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[Mr. Lemming]

Betrayal at House on the Hill: Not a Euro but one of my other friends brought it over. I thought it was a fun game and I loved being the traitor and trying to take down my friends. The only thing I didn't like was that it's possible for a player to get eliminated early on.

You aren't allowed to die before the haunt starts. If you take additional damage you just remain at the lowest level for the appropriate trait. The rule is tucked away as an aside in the description of the traits.

 

[Artadius]

I take great pleasure in burning your meeples in Pompeii

 

[LProtag]

Betrayal at House on the Hill: Not a Euro but one of my other friends brought it over. I thought it was a fun game and I loved being the traitor and trying to take down my friends. The only thing I didn't like was that it's possible for a player to get eliminated early on.

I've recently been playing a lot of this. If you like it, you should look into Mansions of Madness which FFG is putting out soon (there were some delays because of production quality). It's an offshoot of their Arkham Horror franchise, so if you like the Cthulhu Mythos and games like Betrayal, it'll probably be a hit.

At least, that's what the previews I've seen about it lead me to believe. My friend's got a pre-order so I'm excited to try it out.

 

[choodi]

Man, fucking Yucata has taken over my life!

I just discovered today that I can take turns on my phone...productivity is officially screwed now (so is my battery life).

What did I do before I discovered it?

Anyone wanting a game of anything, just add me. I have pretty much played nothing that is on there (except Stone Age), but I am willing to learn as we go (and get my ass kicked, thanks AstroLad)

 

[MichaelBD]

Thanks to this thread, I recently got into board games. As a result, I have bought Dominion, Carcassonne, and Rivals for Catan.

I am not going to buy many more (at least I keep telling myself that) but feel that there are two likely games that I am going to buy. Ticket to Ride and Race for the Galaxy. The only thing holding me back from Race for the Galaxy is the fact that I am not sure that my wife will have the patience to learn how to play. Reading through the rules and trying to play Keldon's AI program gives me a headache enough as it is. I don't want to have to buy San Juan as a stepping stone since I think we would just always play RFTG anyway after learning them.

I also am thinking of getting Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper, just because my wife and I love rummy games (Rummikub is one of our favorite games to play together). Anybody have experience with any of the Mystery Rummy games?

You might want to just buy San Juan. It's easier to learn and you can get plenty of play out of it. Then later down the line if you decide you want to step up to Race then you have some experience with the base mechanics.

 

[LProtag]

Race for the Galaxy was one of the first games my group of friends got, probably in our 2nd batch of orders (we made big orders to get free shipping).

If you can pick up on rules quickly, once you get a hang of the symbols everything comes together very quickly after a game or two. The provided player aid sheets are very helpful as well, but after a few games we didn't even need to use them.

 

[Ribbon]

Weekly heroclix player here. Most of the figures are painted horribly, but it's quick and easy. Really recommend Descent: Journeys in the Dark for a fun afternoon, and Zombies!!! is a great game that you can teach in 5 minutes and has a great theme to get people interested.

My treasure though is Mag Blast 2nd edition. Any other Mag Blast fans?

 

[AstroLad]

Hey welcome to all the new people! Great to see more people getting into gaming through the thread as I remember the old thread was definitely a really big part of getting me seriously into gaming too.

Looking forward to that RftG expansion; I like the fact that they're starting fresh because I think BoW and to a slightly lesser extent RvI really narrowed down the audience for that great game.

Accept your Yucata invites and send me some!

@Astrolad, you really mopped the floor with me on CM08. I had no idea what I was doing while building my deck but after that first game, now I get it. If anyone wants to play, please invite me (carno on yucata)

Man, fucking Yucata has taken over my life!

Yucata is crazy good. I just love asynchronous multiplayer so much, and yes the ability to play on almost any smartphone is great. It will be even scarier if they stick to the schedule of a new release every few weeks. Even one big-name release every month or two would be amazing. Learning games on there is so easy -- I used to think Pompeii was some mediumweight Euro that I didn't really want to bother spending the time learning but now I find out it's light and a lot of fun. Arkadia is another one I enjoy a lot that I would have never bothered learning otherwise because it's so boring-looking.

Carcassonne: Didn't go over as well as I thought it would, though they didn't really give it a chance. We played one game and both thought it was "okay" but didn't want to play a second game, even though I kept explaining to them that the game becomes a lot more fun when you get the hang of it.

Carc is an interesting gateway. I think around the third or fourth play it gets really rich. Once people truly get farm scoring down, as well as the mechanics and implications of stealing/sharing, that's where it gets really fun. Up until then I think most people are into it just based on the simplicity and the nice aesthetics. It's also important to have some sense of what pieces are in play, which can only truly be achieved by playing a coulple games. I still use TtR and even Pandemic more often as gateways because they just have more tactical appeal out of the box. I think after three or four plays, Carcassonne becomes more interesting than TtR (though I still like them both a lot).

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

FYI, if anybody was interested in Tammany Hall, Stratamax only have five copies left. Get in on it before it goes out of print.

 

[Chairhome]

Playing Ticket to Ride Marklin and its a nice change of pace. I liked the original TTR, but this adds some just enough new stuff to make me want to play this one instead of the original. Not going to make any new purchases soon, but my next one will probably be either Dominion or Carcassonne. Any suggestions on which way to go?

 

[Mashing]

Anybody excited for Mansions of Madness? While I'm a little worried about replayability, given the scenarios and how they play out, I think there's enough room for variation that it won't matter. It sounds like a cool mix of Arkham Horror and Betrayal at House on the Hill.

Very much so. Preordered and waiting for it to ship.

 

[StoOgE]

Playing Ticket to Ride Marklin and its a nice change of pace. I liked the original TTR, but this adds some just enough new stuff to make me want to play this one instead of the original. Not going to make any new purchases soon, but my next one will probably be either Dominion or Carcassonne. Any suggestions on which way to go?

I've been playing TTR Noridc Countries. I got it for my parents since they love TTR, but the base game doesn't work great with 2 players. I feel the same way. The rules are a nice change of pace without being completely foreign to TTR players.

Dominion is probably the next best purchase. I love Carc, but Dominion is a game that you find yourself wanting to play over and over and over again.

 

[Yaboosh]

Yeah, I find it far easier to convince folks to play a game or two of Dominion than to play a game of Carc. I enjoy Dominion better overall as well.

 

[Doublethink]

FYI, if anybody was interested in Tammany Hall, Stratamax only have five copies left. Get in on it before it goes out of print.

Thanks for the heads up. Got one of them.

 

[Seth C]

Thanks for the heads up. Got one of them.

Must...resist.

 

[Yaboosh]

Must...resist.

If you resist now, the second it goes out of print your desire for it will go through the roof and you will end up paying triple the price.

Do itttttttt.

 

[Artadius]

Spoiler

GG Astrolad

 

[Seth C]

If you resist now, the second it goes out of print your desire for it will go through the roof and you will end up paying triple the price.

Do itttttttt.

I've never played it. If I hold out long enough it will sell out and I'll resign myself to that.

 

[Doublethink]

I've never played it either but I figured that even if I don't like it, I can at least re-sell it and break even.

 

[Chairhome]

Dominion is probably the next best purchase. I love Carc, but Dominion is a game that you find yourself wanting to play over and over and over again.

Yeah, I find it far easier to convince folks to play a game or two of Dominion than to play a game of Carc. I enjoy Dominion better overall as well.

Thanks. I'll probably get that next :-D

 

[cooljeanius]

This is NOT long for Twilight Imperium. It's actually a few hours too short. I'm boggled at how it only lasted that long, ESPECIALLY if strat 8 only gave a point...

Well there were some other rules we ignored... we didn't use leaders, for example.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Well there were some other rules we ignored... we didn't use leaders, for example.

Those are optional. Game is full of optional rules. TI takes a very long time to play, and the expansion makes it usually take longer since they nerfed the imp card

 

[LProtag]

I've only gotten to play 2 games of TI3, and I think we've had our copy for over a year now. Just hard to set up a time and a place to do it.

Runewars kinda gives the same feeling but in a much shorter time frame, but I don't think anything beats an epic night long game of TI3.

 

[Screaming_Gremlin]

I've only gotten to play 2 games of TI3, and I think we've had our copy for over a year now. Just hard to set up a time and a place to do it.

Runewars kinda gives the same feeling but in a much shorter time frame, but I don't think anything beats an epic night long game of TI3.

The main issue I have with Runewars is that conflict is never really required. I have heard the epic variation fixes this, although I haven't had a chance to try it. With TI (and especially the expansion) you are almost guaranteed to have some major conflict.

Not to say that I don't like Runewars. It is still a really good game.

 

[platypotamus]

Yucata is crazy good. I just love asynchronous multiplayer so much, and yes the ability to play on almost any smartphone is great. It will be even scarier if they stick to the schedule of a new release every few weeks.

Yeah, if my phone wasn't dying a slow agonizing death I'd be on there and twitter all damn day.

 

[LProtag]

The main issue I have with Runewars is that conflict is never really required. I have heard the epic variation fixes this, although I haven't had a chance to try it. With TI (and especially the expansion) you are almost guaranteed to have some major conflict.

Not to say that I don't like Runewars. It is still a really good game.

I felt like it was the other way around, where TI3 you could get by peacefully, but Runewars always involved some battle.

I've only had a few plays of each though, I'll find out more in the summer when I have time to play, haha.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Only time TI3 goes by peacefully is if you are playing with a small group and theres tons of open space. But once you got a good sized group playing, it becomes fairly chaotic.

 

[LProtag]

I find TI3 usually starts off very slow, no real little skirmishes until massive fleet battles in the last few turns. Runewars on the other hand I always see a lot of little skirmishes where it's like "I don't want to start a war with you, I just need this part of the land", no big wars.

In TI3 when you attack someone, it's basically all-out war. Runewars a a few little forgivable things as you're not sure if the person really needs to wipe you out or not.

 

[Yaboosh]

After reading some more reviews of both San Juan and RFTG, and playing a few more AI games of both, I think I have decided San Juan is the clear choice for my situation. It just seems so much easier to learn/teach, and the playability seems so much higher without all the cryptic symbology.

Also, there is a fairly new Android adaptation of San Juan called Condado that seems pretty good, at least with the interface. The AI doesn't seem too challenging though.

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.kevinquan.condado&feature=search_result

 

[Bulk_Rate]

Got a weekend pass from my wife and joined some friends for a true geek fest. 19 hours of board gaming over two days:

2x Pandemic (2 player) Lost both times. Gotta love it.

War of the Ring - fun, but somehow turned into a 5 hour grind and left me with a wicked headache, subsequently cured with beer.

Battlestar Galactica (6 player)

Pandemic (4 player, lost on the last %**#@ infection deck card draw before just before the player with the 4th cure was about to come up. 3rd time I have seen that happen)

Puerto Rico
Carcassone (brain break)

BSG again (5 players) - Of the 9-10 times I've played, this was my first victory as Cylon without ever being revealed (the human's were on to me but it was too late). Already Admiral, I threw Roslin into the brig, capitalizing on a numbskull move by her player which had placed her under unwarranted suspicion. Stole her title, brigged Starbuck, etc. and proceeded to deplete the humans' morale.

After that, things degenerated into drunken card games until folks began passing out.

Still not sure about Pandemic....fun, but sort of like building a jigsaw puzzle with three other people. It is just...different.

 

[Flynn]

After reading some more reviews of both San Juan and RFTG, and playing a few more AI games of both, I think I have decided San Juan is the clear choice for my situation. It just seems so much easier to learn/teach, and the playability seems so much higher without all the cryptic symbology.

Also, there is a fairly new Android adaptation of San Juan called Condado that seems pretty good, at least with the interface. The AI doesn't seem too challenging though.

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.kevinquan.condado&feature=search_result

That seems like a good approach. But don't be too scared of RFTG -- there is a learning curve, but it is great fun once you understand what the cards say.

 

[Screaming_Gremlin]

I find TI3 usually starts off very slow, no real little skirmishes until massive fleet battles in the last few turns. Runewars on the other hand I always see a lot of little skirmishes where it's like "I don't want to start a war with you, I just need this part of the land", no big wars.

In TI3 when you attack someone, it's basically all-out war. Runewars a a few little forgivable things as you're not sure if the person really needs to wipe you out or not.

Out of curiosity, are you playing TI3 with just the base game or with the expansion? If just the base game, I understand where our differences in experience are coming from. Most points seem to come from trading the Imperial card back and forth. In the expansion that is replaced by a new strategy card that gives no points. On top of that, most of the new secret objectives involve conquering your opponents planets. So combat tends to start early and remains constant the entire game.

 

[Yaboosh]

I stopped by my local game store on my way home from work and picked up San Juan. Man that is a super easy game to get into. I played a handful of games on that Android app, so I had a decent idea of what I was doing. It only took my wife a few rounds to really get a hang of it and she ended up beating me by 3 points in both of the games we played.

We both really liked it. I definitely think it was the right decision over the fairly cryptic RFTG. And like someone said earlier in the thread, her knowing San Juan will make the RFTG transition much easier.

 

[platypotamus]

You guys that are playing hours of games in a weekend with multiple people make me insanely jealous.

 

[LProtag]

Out of curiosity, are you playing TI3 with just the base game or with the expansion? If just the base game, I understand where our differences in experience are coming from. Most points seem to come from trading the Imperial card back and forth. In the expansion that is replaced by a new strategy card that gives no points. On top of that, most of the new secret objectives involve conquering your opponents planets. So combat tends to start early and remains constant the entire game.

The expansion, but I don't exactly remember what mix of strategy cards we used. It could just be the difference in our groups as well. Or even personal playing strategies. I could have forgotten if my friends had fought with each other in smaller battles. All I remember taking place in were setting up defenses against massive invasions against me or launching massive invasions on someone else.

 

[AstroLad]

I stopped by my local game store on my way home from work and picked up San Juan. Man that is a super easy game to get into. I played a handful of games on that Android app, so I had a decent idea of what I was doing. It only took my wife a few rounds to really get a hang of it and she ended up beating me by 3 points in both of the games we played.

We both really liked it. I definitely think it was the right decision over the fairly cryptic RFTG. And like someone said earlier in the thread, her knowing San Juan will make the RFTG transition much easier.

Gonna check out that Droid app. Androminion is pretty fun for Dominion CPU play on Android too. San Juan is an excellent game and definitely a good gateway into similar games like RftG.

 

[StoOgE]

Got in games of London and Tammany Hall tonight.

Liked both games.. the drunk older woman who made the games take about 50% longer than they should have wasn't a ton of fun.

AP set in every time she had a move while she asked us what she needed to do, and then laughed.. or knocked a beer over. or did something else stupid. Blargh.

London is a pretty damned slick game, really simple for a Wallace game. Tammany Hall was a blast as usual.

 

[Ribbon]

What edition of Twilight Imperium are you all playing? Do you recommend a different edition?

 

[BattleMonkey]

Theres only one edition currently in print which is 3rd. It is very very rare to find copies of 2nd and 1st edition anwhere.

 

[StoOgE]

What edition of Twilight Imperium are you all playing? Do you recommend a different edition?

Not that I have played it, but I assume 3rd edition + first expansion.

 

[SCHUEY F1]

Anyone here have any extended time with Civilization? Having a weekend with some friends and I was wondering how the learning curve for Civ is? Was thinking of picking up this or Arkham before we head out.

 

[Seth C]

Anyone here have any extended time with Civilization? Having a weekend with some friends and I was wondering how the learning curve for Civ is? Was thinking of picking up this or Arkham before we head out.

I bought it but have yet to play it.

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

Anyone here have any extended time with Civilization? Having a weekend with some friends and I was wondering how the learning curve for Civ is? Was thinking of picking up this or Arkham before we head out.

Both Civ and Arkham are not that difficult to play if you have someone who knows the rules inside and out. Arkham actually might be a bit easier since it is a co-op information can be freely discussed, which helps when questions arise. However Arkham does require that the "GM" really knows how to run the game. If you have time, setup a solo game or two and run through the rules. It's pretty much required for Arkham. Civ just has a bunch of stuff to players need to keep track of. From the various win conditions to the Tech Pyramid the player has to remember what was played.

Both games will take a long time to complete so keep that in mind as well. For a two player game of Civ we have been finishing it in two and half to three hours. At the convention this past weekend there was a three player game that lasted over five hours. I've had games of Arkham last anywhere from two to four hours depending on the number of players and how long it takes them for their turn.

One last thing to keep in mind, Civ only can play four while Arkham can play eight.

 

[schnell]

I just got TTR and have been playing for about a week. Lots of fun but I keep hearing about the 1910 expansion being essential. Do you guys agree? Big cards would be nice for shuffling for sure...

 

[StoOgE]

I just got TTR and have been playing for about a week. Lots of fun but I keep hearing about the 1910 expansion being essential. Do you guys agree? Big cards would be nice for shuffling for sure...

It isn't "essential" in that the game is playable with the base cards and is a lot of fun.

The two biggest advantages to the 1910 expansion are:

1) Bigger cards: for reals, screw those little cards.

2) Better routes. The "1910" and "Big Cities" sets of cards do a better job of making routes cross the country (more east-west routes in addition to North/South) so that you don't find yourself playing in the West US all by your lonesom), make for longer routes and minimize the amount of "hey look, I just drew 2 routes I've 100% completed already" that happens with the base set of cards.

It also comes with a large version of the base cards as well if you want to play with them.

Basically, there isny any reason not to get the 1910 expansion. I played it twice without it, bought it and have not regretted it since.

FWIW, I think all other versions of TTR come with large cards standard.

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

I just got TTR and have been playing for about a week. Lots of fun but I keep hearing about the 1910 expansion being essential. Do you guys agree? Big cards would be nice for shuffling for sure...

It really is worth it just for the larger cards. It's a cheap expansion too so might as well pick it up with the base game.

 

[SCHUEY F1]

Both Civ and Arkham are not that difficult to play if you have someone who knows the rules inside and out. Arkham actually might be a bit easier since it is a co-op information can be freely discussed, which helps when questions arise. However Arkham does require that the "GM" really knows how to run the game. If you have time, setup a solo game or two and run through the rules. It's pretty much required for Arkham. Civ just has a bunch of stuff to players need to keep track of. From the various win conditions to the Tech Pyramid the player has to remember what was played.

Both games will take a long time to complete so keep that in mind as well. For a two player game of Civ we have been finishing it in two and half to three hours. At the convention this past weekend there was a three player game that lasted over five hours. I've had games of Arkham last anywhere from two to four hours depending on the number of players and how long it takes them for their turn.

One last thing to keep in mind, Civ only can play four while Arkham can play eight.

Thanks for the info. Not sure, which I will choose. I will probably get both at some point. I do like co-op games so Arkham could be good first choice.

 

[schnell]

Thanks guys, just bought it!

 

[UpperCaseN]

You guys that are playing hours of games in a weekend with multiple people make me insanely jealous.

that's me! If everyone invited comes, I'll be having 8 people for gaming this Sat, so we're splitting into 2 groups. What sucks is that 1 group will have to play on the low coffee table, but that's what happens when you invite only 6 but people ask to bring others.

What is it that prevents you from doing this, responsibilities I take it?

 

[platypotamus]

What is it that prevents you from doing this, responsibilities I take it?

Yeah pretty much. Main group consists of a couple parents of young children, for example. Secondary group consists of a guy who comes more for socializing, and three guys who all have new-ish girlfriends (one of them might be down to game though...)