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The New Board Game Thread (Newcomer Friendly)

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Neverfade

Member
woof. roomies just got agricola. i have not heard a single criticism of this game yet.

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ParityBit

Member
Has anyone played Space Alert? If so, what are your impressions? I actually HAVE it, and have for almost 10 months but have yet to play it. I have yet to even read the directions! Haha.

I recently finished grad school so I finally have time to play table top games (and video games) again! It was much easier to play games I knew :p
 
Did some Dungeon Run last night. Great light quick dungeon romp. A mix of coop and competitive and plays pretty well. Far enjoy this more than the D&D games.
 

XShagrath

Member
Did some Dungeon Run last night. Great light quick dungeon romp. A mix of coop and competitive and plays pretty well. Far enjoy this more than the D&D games.
I was looking forward to this game so much before it came out. I absolutely love the combat mechanic. However, it just doesn't work for two people. I ended up putting it up on the BGG math trade to see if I can get something a little more 2p-friendly.
 
I was looking forward to this game so much before it came out. I absolutely love the combat mechanic. However, it just doesn't work for two people. I ended up putting it up on the BGG math trade to see if I can get something a little more 2p-friendly.

This is actually on my want list for the math trade. If you don't end up trading it and I don't end up getting it, I'd be willing to take it off your hands for the right price.
 
I was looking forward to this game so much before it came out. I absolutely love the combat mechanic. However, it just doesn't work for two people. I ended up putting it up on the BGG math trade to see if I can get something a little more 2p-friendly.

It's definitely a more players the better. Don't really find any of the dungeon hack and slasher board games to be very 2p friendly though unless people run multiple characters
 

XShagrath

Member
It's definitely a more players the better. Don't really find any of the dungeon hack and slasher board games to be very 2p friendly though unless people run multiple characters
Other "dungeon crawlers" we've played have been:

Runebound - One character each. Fun, but a little long.
D&D: Ashardalon - One character each. Brutal game, don't care for it that much.
WoW: The Boardgame - One character each (if I recall correctly). Like this for the "phat loot", but super long. Tons of dice rolling is awesome too!
WoW: The Adventure Game - One character each. Don't remember much about this one, but nothing negative.

I think that's about it. I don't care about the number of players unless it negatively affects gameplay (like Dungeon Run and it's semi co-op/semi back-stabby) play. I don't mind a "race" game at all, and usually play more like a multi-person solitaire than anything. Just give me cool items and stuff and I'm pretty good with most games.

I'm really hoping that the 2nd edition of Descent has some type of gameplay that works well with two players, instead of needing a dedicated Overlord (DM). I think that game would be right up my alley.
 
I'd probably buy Mage Knight if I could find it for a decent price. Hopefully the second printing comes out soon. Sounds like it's pretty good for 2 players.
 
Other "dungeon crawlers" we've played have been:

Runebound - One character each. Fun, but a little long.
D&D: Ashardalon - One character each. Brutal game, don't care for it that much.
WoW: The Boardgame - One character each (if I recall correctly). Like this for the "phat loot", but super long. Tons of dice rolling is awesome too!
WoW: The Adventure Game - One character each. Don't remember much about this one, but nothing negative.

I think that's about it. I don't care about the number of players unless it negatively affects gameplay (like Dungeon Run and it's semi co-op/semi back-stabby) play. I don't mind a "race" game at all, and usually play more like a multi-person solitaire than anything. Just give me cool items and stuff and I'm pretty good with most games.

I'm really hoping that the 2nd edition of Descent has some type of gameplay that works well with two players, instead of needing a dedicated Overlord (DM). I think that game would be right up my alley.

Er well hopefully not a Descent was fine as it was, already worried that they are going to change it too much. Never liked the WoW board games, so hard to say. Hate the D&D board games though, the whole encounter mechanics they use are awful
 

fenners

Member
I was looking forward to this game so much before it came out. I absolutely love the combat mechanic. However, it just doesn't work for two people. I ended up putting it up on the BGG math trade to see if I can get something a little more 2p-friendly.

Claustrophobia! 2 players only, dungeon crawler, plays in about an hour if you know the rules, easy to grasp rules for combat & movement. Only gotcha could be the asymmetrical play - one player "runs" a team of humans with an objective, another "runs" the dungeon.
 

XShagrath

Member
Claustrophobia! 2 players only, dungeon crawler, plays in about an hour if you know the rules, easy to grasp rules for combat & movement. Only gotcha could be the asymmetrical play - one player "runs" a team of humans with an objective, another "runs" the dungeon.
I've got Claustrophobia, and dig it quite a bit. I don't see it as a "dungeon crawler" though. A dungeon crawler needs to have the loot and preferably a leveling system.

Re: Descent - I know Descent is a well-loved dungeon-crawler RPG-type of game, and I'm sure it's awesome the way it is. But as a two-player game, I don't think it would work too well. I'll admit I haven't played Descent before, so maybe it works as a two-player game. From reading some reviews and such, I think it probably works better with 4 or 5 people though.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Has anyone played Space Alert? If so, what are your impressions? I actually HAVE it, and have for almost 10 months but have yet to play it. I have yet to even read the directions! Haha.

I recently finished grad school so I finally have time to play table top games (and video games) again! It was much easier to play games I knew :p

I'm in the same boat w/r/t Space Alert except replace 10 months with two years. There's always something that prevents me from playing it when I otherwise would -- either I don't have a good audio output, or not enough people, or it's too complex for the group I'm with, not enough time, etc. etc. I suppose instead of playing Arkham last week we could have done Space Alert. Everyone who actually plays it seems to love it.
 

Artadius

Member
Played Eclipse last week at our regular boardgame night. Five players, three of which were first time players including me. The other two only had played a two player game once.

Game took six hours.

It is a great game, but shit, I don't really think I like playing a six hour euro game (I consider it more euro than AT for sure).

I suppose with repeated plays, we could get that down to maybe five hours (this is including setup and tear-down)... maybe less. Box says 30 minutes a player. I don't see how that's possible unless you're smoking through every action.
 

ParityBit

Member
I'm in the same boat w/r/t Space Alert except replace 10 months with two years. There's always something that prevents me from playing it when I otherwise would -- either I don't have a good audio output, or not enough people, or it's too complex for the group I'm with, not enough time, etc. etc. I suppose instead of playing Arkham last week we could have done Space Alert. Everyone who actually plays it seems to love it.

How are you on the directions? I only made it half way though last time I tried to read them.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Yeah I don't think I've finished them. Usually I get a few pages in and think "wait, who am I going to plays this with? And when? And how am I going to teach them?"
 
Played Eclipse last week at our regular boardgame night. Five players, three of which were first time players including me. The other two only had played a two player game once.

Game took six hours.

It is a great game, but shit, I don't really think I like playing a six hour euro game (I consider it more euro than AT for sure).

I suppose with repeated plays, we could get that down to maybe five hours (this is including setup and tear-down)... maybe less. Box says 30 minutes a player. I don't see how that's possible unless you're smoking through every action.

I've played two 2 player games so far. First took us about 2 1/2 hours, second took 2 hours. None of that includes setup/teardown. I have read that quite a few people are playing at around 30 minutes per player like the box says, but we tend to have a decent amount of AP. I think next time we can get down to maybe 1 1/2 hours, but I don't see ever getting down to 1 hour for 2 players.
 

Artadius

Member
Space Alert is definitely one of the more intimidating games out there. The book which walks you through teaching it is very well done though and helps in this regard.

If you want to commit to getting into your groups regular rotation, I can't recommend enough the expansion because it adds persistence to your characters. They gain xp, level up, earn special skills and specializations. It really gives players more investment opportunity for the game which I think it needs to offset the intimidation.
 

LProtag

Member
Played Eclipse last week at our regular boardgame night. Five players, three of which were first time players including me. The other two only had played a two player game once.

Game took six hours.

It is a great game, but shit, I don't really think I like playing a six hour euro game (I consider it more euro than AT for sure).

I suppose with repeated plays, we could get that down to maybe five hours (this is including setup and tear-down)... maybe less. Box says 30 minutes a player. I don't see how that's possible unless you're smoking through every action.

That's odd. I've done four player games in around 3 hours max, that's including breaks and bickering with each other and some AP once and a while.
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
I'm about to clear my collection out.

Like, 20 or so games. I'll post here if anyone wants first dibs.
 

Artadius

Member
That's odd. I've done four player games in around 3 hours max, that's including breaks and bickering with each other and some AP once and a while.

There's definitely some analysis paralysis going on...but still. My group is all a bunch of friends IRL as it is... so there's lots of table banter going on and talking about other things which I'm sure contributes to that. I guess that's just the reality that our playtime skews higher than normal.
 

ParityBit

Member
Space Alert is definitely one of the more intimidating games out there. The book which walks you through teaching it is very well done though and helps in this regard.

If you want to commit to getting into your groups regular rotation, I can't recommend enough the expansion because it adds persistence to your characters. They gain xp, level up, earn special skills and specializations. It really gives players more investment opportunity for the game which I think it needs to offset the intimidation.

Is the expansion a must have? I ask because usually it is hard(er) to teach games with more rules than the base set.
 

MichaelBD

Member
Add me to the "have Space Alert but never played it" group. I guess I kind of just throw that Vlaad guy my money because I really like Galaxy Trucker.

I have Dungeon Lords (played someone else's copy over a year ago but haven't played my copy) and I have Space Alert.

I also want to pick up Mage Knight but at least I know that will definitely get played.
 
I've found that besides Galaxy Trucker Vlaada's games seem really hard to teach. I ended up trading away Dungeon Lords without playing it because I found teaching the damn thing was too daunting.
 
Only thing that keeps stopping me from getting Dungeon Lords is that it'd only be 2 of us playing it. Not really sure about having 2 dummy players, sounds kind of awful.
 

Deadstar

Member
Can't wait to play some of the new games I picked up. I've got Defenders of the Realm, Pandemic, Dungeonquest and a Munchkin board game to play soon. Soon...
 
Sorry it took a few days for me to respond but thanks for the info on the Card Sleeves for Dominion. I am just going to leave them as is. (no card sleeves)
 

Switters

Member
Holy shit, after playing through the tutorial scenarios, Earth Reborn has become the manifestation of my dreams for a fun, thematic, small arms tactical game.

Really, the scenario tutorials are the best implementation of rules learning I've experienced from a board game.

It might look cheesy, but please if you enjoy games like x-com or Jagged alliance pick this up.
 

Deadstar

Member
Does anyone know if the Dominion cards get bent over time in their standard cases because they sit slanted into their grooves? Can this be a problem?
 

Mashing

Member
I've found that besides Galaxy Trucker Vlaada's games seem really hard to teach. I ended up trading away Dungeon Lords without playing it because I found teaching the damn thing was too daunting.

That's odd considering DL comes with a tutorial board. But, it does have a lot of different mechanics so I can see where you're coming from. Personally, I haven't found a Vlaada game I hate yet.
 

Keylime

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Got "King of Tokyo" last week and played it a few times with the family. Did a bunch of 1:1 games with my sister's boyfriend which was much less fun...but with 4 people it was awesome.
 
That's odd considering DL comes with a tutorial board. But, it does have a lot of different mechanics so I can see where you're coming from. Personally, I haven't found a Vlaada game I hate yet.
The training board was a start but there is just way too much going on in that game to easily convey to someone on their first go. Every time I tried to think about how I was going to teach it I gave up and found another game to play. It's a shame because I do want to play it, I just don't want to teach it.
 

Hero

Member
Got "King of Tokyo" last week and played it a few times with the family. Did a bunch of 1:1 games with my sister's boyfriend which was much less fun...but with 4 people it was awesome.

1 on 1 is okay but 3 or 4 players is the sweet spot. 5-6 is just pure chaos but the fun kind of chaos.
 
I picked up Mage Knight tonight from CSI. Holy shit, this game looks insane. The rulebooks look pretty daunting too, they are fairly long with a tiny font. I'm going to try to figure this game out tomorrow.

My only complaint is the card stock is beyond pathetic, it is super thin, as rough as cardboard, and has this fake linen design on the cards. I'll be sleeving them though, so it won't matter too much. All of the rest of the components look great, even though the tiles have that same fake linen design on them.
 
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