MEQ vs Mansions of Madness vs Tales of Arabian Nights

This week we have SGT Dave's list of unloved / unplayed games.

Top card - Adventure games:
Mansions of Madnessvs.
Middle Earth Questvs.
Tales of Arbian Nights

Arkham Horror was on SGT Dave's list but I didn't think anything had a chance against AH.

For the undercard we're sticking with FFG small games:
Chaos Maraudersvs.
Mag-Blastvs.
Red Novembervs.
Death Angel

Here's a little bit of background about SGT Dave:

Do you have a regular game group? I head up the Kyle Game Group Irregulars with Jeff "Jack Hooligan" White in Kyle, TX. http://www.meetup.com/Kyle-Game-Group/?a=mm1_l6 http://groups.google.com/group/kyle-game-group?hl=en

Describe who you game with most often? What they play, how often they meet etc.?Mostly, my 3 oldest kids, 10 thru 14. They play everything, but love fantasy themed Ameritrash the most: Dungeon, Talisman, Heroquest, etc.; Pitchcar with my 3 year old. Less frequently (about twice a month), I play with my group, which varies from Memoir '44, Castle Ravenloft, and Mordheim when we can get it going.

What's your favorite games?Memoir '44, Claustrophobia, Thunderstone, Summoner Wars, Battleball, Crossbows and Catapults.

What game, or style of game or aspects of gaming do you dislike? I HATE eurogames. I don't like games about the mundane. Games should never resemble work. If I have to do math of any kind, and write, or manage, or anything else that reminds me of work, I'd rather just go back to work and get paid for it. I also hate downtime: Sorry Mr Skeletor, Runebound sucks. People shouldn't have to wait so long to take their turn, and people should actually be interacting with one another. Watching someone getting beat by the game, as opposed to getting beat by me, deprives me of utilizing the trash talk I spent all week coming up with. What I dislike about gaming culture is that too many people take things too seriously. People have their sacred cows in gaming, and can't stand the fact that people have different tastes. Lighten up. It's this crazy cult-like gaming behavior that gives games a 8.0 rating before they even come out, and why we can't buy a copy of Advanced Heroquest for under $200.

If you're playing with the family I would totally say - Tales of the Arabian Nights. It's a great game that is very simple. There is very little downtown, plus everyone else's turn is interesting because you have no idea what the game will throw at them.

(Sorry Uba, I haven't been able to test out the Variant you posted yet! I will though.)

I will also give my vote to Red November for the second set of games. It's a silly co-op and if you can get into the theme its great. There might be better co-ops out there, but I have a soft spot for Red November. Drink some Grog and put out those fucking fires!!!

Tales of the Arabian Nights. It just hits the perfect spot by being a game purely about having fun. So you'll like it if you like fun.

I didn't really like Death Angel at all. Red November was ok but Space Alert ruined all other coops for me forever. Haven't played the other ones, but I'll vote for Chaos Marauders anyways because I like the name. How could a game with that name be boring? It's impossible.

SaMoKo wrote: How could a game with that name be boring? It's impossible.

very possible

I'm going for Mansions of Madness because only one person really needs to know the rules and the game is just too unique for me to ignore. TotAN never did much for me and MEQ I don't even want to see. But Mansions just fascinates me. It does so many cool things, most of the complaints about it are bang on but I just don't care once I'm playing because it's fun, cohesive, and unique. I don't feel like I'm playing any other game but that one which is a big plus for me.

The Undercard I'm not sure and won't vote.

I haven't played any of these games, so I'm going to vote for the games that I want to play from that list, Tales of the Arabian Nights and Red November.

SGT. Dave, based on the style of games you dislike, you are probably not going to dig Red November. It's just a puzzly chore you play against nobody. There's not even any dice, cards, or variety, it's all one note. After a couple decent 'game newness' plays the evil spell lifts.

That's my anti-vote..

I've only soloed Red November, but there really isn't much narrative to it. As Hex S. writes it's rather puzzly, and on top of that you almost always react rather than act. But it's cute and I could see it being more fun with more players.

But my vote goes to Death Angel. It's a blast and has loads of crucial decisions, epic moments, and tight spots.

Tales of the Arabian Nights. I need to play this again.

Death Angel shoots any other FFG small box game out of the water.

Mansions is a blast as long as your not a rules lawer nor play with ultra competative people.
MEQ is getting a second wind with me. Recommended.
Tales of the Arabian Nights is about as awesome as reading the phonebook.

Mr Skeletor wrote: Tales of the Arabian Nights is about as awesome as reading the phonebook.

Totally. The best are the the names under the letter "X". That shit is HAWT!

but seriously:

Anti-Vote: Tales of the Arabian Nights

caveat: I find the the turn of events in Tales too fragmented and disjointed to support a 'narrative'. Still, I'm curious about what other people see in this game, so I'd probably try it again at some point to see if I experience it differently.

VOTE: Middle-earth Quest

Like Skelly, this got a second wind with me. First time I played it I was severely underwhelmed with the whole package (that's what SHE said.) I went back to it again with fresh eyes and really took to it; it was a matter of having the wrong expectations going in and allowing that to cloud my judgement. It's not War of the Ring, nor is it Runebound; it's Middle-earth Quest.

Love the deck system of travelling, fighting, resting, taking wounds, etc. I enjoy the tactical game of setting up threats and having minions and heroes dancing around them.

I've read folks say that Sauron wins a lot of games, but this is the first LOTR I've played where the balance seems to tip Fellowship side for me (in the default game state, the Fellowship wins; it's up to Sauron to change this.) Even so, it makes for a nice challenge playing Sauron.

My only quibble with it is that if the Fellowship gets the "collectively have five favor" secret quest, just hang it up; that one is nearly impossible for Sauron to stop, as that is a very, very low threshold.

Tales I have admittedly never played, and I don't dig Mansions with it's "Keeper better hold back, even though this is a competitive game" thing.

ubarose wrote: I picked Tales of the Arabian Nights because the primary game group was kids, rather than adults.

I think I stand to learn a bunch from playing games with kids actually. I was just thinking about how neat it would be to play Dixit with kids just to see what their wild imaginations would do with the cards.

Anti-vote withdrawn.