What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

Defeating children is one of the last things we adults have left.

That’s a great story mc, I’d happily trade all of my grown-up gaming time for more moments like that.

Played two games of Root at the gaming club. The first was me, my brother, my nephew, and a pickup fourth player who had never played before. The lineup was Cats, Birds, Woodland, and Lizards, with me as the Lizards. Once again, I sucked as the Lizards but I'm getting better at it. Birds won that one by staying out of turmoil for the whole game.

We lost our pickup in game 2, and we played Cats, Woodland and me as Tinker Vagabond. It was an "I think we're getting this" moment, because those two asshole relatives of mine flat out refused to craft anything and held all the Coin crafting cards. That locked me out of quests and extra card pulls. They also figured they needed to kick the trash panda whenever they got a chance. I might have missed the chance to piggyback onto Woodland, the eventual winner, by Vagabond dominance, because I flat out forgot about how it worked for the Vagabond.

The next I day I had my brothers over to celebrate a birthday. We ended up playing a 4-player game of Bohnanza, and the birthday boy won in a walk.

We also played Root earlier today, with Lizards, Birds and the Scoundrel Vagabond. My son had the cult and struggled as he kept trying to consolidate power instead of spreading out. At one point toward the end he inadvisably stacked up four warriors in a clearing with a garden in order to take out a couple of birds then dropped in a second garden, and of course the Scoundrel went straight in and torched it for an eight point leap that won the game. I feel that you have to play the Lizards like a cancerous growth, just keep popping up in empty or low-population clearings and quickly set down a garden to block other factions. They are then compelled to fight you which of course makes you the pitiable victim gaining Acolytes who then give a really bloodied nose in return; and if they instead ignore your creeping presence you eventually bed in too deeply to be easily removed and start spamming victory points from your gardens. The ultimate passive-aggressive faction.

Then we raised Gaslands back from the dead, having put it away a few months ago after it turned into a time sink of modelling and painting and not actually doing anything fun with any of it. This time we just played with horribly unfinished cars, using a track made out of Lego, and had such a blast. My son put together the teams for a Death Race challenge, his fancy-pants Miyazaki against a rugged Rutherford build for me. I was given a hugely expensive truck with a turret mounted HMG, a Rifle and BFG, a slow and awkward beast that was going to do something horrible to the opposition as soon as weapons went online after the first gate, with just enough cans left to afford a Trike which for some reason he had loaded up with an arsenal of fifteen (!) grenades.

We've had a Death Race about a dozen or so times now and only once have we actually got past the second gate with two viable competitors still in contention. I've no idea if that means we're doing it wrong or doing it right but we're loving it all the same and this time round was no exception. We got off to a reasonably organised start with some swerving going on as we attempted to cut each other up and send vehicles off into the rough, one biker electing to avoid the traffic by zooming off the long way around the outside edge before cutting back in sharply to gun for the gate. I managed to get my truck up into high gear much to the annoyance of the Miyazaki sports car that was having an impossible time getting past the haphazard drunken weaving of my driver.

We were racking up hazard tokens and the inevitable happened as I spun out of control and ended up sliding sideways through the first gate but not quite fully enough to activate weapons. One of his bikes ended up right at my front bumper which left no choice for me other than to drive straight into him, a situation for which I followed the correct etiquette by gearing up in order to cause the most carnage possible. He somehow managed to survive and my wipeout left me spun around in the wrong direction but happily creating enough of a gap for my Trike to now zip past the line. His car followed through with a sharp swerve that couldn't quite stop another collision with my truck, flipping over and ending up parked not far behind. My Trike finished skidding into a 360 and revved up into a head-on collision with his bike, going straight through the virtual wreckage which then rolled right into my truck and exploded into some lovely fireworks. The trike then shot off toward the remaining biker for a high speed collision that pretty much disintegrated both vehicles on contact, causing an enormous explosion due to all the munitions that the little maniac had loaded onboard.

My truck was now barely holding it together after two crashes and being at the epicentre of two explosions, however we were now one-on-one and I had a golden opportunity to take out the final opposition. I went into a tight reverse and finessed with a spin that got the sportscar dead ahead and unleashed with absolutely everything. Fourteen dice dealt out enough doom to completely wipe him out, however there was to be a marvellous punchline to it all. The BFG had rocketed me backwards into a concrete barrier which did enough damage to leave me on a single hull. And then I wiped out. We weren't sure in which direction my burning wreck was supposed to go but both agreed that it was a spectacular finish to a very short race. One day we might actually make it all the way to the finish line.

I've also been playing quite a bit of K2, someone at the club suggested this a few weeks ago but we couldn't get a game going in the end and I remembered enjoying it when it first came out so picked up a copy along with the Lhotse expansion. Quirky, family friendly, real-life setting, all right in my wheelhouse, and I do love a boardgame about sports. The designer is a keen mountaineer and, for me, does the magic thing of trying to get the feeling of the sport rather into the game rather than attempting to build a mechanical simulation. So this one is all about looking ahead to the coming weather and marshalling your resources to best get through the worst and most punishing bits with hopefully just enough energy to get a bit higher up without risking a fatal end to your adventure. The risk of death is ever-present and taking time to slow your ascent in order to acclimatise, and timing when to do so and when to keep moving, is one of the big decisions that need to be made. It plays a bit like Flamme Rouge up the the side of a mountain.

The base game can be really mean as space near the top gets blocked, sometimes deliberately but even inadvertently so as there are times when a climber buttons up in a tent and gets locked in place for several turns. I solo'd through every variation on the K2 map and it's really hard to get both climbers to the peak even though survival isn't much of a challenge even on the hard side and in winter weather. The Avalanche promo really helps as it adds a bit of uncertainty to the weather tiles and you can never be totally sure if all the bad weather is behind you.

Lhotse on the other hand is crazy difficult to even stay alive. The board is bigger and split into three sections with slightly different weather effects on each facing. This means that you are often faced with having to move across the mountain instead of up and this can leave you too far away from your tent on a really unforgiving climb. Out of four attempts so far only one of my team managed to live and only because I went into a rapid descent when I noted that there was no way to survive going back up for one of the higher peaks. Although it's supposed to be soloable I believe that this climb would be easier with plenty of competitors as it would result in more tents being pitched and a bigger network of rope-lines going across. The only solo strategy I can think of is to rush one climber up and back down with the reserve pitching a tent in a safe haven for them and then trying to get as high as possible without risking death. I'm enjoying it enough to have also purchased the other set of maps covering Broad Peak.

Lizards seem really cool, I'm glad they've boosted them a little to make them (hopefully) more viable.

Played Chariots of Rome.

I had always wanted to try Circus Maximus, but never had the opportunity. I have read the rules once or twice. Having grown up in the 80’s, Avalon Hill was one of my favorite publishers. My days of numbered paragraphs and dense text are largely past me, though (at least in my games — professional life is a different matter).

I’m not a fan of racing games in general, although I credit Racing Worms for starting my love of board gaming. Chariot racing is appealing, though, for someone with an interest in Roman history, has enjoyed Ben Hur and thinks a little violence makes it more exciting.

Chariots of Rome is a lot of fun. I’m sure that plenty of Circus Maximus fans may miss the greater detail and variety, but I appreciate getting the essential, exciting experience with some streamlined “modern” design. Drawing cards is more elegant than cross referencing a chart and the same deck can replace several tables at once. Drawing a card can be just as exciting as rolling dice.

Having to manage different resources in the form of your speed, endurance, rattle and tactics can be challenging. You have to try to keep in the running and avoid being eliminated! Each driver has a unique ability that you have to maximize on. Every turn there is the chance for random events or bonus resources.

The chain reaction caused by a single swerve result from whipping the competition, in a densely packed curve, can be hilarious and there is genuine enjoyment to be found here.

It’s exactly what I wanted it to be: it balances detail and playability well.

I have a battered old copy of Circus Maximus. When I'm sitting there rolling the dice repeatedly and looking up the tables I think, I wish there was a less boring way to do this, and then my eyeball gets lashed out and my chariot flips and leaves wreckage for another one to jump over and I remember why I didn't get a copy of this one.

It's like you say, I think, if I wasn't aware of that level of thematic detail I reckon Chariots of Rome would probably be something i'd picked up and enjoyed.

mezike wrote: Then we raised Gaslands back from the dead
We've had a Death Race about a dozen or so times now and only once have we actually got past the second gate with two viable competitors still in contention. I've no idea if that means we're doing it wrong or doing it right but we're loving it all the same and this time round was no exception. One day we might actually make it all the way to the finish line.

Sounds like you're having a great time regardless, but there are actually respawning rules using Audience Votes found near the end of the rulebook.

I have about 14 vehicles primed and ready for action, complete with magnetized weapons. Not sure I'll ever use them all, but I like having at least one for each type.

Yeah, thanks for pointing that out. We don’t play it often enough for it to flow smoothly, it’s still all a bit hesitant with lots of referencing back to the rule book, and find the audience rules a bit clunky and overwhelming at the moment. Now that we’ve stopped trying to keep up with the modelling side we might play it more. I’m thinking about making a playmat to make it quicker to get onto the table, plus I’m also looking forward to the reprint which is promised to be better organised and easier to reference. Such a great game.

It's funny that you all are talking about Root and the lizards because we just played a game last night with the updated cat and lizard rules. And lemme tell you, lizards are FANTASTIC now.

They're my wife's favorite faction and it's not particularly close. She loves teleporting around being a nuisance and blockading areas with gardens. Having an easier time drawing cards and flipping the outcast to hated gets them to their mid-game phase much, much quicker. This forces players to fight them, which leads to more acolytes sooner, and that's nothing but good for the lizards. She hit a point in the game that was so explosive that the game looked all but doomed, and had she not overextended with her garden placement (because she wanted to play all 5 rabbit gardens just to prove a point) she would have had it.

Cats feel better for sure now that field hospital doesn't suck, but lizards are dramatically different and it's all for the better. God I love this game.

Warcry is the best skirmish game GW has released (I don't count Shadespire in this category and still think that's more innovative and deeper, however).

I'm sure people around here get sick of hearing Barnes and all of us proclaim the next GW release is the best thing they've ever done, but this thing is much better than Kill Team.

I really wish they'd scrap Kill Team now and give it the Warcry treatment of randomized scenarios, alternating activations, and streamlined gameplay. Hell, you can play this game in 40 minutes!

I also dig how you can see the clear influences from other modern designs, such as the Chaotic Beasts being taken wholly from Frostgrave.

As mentioned previously though, I still think Shadespire is the best thing they've done in the past decade and would not trade it for this. They don't really compete though as Shadespire is all about the deckbuilding and board play. This is a miniatures game with freeform movement and terrain and little to no tinkering between sessions.

Yes, the "this is the best thing they have ever done" line does seem to come out a lot. At this point I think we need a revolving top 10 GW products listing.

hotseatgames wrote: Yes, the "this is the best thing they have ever done" line does seem to come out a lot. At this point I think we need a revolving top 10 GW products listing.

It's most aggravating because, unlike board games, you can't just pivot or play the new one in a super casual way. Kill Team and Warcry require you invest quite a bit of time and money (and likely keep up with future content). Shadespire is a little better, of course, as you can buy the core box and a couple of factions and that's it.

The thing is, GW has been going through a process of iteration and refinement with their designs...so each major release -has- gotten incrementally better. And yes, Warcry is the new crownholder.

But this time, they’ve taken quite a few detours from their standard MO...like single die combat resolution, bringing in the wandering monsters like Charlie mentioned, coming up with a pretty brilliant scenario/deployment generator, and virtually doing away with the need for administration and components except for a handful of tokens and one reference card. This is phenomenal streamlining work, and it is really pretty revolutionary for GW.

It makes Kill Team- which is a great game but a much more cumbersome one- look old fashioned. I have a drawer full of KT cards (tactics, missions, environments, etc.). Warcry doesn’t need any of this. You don’t have to do unit cards or anything like that.

It may actually knock it off my table, and I’m finding myself wondering if I want to continue with Frostgrave too. This is such a lean, sleek game that does everything I want a skirmish to do.

So I don't like these kinds of games. Just not my thing. But a friend of mine who runs a store got a demo copy of Warcry in early and you guys are right: it's rad. So many cool implementation decisions, and yet surprisingly rules light.

Warhammer Underworlds eventually lost me in the torrent of content. As much as I enjoyed it I couldn't keep up, nor keep track of all the cards and tweak decks constantly. Kill Team has no mechanical appeal for me. But Warcry? Warcry is a skirmish game made for humans. It fits on a normal table, it's massively variable, and yet it's shockingly breezy. This is a GW box of plastic I could actually see myself playing more, and maybe even owning.

EDIT: forgot GW games cost their weight in dollar bills. But I will play other people's copies. Game's neat.