Board Games!

[mith]

I was kinda meh on Quarriors (having played an absurd amount of Dominion online). The culling rules tend toward a runaway leader problem, at least with the base. (I've seen variants suggested for that, and I'm sure expansions will change things up significantly.)

[mith]

7 players, not 8.

(And there are other maps for other player counts - AnicentMed is quite good for 5, for example. I've never been thrilled with any of the options for playing with fewer than 7 on the standard map.)

[mith]

7 players to play, and one impartial to be the game master.

This isn't really necessary face-to-face. Though it does help.

[mith]

Does the game come with other maps?

No; the alternate maps (and variant rule sets) are available online, you'd have to print them somehow to use face-to-face.

[mith]

I don't know... is it even worth it to go with Diplomacy if we can only get like 5 people to play it?

I've also heard good things about Risk 2042 & the Starcraft board game for good war games.

My recommendation would be to print out a copy of the Ancient Med. map, get some markers for fleets and armies, and try it out print-and-play style.

[mith]

5 is fine for Diplomacy. It's obviously better with a full group, but I've played plenty of games with just 5 people.

Did you play with the recommended setup (eliminate Italy and Germany)? I've never played it that way, but it has always seemed to me an unsatisfactory solution, with the big gulf between E/F and A/R/T.

[mith]

In other news, BGG.con is 98% sold, if anyone is still thinking about pulling the trigger.

Also, if anyone would like a perspective on board games from some familiar faces, we have a weekly discussion group on BGG which was originally mostly scummers (now about half). GCL Mafia.

[mith]

For the people who have been to BGG.con, is it worth the money? Do they give out free stuff, or what is it like? What do you do at this con? What about this convention makes it worth the $500 for the hotel room and $700 for the plane tickets?

I can't speak for the hotel room and plane tickets - I'm local, I don't have to pay such things.

Otherwise:

BGG.con is almost entirely open gaming. They have a massive library of games to check out and play, and over a thousand (closer to two this year?) potential new gaming buddies. They also have a "hot games room", where they leave copies of the latest fresh-from-Essen games set up and usually have some teachers around willing and able to explain the rules.

There are "freebies" (I mean, it's not really free since you're paying for the registration, but you know what I mean) for everyone - last year there was a choice of games from Queen Games and from Tasty Minstrel Games. In previous years they have also had a "free games room" for some fraction of the attendees (based on a random daw) which had some more expensive games; don't know if they'll be bringing that back. Either way, the earlier you get there the better as far as the selection goes.

There is also a big raffle Saturday night, with some significant prizes - large bundles of games, expensive games (a couple Crokinole boards last year), even a Geek Chic table (several thousand dollars).

There are quite a few tournaments and events - Hold'em and Battling Tops (completely with luchador masks) tournaments ever year, plus the puzzle hunt and game show; last year I participated in the 7 Wonders and Kingdom Builder tournaments, and won things in both.

If you want to read about the sort of things we played last year, here's the relevant GCL list. Item 4 for Thesp, item 6 for me, item 10 for Rishi. (Some overlap of course, since we gamed together a lot.)

[mith]

We may have enough this year for a proper Mafia game...

[mith]

What part of Austin are you in, zoraster? I'm down there quite a bit visiting friends.

[mith]

I was kinda meh on Quarriors (having played an absurd amount of Dominion online). The culling rules tend toward a runaway leader problem, at least with the base. (I've seen variants suggested for that, and I'm sure expansions will change things up significantly.)

I played with the Quarmageddon expansion yesterday, and the new culling/scoring rules greatly improve the game IMO. Much more strategic when early good rolls won't lead to an early basic quiddity culling advantage, or if an early big purchase won't be abused for scoring repeatedly the remainder of the game.

I'd still much rather play Dominion, but the improvement plus the novelty of the dice bump it up to a "wouldn't mind adding this to the collection someday, for the right price".

[mith]

It's been too long since I played Pandemic solo. But that's because I've been playing too much LotR LCG. ~shakes fist at Balrog~

[mith]

So Hanabi won Spiel des Jahres. Anybody played this? It seems like people are saying it's more of a cooperative brain challenge than a game. It is pretty inexpensive however.

Hanabi is excellent if you like cooperatives. It is the most effective cooperative in terms of avoiding the "one person tell everyone else what to do" problem, since you can't see your own cards and table talk has to be minimal to avoid giving anything away unfairly.

(Pretty much any cooperative skews more toward "puzzle", though you can also think of them as games with the board/deck/etc. as the opponent.)

[mith]

I need a new game, I haven't picked anything up since the holidays. Give me the lowdown on, say, Dominant Species and Cosmic Encounter.

Dominant Species is also excellent, but definitely on the heavy and long end of the gaming spectrum. My play of it (with four) took about 5 hours with teaching (and I was the only new player, so the teaching went more quickly than it would with mostly new players and/or an inexperienced explainer).

[mith]

Thesp is putting together an unofficial online Hanabi implementation. I'll try to keep you guys updated on the status.

[mith]

Thesp is putting together an unofficial online Hanabi implementation. I'll try to keep you guys updated on the status.

Actually, the beta went up today. Send me a PM if you're interested, and I'll forward along to Thesp. Not sure how rapidly he wants to open it up.

[mith]

I still haven't finished this, but:

mith's BGG.con 2013 Playlist (featuring games with Thesp, kristocker, MeMe, Dirge, and Rishi)

[mith]

I really want to play Risk Legacy but do not have people to play with. This irks me.

This. ish. I have a copy, and will probably end up playing it with my group in Austin, but I see them infrequently enough that it may take us several years to complete.

[mith]

My copy of Terra Mystica is on the way (but apparently delayed by weather, boo). I still haven't played Caverna, but I intend to do something about that this weekend.