What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

I'm going to be doing an article on Wings for the Baron at our May Getaway soon, but I just wanted to drop it into the stream of consciousness here. This is really a good game. It's two games in one, and both kick ass. I played once during the weekend, but the game was out on the table each of the three days and three new people sat down to it. All three wanted to play again.

Regardless of what you think of the thematics, this game is worth playing because of the way it works. The basic game is a super-tight German-style title with enough dice rolling to keep you on edge.

Seriously, if you haven't tried this give it a shot. This is a Puerto Rico, an Acquire. If it had been printed by one of the big shops it would have sold 100,000 copies.

Ra. The old Uberplay edition, still on the shelves after all these years. What a great game. My favorite auction game. Making the bid amounts public, and limiting them to 3/player/epoch opens up so much psychological cruelty. I lost by a point.

Happy Salmon. I have a big annual family reunion/camping trip coming up this June, so I am looking for things that travel well and are suitable for large age ranges, and aren't so fragile that a gust of wind will ruin the game. Playing this with 3 other 40-somethings is pretty silly, but convinced me that the game fits the bill for what I want.

Red 7. Solid "UNO for gamers" that is pretty amusing but I think I'm getting to the point where it's solved for me. There's kind of two stages -- stage one is seeing what play keeps you alive (easy to figure out); stage two is how to play optimally to set up your future plays so you don't lose. Unfortunately stage two has little control, especially in a four-player game. Then one of my buddies accidentally shuffled all his score cards into the the deck so we called it early.

Other camping game ideas: Hive Pocket, One Night Ultimate Werewolf, traditional playing cards, dominoes. Open to suggestions that meet the above criteria (portable, resilient to random weather [or are short enough that no one minds starting over], suitable for both kids and adults).

lj1983 wrote: I really didn't like this one...I felt the rules were alitte vague at times, and the game play itself was boring. the fate attacks were interesting, but they were pretty random. draw 2, play 1....it worked I guess. On to the trade pile.

If that was your first play and you're willing to give it another shot, I'd recommend it. It seems like everyone's first game turns out to be kind of wobbly, as you figure out both what your villain can do and keep track of everyone else's. But once you have the hang of the system (and whom you're playing), it's really a great mid-range game that can play quite quickly. My first plays with two groups also left them kind of "meh" on it, but second plays have found them all really enjoying it and asking for another round.

dysjunct wrote: Open to suggestions that meet the above criteria (portable, resilient to random weather [or are short enough that no one minds starting over], suitable for both kids and adults).

Hanabi, The Mind, Pairs and Liar’s Dice would all be my suggestions. Easy to learn, reasonably short and minimal components all. Most roll-and-writes are probably a solid option. If you bring Liar’s Dice, you just need score sheets to play Yahtzee or Knizia’s Decathlon.

I'm a few games in with Godsforge. It's a very different experience than I thought it would be from my pre-release game. I thought it was a dueling game that could accommodate multiple players. Turns out it's a multiplayer game that happens to work with two.

This is the rare wizard-fight card game that is actually built around multiplayer. You only ever swing at the player on your left. Everyone draws from a common deck and every phase is simultaneous, though we found it easier to take the attack phase in turns just so people aren't all yelling numbers at each other. Once someone dies everyone else takes +7 damage each attack phase so the game doesn't keep players out for long.

It's good! Not great, and not something you need to rush out and try, but good. What's remarkable about it is that it's gobsmackingly pretty. Godsforge might have some of the best art I've ever seen in a board game. No hyperbole. Diego Rodriguez is a name to watch, because there's not a single part of it that isn't gorgeous.

First Martians - This game gets a bad bad rap and as a result it languishes in deep discount bins. (extremely whiny voice) it's a co-op! it uses an app! its rulebook sucks ass! it's fiddly! it's not scientifically accurate as I've suddenly decided it must be despite it making as far as I can tell no claims to such accuracy!. Yes, yes, all that is true...and yet, it's a lot of fun. The only one of those which is a genuine rough patch is the rulebook, and the free "Almanac" PDF addresses that issue nicely.

I've been soloing it and finally found the two rules that I'd overlooked, making it much harder than it needed to be. (These were my own fault, the rules are right there and I just read right past them multiple times.) The intro, come on in and get your feet a little wet scenario went from me barely losing it on the final round to me winning it on round 4, which is as it should have been.

Tried a slightly more difficult mission last night (A Guessing Game) and a number of bad outcomes (add "it's random!" to the above list of whines) piled up against me until it was clear there was no way out for me, so I forfeited it and went back to the decidedly more wimp-friendly sci-fi world of No Man's Sky. But I'm eager to give it another go, knowing what I know now.

Legomancer wrote: First Martians - This game gets a bad bad rap and as a result it languishes in deep discount bins. (extremely whiny voice) it's a co-op! it uses an app! its rulebook sucks ass! it's fiddly! it's not scientifically accurate as I've suddenly decided it must be despite it making as far as I can tell no claims to such accuracy!. Yes, yes, all that is true...and yet, it's a lot of fun. The only one of those which is a genuine rough patch is the rulebook, and the free "Almanac" PDF addresses that issue nicely.

I've been soloing it and finally found the two rules that I'd overlooked, making it much harder than it needed to be. (These were my own fault, the rules are right there and I just read right past them multiple times.) The intro, come on in and get your feet a little wet scenario went from me barely losing it on the final round to me winning it on round 4, which is as it should have been.

Tried a slightly more difficult mission last night (A Guessing Game) and a number of bad outcomes (add "it's random!" to the above list of whines) piled up against me until it was clear there was no way out for me, so I forfeited it and went back to the decidedly more wimp-friendly sci-fi world of No Man's Sky. But I'm eager to give it another go, knowing what I know now.

The rules do suck (they created the almanac, an entirely new rulebook in a new format to address this), but my biggest problem with First Martians was that it was dreadfully boring. The map stuff and exploration was the best part. I dug the events and stuff in the app. But the bulk of the play is managing repairs and stopping things from breaking down.

It's like watching Mark Watney do his day to day work without any humor or riveting tension.

Yeah, I was one of the unfortunate souls who felt confident enough to buy First Martians at full MSRP based on the strength of RC. As Charlie said, the rules really do suck and it’s dreadfully boring, but the other area in which it loses ground to RC is that it’s samey. RC is using the same components to tell convey a variety of situations and stories, they just happen to share that foundation of being on an island. I played FM 4-5 times, repeating the first scenario once because we screwed the rules up so horribly, but none of that variety is there and the one situation the game is about is pure tedium. I’m still on Mars, everything is still breaking down and everything still fucking sucks. Oh, and the next scenario is only going to pile it on even more.

I’m not sure how I got it out of my collection or what I let it go for, but I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to see a game go.

RC = Robinson Crusoe?

Sagrilarus wrote: RC = Robinson Crusoe?

Yup.

Got to try out Tikal recently, which I've wanted to do for a while now. Fascinating game, but I don't know that I'll ever play it again. We played the Mini Tikal 2p variant and even by the end of that the turns were getting brutal AP wise. I respect the puzzle that game presents but it's like specifically designed to melt my brain, and not in a fun way. Glad to have tried it though.

Ah_Pook wrote: Got to try out Tikal recently, which I've wanted to do for a while now. Fascinating game, but I don't know that I'll ever play it again. We played the Mini Tikal 2p variant and even by the end of that the turns were getting brutal AP wise. I respect the puzzle that game presents but it's like specifically designed to melt my brain, and not in a fun way. Glad to have tried it though.

It's definitely best with four, and best with the tile auction. Its downside is that it's AP-prone. IMO it's the best of the Tikal/Mexica/Java trilogy.

Played a few games:

Fury of Dracula is great. I regret not having explained the game better to one of the other players but I was not well-acquaintanced with the game myself. I would like to try again and learn how to play better, I took a risk that didn't pay off and I lost the game as Dracula.

Gloomhaven was dull, like usual. We played a boss scenario, which don't tend to be great. It doesn't matter if the boss has 60 HP, he goes down extremely fast because you can focus on him and pile all damage. Like some other bosses, this guy was surrounded by overpowered minions but barely worked himself.

Donning the Purple. Look, this was our first play but I walked away thinking the game is broken. It's a clear amatteur effort, despite the high quality components and the fact that work has been put onto the design. There are things that are obviously wrong. The player who starts as the emperor turn 1 starts at a disadvantage because he'll inevitably get evicted by the end of the turn. Becoming emperor is often harmful and a worse way of racking up VPs than accumulating money. Events and cards are overpowering and some are very questionable. Look, if you draw about 10 cards over the course of a game, a card that allows the first player to draw 7 cards is probably broken.

I watched a heavy cardboard play of donning the purple but even I was struck by how undesireable the emporer is if everyone else is trying to suitably wobble the empire.