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[Petrie]

Are you me? I've had success with Dominion, but Race for the Galaxy, Innovation and even Summoner Wars are met with the "this is too complicated" and rest on my shelf thank god for iOS board games.

I should really just get an Ipad. The android games available...are lame.

 

[TwiztidElf]

Anyone played Descent 2.0 yet? What's your thoughts?

I'm borderline on getting it. I wonder if my kids would like it? They're 9 and 11, and quite happy playing something as complicated as Puerto Rico. I know they'd dig the 1 versus many aspect (Dad versus the kids). The only worry is although they enjoy Wrath of Ashardalan, it does get bogged down a little bit when there is lots going on and lots of cards to consider.

 

[Emerson]

Sounds like you need to start/join a game group.

But yeah it's hard to find time to play games even if you have TONS of willing people to play with. Most games take 1.5 hours minimum with explanations. If I can play 3-4 games/week I consider it a smashing success and I run a big game group at work and my wife loves board games.

Yeah, I'm lucky as well in that my girlfriend loves hardcore games, but that's only two people. So I can play as much Pandemic, Flash Point, War of the Ring, Mage Knight, etc. as I want. But I only have four friends who are into board games and they're in two different cities 5 hours apart. So really if I can pull together 4 people for a game it's a good day.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Anyone played Descent 2.0 yet? What's your thoughts?

I'm borderline on getting it. I wonder if my kids would like it? They're 9 and 11, and quite happy playing something as complicated as Puerto Rico. I know they'd dig the 1 versus many aspect (Dad versus the kids). The only worry is although they enjoy Wrath of Ashardalan, it does get bogged down a little bit when there is lots going on and lots of cards to consider.

Well even 2nd edition Descent looks a good bit more complex than the likes of the D&D games like Wrath of Ashardalan

 

[MichaelBD]

Forgot to mention earlier but I am reasonably good at Go and am happy to teach GAFers. Go is an incredibly simple game to learn with astounding depth. I don't enjoy chess much at all; having to memorize and project all the different possible lines of movement always seemed cumbersome and tiring. In Go, players take turns placing stones on a board. These stones do not move, though they may be killed and taken off the board. Therefore, it's more about pattern recognition, though one does benefit from thinking ahead. I've been playing off and on for 8 years now and I find it therapeutic and still strategically interesting. No two games ever feel quite the same and there's always something new to learn.

If anyone is curious, I recommend playing here: KGS Go Server. No account is necessary (just type in some name and leave password blank). If you do register, games and rank are automatically recorded, and you gain the ability to chat. Overall, players are kind and willing to teach newcomers, but you can also play "Bots" on this server if you feel uncomfortable. I play under the alias PepboyGo, but please feel free to PM me on GAF/KGS if you like to schedule something.


Also, really enjoying A Few Acres of Snow. I feel so many possible options are open, at least at first glance. Though I'm sure Astrolad will soon teach me the error of my ways.

As an aside, I played Washington's War last night (first time in a couple of years). It's a card driven game that thematically is about the Revolutionary War. A major mechanic of the game is Political Control of territories within the original 13 colonies. Political Control is played like Go, where you can surround and eliminate control of your opponent. It's a pretty interesting 2 player game and I'm planning to play it more over the coming weeks.

 

[MichaelBD]

I'd just like to say that the fact that I can't get any of my friends to play anything more complex than Risk or Cards Against Humanity is super lame. I continue to buy games, amassing a collection with Race for the Galaxy, Catan, Dominion, Arkham Horror, and tons more, but the most complex thing I can get played is occasionally Last Night on Earth and sometimes Carcassonne. I don't know why I keep buying games on this hope someday in the future things will change.

Now to debate picking up Diplomacy.

I had the same problem. Check Boardgame Geek for any game clubs in your area and just show up. That's what I did and I have been meeting with the same group for almost two years now.

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

I'd just like to say that the fact that I can't get any of my friends to play anything more complex than Risk or Cards Against Humanity is super lame. I continue to buy games, amassing a collection with Race for the Galaxy, Catan, Dominion, Arkham Horror, and tons more, but the most complex thing I can get played is occasionally Last Night on Earth and sometimes Carcassonne. I don't know why I keep buying games on this hope someday in the future things will change.

Now to debate picking up Diplomacy.

Why? Did you want to lose the friends you already have?

I had the same problem. Check Boardgame Geek for any game clubs in your area and just show up. That's what I did and I have been meeting with the same group for almost two years now.

This is what I did as well. The group I joined meets every Thursday and we average about 15 players a week. I've even made friends with a couple of the guys and sometimes we organize bigger games for the weekend.

 

[StoOgE]

I had the same problem. Check Boardgame Geek for any game clubs in your area and just show up. That's what I did and I have been meeting with the same group for almost two years now.

Exact same thing I had to do.

My friends are a bit better and will play some games with me, but nothing past TTR or Dominion. My future brother-in-law and future cousin(s)-in-law are really into nerd-core board games, but 1 lives in Dallas, 1 in Houston and the other in DC. So, not doing me a lot of good.

I joined a gaming group with a meet-up page that plays every Tuesday and I can just sign up for whatever I want.. and through that group can get invites to Friday or Saturday gaming sessions most weekends.

 

[StoOgE]

So, I just backed Pirate Dice.

I liked RoboRally but never played it due to the number of players you needed for it to work. I didn't play Roboderby: Express, but it had pretty high praise.

Seems like it comes with a good number of modular boards (20+ at this point I think).

 

[platypotamus]

Got an intro to Descent 2nd edition today, and playing tomorrow. Looks quite a bit less fiddly than before, and even comes with a campaign system packed in the box instead of requiring an expansion, which I didn't know. Cautiously optimistic

 

[Neverfade]

Played Descent tonight. First Blood quest. Fun, but holy shit. Don't blink, you'll miss it.

Seriously. In a 4 player game the overlord will win on turn 2 unless the players are on-fucking-point.

 

[Keasar]

Played Descent tonight. First Blood quest. Fun, but holy shit. Don't blink, you'll miss it.

Seriously. In a 4 player game the overlord will win on turn 2 unless the players are on-fucking-point.

I messed up big time as the Overlord on that quest,

Spoiler

should have just had my goblins running both actions instead of running and shooting. Got to 3 points in the end using Dash cards.

 

[superrobot]

Yucata update:
Rattus imminent and Hawaii coming in August

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

Last night was a good night for gaming. Got in a game of King of Tokyo and a five player game of Eclipse. I was about one turn away from winning King of Tokyo on points but the guy after me was able to make up a few points through dice rolls and cards. Love that game. Eclipse was a pretty tight game. All players were within five points of winning but I lost that one too.

 

[sneaky77]

Last night was a good night for gaming. Got in a game of King of Tokyo and a five player game of Eclipse. I was about one turn away from winning King of Tokyo on points but the guy after me was able to make up a few points through dice rolls and cards. Love that game. Eclipse was a pretty tight game. All players were within five points of winning but I lost that one too.

I won King Of Tokyo one time because I had the card that if you roll 1 dice of each result you get 9VP so I did that on my last roll before the person in Tokyo got her 2 VP bonus to win the game lol. Epic!

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

I won King Of Tokyo one time because I had the card that if you roll 1 dice of each result you get 9VP so I did that on my last roll before the person in Tokyo got her 2 VP bonus to win the game lol. Epic!

Nice. I had bought that card and couldn't make use of it at all during the game. The player who won actually had rolled 2 points, bought a 5 point card that knocked his health down (but whatever), and since he bought a card his personal news team got him the extra point to win. For such a light game there is a surprising amount of combos that can be done to win.

 

[AstroLad]

Yucata update:
Rattus imminent and Hawaii coming in August

Love Rattus!

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

Love Rattus!

Not a fan personally. I thought it was bland as hell.

 

[AstroLad]

Not a fan personally. I thought it was bland as hell.

Its fun but its got some serious diplomacy aspects; it is quite straightforward mechanically though. Also doesn't matter plenty of truly crap games like Thunderstone are great to play on Yucata.

 

[sneaky77]

mage Knight... impressions? how does it play? any good? looks interesting.

 

[-tetsuo-]

New to board gaming. Just within the last few weeks I played Catan for the first time. Then some of my friends brought 7 wonders and Ascension to the store. Loved em all. So we got Runewars, which is awesome, and now I went ahead and ordered Descent 2nd edition. I wanted to order 1st ed. with Road to Legend xpac really bad but they are pretty hard to find for a decent price. I read that 2nd ed is kind of like the 1st + road to legend, but it seems like the old stuff contains quite a bit more game to it.

 

[ncsuDuncan]

I've been playing Catan (+ Seafarers + Cities & Knights) with 5-6 people for a few weeks now. We've had to adjust the extra build phase because it was making it too hard to steal cards before they are spent (and far too easy to defeat the Barbarians).

Now we just let one player have the extra build phase, the one sitting directly opposite the player that just had their normal turn. Seems to work pretty well.

 

[Cat Party]

On a related note, how in the hell do you resist the urge to immediately spend $50 on expansions?

And I already bought Hinterlands

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

I've been playing Catan (+ Seafarers + Cities & Knights) with 5-6 people for a few weeks now. We've had to adjust the extra build phase because it was making it too hard to steal cards before they are spent (and far too easy to defeat the Barbarians).

Now we just let one player have the extra build phase, the one sitting directly opposite the player that just had their normal turn. Seems to work pretty well.

5-6 player Catan is wonky for that reason. The problem is since it takes so long to get to your turn if you don't have an extra build phase you keep accumulating cards. If the 7 comes up and your hosed before your turn ever comes back around to you. It's a well designed 3 or 4 player game but a pretty shitty 5 or 6 player one.

 

[platypotamus]

Yucata update:
Rattus imminent and Hawaii coming in August

I'll Rattus with anyone that wants to Rattus. Such a great little game.

 

[sneaky77]

I'll Rattus with anyone that wants to Rattus. Such a great little game.

I'll Rattus with you, even if I have never heard of the game.

 

[platypotamus]

I'll Rattus with you, even if I have never heard of the game.

It's like a light version of El Grande, but instead of moving caballeros around, we're spreading the plague

 

[BomberMouse]

I'll gladly play rattus on yucata. I've the first expansion too but haven't played it that much

Spoiler

Avatar quote

 

[AstroLad]

New to board gaming. Just within the last few weeks I played Catan for the first time. Then some of my friends brought 7 wonders and Ascension to the store. Loved em all. So we got Runewars, which is awesome, and now I went ahead and ordered Descent 2nd edition. I wanted to order 1st ed. with Road to Legend xpac really bad but they are pretty hard to find for a decent price. I read that 2nd ed is kind of like the 1st + road to legend, but it seems like the old stuff contains quite a bit more game to it.

Damn dude you dove in hard! Glad you're loving though Nice variety of games too.

 

[platypotamus]

On the topic of Descent 2nd Edition, I did play it at lunch today.

My experience is that it is WAY less fiddly than 1st edition (in a good way). We were a group of 5, and I was the only one who had played 1st edition at all, but the owner of the game explained things and got us on our way, and we got through an encounter in a (slightly long) lunch.

I think the quests/level design are set up a lot better... the quest we did had real tension... both the overlord and the players were attempting to accomplish an objective, and then fighting was happening as a result... rather than defeating the other side being the objective. This was kind of cool!

One thing that was surprising is how death is less meaningful kind of. No more warping back to down or whatever. You just have to waste your next turn healing up (unless there's a cleric handy, then he can sometimes heal you and you can still take actions).

The campaigns are all branching... if the players win a quest, they have different options in the future than if the overlord does. The overlord gains XP just like the players.

The main thing that encouraged me: In our first game, there was less looking up of rules than there was in the very LAST game I played of first edition... which was probably our 10th or so play!

 

[Neverfade]

Astro, I added you on GameCenter for some LeHavre action. Anyone else, I'm always up for a game of that: NeverfadeOS.

 

[Flynn]

mage Knight... impressions? how does it play? any good? looks interesting.

It is heady -- lots of rules and details to get down. But once you've got that it plays quick and seems pretty balanced. It took just under an hour for me to teach after heavy rule book reading the night before.

 

[mrpug]

Forgot to mention earlier but I am reasonably good at Go and am happy to teach GAFers. Go is an incredibly simple game to learn with astounding depth. I don't enjoy chess much at all; having to memorize and project all the different possible lines of movement always seemed cumbersome and tiring. In Go, players take turns placing stones on a board. These stones do not move, though they may be killed and taken off the board. Therefore, it's more about pattern recognition, though one does benefit from thinking ahead. I've been playing off and on for 8 years now and I find it therapeutic and still strategically interesting. No two games ever feel quite the same and there's always something new to learn.

If anyone is curious, I recommend playing here: KGS Go Server. No account is necessary (just type in some name and leave password blank). If you do register, games and rank are automatically recorded, and you gain the ability to chat. Overall, players are kind and willing to teach newcomers, but you can also play "Bots" on this server if you feel uncomfortable. I play under the alias PepboyGo, but please feel free to PM me on GAF/KGS if you like to schedule something.

I'm a 4-5d on KGS. Teaching Go is definitely a tiring endeavor. I suggest to new players to play igowin to death http://www.smart-games.com/igowin.html until you can beat it consistently on 4 handi. It's fast, a small AI program, only on 9x9, and will break you into the game fast. Jumping into 19x19 vs. real opponents is usually overwhelming and not an efficient use of time to learn Go.

 

[Keasar]

So me and my friends started a campaign in Descent with 5 people in total and we are having a blast. Played through the intro and 1.5 quests so far. Lost the intro but won the first quest as Overlord. It is really fun to just sit next to the guys and listen while they are doing their heavy planning to with all their might and every card and ability at hand to beat me.

I seriously recommending this game for any people out there looking for a great game to play with friends over several courses.

 

[sneaky77]

So me and my friends started a campaign in Descent with 5 people in total and we are having a blast. Played through the intro and 1.5 quests so far. Lost the intro but won the first quest as Overlord. It is really fun to just sit next to the guys and listen while they are doing their heavy planning to with all their might and every card and ability at hand to beat me.

I seriously recommending this game for any people out there looking for a great game to play with friends over several courses.

How hard would it be to explain? I got the game haven't had a chance to break out to my friends yet since they been busy.

 

[Neverfade]

How hard would it be to explain? I got the game haven't had a chance to break out to my friends yet since they been busy.

The game is pretty simple. And this is helped further by the fact that mechanics can be added in gradually: The intro quest is as basic as it gets, so you can teach the foundation and go from there.

 

[BattleMonkey]

So are all the quests in Descent 2nd about the same size board wise, or do any really get as big as the layouts in the 1st edition? Cause from the pics so far the quests seem to be smaller in scale than even small 1st edition ones.

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

Took advantage of Barnes and Noble clearence sale they have going on now. 75% off anything with a red sticker. I picked up Star Trek the Deck Building Game, Days of Steam, and Carc: Traders and Builders expansion for about $20.

 

[BattleMonkey]

I'll have to check, last time they were 50% but had a couple games I was tempted to pick up.

 

[Keasar]

How hard would it be to explain? I got the game haven't had a chance to break out to my friends yet since they been busy.

It is pretty easy. The rules can be explained on the go if you start off with the basic card layout and actions.

So are all the quests in Descent 2nd about the same size board wise, or do any really get as big as the layouts in the 1st edition? Cause from the pics so far the quests seem to be smaller in scale than even small 1st edition ones.

From my understanding, the dungeons in Descent 1st could be pretty big, here they are descently (hurr) small but each quest is also split into two encounters each where one encounter is played on one of these maps. The first encounter in a quest also often affects depending on the outcome a couple of variables in the next encounter. I think some of the later quests expands the map a bit, I havent checked them yet since I dont wanna spoiler myself what comes up next.

 

[tm24]

Blood Bowl was whipped out today. Game is awesome. I think we screed up a few things, but our next playthrough should go smoother

 

[SillyEskimo]

Blood Bowl was whipped out today. Game is awesome. I think we screed up a few things, but our next playthrough should go smoother

It's Blood Boowl, so any sort of screwing up of the rules is very much in character with the game's background!

 

[AstroLad]

read the faq -- it'll clear up most of the confusion you might have. also be sure to play with the revised rules therein (imo), which remove a few OP cards

 

[tm24]

read the faq -- it'll clear up most of the confusion you might have. also be sure to play with the revised rules therein (imo), which remove a few OP cards

Yeah, i made sure to have that on my ipad so we can check at any one moment. BUt i still think i missed up the usage of dump-off and Gryphon-ade during a game that may have cost me the game

 

[Icefire1424]

Was browsing around a comic / game store this weekend and happened across a copy of Axis and Allies: 1942 Second Edition and was tempted to pick it up. Anyone out there give it a shot? Or is there another version I should be looking at?

 

[cozo]

anyone played the 2012 SdJ, kingdom builder? didn't really like it on the first two plays but clicked on the third and think it's actually fun, simple, and surprisingly deep

 

[Mr. F]

Hey board game GAF. What's the verdict on Cosmic Encounter? Finally considering getting into board games (other than Catan) and CE in particular caught my attention.

 

[Smiley90]

Mhmm, the recent talk about Diplomacy reminds me:

what are some of the best "discussion" based titles out there? Can be anything from Risk (How good Risk:Legacy?) to... I don't know. Just sth that could potentially involve group discussion/party-game-ish. Preferably not too hardcore/complex though. Thanks!

 

[Smiley90]

You ever play Mafia/Werewolf?

Yeah, I know those kinds of games too, but I'm more looking for 4p-ish games But thanks! Also, do those even count as "boardgames", since they're essentially role-playing games?

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

Hey board game GAF. What's the verdict on Cosmic Encounter? Finally considering getting into board games (other than Catan) and CE in particular caught my attention.

A classic. The basic rules are super simple and serve as just background for the alien powers and negotiation. The base game comes with a ton of powers but you can add more powers (and players) with the expansions.