What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

I was introduced to Dreamblade over the weekend. Generally speaking I love skirmish board games (as in games where you don't have to measure) and this is/was a really good one. Far as I can tell the business model was just never going to make Wizards money, which is a shame because I would have gone in on this if I knew it existed at the time. As it stands I've got a friend who owns loads of it so I'll probably give it another go soonish.

Played a short learning session of Xia. Cindy, predictably, adored it. It's everything I hoped it would be so far. The ice damage was absolutely relentless and it made being a merchant a massive pain in the ass, so I had to resort to Crimes. Crimes were profitable. Crimes allowed me to live the rich space playboy lifestyle. Crimes are the best.

Being a criminal in Xia without NPCs seems really easy. You only need to outrun your friends, and there's a very good chance that they're just too busy to deal with your bullshit. That said, they actually just helped me keep pace with her as she explored all over the place and got famous that way. If I hadn't gone smuggler I would have been left behind.

Xia is rad. Will play more ASAP.

Dreamblade is awesome and well appreciated around here. I got into a couple of years ago (half of my stuff was bought from someone on here) and a buddy enjoyed it so much he ebayed a collection of minis. Wonderful game.

let's see, let's see...this weekend was:

Yellow & Yangtze - teaching this at Conn Con so wanted some practice with it. My first time playing with only 2 and it worked fine. T&E is still slightly better, I think, but don't sleep on this one.

Trade on the Tigris - my friend is teaching this at Conn Con, so same deal. Really great negotiation game that just may deliver better, faster, and smaller, than Sidereal Confluence.

Gargon - Old semiunkown card game that I hadn't played since 2010. Nice and thinky.

American Rails - Extremely distilled trains-and-stocks game that really cuts to the essence without sacrificing any of the experience. Mini Rails got a lot of hype, but this, while not mini, is just plain better.

Yesterday I took the eldest kids (6,5 and 10) to a board game café in Copenhagen. The goal was to playtest a prototype of mine, but also to catch some other games and hang out.

We began with the release of Copenhagen. It's a Tetris-like game about building facades on buildings in the part of Copenhagen called Nyhavn (new harbour) and it looks very pretty. It's also very much a German game and I would be suprised if it's not on the short liste for Spiel des Jahres nominees. Every turn you can either take two cards from the offer of seven cards or play cards from your hand to gain tetris pieces in matching colours. The different suits have different shapes, and you want to finish rows or columns - preferably with windows on all spaces which will give you a bonus. In addition you can gain bonus actions by covering certain spaces on your building and by completing certain rows. It's very easy to get, but it seemed like it still has a lot going for it when it comes to strategy. And while you can't mess directly with other players, you can take the cards or even the pieces you know they might be after. It isn't really my preferred kind of game, but I had fun and again, it looked pretty. Also, in full disclosure, I know both of the designers.

Then we played some games of my new prototype called Monster! Monster! It's a quick two player card game about monsters trying to capture humans and luckily the tests didn't reveal any problems. I haven't worked on the game for many months, but it just clicked pretty easily and has only required minor adjustments despite pretty extensive testing. Hopefully I'll kickstart it (in Danish) very soon.

We then played Happy Pigs which both kids liked. It's an economic game about pig farming from Iello, and it seems charming enough. I do think, however, that an adult can crush a kid, so I don't know how great a family game it is. But maybe that's just something I tell myself because the 10-year-old ended up winning.

We closed the afternoon with another game of Copenhagen and a game of King of Tokyo. I managed to stay a few rounds in Tokyo and had a card that game me extra points. So I was close to a victory. But we had to catch a train, and also winning by points is boring, so I went for an all out attack. I needed four claws to kill both of the kids, but only rolled three - making it easy for the 10-year-old to finish me off for another win.

Played two intro games of Neuroshima Hex. We stuck to the main box factions, since my opponent had never played with the hex people before. He wanted to follow the guidelines and try Borgo first and suggested that I play Moloch, in a mutants vs their creators scenario. I was wincing in anticipation, since I don't think the matchup is very good for Borgo, but he was all about it. So, we played. Moloch crushed the puny mutants, 16-6. I put a couple good shooting nests together, including one with the Gauss Cannon, and also drew my Push Backs at key moments to break up any of his threatening formations. As with many games against Borgo, it was cool seeing him get hits in Initiative phases 6 and 5... except that those single shots couldn't get through my armor or get followed up to finish off my Toughness. Victory for the machines.

Then we did Outpost vs Hegemony, in a much better matchup. He took the Hedge (I've never quite understood the use of a term for organized political power for a collection of Max Max-style gangs) and did well with them. But luck of the tile draw stalled him. I think, because he drew 3 of his 5 Battle tokens in the first two turns, when they simply weren't useful. That led to a lot of "If I draw a Battle token, this'll be GREAT!" turns and we almost ended up fighting because of a full board. He made good use of his Net fighters, but his modules mostly just got in the way of his melee guys. I got a couple Commandos down that he simply couldn't get rid of and they took potshots on his HQ for a couple turns before he was able to move it. I ended up winning 18-15.

He's determined to try Borgo again, so I told him next time maybe I'll play something more challenging, like Neojungle.

Hegemony 4 Life

Yeah, I like Hegemony. They're probably my favorite among the original factions, if not a close second to Moloch. Still think my all-time favorite is either SMART or Sharrash (Skaven!), although a couple years ago I was playing mostly Mephisto.

That's a really weird way to spell Steel Police.

NH is such an amazing game. Glad folks are still playing it. Makes me wonder if Monolith Arena is any good, but I just don't like the setting nearly as much.

I have Monolith Arena. If you like NH, you like Monolith Arena. I actually haven't tried the single new mechanic, which are the monoliths themselves. Haven't had enough of an opportunity to play it yet.

The production puts NH to shame.

Instead of going for Cthulhu Wars with some of the new stuff (that's for next week), we opted to split our five person group in two. Three people played Terra Mystica while I hit up Mech Command RTS and Claustrophobia 1643 with my brother.

Mech Command was much better the second game. It felt like we shed the tutorial aspect of the game and were playing the real deal with support units and a bit more varied loadouts. I went melee on one arm of my mech and a heavy blaster cannon the other. Coupled this with two boosters and the basic shield which was efficient.

My build was interesting and it felt great blowing holes in my opponent with the big cannon, but it was overall not very effective. The slow cooldown on my blaster meant it was tied up for multiple turns leaving me with only my blade.

Melee is actually very strong (very good damage for the energy requirement), but the overall I couldn't output enough attacks due to my big gun to take out the support units in the scenario.

My brother fielded a faster mech with a melee blade and smaller cannon that could fire more rapidly. I never died (he did near end game) but he was much better at taking out my support units and denying me access to the objectives.

The real two player game has players fielding two mechs a piece, but we avoided this as it was his first game. I'm looking forward to playing it again as there was much more strategy and tense decision making in this one.

Claustrophobia was great as expected. The first scenario again and he won as the good guys. There was a key couple of turns where he dropped my Hellhound and evaded my Demon, making good use of the new Insight cards. The annoyances of the new version faded a bit with my second play, mostly because I didn't have to relearn the iconography and was better prepared overall. It still is a bigger table hog and took a bit longer to setup than classic Claustro.

We also played a five player game of Hellapagos which went very well. I gave my brother the filthy water who promised to use a match and then consume it for the group, but he reneged after I gave him the bottle. We voted for him and forced him to use it at least. I also played a water bottle on another player to save them. Mother fuckers killed me anyway later (it was a tie and the leader chose me).

This game was notable for there being three 0 water weather cards the first three turns. It was brutal. Some bullets were later traded and two people were murdered in the final round with a single person successfully escaping. Two new players and they both really enjoyed it.

We pulled out Code 777 for the final five player game. I remembered not liking this too much several years ago but couldn't remember why. Well, that's not only true but I may even like it less now. I dig deduction games, but I really hate the brainwork and note taking required of this one. It felt like work and was very little fun. I think the note taking sheets partially are to blame (not being color coded). Would much rather have played Treasure Island.

Closed out with two three player games of Animals On Board, one of our favorites for this type of slot and one we hadn't played in a year or two. Still a big fan of this one.

I've been having a terrible time with Hellapagos. My main group just doesn't get it, so I think I'll have to play it elsewhere.

We played with seven last week (is that too many?), and as always, they all want to make it a co-op game where everyone survives. I keep trying to convince them that the sooner we kill someone, the fewer resources we'll need and the more likely the rest of us will survive. Of course, that just paints me as a murderous bad guy.

I had a gun, but no bullet. I asked the guy next to me for help, but he had nothing. The girl on the other side had collected a lot of stuff. I probably should have dealt with her, but from past experience I knew she wouldn't team up. Eventually I found a bullet, so I shot her and took her stuff. There was much outcry, but I stuck to my guns-- we can't all survive!

Well, someone else immediately revives her and then another person shoots me. I'm actually fine with being shot (they all expected me to whine about it). No one forms alliances. No one double-crosses anyone. They all try to gather food and water and wood. Then the hurricane comes and they all die because there was no way they could gather enough food and water.

I actually love the game, but I just can't play it with these people anymore. I need some hard-core ATers in my life that don't get bent out of shape when someone kills you in a 20 minute game.

Survival of the Trashiest, yo. I just snagged a copy of this. I can already predict who among my group is going to love it and who it's going to leave stone cold.

I have never seen more than 3 people make it off the island. I hope I never do.

I think 7 is great. It plays decent with a lower count, but it's better with more in my opinion.

I have not seen more than 3 people win as well, although a single winner is the most common result I've witnessed.

We had five survive last week which is the most I've seen, three or one seem to be the most common endings. Our groups are usually between five and eight players.

I'm sure you're playing it right but just to check (especially as some rules are fairly well hidden), when the hurricane comes and you have to leave the Island you go through the voting process the same as the end of day. So long as there is at least one card each providing water and food then someone will absolutely get off the island, most likely alone. You have to make a really spectacular mess of things not to have at least one person on the raft (which has also happened to us before). One or two games ending with a sole survivor will make the penny drop.

I feel like I should say Thank You again to KingPut for introducing us to this game