The Thread Where We Are Board Game Geeks

I have Euphoria, but read an early review that there was one key mechanism/decision that effectively was the kingmaker in the game and it's never made the table. Viticulture (by the same guy) very good though.

twilight imperium y/n

Been playing mainly filler games recently - Give Me The Brain, Unexploded Cow, Stuff & Nonsense, Love Letter, Unexpected Treasures, Yardmaster, Tower, TEK and TED.

On a bigger scale, been enjoying Town Center, Waggle Dance, Cubist, Shipwrights of the North Sea, Scoville and Hoyuk. Need to get Pay Dirt, Brew Crafters, Bright Future, Asking for Trobils and Meteor to the table some time soon.

Imminent goodies include the Ancient Terrible Things expansion, the Compounded expansion, Dead Men Tell No Tales and Web of Spies.

And I still can't get a win at Ghost Stories after logging about 15 games.

i've been playing pathfinder LCG (just finished the last of the 3 starter missions last night), marvel legendary, and dominion, none of which are board games (tho ML does have a board)

Has anyone played Arkham Horror or Mansions of Madness? If so are they any good, and which is the one to get?

i kind of like the idea of a horror and even open to an element of RPG, but I heard these can be a bit complicated and fiddly. We're not hardened gamers - we've played a LOT of Carcassonne with various add-ons. Interested in something a bit different, but don't want to waste money on something that isn't fun and we don't end up playing very much.

Mansions of Madness is great fun if played in the right spirit - everyone should be more concerned about the story and the atmosphere than winning, or the minutiae of the rules. It is indeed very fiddly though, takes roughly 45 mins just to set up! And if the GM/Keeper puts one card out of place during set up it is basically rendered unplayable.

Currently totally hooked on Dominion, and getting into Race For the Galaxy. I got Euphoria in the end, but have decided it's quite crap, despite pretty design and cool theme.

Arkham Horror is a good game at the heart of it, but an hour setup and a very long slow playing time is not for the faint hearted or the new. The rules aren't particularly intuitive either, so expect some headscratching and to get a lot wrong when playing. It's definitely one to be taught, and even then don't expect everything to be right. It's also got a fairly low win rate (~40%) unless you get lucky. Haven't played Mansions of Madness.

Eldritch Horror is supposed to be a better implementation of the AH gameset, with reduced setup and play times, but I haven't played it so can't directly advise. Elder Sign is a nice dice implementation of the general concept and plays really well but also (imo) has setup issues. I have A Touch Of Evil sitting in my unplayed pile, and that might scratch the same itch.

The ideal horror game, but you really need 4 to make it work, is Betrayal at House on the Hill.

I felt kind of the same about Euphoria. I had a bit more baggage as I was a KS backer, but there are some redundant choices and the game is slightly broken.

My tip of the moment is Matt Leacock's Thunderbirds game - another great co-op from him which is far stronger as a game than you'd think the franchise would allow for. Also still playing a lot of 5 Tribes, Town Center, Ancient Terrible Things (and eagerly awaiting the new expansion), Scoville and Dead Men Tell No Tales.

Ancient Terrible Things looks fun - can't find it online for less than 50 quid though!

https://www.gameslore.com/acatalog/PR_Ancient_Terrible_Things_Board_Game_Damaged.html

I'll rep for how undamaged these things normally are - I've only ever had one box I would personally describe as actually damaged out of maybe 20 items and even then it was only heavily dimpled at one of the corners. Caveat emptor, key word 'normally'.

Ah that's handy, ta. Might sell my Euphoria on there actually.

Is there anything in this vein that works particularly well with two players or do you normally need more?

Dominion and Race For the Galaxy are both good with two players.

Most games I own are best three or more though.

All co-ops are fine with two because if the game demands it you can always have a phantom third hand.

anyone played coup? v elegant, simple and quick card game with plenty of bluffing where you knock each other out of the game

i will also cosign the following games: princes of florence, pandemic, ticket to ride, puerto rico, king of tokyo/ny, gloom

coup is free on the iphone and quite fun

Yeah I've played Coup. Give Love Letter a go if you like that one.

I have heard good things about love letter

i think love letter is much better than coup actually

The one hour of deep periodontal cleaning I got done last week was more fun and less painful than any game of Arkham Horror I've ever played.

love letter is better than coup but any flavor of the resistance is better than either.

@doglatin - both those games have serious flaws, especially for a playgroup that is less experienced or patient. 'betrayal at house on the hill' might be a better fit w/yr group, the rules are simpler and the gameplay is much more intuitive and forgiving.

cool, i'll take a look. i don't have much of a group at this stage, it's me and my O/H so that's a bit of a hindrance since so many games are better with more than two players. We got plenty of people into Carcassonne before we moved town though, so no reason we can't get a few new mates into it.

Codenames is a really cool team word-association game that I played a lot of during my trip to the US last month. A bit like Taboo but with more creativity involved. Best with 6-8 players, and the games are super quick, like ten minutes. Very simple concept (so much so I'm surprised it hasn't been made before) but great execution on the gameplay and theme.

Yeah, I've bought it and Spyfall as party games for Christmas/New Year.

i really like arkham horror but it's a lot of work

As far as casual/social games,I've been getting a lot of mileage out of Funemployed and Monikers lately...

quick what is best? king of tokyo or pandemic?

man just watch a godzilla movie while playing draughts

I prefer Pandemic! More lasting power too.

I don't love king of tokyo, haven't played Pandemic

pandemic

More game in Pandemic.

Although to be honest I prefer reimplementations of both. KoNY > Kot; Forbidden Island, Forbidden Desert and especially Thunderbirds all > Pandemic imo.

KoNY > Kot

Yes and no; the newer game has more depth and decently removes the problem of easy pickings dice-roll VPs, but it is a lot fiddlier and not nearly as much of instant crowd pleaser ime.

How the fuck do you win Pandemic?

play w/ only 2 players

I do agree w/chap that KoNY is less fun for non-gamers and isn't nearly as immediate.

And Mordy's right, you should beat Pandemic with 2.

I had to share this, a review / session report to rival Roberto Bolaño's The Third Reich:

At Dawn We Ate Sugar Smacks: Wargaming Newbies Tackle the Monster of Monsters

wow

ok finally finished that, beautiful

finally got a chance to learn + play race for the galaxy. so good.

Yeah love it.

I know this is a semi-perennial question on this thread but it's been a while so I'll go for it again: any recommendations for beginners who want something not too hardcore?

Especially looking for something playable with only 2 players, easy to pick up and where games take an hour or maybe two max (even quicker than that is good too!)...

I have ordered Carcassonne (not arrived yet tho) and itt I am looking at Jeff's q/list and responses from Dec 2010 about 2-player games, will look into some of those. Thanks!

Carcassonne is great, and Ticket to Ride is another popular game very playable for two and readily available at most games shops. Also, I'm yet to play it, but I've recently heard high praise about Jaipur.

Five Tribes

Carcassonne is great and has a lot of replay value, although I don't know what they're playing at by having recently re-desigined the game, rendering my older version a bit useless if I want to buy add-ons or anything.

Splendor is good for two people. Not a lot of interaction though.

catan is really easy to pick up and extremely addictive xp

my roommates and i play every other night or so. it's the kind of game where people's true character really comes out, for better or worse. (usually worse)