The Boardgame Thread

[Lucas]

So, today me and my father played our first game ever of "Twilight Struggle"; we started around 7pm and finished about 45 mins. ago....and that is midnight CET 

I'm still ecstatic about the whole thing, it was an absolute blast, fantastic game. Beside the "new" feeling I really enjoyed the atmosphere the cards and the inherent game mechanics create, so that you really can replicate the "chess games" of that era.
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Now, as newbies, we didn't employ particular mid-long term strategies; game ended on my....3rd action round of Turn 6, when, as USSR, I got domination in Africa, played the Africa point card, and reached  20 victory points. Before, my father didn't push enough in Europe (although it's quite difficult to make progress in Europe, as expected), while I almost got Control of the Middle East in between Turn 3-4; Turn 5 was us going back and forth in SE Asia; but, at that point, I played a card as an event that let you place some points of influence in any Africa nation, and thought "why not" (especially with all those contested nations with 1 value)? It proved a good investement because on Turn 6 I got lucky with the draw and obtained the Africa card.

It's really a game that you have to taste slowly if you want to appreciate it at its fullest, especially if you like the theme. In fact, we plan to avoid any burnout and pick it up only every once in a while.

[luckton]

Started going to a local board game night at a local coffee cafe.  Played a game I had never heard nor played before, Navegador.  An economic game of ship building, exploration, and trade, the game has you representing a trade union bent on accumulating as many victory points as you can through aforementioned avenues. 

While the other players went about exploring and colonizing in order to sell goods and stake claims, I stayed back home and John Galt'ed it through buying out as many factories as I could, flood the market when goods were rare through the other player's colony sales, built churches to lull in cheap workers that allowed me to expand my factory empire even more, wash, rinse repeat.  The guy who thought he had everything in the bag through shipbuilding and exploration couldn't hold a candle to my capitalistic iron fist!

Definitely recommended, 5 stars, would play again 

[Goldenmean]

You should check out the other Rondel games if you liked Navegador, though I think that Imperial might be the only one reliably in print at this point. They all use the same core mechanic. Hamburgum and Antike are the others. I think there might even be an app for Imperial, if that sort of thing floats your boat.

[Lucas]

Yesterday evening, after another session of Lords of Waterdeep (I like it more and more as a "mid sized" filler), I've played my first game of Concordia .

While I started to really understand what was goin on toward the end of the game (and, by that time, it was almost 3 AM :P), I must say that I enjoyed it, no matter the fact that is definitely not my favourite theme and genre; probably, the addition of cards (and how they specifically work) contributed to my overall enjoyment.  Scoring system at the end is also very nice.

Tutorial and review by Tom Vasel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEH8nOyFQgw
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One notable thing: I go at my local boardgaming club alone, meaning that I meet and know new people as I go each time; so, for now, it's basically PUGs for me (with a mix of people I already played with once and other totally unknown), to use a MMO expression   .

Well, yesterday, both the games were won by a person who is...I think about 60 years old, but more toward the 70s   :respect:

[Soln]

I have Concordia, LeHavre and others coming soon from CSI.  But STILL waiting on my copy of Caverna from CSI even though it's now available elsewhere. /fidget

Playing a lot of Guildhall with the SO lately.  It's a set collection game that's quite fast with a bit of take-that.  The Job Faire expansion has more player interaction, but feels like it takes a bit more time to pick up.  Also Parade because the cards are lovely. /singsong

[Lucas]

Today I played a 4-player game of Kingsburg (without the expansion, but I've ordered it) and I definitely enjoyed it for what it is: a more than decent filler game for non hardcore boardgamers, that is usually successful when you bring it to a casual gaming group like my girlfriend and two of our friends, so that's a nice plus when you have to start some kind of "rotation" of games with a non experienced group (or without a certain amount of attention span).

Then I finally managed to play Dominion with the "Seaside" expansion: I heard good things about it, and I must say that it surely adds a bit more interaction and varied mechanics (although I'm not a huge fan of the "embargo" card). Dragged it quite a bit because me and my SO were quite rusty at it.

[Soln]

Seiji Kanai has a Kickstarter.  Monies given.  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/465607340/gods-gambit

[schild]

I love Seiji Kanai, so much so that I've imported 3 of his games not released here.

He does some arcane shit in them, so I want to see the rules before throwing money at him.

[Soln]

What service did you use?  Amazon.jp?

[schild]

I use my friend that lives in Gifu and works 2 blocks from the game store he prototypes in. Needless to say, they stock everything.

[schild]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/559431060/twilight-struggle-digital-edition

BUY IT ($30 level best value)

[Soln]

Well that was easy.

[Shannow]

 pffft play it on cyberboard.

On a more serious note, yay Playdek! If you haven't played Lords of Waterdeep on Ipad yet you should. It f'ing rocks.

[lamaros]

I'll just wait until the digital edition is actually out, then pay half price a month later, thanks.

[schild]

A couple things:

1. This is one of those cases where I'm going to attack you for waiting for a sale. GMT is maybe the most loving and nicest game manufacturer in board gaming. Did you know, during the recent depression, if you lost your job any time during it, they'd mail you two games for free to fill up your spare time with not being shitty? I was laid off and got Virgin Queen and Dominant Species for free. No questions asked, 2-day shipped to me. That's like $150 in games, for NOTHING. Also the dude was maybe the nicest guy on the planet. So much so that we were chatting today about the Kickstarter and CONTINUED to be nice even though the Kickstarter was born out of the previous developer failing at making it right.

2. Playdek puts more love and care into digital conversions of their card games so much that I wish they were making Hex.

3. Twilight Struggle is perhaps the best game ever played.

tl;dr: Give them the full amount, if anyone deserves it, they do.

[Chimpy]

I finally got to play Letters from Whitechapel with friends last night. Took a while but it was fun. Thanks to everyone who recommended it years ago in this thread that made me decide to look for it and grab it when I got a chance.

[Thrawn]

A couple things:

1. This is one of those cases where I'm going to attack you for waiting for a sale. GMT is maybe the most loving and nicest game manufacturer in board gaming. Did you know, during the recent depression, if you lost your job any time during it, they'd mail you two games for free to fill up your spare time with not being shitty? I was laid off and got Virgin Queen and Dominant Species for free. No questions asked, 2-day shipped to me. That's like $150 in games, for NOTHING. Also the dude was maybe the nicest guy on the planet. So much so that we were chatting today about the Kickstarter and CONTINUED to be nice even though the Kickstarter was born out of the previous developer failing at making it right.

2. Playdek puts more love and care into digital conversions of their card games so much that I wish they were making Hex.

3. Twilight Struggle is perhaps the best game ever played.

tl;dr: Give them the full amount, if anyone deserves it, they do.

This is why I now own Labyrinth, Space Empires and Sekigahara.  I don't know if any of them will ever see the table, but GMT had a buy up to three at half off sale, so I just picked three highly rated GMT games off of BGG that I didn't own and ordered them pretty much just to support GMT.

[schild]

I need to pick up Sekigahara. It's supposed to be so fucking good.

[Lucas]

Thanks for the heads-up, Schild.  Backed (and all of you should do the same, really) !!

[eldaec]

Been playing a lot of Carcassonne and Small World with the GF and a few others as a gateway drug. Looking for recommendations on games to pick up which take the complexity up just a notch, but aren't going to involve a 30 page rules novella?

They have to work in two player, recommendations very welcome.

[Hawkbit]

Thunderstone.  I haven't played it.

Dice Tower claimed a few months ago that Thunderstone "killed" Dominion.  I've played Dominion and liked the game, but not the theme.  I've played PACG and liked the theme and persistence of character, but not the game.   

How does Thunderstone compare to these games and why would Dice Tower claim that it's overall better than Dominion?

[schild]

Everyone I know that has played Thunderstone called it bad Magic. It's been around for a long, long time relative to most games.

[Samwise]

I have Thunderstone and would say it's more like Dominion meets Munchkin.  There's a deckbuilding aspect like Dominion, but in addition to building up stuff in the town for economic development you're building heroes that you can play to defeat monsters in a dungeon.  Defeated monsters go into your deck and provide victory points; they also give you XP that you can use to upgrade your heroes.

I actually prefer Dominion because it plays more smoothly.  Thunderstone has a lot of "everyone wait while I count up all these complicated modifiers and figure out if I can beat this monster with these heroes".  That aside it's a fun game, but if you already have Dominion I personally wouldn't recommend getting Thunderstone on top of that unless you've "beaten" Dominion and want something that's very much like it but different.

[Goldenmean]

Pretty much what Samwise said. Thunderstone is really nothing like Magic. It's a deck builder, not a CCG. The only similarity is the fantasy theme.

I agree with preferring Dominion as well. It's a much cleaner game. Thunderstone has a problem where you're trying to do too many things with your deck at once. It feels like many hands are useless because you've got a few cards that are used to buy things in the village, and a few cards that are used to fight things in the dungeon, but not enough of either to actually accomplish anything.

If you want to take a look at it without much investment, it's online at Yucata It is enjoyable, and I own all of it, but it's a second tier game. Like Samwise said, if you love deckbuilders and want a new pseudo-Dominion or you love sword and sorcery and want it in deckbuilder form, it's worth a look.

[schild]

This is good to hear, as the only descriptions I'd heard of it was "It's really shitty Magic."

[eldaec]

This weekend we moved onto pandemic.

Which was a solid teaching tool for transferable concepts like 'giving a shit what cards are in discard piles', 'don't spend that event if you can spend it later at no less benefit', and 'only the last HP/outbreak matters, so play to the win condition'.

The other thing we all learned is that we are not as smart as a pile of cardboard.

[lamaros]

Don't try Ghost Stories, that one is tough to win solo, let alone when in a group with people making sub-optimal moves.

[Goldenmean]

Alternately, *do* try Ghost Stories if you want a genuinely brutal cooperative. I think only Space Alert really matches it for difficulty, and a lot of that might be because of Space Alert's real time nature. I'm generally of the opinion that cooperatives should soundly thrash you the first several times you play though.

[schild]

Ghost Stories is unfun, comlpetely unfair, and solvable. Three things which make for a shitty but overrated cult-esque game.

Just a gross wreck that requires everyone on the "team" put in too much effort.

[lamaros]

Indeed. I was diverted for a short while solving it on iPad, but I'd never play it as a game. I like my games to be games, not puzzles with reasons to get frustrated with those I'm playing with built in.

[Thrawn]

Ghost Stories is unfun, comlpetely unfair, and solvable. Three things which make for a shitty but overrated cult-esque game.

Just a gross wreck that requires everyone on the "team" put in too much effort.

Agreed, agreed, agreed and agreed.  It actually kept me from going to my local game shop a few weeks because it was the game everyone wanted to play every time, and I didn't care for it after one play.

[Soln]

I've been playing Summoner Wars on the Kindle and I can't figure out what all the hoopla is about.  The opening army I've found hard to beat (Phoenix Elves vs Tundra Orcs) and while I think there is an Ok game in there... man...  The art style is High School Nouveau and it feels like an abbreviated MtG starter deck with pseudo minis.  Ill keep playing for the sake of variety.  Anyone able to comment?

[schild]

I dislike it. But I dislike most games. Sooooo.

[Goldenmean]

Summoner Wars is fine. It's not great. The art is definitely bad, but it has some things I like, mostly the variety of factions. Most factions are very distinct and at this point there's 16 of them, and I think almost all of them now have a choice of summoners and units, so there's some minimal deck construction on top of the tactical game itself.

Anyway, it's not in my top 10, or probably even my top 100, but it's a quick, light thematic tactical two player game, and I don't have a ton of those. I could get my girlfriend to play this, whereas I wouldn't even attempt to teach her Mage Wars, which is a better game with better art, but also a much larger time and mental resources investment.

[Onoes]

This weekend we moved onto pandemic.

Which was a solid teaching tool for transferable concepts like 'giving a shit what cards are in discard piles', 'don't spend that event if you can spend it later at no less benefit', and 'only the last HP/outbreak matters, so play to the win condition'.

The other thing we all learned is that we are not as smart as a pile of cardboard.

I just picked up Pandemic and its been a huge hit.  In the last 2 weeks I've ended up playing it with like 13 people, and everyone is clamoring to play it more.  Bit the bullet and ordered both expansions already.  Simple, fun game, even when you lose. :)