Re: What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

hotseatgames wrote:

I did see a table of 8 dudes playing TI3. They all had a million tiny ships in front of them. I wanted to ask them how long they had been sitting there but didn't want to interrupt.

If that was the group in the Board Room that I think you're talking about, it took those gentlemen at least an hour to put that game together.

I'm sure it was. One dude had very long hair. I thought he was a woman before I got closer. :/

Origins was pretty awesome. I created a Geeklist about it on BGG and am not going to rehash all of the boring details, but we had a great time demoing A Fistful of Dinero. I also hung out with Ryan Metzler nearly every day and he was an awesome guy. He threw people towards our table (even told Tom Vasel to check it out) and gave us a shout out over twitter. Also seemed to enjoy the game despite Ameritrash not at all being his thing (maybe he was just being nice).

Also met Stephen Buonocore who was very friendly and a nice guy. Also met the Two Rooms and a Boom guys (Sean and Allen) who were very energetic.

Games, other than AFOD, that I played at Origins:

Innovation - Never played before. Awesome.

Kaosball - Great new game. I almost caved and bought it, but held out as I didn't need another huge game. Really fun and fast though...maybe the best sports game ever created.

Sail to India - Surprised how much I enjoyed this. Going to try and review it soonish.

Terra Mystica - Needs a bit more theme for me.

Forged War - The designer was demoing this. It looked pretty interesting and the theme is kind of there, but the mining mini-game is totally absent of theme and like an intense version of Hey That's My Fish! It's very much a Euro game overall though.

Star Realms - Liked it. Slaughtered my opponents going Blue with some Red for trashing. Need more plays to really know how good it is.

Queen's Gambit - Not new to me but I introduced it to my publisher. He loved it and is trying to track down a copy now.

Evolution - This is the game Ryan Metzler was demoing. It's a Euro with a kind of interesting theme that's somewhat neat. Not my thing though. Game is killing it on Kickstarter though.

The Battle At Kemble's Cascade - This looked awesome. Wish I would have said hi to Zev but he was busy when I walked by Z-Man's booth.

hotseatgames wrote: I'm sure it was. One dude had very long hair. I thought he was a woman before I got closer. :/

To avoid gender confusion at gaming events, there is a simple "smell test" you can conduct.

- If it smells like a combination of a Subway sandwich and ass, it's a dude.
- If it smells like a combination of cheap shampoo and incense, it's a girl.

Charles could you post a link?

Dr. Mabuse wrote: Charles could you post a link?

Sure.

boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/174934/ryan-m...-de-niro-and-origins

I finally got to try the Pathfinder cardgame recently. Six-player game. It was just so-so. The mechanics feel a bit arbitrary and gamey, which undermines the theme. Then we played Buffy the Vampire-Slayer (milton bradley edition). 3-player game, with the second season scenario. The Judge stayed in statue form the whole game, while his vampire minions tried very hard to kill Buffy. Willow managed to rescue Buffy when she was 1 point away from dying. Meanwhile Oz stayed werewolf for a really long time and killed Spike. But Xander was the key to victory. He started with Faith as an ally card, which would have made for a nice surprise if anybody came after him. He also managed to find the statue's arm, the Living Flame ritual to destroy it, and even the rocket launcher that was used in the show to waste the Judge. Xander handed off the arm and the spell to Willow, who cast the spell and nuked the Judge's arm for the win.

Michael Barnes wrote:

To avoid gender confusion at gaming events, there is a simple "smell test" you can conduct.

- If it smells like a combination of a Subway sandwich and ass, it's a dude.
- If it smells like a combination of cheap shampoo and incense, it's a girl.

I must've successfully avoided the worst culprits - I only smelled one gamer, and it was more Unwashed Shirt than eau de Swamp Ass. However, that doesn't count patchouli.

VonTush wrote:

hotseatgames wrote: As a side note, Boss Monster was EVERYWHERE. Tons of places were selling it, and you couldn't throw a rock without hitting someone playing it.

Boss Monster is the bomb. A simple auction game where you want to win the stuff you can kill and send to your opponents the stuff you can't. Fantastic game and I can see why it's everywhere.

This is definitely a "different strokes" issue for me. I played Boss Monster a month ago and thought it the worst game that I'd played in quite a while. I couldn't wait for it to end.

I dunno. Maybe we played it wrong.

Probably not. There's not much to it. Auction mechanics, Randomness and Take That is a combo that isn't for everyone.

It doesn't surprise me that Boss Monster is taking off, especially at the cons. It's what I used to call a "Comic Shop Game". Stick it on the counter in a comic shop, and some guy buying a stack of comics sees it and it's an impulse buy. It's the right combination of things- accessible theme, take that-ish gameplay, fun artwork, low cost.

I liked it and reviewed it favorably, but it definitely has the dreaded mark of Kickstarter. It feels incomplete and underdeveloped. Thing is, it's a great concept and the game looks fantastic- the NES style box was such a good play marketing-wise. I really wish that Z-Man or another real publisher had gotten a hold of it and nurtured it a little more.

The expansion looks like a Gameboy game.

Michael Barnes wrote: I liked it and reviewed it favorably, but it definitely has the dreaded mark of Kickstarter. It feels incomplete and underdeveloped. Thing is, it's a great concept and the game looks fantastic- the NES style box was such a good play marketing-wise. I really wish that Z-Man or another real publisher had gotten a hold of it and nurtured it a little more.

To me, that feeling of falling a little short is part of the charm and what endears me to it. I can't count how many old NES games my friends and I would sit in the basement and play, having a blast for hours on end. Games that share that falling short feeling, that had a better publisher come along it could be much better. That didn't stop us from enjoying the games and enjoying what we were doing. That is what I think draws me to Boss Monster, the fact that it isn't a perfect game.

Now, that's theme.

Played Bison for the first time yesterday. It's a lot like a meatier, heavier Carcassonne. You place a tile and put hunters on it each turn, but you also get 3 other actions. The other actions all boil down to moving your hunters around and building tepees and canoes. Teepees and canoes give you more influence than individual hunters. At the end of a round you score regions much like Carcassonne to get resources, which you can spend in later rounds to get more hunters and upgrade your stuff. Your unused resources carry over from round to round, but the winner is determined only by how many resources you can pull in the final round, so there's no point in conserving your resources for final scoring.

The hunters are Nez Pearce natives and the resources are bison, turkey, and salmon. The theme works well enough. Fits better than Carcassonne anyway.

We used to own a Carc Big Box and used to always mix on expansions when we wanted more to do in the game. Eventually we burned out on the expansion overload and realized at the end of the day Carcassonne is better without the extra stuff added. Well we really liked Bison. It has a bit of a Carcassonne frame with more meat on the bones (and a longer playtime to go with it). It doesn't replace Carcassonne by any means, but it's pretty much exactly what we were looking for when we were flirting with all those Carc expansions.

It's a Kramer game so it isn't a thematic juggernaut, but it is surprisingly interactive and leaves you with some tough decisions.