Board Games!

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We lost our last new thread talking about board games, so here's a new one.

BGG.Con registrations will open soon. It's a big gaming convention in Dallas, Texas from November 14-18. We usually have a few scummers (mostly oldtimers), an last year I know we had at least 6. It's easily the highlight of my year every year, and it's always been a blast. They have a fairly active werewolf crew as well. Is anyone else joining us for this throwdown?

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I want to play Eclipse.
I hated Ora Et Labora (which is a shame, as I love Le Havre & Agricola). A friend of mine really likes it, though.
I enjoy Through the Ages, and it's probably fantastic with several people who will play it semi-regularly, so you don't have to re-explain the rules each time. It's particularly great with 2-3.

Of course, my favorite game for 2-3 is Race for the Galaxy, and it's worth trying if you haven't yet.

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I hated Ora Et Labora (which is a shame, as I love Le Havre & Agricola). A friend of mine really likes it, though.

Would you mind expanding on this? I'm hearing conflicting things looking around, with some people saying it "makes Le Havre and Agricola redundant" and being a huge return to form for Uwe, while others are saying it's shallower and a lot worse. It's hard to get a read on what sort of game it actually is.

I'd be happy to! I will confess that we only tried the short game. In any case, it did feel similar mechanically to Le Havre, and it didn't add anything I particularly liked. There is an awkward development tree of goods and buildings, and it's very hard to get a feel for what other players can do/are doing. Essentially, it felt like a way more fiddly version of Le Havre. I'd be willing to try it again, but I have no strong desire to do so.

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What are some staple board games? I've heard some people mention Settlers and Puerto Rico as possibilities, but what are some solid games that everyone should have in their collection? (And I don't mean Monopoly and Clue).

I recommend Settlers of Catan, though everyone else doesn't necessarily. A pretty good guide could be the Speil des Jahres winners. I'm not familiar with Niagara, Torres, or Villa Paletti, but everything else from 1993 onward is solid.

I find Settlers mildly amusing enough to play it once in a while, Carcassonne is pretty junk in my opinion, but I'm a huge fan of 7 Wonders which I have yet to tire of and recommend highly; I'm intrigued by the expansion(s) as well but haven't gotten it yet.

I enjoy 7 Wonders: Leaders a great deal and recommend it for those who like 7 Wonders. It won't make you like the game if you didn't already, but it adds a bit of variety to an already great game.

I disagree with the hate for Settlers of Catan. It's still one of my favorite games, and is an excellent gateway game. It will be what you make of it, and some people don't care for it (which I understand), but the interaction it allows with the tension and trading can be great.

Some of my friends want to play Settlers of Catan with me. Any good tips?

Oh and I think they want to play Catan: Cities and Knights too. Strategies would be awesome.

Start with the base game first. Play it about 3 times before trying Cities & Knights. C&K can be overwhelming if it's your first time. The base game is not. (That said, C&K is by far my favorite way to play Settlers.) As far as advice goes, watch what you're trading, but don't hesitate to trade. Trading almost always benefits the two players who are trading to the detriment of the other players at the table. And make sure you have a reason you're trading for something.

also does anyone want to teach me twilight struggle
i'm pretty certain it's my next purchase and i kinda get how the game works from reading the manual a lot but i haven't really had experience with it

If you take a trip out to Jackson, MS, I'll do it gladly!

TBQH, I'm a little "ehhh" looking at Resistance & Cosmic Encounter... thoughts on these games?

Also that Dominion question still stands

The Resistance will go over well with people who like mafia, and seems to be an easier way to grasp the mechanic of hidden traitors. Cosmis Encounter works great with 5-6 people who are actively involved. If you don't have that, it may bomb.

I like the First Game setup in Dominion for teaching new players. there appear three different approaches you can take to victory in it.

And as much as I love Puzzle Strike, Dominion is considerably more accessible.

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there appear three different approaches you can take to victory in it.

What 3?

Also: any point in buying the TTR expansions? They look like just slight mods on the same game to me

Only if you really like TTR. (We do, and have most of the expansions.) They are different takes on the same theme, with minor variances to keep things interesting. I prefer the Marklin map (and Europe is my least favorite), but I seem to be in the minority on that. I haven't tried the India map yet.

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Hah. Europe is definitely more time-consuming than the base USA map with the tunnels and ferries. I quite enjoyed it on Europe, though I think getting more familiar with the map will make it even more enjoyable. Right now it's a bit overwhelming with how many different routes there are and how long it takes to get places. Why do you dislike the Europe map so much?

I do not like the limited number of long tickets in Europe, nor do I like the station concept. I still enjoy it, but not as much as the others. (That said, I doubt I'd turn down a game!)

By the way -- at what point in TTR do you pick up more tickets, usually?

What mykonian said:

I've been taking another one as soon as I didn't think it likely that my route's would get blocked soon.

On the US map, if I'm going heavily in the East, I'll often do it early so that my next tickets will help dictate what routes I take to my first locations.

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there appear three different approaches you can take to victory in it.

What 3?

I forgot to answer this: Villages & Smithies, Remodeling lots o' crap, and Militas 4eva seem to be the most common three approaches, each interesting in their own ways.

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I concur with pj and hasdgfas on Arkham Horror. It's extraordinarily rare where there's a game where we're not making significant choices. The variety of potential win conditions in particular can have an effect on what routes to pursue.

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If anyone is interested in playing Hanabi online, let me know.

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My wife and I have enjoyed the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game a lot. We've got two characters through the third arc, and two who are just about to start the third arc. It's been a blast - I've enjoyed taking a character in deck form and progressing their abilities and deck contents throughout the game.

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I've played Caverna, Suburbia, and Le Havre. I love Le Havre tremendously, and Suburbia is fantastic as well. From my one play of Caverna, I'm not yet sure how much I like it, but I definitely do enjoy it. I think I'm going to like it better than Agricola, but not for as long as Agricola. (I think Agricola has more depth in the long run, though Caverna is better in the short run. I don't know how long that "short run" is, it might be quite a while.)

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I played Fleet this weekend. It is pretty good. (I am also a sucker for engine-building games.)

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So, who's going to BGG.Con this year? I know of a few people who are going that have been on these boards in the past. Who else is in? It's always the highlight of my year - my wife and I make it a point to go every time. (This will be our 7th year, I think.)

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Hello! I'm still fairly new to the site, but I play a lot of boards games! I run a club where we just buy board games and play a lot. Been into Smash Up! and Carcassonne recently.

What are some good ones I probably haven't played yet? Some popular ones among this group?

There is such a variety of games out there, it's hard to say what you'll like and what you won't like. My Top Ten consists of:
#1: Race for the Galaxy: The Brink of War
#2: Bridge
#3: Brass
#4: Mage Knight Board Game
#5: Le Havre
#6: Railways of the World
#7: Rolling Freight
#8: Dominion
#9: Power Grid
#10: Agricola
However, tastes will vary. I don't know what to tell you based on your like of Smash Up!, as I didn't care for that game. If you liked Carcassonne, you may want to try Alhambra, Cities, or Indigo.

(From the games listed by others here in the last few posts, I enjoy them all, but would probably wait to try Terra Mystica, as it's quite heavy. I did enjoy Tales of Arabian Nights tremendously, though it's a bit different in terms of game experience - it's more of a Choose Your Own Adventure.)

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Thesp have you played TI, Fortune and Glory, or Talisman?

I've played Twilight Imperium (3rd edition) and enjoyed it, though I imagine it'll be hard for me to play it in lieu of Eclipse given the choice. I haven't played Fortune & Glory yet, though I've heard good things about it. What's it like? I played the original Talisman a long time ago and hated it. I don't know if the new edition is any better or not. What do you think of them?

And yes, I love me some heavy games. I'm always up for a game of Brass online, if anyone wants to play on orderofthehammer.com .

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TI gets way more balanced with the second expansion. And you should check out TI:Rex for a standalone conquest game. I hear the rules are very similar to the old Dune boardgame.

I hated the old Dune boardgame, so that may not be a plus for me. =P Will definitely check out Fortune & Glory, though.

Have you played Mage Knight, by chance? I think that scratches whatever itch Talisman would fill for me.

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Hmmm. So apparently the Tzolkin expansion ups the player count to five, which was one of the main things holding me back.

Anyone have experience with the game? Is it any good?

Also curious about Seasons, because it kind of looks like drafting dice, and that makes me giddy.

Everyone else seemed to enjoy T'zolkin more than I did. (I think it has one too many moving parts - pun intended.) I do enjoy Seasons a good bit, though. The drafting of cards is more important than the drafting of dice, but I enjoy both aspects of the game.

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So Tzolkin was overly complex in your mind? Or what?

There were a lot of different resources and tracks that you had to keep up with. I'm usually pretty good about keeping several things juggled at once, but this felt to me like needless extra parts and paths to pursue that didn't need to be there. I will note that I was in the minority in the group on this thought, and most of the others loved it.

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I'm also a huge fan of Suburbia. I appreciate that it plays quite differently with any number of players, but is a fantastic game with any of 2, 3, or 4.

On Agricola vs. Caverna, I

think

I like Caverna slightly more, but I think Agricola is a more diverse game over the long haul, simply because of the variety of occupations and minor improvements that aren't present in Caverna. In Caverna, the round cards might have a slightly different order to them, but that's it. In Agricola, you have this as well, plus the variety of Occupations/Minor Improvements. I own Agricola and see no need to own Caverna as well. If I didn't have either, I'd probably pick up Agricola, but would be happy with either.

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Reck, why haven't you gotten cosmic encounter yet ffs?

I know, I know. I should probably just nut up and buy it. But... I feel like it'd get old with the high randomness of the game. Maybe not, who knows? It does seem pretty perfect for our game group, I'm just not sure it's worth the price tag of $60.

I would definitely try before you buy on that one. It can be a lot of fun, but it requires the right group and mindset, and it can also fall very flat with the wrong people. (And it's not everyone's cup of tea.)

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one of the things I didn't like about Agricola was that I needed something of everything or i'd lose victory points, doesn't caverna fix that? (or it's not a rule). ive only played Agricola once though, thought it was "okay". probably needed a few repeat plays.

There are a few things in Caverna you must have or you'll lose one or two victory points (each type of animal, and unusued spaces cost you), but it's easier to get, and the penalty is significantly less relative to final scores. (In Agricola, winning scores are one-third to half the scores of Caverna.)

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I don't see how that's a negative for Agricola. I guess it leads to bullying/blocking, but just save a VP improvement or something to pick up with Starting Player if you

need

to take an action.

It's not a negative for Agricola at all in my eyes, but it is a different experience which some people might or might not prefer.

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Or, just play a lot of Race for the Galaxy.

Truer words have not been spoken.

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Nice assortment! I'm particularly enjoying the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game lately, which sits at the bottom of your stack.

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My wife and I played Firefly on Easter. Then we played it twice more. Crazy fun! I describe it as a mix between Arkham Horror and Empire Builder. You do have to accept that sometimes luck will punish you or favor you, and if you don't care for games like that this game is not for you.

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There's not such a thing, new games get made all the time, new favorites rise up. Missing out has more to do with the people you are with than with generations. Settlers made big waves in our family and for years it would get played whenever we met. Games like carcassonne or dominion never even found their entrance, even though you might describe them as decent accessible board games. Scumchat got me to play dominion online back when that was readily available. On the brit meet, I saw all kinds of strange games I had never played before and they were fun as well (I made an effort to introduce coup with some family members the weekend after!).

You don't miss out on stuff with this. All you need is people to play with. As for shops, you kind of have to run into them. I doubt there's a lot of profit to make on games, but there's always people who make their hobby into their job and run some small store in a non-prime location. Otherwise, the internet sells everything you could possibly need.

Well said, and I agree!

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ONLINE HANABI? THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING

PM me your email address.

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EDIT: Maybe to say that I don't want any games with a traitor mechanic might be more helpful.

There are quite a few excellent cooperative games without a traitor mechanic out there now. Some of the ones I enjoy are (ranked by my order of preference):
Pathfinder Adventure Card Game
Flash Point: Fire Rescue
Ghost Stories
Arkham Horror
Lord of the Rings
Mice and Mystics
Escape: Curse of the Temple
Pandemic
Forbidden Island

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After having played Kings of Air and Steam twice, I've really enjoyed both plays, even if there's one character in the game we're not keen on. (The other 6 seem to be entertaining.)

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I haven't been able to play any of the SdJ or the kSdJ games yet, to my dismay.

On another note, I played quite a few games just this weekend:
Dominion x 5
Magic: the Gathering x 7
Confusion: Espionage and Deception in the Cold War
Witch's Brew
Web of Power
In the Year of the Dragon
Members Only
Aladdin's Dragons
Candy Chasers
Lucca Citta
A Study in Emerald
Railroad Tycoon
Mage Knight

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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.

I forgot - I actually

have

played Concept. It was neat, but really needs the right people. I could see it winning, but meh.

A friend of mine raves about Splendor, and I'm eager to try it.

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how do you get to play all these games

Here's my collection.



Being in the hobby a long time, having a gamer for a wife, and having good game groups around all contribute to being able to play MOAR GAMES. Having a baby detracts from it. Having baby out of town adds to it.

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THESP

OUT OF ALL THOSE GAMES

I WANT TO KNOW HOW GOOD PLUCKIN' PAIRS IS

Surprisingly good as a family game. It's good for what it is, and is exactly what you expect out of it.

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How long a game do you want? What are some other games that you enjoy?

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It turns out Suburbia might actually be the game you're looking for. It would be my recommendation here. I would also give Indigo a try, as I think it does what Tsuro aims to do, but with more interesting decisions. Dominion is worth a try as well. I feel like there are a few more that would fit here, I'll ponder more on it.

If ever you want to play Hanabi online, let me know and I'll set you up.

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Ooh, King of Tokyo is worth pondering as well.

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My 4" binder contains everything except Dark Ages (which I don't yet own):


Consequently, it's seen a lot more play.

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Found the game store near my new place today, and it's

amazing

. Stood there for 20 minutes just looking at the shelves and spotting games I've heard of before. Plus so many more, and if my brother's to be believed I only saw half of the place.

It puts me in the same boat as BPC. We've got similar game interests (I've played and enjoyed all the ones he mentioned, plus like Robo Rally and some other stuff) but I'd be buying to play with my family. Are there any good

5+

player games that don't involve too much direct attack on each other? Playing Risk Legacy was a nightmare when my mum and sister wouldn't fight each other for anything, but that

could

be a result of the "everything is permanent" format. Since it's for the family, though, looking for anything from ten-minute to hours-long games.

Considering looking at Shadows Over Camelot because it's one of very few that go for more than 4 people. Would that fit? I might need to rewatch the Table Top episode on it.


Also, they have the Star Trek edition of Settlers of Catan. I didn't even know that was a thing. Why is that a thing?

Games for 5-6 are tough. Shadows Over Camelot is good (and pretty), but hard to know if the family will like it or not. Other than Ticket to Ride (which can only play up to 5 players), every game I'm going to recommend here will play 5 or 6 players optimally, are medium-weight-ish games, and suited to families comfortable with Settlers of Catan rules complexity.

My top two recommendations are these: Ticket to Ride for 5 players (route-building) or Show Manager for 6 players (set collection with minor economic considerations).

Also worth consideration: Alhambra (card drafting and tile-laying), Power Grid (auctions and route-building), Nefarious (though it is out of print right now, a reprint is in the works), Elfenland (route-building), Git Bit! (fun filler), 6 Takes! (filler that can handle up to 10 players), Hoity Toity (

the

game of WIFOM), Union Pacific/Airlines Europe (same concepts, intro to stock games).

All of these are solid, thinky-but-not-too-complicated games, and feature competition without direct conflict.

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Ezren and Valeros are going to face the final scenario in Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Rise of the Runelords – Spires of Xin-Shalast Adventure Deck tonight. It's a little bittersweet.

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Over the past week, I had the chance to try Istanbul, Concordia, and Splendor. All are fabulous games. I especially can't wait to try Concordia again, and I've purchased it and Splendor.

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Oh, also, opinions on Race for the Galaxy?

It's my favoritest game in the history of ever. It's also a fairly polarizing game, in that some people love it and some people despise it. Try before you buy if you can, but it's well, well worth the money. I have over 1000 plays of the game (without exaggeration).

The iconography in the game gets a bad rap, but I think it's perfect and picked it up intuitively. If you can grasp how the cards in the game will help you, the game can work for you. I love it because it has complexity, depth, good tough choices, has a fantastic engine building component (and I'm a fan of engine building games), has great variety with the number of different cards in the game, has some interaction but no "take that" aspects, and plays in a very short time for all that (20-30 minutes). Some people don't like the potentially overwhelming variety of cards, and there is a learning curve to the game that makes it difficult for new players to compete against experienced players. If I had to give away every game in my collection except one, I'd be keeping Race for the Galaxy.

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Probably going to pick up Suburbia + Kemet soon. Was going to grab Hanabi as well... any other cheap micro games anyone can recommend? We have Escape! Curse of the Temple, Love Letter, Skulls & Roses, and obviously mafia/werewolf.

I approve of the Suburbia pickup! (Never played Kemet.) I like Pixel Tactics a lot, but the few people I've played it with haven't latched onto it like I would prefer. And of course, I love Hanabi. (Obligatory "If you want to play online, let me know and I'll give you access to my Hanabi site".)

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I'd love to play Hanabi online!

Re: RftG-- See, I like engine building games. But if I already have Quarriors, Dominion, Dice Masters, etc. will RftG be unique enough to scratch a special itch?

Re: Suburbia-- Do you know if the expansion is worth getting? I like the idea of it adding more asymmetrical play to the game (and increasing the # of players) but I also wouldn't mind waiting on it if the base game is good enough.

Re: Pixel Tactics-- It does look very good. But, it's only two players, and we always have a minimum of 4!

Race for the Galaxy is definitely different enough from the games you listed. (It has overlap with Puerto Rico/San Juan, because of their shared lineage, but I own Puerto Rico and once owned San Juan and enjoyed them all.)

I would definitely get the expansion for Suburbia...after playing it 15-20 times. Suburbia is good enough on its own, and you'll welcome the variety the expansion gives after playing the base game by itself.

And PM me your email address for Hanabi access.

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Going to echo moat of the above when I say that RftG is fantastic. Personally, I love trying to figure out what my opponents' phase picks are going to be base on their board- when you get it right, you feel like a genius.

It's quite a feeling to call Consume/Trade without a good on the board, expecting someone else will play a Settle.

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Big fan of both Kingsburg and 7 Wonders here. Expansions also great.

Also, the more I play Concordia, the more I love it.

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Yay, Marvel Dice Masters! I need to try that sometime.

I'm hosting a day to teach friends how to play Bridge tomorrow, and I am unbelievably excited.

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what are some opinions on

duck! duck! go!
fearsome floors

and smash up since no one answered last time.

I like duck! duck! go!, but it's light. Cute, but light.

Fearsome Floors is great

except

if people have analysis paralysis it totally kills the game. It's enjoyable setting up the monster to come murder everyone, though.

I didn't care for Smash Up. Others have enjoyed it more, though.

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Catching up!

Anyone here seen, played or heard about Among the Stars?

I'm debating it as my next pickup.

I've heard mixed opinions on this one, but I've heard I personally would really enjoy it. Try before buy, maybe? (That's what I'm going to do.)

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.

I've played it before and liked it well enough, but I wonder about its replayability. Try before buy for sure. There are probably better games out there. My limited experience with the game also seems to indicate that in every game, there's going to be

someone

who just gets shafted the entire game.

GreyIce, I totally agree with you on Lords of Vegas - I love it when people are bartering and trading in this game.

Amazon has

Splendor

for $25.32 with free Prime shipping. Anyone played this and want to give thoughts on it? Considering scooping it up.

I bought it after playing it once, and it's one of the games in a 10x10 challenge my wife and I are undertaking. It's short (no more than 30 minutes, if that), has a nice mix of engine building / victory point racing to it, and the tokens are chunky and delightful. It's easy for new players to pick up, and nearly everyone I've played it with has enjoyed it. It's not thematic at all, but if that's not a concern for you, it's worth having a place in your collection. (Also, I'm a sucker for engine builders, even on the light side.)

I would actually lean towards Spyrium as a replacement. It's going for a similar $25, and it's a damn good game. A little bit of worker placement feel, but with good bidding mechanics, and a lot more complexity and depth. Underrated little gem.

As a replacement for Splendor? I disagree. Spyrium is in the hour-long range (maybe 45 minutes with experienced players playing fast), and has significantly more economics and considerations than Splendor. Part of the beauty of Splendor is its elegance, which is lost in Spyrium. (This isn't a knock against Spyrium, which is quite a neat game, but I don't put it in the same sort of bucket as Splendor.)

Reck, what about Tsuro?

Not directed to me, but I'm giving my unsolicited thoughts anyway. Tsuro is pretty, and also inferior to Ta Yu, Indigo, and Metro, in that order, which all fit the same niche.

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In contrast, Splendor has no engine. I can buy a card that makes everything 1 red gem cheaper. This combos with a card that makes everything 1 green gem cheaper to make all cards 1 red and 1 green gem cheaper. If my opponents take my green gem engine piece, all they'll get is everything... being 1 green gem cheaper.

Now maybe if one card gave you 1 red chip a turn, and another card let you get an additional red gem to spend whenever you used a red chip, and a third let you spend red like gold, you'd have an engine. You'd get a free red chip every turn that could be turned into a red + anything, without lifting a finger, and chances are that no one else really wants the "spend red like gold" card all that much, but it rocks for you. But that would add complexity, and Splendor isn't about complexity. It's about "elegance". There's nothing wrong with the game, but there's nothing particularly great. There's no amazing moments, no time when your friend completes his engine, no time when you laugh about how insane it was that someone won. Just a gentle progression towards 15.

I think you're wrong - it's a very simplistic, pared-down engine builder, but it's not trying to do anything

except

that. The "make everything one red gem cheaper"

is

the engine, and it's pared down to its essence. It's a

race

to get to 15 points, and having a huge engine (where everything is much cheaper) is very nice, but if you spend too much effort on that, someone who is doing a better balancing act will beat you to the 15. And each game has slightly different interests (based on cards and tiles present) that affect how heavy you should go for engine building (with the cheap cards) or points (with the not cheap cards).

Mind you, my preference

is

for heavier engine builders - Race for the Galaxy is my favorite game. But Splendor is absolutely an engine-building game, even if simplistic in that regard.

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I don't want to argue semantics too much, because that's a straight shot into madness, but I really wish that there was any way to combo the cards or do anything. Each card gives each person the same benefit, there's no way to get any moving parts.

I feel like it has the tools to be a really good, fun, simple game, just by varying the card effects up a little so there was more than just "a gem" and "VP" as possible things cards did for you. It wouldn't have to be very much for me to like the game a lot, just something where you got it going and other people went "oh that's cool!" Maybe something that let you pay gems to reserve cards, or gave you bonuses for having a certain thing (3 Green gems gives you 2 red gems, does nothing if you have less than 3), or giving you a gold every time you bought a white or black card... just SOMETHING.

But I doubt I'm the target audience (Spyrium is still better for $25 dammit~)

I totally get where you're coming from.

Are there any other engine builders you recommend? It is my favorite genre, and I always want MOAR.

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I've only ever played it, and it's a bit of a unicorn, but if you can find Glory to Rome, highly recommended. Other than that, I have only praise for Mage Knight (although that's a little bit of everything to all people, but engine it definitely is when it gets rolling) and for $15 its hard to beat Star Realms, if its in print. Star Realms is definitely a tad on the simple side, and can feel pretty random sometimes, but it scratches the engine builder itch in a 2 player game, and plays quite quickly (15 minutes a game is not unreasonable)

I was kind of "meh" on Glory to Rome. I do loooooove Mage Knight, and the expansions have been excellent. I'll definitely give Star Realms a try when I can.

Are you on Boardgamegeek at all? I'd be curious to see your game rankings if you are.

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Hey guys, I'm looking for fun 2p games that I can play with my girlfriend, and/or 4p games that I we can play with other friends. I'm looking for fairly simple games to begin, just to ease her into it. She loves scrabble, and we'll play a bit of that. Bonus points go to scaling games that will work for 2p and with a larger group.

I love King of Tokyo, Coup, Love Letters, Muchkin, and Settlers.

Guys, I'd love your advice, thanks!

Speaking of, I'd actually recommend Splendor. =P I agree with GreyICE on Carcassonne, Flashpoint, and Ticket to Ride being excellent suggestions (and Agricola is fantastic, but not a starter boardgame by any means!).

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Nice selection of games, Oman! I hope you enjoy them!

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BGG.Con in Dallas is coming up in about a month. It would be awesome if we could get an even larger contingent of scummers to go next year. (Is anyone here going this year? I know of 6 offhand going this year if you count myself and kristocker.)

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BGG.Con in Dallas is coming up in about a month. It would be awesome if we could get an even larger contingent of scummers to go next year. (Is anyone here going this year? I know of 6 offhand going this year if you count myself and kristocker.)

last i looked it was sold out

It is indeed sold out by this time. There's a waiting list, and historically by the time it gets down very near the convention, everyone on the waiting list either passes on the chance or gets the ticket(s) they need, but it's still a crapshoot. It's the highlight of my year and a convention my wife and I have done for 7 (?) years now. If this year doesn't work out, maybe we could get a few more familiar faces next year...

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We were looking to go to PAX east or the two new ones they do but BGG is one I would probably be interested in next year. Never been to a con though.

It's amazing. And very laid back. Lots of space for open gaming, a huge game library, and it's easy to jump in games.

And zoraster, I hope you do get on the waitlist, it would be lovely to meet you!

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Do you get free shit from bggcon or discounted games or anything to make it worth the price tag?

You get some games, but not $85 worth. The value is in having access to the library, people that want to play, and a lot of new games from Essen. We've always split a room with someone (often scummers) in the past to cut down on hotel costs, and it's been fabulous.

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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.

Bohnanza

is definitely best when played with 5 or so players - the trading with lots of people aspect is what drives the game. It's worth giving it a try with a larger crowd.

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Yeah. But 2 extra epidemic cards is quite a lot. I'm pretty sure it only recommends 4 for your first game?

And 6 is more like hard mode with 5 being the regular game. Even one extra makes a big difference ime.

Yes - 5 epidemics in the game is an average game. (really, you increased the rate of infection by 25%!) It's difficult, but not overly so, you'll win some and lose some.

I have yet to win with 6 epidemics. They come

fast

.

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My favorite Vlaada is Galaxy Trucker, but I don't know if there's anywhere online to play it.

I'm not a big fan of Galaxy Trucker, but I have been

loving

the iOs app for it. It may be the best iOs implementation of a board game to date.

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I'm not a big fan of Galaxy Trucker, but I have been

loving

the iOs app for it. It may be the best iOs implementation of a board game to date.

Just looked this up. Is the turn-based version any good, or only the online/single-player modes?

I've only played the campaign (which is awesome), but a couple of the campaign missions are turn-based, and they work well. It's absolutely worth a go.

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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

King of Tokyo

comes to mind - visually appealing, with dice-rolling and silly fun. If he can handle brief player elimination, this is likely my first recommendation.

Ghost Blitz

is a great "twitchy" game if he appreciates fast-reaction games. (So is

Jungle Speed

, for that matter.)

On the route-building side,

Ticket to Ride

is also worth considering. I've had success with as young as our 8 year-old niece with this game.

On the Tetris-y side,

FITS

may be worth a look.

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So, I played some games last week at BGG.Con.

Tuesday

Race for the Galaxy (x7)
Istanbul (x3)
Snowdonia*

Wednesday

Castles of Mad King Ludwig
Witness*
Concordia
Mysterium* (x2)
Progress: The Evolution of Technology*
Graenaland

Thursday

La Isla*
Cities & Knights of Catan
Stiching Tracks*
Roll for the Galaxy*
Kingsport Festival*

Friday

Rolling Japan*
Die Macher
Roll for the Galaxy
Warrior Knights
Familienbende*
Pandemic: The Cure*
Graenaland
Lost Legacy: Flying Garden*

Saturday

Doodle Quest*
Hoity Toity
Fresh Fish*
Concept
Tragedy Looper*
Switching Tracks*
Pandemic: The Cure (x2)
Lift It*
Uptown
BGG.Con Game Show: Hot Streak
Race for the Galaxy (x2)

Sunday

Aquasphere*
Roll for the Galaxy
Spyfall*


The *s indicate they are new to me. I'm happy to talk about any that interest you, and I'll have a full write-up later.

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Had you played Lost Legacy: The Starship already, or was this your first Lost Legacy experience? Also, what'd you think? I'm a fan, although it's a little clunkier than Love Letter.

It was my first experience with Lost Legacy. I enjoy Love Letter for what it is, and Lost Legacy: Flying Garden was equally enjoyable and a nice variation on the game, which kept it fresh. It was good silly fun. How is Lost Legacy: Starship different?

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Does The Cure add much to Pandemic?

It's the dice version of Pandemic. I loved it. It played quickly, had interesting decisions, and captured a lot of the feel of Pandemic though semi-mapless and more abstracted. And the bits (dice, tracking ring, etc.) are beautiful and crisp, and add a lot to the game. It's well worth a play.

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Mysterium is the dixit like game? With the cool art? How did that play. It sounded like a cool concept.

Also interested in your thoughts on spyfall and tragedy looper which I was considering buying.

From all I've seen of the cure I don't think I need it, I already have pandemic. Looks fun though with the custom dice.

I've given a full rundown of everything here. Mysterium was a great and innovative co-op, and my one regret of the con was not buying it when I could.

I also really enjoyed my brief two plays of Spyfall and now must own it. Tragedy Looper was also innovative and different, but tough to wrap my head around at first. I want to play it again, and was glad I was taught by someone who knew what they were doing. I worry that needing exactly 4 players to play (which it really needs), along with the complex structure of the game will hamper the ability to play it without a regular group of players.

And I agree that you probably don't need both Pandemic and Pandemic: the Cure. I have the board game and won't be getting the dice game, but if I didn't have the board game, I'd probably get the dice version.

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I've been meaning to reply here for a bit, because I feel a compulsive need to post on everything board games...

Speaking of Civ-like games (which you guys were two months ago) I got to play

Machi Koro

the other night. Very fun, quite fast, pretty self-explanatory. Pitched at kids but the adults (who were all bigtime Civ veterans) enjoyed the hell out of it too. Once we knew what we were doing, it was probably a 20m game. Good icebreaker/intergenerational game.

Got

Tales of the Arabian Nights

for my birthday last month. We've now played twice... it's pretty enjoyable, but

good gods does it take forever

for a relatively simple game. 2400+ 'stories' in the book, each one with multiple options that vary based on your skills or treasures or statuses... this thing REALLY wants to be a video game. Without all the number crunching and page flipping, it would probably take an hour. As it stands, a 3p game took us about 2 1/2 hours (while learning it) and a 5p game took almost 3 1/2 hours. Doesn't scale well. Only other real complaint is that the player tokens are much too large for the board, obscuring your travel routes/city name/etc.

Glad you enjoyed

Machi Koro

! It really needs an expansion (and is getting one), and I enjoy it as well. Sorry to hear

Tales of the Arabian Nights

went so long - I tend not to play it with more than 3 because it can indeed go so obscenely long. (What Fenchurch says, basically.) If you enjoy that style of game,

Agents of Smersh

is the same, but co-op, and with a tongue-in-cheek James Bond spy theme to it.

Cousin decided to host a game night for Christmas. Had a little trepidation, since most games in this family are Monopoly, but I brought over my stash, got them hooked on Catan. Should be a good start on classing up the joint.

HECK YEAH!

Need to try Galaxy Trucker, but I've heard nothing but marvelous things.

I'm not a

Galaxy Trucker

fan, but I appreciate it, but I love it on iPad.

Suburubia:

Ho. Lee. Fuck. This game. This fucking game. First off, WOW it takes way longer to complete than I originally thought it would. It took us about 2.5 hours to play, with a quick 5 minute smoke break in the middle. But that first playthrough was like constant revelation after revelation. I can see how deeply strategic this game is... and the way it takes the drafting mechanic from Smallworld and re-appropriates it here is absolutely beautiful. What a gorgeous game, by the way... it's so well designed. It's a game where the theme/flavor is equally as strong as the mechanics, and I fucking LOVED it. While waiting for my turn, I'd just read through the different tiles and chuckle at how clever some of the flavor -> mechanics translations were. The last round, when we were in the C tiles, everyone was jittery and nervous, waiting for that 1 More Turn tile to flip. And when it did... man, everyone went into a panic on the last turn. And man, the reveal of the secret goals at the end was fucking great! I sort of wish you had more than one secret goal to go for, a la Keyflower, because only having the one feels a little bit like... the game is decided before final scoring. But this was great, and the mechanics were great, and while it took a little bit too long (compared to Keyflower, which takes like an hour tops) I think part of that might've been us not knowing the tiles and having to read them all over and over again.

Oh yeah and the speedbump mechanic... holy shit, that is GENIUS! Not only does it stop games from becoming snowball runaway victories, but it forces an interesting balancing mechanic in your strategies. I accidentally (seriously, without trying) kept getting reputation gains in the early game, so eventually my reputation was at +6 while everyone else had +1 or 0, which meant I was hitting tons of speedbumps. Eventually I had to buy a tile and place it STRATEGICALLY for the negative effect to bump down my reputation so I could build up a little bit of income.

Just... what a brilliant fucking game.

I totally agree with you on Suburbia as being awesome, but 2.5 hours to play? Wow! That will

definitely

cut down in future plays. (Our 2 player games take 30-40 minutes, and 4 players takes around an hour.) After you start to feel like you know all the tiles, then it's worth throwing the expansion in, but it's not critical to do so until then. (I have and love the expansion.)

It's also worth looking at

Castles of Mad King Ludwig

by the same designer if you like Suburbia.

So I played a new game yesterday!

Tragedy Looper

: ...

All in all, a really fun deductive reasoning game. I recommend it to everyone on this site, because I think mafia players would enjoy this quite a bit.

I totally agree, though I strongly, strongly recommend being taught the game by someone who has played before. It's probably well suited to PBF.

Tokkaido:

A new favorite. I really enjoy the design, and it's much improved by having more players instead of the two I normally play with.

Puerto Rico:

An older game, but I've almost never played it. It's fantastic, but I really need more experience with it.

Glad you enjoyed both!

Tokaido

is nice, light, and lovely.

Puerto Rico

is one of the best Euros ever made, and gets even better over more plays.

Faraday is Coup expansion any good?

not played it. er i wasn't rly interested in it, i liked the simplicity of the base game well enough

Having played the expansion, I agree with you.

---

Kristen and I are again doing a 10x10 boardgame challenge, where we are committing to playing 10 games 10 times each in the next year. You can follow the progress here:

Robin & Kristen's 2015 10x10 Challenge

/shameless plug

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If you enjoy that style of game,

Agents of Smersh

is the same, but co-op, and with a tongue-in-cheek James Bond spy theme to it.

Interesting. How long of a play is it?

90-120 minutes is about right, though we've had a few ridiculously short 30 minute games in both directions. You have to go into it acknowledging that sometimes it will bbe super easy, sometimes super hard, but always tongue-in-cheek hilarious.

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I have had a severe lacking of board games in my life lately.

Are there any good online, in-browser board games or card games that are half decent to play with like 2-4 people?

Hanabi. (Let me know if you want access to a Hanabi site.)

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Roll for the Galaxy

has rapidly become one of my top 3 games of all time. It gets better every time I play it.

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Played Cosmic Encouter at BaltoMeet again.

I fully intend to buy that game soon. It's fucking brilliant, and with so many races, you'll never get the same game.

quadz

so expensive, reck

so expensive

http://www.atomicempire.com/item.aspx?item=62899&

$48 bro

$41.50, with free shipping when you spend $100.

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Is there any reason I shouldn't just go all in on the

Dungeons & Dragons Dice Masters

set? I've not played Dice Masters, but enjoyed Quarriors, and everything about Dice Masters looks fantastic. CSI's sale game tomorrow is

Kingsport Festival

, so I'm thinking of ordering it and preordering D&D Dice Masters (along with an expansion or two for other games).

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Any other people play the civilisation board game?
The fantasy flight one based of Civ IV?

I've played all three of the Civilization boardgames. =P The Fantasy Flight one is my favorite of the bunch, though I recall not being fond of Russia's ability to gain techs at an advanced rate. I've heard great things about the expansions, but I haven't been able to play with them (and it's been several years since I've played any of the Civ games).

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...and the 4 hour game of Settlers - Cities and Knights, which was fun but I had never played that expansion before, and was not prepared for the length of time...

4 hours is extraordinarily atypical for Settlers in any version, including Cities & Knights (which is my favorite way to play). Yuck!

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So I recall seeing a kickstarter for a board game that used code words that were dropped in conversations to allow people to find their team mates

Does this ring a bell to anyone? I'm looking for more big group social games and the concept seems cool.

What you're describing sounds very similar to

Spyfall

. Even if it's not the game you're thinking of (I don't think Spyfall had a Kickstarter), it fits into the category you're looking for, and is worth checking out.

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I'll also throw in my thumbs-up for

Bohnanza

, which doesn't get nearly enough play or love. It's one of the quintessential trading games.

I played

Dead of Winter

for the first time last night. Not since

Five Tribes

have I encountered a game with so much hype and so little to show for it. [/incendiary] I love the Crossroads mechanic, and I am fascinated with the "cooperative, but" element of the game, but

the entire rest of the game

is clunky and not nearly as good as almost every other co-op I can think of.

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Witness

just seems like glorified Telephone to me.

It is, and it's amazing. The cases are very well written, the clues are absurd and hilarious, and with a group that's into it (as every group I've played with so far has been), it's just such good fun in a short timeframe. It's worth a play.

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I too enjoyed my first play of Pandemic: Legacy quite a bit!

I also really liked Favor of the Pharaoh and need to pick up a copy. I've also been hooked on Through the Ages lately.

[Thesp]

BGG.CON IN TWO WEEKS! (Well, in 13 days, as I'm getting there a day early.) One of these days we'll get more than just old-time scummers like mith, MeMe, and petroleumjelly there.

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Thanks!