What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

san il defanso wrote: We introduced our kids to Magical Athlete, and it was a huge hit. Definitely one of the best goof games of all time.

I've had people ask me where they can buy it after I move away. It's very consistently a hit.

I'm having my class play Magical Athlete tomorrow to show them how a roll & move should be done.

engelstein wrote:

san il defanso wrote: We introduced our kids to Magical Athlete, and it was a huge hit. Definitely one of the best goof games of all time.

I've had people ask me where they can buy it after I move away. It's very consistently a hit.

I'm having my class play Magical Athlete tomorrow to show them how a roll & move should be done.

If you are able I'd love to hear a bit on how this goes. It's an interesting game because it's hard for me to explain exactly WHY it works. It just does.

I'd be curious to hear other people's takes on it. I think it largely comes down to there being just enough player agency with abilities without being so deterministic that you can't get excited by the die rolls. Plus power interactions are always entertaining regardless of how well you're doing.

played Root for the first time locally. I've played once before on Vassal and we had one player with experience. we only had 5 present, so we played Eyrie, Marquise, Woodland Alliance, Vagabond, Riverfolk. I was the Riverfolk with the other experienced player the Eyrie.

As the riverfolk, I had a hell of a time convincing people to buy from me, so I had a hard time getting any trade posts out. Once I did get one or two posts out, I probably should have churned cards a bit faster looking for things to craft. I was the only person to attack the vagabond all game, and I tried to steer people to fighting the birds...at all.

The game feels like it wants to set up the bird/cat war as the initial primary actors, and our cat player spent the whole game just getting pushed around by the birds. then they were weak, so the WA setup in their backyard and kicked them around. I tried to convince the cats to buy bird cards from me (for 2....right before I'd go...so literally the only thing I'd gain was a tradepost in their area)...and was always looked down as manipulative. oh well. Heck, one time I had the card cost down to 1...so I'd be losing out on that exchange, but still no go.

Ended up with vagabond winning and the birds a close 2nd. Cats grabbed a dominance card, and had a chance to win in the next round, but only when prodded by other players.

Still, a first game for most, and just feeling out rules and abilities. I wish the Cat player had been alittle more aggressive, and we needed to work on beating down the Vagabond more.

I just realized that I could have built trading posts in areas that I rule. that would have helped.

I look forward to playing a game of Root in which every player fully understands the game dynamics and is on a level playing field, experience-wise.

Never play Riverfolk with a new group. People don't know how to value things, and generally won't interact with you at all, and it's boring as hell. You really only need a couple of folks that understand it and can make use of you to "teach" the rest of the table what they are missing. And having the only experienced player with Eyrie, who *might* want to buy a card from time to time, didn't help. Having the Lizards around can really help the Otters provided they don't get too greedy.

yeah, group dynamics drove it. I didn't want 5 players. I didn't want two vagabonds. I don't know the guy well enough to be comfortable to tell him not to play the eyrie. It was a tossup between riverfolk and lizards, and elsewhere its been recommended to introduce riverfolk ahead of lizards...but that advice may be from before the tweaks. also forgot a couple riverfolk rules that would have made things better.

I'm surprised they didn't at least figure out that hiring mercenaries is awesome.

I've generally found it pretty easy to keep my hand empty as Otters but I push my wares constantly, often on other people's turns if I see a way I can make their lives easier. Only ever had one game where people just straight up wouldn't trade with me after midgame. I went full aggro and lost at 29 points. Love that faction.

How does ROOT work with 3? Could an 8 year old play it with mom and dad, or should I wait until I can start playing with groups of outside adults again?

I'm in kind of a weird spot because the game sounds great, but the game groups I've typically played with tend to churn through more new games than stick with one like this.

Jexik wrote: How does ROOT work with 3? Could an 8 year old play it with mom and dad, or should I wait until I can start playing with groups of outside adults again?

I'm in kind of a weird spot because the game sounds great, but the game groups I've typically played with tend to churn through more new games than stick with one like this.

I think 3 player games with your 8 year-old would be unfulfilling, and I would suggest you try your regular group. As far as the game churn, my group is similar, but Root has made it back to the table with some frequency because the allure of trying a new faction and playing a "different" game.

Just played Tom Lehmann’s new one, Res Arcana. I think it’s really good. It’s quite a unique design. Fundamentally it is an engine/tableau builder, but stripped down. It is not however stripped to the bone like Century or Splendor, and I think it is more engaging and strategic than either of those.

The realy neat thing is that each game you play with a randomly dealt 8 card deck. Not hand, deck. So eventually you get a little Keyforge-y fun in playing the game with a new deck every time. You use cards and actions on cards to make essences and gold. You spend these to build the Artifact cards from your hand or Places of Power and Monuments from common displays. The goal is to generate a 10 point turn.

It feels a little like RFTG and other tableau builders, but it is finely streamlined, reductive, and fast paced.

Really enjoying it, more than expected. It also looks really cool, a classic fantasy look with bonus points for a little much appreciated diversity and representation among the wizards.

Had my first two plays of Western Legends this week, getting it after good reviews here.
The first was a 6-player game with my euro-keen group, it felt like it went a bit too long for the 'short game' with a bit too much downtime - probably due to the player count and possibly with the others looking for optimim moves rather than playing the theme. Most of them liked it, although I think they found it a bit too unstructured and chaotic. I ended up being pipped for the win on a tie-breaker.
The second game was a 4-player with my normal fighty group, this still maybe was a bit long but people were following strategies from the game theme and more points were being scored. I discovered a minor problem with the game that will affect a player's strategy - if you're the only Wanted player in the game then if story cards are being completed frequently (they were in our game) and Manhunt cards are getting played (they were) the wanted player is regularly beaten up by the Sheriff which, because of losing/using cards, then makes them an easy target for Marshal players. The game ended with me a very distant last.
A fun and good game and glad I got it, now waiting for the expansion to arrive later this year.

My fighty group finished with a 4-player game of Warhammer Underworlds. With a massive map and only three rounds you are totally at the mercy of what Objective cards you have drawn, having objectives on the other side of the map in the first round or two is basically an insta-loss. I suppose that's where the deck-building comes into it but I haven' spent any time with the game apart from three filler-game plays so deck-building will have to wait.

4 player 2018 Fireball Island for the first time in a couple months.

I still don't know what to think about it. It's trashy, so yay. But it also takes everyone half a game to get into the swing of it before everyone is on the same page, mechanically. It's simple, but not so simple that you can just jump in after not playing for awhile.

I know the days of cheap boardgames are long gone, but man, this is not worth the 80 bucks. Especially after considering quality control since my copy has white speckles all over it that won't come off, and both bottom boards are heavily warped. Double sided tape is needed to keep it flat to the table. A lot of bits are quite nice, yet there is a distinct flavor of chincy cutting of corners in production.

Honestly, I'd rather play Thunder Road for that cost. It's more honest to what it is trying to accomplish. Just roll some dice, race around, and fuck shit up.

Survive! is still the much better game for the family game night slot with less gimmicks and more acceptable schadenfreude.

I'm just being nit picky though, as we all had fun. It is especially fun during the last third of the game, when the cutthroat nature reveals itself fully.

I still rate it as:
"Glad I own it to play with the kids on family game night. Even more glad I wasn't the one who paid $80+ for it."
Or a 6 on ToS scale.

Went to a game day/mini convention at a church yesterday and played Hellapagos 8 times. Highlights were teaching it to a bunch of 9-10yo kids and watching them replay Lord of the Flies, and teaching it to a guy I know and his 3 sons and watching them turn on each other so fast my head spun. Pretty fun little game, that.

Other highlights were a game of Stephenson's Rocket, which I'm always happy to play. And selling $150 worth of stuff at the flea market.