The Boardgame Thread

[Rendakor]

Picked up Splendor at the FLGS over the weekend; it plays pretty good even with 2 players or with 4, which is nice. It's not too cutthroat so the wife doesn't mind playing 1v1. I don't really care for the theme because it isn't really present; the blue/yellow/green cards have random different pictures on them indicating that they're mines or boats or artisans or whatever but they're functionally identical. Otherwise, good game and one that will last in our rotation; it gets bonus points for being quick to setup and play.

[Hawkbit]

Splendor has turned out to be one of my favorite games for all the reasons you mentioned. It's more than a microgame, but it's simple enough to teach someone in a couple rounds of play. Yet there's enough randomness through the tableau that each game feels different. Bonus points for the heavy tokens!

[Sky]

Btw Warlords should release this summer.

CAVE EVIL We are looking at a summer release. Not exactly sure what date, but in the summer season. Just want to be sure all is solid.
Like · Reply · 1 · May 7 at 9:10pm

[schild]

Ugh, I am so excited to have a proper place to play this shit when Fall comes around.

[Hawkbit]

The best thing about HeroQuest is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx8sl2uC46A

Good for a reminiscent chuckle or two.

[Sky]

For folks not wanting to drop $400 on a board game, Kingdom Death: Monster has been split into a three (?) components: $100 base game, $175 a box of monsters and $25 box of starter survivors. Not sure about the armor sets and whatnot (I'm guessing that's the other $100?). But for $100 it's an awesome game if you don't mind playing with proxies or thimbles or whatever.

[Teleku]

Splendor has turned out to be one of my favorite games for all the reasons you mentioned. It's more than a microgame, but it's simple enough to teach someone in a couple rounds of play. Yet there's enough randomness through the tableau that each game feels different. Bonus points for the heavy tokens!

Oh man, I'd probably pay triple the price if it actually came with glass gems instead of the tokens.  Looks interesting!

[Arinon]

I picked up Splendor about a month ago and it's great.  Works as a nice palette cleanser for adults and even the younger kids grasped it right away and loved it.

[Teleku]

Heh, and just so happens as I mention the gems, saw this kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fantasycoinhq/fantasy-coin-legacy-gaming-coins/description

They even call the gem set the "Splendid Set".  Looks like you can get all the right colors and types for Splendor.  HMMMMMM.

[lamaros]

I played Indonesia and it was great. Now I'm very happy to have preordered the new printing.

[Ragnoros]

Boardgame sale on Amazon today. Got Cosmic Encounter for $30 and Sheriff of Nottingham for $18. Couple other goodies on there, but also many that are the everyday 15-20% Amazon discount.

[Chimpy]

Castles of Burgundy is a great game and well worth the sale price if it is still available.

[Soln]

Where are these?  Under Daily Deals?

[Rendakor]

I'm thinking about either Tigris & Euphrates or Kingdom Builder. Any thoughts on either/both? Looking for something similar to Catan.

Also, how's King of Tokyo?

[Goldenmean]

I'm thinking about either Tigris & Euphrates or Kingdom Builder. Any thoughts on either/both? Looking for something similar to Catan.

Also, how's King of Tokyo?

Kingdom Builder is probably a bit closer to Catan than Tigris & Euphrates is. They're both good games. T&E is more of an abstract strategy game like chess or go. Kingdom Builder is a fairly light euro style game. I haven't played T&E in probably a decade at this point, but I used to really, really like it, so that's more a commentary on my "cult of the new" habits than anything else. Kingdom Builder is occasionally pulled out when we're waiting for other people to show up and play something more in depth. It plays pretty quickly. Maybe a bit too random for some people.

King of Tokyo is basically Yahtzee with big monsters. Roll a bunch of dice. Smash the other person with them. I don't like it very much, but I have it in my collection to play with my daughter when she's older. It's very gateway gamey. Not really a lot to think about.

[lamaros]

Both have app versions if you want to test run them.

KB is a much simpler game to play, but they're both decent strategic choices.

T&E is a great game, but I've not played it as much as I'd like.

[Rendakor]

Got home sort of late and forgot about the sale, so I didn't end up buying any of them. Oh well.

[Rendakor]

Ended up picking up Pandemic Legacy from my FLGS instead.

[eldaec]

Play T&E if you think your group would enjoy 4 player chess.

KB is much more relaxed.

P:L is great, obviously.

[eldaec]

Scythe arrived. The bits are awesome. The game is solid, very much an efficiency euro with combat as occaisionnal disruption rather than a core of the game. Interesting enough to make me want to see how it feels after several more plays.

[Rendakor]

Gave P:L a shot without the Legacy rules, as it recommends for noobs (never played the original). My wife and I lost hard, twice. It's pretty fun, although the missus isn't keen on the idea of permanently ripping stuff up for a game that cost us $70.

[eldaec]

I'd keep playing non legacy till you can win fairly often at 5 epidemics. Regular players probably win vanilla pandemic at 6 epidemics more often than not - but I'd guess the campaign is pitched at 50% win rate on 5 epidemics. Also the early events will have more impact if you appreciate the implications through experience of the regular game.

Once you start the campaign, embrace the stickers and ripping up. You can avoid the ripping up with a 'destroyed' bag but you really can't play around the stickers without going nuts.

Overall the box contains around 24 hours of gaming. My own rationalisation is that if I'm happy enough to buy another box if I want more after that.

[Rendakor]

Sounds good. Is it possible to win non-Legacy with 2 people? It seems pretty brutal right now, but maybe we're just doing it wrong. Also, should I have all the funded events thrown into the player deck?

[jgsugden]

You get better as you play more.  The Legacy Version of the game adjusts for your skill level.

You play between 12 and 24 games (most likely in the 16 to 20 range) before you've 'exhausted' Pandemic Legacy.  Each game will be about 90 minutes.  That is about 27 hours of gaming for 2 people for $70. - or about $1.30 per hour of entertainment.  Well worth the cost.

However, I do suggest playing with another couple to get up to 4 players.  The game is even better with a full table.

[eldaec]

Sounds good. Is it possible to win non-Legacy with 2 people? It seems pretty brutal right now, but maybe we're just doing it wrong. Also, should I have all the funded events thrown into the player deck?

Yes you can win fine with two, once you get used to it you won't struggle with only 5 epidemics.

Funded events, standard difficulty is two per player. If you want to make the game slightly easier throw in a couple more, it won't break anything.

The biggest mistake new players make is not focussing sufficiently on winning the game by curing diseases. If you chase down every possible outbreak you'll cure more slowly which means you can't take advantage of easier treating, and you won't keep up.

Other common errors are wasting too many turns trying to eradicate, not sharing knowledge enough, or not appreciating that outbreaks can only normally occur in places you had three cubes at the last epidemic (meaning the relevant city infection 1card is back near the top of the deck).

Something that helps visualise potential outbreaks is to pile up in a pyramid any set of three cubes you have after an epidemic.

[Sky]

Pandemic is the game I want to get my fiancee into a bit, so these kind of tips to reduce our learning curve are awesome! Thanks!

I mean, she's not going to play Zombicide or Kingdom Death: Monster or Cave Evil :(

[jgsugden]

...
I mean, she's not going to play Zombicide or Kingdom Death: Monster or Cave Evil :(

You just need to slowly transition those folks into these games.  I use the following transition plan to take someone that had last played board games 2 decades earlier into a board game junkie:

Monopoly (the game they remembered and liked... sigh)
Codenames
Lost Cities
Settlers of Catan
Small World
Stone Age
Puerto Rico
Lords of Waterdeep
Power Grid
Pandemic
Agricola
Diplomacy
Eclipse
Pandemic Legacy
Twilight Struggle
Civilization (Anyone that plays Civilization to completion and has fun is officially a junkie)

[Sky]

Lost Cities card of board? And thanks, I'll start her off slower.

We've already been doing Scrabble (her favorite), Boggle (my mother and I played this and Scrabble a lot when I was gorwing up), Bananagrams (mom's favorite) and Exploding Kittens. I introduced Kittens and they were both complaining because they needed to learn rules, but they were enjoying it after the first hand, so I'm encouraged.

[eldaec]

Paperback is good if she is a word game person, and is a good one for building transferable skills like deck and hand management, and balancing engine building vs end game scoring.

In fact, all games by Tim Fowers are good.

[jgsugden]

Lost Cities card of board? And thanks, I'll start her off slower.
...

Card is what I meant - the idea is to expand one or two concepts (theme, difficulty, game length) into new terrain at a time without any massive shifts.

[Ragnoros]

If you need a game for total newbies who are resisting "strange" or "complex" games, try Monopoly Deal. It has the advantage of a name unlikely to scare boardgame newbs off, whilst not being the soul sucking pit of despair that is regular monopoly.

The rules are simple -- draw 2 cards play up to 3 of either property, money or actions -- and once you get the hang if it in a game or so it can be played to completion in about 15 minutes. As to why it's good, it basically has all the fun of dicking your friends over and collecting a huge pile of cash as in regular monopoly, but actually ends in a timely fashion.

Once you're done and they have enjoyed it, you can let them know that this is the game of monopoly with modern board game design principals employed, and that many of the other strange and complex games on the shelf are equally fun and easy to grasp with a tiny bit of effort.

[Sky]

You guys fucking rock. She's interested but wary, and we eventually want to bring mom along partway on the journey. Paperback looks perfect, too, she's a librarian. She'll love it.

I also have the Sherlock Holmes game because she's an uber Sherlock fan (both books and cumberbitch), not sure how dense that one is but it looked like a while for us to figure out, since I'm pretty much a board game novice.

And gloom because it was on sale and looked like a fun, silly game and game night with mom is fun and silly.

[schild]

If any of you ever meet up with me in person, ask me about Gloom.

[Teleku]

Well that sounds ominous.

[lamaros]

You guys fucking rock. She's interested but wary, and we eventually want to bring mom along partway on the journey. Paperback looks perfect, too, she's a librarian. She'll love it.

I also have the Sherlock Holmes game because she's an uber Sherlock fan (both books and cumberbitch), not sure how dense that one is but it looked like a while for us to figure out, since I'm pretty much a board game novice.

And gloom because it was on sale and looked like a fun, silly game and game night with mom is fun and silly.

My girlfriend likes Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective. We both really enjoy any sort of British murder mystery though.

Rules are very simple, it's pretty much a choose your own adventure, but you track information to solve a puzzle.