Trashdome - Arkham Horror VS Battlestar Galactica

WELCOME TO TRASHDOME!

This is part of a series of bloody matches to the death. Show support for your favorite game so it will do better in the fight. You can support it by writing why you think its the better game and more importantly by betting on it. End your first post in this thread with the title of the game you're placing a bet on (i.e. voting for) so its clear to me when reading it later. You have until Friday when I tally the bets and declare the winner. Counting expansions or not is entirely up to you just as playing with them or not is. I will reserve my bet for any tie-breakers.

Although you should be familiar with both games, there is no rule that says you have to have played both of them. The only rule in Trashdome is this;

Two games enter! One game leaves!


I know AH seems undefeatable, but this matchup needed to be done anyways. BSG was the other game that got listed the most as being a F:ATtie favorite.

Fuck Arkham Horror.

Vote: BSG

I've been toying with the idea of trading away Battlestar Galactica, just so it isn't an option anymore when we are picking the next game to play at my boardgame days. The same people always want to play it, but that makes the player interaction aspect of the game very stale. It has gotten to the point where we all know each other too well when it comes to BSG, so outing the cylons has become easy. I have played some with other friends, too, and it's hilarious how so many gamers have a terrible poker face.

I was hoping that the BSG expansion would enhance the replay value, but much of what I read convinced me that they screwed up the expansion. The new endgame doesn't interest me, and the new characters and locations sound so overpowered that they render the original ones somewhat obsolete. Obsolescence doesn't expand a game, it shrinks it.

Furthermore, my enjoyment of all things Biblestar Galactica dropped off sharply by the end of the third season. And everything that bothered me in third season is apparently even worse in fourth season (except for the sorry business with the Bob Dylan lyrics), so I'm not interested in ever watching fourth season.

Arkham Horror still delivers a great game experience, though I admit that I only play with all the expansions mixed in. Though sometimes we do leave Kingsport out, when table space is limited. The last time we played, we lost both games (by a very close margin the second time), and it was still very enjoyable.

Really, Arkham Horror is my desert island game. If I had to give up every game except for one, I would keep Arkham, for the amazing replay value, plus the capability to entertain anywhere from 1 to 8 players. Sure, I run at least 3 characters when I play solitaire, but it's still quite entertaining. BSG, by contrast, is only marginally playable with anything less than five players, and it seems like the best way to win is to get lucky and draw a Cylon loyalty card.

Vote: Arkham Horror.

Vote: Battlestar Galatica

For now.

I really love both games, but I'm relatively new to AH, so BSG has had more mileage in my group and is currently a group favourite. However, my solo plays of AH have confirmed that this is more the kind of game I enjoy playing and if you were to ask me again in a year's time, I'm sure my vote would be different.

Really tough choice... I love them both a lot. But BSG can have wider swings where it's often terrific but once in a while it kind of falls flat. Sure, not every game of AH is great, either, but I always enjoy playing AH, whereas sometimes BSG can feel tedious with skill check after skill check (especially when the political intrigue of who the Cylons are isn't a factor any more). That said, I'd still call it a tie, but AH gets the nod for also being great to play with 1 or 2 players (playing multiple roles each), whereas BSG needs at least 3.

Vote: Arkham Horror

Never played BSG, but not a fan of AH and would like to see it actually lose a Trashdome.

Vote: BSG

Arkham Horror is slow, plodding, uncompetitive, and is the ameritrash version of multiplayer solitaire. Perhaps I simply don't like coops, but I've played several AH games where I simply did not feel that I had a stake in what was going on... I couldn't care less about AH.

Battlestar Galactica is possibly the only coop I enjoy. Yes, the game can start to feel same-y if you play it every week, and yes the expansion was inconsistent, but for me BSG blows AH out of the water. The traitor mechanic increases the tension, competition, and player interaction. That plus the skill checks means that there's effectively no downtime even if it's not your turn. BSG is intense, AH is a snooze-fest.

VOTE: BSG

I'm with Shellhead. Arkham is my desert island game and we have a great experience nearly every time it hits the table.

Vote: Arkham Horror

I'll be interested to see how this plays out. I haven't played BSG yet, though AH is a fine game. I'll sit this one out and see where the chips plop.

Vote for BSG, it's great game (and probably only one from FFG which don't need expansion)

_{arkham horror} is boring crap

Timely trashdome given the subject of my column this week.

BSG is a really fun game, but as I've just pointed out it has this weird feeling for me where I keep wondering why we're bothering to do all this admin rigmarole for skills checks and cylon activations when the real meat of the game is in wondering who the cylons are. In some respects you might as well be playing Werewolf.

vote Arkham Horror.

Arkham Horror

I like BSG but I hate the setting, couldn't care less about the series.

The one time I played AH, it was awesome. But for some mystery reason, have yet to play it again. Whereas BSG keeps me coming back...

Vote BSG

vote: BSG

both games are limited in the number of people they play. BSG is great with 5, AH plays great with 4 or less. AH requires at least one expansion or major house-ruling to make it enjoyable. I actually traded away AH at first, because the first couple games were 3 hour affairs, where the last hour and a half we knew we were going to win, but just going through the motions. BSG is limited in what it does, but it does it very well.

The senseless waste of pitting these two mighty forces of nature against each other, like matter vs. anti-matter, will be a tragedy, not only for the games involved but for our planet. All nations must band together, to ensure that such a conflageration never takes place.