So, I've always enjoyed board games, but lately been getting into them a lot more. I suppose setting up a Saturday game day sort of boosted things...but also been reading a hell of a lot more BGG, a friend got me into actually playing Magic on Fridays, and I've been watching SU&SD, TableTop, and the Dice Tower. For no real reason, thought I'd post some observations:
1) I've added a lot of awesome games to our selection...Resistance, Betrayal at House on the Hill, Pirate Flux, Pandemic+On the Brink, Formula D, and a number of others that I'm forgetting right now. Find that each game caters to a different group, which is nice, as it's rarely 'what should we play' and more 'this game is perfect for right now' (if that makes any sense).
2) Classic games (like Risk, Clue, Scrabble, 221B Baker St, Sorry, Trivial Pursuit) are still awesome. Again, these so cater to different groups, though I find most of them to cross groups than the newer class (maybe because of the general familiarity with them).
which brings me to my third point
3) There is a rather loud contingency of board gamers who just suck. They come off as elitist (using terms like "ameritrash") and hypocritical (scoffing at any game that uses roll-to-move while accepting rolls for combat or skill). These were the guys that kept me from getting more heavily into current board games for so long.
Overall, it's pretty cool to be playing more games. Arkham still gets pulled out no more frequently than twice a year (and only with the proper group) and there are games that I so want, but not sure if I could find the right group to enjoy them (I'm looking at you, Tales of the Arabian Nights). Still, I always enjoy pulling out Ticket to Ride to introduce yet another person to non-classic game....as much as I enjoy pulling out Sorry to shut someone up when they say that the classics don't hold any strategy and fun.
Oh, also, a small tip on those who hate roll-to-move, if the game uses 2D6 consider a swap out for 3D4. It makes the bell curve far smoother, with fewer rolls at the extremities. We did this for Clue (Master Detective Edition, bitches) and added a 'second roll on triples' rule. This meant that the minimum roll was a 4, and that the bell curve was skewed higher (peaking at 9 or 10 instead of 7). Of course, not all games can use this swap.
Finally, maybe someone here can help me with a question my friends and I ran into in Betrayal. Posted this over at BGG, but haven't gotten a response yet.
So just got the game, and have had a blast with it today. On our first playthrough, we hit Haunt 26, which is the Pied Piper haunt.
At this point, rats appeared everywhere in the house (I believe every single rat token was used). My character was the only one upstairs, in a room along with two rats. Since I really wasn't a fighter (the priest, but was holding the angel feather) I decided to run for it, and got out to the upstairs landing, where there were no rats.
So play goes on until it hits the traitor's turn. She moved her character, then the monster turn happens...here's where we ran into some trouble.
At this point, my character is in a ratless room. However, there are five rats in the four rooms connected to it, and two more just one room beyond. Now, rats can attack as a group, so here's our question on how we are supposed to play this:
Option A:
Rat1 moves into the landing and attacks. Combat is fully resolved with Rat1.
Rat2 moves into the landing and attacks. Combat is fully resolved with Rat2.
Repeat steps for Rats 3-7.
Option B:
Rat1 moves into the landing and attacks. Combat is fully resolved with Rat1.
Rat2 moves into the landing and attacks as a swarm along with Rat1 (if Rat1 is not already dead). Combat is fully resolved with Rat2+Rat1.
Rat3 moves into the landing and attacks as a swarm along with Rat1 and Rat2. Combat is fully resolved with Rat3+Rat2+Rat1.
Repeat steps for Rats 4-7, building the swarm each time.
Option C:
Rats1-7 all move into the landing and then attack as a single 7-rat swarm.
Option A seems like it'd be, by far, the weakest for the traitor, as each rat is fighting on its own, and can be killed off individually. It also seems to make the rat's ability to swarm pointless.
Option B gives the hero a slight chance to kill off an early rat or two, but once the swarm happens, no rats can die, leading to the hero taking repeated poundings, and almost certain death.
Option C is a single massive attack, again creating almost certain death for the hero, but it also means that the hero has to survive that single attack in order to get through the ordeal.
If it is Option A, how then does the swarm ability come into play? (Rats are able to combine to attack as a single entity, increasing their might up to a maximum of 8, AND they can't be killed while in a swarm).
Thank you all for any help...
Oh, and if you DON'T own Betrayal yet, go get it.
