Board Games!

[Equinox]

I'm sure someone will bring it to a scum meet someday

host one and invite the games.

give me the excuse, dammit.

[Lady Lambdadelta]

Argent is so fun.

People who have TTS can play it online if they want? Cpuld setup an MS game night for Argent.

I have TTop, and have played Argent with it.

Playing the game with five people or with more than two new players would likely stretch the definition of game "night" fwiw.

I hate myself enough to consider doing this depending on when.

Agree with Vi, but if Vi and I are 2/X we can maybe make it not so long?

I think 4 or 5 is the sweet spot tho

[chamber]

I've played the game a couple of times, though its been years.

[Lady Lambdadelta]

I've played the game a couple of times, though its been years.

This works because it would leave us with 1 or 2 new players at most?

[Titus]

Argent is so fun.

People who have TTS can play it online if they want? Cpuld setup an MS game night for Argent.

I have TTop, and have played Argent with it.

Playing the game with five people or with more than two new players would likely stretch the definition of game "night" fwiw.

I hate myself enough to consider doing this depending on when.

Agree with Vi, but if Vi and I are 2/X we can maybe make it not so long?

I think 4 or 5 is the sweet spot tho

If you need more recruits, I'd be in with the understanding my schedule is a bit harder.

[Titus]

I'm sure someone will bring it to a scum meet someday

host one and invite the games.

give me the excuse, dammit.

Here's an excuse. Despite the hilarious nonsense that went on at Titus meet aka Titus's Tavern, it was one of the best two days of my life.

[PJ.]

Argent is so fun.

People who have TTS can play it online if they want? Cpuld setup an MS game night for Argent.

I have TTop, and have played Argent with it.

Playing the game with five people or with more than two new players would likely stretch the definition of game "night" fwiw.

I hate myself enough to consider doing this depending on when.

[AcRv]

I picked up Hail Hydra out of curiousity a while ago and have only had enough friends around that wanted to play it twice. It's somewhere between Avalon/The Resistance and Secret Hitler in terms of gameplay, but feels incredibly skewed in favour of the Hydra agents from what we've played. Has anybody else played it enough to give more insight into how a meta has evolved that gives the heroes a higher win rate? Not sure I can recommend based on the games I have played but I'm keen to explore it more so I can be wrong in my assessment.

[Vi]

Innovation - A (20 [4]) vs. V (10 [1]) vs. Vi (9 [3], me) at timeout

Surprise board game day with surprise board game. None of us have ever played this before. I tried to roll too hard with paleotech and wound up getting more or less beaten into a corner while A swept the 2, 3, 4, and 5 achievements. I prolonged the game by getting my people to more or less exclusively concentrate on shooting rockets at the others so they couldn't score anything else. Just as I laid down my bluetech and started developing a technocratic revolution, V repeatedly goaded A into nuclear war until it happened, which made us look at the ash piles that were our works and despair mightily. V then stole my last working computer and I had to deal with rebuilding my empire with refrigerators, which was not a good place to be in as the millennium dawned.

It's an intriguing game. I'm not sure if it will hold up once I learn how to play it (i.e. learn which relevant decisions the player actually makes) but I hope it does. There's an element of bash-the-winner (or at least don't-let-the-winner-get-winnier), but the game escalates (both in power and absurdity) in such a way that it's hard to stay on top for very long. Plus I think everything my group plays is full aggro so that's not a problem for us.

[hasdgfas]

I picked up Hail Hydra out of curiousity a while ago and have only had enough friends around that wanted to play it twice. It's somewhere between Avalon/The Resistance and Secret Hitler in terms of gameplay, but feels incredibly skewed in favour of the Hydra agents from what we've played. Has anybody else played it enough to give more insight into how a meta has evolved that gives the heroes a higher win rate? Not sure I can recommend based on the games I have played but I'm keen to explore it more so I can be wrong in my assessment.

I played it once. Was a Hydra agent and won. It was a cute social deduction game but I didn't feel the need to play again.

[AcRv]

I played it once. Was a Hydra agent and won. It was a cute social deduction game but I didn't feel the need to play again.

That was our assessment too, but part of me wants to play it enough to see if there's any unique quirk to it but I really don't think there is one I think the bad guys just win

[Vi]

Galaxy Trucker - hito (69) vs. implo (58) vs. Vi (33) vs. Equinox (32) vs. Eps (29)

Shared Schadenfreude: The Game. You can tell who survived either of the first two rounds. (Tbh I scored 1 in the first round and -1 in the second round.) I drew Advertiser A in the third round, called a total party kill, and then everyone made it through.

Letter Jam - Mixed results

Delayed-result Codenames. I thought I was a genius on clues and secure in my ability to take care of myself for 80% of the game, and then in the last 20% found out that everything was in fact FUBAR.

[Vi]

Innovation - Vi (6, me) vs. Equinox (3)
Still a very silly game. E didn't appreciate it until the discovery of hordes of pirates to raid my score pile. I got like three of the early extra achievement cards and used two of them, which made it feel kind of idk.

The Game - Success
It's The Mind, but sold at Target.

Argent: The Consortium - Exhufern (7, me) vs. Byron (4) vs. Monad (1)
Influence scarcity + Staff B. hito drew Most Marks as their first voter and proceeded to call Equinox out for having drawn it. This was almost certainly the saddest Round 5 I've ever played considering Library was locked, Training Fields were locked, Council Chamber was locked, Vault was locked, and Atelier had been wiped off the map. There's only so much to be done with Infirmary, Golem Lab, and Adventuring (even if it was the cool Adventuring side).

[Equinox]

E didn't appreciate it until the discovery of hordes of pirates to raid my score pile.

wow i am sorry i gave off the impression that i don't enjoy games unless i'm winning?

[animorpherv1]

Hot take by Equinox - games are less fun when behind.

[Equinox]

maybe i should clarify: i was trying to understand the game and didn't quite grasp the win condition until i drew that pirate card when the scoring mechanism clicked because of how that card worked, so i deeply resent the implication that i didn't "appreciate" the game until i could fuck someone over.

[Plum]

Fwiw I interpreted "didn't appreciate it" in that context as "it didn't click for them" and assumed exactly what you said, that finding those pirates was when you grasped the win condition and something about how to go about pursuing it. I also would say I don't appreciate games until I grok those.

[vonflare]

not sure if this counts, but anyone here played Cultist simulator? While not

technically

a board game, it certainly can feel like one at times, and it has a lot of borrowed elements from, like, worker placement games

[Vi]

E didn't appreciate it until the discovery of hordes of pirates to raid my score pile.

wow i am sorry i gave off the impression that i don't enjoy games unless i'm winning?

Innovation is a game that's sort of like a plastic baseball bat getting passed around and you can hit everyone else with it. It's hard to see why anyone would play this kind of game until you get a chance with the bat.

...is what I want to say, but I understand how you came to the conclusion you did and I'm mortified. I apologize deeply.

[Plum]

not sure if this counts, but anyone here played Cultist simulator? While not

technically

a board game, it certainly can feel like one at times, and it has a lot of borrowed elements from, like, worker placement games

Have played it and enjoyed it. It is very system-y and in that respect has a lot in common with board games and is obviously laid out as if it were a solitaire card game on a table ... but I'd make a dedicated thread to discuss it because it is different enough from a board game and more in common with other single-player video games to warrant it.

[Vi]

Argent: The Consortium - Riflam (4, me) vs. Burman (3) vs. Byron (2) vs. Exhufern (2) vs. Lavanina (1)
+Festival of Masks module
+Summer Break module

I've never played a five-player game before. It was more or less as I was expecting - there's so much time in between your turns and so few uncontested votes that you basically have to roll as hard as you can on a few votes you're willing to commit to and hope no one notices until it's too late (or just deviously outplay them). I got more or less shut down during the first half of the game (thanks Summer Break), and pretty much only got into it again because I pulled as many Supporters as I could. Like my votes were Supporters, Nat.Magic, Technomancy, and Collection - so, basically trying to take the entire Supporter pile and pull it into my play area, with a few spells to load down in the right colors. Most Mana and Most Intelligence were both in the game, and by the end the supply ran out of Intelligence tokens(!) and also all the 5-mana pieces (the winner had like 29 and the runner-up had like 27).

It was a valid game because I used Bend Time at least once. It's just not me if I can't find a way to do four things in one turn.

Despite being intended as a newbie-friendly scenario by the dev, Summer Break does not make the game any easier or shorter. It is a cute twist on things though.

[Vi]

Senators - A (8 [11]) vs. D (8 [7]) vs. L (8 [F]) vs. S (6) vs Vi (2)

Positive Feedback: The Game. Going first suuuuucks when you have less money than everyone else and then lose half of it immediately. Should probably see if I can find something better than the blinds provided for hiding money so people don't have to politely pretend not to notice how poor I am. Having no money in this game means having no power. I'm willing to bet this game is better with fewer players...

Still, I got to play a game where "Extortion" is an action you can take, and really that's what I came for.

[popsofctown]

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]

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

[Chickadee]

So I got a Burgle Bros tattoo