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The New Board Game Thread (Newcomer Friendly)

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AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Yes, I didn't crap out in Can't Stop! *fist-bump*

I'll try to use the plot cards, seem to spice things up interestingly. Anyone ever tried "blind spies" variant where spies don't know each other?
 
AstroLad said:
Yes, I didn't crap out in Can't Stop! *fist-bump*

I'll try to use the plot cards, seem to spice things up interestingly. Anyone ever tried "blind spies" variant where spies don't know each other?

I have always played blind spies. I didn't realize it was a variant.

Blind spies is hella fun though. It really gets you freaking out about who is who and forces everyone to try to deduce who is who. It does make it harder for the spies a bit, but My group has always had 50/50 with blind spies.
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
AstroLad said:
Yes, I didn't crap out in Can't Stop! *fist-bump*

I'll try to use the plot cards, seem to spice things up interestingly. Anyone ever tried "blind spies" variant where spies don't know each other?

I think blind spies is better. Makes it more fun as no one knows who anyone is. Playing a spy without blind spies is a bit boring, and a single bad spy can ruin it for the rest (by making it overly obvious who the other spys are by always picking them for missions, etc). With blind spies, one person playing it well can win the game for the spys.
 
Is Dragonspire an essential expansion to Thunderstone? Heard it put in some crappy art to the series which so far has been awesome. Probably just buy the early sets that fit into the box with dividers and stop purchasing more for this game.
 
Neverfade said:
I can't imagine playing Resistance without the plot cards. There's already so little to the game...

Might depend on your group, but mine hasn't even used plot cards and the game is always the highlight of our board game nights. It really does reward manipulation and deception, which I believe is the best part of the game. I find that the plot cards get in the way of that because it in some cases gives away information.
 

Neverfade

Member
We're BSG nuts. In our case, we have a hard time connecting and caring about a game so short. Personally, I need to be invested.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Hey who all from GAF is going to BGG again? We should coordinate a G+ Messenger group or something so then we can just send out posts if we're thinking of starting up a game and want to invite other gaffers. I'm going with my wife and friend but they'll be mostly hanging out so I'll be freelancing a good deal.

I know Flynn is going....
 

fenners

Member
AstroLad said:
Hey who all from GAF is going to BGG again? We should coordinate a G+ Messenger group or something so then we can just send out posts if we're thinking of starting up a game and want to invite other gaffers. I'm going with my wife and friend but they'll be mostly hanging out so I'll be freelancing a good deal.

I know Flynn is going....

I'll be there but I don't have any fancy phone for a G+ hangout ;)
 

fenners

Member
Flynn said:
I remember last year my phone didn't work for shit in the hotel. :(

Yep. So many geeks crammed into one hotel which has lousy reception...

I'll be at the Con from Wednesday lunchtime, with my usual gaming buddies. Got two games arranged - a massive Struggle of Empires game (likely 7 players!) with my usual group and a game of Warrior Knights with the guys I usually play Twilight Imperium with at the Con.

Can't wait. Been so slammed with work lately that I've hardly played anything these past couple of months bar some Summoner Wars at lunchtime.
 
Got around to finally doing 51st State... was not all that popular with the group, but some liked it later on as they finally had it "click". Another one of those games that scares many people with tons of icons and shit on the card which to me at times feel like it could have been done tighter. Also the rules are very vague on how certain things are done, which possibly could be translation issues, but assume its all somewhere in a faq online that I need to find.

Dixit was neat, be interested in picking myself up a copy for a very simple large group casual game.
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Flynn said:
At the very least come meet us for BBQ or something! We can play a hand of RFTG after we eat.

Austin to Dallas is the least pleasant drive in the history of mankind. Except for Kolaches.

It's also 3 hours.
 

Mashing

Member
AstroLad said:
Hey who all from GAF is going to BGG again? We should coordinate a G+ Messenger group or something so then we can just send out posts if we're thinking of starting up a game and want to invite other gaffers. I'm going with my wife and friend but they'll be mostly hanging out so I'll be freelancing a good deal.

I know Flynn is going....

I wasn't going, but then a gaming friend of mine got some extra tickets. Now I'm going on Sat and Sun (too late of a notice to take vacation for the whole thing).
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Flynn said:
Bummer. I didn't realize you were in Austin.

Yeah, I'd like to make it up next year, but the soon to be fiance seems to be aiming for a November wedding. I need to make sure the anniversary isn't going to fall during BGG con every year. Honestly, I want the damn thing to just not be during football season at all.

But I'm going to have to pick my battles and making sure it's not during OU weekend is fight number 1.
 

Chorazin

Member
Finally going to get the Penny Arcade DBG on the table tonight, im pretty psyched! Also ordered a copy of Martian Dice, and preordered Risk Legacy.

Boardgames!
 
Chorazin said:
Finally going to get the Penny Arcade DBG on the table tonight, im pretty psyched! Also ordered a copy of Martian Dice, and preordered Risk Legacy.

Boardgames!
Risk Legacy has an amazing concept. Are you going to play by the actual rules or are you with the "don't want to destroy it" camp? I don't really care for Risk but I think what they're doing is a fascinating idea.
 

Chorazin

Member
Gryphter said:
Risk Legacy has an amazing concept. Are you going to play by the actual rules or are you with the "don't want to destroy it" camp? I don't really care for Risk but I think what they're doing is a fascinating idea.
Gonna go all out and destroy shit! I love the concept, I just hope it works in execution. The revised Risk rules it uses make the game way faster, and if you haven't played it recently it's much better than it was.
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Played Power Grid last night..

been about 9 months since I played it.. and I had one of those "oh yeah, that's why it's my favorite game and I bought every expansion for it." moments.

Killed it.

Lots of experienced players.. no one thought I was running away with the game, but boy was I ever. There were 3 players all with the ability to build to 15 cities.. and 3 players with the ability to power 15 cities going into the last round.. and 1 player sitting on enough fuel to do so without buying any more.

No one seemed to notice I was in all 3 camps.

Derp. 2nd place powered 3 less cities than me.

Also, I just paid 13 bucks for the new promo card from Essen for it. I'm actually interested in the robots. Hopefully they make a 2p game worth it.
 
Last night was week 2 of our weekly game night. We had 4 initially but a 5th showed up about 2 hours later.

We're rotating hosts and are making it so that the host gets pick (or at least first pick) at what hits the table; that way everyone can get their wants in.

We started off with Catan Seafarers, which I only played once before and it was a different group. Hated it then, but I wanted to try out one of the other scenarios before making a final judgement. The host picked Scenario 8, I think; it was the one with the Pirate Fortresses at the far end. It was awesome! Really turned Catan on its side, worked well, made things interesting, and I won (so of course I liked it a little more). I loved the Pirate ship patrolling the pathways in the middle. My only negative is it took longer than I would have preferred; our game probably lasted 2.5 hours and setup was a large chunk of time, too.

After that, we had 5 players for 1 game of King of Tokyo. Last week's 1st time player loved it so much he went out and bought it! His girl was with us tonight and he's been raving about the game, so we brought it out. She ended up in 2nd place, but the guy who has never won a game because he gets too greedy with attack dice and not healing took 1st place this time. Damn Freeze Time card.

After that it was like 12:30 and we all had to run home since we all work in the morning. One of the guys went out and bought Sorry! Sliders as well when I told him it's on sale for $10 at Toys R Us. Too bad we didn't get to play that, I was certainly itching for it. Maybe next time or when I host next.
 
I've played a couple games of GOSU over the past two weeks. It has promise, but in reality is a little bit broken. Features a "pass for the round" mechanic, which can lead to a LONG downtime if your opponents have the right cards to extend play for awhile after. (The box says the game takes 20-40 minutes, our shortest has been about 90, and ended due to a special victory condition being achieved). The game sort of auto-rubberbands players who are behind, which could be an ok thing, but it's done so poorly that I'm pretty much convinced the best strategy is the Survivor style "fly under the radar come from behind victory". Couple all of this with targetable offense, and you get boo-central.
 

fenners

Member
Flynn said:
Is Z-man going to have Ora & Labora?

They're not saying. They got Campaign Manager in early a couple of years ago, a box or two of it, so I know people are hoping for the same this year.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
that time of year again. Recommendations for a good, family friendly board game that isn't too heavy on the rules.

I currently have

- Carcassonne
- Labyrinth
- Zooloretto
- Forbidden Island
 
mrklaw said:
that time of year again. Recommendations for a good, family friendly board game that isn't too heavy on the rules.

I currently have

- Carcassonne
- Labyrinth
- Zooloretto
- Forbidden Island

Bohnanza
 
mrklaw said:
that time of year again. Recommendations for a good, family friendly board game that isn't too heavy on the rules.

I currently have

- Carcassonne
- Labyrinth
- Zooloretto
- Forbidden Island

Never saw the Labyrinth as very family friendly or rules lite
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
mrklaw said:
that time of year again. Recommendations for a good, family friendly board game that isn't too heavy on the rules.

I currently have

- Carcassonne
- Labyrinth
- Zooloretto
- Forbidden Island

Stone Age!
 

MichaelBD

Member
mrklaw said:
that time of year again. Recommendations for a good, family friendly board game that isn't too heavy on the rules.

I currently have

- Carcassonne
- Labyrinth
- Zooloretto
- Forbidden Island
Ticket to Ride

And I played my second game of King of Tokyo last night. I broke it out last week and for a game that is pretty simple I found the rules to be poorly written. A lot of questions popped up (with 6 players); mostly about what happens when someone yields Tokyo (or Tokyo Bay). The game felt like it had promise but we didn't even bother to finish it.

A few minutes on BGG and I was much clearer on the rules. One of the guys from last week wanted to try it again (he likes rolling dice) so we sat down with 6.

Second time went much better. The most telling post-game comment came from a guy --he didn't play but instead watched us last week--who started off by saying the game was "senseless" to declaring the game "charming" as he clapped for the victor (who won by knocking everyone else out). I'm pretty confident it will make it into a regular rotation. I'm also looking forward to testing it out on the family this weekend.

And also, Innovation continues to be awesome. The more you play and the more you get to know the cards (just like Race for the Galaxy) the more the strategies open up. We played with 3 and one guy was ramping up his civ and was pretty untouchable when it came to demands. However, the optimal words were "pretty untouchable" as all it takes is a deficiency in one technology to see an advanced civ crumble. The dude who spent most of the game in last place ended up winning. Pure awesome.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
MichaelBD said:
Second time went much better. The most telling post-game comment came from a guy --he didn't play but instead watched us last week--who started off by saying the game was "senseless" to declaring the game "charming" as he clapped for the victor (who won by knocking everyone else out). I'm pretty confident it will make it into a regular rotation. I'm also looking forward to testing it out on the family this weekend.

And also, Innovation continues to be awesome. The more you play and the more you get to know the cards (just like Race for the Galaxy) the more the strategies open up. We played with 3 and one guy was ramping up his civ and was pretty untouchable when it came to demands. However, the optimal words were "pretty untouchable" as all it takes is a deficiency in one technology to see an advanced civ crumble. The dude who spent most of the game in last place ended up winning. Pure awesome.
Excellent taste my friend. Two of my favorite games this year. I feel like King of Tokyo is severely underappreciated at least if you go by BGG, but it looks like it's picking up steam through word of mouth. Definitely a top 5 party game for me.

Did you wind up making out?
I think I wound up making $100 profit or something. I wasn't trying to cash in though, more just it felt silly owning a big $200 game that I never get the chance to play. I would still be very happy to learn it though.
 
Flynn said:
Is Z-man going to have Ora & Labora?
I have a guy in my game group who played it and he said it was pretty awesome. According to him it falls in between Agricola and La Harve in terms of complexity.

I brought a couple new games to the table last night, Ankh-Morpork and Blood Bowl Team Manager. I like both games but I was surprised at how long BBTM took. We played with four newbies and it took us about two and a half hours. Reading through the rule book it seems like it should have taken a fraction of that time. Anyway, I liked it, a lot actually. It's like if you crossed Battleline with a deck builder. By the end of the game we all were cheering along the dice rolls and calling for fumbles. The game was fun I just wish it was a bit shorter, hopefully with experience it will move along a bit faster.

Ankh-Morpork also surprised me by it's length, I was expecting something a bit longer but it turns out the game can probably be knocked out in well under an hour with experienced players. Even with a game full of newbies we finished in about 45 minutes. It's a super quick area control game with a simple play mechanic. The game mechanic is basically play a card then draw a card. Of course the cards have different abilities on there such as adding minions, assassinating other players, and building houses but all those actions are optional. The only actions that are mandatory are the random event cards that only get triggered when played, usually through playing a wizard card. The trick to the game is everyone has a secret ability. Some players want to have the most cash by the end of the game while others just want to cause as much trouble as possible. The game itself was good if only a bit too light. It'll be a good end of the night game but not something I'd play as my main game.

I also just got The Road to Canterbury in last night. I haven't opened it yet but it looks like it could be fun.
 
Has anyone tried any of DVG's solitaire military games? Been really interested in games like Hornet Leader and others they offer, but they are big and pricey games and being purely solitaire makes me kinda leary about em. They seem to be very highly rated though on BGG
 

Zarovitch

Member
mrklaw said:
that time of year again. Recommendations for a good, family friendly board game that isn't too heavy on the rules.

I currently have

- Carcassonne
- Labyrinth
- Zooloretto
- Forbidden Island

The Dwarf King or Dice Town.
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Ora and Labor seems way too much like Le Havre: the monestary edition.. to me.

Maybe I'll totally change my mind on it at some point... but I didn't care for Merkator, and I don't think I'll care for this.
 
mrklaw said:
that time of year again. Recommendations for a good, family friendly board game that isn't too heavy on the rules.

I currently have

- Carcassonne
- Labyrinth
- Zooloretto
- Forbidden Island
Tobago
Airlines Europe
7 Wonders
Colosseum
Roll Through the Ages
Shear Panic
 

Chorazin

Member
mrklaw said:
that time of year again. Recommendations for a good, family friendly board game that isn't too heavy on the rules.

I currently have

- Carcassonne
- Labyrinth
- Zooloretto
- Forbidden Island

Drakon, Martian Dice, King of Tokyo.
 
mrklaw said:
that time of year again. Recommendations for a good, family friendly board game that isn't too heavy on the rules.

I currently have

- Carcassonne
- Labyrinth
- Zooloretto
- Forbidden Island

Light:
- Ticket to Ride. A guaranteed hit, always
- For Sale
- Blokus
- A la Carte, very family friendly
- The Magical Labyrinth, unless that's the one you meant by Labyrinth
- The Climbers
- Hey that's my fish

Medium:
- Stone Age
- Thebes
- Smallworld
- Roborally
- Airlines Europe
 

XShagrath

Member
I'm a big fan of Thurn & Taxis. Has anyone else played this? I feel it scratches that Ticket to Ride set-collecting itch, but also has so much more going for it.
 
XShagrath said:
I'm a big fan of Thurn & Taxis. Has anyone else played this? I feel it scratches that Ticket to Ride set-collecting itch, but also has so much more going for it.

I played a couple of games on yucata, I liked it but the player interaction is way too low for a game so light. I much prefer TtR
 

Slacker

Member
mrklaw said:
that time of year again. Recommendations for a good, family friendly board game that isn't too heavy on the rules.

I currently have

- Carcassonne
- Labyrinth
- Zooloretto
- Forbidden Island
How old are the kids?

Assuming they're not toddlers, I second or third the recommendation for Ticket To Ride. Great game once the kids are old enough to understand what to do (maybe age 6 or 7?), and we play it all the time with my adult gaming group as well.

I think my xmas family game purchase this year may be Castle Panic, which is a cooperative us-against-the-game game like Forbidden Island (which my kids love). Anyone have any thoughts on it pro or con?
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Packing for BGG.Con. :D Only going to be bringing Innovation + Echoes of the Past for room play and the rest I think I'll just defer to the library and whatever Essen stuff I can pick up from Funagain.

We have a Google+ Messenger chat going for coordination so let me know if you want to be added to that. Or just send me your email if you don't have a smartphone and we can try to sync up that way.

Sooooo excited.
 
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