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[BomberMouse]

Very cool stooge. Not my cup of tea but sounds cool.

I bought and played alchemists today, really enjoyable game. I love the deduction + worker placement. The game plays very quickly too, nowhere near the two hours advertised on the box. Finished our first game in around and hour and fifteen minutes.

 

[fenners]

Very cool, Stooge, absolutely my cup of tea

A couple of buddies & I had a rare pub game last night, at one of my favourite bars here in Austin, Black Star. We played Mythotopia, by Martin Wallace, and funnily enough it was his birthday.

It takes his deck building/tug-of-war mechanics of "A Few Acres of Snow", mixes it with the wider expanse of "use a card for its action vs resources" & deck building mechanics of "A Study In Emerald", combined with a bigger map of areas than A Few Acres. We enjoyed the beginning game, a mix of "put dudes on the map" to gain territory with deck building, but the last third sucked. Three players, two obvious leaders battling back & forth, and a ridiculous end-game condition where it only triggers if you can win at the start of you turn - the mechanics of attack means there's a natural stalemate of 'attack the obvious person who is going to win on their turn' that prolongs the game. Meh.

End game killed the enjoyment completely. Play "A Study In Emerald" instead, if you can. It's more complicated to explain than it should be, but the possibilities of play are so much more interesting.

 

[Karkador]

People ask me what A Study in Emerald is like and all I can muster to say is "it's like...weird". Deck building, but weird. Area control, but weird. Killing each other, but weird. Playing for points.......but weird.

 

[Karkador]

What is strange is that they laud CoB for the same thing they are bagging on Trajan for.
Then again as someone who loves heavier games I should know I wont see eget to eye with Quins on most games.

pretty much every compliant about trajan they make applies to cob (maybe even double)

also i don't think trajan is very heavy just *rules forward*

I think I can see the difference they're talking about.

Castles of Burgundy's singular focus is filling the spaces on your board. That's all you want to do. Almost everything you do in the game (with the exception of acquiring and selling the trade goods, which I do think is a weird unrelated thing) is to fill your board, get combos, and score lots of points.

Sure, you still do a lot of point salad type of stuff in CoB - I'm not even sure wtf 'a game with heart' is, to be honest. But from what I can see of Trajan, it's a lot of game-y things on a board, without a clear thesis.


I've been playing Hansa Teutonica recently. It's a game that gives you a few different mechanics to try playing with in order to get ahead (you won't be able to do them all in one play) - but it's all focused on the single point of claiming routes on the board.

 

[Neverfade]

So got to play some new stuff tonight.

Sushi Go: Not much to say here. Its drafting at its purest. Greed has a stranglehold on my Favorite Drafting Game award right now and this didn't do anything to change that. However, I'm keeping it because its a much needed gateway in my collection for the odd night where a lot of new folk are playing.

Cockroach Poker Royal: Fucking loved it. Delicious, pure bluffing. Once upon a time I couldn't understand how this was even a game. I was wrong. I wish I was still playing right now. Love how this gets more tense as the game goes on, when its easier to count cards already played and weight those options. Also watching people squirm as you put pressure on them with a 4th animal card and feed them a big old lie.

The last two boardgames of the evening were two Oink! titles: Deep Sea Adventure and In a Grove. I own Deep Sea Adventure and put together a makeshift copy of In a Grove for a test run -- this is another title I came into with "thats it?"

Not so long story short: DSA is fun, but fell a touch short of expectations. I've found more pleasure in push your luck elsewhere. Might try this at 2 players with the wife and see how it goes.

In a Grove blew me away. I'm ordering a copy right now. This bite-sized nanogame is probably the second or third favorite thing I've played in 2015, beating out much chunkier games. I could play this all night. Get 8 cards numbered 1-8 (preferably the 1 and 5 of a second and third color respectively), 21-22 poker chips in 4+ colors and go look up the rules and at least try this. If you're a microgame fan at all I think this will offer some really interesting deduction and bluffing opportunities.

 

[Kitbash]

People ask me what A Study in Emerald is like and all I can muster to say is "it's like...weird". Deck building, but weird. Area control, but weird. Killing each other, but weird. Playing for points.......but weird.

It's going to be an even trickier question to answer once the overhauled second edition is out. Bleh.

 

[-tetsuo-]

Just played a 4 hour 1v1 Mage Knight game on the Conquer and Hold Scenario lol. Best game.

 

[Lyng]

Just played a 4 hour 1v1 Mage Knight game on the Conquer and Hold Scenario lol. Best game.

Oh man Mage Knight is so great! I bet the 4 hours went by without you noticing? 😀

 

[Lyng]

I think I can see the difference they're talking about.

Castles of Burgundy's singular focus is filling the spaces on your board. That's all you want to do. Almost everything you do in the game (with the exception of acquiring and selling the trade goods, which I do think is a weird unrelated thing) is to fill your board, get combos, and score lots of points.

Sure, you still do a lot of point salad type of stuff in CoB - I'm not even sure wtf 'a game with heart' is, to be honest. But from what I can see of Trajan, it's a lot of game-y things on a board, without a clear thesis.


I've been playing Hansa Teutonica recently. It's a game that gives you a few different mechanics to try playing with in order to get ahead (you won't be able to do them all in one play) - but it's all focused on the single point of claiming routes on the board.

That is true. But it's not like you are just supposed to do random actions in Trajan juggling your actions while keeping a focused strategy is the main game.

But yeah I understand it better now. I still feel calling it a game without heart is some of the dumbest shit ever said in a game review.

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

I played La Granja with two players last night. The game is very good. It mixes elements of a Feld game with Glory to Rome and that combination just works so well here. I want to play it with more players, but I really was impressed with the game.

 

[BomberMouse]

I played La Granja with two players last night. The game is very good. It mixes elements of a Feld game with Glory to Rome and that combination just works so well here. I want to play it with more players, but I really was impressed with the game.

That game looks very fun to play. Would love to hear more impressions.

 

[Ecto311]

Just started getting into board games and dice games with my kid. She loves munchkin so far and we got 2 sets along with the princess booster pack. I got some dice masters but that being only 2 player and complicated (at least to my dumb ass) has me looking for some other games that a 5yr old and her parents might get into. We already have zombie dice just because its a Steve Jackson game and played on tabletop. Any good web sites to detail games for kids? Any recommendations?

 

[Affeinvasion]

I know a lot of people highly recommend Haba games for small children. Animal upon Animal is a dexterity, stacking game that gets recommended all the time. Maybe other people will have more recommendations. Dice Masters is probably too complex for young children I would say 12 and up would enjoy it. You might also look into King of Tokyo. That might be fine with a small child. It has big chunky dice and cartoony artwork.

 

[SillyEskimo]

Just started getting into board games and dice games with my kid. She loves munchkin so far and we got 2 sets along with the princess booster pack. I got some dice masters but that being only 2 player and complicated (at least to my dumb ass) has me looking for some other games that a 5yr old and her parents might get into. We already have zombie dice just because its a Steve Jackson game and played on tabletop. Any good web sites to detail games for kids? Any recommendations?

Here are a few great games we play with our kids:


Survive: Escape Atlantis - A personal and family favorite. No dice, simply to play, difficult to master. A child should learn the game after 2 or 3 turns. Turns go fast so no one waits long at all before they get to go. Also, the island map changes every turn and so it keeps a kid's attention very well. Warning: It is a vs. game where people are actively fighting against each other. Some kids (and grown ups that act like kids) handle vs. games better than others. For my girls, getting their people safely off of the sinking island is completely secondary to trying to kill everyone else with whales, sharks, octopi, and sea monsters. This game gets better and better as the game progresses. Highly engaging and fun.

Zombies!!! - Simple game, simple rules. A modular tile system where players try and get to a helipad to escape a city overrun by zombies or be the first to kill "X" number of zombies. There is a "screw your neighbor" component to the game as well as some card art that some kids might find frightening depending on how sheltered they are. My kids adore the theme, but we don't use the cards because we kept this game as simple as possible. Rolling to move/fight any zombies and using heart/bullet tokens to modify roll results is a simple risk vs reward concept that my kids latched on to immediately. They also get a weird thrill out of fighting and collecting zombie kills as well as moving zombies towards the other players in order to eat them. There are a million expansions for this. It can be as long/short or simple/complex as you want it to be.

King of Tokyo- This could be a little too much at once for many 5yr olds. They have to read ability cards (an adult can easily explain them though) and apply it's ability to an overall strategy. My kids both played it just fine at ages 5&6, but the adults had to hand hold them through a few games before they really got it. They are ages 6&8 now and can explain the game to others at family gatherings. Great art and theme, but it's also a vs. game.

Sushi Go - Card game with simple math a adorable art. Simple rules too. Fast games.

 

[daevv]

There is a new kid friendly version of Bohnanza coming out in a few weeks. My First Bohnanza I believe it's called. Original Bohnanza is longer than Sushi Go, not sure about this new version.

 

[Karkador]

Haba makes some fun kids games. Check out Animal Upon Animal and Rhino Hero

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

Just started getting into board games and dice games with my kid. She loves munchkin so far and we got 2 sets along with the princess booster pack. I got some dice masters but that being only 2 player and complicated (at least to my dumb ass) has me looking for some other games that a 5yr old and her parents might get into. We already have zombie dice just because its a Steve Jackson game and played on tabletop. Any good web sites to detail games for kids? Any recommendations?

Drei Magier Spiel games are fun. They have a toy aspect to them, but the games are easy to play with young kids. We have Magician's Kitchen and The Enchanted Tower.
Magicians Kitchen has you pushing little figures carrying marbles to their goals. (Red marbles go to the red cauldron, green goes to green..etc) The catch is you can only move the figures using a little magic wand. Also the figures are magnetized. If they hit a magnet hidden under the board they will trip and drop the marble. It's a cute game that is easy to play even with very young kids.

The Enchanted Tower is a bit more involved but not by much. One player plays the hero while the other plays the evil wizard. The object of the game is for the hero to save the princess before the evil wizard gets to her. The game uses magnets as well. At the beginning of the game the hero closes their eyes while the wizard hides the metal key under the board. The game play is basically a race. The hero is trying to find the key before the wizard can retrieve it. My son loves to play the wizard and since there is information he has that I don't it gives him a bit of an edge and the game becomes more fair.

I would definitely pick up The Enchanted Tower but Magicians Kitchen is also not a bad pick up.

 

[BomberMouse]

Drei Magier Spiel games are fun.

The Magic Labyrinth is amazing. I also second Animal upon animal and Rhino hero.

I'll also add tok tok woodman/click clack lumberjack, villa palleti, caveman curling and A la carte.

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

The Magic Labyrinth is amazing. I also second Animal upon animal and Rhino hero.

I'll also add tok tok woodman/click clack lumberjack, villa palleti, caveman curling and A la carte.

I almost picked this up yesterday at the game store. It looks good.

 

[Mr E.]

I still feel calling it a game without heart is some of the dumbest shit ever said in a game review.

Seriously ? you must have watched Vasel banging on about theme and plastic components.

 

[Karkador]

But yeah I understand it better now. I still feel calling it a game without heart is some of the dumbest shit ever said in a game review.

It's a very subjective criterion that means something to some people, and nothing to others.

I'm often inclined to agree with SUSD reviews and it doesn't mean much to me.

 

[Ecto311]

Holy shit thanks for all the recommendations. Seen that Sushi Go is on clearance at target so I might try to get that since its so highly talked about on almost all the forums I have been reading.


Anyone have advice for mixing munchkin sets? We have the deluxe and the adventure time versions and princess booster pack. Is there an advantage to mixing them? Any specific add on sets that are better than the others? This a good game or am I wasting my time? I really liked it the few times we have played it so far.

 

[zulux21]

Holy shit thanks for all the recommendations. Seen that Sushi Go is on clearance at target so I might try to get that since its so highly talked about on almost all the forums I have been reading.


Anyone have advice for mixing munchkin sets? We have the deluxe and the adventure time versions and princess booster pack. Is there an advantage to mixing them? Any specific add on sets that are better than the others? This a good game or am I wasting my time? I really liked it the few times we have played it so far.

mixing sets is ok, but mixing some sets can easily break things. Like the super hero one tends to allow people to get really powerful characters when mixed with another set.

in the end it's about having fun though so having a stupid strong munchkin could be fun

as for munchkin it's very mixed on people's thoughts. Same absolutely hate it, others love it. I personally have fun with it but I wouldn't ever play with more than 4 players again as once you start people who know what they need to do to win even at 4 players the game can go on for a while with more than that the game can take hours to finish because everyone always has enough cards to stop someone from going out.

 

[Blizzard]

I've played a 3.5 hour munchkin game with maybe 5 people.

I've decided that I basically only like munchkin if there's a timer set so the game ends after something like 1 hour, and whoever is ahead at the time wins.

 

[swoon]

I think I can see the difference they're talking about.

Castles of Burgundy's singular focus is filling the spaces on your board. That's all you want to do. Almost everything you do in the game (with the exception of acquiring and selling the trade goods, which I do think is a weird unrelated thing) is to fill your board, get combos, and score lots of points.

Sure, you still do a lot of point salad type of stuff in CoB - I'm not even sure wtf 'a game with heart' is, to be honest. But from what I can see of Trajan, it's a lot of game-y things on a board, without a clear thesis.

I mean the thesis of trajan is that you holding events or whatever to become more popular with populace and get elected - and the rondal combined with the way the round moves faster on certain action does a good job of relating the challenge of trying to juggle all the constituents. cob is focus...plus the weird ship turn mechanic and the tacked on shipping and like it's not very clear what you are even building . i think cob is much better game (and aquasphere even better for a feld) but trajan has merit and i think the review actually plays into dark souls style "bg rules are so hard" misguided complex that has been all over the place recently.

i finally got combat commander to the table today and it plays so smoothly - can't wait to dive into the deeper scenarios.

also played voyage of marco polo - which does interesting things to combine troyes and cob into something that's really breezy and fun.

 

[Lyng]

Seriously ? you must have watched Vasel banging on about theme and plastic components.

That is true. His review of Bloodrage was almost cringeworthy. However Tom very openly shows his emotions and bias, while Quins tries to come of as objective, while in reality he is alot like Vassel. (imo)

 

[Lyng]

Got a nice bonus this month so my wife let me go on a buying spree

Ordered the following games:

Friday

Cruel Necessity

Innovation based on a recommendation in this thread

Aquasphere because, well Stephan Feld is a genius

At the Gates of Loyang

Cant wait to get them to the table

 

[BomberMouse]

At the Gates of Loyang

I love this game, make sure you play it as 2p only.

 

[Mr E.]

Got a nice bonus this month so my wife let me go on a buying spree

Ordered the following games:

Friday

Cruel Necessity

Innovation based on a recommendation in this thread

Aquasphere because, well Stephan Feld is a genius

At the Gates of Loyang

Cant wait to get them to the table

I have Friday and Cruel Necessity. CN is brutal.

 

[joelseph]

Received my copy of Spyfall from MM, good looking out.

 

[Karkador]

I participated in the latest BGG math trade and will be receiving Imperial, Greenland, and Sushi Go.

 

[Neverfade]

Ares announced War of the Ring: Anniversary Edition.

Painted figures, larger CE style board, probably a fancy box. 369 bucks.

 

[fenners]

Ares announced War of the Ring: Anniversary Edition.

Painted figures, larger CE style board, probably a fancy box. 369 bucks.

The quality of the first CE was fantastic & still utterly have no regrets about buying it. I think this isn't likely coming in as fancy a box as the original if I read it right? The box for the original was ridiculously over the top - for a while there I had a dedicated coffee-table from Ikea for it (and it was still bigger than the table).

Regardless, it'll be worth the money.

 

[Palmer_v1]

I participated in the latest BGG math trade and will be receiving Imperial, Greenland, and Sushi Go.

It was your first one, right? No issues or anything? I need to try it myself.

 

[Karkador]

It was your first one, right? No issues or anything? I need to try it myself.

Nah I've done like four of them now. I've been pretty lucky in that I've had pretty successful trades each time

 

[Neverfade]

The quality of the first CE was fantastic & still utterly have no regrets about buying it. I think this isn't likely coming in as fancy a box as the original if I read it right? The box for the original was ridiculously over the top - for a while there I had a dedicated coffee-table from Ikea for it (and it was still bigger than the table).

Regardless, it'll be worth the money.

There's not specifics, but I'm wagering just fancy cardboard, like the new Carson City Kickstarter, etc. I doubt they'd go wooden faux book simply because they said CE was never going to get reprinted.

As a CE owner, I don't personally have my panties in a bunch but I bet there are some out there that hate for others to have what they have and are mad that its "close enough" already.

To be honest I kinda want this version. I don't have much/any interest in the expansions included in the CE anyway.

 

[EYEL1NER]

A new deluxe version of War of the Ring is pretty cool but I don't know if I would want it unless it came with all expansion material (to include the upcoming expansion). I love pimped out beautiful-looking games and have yet to even play my War of the Ring 2E (so it would be easy to offload it and buy the new version). But I feel like matching up expansions or tracking them down for the Collector's Edition seems to be a pain it the ass for a lot of people. It would be nice to have something I could easily buy more stuff for. I'm sure it is good for people who want a CE-quality game, but I think I would probably not even play with this version, just leave it on a shelf and play the cheaper vanilla version.

Then again, it is gonna be a money-maker. I have never been big on reselling or flipping items for profit, but this is just easy-money. If supplies are pretty low, I don't know that I would buy one to flip (would rather think some other fan would be stoked to get a copy they really want at MSRP if I didn't buy one to sit and speculate on, though the reality is that some other flipper would buy it). Tempting though...

 

[Neverfade]

Don't be that guy...

And it doesn't come with any expansions.

 

[EYEL1NER]

Don't be that guy...

And it doesn't come with any expansions.

I'm not 'that guy!' I hate 'that guy,' I swear!

 

[Lyng]

I love this game, make sure you play it as 2p only.

Yeah I heard the multiplayer version is kinda wonky. Going to play this only with my wife But good to hear its awsome

 

[Lyng]

I have Friday and Cruel Necessity. CN is brutal.

Would you say CN is cruel?

fake edit: ...Im sorry...that was just....I am going to bed now....sorry guys

 

[Mr E.]

Would you say CN is cruel?

fake edit: ...Im sorry...that was just....I am going to bed now....sorry guys

It's a flip of the card, and yes, that deck is cruel lol...... Have you got Dawn of the Zeds? That's a must have, with expansion. There producing a 3rd edition.

 

[Lyng]

It's a flip of the card, and yes, that deck is cruel lol...... Have you got Dawn of the Zeds? That's a must have, with expansion. There producing a 3rd edition.

No CN will be my first State of Siege game. But I will definately go for Dawn of the Zeds if I end up liking CN.

 

[Blizzard]

A friend and I finally buckled down and made ourselves play Fairy Tale 2 more times so we could try the expert rules/cards and the alternate draft method I read here. Thoughts:

1. The expert rules and cards made things a bit more interesting.
2. The alternate draft method (on every draft after the first one, draw a card first and discard before passing the cards) combined with the expert rules and cards seem like the best option.
3. Even with the best combination of rules, neither of us are a big fan of the game. Sometimes the unflip cards seem buried at the bottom of the deck, and the game feels kind of random and unrewarding even when you pull off some story rewards.


On the bright side, we played 2-played Citadels afterwards, the first time I've tried that with only 2. It uses a somewhat similar draft method for character cards: The first player discards a random character, picks one, and passes. After that, each player picks one and discards one. Each player ends up with 2 character cards and takes 2 turns. It seemed to work pretty well.

I do want to ask online about a couple of Citadels rules though, one regarding the Merchant and another regarding the Lighthouse.

 

[Karkador]

Citadels is great with 2 and 3

 

[Experien]

Opened up SpyFall yesterday and so many baggies except they gave me 29 instead of 30 :/

 

[Lyng]

Oh well.... CN was just sent back to the US by the Danish postalservice. I contacted them to ask why and they didnt know...Man I am so pissed. Sometimes I wish we could sue the living hell out of those idiots like you can in the US. The customer service in Denmark is so below bar its scary.

 

[JSR_Cube]

New War of the Ring semi-CE is so tempting.

 

[Neverfade]

Any interest here in 4 of us going in on a Tabletop Simulator 4 pack?

 

[Ecto311]

Any chance of some board games going on sale with the Amazon deal day tomorrow?