• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The New Board Game Thread (Newcomer Friendly)

Status
Not open for further replies.

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Hmm. Where you guys meeting?

Or is this a
Googly
employee thing?

yeah it's on site. one day i will create a totally separate one -- one day! apartment complex has tons of great places for gaming actually but that's like 3x the work :p
 
So stoked. Changed locations for our game night last week and now we have like 16 people coming. This was my baby! When it was just me and a couple other new employees a year ago. :D

I've been kind of doing this at my new-ish (6 month) job too. When I got here there were about 3 lunch time gamers, always playing the same stuff, once a week tops. Last week we played almost every lunch, including a couple days of Resistance with about 10. There's talks of starting a game night too.

(We haven't been playing this week, since a good number of us have been watching the Euro soccer tourney at lunch instead)
 

Musan

Member
yeah it's on site. one day i will create a totally separate one -- one day! apartment complex has tons of great places for gaming actually but that's like 3x the work :p

There are a bunch of board game meetups around the bay area. I usually go to one in Palo Alto on Wednesdays.
 

Smiley90

Stop shitting on my team. Start shitting on my finger.
I don't know how you guys have time to play at lunch, I have 30 mins and that's barely enough to grab food...


EDIT: Traced-Velocity, or anyone else, do you know of boardgame groups in Metro Vancouver?
 

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
Went over to a friend's house after class today for an impromptu game of Axis and Allies. Never played it before and it was fun enough for a non-gamer crowd. I could see playing it again but it's certainly nothing incredible IMO.

Playing as Russia with zero prior experience was a real disaster though.
 

Erudite

Member
Dropped ~$60 on Elder Signs & Dixit.

I think I've started a new addiction for two of my buddies as well. They ordered the Game of Thrones LCG and Munchkin Deluxe.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy but fun day.
EDIT: Traced-Velocity, or anyone else, do you know of boardgame groups in Metro Vancouver?
I've never gone looking for a game group, always just stuck to friends/cousins, so I'm not too sure myself. If you do find/start one, I'd be curious to check it out if my schedule lines up.
 

dogbutt

Neo Member
Played Puerto Rico for the first time tonight. It was my first "medium" difficulty game (at least medium compared to games like Catan and Carcassonne.) It was fun, although I think my friends and I did some stuff wrong (none of us have ever played it.)

What are some other games that are "the next step" after games like Catan? Usually every time my friends and I get together we go back and forth between Catan, Bohnanza, and Carcassonne, so I'm just looking for something a little bit more challenging.
 

fenners

Member
Played Puerto Rico for the first time tonight. It was my first "medium" difficulty game (at least medium compared to games like Catan and Carcassonne.) It was fun, although I think my friends and I did some stuff wrong (none of us have ever played it.)

What are some other games that are "the next step" after games like Catan? Usually every time my friends and I get together we go back and forth between Catan, Bohnanza, and Carcassonne, so I'm just looking for something a little bit more challenging.

Lords of Waterdeep ;)

For all the joking around in this thread, it might work well for you.
 
Yeah in my experience here in the US it's more commonly a matter of twenty bucks or so.

Yup. I have a really nice local shop that is owned by a friend of my brother. But full MSRP? That's madness. When I buy games, I tend to buy the base as well as any expansions all at once. If it is a series of games, I may buy the entire series. Ordering through Amazon or Ebay has easily saved me hundreds of dollars. When I buy off Ebay (new only), even with shipping it is cheaper than going to the store that is 5 minutes away. That is insulting IMO. Worse yet, as games go OOP, the shop actually raises the prices on the games he still has in the store. For example, he has 3 sealed copies of Dreadfleet going for the price of 250$ each. I can buy the damn game on Ebay brand new for 80 bucks. Kiss any impulse buy you may have had goodbye! It is so frustrating because I want to help out the local store, but not when the price difference is so drastic.

I'm pretty much 100% Amazon right now but when I see a cheap lot on Ebay I will bite. I just got Death Angel and all the card expansions for 40$ shipped saving me 20$ right there (new). That's enough for another game! When I was looking to buy Munchkin a couple of weeks ago, it would cost 175$ locally vs. 100$ for a pre-packaged lot on Ebay from a store on the other side of the country (Deluxe+7 expansions). I would be nuts to buy locally.
 
My copy of Eclipse finally shipped :) Supposed to arrive Saturday, but by FedEx :\ they always lie and say they knocked on the door but clearly didn't because i was sitting next to the door all day! >:\
 

Pepboy

Member
I've enjoyed Rex, Infiltration, and now Fortress America is re-released. Of course these are all super AT, so if you're into Euros moreso then YMMV.

Thanks, I'll try to check them out in more depth. I've heard a little bit about Rex but the other two are new to me. I used to be more into Euros but find myself hungry for theme lately as the Euros starting to feel a little same-y.

Yup. I have a really nice local shop that is owned by a friend of my brother. But full MSRP? That's madness. When I buy games, I tend to buy the base as well as any expansions all at once. If it is a series of games, I may buy the entire series. Ordering through Amazon or Ebay has easily saved me hundreds of dollars. When I buy off Ebay (new only), even with shipping it is cheaper than going to the store that is 5 minutes away. That is insulting IMO. Worse yet, as games go OOP, the shop actually raises the prices on the games he still has in the store. For example, he has 3 sealed copies of Dreadfleet going for the price of 250$ each. I can buy the damn game on Ebay brand new for 80 bucks. Kiss any impulse buy you may have had goodbye! It is so frustrating because I want to help out the local store, but not when the price difference is so drastic.

I'm pretty much 100% Amazon right now but when I see a cheap lot on Ebay I will bite. I just got Death Angel and all the card expansions for 40$ shipped saving me 20$ right there (new). That's enough for another game! When I was looking to buy Munchkin a couple of weeks ago, it would cost 175$ locally vs. 100$ for a pre-packaged lot on Ebay from a store on the other side of the country (Deluxe+7 expansions). I would be nuts to buy locally.

I know what you mean. I enjoy my local store but I mostly limit myself to games under $25 there, or else the magnitude of the markup becomes too large to warrant. It helps soothe my guilt a bit that the majority of their profit comes from buying/selling opened Magic cards. Also glad to hear we have another Death Angel player, hope you enjoy!

Went over to a friend's house after class today for an impromptu game of Axis and Allies. Never played it before and it was fun enough for a non-gamer crowd. I could see playing it again but it's certainly nothing incredible IMO.

Playing as Russia with zero prior experience was a real disaster though.

Axis and Allies can take a while to setup, explain, and play, but boy it can create some fun stories with players standing in anticipation of a dice roll. My friend once took a single German tank through Africa, threw it on a transport and conquered London against staggering odds. Threw the tank back on transport and sent it to eastern US in a subsequent turn, conquering it as well. We decided the spirit of Rommel had taken over his unit.

I've heard it argued that the Russian player requires the least amount of strategy (basically just spam infantry) but can be the most important in preventing Germany's advance (need to roll decently and manage troops appropriately).
 

Keasar

Member
Have been playing a lot of Summoner Wars recently and I absolutely love it. Got the Master Set and I adore how the 6 factions all feel so different from each other. Excellent too for lunch breaks.

Also itching to start buying the other faction decks.
 

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
Axis and Allies can take a while to setup, explain, and play, but boy it can create some fun stories with players standing in anticipation of a dice roll. My friend once took a single German tank through Africa, threw it on a transport and conquered London against staggering odds. Threw the tank back on transport and sent it to eastern US in a subsequent turn, conquering it as well. We decided the spirit of Rommel had taken over his unit.

I've heard it argued that the Russian player requires the least amount of strategy (basically just spam infantry) but can be the most important in preventing Germany's advance (need to roll decently and manage troops appropriately).

No question there was some exciting stuff happening, and there were indeed some absolutely massive battles that had everybody shouting at dice rolls.

On the other hand, as you said it takes almost as long or longer to set up as War of the Ring and can easily be a 5 hour game. I'm not really interested in that length of game in general, and thankfully it didn't take that long last night. But if I'm gonna play a long game I think War of the Ring or Arkham has more payoff, though neither of them have ever reached that length for me.

And that's true about Russia, but it seems to me that that's actually the lone viable way to play it (spamming infantry at the borders). That requires that you understand that strategy before the game starts, which I didn't since it was my first game. If you waste your first turn as I did then you have zero chance against an experienced Germany. That kind of design automatically loses the game some points IMO. Being that constrained in your gameplay strategies isn't all that exciting to me.
 

Zalasta

Member
What are some other games that are "the next step" after games like Catan? Usually every time my friends and I get together we go back and forth between Catan, Bohnanza, and Carcassonne, so I'm just looking for something a little bit more challenging.

Depends a lot on the kind of mechanics you like or want to try. Auction/bidding, worker placement, pick up & deliver, stock manipulation, abstract, etc. There are way too many options, narrow it down for us and we can make better suggestions.
 

bloodydrake

Cool Smoke Luke
Played Puerto Rico for the first time tonight. It was my first "medium" difficulty game (at least medium compared to games like Catan and Carcassonne.) It was fun, although I think my friends and I did some stuff wrong (none of us have ever played it.)

What are some other games that are "the next step" after games like Catan? Usually every time my friends and I get together we go back and forth between Catan, Bohnanza, and Carcassonne, so I'm just looking for something a little bit more challenging.

IF you like little plastic men on your board, Cyclades is in there as a good consideration of a next step.
Its kinda hybrid euro/ameritrash game ..thematically its very cool and has a fun bidding system built in, and area control light wargame.

Heres Tom Vasel quick review of it.
http://youtu.be/bgfsAai8Qdw
 

Neverfade

Member
Just punched Eclipse; cotdamn that's a lot of pieces. Also, the box...so sturdy. Nicer than FFG's.



But still -- fuck those chintzy ships.
 

Smiley90

Stop shitting on my team. Start shitting on my finger.
GUYS, GUYS, my girlfriend likes Dominion yessssssssssssssssssssssss finally hit the jackpot. Should've just started with that instead of going straight for Innovation :p (she also enjoyed Lost Cities, we haven't played any of the other games I bought (LOTR, Race for the Galaxy, Roll through the Ages and Summoner Wars) yet )

We played it with one of her friends (who also hated Innovation), when the unthinkable happened: they said "let's play again, with different cards! This one's cool!". Should've seen the smile on my face.
 

Barmaley

Neo Member
Because I'm too lazy to actually learn the war of the ring rules and then play it, I made this instead.

ojzkx.jpg


Don't stone me to death, please.
 

Barmaley

Neo Member
Is that your first "hardcore" board game?

Well, not exactly a board game but I owned a warhammer fantasy starter set a few months back, but that one proved to be too hardcore for me so I sold it. The whole "hobby" angle proved to be too time consuming.
 

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
Well, not exactly a board game but I owned a warhammer fantasy starter set a few months back, but that one proved to be too hardcore for me so I sold it. The whole "hobby" angle proved to be too time consuming.

I really don't think I'd recommend War of the Ring as a first board game. It's insanely complex and intimidating even to people who are used to stuff like that. If you want to get into board gaming I'd recommend checking out the OP for some better entry-level stuff, and I'm sure people would give you recommendations as well.
 

Barmaley

Neo Member
I really don't think I'd recommend War of the Ring as a first board game. It's insanely complex and intimidating even to people who are used to stuff like that. If you want to get into board gaming I'd recommend checking out the OP for some better entry-level stuff, and I'm sure people would give you recommendations as well.

Oh, thanks for the advice, but I've been a gamer for quite a while now :D
Actually this thread helped me quite a bit those years ago when I was just starting. I just didn't have a neogaf account back then.
(Amongst the more complex games I've played:
game of thrones, chaos in the old world, civilization.)
 

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
Oh, thanks for the advice, but I've been a gamer for quite a while now :D
Actually this thread helped me quite a bit those years ago when I was just starting. I just didn't have a neogaf account back then.
(Amongst the more complex games I've played:
game of thrones, chaos in the old world, civilization.)

Ah, okay, that's the stuff I meant when I asked about "hardcore" games though. Basically stuff that's not Monopoly or whatever.

War of the Ring is definitely a tough one though. That rule book is hefty.
 

Neverfade

Member
WOTR: So worth it. I'm thinking of actually buying a copy of the second edition so i can play it more. The list of people I'd let around a game that reliably goes for $1000 is short, so it doesn't get played as often as I'd like.
 

Erudite

Member
GUYS, GUYS, my girlfriend likes Dominion yessssssssssssssssssssssss finally hit the jackpot. Should've just started with that instead of going straight for Innovation :p (she also enjoyed Lost Cities, we haven't played any of the other games I bought (LOTR, Race for the Galaxy, Roll through the Ages and Summoner Wars) yet )

We played it with one of her friends (who also hated Innovation), when the unthinkable happened: they said "let's play again, with different cards! This one's cool!". Should've seen the smile on my face.
haha that's awesome, yeah Dominion is great. Haven't had one person I've invited over say they don't like it.

Doing another board game sessions again tonight myself. Had one yesterday after picking up my haul, along with the aforementioned games my buddies picked up a few posts back. Also decided to make an impulse purchase on Dungeon Run since SC restocked it.

Had a lot of fun with Munchkins, surprised it never passed by my radar this whole time I've been checking out board games until last night.

Elder Signs was alright, though we were playing a 7 player game. I'm thinking I'll enjoy it more if I reduce down to 3-4, so it doesn't take so long waiting for your turn.

Dixit got a few laughs from my buds when I opened it up, but they really got into it after we got the game rolling. Shouts and laughs abound, it was great to see.

Hoping to have a go at Dungeon Run and the Game of Thrones LCG tonight.
 

Smiley90

Stop shitting on my team. Start shitting on my finger.
haha that's awesome, yeah Dominion is great. Haven't had one person I've invited over say they don't like it.

I quote: "When you explained it I was like "eeeeeh this is weird" but this is oddly exciting". The witch is by far their favourite card :lol
 

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
Thanks to Neverfade for the Mage Knight transaction which went smoothly. My collection, which came up from one game in late November 2011, is pretty satisfying at the moment. I've still got 4 Kickstarter games (Farmageddon, Chicken Caesar, Zpocalypse, and Tammany Hall) which are paid for and I look forward to getting them, and while I've still got an Amazon wish list I think I'm done buying games for a while. Money is drying up and I'll have to focus on clinicals more through the next year.

 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Honestly I feel like this year there's not TOO much great stuff coming out. The next thing on my radar is Netrunner, which I hope doesn't disappoint. But I don't have a backlog of wanted games five-deep like I often do. Gives me time to catch up on my existing backlog. :D
 

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
Honestly I feel like this year there's not TOO much great stuff coming out. The next thing on my radar is Netrunner, which I hope doesn't disappoint. But I don't have a backlog of wanted games five-deep like I often do. Gives me time to catch up on my existing backlog. :D

I'm such a newcomer to the hobby that I don't even bother trying to stay caught up on the latest or new releases yet. There's still so many older games I haven't played or owned.
 
Honestly I feel like this year there's not TOO much great stuff coming out. The next thing on my radar is Netrunner, which I hope doesn't disappoint. But I don't have a backlog of wanted games five-deep like I often do. Gives me time to catch up on my existing backlog. :D

Mice & Mystics, man!
 
Awesome, the "estimated delivery date" field has disappeared off the tracking page. Probably because the estimated date was today, and it's just about 6pm with no package in sight.

Fuck you, FedEx :(
 
Just got done playing Game of Thrones 2nd Ed. for the first time. Played with 6, game took so long as it was everyone's first time playing. Started at 9pm, ended at 1am.

Damn stuff swings so quickly in that game. At the beginning of turn 9, I was in a great position to win. Then my hopes and dreams were destroyed by the card flips. Still had fun. Don't know that I'd purchase my own copy though.

What's funny is how timid we all were at the beginning. I don't think there was any combat until turn 4 or 5.
 

tm24

Member
Nice, no idea this is coming/came out. I saw that there's one RE Deck Building Game which came out in 2010. Is this related to that or a completely new game?
Apprently the game is out, i jsut read the RPS piece wrong when he said he got some new games to try out. I got it confused with the cryptozic thing
 

Keasar

Member
Doing some reading of the new rules to Descent: Journeys in the Dark 2nd Edition. They look fine so far (havent gotten that deep yet) but I dont know how they are in comparison to first edition, anyone with experience who can comment if they seem to have done any improvements or if its time to desperatly search for the 1st Edition?
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
yes -- it's not very good imo (RE DBG). Ascension and Thunderstone do similar things but in better ways (especially Thunderstone).

If it comes out on mobile though I'll give it another chance -- just like Nightfall is kinda of a mediocre game but still lots of fun async (imo) I'm sure RE would be similar. Get on it Playdek!
 
Doing some reading of the new rules to Descent: Journeys in the Dark 2nd Edition. They look fine so far (havent gotten that deep yet) but I dont know how they are in comparison to first edition, anyone with experience who can comment if they seem to have done any improvements or if its time to desperatly search for the 1st Edition?

It's basically a completely different game

Nice, no idea this is coming/came out. I saw that there's one RE Deck Building Game which came out in 2010. Is this related to that or a completely new game?

I've had fun with the game and what is unique about the game is the many different game modes and options you have. The game though is pretty poorly balanced as certain combos in specific game modes can be very OP. In the basic mode of the game it's like your standard DBG, heavily taking from Dominion but you also have the option of going "exploring" which works as random encounters in the mansion. The encounters are very random and one of the games biggest weaknesses... you can basically on your first turn go into the mansion and instantly get gibbed by Nemisis. Death has a little penalty so it's not that bad but it can get annoying. Some of the other game modes are more interesting and also less random, each expansion has added new ways to play. Each player also always plays one random character (which there are now tons of), and each has unique abilities. This goes into what was said before about certain cards and combos, as some characters tend to work better than others in a certain scenario. You got Barry? Well your screwed if the scenario put out has no magnums, as his abilities become useless without em. Game can be fun but it's pretty sloppy in the design.

If you like Star Trek, I would recommend the Star Trek DBG Bandai put out instead as it features similar ideas, but overall the game is much more solidly designed and feels far less random, while also having some unique designs to it.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Came thisclose to putting in a CSI order of Takenoko, 7 Wonders Cities (July), and Ghost Stories: Black Secret, but thankfully I couldn't get that final game I really wanted and I realized I have about five games right now I really want to get to the table some more:

-Quebec (novel Euro with great interaction)
-Thunderstone Advance (read through all the rules and FAQs, set it up, but still haven't actually had the chance to play it!)
-PitchCar (best dexterity game ever, and I have two wacky expansions for it)
-Lords of Vegas
-Dungeon Petz

So, saved!
 

fenners

Member
Yeah but for good or for worse? Should I break the piggy bank and try find a copy of the 1st edition instead?

It's too early to tell for sure - precious few players have actually /played/ the second edition. Preview nights coming up in a few weeks.
 
Yeah but for good or for worse? Should I break the piggy bank and try find a copy of the 1st edition instead?

Haven't played 2nd yet, so don't know. But they are very different games now, some shared concepts yet they could have to me possibly just named it something else as it seems like two different games. I'm not tossing my 1st edition stuff out any time soon.
 

Vard

Member
Thanks for the RE impressions on the last page, guys. Sounds like they still need to do some proper balancing to it. I like the idea of there being multiple modes though!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom