Board Games!

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Me and my friends are more into the board games that are more..."user-input," I guess you could call them. Apples to Apples (and it's dirty cousin Cards Against Humanity), Pictionary, etc. Therefore I have trouble relating to all this. Like one time someone brought Risk and they were all like LOLNO...

A game I recommend, and one that I know has been recommended by others, is Quelf. It's pretty crazy, and I like all the various aspects it combines. One of my favorite aspects is the fact that there are "Roolz" cards, which are like rules which can either apply to everyone or one person. They can twist up the game pretty well and make a new experience every time.

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Went to an auction today and got a whole stack of (fairly old) board games. a One-Eyed Jack board, Tripoley, Scrabble, and "Fat Chance" which involves pawns called "Fat Men" and a scale. OH GOODNESS.

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I watched Tabletop Ep. 1! I thought Small World was extremely complex at first but now I get it. On a design level, I think it could have benefitted from having either the board or the actual tokens be less colorful; everything kind of blends together.

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Ugh I'm suscribed to r/boardgames, and people post pics of their collections and it makes me all jealous

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hito have you ever been to the board game store in Lincoln?

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Yeah that one. I want to go see but like, why would I go that far south? I imagine I'll go there on one of my free finals week days.

I actually did discover it via website BTW.

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NEW TABLETOP OUT!!!

I really think i'D LIKE Settlers of Catan

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#3 is out as well!

I like the looks of Tsuro and Zombie Dice. I'm not sure about Get Bit!

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So I was half watching an episode of Criminal Minds, when all the sudden

WIL WHEATON IS THE KILLER :O :O :O :O OH MY GOD I WAS LIKE WTF

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Do you believe that Elder Signs is more or less strategic than Arkham Horror? I watched the TableTop episode on it and it was quite fascinating.

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...that's why I asked you to compare them, silly.

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saw my local WalMart had Settlers of Catan, was pretty excited

looked closer, realized it was Catan Gallery Edition, which is close but not the same

Disappointed

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The most recent Tabletop (Last Night on Earth) was semi-interesting.

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Tabletop released their Space Fluxx episode today!

But unforch the next episode isn't until January! ;_; ;-; ;_;

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My friends are horrible for this. I mean a few nights ago I tried to explain 1000 Blank White Cards to them and they were like "that's tooo haaard"

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A few days ago I played Lord of the Rings. God it was tedious, I don't know if I want to play it again. I like how the fellowship travelling with the ring gave Risk a time limit.

Hopefully it acts as a sort of gateway game; it was the most strategic game we've played.

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Not as serious, but any new party game ideas to play at a non-alcoholic New Year's Eve party? Cards Against Humanity will definitely be played, and we got some Walmart-style party board games to play as well. I want to finagle some 1000 Blank White Cards and Mafia in there, but it might be an uphill battle.

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I never hear much about Shadow Hunters outside of here. I think it's pretty good though.

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I tried to make up something for "What do you like then? Freaking _______?" but I couldn't think of any extreme event that is very skill-based. Fencing I suppose? Chess?

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Or like, in da ghetto. "I need 17 crack and 2 chainz to buy a new couch."

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TABLETOP BEING BACK <3 what a fun game
HANNAH HART <3
GRACE HELBIG <3 <3 <3
THE NEW WALL OF FAME OR WHATEVER <3

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MY TABLE IS BETTER



Also did anyone see Tabletop's Resistance episode? That was probably one of the best yet. Maybe I'm biased because I am on MAFIAscum after all and the two games are kinda relatable.

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OR DINNER GUESTS. YES, DINNER GUESTS.

And I think maybe this could be good for like Arkham Horror and such like as?

EDIT: Actually, the probablem when I have a big group isn't the size of the table, it's not enough chairs

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3-4 hours? That's so not my type of friends...
Plus I just started reading GoT and I don't think my friends would be crazy about it anyway.

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Yeah, we'll play CAH for an hour or so, and Quelf for however long, but I can't really expect much longer.

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I got the Survivor Board Game, no pieces missing, for $2 at a garage sale. So exciting.

Also there was Pokemon Monopoly at an auction but they sold a huge pile of boardgames and some woman bought them all. Defeated.

But I did buy another pile which made me pretty happy. Had children's favorites Lucky Ducks and Don't Break the Ice, plus Smart Ass, which is a great party game. And TWO SPIROGRAPHS AND A LITE BRITE WAHHAAAAH CHILDHOOD RELIVING HAPPENING SOON

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We played Lord of the Rings Risk once. I thought I was terrible but I ended up winning somehow. Albeit the players weren't really Risk "geniuses..."

That game was nice though because it had a time limit; every turn the eponymous ring would advance across the map and the game would end once it hit Mt. Doom. There were fun cards that impacted this and such.

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There are four, but yeah, there was some weird tricky stuff going on with the alignments

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Maybe??? I only played it once.

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Bought the Resistance and I hope to play it at a Fourth of July gathering

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So. Results.

On Wednesday I got Settlers of Catan, which was 37.80 at Target, and I think that's the lowest price for an in-store retail. I was nervous because I didn't know if my friends would like it at all, but I did want it in my collection anyway so I bought it.

Turns out...it was a good investment! We played the first game with the beginning setup and while it was a very slow process, it was enjoyable. For the second game we completely randomized everything. That started out very slow due to dice rolls but it ended up being quite a fun experience. I can definitely see how people may think it can get boring though.

Strangely enough, we tried the Resistance afterwards as I said, and it did not go over well. The Spies won both turns, but it was more due to general derpiness than actual deception.

I think since Catan was so well liked I'm going to get Agricola. It's pretty expensive but I love the mechanic and I think it is similar in all the right ways to Catan.

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We played again, for the first time with four players. Since the new player was...well new, we did the beginning setup again. Though this isn't my picture, it's basically this:



I played as orange and got really stuck in the beginning of the game, as I was completely cut off from ore for all of it. However, using my massive quantities of wheat and sheep, I was able to buy a huge amount of development cards until I had four of the five victory point cards and the largest army, bring me to 8. The new player, who was blue, won; I think blue won our first game too.

It's still super fun, and we really haven't breached much of the randomly-generated setups yet.

I think I will hold off on Agricola for the time being, but I might get Ticket to Ride. It's not very similar to Catan, but it's simple like it, with new strategies to discover. I think they'll like it.

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Reck, what do YOU recommend I get for my budding group? It's a solid group of 3 that sometimes has four or five or even expands to upwards of seven. So far we've only really liked Catan, we don't seem to have whatever skill is needed for the Resistance.

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i read the the description on BGG, and it just doesn't sound like my group would like that. I guess I should pinpoint what they enjoy about Catan. I guess I can say that I'm pretty certain they will also enjoy Ticket to Ride.

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WAIT IS DOMINION KIND OF LIKE MAGIC: THE GATHERING

because my friends like that and I've just never really delved into it.

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They play magic like once. a year. lol. but they both like it, it's just not a big hobby.

What about this year's Spiel des Jahres winner, Kingdom Builder? It looks somewhat graphically similar to Catan, and has similarity with the modularity.

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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.

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So I asked my friends over Facebook what they liked about Settlers:

Strategy - yay you really narrowed it down
Trading - Surprisingly, there isn't a lot according to BGG, but I'm getting Bohnanza. I think my group will really like it, plus it's very inexpensive. I mean, there are other suggestions, but they seem a lot weightier than Catan, and my group is sort of poking at how "hard" they believe it is, so I don't want to escalate too fast.
Sheep - Unfortunately, BGG doesn't have any way to find games which involve sheep. ...any suggestions?

EDIT: Just kidding about there not being a lot of trading games; BGG has a deceptively short list, but 244 pages to go through.

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I've played Risk, but never seen any sheep.

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:S

I got Bohnanza and Hey, That's My Fish!, which hasn't been discussed onsite so far as I can see. I mean, it's pretty simple, almost juvenile, but it's reminiscent of Catan with hexes and randomization, and it involves penguins which are one of my friend's favorite animals.

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So reading through the thread and seeing Reck's earlier complaints about TTR, I think that exactly encompasses what my group needs: a game where no matter whose turn it is, everyone is at least somewhat involved. For example, in Catan even when it isn't your turn, the dice might give you resources to ponder, and trades will happen, and all this in addition to possible building on the board. Looking at my list of potential buys, I think Puerto Rico and Dominion encapsulate this, but what about 7 Wonders?

I was about to buy Carcassonne after pondering FOREVER with the long list, but after this realization I'm definitely not so certain. I think we'll end up playing some games tonight maybe, so I'll see how a game like Hey, That's My Fish goes before I make another purchase.

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Sorry to keep spamming my travails in this thread but:

We played Hey, That's My Fish! tonight and one of the first things we noticed was the lack of talking, which wasn't regarded as a completely bad thing per se, but I think we'd much rather prefer talking and interaction. We didn't get around to Bohnanza, but I think we might tonight.

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After approximately 10 million hours of deliberation, I'm ordering the following games:

Love Letter - it is /r/boardgames' Game of the Week, plus it looks fairly simple, which is great for my group, and it has the role-selection mechanics of games that I'd like to try later on (Lost Temple, Citadels, Puerto Rico)
Saboteur - I thought this sounded lame when I first read about it but then I played a game of it on en.boardgamearena.com and loved it. It resembles the deduction games we play here, and the 3-10 player range works beautifully for my group.
Stone Age - I've been debating and debating and debating about which worker placement game would work best for my group, and I think Stone Age is the one. I played it on boardgamearena and while it was initially tricky, I picked it up quickly and I'm in love. The resources remind me of Settlers, which I'm sure will appeal to my friends.

Some of the other games I debated getting:
Hornet - similarish to Settlers and pretty simple.
Innovation
Bang! - the main thing holding this back is that we're a group of three, and this requires four. We often have the numbers, but not all the time. I think it'll be a hit though.
Lost Temple, Citadels - Like Bang! I'll probably get one. I didn't because Lost Temple looked fairly simple and Citadels would take 18-24 days to ship.
Dos Rios, Deadwood, Lords of Waterdeep - worker placement games which I considered to get my friends into the mechanic. Dos Rios looked okay with a modular board but ultimately the river damming looked too complex. Lords of Waterdeep is apparently D&D affiliated, which I'm unsure of as to how well that would go over with my group. Also it looks surprisingly complex. Deadwood would've been my choice had I not found Stone Age.
Santiago - apparently the heavier version of Settlers. Probably will get it at some point.
Seasons - I was looking through a thread of board games which are similar to Magic and this one cropped up. I'm a little iffy on it though.
7 Wonders - It just keeps popping up in every suggestion thread. What to play after Settlers? 7 Wonders. Like Magic? 7 Wonders? Playing with grandma? 7 Wonders.

Also we were supposed to go to a game store today to try out some stuff, but they couldn't go, so maybe we'll try again in two weeks.

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I think that can only change with time. Catan and other designer board games are becoming more popular, so as people play them and have children, they will introduce those sorts of games to them rather than Monopoly and the like. Of course, simple games like Sorry and other roll-and-moves are simple
for a young child.

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While I'm sure my guesstimates aren't statistically significant, we get a lot of 11s and 12s, so I think it varies from die to die.

I think it's been brought up before, but have you guys considered a dice deck? From what I understand it's a 36-card deck of all the possible results of two dice rolling. Instead of rolling dice you draw from the deck. It makes for statistically consistent rolls and a little bit of prediction. Plus maybe I'm just thinking wild but you could introduce something where you have a hand of dice rolls to choose from.

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So I tried to introduce Stone Age to my friends last night, but it didn't work. It's their first experience with a worker-placement, and I think the idea of it (all the different options to place people) seemed overwhelming. Any tips?

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play 7 wonders

just kidding

THIS IS NOT THE SOLUTION TO EVERYTHI-

*sees small print*

I think next Sunday we are going to go to a LGS to play, so if they have a copy of Carc. in their library we'll try it out.

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So I don't like "get" Puerto Rico. I've played about five games online and I'm still really unsure how to win. I just try to build a lot of buildings and get a lot of doubloons, even though I think the focus is on shipping as much as you can. :S

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I got my mom to play Stone Age. She found it difficult, but interesting. In my play I rarely use the love shack or the field, and those didn't crop up in her strategy, so they were pretty much left out and made a nice simplification of the game. Interestingly, she hoarded resources...I don't know if it was a good strategy or not but I'd never seen it before.

I think I will try again to introduce it to my friends.

Also, does anyone have experience with Anomia? I'm thinking of buying the party edition right off the bat because it looks so good.

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Libertalia is $25 at CoolStuffInc, just so you all know. It's really strange because I just discovered the game and I love it.

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Had an awesome first night at a LGS with my friends! I mean, we kept to ourselves, but it was fun nonetheless.

I wished to introduce my friends to

Ticket to Ride

, but wouldn't you know it the other group there was playing it. I don't even know if I could've because they quite quickly picked out some board games to try:

World War Z

and

Chupacabra: Survive the Night

. I also brought

Incan Gold

over because I knew it was simple and had a fun mechanic.

We started with

World War Z

, which is, in reality a commercial version of Pandemic. Like literally. There is a map of the world divided into different areas which populate with zombies that you have to killl. However, we found it immensely difficult. The lowest-level horde is just as strong as a human, so rolls usually do not end up in your favour. Additionally, players can be eliminated and turn into zombies which directly oppose the remaining human players. Suffice it to say, we lost.

Next we played

Incan Gold

, and they really liked it once they got the hang of it. Pretty simple, nothing much to say.

Finally we played

Chupacabra: Survive the Night

, which is a simple dice rolling game. Basically you have dice that have differing types of livestock on five faces and a chupacabra on one, and you use any chupacabra rolls you get to capture other players' dice that rolled livestock. It is very easy and luck-based, but fun. I ended up buying it at my friends request.

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I played Tzolk'in on BoardGameArena. Yikes that was complicated.

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Large Amazon sale on strategy board games - hnggh

Most of them aren't that great since Amazon prices are so great anyway, but deals nonetheless. I have my eyes on Castles of Burgundy and Formula D (which is apparently a good deal from what I've read so far). Unfortunately I only have a day to decide

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You don't need friends; you can just buy them and pretend :S

Saint Malo has also caught my attention. Very interesting game with dice-rolling mechanics where you DRAW your lands/estate/whatever.

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Quickly:

My group likes Settlers of Catan, Libertalia, Survive!, Coloretto, Innovation, and Tobago. We've had difficulty with Stone Age because there are many options.

Should I get 7 Wonders or Kingsburg? I feel like Kingsburg is the perfect gateway worker placement because the dice restrict choices, but after the Stone Age failures I'm very hesitant to try another WP. Meanwhile, 7 wonders gets so much praise and I love the concept but there are those inklings of criticism which make me hesitant to get it.

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See, I think Kingsburg is really underrated as a gateway worker placement, probably because people are hesitant to consider it a "true" WP because of the dice factor.

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We were able to go to our game store's New Year's Eve party! We only played two games though, at least they were both new: Ticket to Ride, which I've been telling them about forever but we never got around to playing it, and by now I somewhat figured we were beyond it, but it was actually a lot of fun. One of my friends lucked out with an opening draw of two nearly similar cross-country routes, and that was practically unbeatable.

Then we tried Kingsburg! They seemed interested by the concepts, but overall it got an "okay" and "wouldn't get played often" if we owned it. I liked it a lot, but I guess now we have to somehow find a copy of 7 wonders to try out, or maybe look at other games.

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Escape: The Curse of the Temple is another game which prevents quarterbacking due to the hectic, ten-minute nature of the game. Also allows for mutliple layers of complexity with curses and treasrues.

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Escape has been the surprise hit of my game club. Although a couple of people really hate it because they couldn't make a fast decision standing between two barrels of water with their pants on fire.

Despite my enthusiasm for it, my group didn't like it either. They found it too hectic, which makes me wonder if they would like games like Galaxy Trucker. But then again, they like the timed party games like pictionary and stuff. :/

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If you have a seasonal Go! Calendars, Games, Books store near your area, everything there is now 50% off. Mine has a pretty limited selection, so I may pick up Ticket to Ride or some party games, but I've known ones to include a wider selection of designer board games. If you want to brave the cold, check it out!

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I know plenty people who went to the Reckoning have frequented this thread, so give me some thoughts! What type of people liked those games? I've looked into both but they just seem like they cater to specific types of people.

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um I think if Ticket to Ride is a game about making and connecting railroads it's technically a "train game"

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I just don't get what your definition of "train game" implies. Like, do you mean the idea that railroads are being built and then you pass resources along those routes to complete things? I guess you're getting at the idea that Ticket to Ride is simple enough that it could be rethemed and completely remove the idea of trains, but I think that's plausible for any game. I think if you're grouping under the criterion of "trains" then that's theme rather than mechanic. That's why I think War actually is a fairly suitable fit for the category of wargame because it is a game of two sides sparring against one another using some sort of system, even if it's pure luck.

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OK, I guess I get that, but if someone is buying a real "train game" thinking it'll be like Ticket to Ride without any sort of research I think they have it coming. When I buy games I try to read as much information and review as possible and even then I still stress over multiple choices or whether to even get the one game or not.

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Three lesser-known games that my group loves are Innovation, Libertalia, and Tobago.

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Jeez Thesp, are your games heavy enough?

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Las Vegas is a very simple game that is high on my wishlist.

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Played BAHOTH twice today, was traitor in both, won one lost one. Nothing really new to say, of course it is unbalanced but it's just such a fun experience.

Also played Guillotine, and everyone enjoyed it, so I'll definitely look to pick that up soon.

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I lost one of the Love Letter cubes. It is very sad

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I think, should I buy it, it will get better with time as we get more familiar with the cards. It was our first playthrough so we were all overwhelmed with choices.

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Suburbia does sound very interesting, but I've heard that there is a lot of bookkeeping since so many of the tiles can work together and continue to do so throughout turns and thus I'm hesitant about trying it.

Also, does anyone attending college know if their library has board games? Mine does in it's "talk zone"; stuff like Risk, Settlers, and Carcassone are out on a more public shelf, but I've seen stuff like the Alhambra Big Box and Bohnanza hidden in the shelves of Media Services. Unfortunately I've never seen anyone play them, so I don't know if they're even getting a lot of use.

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I love the concept of Tsuro but I don't think it is worth the price.

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That's definitely a good discussion topic: games you need to try with your group before you buy.

Mine is, of course, Stone Age. Loved it when I played it online myself, but my friends could not grasp the complexity of it and I think they are just generally ambivalent about worker placements on the whole (we did play Kingsburg with some success but it definitely wasn't BAHOTH-style "this game is amazing" or even Guillotine-level "that was fun.").

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I think Pandemic also has quarterbacking issues, so Forbidden Island being a lite version of that only means it is worse. I own it, and when I played it with my friends the first time, one not only easily grasped the rules, he took over in directing decisions and such.

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Flawless?

Go find the "Slide" token real quick for me. You know, it's the arbitrarily-shaped black token with white lettering. Should be pretty easy to find.

But I will not deny that this is a major revelation and a pinnacle of BAHOTHology

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Our group loves it, and we were able to snag the in-demand game for $50 recently. I think what makes it so fun is the randomness and evolution of your own story aside from the Haunt. For example, on my last playthrough a player new to the game created an incredibly long pathway that led to the Underground Lake. Plus it seems like even if you manage to play all 50 scenarios, by the time you repeat it'll be a different experience, of course.

If you don't think balance is a problem, though, you have to consider the fact that the 2nd edition didn't really improve on the 1st, which is a shame because of those gosh darn tokens. :/

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Wow! This needs a bump!

Has anyone played any of the Spiel des Jahres nominees this year (Camel Up, Concept, Splendor)? All three of them look interesting, though I think my group would go for Concept way before Camel Up and then way way before Splendor.

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THESP

OUT OF ALL THOSE GAMES

I WANT TO KNOW HOW GOOD PLUCKIN' PAIRS IS

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7 wonders was what I was going to recommend. I haven't played it, but from what I've heard it sounds like a good fit for your group.

...man, I need to get it.

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I have more limited experience than sthar8, but I"ve seen traitorous concepts go both ways. The Resistance and Werewolves of Millers' Hollow was one of my first gaming purchases, but they NEVER gets played because my group hates traitorous concepts. However, this past New Year's Eve we were at a board game store party and we sat next to a table playing Bang!, there were some children involved and they seemed to be having a blast. Of course, Bang!s "traitor" element is revealed pretty early on, but it has joined Resistance and Werewolves in their disuse because of it.

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I thought a bunch of these were super clever.

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Anyone played Machi Koro and have opinions?

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EBWOP: Oops, I guess Machi Koro isn't out yet, or at least not in stock? lol. The BGG says 2012 but it's up for preorder on Amazon.

To me it seems like a lighter, luckier version of Suburbia.

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How true is it that everyone likes seven wonders? I've been considering it forever but I have yet to bite the bullet and just buy it. My group likes Settlers, TtR and Tobago, and Kingsburg also got a rating of "OK."

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Welp, after a long purchase-less summer, I finally committed and bought 7 Wonders, Lifeboats, and Primordial Soup. All three were in my top ten wishlist for the holidays, so I think now I only have Kingsburg, Bazaar, Dragon's Gold, and Pluckin' Pairs left from that, lol.

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I forgot to say that 7 Wonders actually went over really well. Of course the initial hurdle is all the symbolization but once that's learned it's a great game.

I also got to play Lifeboats with a full compliment of six, and I guess small-town midwesterners are just too nice for deceptive strategy games of alliance and such? It was neat but it didn't really go over well because no one was willing to get mean.

What are people's opinions on Smash Up and it's expansions?

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what are some opinions on

duck! duck! go!
fearsome floors

and smash up since no one answered last time.

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bang!

i've heard lots of good things about battlestar galactica

liar's dice, of course of course

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Anyone have experience with

Among the Stars

? It seems like it mixes the card drafting of 7 wonders with a bit of the tile-laying that Suburbia uses.

Also,

Jamaica

is $30 (plus shipping) at Miniature Market; you can bet I snapped that up real quick (maybe a bit impulsively).

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A light game about racing pirate ships. The winner isn't necessarily the fastest around the island, but instead the one with the most gold.

The basic mechanic is that the "Captain" rolls two dice, and then puts one on the "Morning" spot and the other on the "Evening" spot. Each player then chooses a card from their three-card hand to play. These cards each have a Morning and Evening action which involve the number rolled on the dice (for example, "move X spaces forward", "take X number of doubloons").

I also noticed that Sushi Go! is back in stock on amazon so it's in my cart and I may choose to purchase it later this week.

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There's the Miami Dice episode for Jamaica if you are interested.

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that's really strange, imo. It seems to have so many options that I think it might end up being our groups favorite game.

Everyone has their own tastes though.

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Thanks CD! I have to admit that's exactly what I wanted to hear though, so maybe that jades me a little.

Also I think I have finally organized my collection in one place but that place is a dark closet (gotta preserve box quality! jk) so once I get one of those little lights for the closet I might post a picture of my meager collection.

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Steam Park

is on sale at Miniature Market for $25 (well, $33 with the lowest shipping).

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just put Steam Park together.

so much cardboard

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Played a real entertaining game of 7 Wonders with 6 players, 5 of which had played before and the 6th was familiar with board games and drafting.

They suggested

Boss Monster

and

Eldritch Horror

, neither of which I think is a good fit for our group. Boss Monster is great for the video game theme but it does seem like a pretty simple puzzle that will tire quickly. Eldritch Horror even though it is simpler than Arkham still seems really complex and finicky for our group.

Anyone have experience with

Revolution!

? I've heard about it for a while but didn't watch a review til tonight and it looks pretty good.

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I'm curious: how "successful" was your punch-out and construct session? Ultimately everything got together but there are definitely more than a few rips and tears. I think part of one of the sides of the Black 1-seater wasn't even perforated so that's created an interesting shape. :/

PEDIT: Grey don't forget that red chips are -1 point IIRC. And also if you have collected a consecutive streak of cards only the lowest card counts. But I totally agree that it's a fantastic game and definitely on my wishlist.

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The problem I always have with BSW is that I can never get it to work. Like just now all was going smoothly until my security settings apparently blocked it.. *sigh*

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Just got

Eight Minute Empire: Legends

and

Enigma

from the CSI sale.

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could you link to some more information digi? all I'm finding is a documentary about oranges or something.

Also I think I'm really in to

Cosmic Encounter

right now and I'm curious as to everyone else's thoughts. Basically I'm worried that it might not go over well 'cause it's pretty personal; like Resistance and Lifeboats don't do so well but the basic mass-market Survivor game and the trading part of Settlers do.

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Could Cosmic encounter work on forum/Vassal/BSW?

I think my first playthrough would be like 3-6 players, probably more likely lower numbers. But it's literally $46 and that would be the most I would have ever spent on a board game. (I know, I'm fortunate/cheap. The most I've ever spent is like $41 for

Stone Age

, which never gets played. :'( Anyone wanna trade?)

Speaking of which I woke up this morning and Amazon sent me mail telling me

Felix the Cat in the Sack

was on sale but it was still $35

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Small World also has an app.

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i would play powergrid with y'all if you teach me how

EDIT: OR SOMETHING ELSE

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So I was in a clean-y mood tonight and I organized my board games. My storage closet has three shelves so I organized them into three "tiers" based on a combination of how much I like them and how likely they are to get played. The bottom tier is essentially stuff that I would sell or trade for a different game.

Spoiler: Top Tier

7 Wonders
Betrayal at House on the Hill
Coloretto
Innovation
Jamaica
Liar's Dice
Libertalia
Rapid Recall
Saint Malo
Settlers of Catan
Survive: Escape from Atlantis
Survivor: The Game
Steam Park (it hasn't been played yet, but right now it's here)
Tobago
Yahtzee

Spoiler: Middle Tier

5 Second Rule
Anomia
Buzzword
Chupacabra: Survive the Night!
Fluxx
Forbidden Island
Hedbandz
Lifeboats
Primordial Soup
Saboteur
Sequence
Size Matters
Werewolves of Millers' Hollow

Spoiler: Bottom Tier

Bang!
Bohnanza
Catchphrase
The Game of Things
Quelf
The Resistance
Stone Age
Swap!
Topple

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I don't dislike Bohnanza. Maybe I've just been unlucky with it, but I've never played anything other than the 2-player variant. I've had it for over a year so it's bottom tier.

The Game of Things is kind of neat I guess, but it's kind of fiddly with all the paper and such. I'd much prefer playing it on here or somewhere else electronically. Also I have recently realized that the cards can be used for other hilarious ventures. However, when I was organizing everything I opened to find that half the cards were still in shrink wrap, lol

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Like I've said before, my group just doesn't really care for traitor-based games like Mafia or the Resistance. I think it was one of the first games I bought but despite it's simplicity our group has only played it once.

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Bought

Hanabi

and

Augustus

(and also some paper plate holders because those two were too cheap for free shipping).

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What type of people do you need though? Because our group is fairly close, like close enough to be able to lie and backstab and get over it, if that makes sense. But they don't like to socially strategize. :/

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This game looks so cool but it's totally flown under my radar.

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it's supposed to be sink terruh right?

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it is actually Italian! it refers to an areaon the southwestern coast of italy. I guess there's a pronunciation there, I shan't have been so lazy.

cheenk-way tehr-ay, I guess.

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I am kittymaster9000 on BoardGameArena (also Chevre but I prefer to use KM9000.)

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I'll play any game with the expectation that I probably will not fully understand and thus play very suboptimally. Like my first game of Takenoko was a hot mess and probably tarnished my opinion on that game.

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CDB is Sushi Draft a different game from Sushi Go!?

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Thurn and Taxis

opinions anyone?

BTW I just unboxed

Hanabi

and

Augustus

. I love how succinct and concise Hanabi is even in it's box. Also the components for Augustus are super good and I'm excited to see how it goes.

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I'll play something, but like I've said before I'll likely be new to whatever we choose.

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I think I have it down, so I'll be game later tonight

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I have no personal experience but I know

Mystery of the Abbey

often gets hyped as "Clue on steroids", so that might be worth research.

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Went to a board game store's halloween party and played a bunch of games!

Augustus

- my group loves it. So simple and fun. A little too quick though.

Hanabi

- Contrarily and surprisingly, my group hated it! The stress and tension of a cooperative game just doesn't seem great for them.

Kill Doctor Lucky

- Someone introduced to us, and it was actually super fun.

Smash Up

- Wow. This is much more complex than I thought it would be. Like most every card has a different action, and the bases do different things, and then these interact with other cards you lay down...it's like figuring out a story problem on every card lay, which I'm not sure I like. It's really fun to pick factions though when all the different expansions are available.

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Amazon is having a sale on Ravensburger items, mostly puzzles, but also a few highly-acclaimed games:

Castles of Burgundy
Bora Bora
Scotland Yard

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Is

Dominion: Intrigue

any more difficult than basic

Dominion

? BGG says it's better, and the sale at MM puts it one dollar cheaper than the original base game.

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Thank you!

There are some good deals about on sites like Cardhaus and MM (for example both have Rise of Augustus at like ~13 which is wow) and also Target (TtR and SoC are 32, Tapple and Telestrations are 9.99 and I hope to capitalize.). Hope y'all take advantage!

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I asked about it earlier, and CDB had some thoughts:

Anyone have experience with

Among the Stars

? It seems like it mixes the card drafting of 7 wonders with a bit of the tile-laying that Suburbia uses.

I like Among the Stars quite a lot, and that's a pretty good description. I much prefer it to 7 Wonders thanks to greater reactions to what every other player is doing, and it's breezier than Suburbia but Suburbia fans won't find it in danger of supplanting that game in the way that it has supplanted 7 Wonders for me in terms of a card-drafting game.

I still think it looks good but I've been pretty low-key on board game purchases right now so haven't snagged it yet.

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Yeah. Sushi Go! Was literally in my Amazon Cart at one point but I didn't commit because it seemed like such a simple implementation of the drafting mechanic, and I was like, why go backwards from 7 wonders?

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Suburbia

is $27 plus shipping (I think it varies on location, was $8 for me) at Miniature Market. It's $45 (which qualifies for free shipping) on Amazon.

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Boardgamearena is where I fell in love with Libertalia and Stone Age and Coloretto.

Tokaido is great too.

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Tokaido seems like the perfect game if you want something zen, because you're always collecting things. If you like stress, panic, and hard choices, this probably isn't the right game.

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Taking all the unplayed games to my friends for the weekend:
Steam Park
Telestrations
Enigma
Suburbia
Pass the Popcorn
Bang! the Dice Game
The Castles of Burgundy

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I've tried to introduce Bohnanza several times, but my friends can't get over the goofy game art. :/

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Amazon does occasional deals on board games. IIRC they did do some board games on sale as part of their regular sales.

but yes. get 7 wonders. I find that it has the widest appeal and is fun every time.

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Wow, for some reason I'm really surprised Reck liked Concept. I need to get that game.

I didn't receive any games for Christmas, it's too hard to educate my gift-giving masses ;P Instead, I bought myself Word on the Street, Cash 'n' Guns and Dragon's Gold.

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We have to wait until it goes on sale again

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If we ever do want to do that Tabletop Simulator night, anyone who's interested should grab it on Steam right now while it's on sale. Only $9.99 until July 4th!

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I've had success with:
- 7 Wonders
- Libertalia
- Settlers of Catan

Other good choices:
- Shadow Hunters
- Stone Age
- Lords of Waterdeep

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I should probably get Widow's Walk, given how Betrayal is one of my group's favorites and I'll be seeing them around 'Ween time.

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Games I'm taking for Halloweekend:

7 Wonders (easy to explain and always a hit)
Betrayal at House on the Hill (with expansion, I'm hype!)
Concept (tons of fun)
Cosmic Encounter (eh?)
Codenames (regular AND Deep Undercover, they've never played before but I'm sure they'll go straight for that one :/ )
Coloretto
Bang! the Dice Game
Machi Koro
Liars' Dice

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also I have Jackbox Party Pack 3 and Trivia Murder Party looks PERFECT for the occasion

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I've said it once, I'll say it again:

Stone Age gets billed as the worker placement gateway but I tried introducing it to my friends and in doing so forever soiled the term "worker placement". While I have no evidence I agree with Reck that Lords of Waterdeep is a better choice.

(Also Stone Age is technically dice placement, but semantics blah blah blah)

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https://goo.gl/YWMvSI

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My recommendations SUCK...Game of Life SCREW OFF

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I get that I'm not high-complexity...but I'm also not roll-and-move boo

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I played my copy of Mysterium for the first time this weekend! Lots of fun.

Also played Machi Koro. Really goes from slow to fast as quintessentially as possible. Don't know if I like it though.

Real new standout for me was Valley of the Kings. Neat little deckbuilder with the pyramid setup and the tomb mechanic. I bombed the first game but I feel like I learned a lot and was able to do really well in the second.

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I think Azul looks pretty interesting!

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Does anyone have the 7 Wonders app? I just got it on android and seems like it might be fun to play with people.

Also the games are really quick, so it's totally fine against AI.

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4.99

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WE PLAYED INNOVATION AGAIN THIS WEEKEND AND I FORGOT HOW FUN IT IS!!!!

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not the worst idea you've had

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Dallas. Fort Worth. Dallas-Fort Worth?

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"my way of having fun is better than yours"

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After years of owning it I finally played Castles of Burgundy with a group. It pretty much meets all the descriptions. Loose kind of white-bread theme but full of interesting choices and decisions.

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Good dice games (my wife may not agree):

Perudo/Liar's Dice - Fucking fantastic. Liar's dice is one of the best games ever. The only components are 5 dice/person, and the only things you do is roll them and then try to guess how many there are. Dice isn't just the main mechanic, it's the only mechanic, and it's pretty nasty strategy. Feels like a game of mafia at times.
Bora Bora - great worker placement game, dice add a nice bit of positioning/planning. Tons of strategy.
Can't Stop - I can spend 30 minutes rolling dice for games of Can't Stop. Dumb, but hell, I love it. Really grasps the essence of push your luck. It's a slot machine simulator, but it's one that makes me laugh.
Mage Wars - custom dice, but definitely important to resolution mechanics.

Look, there, four dice games that I'd happily play any time. I am never unhappy to play a round of Liar's Dice. Machi Koro just sucks.

I'll add Dice Throne, Sagrada, Roll for the Galaxy, and Kingsburg to this list as not only "dice games" I'm happy to play, but games that are in contention for GOAT in my opinion

Mentioning Kingsburg...I don't know if you know but there's Kingsport Festival, which is a bunch like Kingsburg but with a Lovecraftian theme. It's really good.

Love Liar's Dice, Can't Stop (which is not in print? but I've now been inspired to try to laser-cut a board and 3D print markers because it's THAT good), and Sagrada's real nice too if your mind works like that.

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Hey everyone! I was at a board game convention this weekend and have hot thoughts on a bunch of games!

Calico

– This was my must-play, top of my list, and so of course we played it first. I had watched Before You Play’s playthrough for it but had no actual experience because it was sold out. Roommates loved the theme with the quilts and cute cats. As expected, Calico is a furious puzzler in a cute package. I would strike up one plan only to be distracted by another plan or thrown off by what tiles were up for grabs. This is probably a must-purchase for me; it’s just too good to pass up.

ICECOOL

– I had heard a lot of good things about this, but my group had 0 experience with dexterity games, so this was kind of an overwhelming experience. Especially the way the boxes become the board (though my roommate was disappointed in the lack of variability for the board)! ICECOOL had us up and around our table as we tried to flick our penguins. It was an experience but I think we found it more a novelty than anything. The scoring is too random and we hadn’t really nailed our flicking technique.

Takenoko

– So we saw this one being played during ICECOOL and my roommate was attracted to the cute panda (amazingly, it wasn’t the deluxe version so she has eagle eyes!). I knew about Takenoko since I started playing board games since it was a very early BGA game, but I think I tried it there and didn’t quite grasp the strategy. Which was weird because now that we’re many years in, Takenoko is very parsible. It’s an interesting concept where you don’t really “own” any area, but you can kind of watch what other players are doing and grasp it from there, if you care to block it. Possibly a purchase? It just feels silly because it’s been out for so long.

Roll for the Galaxy

– This is the spiciest one! So my other roommate had heard that Race for the Galaxy was good, and also pointed out this one too, but I’ve always been sort of hesitant around them. I don’t think of it as a very receptive theme for our group. I watched a tutorial video in the morning before we played, but the teaching was rough. Explaining a mechanic where you’re picking secretly is always tough, and Roll for the Galaxy’s is complicated, especially if you’re not familiar with the phase structure. At a point though, we sort of “broke through” the frustration and kind of got what was going on (though the “Ship” action still boggled our brains). It’s weirdly maybe my third-choice pick to buy though? I’m very intrigued to play it again.

Can’t Stop

– Sigh . . . so if you are on the Discord you know I’m a Can’t Stop STAN. I love the play games on Can’t Stop, as I feel the quick automated nature is just perfect. However . . . my roommates were not into it. I explained the rules and they were just kind of like, “that’s it?” and then as I rolled the dice and calculated and failed to stop, they were still kind of boggled. Just a total mismatch and their least favorite game of the convention. I guess that’s good, because since Can’t Stop is out of print I was going to try to laser-cut a board or something, but that’s work I don’t have to do now! And I’ll always have BGA.

Clank! In! Space!

– So we have original Clank! And it was kind of a lock that we would give this second version a try. However, when I watched the tutorial for it I was kind of worried. It’s a bit more complex than Clank standard, which threw me off but I mean, it increasing in features makes sense. Of course, since we love original Clank!, this was a good experience. I thought it was a tad better paced. However, this is maybe the winner of the worst rulebook? The original’s isn’t great, but this one straight-up failed to explain symbols or what some items might be used for. Granted, with our familiarity we didn’t read through the full thing, but it was very easy to miss that escaped or eliminated players still pulled cubes and thus we kind of pondered if you were immortal at the endgame. It was a good time but I don’t know if it’s top of my list, especially when we have the original.

Cinque Terre

– So I’ve been interested in this one for several years; it’s an out-of-print game with Ticket to Ride vibes in that it has different colored resources and objectives to complete. This was at the end of night two so we were plenty tired, but it just didn’t hit right. I love the style of this game; it’s vibrant and colorful and so ~Italian.~ However, if we were playing the game right, the play itself is so repetitive that it just didn’t go well. I think part of it is that as you get better you’re able to multitask better and take less turns to accomplish things, but we were tired newbies and it was a lot of trips around Italy for us! Couldn’t buy it if I wanted to, but I really would pass on this one.

Mariposas

– My roommate saw this one almost immediately on the Swap Meet table and I was shocked to see Elizabeth Hargrave of Wingspan was the designer! I had no idea she released another one. We didn’t buy that copy but played one from the library. In a recurring theme, Mariposas is an incredibly pretty game but Wingspan it is not. The trickiest thing is that some of the strategy of Mariposas isn’t really apparent or spelled out; you’re supposed to do a sort of shuttle-run up the Eastern United States and back but the game doesn’t explicitly tell you this, and it’s tricky to gauge timing, especially on your first game. I think it’s something I might revisit next time, but I also don’t know how much replay value it actually has.

Isle of Cats

– Isle of Cats! This one was incredibly popular as I saw people playing it throughout the convention and I’m glad we were able to get to it on Sunday afternoon. I didn’t know how receptive my group would be to a polyomino tile-laying game like this, but Isle of Cats makes up for any apprehensions with a TON of charm in the artwork and a really compelling play loop with a ton of interesting choices. A bit of card management can make it a little tricky at times, but I think this is my second choice to buy (imagine that, the two cat games are my top two! XD)

Spring Meadow

– I didn’t actually play this, but I just want to vent that I severely wanted to and looked for it every time I went to the game library, but it was apparently MISSING. UGGGGGH might still buy anyway because I love the video I watched.

But yeah, it was a ton of fun! Who knows if it was the healthiest choice in the midst of all this but it was happening at the same time as the 60,000+ attendee Garth Brooks concert in the same city soooooo

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Hey y'all, I went to the Great Plains Gaming Festival in Lincoln this weekend, and wanted to report what I played (or tried to play) and what we thought. It was record-breaking attendance which was exciting to see!

Friday

• Aquatica
  - Aquatica was huge at the festival last year, but we didn't get a chance to play it. It's a neat card game where you're playing roles and chaining effects to get the best results. It wasn't like, the best experience I had during the weekend, but it was still very good. It definitely hit a point where it seemed like the game was ending and we had to make do with the turns we had left.
  
• Agricola
  - A big boy! My friends were shocked that we had never played Agricola before, but alas. It was the weightiest game we played, but I was shocked at how easy it was to explain. I guess all that weight comes from the breadth of what to do and the tightness. Will definitely draft the cards next time we play, as I think some lopsided hands contributed to the end score. Still very fun despite the tenseness. I would purchase but I'm really enamored by how the original version had like a billion cards, and the 2016 revised edition only has a few from the original.
  
• Chinatown
  - One of the biggest things I learned this weekend is that our group can't really grok with loose rules. I wanted a trading game on our list because we like
  Catan
  and
  Bohnanza
  , but the looseness of Chinatown didn't work. I should've seen it coming because we also don't like Cosmic Encounter. I also don't know if Chinatown really works at 3, it could've been better with more.
  
• Imhotep
  - I thought this would kind of be a slam dunk when I was researching, but I think we were too tired to appreciate it. It's maybe a bit too simple for our liking? It has a sense of Coloretto vibes but I almost think it's too random. It's very hard to think about maximizing your results for every location. I also lost this one pretty badly, so what do I know lol

Saturday

• Wordsy
  - I entered in the Wordsy tournament, which had for its prize a trip to the finals tournament at Gen Con. This was really a game I could research and almost practice beforehand, but I still didn't net the win. I think I actually really choked in the last two rounds of the finals game and just let the win slip by, as I lost on the tiebreaker. Any which way, it was really interesting and I actually got challenged on two words: PROSELYTIZING and KILLIFISHES, so that was pretty cool. (The eventual winner used BELTCHED as a word in his first game and I didn't challenge it and it wouldn't have affected anything but I'm SALTY ok)
  
• Burger Up
  - This is what my friends played while I was in Wordsy. It was a "play-to-win" which meant you could check it out from the library then have a chance to win it at a later date. When I made my way to the table afterward, it looked really neat. Pretty simple and I didn't think it was exactly innovating on anything, but pretty cool and a likable theme.
  
• The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine
  - Maybe the defining moment of the festival, in a very bad way lol. As someone who does a lot of research into board games, I looked at The Crew and saw a neat coop game with a simple concept that was really going to work for our group. It did not. It turns out we hadn't had any experience with trick-taking, which led to a really bad experience when The Crew's first mission wants you to have ONE player win ONE specific trick. It's hard to know what to do with the other 12 cards in your hand! When I taught it and we weren't getting it, someone actually walked back and looked interesting and I asked them if they would teach to see if they could explain any better. They did, but it still didn't work for us. :/ I guess Hanabi was also very similar, so it's maybe just a thing with co-op games.
  
• Dune: Imperium
  - And then after The Crew, Dune: Imperium was lovely! I think going into the festival I was apprehensive that I really just liked dry euro-y stuff, but now I'm realizing that's firmly where we want to live (see: Viticulture next). Anyway, Dune: Imperium is a wonderful game and I love what it pulls from other games. Deckbuilding, worker placement, space ownership -- even the low point totals seems pulled from Catan. It was just very definite in all of it, which I think was welcome after the wishiwashiness of The Crew.
  
• Viticulture
  - We encountered some acquaintances at this point, and they taught us Viticulture, which was my most anticipated play but I'm very glad we had people familiar with the game to teach it for us. Wow. Viticulture is just such a brilliant experience. I had kind of looked at it and been like "ok but what it makes it so special?" and like, just everything matters in it without being stressful like Agricola. There's so many interesting aspects and every choice pushes you forward. Sometimes you feel like the game is completely out of reach but then you'll surge into the lead. It was a really awesome experience at 5. I've purchased it with Dune: Imperium as I feel these were really the biggest highlights of the experience.
  
• Libertalia
  - Like, obviously I know Libertalia but our acquaintances did not so we had to teach them. Libertalia is such an inviting game to teach, as it's easy to explain AND everyone has the same hand of cards so there's no "how do I ask you this question without revealing what I have." It's so charming and simple. I'll also take this moment to talk about the Stonemaier re-release of it, which I like but my friends are not into the animal-sky-pirates aesthetic. It also has some game choices that we're finding the original game, if not more fair, handled more elegantly.
  
• Echidna Shuffle
  - This was another "play-to-win" that everyone was giving a shot because it has great table presence with the big chunky echidna figurines. It's very much a kids game and a guy game by to tell us to play it VERY aggressively but we had none of that at like 11:00 p.m. lol. Cute but not for us in the long run.
  
• Dixit
  - Our group had never played Dixit before but it was a good way to cap off the night! Super simple concept. The biggest issue was that because three of us knew each other really well, there's a chance that we could easily reference an inside joke that we know about and quickly both score. I did that my first clue-giving round but stopped afterward because it just didn't seem as fun.

Sunday

• Dimension
  - Dimension was another Gen Con tournament I played in . . . and another one in which I got second lolz. This tournament was more complicated than the Wordsy one, having several prelim rounds that really helped familiarize me with play. There were also like, children playing and succeeding, which was pretty cool. The final round was really phenomenal in that all four players played pretty spectacularly, with the winner being pretty incredible at the game.
  
• Chronicles of Crime: 1400
  - This was the game my friends played with our acquaintances whilst I was in the tournament. I have the OG Chronicles of Crime but have not broke it out yet, so I'm glad they had the chance to try it out. They didn't love it, but I think we'd be interested to see how it goes just the three of us. It's also something I can play solo if I really want to, so I'm not super concerned.
  
• Codenames: Duet
  - While one of my friends was out getting food, me and the other friend played this. We had played original Codenames, so it's not really that different, but it seemed like a really good way to adapt the game for 2.
  
• Everdell
  - This is another one that caught our eye with its table presence. HOWEVER . . . it's a strange one. I like it's concept for seasons (not as much as Viticulture though), but if you have a rough start that means it carries with you throughout. I think the idea is that people being in different seasons really affects what spots are open, but it didn't. I leapt out to an early advantageous position with Occupied pairings and didn't look back. The score was closer than I was expecting, though, so I don't know. What I can say is that the table presence is cool and the components are very lovely, so if that gets you, maybe it's worth it!

That's it! I did also grab

Abandon All Artichokes

in the swap meet, and we got

BATTLECON: War of Indines

,

Stellar Leap

, and

Outlawed

as freebies. We'll have to see how those go!