Board Games!
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
Sorry if this has been talked about previously in thread
I want to get some cool board games embedded in my nephew while he's young and he has Christmas and birthday coming up. Turning 7. I was thinking about Junior Catan, but wasn't sure if anyone could recommend other games that might be fun for kid/adult play. I think my brother would appreciate it if the games weren't too terrible. Note that he is fairly advanced logically and seems to love analyzing rule systems, so maybe things a year or two ahead of him would be ok
TIA-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
hah, my wife does that so it might not be grow outableIn post 1705, chamber wrote:My nephew (5) will lose interest in a game if he starts losing. I don't know how to deal with that so I've mostly stopped trying in the hopes he grows out of it.
thanks for the recommendations guys, i will look into them all-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
So I kinda liked Pandemic on the first few playthroughs, but after a while it just feels like complicated Solitaire. Is it any better as a multiplayer game?
@DN, I've been watching a bunch of Table Top recently and one thing I would really like is to see what cards people are drawing. Maybe you can do the table cam like in televised poker games for when such a mechanic is relevant. Also I woiuld avoid roleplaying, it's just awkward and sad to watch.-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
I guess I should get a bit more into why I'm asking. I usually get my nephew a board game or two around Xmas/his birthday and was thinking about Pandemic as it can be played with anywhere from 1,2,3 or 4 players. Also he doesn't have any cooperative games, so I thought it might be interesting for him to not have to lose all the time (his father and I are both too "competitive" to let him win). The things I'd be worried about is we'll just tell him what to do, so he's basically not playing at all, or it gets boring. I'm a little bit worried about the latter because once you've figured out optimal strategy you just follow it and hope your deck is in a favorable order.
Other alternative I was considering at this point is Castles of Mad King Ludwig, but that's mostly because his grandmother loves castles, so I think we might be able to get her interested in playing. As of now she basically only does Ticket to Ride and anything resembling Pictionary/charades.-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
So I've got a 9ish yo nephew I was going to buy some games or something similar for Xmas. I know he's super into Minecraft, but his parent/grandparents dont do it. My brother really likes boardgames/card games though. Is there anything meatworld that could bring their two interests together (like Minecraft FLUXX)? I haven't really found anything.
Also I wanted to do a smaller quick game as one of his gifts. I was thinking between Sushi Go, Love Letter and Welcome to the Dungeon. Any favorites among these? Or maybe other suggestions?-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
thanks to your post I spent a good chunk of my weekend watching playthroughs of Spirit Island. The game looks amazing. I might actually buy it for myself. It would be the first board game I ever bought myselfIn post 3114, implosion wrote:Spirit island arrived yesterday
diversity of play looks amazing, and I'm still trying to find videos of a few of the spirits. Seems almost everyone plays with a Vital Strength of the Earth Spirit or Thunderspeaker-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
thats what box lids are forIn post 3151, vonflare wrote:I just want a gaming table with slightly raised edges so dice will never roll off-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
its a bit rules heavy at first, and you WILL make mistakes that alter the course of the game. But once you get used to it, it's quite fun. My only downside is the almost 100% predictability of everything makes me just plan forever (I've only played it as a single player, doubt I would be this anal in coop). The expansion has an event deck that adds randomness, which I think would help alot. It also adds a ton of cards and more spirits. But the downside is even more complexity with 4 added mechanics, which just make my brain hurt.In post 3191, Faraday wrote:i'm real interested in spirit island tho, since i like co ops and everyone seems to love it
I haven't tried upping the difficulty up past the base game though, so perhaps I should try going up against some stronger foes to see if that helps.-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
I find they pair even better with LightningIn post 3204, TheButtonmen wrote:im really digging a combo of earth vital strength and spreading green in 2p you can ramp up very quickly to exploit earths massive power gain and free passive fortresses
my only issue has been is stage 3 the sheer proliferation of explorers i cant off them quick enough
Get them an extra token or two out in the early turns and then just obliterate cities as a passive power from then on-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
So as I continue to live vicariously through my niece and nephew's childhoods, I've already started planning their Xmas boardgame purchases. She's 7 and he's 10 going on 13.
Plan was for the younger one:
Scarabya
Dixit
for the older, I was gonna get Kingdomino and then one of: Clank!, Cyclades or Fury of Dracula. I'm slightly concerned Kingdomino will be too simplistic for him and its also vaguely similar to Scarabya, but it's a lot more likely to be tolerated by the grandparents (my parents retired to the same town as my brother so they are over at least 2-3 times a week). It's good to have a quick play option in there too. Also worried Cyclades might be a tad too advanced and Dracula a tad too 'adult' themed with the horror bits running through it. And without me in town, I really only see him playing either Cyclades and Dracula with his father. Whereas Clank! could probably wrap in his mom and the grandparents, and possibly even his sister.
I'm really looking forward to having a lab. I hope I can recruit grad students that are interested in game night every month or three-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
Thanks for the tips. I guess I'll keep it simple with Clank! Should be a good introduction to deck building concept and I can see my parents playing with them, which is good.
I'll probably get Cyclades or Inis (or both) for my lab.
And I think my Fury of Dracula obsession is really the fault of TableTop. I don't think I really want to play Fury of Dracula. I want to play Fury of Dracula with Will Wheaton, Amy Okuda, Grant Imahara, and Ify Nwadiwe.-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
good to know
this kid loves rules
when he was about 5, he was teaching me how to play some games on his Wii. He spent about 30 minutes reciting the rules for each game we would play in great detail. Sometimes I felt he enjoyed the rules more than the gameplay-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
So Carnival Zombie 2nd Ed has just been announced on Kickstarter
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/62 ... nd-edition
Anyone ever played 1st Ed? I know it's kind of rare. But I watched a playthrough on GameNight and it looks like loads of fun, though a bit long to play-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
How do I brainwash my wife into liking decent board gamesIn post 3400, GreyICE wrote:Um... is this question "how do you pull a bait and switch?" Or "what games of similar complexities are there in other genres?"
so far my options are:
Scrabble
Code Names
Pictionary (I don't even know how this is supposed to work for two players)
I can't get her to like anything else-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
i can't make her play Scrabble properlyIn post 3403, GreyICE wrote:Play Paperback.
Alternatively, play Scrabble properly so she hates Scrabble.
its the worst
she just ignores the score-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
this looks like it may workIn post 3403, GreyICE wrote:Play Paperback.
will get it next time i'm purchasing
thanks-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
basically a two player game with guessing involved and no point systems or rules beyond "do this thing". Core game shouldn't last more than 10-15 minutes, and open to replaysIn post 3426, Chickadee wrote:Tell us what elements are desired.
She likes:
Code Names
Scrabble (without points, note I basically refuse to do this anymore)
Pictionary (with just the drawing)
Catch the Moon might work, we've never tried dexterity games
Don't think we can do two player Dixit, although we could probably formulate something with AI?
Hadn't thought of Ice Cool, but I'm not sure if she'd like a flicking game
Machi Koro, although simple, is def still more complicated that she'd want
I was thinking maybe Pantone, but after her not like Show and Tile, I think theyre relatively similar
should probably just give up and try to start a board game group-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
yeah, my plan was always to draft gamers into my lab and have a board game night once a month or two. But I've only managed to draft one thus far.
just need to be more patient I spose
@chick, Thanks for the recs. I'll look into Second Chance and Catch the Moon. I bought Tsuro for my niece and we've played it, she didn't like it too much (wife not niece, niece loved it). I've seen playthroughs of Welcome To... and I don't think it'll work.
On the other hand, I've been playing paperback by myself while I'm brushing my teeth in the morning and the game is pretty cool. I think it would be fun to actually play.-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
they somehow made a Clank a legacy gameIn post 3450, hasdgfas wrote:
Clank is neat. There are some weird things to it, but it's generally over quickly enough that I don't mind its issues.In post 3448, PJ. wrote:I heard bad things about clank but I heard clank in space fixed it.
I have know idea who was asking for that-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
read that's going to be a completely new take on itIn post 3481, chamber wrote:
There is a new version of Yggdrasil at this years essen.In post 3480, shaft.ed wrote:also Yggdrasil, but it's out of print and thus stupid expensive
which might not be a bad thing since the first version just looks like bag management
still dont know what to feel about the 3-D Tree-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
got to play a lot of board games visiting the fam
Unfortunately, my nephew has a bit of a cheating problem. He was caught blatantly cheating during games of Quacks of Q and Whitehall Mysteries
I kinda liked Quacks, but the games we played were a bit to luck based for my tastes. A lot of times someone would draw almost every chip besides their whites while someone else would explode within about 5 or 6 pulls. Seemed the amount of setup and effort needed for what felt like a luck heavy game wasn't all that worth it. Also didn't like how people losing towards the end are pretty much forced to push it to the max that last two or three rounds, which 9 times out of 10 just makes them explode and then get spaced further back. I don't know if there would be a way to accelerate the game (we played all rounds with simulataneous bag draws because of the nephews aforementioned cheating).
I really liked Whitehall Mysteries. Fun game with a lot of pins and needles regardless of what side your playing on.
Niece also really enjoyed Kingdomino. She's still a bit young and has more compulsions about finishing her square or matching up tiles instead of optimizing for points. But it has a nice quick play speed and is challenging enough to keep the 'adults' interested
Push was also a great family/filler game. Would recommend if you're looking for a nice 3-6 player filler card game that is exceedingly easy to teach.
Also got a couple more playthroughs of Clank! in. This might be one of my top games currently, although I only have 3 plays on it. Really like the hybrid of board game and deck builder. ALso like how sometimes the game goes really fast because someone tries to get in and out really quick and trap everyone down below, and sometimes we all delve into the depths and pull out obscene point totals. Last play I got knocked out one space from the exit (from time out) and my brother got KO'd two spaces away (clank heavy deck). I still managed to win without the 20 point exit bonus.-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
I still haven't ventured into a game of Spirit Island with other people as I'm terrified of trying a playthrough with someone that isn't up for that kind of densityIn post 3508, xRECKONERx wrote:We played Spirit Island last night. Hooooooly shit what a dense game-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
the table top simulator is WAY better for soloIn post 3520, Errantparabola wrote:i was thinking of trying the table top simulator for it solo
I started playing on the simulator while I was waiting for the game to arrive
I barely use the physical game because it takes up a lot of time and space for something that works fine on the PC-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
speaking of whichIn post 3527, zoraster wrote:also i hate that 5 tribes is max 4 player.
anyone have recs for 6-8 player games?-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
In post 3572, popsofctown wrote:I'm jealous that Vi lives a life where they are playing board games multiple times a week while I play board games multiple times a year-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
i think the main issue is the 'group' is a mix of a couple heavy gamers, a couple newbs that basically are familiar with Catan aside from mainstream US boardgames, and a bunch of non-gamers (also the roster has been different each time)
so Catan gets brought out because its familiar to the newbs and thought of as a great intro game for non-gamers
it also is one of the few games we have that goes over 4 players since we have the expansions. Last time we had 11, so a table of 5 and a table of 6.
I guess I either need to lower my expectations, or get a better core group and just invite them instead of having an open invitation. I've been doing a broad department wide invite because I really don't know who likes to game and who doesnt-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
I might get Clank! as an intro game?
I really enjoyed playing it with my nephew et al, and even my Mom could keep up with it. Not much knowledge needed that can't be figured out while you're playing
The main gameplay (at least visually) is very similar to standard boardgames, ie plop you token around a board
But it sort of tricks you into playing a deck builder, while the core is a well executed press your luck game-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
yeah I think Clank! has a nice mix of the familiar and the unfamiliarIn post 3604, hasdgfas wrote:
I don't think a no-frills deckbuilder is what he wants. It sounds like the outer trappings of a board game like Clank! are exactly what works for his group.In post 3601, vonflare wrote:if you want a deck builder, dominion is a better intro game imo. Teaches all the core concepts of deckbuilding without any added fluff.
klank! is probably a close second though since the only 'fluff' it adds is a board and movement/combat mechanics
I think it will be my next purchase for the lab game vault-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
From what I understand, the problem with vanilla Clank! is that just running in, grabbing the first artifact and running out is a very viable strategy because the game is forced to end 4 turns after the first person get out of the dungeon. This prevents people that want to go deep into the dungeon and push their luck from doing so. I haven't played Clank In Space, but I think they change the game ending mechanic by instead having escape pods that are limited vs the number of people. That way if you're first out, you are definitely safe, but you will limit your scoring and you can't force the rest of the players to be trapped in the dungeon. I've never played Clank! with anyone that just grabbed the first thing and ran, but I could see it being pretty annoying. I could also see it getting fixed pretty easily with some relatively simple house rules.In post 3607, PJ. wrote:I've never played Clank, but I've heard that the In Space iteration fixes a lot of problems with the regular iteration.-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
For Clank in Space they mitigated this by having artifact acquisition be a multistep process, and first person out just pulls cubes until everyone is dead or out. I think regular Clank! should work fine with the second rule.In post 3612, hasdgfas wrote:
Grab the first thing and get out was my strategy the one time I played Clank! but the game played out in a way that it was my best strategy to try to win, not because I was just trying to cheese it.In post 3611, shaft.ed wrote:
From what I understand, the problem with vanilla Clank! is that just running in, grabbing the first artifact and running out is a very viable strategy because the game is forced to end 4 turns after the first person get out of the dungeon. This prevents people that want to go deep into the dungeon and push their luck from doing so. I haven't played Clank In Space, but I think they change the game ending mechanic by instead having escape pods that are limited vs the number of people. That way if you're first out, you are definitely safe, but you will limit your scoring and you can't force the rest of the players to be trapped in the dungeon. I've never played Clank! with anyone that just grabbed the first thing and ran, but I could see it being pretty annoying. I could also see it getting fixed pretty easily with some relatively simple house rules.In post 3607, PJ. wrote:I've never played Clank, but I've heard that the In Space iteration fixes a lot of problems with the regular iteration.
And, yeah I've done the grab and go once before, but I took a monkey idol and an artifact while my brother decided he would go all the way to the bottom. He wasted a couple rounds because he couldn't get a multistep movement, and only missed escaping by a single space, so it wasn't that bad.-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
You might consider Clank! actuallyIn post 3632, VP Baltar wrote: We do have one player who tends to need assistance with more complex games. When we played Gloomhaven, it was definitely alot of "you sure you want to do that?"
It's essentially like the base game, but aspects of your deck get carried through and your board gets bigger as you explore
Not the heaviest of games and as its not co-op it isnt messing up to much for other players if someone is playing suboptimally
Also has legacy mechanics where decisions will impact what becomes available on your board/deck in future games-
-
shaft.ed dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- dem.agogue
- Posts: 4998
- Joined: August 15, 2007
- Location: St. Louis
it took me about 4 or 5 scenarios of Gloomhaven to realize there was a default Attack 2/Move 2 option for all cards. I was just tossing Lost actions a lot of times because I didn't realize I could chose not to do them.In post 3637, chamber wrote:That's a pretty big rule to miss, but we've had games we played for years that we got minor rules wrong for. One instance would be keyflower, played it for years before realizing green meeples used to bid go back to the general meeple bag rather than the green stock.
On the other hand, I played only my second game of Gloomhaven with other people yesterday (Brother and nephew). We were getting creamed in Scenario 2, but I managed to pull a win out of our ass by Immobilizing and Stunning the Bandit Commander for 4 straight rounds using the Mindthief, a Stamina pot and help from the Tinkerer. Then after the game I realized he can't be stunned or immobilized. Don't know what to tell my party about that.