Board games anyone?

[rrwoods]

Best casual game: Dixit.

[Tomo]

Bought and started playing Arkham horror based on the responses in this thread, and it's brilliant. It does seem a bit easy though, bar the first two games where we didn't understand the rules properly and promptly lost everything, we've had two wins against Yig by killing him, A win against azathoth and another against shub niggurath by sealing 6 gates, and a very very close loss against hastur after he got out. One doom token left. you need four successes, 8 dice. rolled three successes >_<. Random investigators and ancient ones each time.

Some areas of the game seem slightly broken at the moment, for example the newspaper has almost entirely positive encounters, some of which are really really good for getting cash, whereas the church seems awful, with multiple ways to lose items/money.

Anyway, what's everyone's experience with the expansions?

[McCaber]

Some areas of the game seem slightly broken at the moment, for example the newspaper has almost entirely positive encounters, some of which are really really good for getting cash, whereas the church seems awful, with multiple ways to lose items/money.

Those are very intentional. Having encounters in helpful areas like the newspaper or the magic shop are nice, but they waste time, and the payoff for them really isn't very big. The best events tend to be in the same places as the worst (Gate and Monster appear). And a turn spent at the newspaper is one that you could be using to dive a gate.

I highly recommend the Dunwich Horror and King in Yellow expansions. The others are pretty good, but those are the ones to get first.

[Tomo]

Those are very intentional. Having encounters in helpful areas like the newspaper or the magic shop are nice, but they waste time, and the payoff for them really isn't very big. The best events tend to be in the same places as the worst (Gate and Monster appear). And a turn spent at the newspaper is one that you could be using to dive a gate.

Maybe, but sitting in the newspaper for 2-3 turns until everyone has a retainer + $5-10, then down to the shops for a weapon, then into the fray just seems so overpowered compared to heading into the gates first.

[McCaber]

Maybe, but sitting in the newspaper for 2-3 turns until everyone has a retainer + $5-10, then down to the shops for a weapon, then into the fray just seems so overpowered compared to heading into the gates first.

Which takes 4 turns at the very least, and maybe 5 or 6. That's one hell of a head start the BBEG has on you.

Gates everywhere, clues disappearing because of those same gates, doom track halfway full, and the town's full of monsters. Not the way I like to play.

[novax6]

Recently got into Race for The Galaxy, and now I can see what all the fuss was about. Really well designed game, and a lot of fun, both 1v1 and with more people. I might even like it more then Dominion, for light-ish cardgames, but I need more plays of both to tell for sure.

Also recently acquired Twilight Struggle, which is one of those games where all I've heard is amazing things about it, so I'm excited to try it out. Cold war, USA vs USSR, how could that not be awesome?

[Joelamite]

Settlers of Catan is a good time. I've only played Carcassone on the Ipod, but that one is addicting as well, considering the online play option. I just bought a game called Le Havre, and am looking forward to getting into that one.

[novax6]

Just bought and played my first game of Mansions of Madness, by Fantasy Flight. Shares artwork and theme of Arkham Horror, but is smaller scale, and instead of co-op, it's 1 keeper (evil) player vs. 1-4 investigator (good) players. The investigators explore a mansion, try and find clues that in turn point them to the final clue, which reveals the keepers objective (which he's known about all along).

Insanely fun first game, it oozes atmosphere and theme, and combat is fantastic. As much as I love arkham horror, i think this one might ended up beating it in sheer fun and theme, as it definitely feels more like a call of cthulhu game than AH does. Virtually everything in the game has flavor text, from combat (the maniac screams and swings his axe down on your head, test dexterity, pass; this happens. fail: this happens), clues (that actually tell and describe a story), and horror/sanity effects (in addition to mythos cards the evil player can play on the investigators). The evil player can also do horrible/fun things to the players, especially if they go lose enough sanity, like make them turn their gun on themselves or other players.

It also doesn't hurt that our first game (with everyone learning and taking their time) only took about 2 hours total, while I've had 'fast' games of arkham horror (where everyone knew what they were doing and went fast) take 3+ hours. Oh, and the monster miniatures look bad. ass.

I'd heartily recommend anyone who likes horror/survival games or 1 vs Many games to check it out.

[Gopher of Pern]

Just thought I'd post in here, because today I received both Mansions of Madness, and Pandemic, as recommended to me from this thread! Hopefully will get a game of both done before the end of next weekend, I'm just really busy atm. Maybe a game of pandemic tomorrow afternoon!

[ConMan]

Someone at work started up a lunchtime boardgames (and frequently card games) group, and some of the games that I've played so far are:

Dominion (lots of fun, an interesting mechanic)
Pandemic (again, fun but tricky)
Smallworld (I had no idea what I was doing as I sat in for someone who left, but it looked interesting)
Chrononauts (so much fun I bought it myself, along with all the expansions)
James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game (quick and fun)
Alhambra (interesting, and a nice aesthetic)

and I've watched a game of Shadows Over Camelot, that looks like a lot of fun too.

[emceng]

Anyone play the Axis and Allies miniatures? A friend plays the naval ones, and they seem fun.

I am considering getting into them but I'm not sure due to: 1) no one to play with, 2) so freaking expensive, 3) I've already got a ton of games I own but never play

[Ulc]

Smallworld (I had no idea what I was doing as I sat in for someone who left, but it looked interesting)

Smallworld is actually a quite neat little game.

it doesn't require very much time, has a very fast game play once you learn the rules (which are rather simple) and wonderfully luck-free. Some of the race/special powers are horrendously overpowered though - flying sorcerers or mountain trolls (as first or second race) are pretty close to a "I win" button, but the chance of those specific ones coming up are quite small.

It's a somewhat cynical approach to civilisations though

[mister k]

Smallworld (I had no idea what I was doing as I sat in for someone who left, but it looked interesting)

Smallworld is actually a quite neat little game.

it doesn't require very much time, has a very fast game play once you learn the rules (which are rather simple) and wonderfully luck-free. Some of the race/special powers are horrendously overpowered though - flying sorcerers or mountain trolls (as first or second race) are pretty close to a "I win" button, but the chance of those specific ones coming up are quite small.

It's a somewhat cynical approach to civilisations though

Interesting thing about smallworld is that the vps are hidden information. I actually prefer it to be the other way round- as with all these kind of games its always technically possible to count, which is worth doing, because frequently I've been picked on because other players assume I'm ahead, when I'm really not. Having open information means people can actually do the maths correctly, rather than losing simply because everyone has a perception that you already are, and being annihilated for your troubles.

Been loving the horned rat expansion for chaos, especially now the FAQ has been updated to deal with the ridiculous number of rules irregularities there. I dislike the morsleib cards though- we played a game with only them in play, and found it heavily favouring the skaven.

[Chen]

Smallworld is actually a quite neat little game.

it doesn't require very much time, has a very fast game play once you learn the rules (which are rather simple) and wonderfully luck-free. Some of the race/special powers are horrendously overpowered though - flying sorcerers or mountain trolls (as first or second race) are pretty close to a "I win" button, but the chance of those specific ones coming up are quite small.

There are some issues I've had with race combinations (spirit trolls I'm looking at you). That combination showed another fairly big problem with this as a multiplayer game. The troll player had 2-3 declined trolls on mountains. No one wants to waste THEIR turn to remove maybe ONE of that opponents pieces because they'll effectively lose more VPs (since they could have taken more places). Its much simpler to just go where you can get the most VPs from. That said, the player with the trolls is then going to get a ton of points. The other issue is once someone does the "spread as thin as I can but get a lot of points per turn" strategy, it tends to force everyone else to do it too (barring certain race/power combinations) which tends to be strategically light. The fact that VPs are hidden also makes it frustrating when someone isn't counting and decides to hit you (who is behind) vs someone who is actually ahead. Its a pet peeve of mine in multiplayer games, when someone performs an action that is NOT optimal for them AND it helps someone else who is already ahead. Hidden VPs in Smallworld tend to make this happen fairly frequently.

[Naurgul]

Best casual game: Dixit.

Indeed. Everyone I have played it with that plays it once always wants a second go. It really is pretty nice. I was glad to see that it doesn't wane too fast with subsequent plays even as everyone knows all the cards. Already thinking about getting an expansion and that's pretty telling since I don't normally buy expansions for boardgames.

Edit: Oh wait, I replied to a comment from 2010?

[Izawwlgood]

I got Dixit about a month ago, and have found it's a great conversation game, more so if you require people give at least 5 word descriptions, and don't keep score very diligently. I want to pick up the expansion, because I've seen all the cards so often.

[Gojoe]

I am only just getting into board gaming. I have a few that I love but would love someone to recommend me more. Just so you know my current taste in games. I have and love the following

Betrayal at House on the Hill - This is my board game group's goto game. We love it and play it every week with out fail
Arkham Horror - We only just got this and only had time to play most of one game. So far we like it... although we suck at it.
Dominion - Not really a board game but screw it. I love this game and think it is awesome
HeroQuest - We really dig this game. We play it most weeks when time allows.

So the main theme of games we love all have to do with co-op (besides Dominion). I hear great things about the Battlestar Galactica game. Can anyone articulate to me why it is good? Any other co-op games we should look at getting?

[Izawwlgood]

I played Puerto Rico this last weekend, and really enjoyed it. It's very similar to Race for the Galaxy, but requiring more planning ahead.

[SecondTalon]

I am only just getting into board gaming. I have a few that I love but would love someone to recommend me more. Just so you know my current taste in games. I have and love the following

Betrayal at House on the Hill - This is my board game group's goto game. We love it and play it every week with out fail
Arkham Horror - We only just got this and only had time to play most of one game. So far we like it... although we suck at it.
Dominion - Not really a board game but screw it. I love this game and think it is awesome
HeroQuest - We really dig this game. We play it most weeks when time allows.

So the main theme of games we love all have to do with co-op (besides Dominion). I hear great things about the Battlestar Galactica game. Can anyone articulate to me why it is good? Any other co-op games we should look at getting?

If the D&D Lite experience is your thing, Descent is nifty. They also make Official Branded Dungeons and Dragons randomized board games (There's a basic generic one and a Ravenloft horrorish one, I forget if there's more).

[Aiea]

I know my group likes Pandemic, you really have to work together in that game to get a chance of winning.

Hrm, I can also recomend boardgamegeek.com, great place to look up board games and see what other games people suggest based on games you like.

[Vaniver]

If the D&D Lite experience is your thing, Descent is nifty. They also make Official Branded Dungeons and Dragons randomized board games (There's a basic generic one and a Ravenloft horrorish one, I forget if there's more).

Specifically, it's tactical combat with fantasy heroes, where one player plays the dungeon. It takes about ~3 hours, and typically there's a dungeon with ~4 fights, culminating in a boss.

It can be quite fun, but it's the distillation of the parts of the D&D experience I don't like all that much, so my opinion of it is a bit lower than I imagine what the average gamer's would be.

[emceng]

I played Puerto Rico this last weekend, and really enjoyed it. It's very similar to Race for the Galaxy, but requiring more planning ahead.

I have both of these, and have never played a game of either.

[Izawwlgood]

That sucks.

[rrwoods]

Just played Race for the Galaxy this weekend. Not a bad game.

[Aiea]

I still think Spank the Monkey is one of the best card games ever... I still need to get my hands on a copy.

[Izawwlgood]

Just played Race for the Galaxy this weekend. Not a bad game.

I have the base game, and want to play the expansions. I think the game has a lot of promise in terms of expansions. I personally would have liked to see better synergy with stuff, instead of just 'have production planets, have trade cards'. When I play Dominion, I usually end up running card chains that take me 10+ cards deeper into my deck; you can't really do that in Race.

[SecondTalon]

If the D&D Lite experience is your thing, Descent is nifty. They also make Official Branded Dungeons and Dragons randomized board games (There's a basic generic one and a Ravenloft horrorish one, I forget if there's more).

Specifically, it's tactical combat with fantasy heroes, where one player plays the dungeon. It takes about ~3 hours, and typically there's a dungeon with ~4 fights, culminating in a boss.

It can be quite fun, but it's the distillation of the parts of the D&D experience I don't like all that much, so my opinion of it is a bit lower than I imagine what the average gamer's would be.

Indeed. But Heroquest is on the list, which is why I brought them up. They're similar enough games in that regard.

[Izawwlgood]

I have a couple friends that I play boardgames with, who would probably be interested in a D&D lite game. Is Hero Quest a good place to start? More complex than Arkham Horror, less complex than rolling up characters?

[SecondTalon]

Well, the hard part will be tracking down a copy if you don't already have one... but yeah, it's D&D Lite, even more so than the D&D Board Game (from what I recall of the hours I spent with HeroQuest and the session or two with the D&D Ravenloft game). There are rules for character progression, you spend the money you make on each stage/level/board in buying equipment that gives you healing or more damage dice or whatever, and there's a coherent (if incredibly simple) story that connects the various stages.

Descent:Journey into Darkness is actually what I'd suggest over HeroQuest. More streamlined rules, more than four characters to play, and so on. It's in the same vein as HeroQuest, just all souped up and faster to learn.

But in both cases, there's no character rolling. You have a card with your stats on it, and the rest of it you can keep track with by cards, tokens, or a piece of paper or something.

[JudeMorrigan]

I hear great things about the Battlestar Galactica game. Can anyone articulate to me why it is good? Any other co-op games we should look at getting?

BSG is one of the few modern board games I've played, so I can't compare it to much of anything else, but it is pretty awesome. The key mechanic is that loyalty cards randomly chosen at the start of the game (and then another round at about the halfway point). Based on the total number of players, anywhere from 0-2 players will be Cylons and actually be working against the rest of the players. The tricky part, of course, is doing so without being caught before you want to be caught. And casting aspersions on other players in the process, of course. (The actual contents of players' loyalty cards are only revealed under very specific circumstances.) If you have a good group of players, it makes for a nice dynamic full of paranoia a cheerful backstabbing.

[Jack21222]

A classmate of mine is getting me into board games. He heavily modifies some board games, such as Puerto Rico, Catan, and Arkham Horror. I enjoy Puerto Rico, but he's got me completely addicted to Arkham, to the point where I just placed an order on Amazon for the base game.

[Coin]

Well, the hard part will be tracking down a copy if you don't already have one... but yeah, it's D&D Lite, even more so than the D&D Board Game (from what I recall of the hours I spent with HeroQuest and the session or two with the D&D Ravenloft game). There are rules for character progression, you spend the money you make on each stage/level/board in buying equipment that gives you healing or more damage dice or whatever, and there's a coherent (if incredibly simple) story that connects the various stages.

Descent:Journey into Darkness is actually what I'd suggest over HeroQuest. More streamlined rules, more than four characters to play, and so on. It's in the same vein as HeroQuest, just all souped up and faster to learn.

But in both cases, there's no character rolling. You have a card with your stats on it, and the rest of it you can keep track with by cards, tokens, or a piece of paper or something.

I found that after playing though a couple of adventures of Hero Quest with persistent characters you quickly reached a level where there was no more character progress. Fortunately our GM invented some items for us to strive for to last us through the last couple of stages, otherwise I think we would have become a bit bored.

[ConMan]

Just played Race for the Galaxy this weekend. Not a bad game.

I have the base game, and want to play the expansions. I think the game has a lot of promise in terms of expansions. I personally would have liked to see better synergy with stuff, instead of just 'have production planets, have trade cards'. When I play Dominion, I usually end up running card chains that take me 10+ cards deeper into my deck; you can't really do that in Race.

Only 10? Ha, I laugh on your measly combos. You should see the dirty looks I get when I play Throne Room and Golem. And pull out a +cards card which nets me another Golem, which I use with the Throne Room that also popped out.

As for co-op games, Pandemic is great as long as you don't mind losing a lot - and then add the "On the Brink" expansion to add a traitor to the mix as well as some even nastier diseases that make it even more necessary that you work as a team. Forbidden Island is nice for quick games, and depending on where you set the starting marker at it isn't always quite so mean to the players. Shadows over Camelot is also pretty interesting, and has the traitor mechanic, but it's a much bigger game so you need some time available.

[Izawwlgood]

Only 10? Ha, I laugh on your measly combos.

Yeah, I'm refining my strategy from simply chaining actions together to accumulate bazillions more actions, to actually building Victory cards and Treasure cards. Nothing more annoying than finishing a game with a deck twice the size of everyone elses, but half the VPs.

As for co-op games, Pandemic is great as long as you don't mind losing a lot

The annoying thing about Pandemic is how difficulty is almost directly related to the number of players; more players makes the game harder, because getting like colored city cards in the right hand becomes trickier. I've had success playing with one other person and all six Epidemic cards and the mutant strain, but died horribly with four players and only 3 epidemics and no mutant strain. Obviously some of that is how well you all work together, but still, I don't feel the game scales very reasonably with more players.

What was that other deck building game with the medieval fantasy slant? Runesomething?

[ConMan]

Only 10? Ha, I laugh on your measly combos.

Yeah, I'm refining my strategy from simply chaining actions together to accumulate bazillions more actions, to actually building Victory cards and Treasure cards. Nothing more annoying than finishing a game with a deck twice the size of everyone elses, but half the VPs.

Haha, true. I would say, though, that the two most useful things are +2 Actions and +1 Buy. The first because all the good stuff (particularly Attack cards) don't replenish their own action, so you can't chain them unless you've got multiple +Actions. The second because, particularly near the end of the game, you will often find yourself in posession of lots of coin, often more than enough to buy a Province, and it's extremely handy to have an extra Buy to spend the change. With the right sets (e.g. Treasure Map + Tactician) you might even be able to afford two Provinces.

[ConMan]

As for co-op games, Pandemic is great as long as you don't mind losing a lot

The annoying thing about Pandemic is how difficulty is almost directly related to the number of players; more players makes the game harder, because getting like colored city cards in the right hand becomes trickier. I've had success playing with one other person and all six Epidemic cards and the mutant strain, but died horribly with four players and only 3 epidemics and no mutant strain. Obviously some of that is how well you all work together, but still, I don't feel the game scales very reasonably with more players.

I don't disagree with you there. I think 4 players is a fair number that gives both sides a decent chance of winning. In one two hour session, we played two games. In the first, we had a bad run of Epidemics that blew up the diseases beyond what we could possibly manage, and we lost within about 15 minutes. In the second, things were definitely touch-and-go for most of it, but it all fell together in the end and we finally beat the noxious plagues. A lot of co-op games seem to have that problem, though - Forbidden Island is the same, and I don't recommend it for more than 4 players. Still, even with competitive board games more than 4 players is usually not great, especially if there's a turn order since the first few players tend to get a headstart that is often hard to compensate for.

[Gopher of Pern]

I also agree with the 4-5 player mark being the best for most games. Usually there simply is not capability for more/less, and others don't scale too well.

I also recommend Pandemic. Played a couple of games this weekend, and the second simply came down to not having enough cards to cure the last disease. We had no cubes on the board at all, but could not get 5 cars into anyones hand to cure the yellow fever. We spent too much time eradicating the black plague and the blue flu.

Arkham Horror is another excellent co-op game. I haven't yet lost a game of it, though we did let Yig out, but we thought that would be easier than closing the gates, so we gladly let it come out, so we could kick his sorry behind!

Battlestar Galactica I played for the first time on the weekend, and I loved it. It is co-op, but with a traitor. The traitors were screwed in the game we played, as there were none in the first round, and we jumped 6 distance in the first 2 goes, so it really wasn't difficult for the humans. Still fun!

If you want a time-limited problem solving co-op game, Space Alert is great, but gets very confusing with 5 players. You are piloting a spaceship, which has 10 minutes to scan the sector before warping out. You need to make sure that the ship stays alive, despite all the fighters, battleships and commandos the game sends after you. Its fairly chaotic, as everyone tries to do everything within the 10 min time limit.

[ConMan]

I had a quick look at Space Alert, and it definitely looks like an interesting mechanic - the use of a CD to present the timed scenario is reminiscent of the old Nightmare/Atmosfear game which came with a video (that I always wanted to play, but never did). Unfortunately, at the board games club at work it would be hard to play one of these games since there are other games going on (I suppose you could switch to the printed scenario card, but where's the fun in that?)

[mister k]

On dominion, if you get a bit excited about combo decks (which are fun to build, I admit), I would strongly recommend trying out big money: Buy nothing but money (except one smithy equivalent) then provinces, then, when provinces go down to about half, buy duchys, then when provinces are around 3/4 left, buy estates too (the duchy/estate strategy is one one should follow for pretty much every deck). Big money will beat an extraordinary number of decks, and can be a little humbling to play against. You need to be more efficient than a deck full of money, basically.

[Izawwlgood]

All treasure is a really effective strategy, more so with Prosperity, but you of course run into the issue of putting 4 gold's in a hand being all 'Awww shit'.