The New Board Game Thread (Newcomer Friendly)

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BomberMouse said:
Mansions of Madness? It's on the same universe than AH.
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I've seen that, it certainly has some charme but I think we'll stick to some entirely new games for now.

Keasar said:
Descent is a great pick. Mage Knight if you got the time and patience to learn it. Dominant Species I cant personally say but from what I hear it is also really good.
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I'm really looking for stuff I can dig my teeth into, so that's something that speaks for Mage Knight. Descent gets universal praise as well so it should be a safe pick, right?! Cool.

Gala said:
Mice and Mystics!
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Wow, the board and figures look awesome! I think I'm a sucker for games with instantly visible high production value like that...
 
BomberMouse said:
It's a good game, has a lot variety. Days of Wonder is top tier when it comes to production values so it works great with non gamers too.
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joeyjoejoeshabadoo said:
Small World is decent. I got kind of burnt out on the game. It felt samey after awhile so I ended up getting rid of the game. Small World feels a bit like Risk without the dice. It scales well and is easy enough to play with new gamers. If you want to try it out and have an iPad, there is an app out now. It's only limited in the number of players that can play, but it has all the rules and base game races. It'll give you a good idea on if the game is right for you or not.
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thanks guys! i will definitely try out the ipad version
 
DieNgamers said:
I'm really looking for stuff I can dig my teeth into, so that's something that speaks for Mage Knight. Descent gets universal praise as well so it should be a safe pick, right?! Cool.
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Mage Knight definitely will let you do that. It also will lead to very long sessions. My wife and I haven't finished a game in less than 5 hours yet, just the two of us. That's after 3 plays. Each time I feel like we learn what we are doing a bit more, but I don't see it ever getting down to 3 hours, which means it takes the cake as our longest game (beating out Through the Ages, Twilight Struggle, and Eclipse, which were all kind of fighting for the spot before).
 
platypotamus said:
Mage Knight definitely will let you do that. It also will lead to very long sessions. My wife and I haven't finished a game in less than 5 hours yet, just the two of us. That's after 3 plays. Each time I feel like we learn what we are doing a bit more, but I don't see it ever getting down to 3 hours, which means it takes the cake as our longest game (beating out Through the Ages, Twilight Struggle, and Eclipse, which were all kind of fighting for the spot before).
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Someone said Mage Knight should take (# of players+1) Hours. So yeah, thinking 3 hours is a good time for 2 people, I wouldn't feel too bad about you two taking about 5.
 
So I'm looking for a game that I'm not sure exists, a "deck building game" in a more literal sense than the ones I've seen.

I'd like to find a card game with a large common pool of cards, and over the course of several games/scenarios, the players obtain/swap cards to customize their deck to whatever theme or purpose they go for. This wouldn't be a game where players own or keep a deck, or buy their own expansions, or spend their off time studying the complexities of combos and strategies. They just get to fine-tune a deck on the fly as the group goes through successive play-throughs, and this whole process could end within a night or several nights until the group decides to recombine everything and start over. Basically take the deck building of a Magic draft, and combine it with the self-contained nature of a deck building game. Or you could say I want a "living card game" that removes the persistency/individual investment.

Does something like this exist?
 
LaserBuddha said:
So I'm looking for a game that I'm not sure exists, a "deck building game" in a more literal sense than the ones I've seen.

I'd like to find a card game with a large common pool of cards, and over the course of several games/scenarios, the players obtain/swap cards to customize their deck to whatever theme or purpose they go for. This wouldn't be a game where players own or keep a deck, or buy their own expansions, or spend off time studying the complexity of combos and strategies. They just get to fine-tune a deck on the fly as the group goes through successive play-throughs, and this whole process could end within a night or several nights until the group decides to recombine everything and start over. Basically take the deck building of a Magic draft, and combine it with the self-contained nature of a deck building box game. Or you could say I want a "living card game" that removes the persistency/individual investment.

Does something like this exist?
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Not that I know of, but that sounds awesome as hell. Like risk legacy of deck builders. Kick start that shit right now!
 
RaySpencer said:
Not that I know of, but that sounds awesome as hell. Like risk legacy of deck builders. Kick start that shit right now!
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I basically want to be able to build a themed deck like you'd have in Magic, or the old LOTR CCG or numerous others. Sliver decks, elf decks, etc. But I'd like for it to happen during or between games and have it all remain a self-contained game in the end. This way non-CCG players get a game they don't have to "study" or spend money on, and can simply drop physically and mentally when game night's over.

The Star Wars LCG has a style of deckbuilding that seems great for this (sets of cards that go together, so you'd choose 10 sets of 6 cards instead of choosing 60 individual cards, making it easier and faster to build to a theme). That game, however, is like "here's your deck, friend, now you take that home and buy more stuff for it and study it like any other TCG". I can't really enjoy it so much because I have to get people to commit, instead of rotating it with the other board games.
 
Speaking of SW:LCG. I now have THREE copies.

I ordered a second one from Boards & Bits when I picked up WOTR second edition (needed the updated cards for Limited Lords of Middle Earth), and the top of the box got banged up. WOTR came out unscathed but Star Wars got it's punchboard tore to hell. As the tokens were half the reason I got another copy (buddy spilled a beer on the pile -- first 'party foul' since I got into boardgaming proper, knock on wood!) I shot Tom an email. My replacement is already here and he said if FedEx didn't contact me about the claim in 30 days I could do whatever I wanted with the copy. Bonus.

Time to recruit some players, I guess.
 
Merchants and Marauders players:

What are you guys' thoughts on Frigates vs Galleons?

I'm thinking of breaking this one out as it's due for another play. My biggest gripe against the game is the short end of the stick frigates get. Don't get me wrong, they're not horrible, but a Galleon has 19 points of stats vs the frigate's 15. Theres a little, but not a ton, of discussion about this on BGG and no one's seemed to come up with a perfect solution.

The designer said he initially was going to go with a maneuverability of 1 on the Galleon, which would help. Hell, I'd trade a frigate cargo - down to 2, for one more crew - up to 4. It doesn't really make too much sense mechanically that a pirate ship would have a cargo hold big enough to not only get glory from hijacking ships, but also selling sets of 3 in port. Comparative to the galleon, I doubt it even needs to take the cargo hit for the extra point anyway. Galleon has 4 crew and 4 cannons itself.

Anyway, I'll probably experiment with this a bit in an upcoming game, but was wondering if anyone had any input on this.
 
I'm going to pick up a few games shortly.

My group has played:

Ticket to Ride - huge hit
Settlers of Catan - good, but not as good as TTR
Sequence - fun

Planning on picking up one or two of:

Airlines Europe
Power Grid
Memoir '44
Game of Thrones board game
 
Angst said:
Thanks. I'm a bit worried that GoT is very complex and time consuming though?
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Initially? Yes, it will probably be a step up in complexity from what you've been playing. And a full 6 player game (the only true way to play) will take you 2.5 hours, probably 3 learning. Ultimately, it's deceptively simple. Once you familiarize yourself with the game, you'll find there's less going on than the rulebook would have you believe.

You resolve event cards at the beginning of a round. Everyone places orders on the board. Execute those orders. 3 phases. You'll spend more time hemming and hawing over who you should ally and attack than you will actually moving bits around a board. It's a mind game.
 
Neverfade said:
Initially? Yes, it will probably be a step up in complexity from what you've been playing. And a full 6 player game (the only true way to play) will take you 2.5 hours, probably 3 learning. Ultimately, it's deceptively simple. Once you familiarize yourself with the game, you'll find there's less going on than the rulebook would have you believe.

You resolve event cards at the beginning of a round. Everyone places orders on the board. Execute those orders. 3 phases. You'll spend more time hemming and hawing over who you should ally and attack than you will actually moving bits around a board. It's a mind game.
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Ok, your description sold me on GoT.
Just bought:
Airlines Europe
Game of Thrones the board game

:-)

Really looking forward to trying them out! I'll make sure to study the rules exhaustively before our play-through so as not to alienate the other players.
 
Played Manhattan Project finally, we all liked it. Starts a bit slow as most worker placements, but once you get some buildings made, you start doing tons of stuff on your turns and it can get really competitive.

Also did Redshirts with the updated 2nd editon rules. Silly casual card game, but the new rules do help the game greatly so it has less chance of sticking around too long.
 
Angst said:
Ok, your description sold me on GoT.
Just bought:
Airlines Europe
Game of Thrones the board game

:-)

Really looking forward to trying them out! I'll make sure to study the rules exhaustively before our play-through so as not to alienate the other players.
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If you have any questions I'll gladly help answer them. GoT is definitely a game you want to have down before teaching to 5 other people for sure.
 
Neverfade said:
If you have any questions I'll gladly help answer them. GoT is definitely a game you want to have down before teaching to 5 other people for sure.
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Thanks! I found Fantasy Flight's youtube channel and watched the whole tutorial which explained the game a lot better than the manual did. But I'll definitely post here if I have any questions.
 
Pyrogeek said:
I will be once my copy arrives. Hopefully later this week.
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platypotamus said:
I'm doing some mild crunching at work, and have a baby due within the next month and change, so it might be tough in the short term, but yes. I was thinking about trying to go to one of the weekly events at Card Kingdom sometime soon too
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Good! I'm close to Card Kingdom/Mox.

I've just had work crunch time dropped on me, too, which will keep me busy this weekend...
 
LaserBuddha said:
I basically want to be able to build a themed deck like you'd have in Magic, or the old LOTR CCG or numerous others. Sliver decks, elf decks, etc. But I'd like for it to happen during or between games and have it all remain a self-contained game in the end. This way non-CCG players get a game they don't have to "study" or spend money on, and can simply drop physically and mentally when game night's over.

The Star Wars LCG has a style of deckbuilding that seems great for this (sets of cards that go together, so you'd choose 10 sets of 6 cards instead of choosing 60 individual cards, making it easier and faster to build to a theme). That game, however, is like "here's your deck, friend, now you take that home and buy more stuff for it and study it like any other TCG". I can't really enjoy it so much because I have to get people to commit, instead of rotating it with the other board games.
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Hmmm, I would look into cube drafting if you have a collection of Magic cards to draw from already... sounds like it might fill the need. You basically assemble a stack of 360 unique magic cards and draft from that with a bunch of players (giving everyone three sets of 15 cards, then drafting it like you would with actual booster packs). You build decks, then play! It has the feel of "limited" (like going to a draft at the store or whatever) but all the cards are self contained in one collection that everyone drafts from.

It's lots of fun and evens the playing field, kind of like making the 360 card cube itself into it's own confined card game, which can be tweaked/changed as needed. You don't have to worry about who's bringing the best deck when you play because all the cards come from the cube. I've done a cube draft several times now and it's especially great for people who enjoy the game of magic, but don't want keep up with the new sets.

One downside is it can be tough to assemble a fun group of cards if you haven't got a substantial collection to begin with. My friends and I all pitched in cards to make ours a group effort, but that might not always be possible.

If you can put one together, though, it's awesome. Whenever we play magic these days it's usually with the cube (Or the commander format, but that's a different thing entirely).

EDIT: Smash up might be something else to look into. Each player chooses two 20 card "factions" (robots, zombies, dinosaurs, etc) and mixes them together to form their deck. Not really a lot of fine tuning, but it has aspects of CCGs while keeping everything contained in one box.
 
Congrats to Stooge. Tammany Hall gets picked by Quins of Stand Up Sit Down (writing for Kotaku) as one of his Top 5 Games to Get Excited about in 2013.
http://kotaku.com/5976648/the-top-5-board-games-coming-in-2013
Tammany Hall
Would you like to spend an evening controlling 1860s New York by manipulating immigrant populations?

Don't answer that. First I'm going to tell you how painful it is to be a board gamer. Political / backstabbing / fragile alliance game Tammany Hall was first published in 2007 to critical acclaim, and with a print run of exactly 500 copies.



This year's re-release is the result of fans asking the publisher if they could Kickstart a second print run a scant SIX YEARS LATER, so once again, Tammany Hall, this legendary game of slander, bluffing and crunchy strategy will be available. Until it's not again? I don't really know.

Honestly, I haven't the faintest idea why this game is so good. I'll still be buying it, obv, but I'm wary that a box that rare has got to give off some kind of contact high.
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Damn loving all the new people on the thread and all their excellent purchases. :)

As for me -- Netrunner tournament tomorrow! Don't fail me HB and Gabriel....
 
MisterNugNug said:
Just dropped 160 on board games, purchased through CSI.

I got Elder Sign, Space Cadets, Ghost Stories, Infiltration and Co2. Can't wait to play.
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CO2 is great. I wouldn't recommend playing with 5 players though. Stick with 4 or 3. It makes the game manageable with less players.

XShagrath said:
Played my first game of T'zolkin last night. My god! I had no idea what I was doing for the first portion of the game, but it was awesome!
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You'll feel helpless the first couple of games, then you'll get into a rhythm. Tzolkin is really good.
 
Made an order on CSI too:

Agricola All animals + expansion
Carcassonne + mini expansions
Suburbia
Villa Paletti

Mostly light stuff, can't wait for them to arrive. If everything goes ok, the next one should be a bit heavier. Been dying to learn and play Twilight Struggle for a long time.
 
Played Smash Up for the first time tonight, all 4 of us liked it. We made it a little more complicated than need be since we had 2 MtG players, 1 who suffers from AP, and I'm a former MtG player, so everything was scrutinized, you know how it is. This happens in like every single game we play, though.
 
MisterNugNug said:
So Pandemic is getting a 2nd edition update with a snazzy new look. And there's going to be an update to On the Brink which updates the 1st edition of the game (cards) with the new look.
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Thankfully I moved on tho Flash Point so this doesn't phase me. Prefer that because I hate card shuffling.

I now also got Le Havre: The Inland Port. I don't think it's as good as All Creatures Big and Small but still pretty fun. It's actually way easier to learn because all you do is buying buildings or using buildings. It becomes this game of cleverly using your and your opponents buildings to maximize the ressource output. Pretty fun but the theme is pretty much non-existent. If that is of no concern to you than get it. Great addition for your 2 player library.
 
Finally cracked open Mage Knight.

A decently put together game, I suppose, but not for me. I love long games but this just seems to move at snails pace. I'm not even an AP guy, and found myself playing combination after combination of cards before committing. On top of that I don't find battles exciting in the least considering, with few exceptions, I know if I'm winning or not before I even engage.

Oh well, to the trade list.
 
Neverfade said:
Finally cracked open Mage Knight.

A decently put together game, I suppose, but not for me. I love long games but this just seems to move at snails pace. I'm not even an AP guy, and found myself playing combination after combination of cards before committing. On top of that I don't find battles exciting in the least considering, with few exceptions, I know if I'm winning or not before I even engage.

Oh well, to the trade list.
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Felt very similar in my first and only play.
 
Had my first playtest of Airlines Europe with my g/f yesterday. Game felt pretty good, but didn't get very exciting. We both agreed that it would have been much better with 4 or 5 players, but we wanted to play a round so we could get a feel for the game and be able to explain it better to the other players.

I'm saving my GoT play until I can get a 6 players game going.
 
Neverfade said:
Finally cracked open Mage Knight.

A decently put together game, I suppose, but not for me. I love long games but this just seems to move at snails pace. I'm not even an AP guy, and found myself playing combination after combination of cards before committing. On top of that I don't find battles exciting in the least considering, with few exceptions, I know if I'm winning or not before I even engage.

Oh well, to the trade list.
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The best way I can think of to describe my Mage Knight experiences it is how I felt playing Splinter Cell on the xbox back in the old days. I was used to games like Ratchet and Clank, where the controls were simple and intuitive, and I felt like an expert after playing for about a minute. With Splinter Cell, I wasn't used to the xbox buttons and the game was much more complex, so I found myself looking at the controller in my hands to figure out which button to hit constantly. Mage Knight feels just like that. I've played four or five times but I still seem to be checking the manual constantly to make sure I'm playing the game correctly. Compare that experience to something like Eclipse, where after playing the game a couple times I don't think I'll have to check the manual ever again. It's so well designed that even though there is a lot to keep track of and consider while playing the game, after a play or two I've pretty much got it. The mechanics and rules are much more intuitive.

I'd love to see someone house-rule Mage Knight into a somewhat more streamlined version. Until then I'll just play the Vassal version in solitaire mode once in a while.
 
Looking for a bit of WWII fluff, I picked up Tide Of Iron the other week and have since played a few games with friends. All in all we love it. It's just fluffy and shallow enough for us to easily get into it, but at the same time has a lot of thoughtful tactics and engaging game mechanics.

We have played Battlelore (basically Memoir 44) in the past, and while it was fun, it also felt really stale and overly simple. It wasn't very engrossing. Tide Of Iron definitely is the more fun of the two, so I suspect we'll starting getting into the expansions as well.

One issue though is that the vanilla scenarios often seem to be imbalanced in favor of the Allied player. After reading on the forums a bit this seems to be the consensus. Which is kind of a shame, but should be easily fixable by tweaking the setup a bit.

The game doesn't really seem to be all that popular, but as far as light tactics go, I'd definitely recommend.
 
Angst said:
Had my first playtest of Airlines Europe with my g/f yesterday. Game felt pretty good, but didn't get very exciting. We both agreed that it would have been much better with 4 or 5 players
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When I and a mate of mine played it we had the exact same opinion as well.
 
PoweredBySoy said:
Looking for a bit of WWII fluff, I picked up Tide Of Iron the other week and have since played a few games with friends. All in all we love it. It's just fluffy and shallow enough for us to easily get into it, but at the same time has a lot of thoughtful tactics and engaging game mechanics.

We have played Battlelore (basically Memoir 44) in the past, and while it was fun, it also felt really stale and overly simple. It wasn't very engrossing. Tide Of Iron definitely is the more fun of the two, so I suspect we'll starting getting into the expansions as well.

One issue though is that the vanilla scenarios often seem to be imbalanced in favor of the Allied player. After reading on the forums a bit this seems to be the consensus. Which is kind of a shame, but should be easily fixable by tweaking the setup a bit.

The game doesn't really seem to be all that popular, but as far as light tactics go, I'd definitely recommend.
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I love Tide of Iron. The scenarios with the base game definitely have balance issues. I recommend picking up the scenario book and Days of the Fox expansion. I wish FFG would support it more. Would really like to see more scenario books, map, updated errata and unit expansions, etc. So much potential with the game.
 
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