun version of monopoly that is cutthroat and doesn't take 300 hours to complete), catan and dixit

think the latter would be /much/ better with more players than we had (3)

From that Tabletop, Tsuro looks great

whoa Steve Jackson is on one of these vids

anyone play dominion at isotropic?

I've been looking to buy King of Tokyo online, but can only find copies in French!

cozen I had a couple jags of playing on isotropic a lot but now I'm pretty much just waiting till the official digital version launches this summer sometime to play more online Dominion

I play on the isotropic site from time to time with my brother

nnnnnnngh been caning dominion iOS today

addictive

Games I've played recently that I've liked:
Sentinels of the Multi-Verse (cooperative deck game, very unbalanced in the first edition, but they just finished kickstarting a revision that will address a lot of the problems)
Puzzle Strike (interesting disc-based variation on Dominion/Nightfall)
Quarriors! Quarmageddon (expansion set, fixes some of the problems with previous versions, plus nifty box!)
Survive: Escape from Atlantis (very silly competitive game, reissue of a classic title)

Games I've played that I'm unsure about:
Infiltration (kind of like Dungeon Quest, although cyberpunk themed, which I like, but something seems off about it – I'm also not a fan of games were you "preprogram" your moves)

Games I've played I don't like: Ruses and Bruises (probably because I lost, but it just seemed very easy to fall far behind and not have any fun)

Small World is really fun actually! Easy enough to teach to non-gamers, but w/ enough strategy (picking races, deciding where to conquer, deciding when to go into decline) to make it interesting

Small World is a pretty slick optimization game with a little bit of player interaction and a cute theme.

I love optimizing numbers.

Oh! I also disliked Innovations. That one is WAY too easy to fall behind and never be able to catch up in.

has anyone played 7 wonders? it's really fun and pretty fast - you can play a game in 30-45 mins, so you can do a few rounds in one sitting. good times.

this is like the only BGG-style game my wife will play - i really like it a lot.

if anyone plays dominion on ipad, add me on gamecenter (dwh0wi3 without the googleproofing)

My group of friends has been obsessed with 7 Wonders of late. I feel like I'm sneakily getting them to do Magic the Gathering drafts.

Has anyone tried Flash Point? Very fun cooperative board game - there need to be more of those. Played it for the first time this weekend, and we kept wanting to play until we won.

Ok Cozen, your game center ID is so well google proofed I don't know what to replace with what.

Could also be that I'm a bit slow...

maybe he forgot an 'r'?

It's weird, I never played Magic when I was younger, but judging from the games I like now, I probably would've loved it… Which, come to think of it, means it's probably a good thing I didn't get into it as a teenager (same thing with Star Trek). Anyway, 7 Wonders is great, I like it even more with the Leaders expansion.

Flashpoint is okay. I don't know, doesn't really seem like it has much replay value.

replace 0 with o, 3 with e

Request sent

did you kickstart ogre, spencer

I did not. By the time I heard about it they were like 9x over target and growing. I hope the response encourages them to create an app. 'OGRE' is really one of the purest and best hex based strategy games ever.

Ugh at games where you can fall behind early on and are just sitting around reading ILX waiting for it to end

See: Catan, or, right now, El Grande.

Owen, plz move to Philly so we can play board games together + talk about NetHack strategies.

started playing risk legacy yesterday

it. is. awesome.

shit that sounds cool

yeah it’s p.good; and they’ve altered the rules from standard risk so games don’t go on for an age. good fun writing stuff on the board

we’re only two games in so haven’t opened any of the packets etc yet but by the sounds of it they’re all pretty :O

no spoilers

played pandemic for the first time this week. was the only person to really 'get it' so just ended up directing people as to how to most efficiently win. felt like i was being kind of tiresome.

This game called ECLIPSE is pretty wonderful. Really beautifully designed euro-feeling space epic, just the right length, with gorgeous art. Like a more elegant (compact) take on Twilight Imperium or Rex, and even a little reminiscent of Cosmic Encounter (but much more cerebral).

directors are p.tiresome... some light coaching can be helpful though

eclipse looks good but /complicated/... is it?

Has anyone on here played Mage Knight? Going to try this out tomorrow with some work pals. What should I expect?

won my first game of legacy last night and got to [spoiler redacted], with all nine minor cities established we also got to [spoiler redacted]

game's a blast, and can be quite quickfire too if you get the right conditions

Eclipse isn't complicated, from a broader boardgame perspective - simpler than Caylus or Age of Industry, I'd say, and nothing like a wargame, Arkham or Twilight Imperium. Maybe on par with Power Grid? (but more fun!) There are lots of components but they come together very elegantly, rather than piles of cruft; I've played two games, and in both games the first-time players were basically fully bossin' by the halfway point.

Sean remind me to remind you to invite me next time I'm near you ok?

sure! we are a good-mood boardgames gang: fun of the game, boo to win/lose chafing.

My friend has Mage Knight, I haven't played it but it looks super complex – expect a long game, I think.

I think I may be getting in over my head

Sean remind me to remind you to invite me next time I'm near you ok?

haha would you seriously be interested in playing eclipse? i have a bunch of credit at 401 games and really want to buy it but i only really know one other person that will play it with me...

anyone tried the 2012 SdJ, kingdom builder?

Yeah, it's fun. There are randomized win conditions and bonus tokens, so you need to use a different strategy every game. It is one of those games where a player can get a decisive lead in the first two rounds and then it becomes a race for second, though.

Or maybe I'm just bitter because that's what happened the last time I played, ha ha. For the most part, it is very well balanced, and you can catch up if you play well. As with any of these games, though, luck plays a part.

I own Kingdom Builder! It happens to be designed by Donald X. Vaccarino, the creator of Dominion. I like it a lot. It does definitely have the potential for someone to get a serious advantage in the first couple of turns, but that can be related to everyone being inexperienced. After a couple plays it becomes more clear what the relative strengths of the special powers are and how important it is to claim them and use them as quickly as possible.

Yeah, last time we were playing with the expansion, which adds a couple really crazy new powers (like one that allows you to place "rocks" on the board back in block off your settlements, which is super useful but whose utility I didn't realize until it was too late) and a new mechanic with one time use powers. Still, the guy in the lead lucked out with his first couple territory cards and so he was able to get a bunch of special powers, while another guy kept getting caught in one little corner and wasn't able to get any of the powers.

7 wonders is legitimate

card game chrononauts is a lot of fun

got arkham horror!

now need people to play with :-(

We have Arkham Horror,the Dunwich Horror expansion, and Mansions of Madness. All are good but they've been largely neglected this past year because the games go for so long.

I'm at a place where I just want a game to end after 30 minutes or so.

Gauntlet of Fools is a fun little game by Donald X. that is also very fast, once you know how to play you can probably play twice in 30 minutes.

Have I talked in this thread about how I can't stand playing Arkham Horror? It might just be the group that I've played it with, but man I find it just overwhelmingly boring.

i have a responsibility-free day so i'm playing by myself with three characters, i've played six or seven full turns so far over the course of two hours. right now my positions is nailbitingly tense - a shoggoth in the outskirts, two monsters on each gate, including a starspawn. there's also a wandering dhole in there. on the other hand, everyone has blessings and harvey walters has a magic lamp that's like +5 to combat. basically i have everyone in position to close the three open gates and everyone is buffed so i'm either about to be in position to close all the open gates at once - though a new one will definitely spawn - or i'm about to get my ass handed to me. this is alternately boring and awesome.

the dhole ate ashcan pete's dog though which kind of sucks because he's short in the sanity dept anyway

i would take the researcher and pete to church first but that would be two more gates to make six total by the time mandy and pete can get to any open gates.

finished! only took four hours.

I played a By Forum game on BGG the other week and it actually works pretty well.

(Short version - we were playing vs Abthoth, looked like a lost cause as the Doom Track had shot up really quickly. Then for two turns gates started opening on players and they got spat out early which means we sealed something like 3 in two turns and then had another stroke of luck as two turns on the trot the new gate opened on the location of the existing, keeping the doom track stalled. Then one player through, Find Gate, Elder Sign, done.

My highlight was not once, but twice, sneaking through a pack of three monsters which included a ghost both times. They're -2 and we had -1 environment as well.)

recent faves:
Kingdom Builder
Summoner Wars
Lost Cities
Descent

Good:
Yggdrasil
Goa
Android Netrunner

Not so good:
Phoenicia
Memory of 44

I have been exploiting the warehouse finds uncovered by BoardGameGuru and have lots to look forward to in the new year like Singapore, The Road To Canterbury, Upon The Salty Ocean and London.

This Sunday...MAGE KNIGHT. My friend just bought it and we're both looking over the walkthrough/rules right now.

also, yeah Kingdom Builder is great! Only had a chance to play once but would play again.

Sean by Memory of 44 do you mean Memoir '44? If so, that games is pretty awesome, I thought, although I played the online version.

Yeah, Memoir of 44. I bet it would be more fun on a computer.

Yeah, I observed the real life version once and it seemed like a ton of work to actually make it work. If you're still curious, you should check out the online version. It's pay to play (you purchase tokens), but they give you a bunch of free tokens to get you hooked at first, and if you're like me, you'll get enough enjoyment out of those 15 or so games that you'll never want to play again anyway.

Two "adventurers breaking into the pyramid" themed games I played over the holidays:

The Adventurers: The Pyramid of Horus is pretty sweet - you have reasonable incentives both to linger and hope for a bigger haul of treasure, or to hurry back out since each round another cube of stone "falls" from the ceiling, potentially sealing you in forever. Also a nice mechanic where damage, inventory slots, and how much you can do per turn are all linked together so you don't have to keep track of them separately. Makes it really clear that, okay, it might be worth it to open this treasure chest, but it'll slow me down next turn when I need to dodge out of the way of the mummy. Pretty cool. Only thing that sucked was the cards were badly shuffled so on my first turn I ended up getting a whole spree of injuries and was sort of hobbled for the rest of the game. But cool.

Escape: The Curse of the Temple is a somewhat gimmicky high-speed cooperative game where everybody is trying to escape the temple by making the correct dice rolls, while a CD soundtrack raises the tension and bangs gongs when it's too late. Cute enough, though kind of just a bunch of chaos going on. Would be pretty sweet for a twelve-year-old's birthday party if everybody's patient enough to get the mechanics of it down (and not cheat).

My group's latest obsession is Galaxy Trucker, where you first race to assemble a space rig, grabbing parts from the center before your opponents can get them, and then watch your ship slowly get destroyed by asteroids and pirates. There's a good amount of luck but this is one of the few games I can think of where losing might be more fun than winning.

Kingdom Builder was really interesting the couple times I played, and my friend picked it up for Xmas, so we should be playing that one some more soon.

That Pyramid of Horus game looks pretty good, and I was vaguely looking at Galaxy Trucker in the shop about an hour ago, but I'm currently on a self-imposed ban after having picked up a pile of clearance deals at boardgameguru over Christmas. When I say a pile I mean a pile too - Road To Canterbury, Shipyard, London, Tinners Trail, Upon The Salty Ocean, Pergamon, Heavens of Olympus, Industry, Singapore, Power Grid Factory Manager and Forgotten Planet for CHEAP.

Galaxy Trucker and Space Alert (both by same guy) are both really fun, i love the format they use of timed/fast-paced setup followed by helplessly watching everything go to shit when you play it out

This place opened near me recently called the Edinburgh Game Hub. Basically some guy bought a cafe with a huge 'basement' area that he transformed into rooms for wargaming and board gaming. They have over 200 board games apparently. Spent some time there last week and played Zombicide (which is pretty good, albeit all-too-often vague about specifics of rules), tried out 7 Wonders (I have no idea what is going in this game) and some quick Japanese (though possibly just "Japanese" rather than authentic) tile game. I expect I'll be more of a board game geek as time goes on.

"Tsuro" is that Japanese one, apparently

tsuro is a fun simple game

7 Wonders is good but it's more for the min-maxing resource game types (which is me sometimes admittedly), i never figured out all the proper strategy so i just go for all the blue cards every game

played pandemic for the first time this weekend. rented from a board game shop, played about five times the first night and three times last night. super-fun, nail-bitingly tense, though extremely difficult to win in our experience (we only won once out of about ten games). perhaps we're doing something incorrectly. really liked how it had the feel of watching disease outbreaks spread across the world.

also played cosmic encounter for the first time. it was fun but i think it lacked some sci-fi flavor. a lot of the game felt very generic - spaceships might as well have been poker chips and different attacks might as well have been uno cards. still, i liked the negotiation element a lot (even though nobody i was playing with ever really wanted to negotiate) and i liked the open-endedness and simplicity of the game.

I've played Cosmic a few times and I keep thinking that there's a pretty rad game there but I haven't found it yet. Game always seems to end before anything particularly tricksy can happen with the special powers and flares.

How many people are you playing Cosmic with? It's pretty weak with 3 or 4.

It's really at its best with 5 - you REALLY want time for people's crazy abilities to come out, people to fuck over eachother with flares etc. Make sure you remember that flares stay in your hand after use!

It's a silly and crazy imbalanced game but can be very fun.

legacy is ridic good, though it eventually gets pretty SPOILERS

played more of the resistance last week; that game is heaps of fun though I think I suck at it

The bewildering magic of the boardgamegeek MATH TRADE.

Giving (to someones) my copies of DIGGING, 1960: THE MAKING OF A PRESIDENT, and, er, an Oliver Stone DVD set.

Receiving (from someones) ARKHAM HORROR, SETTLERS OF CATAN, and PIT. Hurray!

So my wife and I are seriously considering buying a gaming table from these guys:

http://geekchichq.com/

They have lots of very nice stuff, although none of it is particularly affordable.

I preordered a Geek Chic table (the "Portal"). I figure it'll be my one piece of very expensive furniture. Literally everything else is from Ikea.

Has anyone on here played Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer? I'm thinking of trying this out. Looks like a cross between Dominion and Magic: The Gathering.

It's way more Dominion than M:TG. Think of a game of Dominion where you can potentially buy any card from any of the expansions but only six random cards are available each turn. I don't like it as much, but I do find it fun to play once in a while. There's a little more player interaction which is nice. I guess the flavor is close to M:TG.

aubrey plaz is a bgg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jWK45NJNTM&feature=youtu.be&t=5m45s

at 5m45
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jWK45NJNTM

Ha, lucky for her not to have played Risk. BSG is my favorite! But I'll probably never play it again bc I don't know anyone anymore. Have the ppl from upthread been liking Mage Knight? I was thinking of getting it, mostly to have something to play solo.

I don't even play that many board games, but man, I want one of those tables.

Totally! Also I don't have any comics but I wanted one of the card-catalogue-drawer-style storage units for comics and game trinkets.

(and then a time machine to go back to the 90s and order even more fanzines and not lose the ones I did order, so I can put the A5 ones in the comic drawers, if they even fit)

http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-board-games-that-ruined-it-everyone/

I usually hate Cracked, but that's a pretty great article. All those games are so mind numbing and yet so well love, it's a travesty. My son has been coercing me to play Battleship a lot lately and I'm ready to end it all. Luckily, he's also been trying to get me to play more Ticket To Ride - Europe, so I suppose there is light at the end of the tunnel.

that's a fun article. it's made me want to look for board games to play on my iphone. i have settlers of catan and ticket to ride as actual board games (though sadly not where i live) so not those, i'd like to try a new game. looking around i saw that puerto rico was on sale (2.99 instead of 7.99 or something like that) but it's ipad only. anyways, any particular recs?

Well there's a bunch of Reiner Knizia's games with iOS versions. I just got Tigris and Euphrates for my iphone, it's great.

Has anyone ever played this particular strategy/war game? http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/62227/labyrinth-the-war-on-terror-2001

Andean Abyss looks soooooo good but may be too complicated game-wise for a beginner.

there's a 4700 post discussion of it here: http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX/.1dd44a7e/0

The designer chimes in on the first page. But, no I haven't played it. It can be played solitaire which i find interesting.

not sure i want that much detail before i try it myself! just wondered if anyone here had played it.
the solitaire option does seem pretty neat as an intellectual exercise.

my 2 brothers, a close friend and i used to play risk all throughout our childhood - so we just picked up risk legacy and plan to play this weekend. reviews are great, so i'm pretty excited

tell me about it when you do im intrigued

what i play when i play:

7 wonders
pandemic
puerto rico
agricola

my bro also got citadels (card game) which we'll probably play at some point

has anyone played android: netrunner (living card game)? it looks really cool and i'm interested in trying it...

have u played saboteur, teh card game, its fun

My son and I got my wife Love Letter for Mother's Day. The three of us played a couple rounds today. It's surprisingly entertaining considering that the entire game consists of a 16 card deck and some counters for score keeping.

how do you beat pandemic? i found it really tough going with two people ... really only manageable w/ the researcher / project manager combo.

>has anyone played android: netrunner (living card game)? it looks really cool and i'm interested in trying it...

I played it when it was a CCG in like 1995! It was vg.

how do you beat pandemic? i found it really tough going with two people ... really only manageable w/ the researcher / project manager combo.

― the late great, Monday, May 13, 2013 1:49 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

make every move count!

3 ppl seems the optimum number of players. 4 is almost impossible.

quarantine specialist is a really useful role when things get hairy.

Played Metro last night with my dad & his wife. Not a good game for people with poor eyesight. To them it was like looking at a plate of spaghetti.

I played the new Netrunner once, but was very into the original game from the 90's. It seems like they kept the concept and gameplay very similar but the cards are different. Which is good - the one knock I had on the original game was that it was a bit unbalanced in favor of the corporation. If they've rebalanced the cards, that would make the game great.

Let me second the love for Love Letter, that's a game we've been playing a lot lately. Really simple game, almost no strategy, but surprisingly fun all the same.

my 2 brothers, a close friend and i used to play risk all throughout our childhood - so we just picked up risk legacy and plan to play this weekend. reviews are great, so i'm pretty excited
― Mordy , Sunday, May 12, 2013 10:02 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tell me about it when you do im intrigued
― we're up all night to get (s1ocki), Sunday, May 12, 2013 10:03 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it is amazing; you should def get a copy slocks, esp. if you can get 4 others to commit to a regular session

think we've played about a game a month, with five, and are up to our 9th game now

it gets... TENSE

the one knock I had on the original game was that it was a bit unbalanced in favor of the corporation. If they've rebalanced the cards, that would make the game great.

i was talking to a friend the other day who has played the new version. he said that there's a way to play online, and it keeps overall stats of the results of each game, and apparently 51% of all games have been won by the corp (or 49%, can't remember)

Ha, awesome. Maybe I need to investigate the new game more thoroughly.

my copy of risk legacy is still in its original packaging :/

I remember the original as being corp-advantaging too, but I wander if that was a result of my misguided-to-nonexistent deckbuilding thought at age like 11, and in fact the runner was just always meant to be running four copies of Mouse or whatever. I guess in any case a fixed-deck variant solves that problem.

a few board games on the app store are on sale - ra, tiger&euphrates, le havre. they're all under a buck. any thoughts about these games?

I bought all four for going on holiday because of the pricing. We probably played Medici more than any of the rest, a great little filler game. Ra is very much in the same boat, although if you're playing solo against the AI it's very slow because it still 'thinks' about every move.

Le Havre looked good when I ran through the tutorial but it seems to be one of those games where you have to remember what the bonuses for a lot of different buildings are, so I reckon it's a good implementation for people who already know how to play it but I never got in the mood to play it.

Played through the tutorial for Tigris & Euphrates, didn't like it. Area control game where you use war as a destabilising technique on other areas, but with an odd scoring mechanism where you notionally have points but don't get them until you do something else and sometimes you score them, sometimes not. I might have another go and see if I enjoy it more.

Tikal was cheap for a while too, and that's definitely worth it.

I've played tabletop Le Havre and it is a mathy BEAR, one of the grindiest and least satisfying games I've played. If you did memorize what all the cards did there could be some satisfaction in implementing the most optimal strategy available in any given move but it's definitely a game won on predicting that getting the Drying Shed now means an extra 2 points three turns from now versus putting your chips on the Barrel Distributor or whatever. And you don't have enough turns, or moves per turn, to just screw all that and play it in a loose fun family way where you're just tinkering with your little sea port. Dud for me.

Yeah, ran through it again after i posted above and you have to remember what all the buildings do otherwise your opponents (if they're the AI) just go on a route to get the luxury liner as soon as it's available and you can't play against it. Then they do things like build the Seine Bridge, which it doesn't show you on the tutorial and is introduced in the "simple version, without the difficult cards". It's a dud for me too.

Also the cards are tiny so you can't see what the activation costs are, or even what buildings your opponents have. I knew one of them had the abattoir and it took me about a minute to work out which of the two of them had it.

old news i'm sure but ticket to ride on iphone is really well done imo

so i played a few games of citadel this week - it was very easy to pickup, quick moving and fun.

i also played 2 games of netrunner. the first game i was the runner and i hit a basically unprotected R&D early on for like 4 points early on w/ a maker's eye. it went so quick that i couldn't really get much out of the game except for very basic principles (we're trying to teach ourselves the rules). the second game i was the corporation and it felt very unbalanced against the runner. at some point i had my R&D and HQ protected by two decent ice each, and i had made a remote server w/ 3 very good ice that i just kept cycling agendas into and advancing/scoring every two turns. at that point was there anything a more experienced runner could have done, or if the runner doesn't move quickly enough and lets the corporation build up big defenses is he pretty much screwed? did i play the rules wrong by accident? one thing we noted after the game is that the runner relied heavily on crypsis which meant he basically never had money and couldn't put serious runs together (he settled for taking big shots w/ maker's eye at my HQ to try and luck into some agendas - but came out w/ nothing twice).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOBAQOa4MsQ

That's exactly how I remember the old game playing out, Mordy. If the runner didn't get a good early start (and some luck), they were locked out. Every ice the corp builds makes it harder for the runner, but the corp only has to activate an ice once, whereas the runner pays every time they go through. I should check out some pro-level games of this, I always got the feeling we were playing it wrong too.

i'm totally obsessed w/ netrunner now

I'd like to give it a try. I've been checking out the rules and various tutorials online.

Do you play with any of expansions or just the core set?

so far just the core set but i plan to grab the expansions soon

have i mentioned how much i love netrunner? NBN is my shit. drop in some scorched earths and flatline away.

https://i.minus.com/iFGGyLmtukmbG.gif

i'm thinking about attending my local game shop's netrunner regionals next weekend. any other ilxors playing it yet?

One of my friends won the Netrunner regional out here, think he might fly out for the nationals. I've only played it once, thought it was okay.

i doubt i'll do very well. i haven't played competitively at all and my gaming group only recently got into it so i don't have much casual experience either.

So a few mates and I have been playing board games together every month - http://sickmouthy.com/2013/05/01/what-i-alk-about-when-i-talk-about-board-games/ - and I've bought Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne, and now I fancy buying something else.

I've seen Alien Frontiers, Power Grid, and Puerto Rico mentioned and they all look like good bets. NetRunner is entirely bard based isn't it? I think I'm mostly interested in simple-to-pick-up (in terms of rules) stuff that can have relatively sophisticated tactics and doesn't require huge memory skills (Small World has way too many variations of races to figure out how to use them properly, for instance), and stuff that's either for 2 or 4 players (ideally both, and possibly expandable to 6, too).

Any suggestions?

Card not bard.

I'm don't have the expertise of most in this thread, but King of Tokyo is a safe bet. 2-6 players, very easy, very fun and addictive (though maybe not as involved as the two games you mention).

We have started playing Labyrinth and it is basically brain-consuming AND SUPER FUN. I am representing the Jihadists and Thnig is the US. So far we have played through two turns (two rounds of cards) and after an immersive weekend, I think we're getting the hang of it a little better. It's MUCH MUCH more serious than any game I've ever played before, totally love that. I've got troops in a variety of places, but my plots have all failed. The US can't seem to withdraw from Afghanistan until the posture returns to soft. I only with there were an expansion that would allow the US to add private contractors once the troops became fatigued.

Just for the hell of it, I took a picture. I, personally, have never seen a game like this one, much less played one. The game acknowledges up front that everyone loses. It seems to be about how you play the game and who loses least. VERY appealing basic premise for me, at least.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7301/8935708161_2130567ec6.jpg

also -- the end of the rule book has a list of the cards and more information about the strategic historical significance of the event. it's very complete! there's a glossary.

Hmmm, tried googling that and all I got was a kiddie boardgame from 1986.

Labyrinth: the war on terror
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/62227/labyrinth-the-war-on-terror-2001

Oh ta

oh hey that looks like terror twilight struggle (which i have never played it is a kind of grail)

xxxp I did that too, mainly because that kiddie boardgame from 1986 was a regular feature of visits to cousins/grandparents and I was fairly sure it wasn't what was being talked about, but...

(Thanks for the link, LL. Spying on this thread despite not being a board game geek because I've been made aware of a board game night I might be able to invite myself to and want to know what I might be letting myself in for if I turn up)

i should mention that i saw this game when we were browsing in a store (a game geek store) and was interested because it was realistic, and seemed really dry and fair. not bloodthirsty (kill the enemy!) and 0 goofy but more complex and strategy-oriented. i've never played any games like this at all, and generally the concept of learning all about another world just to try to kill more zombies/monsters/whatever than my opponent doesn't really interest me, but when i saw that there were markers measuring both US prestige and the overall success of the GWOT (that's what we call it after a weekend of this), i was pretty convinced it would be fun. and it totally is!!

i'm not exactly an expert, is what i'm saying!

also board game nights tend to vary a lot depending on who's having them -- i wouldn't take this thread as any representation of what it might be like!

I haven't played a board game in forever. Feel like I should start again.

I've played more conventional card driven wargames (Hannibal vs Rome is one) where the cards have multiple uses so there's lots of decision making going on. In terms of hard core strategy games the card driven ones are my favorite type. Steep learning curve imo but it is rewarding.

Learning curve is often a barrier for me. I prefer complex games that don't have a huge luck component. However, I hate learning games and I feel like it takes me many plays to actually get it and even longer to understand strategy. I think I'm slower than most in that regards.

Basic games are fun, but I get bored by them after a few plays.

here is a closeup of 4 of the 6 little chit holders
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7371/8907801065_a4dca54acf.jpg

I don't like the learning curve either! I guess I really like the idea that Labyrinth/war strategy games use stuff/terms/events I already know exist, not an imaginary world full of nouns and verbs i don't know (you have to lapiderate the ontodoctyl before you can etc). i mean, i already understand most of the implications "regime change". at least the game allows me to use that understanding. I think I'm too old to learn about the ontodoctyl.

another quick Netrunner question: in competitive play, how do they decide who is corp or runner?

Learning one of these games that use a card driven system really makes it easier to learn the others that interest you. A good upfront investment.

xpost

i'm already looking forward to andean abyss! i feel like someone designed that game just for me!

LL did you cut some the corners off your counters?

no
they just look like that
i'm not a counter customizer! i barely understand what they're for.

i'd argue that real life cheating/corruption among the players of Labyrinth should be fair game!

i'm not a counter customizer!

haha, I am :/

once we're ten years in and funding is low on both sides, i can see some subterfuge. at this point, it's technically 2002. according to the game, the us is entrenched in afghanistan and the jihadists have been causing trouble in EU countries. that's all that's happening at the moment.

does this sound like a lot of fun or WHAT

another quick Netrunner question: in competitive play, how do they decide who is corp or runner?

you play each. if you win both games, you win the round. if it's a split, then whoever scored the most points in their losing game wins.

sounds like fun to me, but i'm a nerd who keeps dreaming about a geopolitical LCG

it is fun!

i floop the tony blair

I spent days of my teenage years clipping corners off cardboard wargame counters. I wouldn't recommend this.

Previews for the final Dominion expansion are happening this week:

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/986175/previews-1-baker

this is the thread where we are dekulakization dice game geeks:
http://cosstropolis.com/games/kulak/

an interesting idea, but is it fun?

idk haven't tried it yet. i intend to tho

Has anyone ever won at Pandemic?

i have! only once tho iirc

We win all the time... (hope i'm not jinxing it)

The secret is to focus on curing diseases much more than anything else. (And hopefully having roles to support.)

Normally I play with 2 players though - might be harder with more?

I don't think I've lost at Pandemic yet - I think the key is probably to get your team spread across into each disease zone and tackle them individually, even if it involves sacrificing research to travel there.

Forbidden Island is a lot more challenging imo, and can feel from the outset that you're not going to win (which makes it all the sweeter when you do).

Wow, we've played Pandemic about four times now and lost hopelessly each time. Four players. Maybe we're just hopeless.

is Pandemic more difficult to beat than Arkham Horror?

i think arkham horror is harder

In my experience, the game is way harder with 4 players than with 2. At 4 players with all epidemics you can definitely get screwed over sometimes, but if you really focus on curing diseases you end up OK more often than not.

Arkham Horror is definitely harder.

I agree that Pandemic is counter-intuitive in that you would think that more players would cure more easily but the number of epidemics plus the combination of putting the already infected cities back on top and the outbreak mechanic mean it's much more difficult to win.

Drum Roll is the most fun game I've played recently, but Tammany Hall (or at least the new edition) is game of the year, for sure.

We'd kind of assumed that Pandemic would be easier with even more players. Hmmm.

pandemic is DEF harder with four. almost impossible. every move counts.

i think arkham horror is harder

― Mordy , Thursday, September 12, 2013 7:55 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ugh I hate arkham horror for a long list of reasons. when my friends play they always seem to win easily just by punching cthulu in the face.

i just bought race for the galaxy. everyone loves that right?

i wasnt crazy about arkham horror cuz i wasnt really sure what to do with myself in it. that's also a bit of a prob in the first few turns of pandemic

I've really wanted to try Race for the Galaxy.

I got dominion recently but haven't played it yet

dominion is fun but don't google strats or you'll ruin it for yourself. gets better w/expansions too

race for the galaxy looks complicated.

anyone fuck w/king of tokyo or the resistance? I've probably asked that before but they're fun games

I've played the resistance Avalon- they're just mafia/werewolf themes, right?

I really like Race for the Galaxy but it's one of those games where I wish there were less cards. I don't play it often so I end up having to do a lot of reading during the game. Then again I play MTG which is far, far worse about that. I like Dominion's model of playing with a limited set of cards each game, it's a good way to make new cards but reduce the complexity of a given game.

I wish there were less different cards, I meant

The Resistance is a more fun Mafia. People don't die so no one is ever sitting around waiting for the next game. Also there's is more opportunity to learn people's identities through playing the game rather than blind accusation. It's a lot of fun with the right group.

anyone play saboteur? in the werewolf / mafia / resistance mould but with a totally different mechanic and goal

i played some netrunner tnite (still the best game ever) and then tried x-wing minis for the first time. it's a lot of fun (we played the starter - my rebel X-wing beat his 2x tie fighters). not sure if i'd actually buy sets myself but i did see this online and it looks like so much fun:

http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic1555520_md.jpg

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/10/07/the_guns_of_october_yom_kippur_war_games

what do ppl think about pathfinder card game? http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2013/10/10/great-start-pathfinder-adventure-card-game/

woke up in the middle of the night the other night with an incredible idea: carcassonne, but with pizza slices instead of city tiles.

balls and I long ago dubbed the two-piece, two-point city the ''pizza roll,'' called out as such to collect your points.

ha

you mean 4 point

Has anyone played Mansions of Madness?

i ordered that pathfinder lcg. i'll report back.

I've played Mansions of Madness, it's decent but I prefer Arkham Horror

Mansions of Madness is a bit too RPGish for my taste

s1ocki, I think that was a later rule change. The version I have explicitly states that they are only worth two points.

Some discussion here of 'football cities' http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/548805/2-points-or-4-for-a-two-tile-castle

huh!

well the OFFICIAL ios version scores 4

I score it as 4.

lets make I SCORE 4 buttons

composing a "Carcassone Football City" song in my head right now

http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2013/10/14/wham-come-awful-green-things-outer-space/

if anyone wants to learn how to play netrunner, u can play for free on octgn and i am happy to show anyone how. it continues to be the best game ever.

http://octgn.gamersjudgement.com/wordpress/anr/installation/

i just might have to

max how ws D&D

i've been addicted to innovation lately

Hell yes

Oh damn my friend got me that but I tried playing it once with 3 other people and we got frustrated

Avoid 4p games when first learning the rules if at all possible.

played the echoes expansion of innovation and did not like it-
also played a game of kulak (i think linked above) and it is really fun to actually play. lots of decision making - backstabbing - thematic de-subkulakization.

If you didn't like that expansion don't go for any of the others. Personally the escalating madness of Innovation + expansions makes me happy.

I've now owned the Settlers of Catan Explorers & Pirates expansion for 6 months and we haven't played anything but scenario 1 ;_;

i think the cards continue to be fun and interesting, but i miss the tighter mechanics of the core set - it almost makes it feel like a more casual game?

Been playing Cosmic Encounter a lot recently.

It's a silly and crazy imbalanced game but can be very fun.

This is pretty OTM. Like you can be building a tactic and reserving some kick arse attacks for a big push, then some bonkers card comes up which completely disrupts the status quo and you're back to square one. There's still skill involved, but it's more reacting to the situations that arise rather than trying to build a coherent strategy, which will almost inevitably end in frustration.

It's a good laugh though, and pretty easy for anyone to pick up. I like the slight pokerish/psycological element of selecting your encounter cards.

Also there's a fair amount of skill in just keeping track of what the various flares/artifacts in your hand can do!

Cozen did you ever get / play Death Angel? Was it any good? I loved the original Space Hulk when I was younger (that and Blood Bowl were the only GW games we ever properly played really), and having enjoyed Dominion I wondered if this might be good.

But anyway, had friends round last night for food and board games; played 1 each of Catan, Carcassonne, and Dominion. Found out that Matt, who runs marathons over mountains and is in one of my record clubs, used to play Pokemon for money at the local weirdo game shop when doing his MA. And clean up. Don't know if I'm impressed or not.

We played Love Letter at the weekend which was really quick and good fun.

I recently finished the two-player wargame It Never Snows, which took about eight weeks. It was actually physically exhausting bending over the table for hours on end moving the hundreds of tiny units. The board takes up the whole room:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Hf7fRB4zHe0/UksK97WtMWI/AAAAAAAAATo/ioDqgeWiwdw/s1600/IMG_2006.JPG

http://distilleryimage1.ak.instagram.com/0646fb54676c11e38e98122b1e0ccc31_8.jpg

awesome board game collection! xp

Mordy otm, cat otm

Cozen did you ever get / play Death Angel? Was it any good?

I'm not Cozen but I have Death Angel. I like it best as a solo game, actually; one of those weird videogame like adventures that is actually really good fun. Quite hard, too, in the best way. But it is absolutely unlike Dominion in almost every way - much closer to something like Elder Sign - a single "campaign" with heroes who have lifepoints and fight individual monsters, etc.

My friend gave me Death Angel for a bday present this year but I haven't tried it yet; I'm not really into collaborative games, I like to fuck my friends over dammit.

I've asked this before, but is there anyone on here who has tried out Ascension?

that it never snows set-up is totally nuts

totally nuts

Can anyone suggest a good word/vocabulary game that isn't Scrabble?

How does one shuffle that cat into the deck when you buy it?

Bananagrams is a pretty fun, quick word game that appeals to a lot of Scrabble people.

oh man that Tom Wham link (upthread from October). Search for the Emperor's Treasure and King of the Tabletop are probably my two favorite board games ever. I have the Dragon Games box set and I stupidly left my original copy of Emperor's Treasure with a friend when I moved ages ago. I miss that color version of the map so much, the box set version is so dead. Been trying to find a copy of Dragon #51 online with the map intact but no luck.

Ascension is great fun on iPad, but a lousy real-life card game - too much futzing around and shuffling.

oh cool, didn't realize there was an app version, might be a good way to get introduced to it

is it more shuffling than Dominion or about the same?

Yeah, It Never Snows was utterly insane. Not just in scope but in density. This is the best close-up I have of one of the battles, but it got a lot crazier than this.

http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic1793807_md.jpg

Moodles: I gave you a brief answer upthread about Ascension, but it plays very similar to Dominion. Same amount of shuffling.

cool, thx

Having played both Dominion as an app and irl, I actually prefer irl despite all the shuffling. It's just easier to follow the mechanics when card effects don't all happen automatically.

I prefer in-person to online too cause it's more fun hanging out with people and I like holding real cards (very old man of me), but the amount of shuffling in Dominion and Ascension sucks. Online games take about a third as much time, maybe even less when you factor setup.

anyone fuck with el grande, played it tonight and it was fun

That's the game with the huge castle that you drop pieces into like a piggy bank, right? I remember that being fun, played it once many years ago. It'd do better with a name like "El Piggy Bank"

Bought Catan sight unseen, having never played it or seen it played, to play with my family (none of whom, I'm sure, have played it, either) over holidays. Over/under on how disastrous that's gonna be?

not disastrous at all. very easy to pick up + learn for beginners, broad appeal

Aye, it's a great idea. That or Carcassonne are super easy fun for all the family.

Cool. I hoped as much, based on what I'd heard & read ITT.

your family will have wood for sheep iirc

You're assuming they don't already.

I was going back and forth between Catan and Arkham Horror, but the latter seemed a little too "deep end" for super casual participants.

arkham horror is kinda a really bad game but a fun experience - it is designed to be obtuse + confusing + byzantine as a kinda ludic reflection of the genre. it's like a non-game for gamers. catan is a game for non-gamers. i think you made the right choice.

carcassonne is so placid and peaceful. even the hunters and gatherers version is relatively chill.

love karx

anyone fuck with el grande, played it tonight and it was fun

― socki (s1ocki), Wednesday, December 18, 2013 11:11 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That's the game with the huge castle that you drop pieces into like a piggy bank, right? I remember that being fun, played it once many years ago. It'd do better with a name like "El Piggy Bank"

― Vinnie, Thursday, December 19, 2013 12:50 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

No - it's an area control game on a map of medieval Spain... you're trying to maintain control of territory while bidding each turn on a supply of special action cards (IIRC). I've played it once or twice and remember it being enjoyable.

Every holiday I get to try a smattering of games that my family's been exposed to over the year, plus some more with the local gamer group (super nice people). Today's experiences:

Mystery of the Abbey: Clue/Guess Who-esque deduction game, with a Name of the Rose knockoff plotline. Some cool ideas in play, but it was really hard to get a feel for how you should play, or how the questions you can ask other people about their hands can really help you. Also just kind of sluggish since you get very few movements and the board has needless filler squares just to annoy you. Meh.

Vegas: Very fun and pacey little dice game, with not-uninteresting decisions for you to make. Great light starter/finisher type game, IMO - not too brain intensive and you always have something to do, but you don't feel like it's just total luck.

Chinatown: Real estate thing in John Lindsay's New York... you collect pieces of property as well as businesses you can open on them, goal is to build sets of the same business next to each other. The cool thing is that there's an open wheel-and-deal round after you draw your cards for the turn, and you can make any kind of cockamamie trade you want ("I'll trade you space 45 for a seafood restaurant, *IF* you promise that the next time you draw a camera store, you give it to me"). I worry a bit about the theme, and the trading gets out of whack if you get too far behind everybody (so that you can offer them a game-winning piece and all they can offer you is something kind of vaguely helpful). But the trading dynamic makes it pretty social, that's cool. This is the second time I've played - pretty sure I did way better last time and therefore didn't get bugged about the above.

you do drop pieces into a castle but its not huge.. you might be thinking of wallenstein vinnie

anyone play jaipur?

I may have been confusing El Grande with Wallenstein and/or my dreams.

Got Castles of Burgundy for Xmas after my friend recommended it - anyone ever play that one?

mordy is incorrect re: arkham being a bad game but he is correct that it is not even remotely "casual"

i always find it weird that people find arkham horror confusing but maybe my perspective is skewed since i grew up playing warhammer 40k and many very grindy paper-and-pencil RPGs

warhammer is more of a lifestyle game imo; maybe Arkham scales up nicely the more you play it but between the set up time, the rule book consulting etc I never played it often enough to have a real strategic grasp on the mechanics of gameplay

I know El Grande OK... it's good! I think we always were not fully rule-literate and would do stuff like banish other people's caballeros to Portugal.

Castles of Burgundy is great!

Christmas board games played this year: Settlers of Catan (for the first time ever! It was great fun) and King of Tokyo (also first time, also fairly fun, though I didn't feel like the cards really added too much to the game).

At Sean's recommendation I bought Power Grid for my brothers and we played it a tonne on 25 and 26th. The rules are tricky, there's a lot of shifting around of player order and exclusion of regions on the board and thing, plus a lot of math at the end. It was great, we played five games, and it got intense. Not nearly as intense as the two hours of mahjongg I played today in stony silence tho

I've never played a board game (other than Monopoly, Scrabble etc) but I'm intrigued. Is Carcassonne the best one to try out?

Settlers of Catan, IMO. Even as you're figuring out the strategy of the game itself, the trading with/backstabbing your friends is fun.

I think Carcassonne is a good choice too. Only needs 2 players, the rules are brief and pretty easy to absorb so you can start up quickly, but there's a lot of depth to the gameplay.

Ticket to Ride is entry level.

yeah, Ticket to Ride is def. a good one, get the US version

King of Tokyo is a really fun quick game that pretty much everyone seems to enjoy.

Settlers is a popular entry game, but I'd also recommend Carcassonne over it. Less downtime, less complexity, less time per game, but about the same amount of strategy. Ticket to Ride is quite fun but more complex - I've had friends get thrown by that game.

Really? Age range on it goes down to 8!

NB: I may have dumb friends

Haha. None of my friends are into this stuff, but I could see it becoming a good pastime for weekend nights when we don't want to spend any money on going out. I think what's important is that it appeals to everyone as well as being accessible.

To expound on my "dumb" friends, I think the thing those friends sometimes don't like about Ticket or Settlers is that the complexity of the rules and actions is overwhelming for them. Sometimes they start getting antsy even as I explain the rules. I mean, fair enough, some people just aren't into those kinds of games, and as far as board games go they're not that complicated. But then, the same friends will enjoy stuff like Carcassonne because there's less rules information to explain and remember, even though the number of tricky decisions might be about the same. You can play Carcassonne with almost no thought (of course, you probably won't win), whereas with Ticket and Settlers there's more knowledge you need to know about legal moves and possible actions. I've found Carcassonne to be more universally appealing.

It's also very placid and has lovely imagery on the tiles.

xpost

Vinnie's exactly right, it has less to do with the age of the people playing and more to do with how comfortable they are with internalizing a set of rules that can be a bit more finicky than an old school board game.

Even with Carcassonne, the rules are pretty easy but it has a scoring system that can cause some confusion at first, and if you don't internalize that scoring system you will lose.

Yeah, the farm scoring alone makes it so most newbies get creamed.

My point being that I would rather play a game with beginners where there is chance they would grasp the concept/mechanics/tactics early on instead of mindlessly playing to just play. TTR always seems to work well for that. I played it with my parents and they are not the brightest bulbs, but did well and enjoyed it.

apples to apples is the easiest game for people who arent good at games

I much prefer Dixit and Wits and Wagers to Apples to Apples but party games are another animal altogether.

conflicted feelings about calling those 'party' games but yeah, i only mention it because more people seem to enjoy them than even super basic stuff like 'king of tokyo' or 'epic spell wars' or w/e

Bizarrely, my parents (who are good with rules and card games in particular) struggled to get to grips with TtR in a way I would never have expected.

Kill Doctor Lucky is actually a pretty good entry game, it encourages thinking/planning ahead and the idea of forcing someone else to use a resource so they then can't stop you. Forbidden Island is a nice little co-op rather than jump straight into Pandemic.

My fave Ticket to Ride is still Märklin, mainly b/c I like sending the little boater-capped dudes on their adventures thru Germany.

For entry/gateway games, tho, I do recommend Carcassonne and Catan. There are even free online versions to muck with.

carcs is soooo much better than dumb catan

Acquire is a good entry level game as well, though if you get behind early it's pretty miserable.

I really dislike the trading aspect of Catan. I like the Catan card game much better.

Trading is my fave part of Catan, I like that it keeps everyone active even when it's not your turn.

7 wonders is hella fun

also played forbidden desert once and we all got creamed, it was depressing

I've had very good luck playing 7 Wonders with non-gamers.

once you get over the small learning curve it's the easiest thing in the world but people still get really O_O when you try to teach them everything at once

thinking about rebalancing it so that war victories are worth 1 or 2 points more, ime so far it's been too weak a factor.

Haven't played Forbidden Desert but I don't think it's any harder than Forbidden Island - but I kind of stand by what I said, both of these are entry level co-ops with a greater chance of winning than Pandemic/Twelve Ghosts/Witch of Salem (that's probably in ascending order of likelihood of getting absolutely smashed to bits in).

Love 7 Wonders. Love it. One of my favorite games ever. I find science (green cards) are too weak a factor, rather than military, but of course it depends a lot on what cards your playgroup value.

ya wonders looks impenetrably cryptic at first but its actually easy as pie

Haven't played Forbidden Desert but I don't think it's any harder than Forbidden Island - but I kind of stand by what I said, both of these are entry level co-ops with a greater chance of winning than Pandemic/Twelve Ghosts/Witch of Salem (that's probably in ascending order of likelihood of getting absolutely smashed to bits in).

― Ian Glasper's trapped in a scone (aldo), Thursday, January 30, 2014 4:48 AM (15 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i would really like to play any of the SUPER COMPLEX and time-consuming co-op games but my friends are not that nerdy and way too competitive

what i really want in my life right now is betrayal at house on the hill, which somehow hasn't been mentioned itt? it's wonderful fun co-op until it's not, easy to learn, and every copy in the world costs THREE HUNDRED FUCKING DOLLARS BECAUSE FUCKING WIL WHEATON

If other players undervalue science it is not hard to obtain a full double or even triple set of the cards which will normally be enough points to win you the game.

To be fair to him, what happened to Betrayal wasn't a Wheatoning. It was already pretty rare before he featured it, I got my copy a couple of months before it was on Tabletop and it was being described as 'one of the last copies available' then.

I haven't managed to get a game of it together yet. :-/

I like the idea of so-called 'party' games like Dixit quite a lot because they appear to require a spot of imaginative thinking as well as strategic. How's that one?

I just really don't fancy Dixit at all, and/or wouldn't find anyone to play if with.

Dixit isn't really strategic at all - in fact, it goes over well with my friends who dislike strategy games. The fun of the game varies wildly on how imaginative people want to be; I've had really good games and really boring games. Also I rarely play more than once in a row, because it's difficult to come up with fun/interesting descriptions. It's a cool game even with those caveats, would recommend.

Apples to Apples, Cards Against Humanity, Wits and Wagers, and Time's Up (aka Celebrities) are also good party games you might like, dl.

played wits and wagers for the first time last night with a group of friends, pretty fun. i hate cards against humanity, it ruins whatever is fun about apples to apples by forcing "edgy" humor into it.

I know where you're coming from - my first reaction to Cards Against Humanity was that it robbed the fun out of AtA by making everything edgy. But after I played a few games, I started liking the questions more than the adjectives in AtA. Especially the ones with two blanks, which add a different angle for creativity.

i hate cards against humanity, it ruins whatever is fun about apples to apples by forcing "edgy" humor into it.

if you've ever harbored suspicions that certain acquaintances are deeply unfunny play 'cards against humanity' with them, it will be horribly obvious w/in about 10 min, then you will get to keep playing for another two hours

playing CAH with people who are like politically into it is just the worst. and play with too many people and it gets tremendously boring. by the dozenth card announced you don't even remember what the question was and then the person has to chooooooose ugh

best party-ish game i've played lately is anomia

Went for Carcassonne in the end, erring on the side of caution

Cards Against Humanity is the worst - "mixer" game for freshman drama students who like showing off how 'edgy' and 'over the top' they're willing to go, but need the crutch of cards coming pre-loaded with "hilarious" "off-color" phrases. It also loses the actual humor in Apples to Apples, which emerges from an appreciation for your friends' moments of offbeat logic and surprising combinations of ideas.

eh i think Cards still retains the offbeat logic thing sometimes. imo its major downfall is that because it trades in shock value it has super low replay value. like if "firing a shotgun while balls deep in a hog" is trying too hard the first time someone plays it, it is so incredibly tedious the second time.

there aren't really THAT many major shock value cards -- a lot of it is just slightly more adult/varied A2A. i read every one (of the initial set) on christmas cause my sister was thinking about playing with the family and i was determined to locate and remove every single card i wouldn't want to explain to my mom. still sounds like a horrible idea not sure why anyone would want to play with their parents

but yeah the cards like "firing a shotgun while balls deep in a hog" or "the taint; the grundle; the fleshy fun-bridge" are barely meant to be played, they're just meant to be read and laughed at in their own context. they'd never actually win. one thing that sort of annoys me about it.

I played it with my bro & my mom over the holidays; it was weird

So I guess I'm amassing a bit of a collection.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f223/joegood/DSC01021_zpsc030813c.jpg

Where to next? I kind of want another one that's easy to learn and can be played in under an hour. And maybe that's good with only two players.

So I received Carcassonne last week and have played it three times with different people and they all love it. Nice one!

chap, what's Cosmic Encounter like?

Settlers of Catan is worth getting, it's 3+ people though.

chap, what's Cosmic Encounter like?

― Spaghetti Sauce Shampoo (Moodles), Monday, February 10, 2014 3:12 PM (8 minutes ago)

I'll repost something I wrote about it upthread:

it's a silly and crazy imbalanced game but can be very fun.

This is pretty OTM. Like you can be building a tactic and reserving some kick arse attacks for a big push, then some bonkers card comes up which completely disrupts the status quo and you're back to square one. There's still skill involved, but it's more reacting to the situations that arise rather than trying to build a coherent strategy, which will almost inevitably end in frustration.

It's a good laugh though, and pretty easy for anyone to pick up. I like the slight pokerish/psycological element of selecting your encounter cards.

Settlers of Catan is worth getting, it's 3+ people though.

― Kim Wrong-un (Neil S)

I've played Catan a few times and always enjoyed it.

cosmic is fun

played a huge twilight imperium game this weekend, it was pretty fun too.

It looks a bit more strategic/less wacky than Cosmic, true?

oh god yes. it's like a super complex game that takes 8 hours and feels like multiple strategic games on top of each other. i'm not even sure i like it, but it's fun to hang out with some of my buddies for 8 hours and do something ridiculous.

A+, s1ocki
we need to start collaborating :)

it's like a super complex game that takes 8 hours and feels like multiple strategic games on top of each other. i'm not even sure i like it, but it's fun to hang out with some of my buddies for 8 hours and do something ridiculous.

― socki (s1ocki)

Game of Thrones looks like it might be like that. Haven't played it yet, it only arrived three days ago.

we need to start collaborating :)

― sean gramophone, Monday, February 10, 2014 12:06 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

let's do it this week or weekend!

lol i got an email from amazon that betrayal at house on the hill was available for $50 so i went SHIT SHIT SHIT and ordered it immediately

Played this weekend for the first time in a long time. Played:

Flux - Kind of crazy, the rules change constantly, as does the goal for winning. Pretty random and hard to strategize. Still fun.
Tsuro - A path building game. Really simple, you try and make the other dragons crash into each other or the edge of the board. Not the biggest fan.
DC Deck Building Game - First deck building game I've ever played. I enjoyed it, made me want to play others.
Power Grid - I was too drunk by this point, but I seem to recall liking it, even though I was playing very badly.

feel like Power Grid should've gone first and Fluxx saved for the "too drunk" part of the evening but fun is fun

Now you tell me!!

Just finished almost five months of weekly plays of Flying Colors, which recreates historical sea battles from about 1750-1800. Despite the absolute chaos of the board mid-battle, it's pretty straightforward to play. Highly recommended if you're looking something big that takes multiple sessions to finish.

http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic2018330_md.jpg

I played Betrayal at House on the Hill last weekend (and had no idea how rare and expensive it was!). It's a lot of fun, and I feel like the creators maybe should have sued the people who made Cabin in the Woods, as the general concepts are practically identical!

World in Flames is finally out (sans AI), but I'll probably wait until it comes down in price a bit.

lol i also played betrayal last weekend and friends also pointed out the CitW comparisons

was unfortunately playing with one dude who got really whiny about all the rules and cards and he ended up being the traitor and it sucked

Dan I. if your name is actually steve you're the worst

what do ppl itt think of smallworld? It attracts me aesthetically...

I own it. The aesthetics are awesome and add a lot to the fun of the game. The gameplay is pretty interesting too - it's based around a mechanic of mixing and matching races and classes, so you get different experiences each time. That said, I've played about ten games and don't play it anymore. The winner almost always comes down to people playing kingmaker, and worse, sometimes players get into positions where they are losing yet the other players are incentivized to keep attacking them, which is really unfun.

I don't mind playing the IOS version(which cost next to nothing depending on when you bought it) but have ABSOLUTELY no desire to play the IRL game no matter how you could present it.

That must be for iPad only bc I've looked for an iOS version specifically

Can anyone recommend a relatively quick/straightforward game that is fun with two players (preferably not collaborative)?

Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer

Thanks, cool. Decent enough with just the base set?

Yeah, it's pretty basic but fairly fun

Coloretto