The Boardgame Thread

[Samwise]

Yeah, that chart also puts Catan in the "complicated" branch.  I've played that game with seven year olds.  Maybe I just know really smart seven year olds.   

[eldaec]

It has hexagons and pieces of wood. As explained in the other thread it is only for hipster euro lovers. Or something.

[Nevermore]

I guess that makes Survive complicated, too.

[Rendakor]

Finally played Ticket to Ride. Pretty good; it's simple enough that I can probably get non-geek family members to have a go at it too. Are any of the expansions worth buying?

Also played Boss Monster, which was not great. Not enough decision points other than the order you arrange your cards; on the bright side, I didn't buy this one so nothing lost but a few hours.

[grebo]

Finally played Ticket to Ride. Pretty good; it's simple enough that I can probably get non-geek family members to have a go at it too. Are any of the expansions worth buying?

Also played Boss Monster, which was not great. Not enough decision points other than the order you arrange your cards; on the bright side, I didn't buy this one so nothing lost but a few hours.

If you played the US board, all the expansion boards are much better games.

[Rendakor]

US is what I played, yes. We will be trying Europe next week, Asia at some point later. Is each expansion just a new board to be played with the same rules, or do you play with multiple boards at the same time?

[Hawkbit]

The 1910 expansion for the US version of TTR is a must-have.  I find the extra rules/functions of the Europe set to be a bit fiddly.  Not unplayable or anything, but the base US game w/1910 is nearly perfect. 

Machi Koro.  I want to like it, but it's too RNG based.  Poor rolls really go against a player and make it hard to come back.  Thumbs up for art, thumbs down for randomness.   

I really disliked Small World as a board game because of all the fiddly un-fun tiles, but as an iPad game it's great!  Perfect for pass and play.

[eldaec]

All the boards are fine, but Europe is probably the most popular, US the least, I really like Switzerland for 2 players.

You only play one board at a time, they all have different combinations of rules for drawing tickets, using locomotives, stations, tunnels, ferries etc.

[schild]

Finally played Ticket to Ride. Pretty good; it's simple enough that I can probably get non-geek family members to have a go at it too. Are any of the expansions worth buying?

Also played Boss Monster, which was not great. Not enough decision points other than the order you arrange your cards; on the bright side, I didn't buy this one so nothing lost but a few hours.

If you played the US board, all the expansion boards are much better games.

Well, there's a caveat. US Big Cities is the best 2 player map for a rousing game of cutthroat Ticket to Crush.

[lamaros]

I traded away Kemet for Claustrophobia the other week. Best thing I've ever done. Claustrophobia is a fun, simple, fast and yet skillful two player battle with a lot of scenarios and a decent theme.

Kemet is everything that's wrong with Eurogames without the stuff that is good, squashed in to thematic clothing.

I highly recommend Claustrophobia. Bought the expansion after my second play, and I hear it makes the game even more betterer.

[jgsugden]

Second on Claustrophobia - good game.  My biggest problem is the size of the box - and if that is your biggest problem with a game, it is a good game.

[lamaros]

Yeah its a stupidly shaped box, however the insert is nice.

I need to get 1775 played, its just sitting on the shelf taunting me.

[eldaec]

Reluctantly tried Coup Guatemala last night.

I'm not much of a fan of regular Coup (hidden role game, claim a role - use its power - get challenged and lose a life if it turns out you don't have that role, or amass enough money to 'coup' a player and knock them out). The basic roles never do anything all that interesting and the whole game is staring at players to work out if they are lying about something neither of you really care about. I'm also not much of a fan of Mascarade, which is coup with swingy powers, a few more roles to choose from, and a mechanic where you often end up swapping roles without being allowed to look at your new role. Mascarade is too much chaos and bullshit for me - and I'm a big fan of both chaos and bullshit.

Guatemala has the basic mechanics of coup, but you randomly choose the 5 roles you play with from a deck of 25 options. The abilities are as cleanly presented as Coup, but just a notch more interesting, so they combine to add just a little more chaos and a lot more thinking as each game you need to work out the benefits of claiming roles in combination. There are almost always a choice of good but very different options on your turn and it doesn't spiral into zero information guesswork.

It is great. Left me convinced that there is no place left for regular Coup in a well ordered universe, and reminded me that hidden roles does not have to be purely about lying or about how bullshit just happens.

[lamaros]

I don't mind but don't really like Coup, and Mascarade has always fallen flat for me, I'd looked at that but decided it wouldn't add much to Coup. Might have to look again.

[Samwise]

Tried Citadels?  I think that's my favorite hidden role game.

[Ghambit]

Citadel's great for a pocket-game, but overpriced and lacking unless you play with the now typically included xpac.

[lamaros]

Not a fan of Citadels.

[grebo]

Tried Citadels?  I think that's my favorite hidden role game.

Citadels is often painful to play when you can't win because you got randomly assassinated or stolen from.  IME the winner is always whoever managed to dodge the knife best.

[Samwise]

Well yes, that's like 90% of the game.  Figuring out whose back the knife is going to be in, and then not being that person.     Way less random than Mascarade IMO; so much more of the game is reading your opponents and figuring out who's going to pull the assassin, who they're going to try to target, and what they think that person is going to try to pull.  It's Nth-level-deep "you thought that I knew that he thought she knew that" and I love it for that.

[lamaros]

I don't really like Bruno's games, for me they take simple games and make them more complex and 'gamey', without adding any real depth. If I want a simple game I want it to be simple and elegant, like Love Letter or Coup or Skull, or I want it to have a little more depth, like For Sale or The Resistance. Bruno's games just don't hit the right point on the spectrum for me.

[grebo]

Well yes, that's like 90% of the game.  Figuring out whose back the knife is going to be in, and then not being that person.     Way less random than Mascarade IMO; so much more of the game is reading your opponents and figuring out who's going to pull the assassin, who they're going to try to target, and what they think that person is going to try to pull.  It's Nth-level-deep "you thought that I knew that he thought she knew that" and I love it for that.

It does sound nice in theory and that premise is why I own it.  But it's never played that way for me.  If I win it's always because I managed to avoid being stabbed.  Losing an entire turn is just not something you can recover from usually.

[Lucas]

Re-posting here, in case someone hasn't read the topic in the PC Gaming/Console area:

Humble Bundle - Digital Card Games:

https://www.humblebundle.com/

Regarding Star Realms, my initial impressions are so and so: I still have to try out Ascension (would like to buy the digital version on the PC, but I read it's quite a shoddy port), so I can't compare, but while I like the "barebones" and essential approach of SR, I'm not sure I appreciate the "escalation" and accumulation of damage it provides, or rather, its quick pace. Maybe it's unfair to compare it to Dominion with all its expansions, but even the initial impact of the Dominion base set was way more positive for me (and, while the mechanics are vastly different, Seasons is head and shoulders above anything else at the moment)

[Bunk]

Played Lords of Vegas this weekend. Interesting game, worked well for my rather cutthroat group. Felt a little reminiscent of Acquire. Fairly simple, but interesting strategies especially in trading. A fair bit of randomness in it, but it seemed appropriate with the Vegas theme.

[Sky]

I just bought Imperial Assault, mostly because I want to paint the miniatures.

[Soln]

I just bought Imperial Assault, mostly because I want to paint the miniatures.

So jealous.  Thinking about it. And would love the minis painted.

[eldaec]

Played my first full 4 player run at XCOM this evening.

The game is an asymmetric roles co-op with players taking different departments in xcom (ground forces, science, interceptors & finance, satellites and comms). The gimmick is that each round is split into a strictly timed phase, where you assign resources (about 10 to 20 seconds do per decision)  at the same time as slowly learning more about alien attacks. Then the resolution phase you roll dice to work out if your decisions were good.

The game is driven by a tablet app that takes you through each phase and manages the alien attack plan.

Core design is great, the app introduces time pressure to prevent alpha player issues and to limit the amount of analysis you can possibly do, while also giving the aliens just enough AI so they really pile on any weaknesses in your defences. Pacing is a real strength, the cycle of stress in the timed phase and strategising in the resolution phase works well, and the snowballing threat of the aliens builds threat perfectly. The table all reported being throughly exhausted at the end of it.

But there are issues. The comms/satellite role could really use a few more decisions to make, and the ending can feel a bit flat after the great build up it is given.  However,  as a basic framework I think this is a huge step forward over games like Eldritch/Arkham Horror, really interested to see how the ideas in xcom get developed either in expansions or other titles.

[murdoc]

I finally started playing 'Lords of Waterdeep' and am loving that game. Just a well put together product that is easy to pick up and play with friends. Really enjoyed it.

While at PAX I played Billionaire Banshee at a pub with a bunch of strangers and had a lot of fun with it. Much more clever than CAH since it relies on each individual explaining their choices, which lead to a lot of hilarity even with complete strangers.

[Sky]

I just bought Imperial Assault, mostly because I want to paint the miniatures.

So jealous.  Thinking about it. And would love the minis painted.

I know a guy who is a commission painter and I largely blame him for my purchase because he was posting pics of his work on an IA commission. https://www.facebook.com/GuildPaintingService/photos_stream

[jgsugden]

I finally started playing 'Lords of Waterdeep' and am loving that game. Just a well put together product that is easy to pick up and play with friends. Really enjoyed it.
...

My only problem is the transparent and fairly fixed economy.  I think the Skullport expansion and corruption add a really good element to the game 9although the other 'expansion' in the Skullport/Undermountain box is just adding higher priced cards...

[lamaros]

Lords of Water deep is too euro for me.

Casually thinking about the ten games I own that I'd most want to play, I'd go with:

Railways of the World
Rex
Chaos in the Old World
Dominare
Claustrophobia
Letters from Whitechapel
For Sale
The Resistance
Tamanny Hall
Battlelore/Chicago Express/Archipelago (hard to decide)

I annoyingly have a few games still unplayed on my shelf: Great Fire of London, War of the Ring, Acquire, Conquest of Nerath, 1775, Nexus Ops, and Earth Reborn. I can't see the last one happening any time soon but I need to get in to the others. If anyone loves them give me the extra motivation by saying what I'm missing out on.

[schild]

Lords of Waterdeep is too euro but Tammany Hall isn't?

[lamaros]

Tammany Hall has a lot of conflict. Its not very Euro at all in that regard.

[eldaec]

I always find non-conflict a weird way to define euros. Sort of implies Agricola is Ameritrash while Arkham Horror is Euro - which is clearly crazy. As far as I'm concerned, if the fun is in the mechanics rather than the theme, it's a euro.

[lamaros]

I don't think they're necessarily ends of a spectrum. Tammany Hall isn't either.

I don't mind a lot of euro games, its a poor generalization. However not many get their hooks in. What I really don't like is the player board, mostly solitaire, ten ways to score point, arbitrary feeling ones.

[Morat20]

I'm considering picking up several games using some stashed Amazon cards -- mostly a mix of "for family trips -- in laws and such" and "for gaming friends" sort of stuff.

For family:
1) Love Letter
2) Carcassone
3) Masquerade
4) Dixit
5) Pandemic
6) Bang

For the more gamer focused:
1) Galaxy Truckers
2) Cosmic Encounters
3) The Resistance: Avalon
4) Game of Thrones
5) Tales of Arabia.


Kinda torn on which to get out of that massive list. I'm almost certain to get Galaxy Truckers and Love Letter, mostly because I think Galaxy Trucker works for both groups and Love Letter seems perfect for my less game playing family. (My in-laws are particularly fond of matching and bluffing games). Carcassone I've played on PC and think is just rather fun and Dixit seems like a game I should have played just somehow never did. (Especially since my wife teaches English and Creative Writing. I'm shocked she doesn't already own it).

Any thoughts?