• 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.

Xater

Member
Have you guys seen this version of Shogi?



It looks childish but should make playing it way easier. I am actually thinking about getting it. :lol
 

fenners

Member
StoOgE said:
CSI orders are a real pain.

One of: Carson City, Arkham Horror or Twilight Struggle.

Just have to pick my big game :(

I've played all three a bunch (and love all three).

Carson City - mix of Puerto Rico, Caylus & a dash of Carcassonne. The randomness of duels puts off some Eurogame fans, but there's an official variant in the box to mitigate that. I love the feel of it - building up your ranches, the city, the tension of the role selection & turn order. Enjoyed every game I've played of it.

Arkham Horror - it's a fantastic, heavily thematic co-op with lots of fiddly bits. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I love it. Doesn't make it to the table much for me, but love it when it does.

Twilight Struggle - one of my all time favourite games. Thematic, every decision is extremely tough. Can be a little harder to teach than the other two, but if you've played 1960, you can handle this. One gotcha with this is that it is a GMT game. They've improved the look/feel of it, but it's still going to feel "cheaper" quality than the other two, if that makes a difference.

Carson City is relatively quick to play - under two hours - and scales well. The other two are good big meaty games.
 

SapientWolf

Trucker Sexologist
ultron87 said:
When I was in school our CS department would get together at the end of every semester and play a game of Monopoly. It was fun, but infuriating, since not everyone knew what they were doing and would make dumbass trades that would essentially hand someone the game.

"A monopoly on the purples + some money is not worth giving someone a monopoly on the oranges. No! Don't shake his hand! You idiot! Damnit."
Those people knew exactly what they were doing and you should thank them.
 

Xater

Member
Played the first scenario of Memoir 4 today and I really enjoyed the game. I already had an idea for a Nazi Zombie scenario, just to find out someone else already did one. :lol
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
fenners said:
I've played all three a bunch (and love all three).

Carson City - mix of Puerto Rico, Caylus & a dash of Carcassonne. The randomness of duels puts off some Eurogame fans, but there's an official variant in the box to mitigate that. I love the feel of it - building up your ranches, the city, the tension of the role selection & turn order. Enjoyed every game I've played of it.

Arkham Horror - it's a fantastic, heavily thematic co-op with lots of fiddly bits. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I love it. Doesn't make it to the table much for me, but love it when it does.

Twilight Struggle - one of my all time favourite games. Thematic, every decision is extremely tough. Can be a little harder to teach than the other two, but if you've played 1960, you can handle this. One gotcha with this is that it is a GMT game. They've improved the look/feel of it, but it's still going to feel "cheaper" quality than the other two, if that makes a difference.

Carson City is relatively quick to play - under two hours - and scales well. The other two are good big meaty games.

Thanks. I think I'm leaning towards Carson City. It's more the style of game I typically go for, but the mechanics seem a bit different.

Arkham Horror is where my heart is, but I know I would have a hell of a time getting others to play with me. I love Lovecraft and like the idea of a light RPG, but I just can't see my group getting into it. Solo'ing the game would probably be where it gets the most play.

Twilight Struggle has the theme I am most interested in playing, but I just got 1960 and think I should probably get some more games in with that. It being 2 players means I can get someone into it I'm sure, but the playtime might mean it doesn't come out much.

I'm going to sit on it over the weekend (the order won't go out till Monday anyway) so we'll see what I actually wind up doing.
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Xater said:
Okayed the first scenario of Memoir 4 today and I really enjoyed the game. I already had an idea for a Nazi Zombie scenario, just to find out someone else already did one. :lol

The one thing I really appreciated about the game was how many different scenarios you could play.
 

Volodja

Member
AstroLad said:
51st State looks awesome. I'm really digging this Neuroshima universe.
Yeah, I've looked at the threads by the designer on BGG and at the rulebook and it seems really interesting.
 
Anyone play Memoir with the Air Power expansion? Seems to add lot of new depth to the basic formula. The little painted planes are cool too.
 
Damn, I DID love El Grande. Let this be a reminder to you: Don't forget about old awesome games just because they're older.

Also, snuck in a 2p game of Ascension. We played wrong (moved the cultist into the void), but still enjoyed it far more than Thunderstone. We kept getting mad at the lack of monsters to kill, almost to the point where I was planning on ignoring power in the next game, and going all runes. Well, that fixes that.
 
We ended up playing two games of Lords of Vegas tonight so I think it's a hit.

Lords of Vegas is a sort of area influence game that stradles the Euro/Ameritrash line. Everybody starts out with two empty lots in order to build their casinos on. The lots are drawn from a deck of cards that is used throughout the game. These cards have two important pieces of information on them. The first is the color of the casino, there are five of them. Depending on which color is pulled is what casino gets paid. The second piece of info are the lot numbers. The player who draws the card places a token on the lot. These lots pay out a million at the beginning of everybody's turn and you are able to build your casino on them.

Once the card is drawn and everybody is payed out the player can then take a number of actions. They can do any number of these actions as many times as they can afford with the exception of gambling. The actions are build (place a tile), redesign (change the color of the tile), reorganize (roll influence dice in the hopes of taking control of the casino), and sprawl (purchasing a lot adjacent to an owned lot). Sprawling is actually a pretty interesting action to take. You basically pay twice the amount for an empty lot and build on there, however, if a card for that lot is drawn you lose your die and the player who drew the card takes control. That part can get tense, especially if you have sprawled to a high influenced lot.

The end game is triggered when someone draws the game over card which is place about 3/4 into the deck. Once that is drawn players who built on The Strip get payed points and cash and whoever has the highest score wins.

I actually had a blast with the game. There is some element of luck but not too much. If you keep in mind that there are only 9 of each colored card you can usually figure out which color to avoid. The game feels very thematic and risky gambles are sometimes the key to winning much like in Vegas. I like the art in the game. It has a very early 50s Vegas vibe. The street names and location of the streets on the board are pretty accurate and it's a nice touch for someone who is familiar with the place. If I could knock the game down a peg it would be because of the paper money. I hate paper money but they did put the likenesses of Frank, Dean, and Elvis on them so that's nice. That's about it. Overall I'd recommend it. It's not my favorite game this year (Cyclades still takes the cake) but it's a damn good one.
 
Neverfade said:
There's obviously a risk, but what's the reward for sprawling?
There are breaks in the scoring track that you can't advance through unless you have a bigger casino. For instance, you can get the first 8 points by a building a casino or casinos 1 tile large but in order to get past 8 on the scoring track you need at least a casino that consists of two tiles.
 

MichaelBD

Member
Yesterday I had the chance to play Ascension and Android.

Ascension - I liked it. I've played Dominion a couple of times and enjoyed it. What I like about Ascension is how quick it is to set up (without all the decks) and how it's pretty light on strategy and straightforward. I would buy it as an intro to deck-building and a quick filler.

Android - I've had this game for over a year and only now have been able to find the right people to play it with. This is a brain burner in that it is a lot of game to try and get your head around. You each play a detective solving a murder mystery, but it is not Clue-like in that a culprit/location/weapon is determined before playing and you try and deduce who is guilty. Instead, there is a crime scene, suspects, and different types of leads you chase down to uncover evidence. At the start of the game you are given two hunch cards: one showing a suspect you believe is guilty and one showing a suspect you believe is innocent. You then find evidence (in the form of numerical values) that you place on their suspect sheets to implicate them as guilty or innocent.

It's an interesting process that many people believe takes away from the game (they liken it to framing a person). I agree with those who like the mechanic and feel it makes the game feel more like a crime movie, where you are the detective sure that someone is the killer and you try to prove it.

Anyway, it takes place in a Blade Runner type universe and each detective has their own plot to resolve with good and bad endings that affect your scoring at the end.

Like I said, there is a lot to get your head around. Some of the stuff worth mentioning:

- you have good and bad emotional baggage that is manifested in the form of tokens that are placed on your plot cards to determine good or bad endings. Actions you do or actions played against you by other players determines how baggage is applied.

- there is a conspiracy to unlock that takes the form of a jigsaw puzzle that is part of the game board. How you unlock conspiracies (by adding puzzle pieces) also affects end of game scoring

- your turn consists of an amount of "time" that you spend performing actions.

- for the detective feel of the game there are warrants to acquire (making it easier to get into certain locations on the board), different types of favors (again represented by tokens) that are used as currency in the game (to say, get a warrant, score certain victory tokens, put a hit on somebody, score points at the end depending on how conspiracies play out)

- NPCs specific to each character that become part of the overall plot via end of day event cards (the game takes place over a two week period). If an NPC dies it affects final scoring, etc.

I guess what's interesting is the game is actually won by having the most VPs, and not necessarily having your guilty hunch be proven correct.

There is a lot of love/hate going on with the game over at the BGG community. I walked away from the experience (at 4+ hours) feeling a little unsure about it, but the more I think about it the more I'm finding myself eager to play it again. There are a lot of cool elements to the game and most who love it consider it more of a role-playing experience than as a murder mystery boardgame experience.
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Has anyone here played Steam or Endeavor?

I have the opportunity at one of the game nights to play one or the other, and they both look like they could be fascinating.

Endeavor seems to have the problem of being yet another resource management game with a colonial theme (FFS people, really I think we have enough games with that theme now) but looks unique in it's application.

Steam is a train game, which I like in theory (huge fan of Railroad Tycoon back in the day), but have no idea what it is about other than the fact that all of the games using that basic system are highly ranked on BGG.
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Also,

I bought Neuroshima Hex for the iphone.

I'm just not that big of a fan of the game. There is way too much randomness going on. It's a game that lends itself to analysis paralysis except you have no idea what your opponent is going to draw next so you really don't have a way to know what is going on. You are making blind decisions.

Maybe a 3 or 4 player game would be more fun, as I can see the game going from strategy rich to bonkers randomness.

Also not sure how much fun it would be trying to resolve those battles manually.
 

MichaelBD

Member
StoOgE said:
Has anyone here played Steam or Endeavor?

I have the opportunity at one of the game nights to play one or the other, and they both look like they could be fascinating.

Endeavor seems to have the problem of being yet another resource management game with a colonial theme (FFS people, really I think we have enough games with that theme now) but looks unique in it's application.

Steam is a train game, which I like in theory (huge fan of Railroad Tycoon back in the day), but have no idea what it is about other than the fact that all of the games using that basic system are highly ranked on BGG.

I've played them both once. Of the two I liked Endeavor better. Since I played them both months ago I don't have great recall as to specifics of each, but do remember that:

Steam is about connecting routes and then picking up goods for victory points. You have role selection each turn ala Puerto Rico. I wasn't overly impressed.

Endeavor is about buying buildings that give increase power to do more stuff on your turn. You are connecting routes and pushing your influence out of your starting point to accumulate victory points.
 

Xater

Member
StoOgE said:
Also,

I bought Neuroshima Hex for the iphone.

I'm just not that big of a fan of the game. There is way too much randomness going on. It's a game that lends itself to analysis paralysis except you have no idea what your opponent is going to draw next so you really don't have a way to know what is going on. You are making blind decisions.

Maybe a 3 or 4 player game would be more fun, as I can see the game going from strategy rich to bonkers randomness.

Also not sure how much fun it would be trying to resolve those battles manually.

I am kind of on the same boat on this one. I also don't like the randomness, especially how actual battle is handled with the one tile that someone has to draw.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
It's a pretty standard abstract with a combat twist. Carc meets Memoir, which I'm pretty sure I described it as some time back. Don't think there's much AP at all since there's a pretty reasonable set of good options with every draw. Then again I enjoy some degree of randomness as it makes for fun and new tactical opportunities every time (do you play defensive or offensive, do you play to save your units or sacrifice them, do you play for a quick end or a draw-out battle, do you use this unit to damage the HQ or hurt a threatening solider) and also gives new people at least a chance to win in their first twenty plays (this is something that's particularly important to me as I play with lots of non-gamers). (I hate games like chess and Hive, for example.) I like it way more than Small World as a light tactical game and I find it both deeper and more interesting each time out, as well as way easier to teach. I don't like the 3P though because it's pretty much got a kingmaker issue from the get-go.
 

Volodja

Member
Finally managed to play Arkham Horror. 5 players, around 5 hours and Yoh-Sothoth ended up devouring us all after waking up because of too many monsters roaming Arkham at Terror level 10.
I enjoyed the game but it's hard to say something more because we shuffled the decks but some were still too much clustered and we ended up having many surges and few portals and the turns were taking quite a bit because we were all new to the game.
Maybe I'll try a single player game to see how it goes.
 
StoOgE said:
Endeavor seems to have the problem of being yet another resource management game with a colonial theme (FFS people, really I think we have enough games with that theme now) but looks unique in it's application.

Definitely pretty unique. Looks pretty complex, but is actually decently simple once you sit down to play. Not really resource management actually... a little bit more territory control, with the focus on colonial business rather than military. Though there's a bit of that too.

I like it.

Steam's one I've been wanting to try for awhile, but haven't had a chance yet.
 

Xater

Member
I have to say I am also still thinking about Arkham. It looks complex but the way I would enjoy it. Problem is I doubt I will find someone to play it with. I just don't know if it's worth the investment to play it alone. I would guess that monex is then better spent on video games. :lol
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
StoOgE said:
Also,

I bought Neuroshima Hex for the iphone.

I'm just not that big of a fan of the game. There is way too much randomness going on. It's a game that lends itself to analysis paralysis except you have no idea what your opponent is going to draw next so you really don't have a way to know what is going on. You are making blind decisions.

Maybe a 3 or 4 player game would be more fun, as I can see the game going from strategy rich to bonkers randomness.

Also not sure how much fun it would be trying to resolve those battles manually.


I think you can view what cards are yet to be drawn by your opponent, so you can have an idea of what might come up, but I agree its a little vague.

Agree about the manual part. I've noticed there are some games that are better electronically than the manual version (or at least I imagine it would be). Neuroshima hex and perhaps Samurai are like this, although samurai is fairly easy to work out the interactions. Or games like 'honey thats mine' where the board game equivalent (hey thats my fish) takes a while to set up for a very short play time.

if you're really into board games, I can't help but feel that an ipad is very tempting..
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
AstroLad said:
It's a pretty standard abstract with a combat twist. Carc meets Memoir, which I'm pretty sure I described it as some time back. Don't think there's much AP at all since there's a pretty reasonable set of good options with every draw. Then again I enjoy some degree of randomness as it makes for fun and new tactical opportunities every time (do you play defensive or offensive, do you play to save your units or sacrifice them, do you play for a quick end or a draw-out battle, do you use this unit to damage the HQ or hurt a threatening solider) and also gives new people at least a chance to win in their first twenty plays (this is something that's particularly important to me as I play with lots of non-gamers). (I hate games like chess and Hive, for example.) I like it way more than Small World as a light tactical game and I find it both deeper and more interesting each time out, as well as way easier to teach. I don't like the 3P though because it's pretty much got a kingmaker issue from the get-go.

I played a couple of 4 player AI games and it actually took care of a lot of my issues with the game.

I think with two players it gives you a real tactical feeling without actually being able to use great tactics.

With 4 players it took on a bit of a crazier out of control feel.

I think the Small World comparison is favorable. It works best when the game is out of control and going nuts.

Though I still think manual battle calculations would be a bitch.
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Welp,

I ordered

Brass
Carson City
Endeavor

My orders never wind up being close to what they were to begin with, but I found Brass in stock at Bords and Bits and have wanted it for a while. Despite several reports that it is more complicated than Caylus :lol

Endeavor happened because I started reading more about it and it seemed pretty nifty, and Carson City I've wanted for a few weeks. Despite the fact that it is pretty much Caylus meets Carcassonne in the wild west.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
Played a 5 person game of twilight imperium 3 this weekend. 90 minutes of setup and instruction! But still fun as hell, like masters of Orion, the board game! We had to stop early, after 3 hours or so of play :) definitely want to play again, just gotta set aside a whole day.

Also played power grid. Damn, I love that game!
 
I've been tempted by Brass a number of times myself. I almost added it to my want-in-trade list just yesterday, but decided that I should only have Steam on there for now, and if I like it, then branch to his other games.


Of course, I decided the same thing about Innovation (already have Glory to Rome on there), but added it about a week later.
 

MichaelBD

Member
jason10mm said:
Played a 5 person game of twilight imperium 3 this weekend. 90 minutes of setup and instruction! But still fun as hell, like masters of Orion, the board game! We had to stop early, after 3 hours or so of play :) definitely want to play again, just gotta set aside a whole day.

Also played power grid. Damn, I love that game!
Supposedly 5 is tough because of the lopsided starting position for 3 players.

I've played with 4 people 3 times now and it's never taken less than a 10 hour commitment. But it's worth it.
 

hoverX

Member
So I bought ravenloft but we never ended up playing it. We sat around drinking and played conquist (risk clone) on my iPad. Galcon was also a big hit.
 
MichaelBD said:
Supposedly 5 is tough because of the lopsided starting position for 3 players.

I've played with 4 people 3 times now and it's never taken less than a 10 hour commitment. But it's worth it.

Yea playing with odd numbers is always crappy with TI.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
We had a light but fun weekend of gaming. Played RFTG about four times. Played Nordic Countries last night, which was stressful and conflict-filled as always. And then played Galaxy Trucker today, which as discussed before I quite like. It's a longun so it's one of those I'm never too excited to play but once we do I just want to go again.
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
platypotamus said:
I've been tempted by Brass a number of times myself. I almost added it to my want-in-trade list just yesterday, but decided that I should only have Steam on there for now, and if I like it, then branch to his other games

The thing about Brass that has always really intrigued me is the games economy that actually requires players to use each others factories and shipping channels in order to progress. It is interesting, because in order for you to get your goods to market you have to have a balanced economy overall in the game.

In a lot of ways it is the opposite of the Puerto Rico/Agricola model of each player having their own economic engine. Everyone's empire has to work in balance with one anothers in order for anyone to progress.

It has a shitload of fiddly bits and will probably be a bitch to teach, but it always has struck me as Power Grid on steroids.
 

dogbert

Member
Just one game for me this weekend - we introduced Thebes to a couple of friends. I got absolutely horrible luck in the random draws & finished in last place by quite a bit, but still had fun. Still love the look & mechanics of this, despite the randomness. Definitely a casual game.

jason10mm said:
Played a 5 person game of twilight imperium 3 this weekend. 90 minutes of setup and instruction! But still fun as hell, like masters of Orion, the board game! We had to stop early, after 3 hours or so of play :) definitely want to play again, just gotta set aside a whole day.

I've got my yearly all day game of this booked for BGG.Con. 8 players, with a mix of the expansion rules. 9am to 4pm. Yum!

For those going to the Con, the math trade is up & running...
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
dogbert said:
For those going to the Con, the math trade is up & running...

Bother, no gift certificates allowed :( I kind of figured out on the last one a 20 dollar gift certificate will get you pretty much anything you want *and* you don't have to pay shipping.

I may try and trade a few video games that I have stopped playing, but I don't really have any board games I don't want at this point.
 

ultron87

Member
Played the first 4 turns of the 4-player version of Game of Thrones that comes in the Storm of Swords expansion last night. Really enjoyable, though I think I might have gone a little overboard in hoe much I paid the Lannister player to get Eddard out of their jail. But now I at least have 3 heroes while everyone else has two.

I think the next turn is where everything is going to go to hell as everyone starts fighting each other. I need to try and maintain my Alliance with the Greyjoy player for at least a turn or two more. Damn pirates.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
I'd like to try out Game of Thrones some day. Maybe at BGG.con. Then I can follow the tried-and-true formula:
-"I really want to try that game you guys are all into so much!"
-"Ugh that game sucks. Played it once and I WON'T be playing it again. Don't know what you guys see in it."

Currently playing around with my neverending CSI order. Thinking of adding the Neuroshima expansions. Hilarious to look back at it:

1 - Agricola: The Goodies Expansion (New, Board Games, Lookout Games)
estimated release date is august, 2010. date subject to change.
1 - Dominion: Prosperity Expansion (New, Board Games, Rio Grande Games) each
expected release: august 31, 2010. date subject to change.

"date subject to change" indeed.
 
This weekend for my birthday, I am finally going to play Battlestar Galatica: The Board Game, but I'm not sure how it's going to shake out. There will be six adult players, with four gamers, one person I'm bascially forcing to play and one who not only isn't a gamer, but has the attention span of a heavily caffinated kender... Should be an interesting experience to say the least, especially if any of the non-gamers are Cylons. To keep things simple, I'm going to omit the Cylon Sympathizer card (is this a good move?).

In other gaming news, my wife and I moved onto the Complex deck in our two player games of Agricola. We're having a blast with the game (enhanced by Animeeples!) and play it at least once a week. What card setups do you guys usually play with? We tried Easy and Interactive mixed together, but I found it was easy to get screwed with a hand of useless occupations.

My wife and I are big fans of Puerto Rico and we are doing a bunch of travelling soon, so I'm thinking of picking up San Juan for the portability. Worth picking up?
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Whifflebat said:
In other gaming news, my wife and I moved onto the Complex deck in our two player games of Agricola. We're having a blast with the game (enhanced by Animeeples!) and play it at least once a week. What card setups do you guys usually play with? We tried Easy and Interactive mixed together, but I found it was easy to get screwed with a hand of useless occupations.

My wife and I are big fans of Puerto Rico and we are doing a bunch of travelling soon, so I'm thinking of picking up San Juan for the portability. Worth picking up?
-Yeah we always keep the base decks separate. This is especially important for I, which really depends on other cards to work well. We will sprinkle in Z for variety even though most people on BGG dislike it (why I'm looking forward to The Goodies, to have other decks to "sprinkle in" like this). I don't really know why they're called E and K and imply difficulty progression as I don't really find one deck harder or easier than the other. I think we actually tend to score lower with E. And it's definitely not the case that when you've played K you can't go back to E. They're just different. One thing we do now though is drafting, which is pretty fun.

-San Juan is a very good light game. If you are playing with 2-4 even better because it scales incredibly well.
 

ultron87

Member
Yeah, 5 players is the BSG sweet spot. That way there is none of that sympathizer bullshit. 'Oh? I'm a cylon, but I don't get to be deceptive at all and don't get a super card? Great. This game is so much fun." :(
 

Neverfade

Member
AstroLad said:
I'd like to try out Game of Thrones some day. Maybe at BGG.con. Then I can follow the tried-and-true formula:
-"I really want to try that game you guys are all into so much!"
-"Ugh that game sucks. Played it once and I WON'T be playing it again. Don't know what you guys see in it."
Was that a stab at me?

Slander. :lol
 
Do yourself a favor and don't. The 5 player game is waaaay superior.

Yeah, I wish we were playing 5 player, but it's 3 couples coming over, so it's play 6 player, or not at all.

That way there is none of that sympathizer bullshit.

That's why I want to play with the No Sympathizer variant, which basically replaces that card with another "You are not a Cylon" card.
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
I'm actually afraid of what BGG Con is going to do to my wallet.

Not so much while I am there, I am planning on spending some money on games at the swap meet/booths.

It's the "I really loved these 20 games I played and must have all of them" factor that scares me.

My original rule was to stop buying games once the bottom shelf of my bookcase was filled. I've now got an additional 7 games in my closet.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom