- Posts: 1773
- Thank you received: 2444
Bugs: Recent Topics Paging, Uploading Images & Preview (11 Dec 2020)
Recent Topics paging, uploading images and preview bugs require a patch which has not yet been released.
Please consider adding your quick impressions and your rating to the game entry in our Board Game Directory after you post your thoughts so others can find them!
Please start new threads in the appropriate category for mini-session reports, discussions of specific games or other discussion starting posts.
What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- Erik Twice
- Offline
- D8
- Needs explosions
- Posts: 2300
- Thank you received: 2650
I got both 1856 and 1870 on my birthday last year and I've played them 3 and 2 times, respectively. So I'm actually playing them, even if it's not as much as I would like to.
Legend of the Five Rings is improving with repeated play. The game is more fun when you know how to play it decently and the three expansions released since I started playing have both opened the game and helped balance the factions. They have also introduced power level errata on a couple cards, which I think is cowardly and awful, but will benefit the game more than inaction. I just wish the "mainstream gaming community" didn't have such strong prejudices towards banning cards, because it's clear that it influences FFG decisions even when the game in question has little mainstream appeal.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- Legomancer
- Offline
- D10
- Dave Lartigue
- Posts: 2944
- Thank you received: 3873
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
Legomancer wrote: Played 51st State: Master Set last night and got dang I love this game. My fave tableau/engine builder. My pal Tim had an insane Deals engine going, which I was trying to do, but as Texas, I was hampered (the other three players were new, so I played Texas to hobble myself). I still prefer the older New Era version with Winter, but this one still rocks, and I'm psyched about the new expansion.
Is Texas that bad? Their conversion math seemed iffy and having a person as their extra resource is weak, but I've only played them once so I'm not sure.
Either way, 51st State is -the- convert-stuff-into-stuff-into-points tableau builder. It's got interactivity, it's got an amazing look, it's great. Accept no substitutes.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- Legomancer
- Offline
- D10
- Dave Lartigue
- Posts: 2944
- Thank you received: 3873
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
Orongo - Knizia auction game from 2014. It's a race to play Moais on the map. Do well in a closed-bid auction to claim spots on the map, if you connect the right spots you place a Moai. Currency leaves the game because it's used to mark your claimed/used spots on the map. So it's all about the auction. Seems like its best to get 2nd a lot, because you get your bid back and often placing your tokens 2nd is fine. It's maybe a 45 minute game tops, so worth some repeated plays to explore the auction, but not sure it's better than, say, any of his classic auction games. It feels like the kind of game that would have been a decent success in the pre-cube converter days of euros.
Yellow & Yangtze - The Tigris & Euphrates re-implementation. So, I rate T&E a 10 and have long considered it the best euro - there's just so much game in the hour it's on the table. I'm 3 plays in on Y&Y and am pretty sure it's a better game. I don't know if it's different enough for people that don't like T&E to take a 2nd look. Not sure what else to say. It's obviously the game of the decade.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- Sagrilarus
- Away
- D20
- Pull the Goalie
- Posts: 8739
- Thank you received: 7353
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- hotseatgames
- Away
- D12
- Posts: 7177
- Thank you received: 6293
Anyway, I wound up with 6 total players, and one of them was a first timer so I was not about to have people sit and watch.
We started with The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31. Six players is the ideal number for this game, in my opinion. Unfortunately for the Thing in this case, the Infected member was outed fairly early. He had to sit on his hands for a few turns. Unfortunately for us humans, we bungled the missions and the combat so poorly that we ended up losing before making it to stage 2! Not the greatest session of The Thing, but it was still fun.
Next up was Hellapagos. Three players were new. Rules are easy, this game is easy to teach, and we were off. I gave a bullet to a gun holder, on the condition that he shoot a particular person. The motherfucker shot me instead. Some other chicanery involved another person getting shot, and then one person starving to death, and yet another victim of gun violence. Two people sailed off to freedom. Dicks.
We ended the night with a risky game... Duhr: The Lesser Houses, by my good friend Jim Felli. I don't consider this game easy to teach. There are a lot of conditions and game states that need to be understood. I took it in phases and decided to not fully explain what happens when someone is vilified or disfavored until it was actually about to happen. I think this proved to be the way to go; this game was a HIT. We had so much dealing, back-stabbing, trade agreements, etc. It was awesome and everyone was laughing. Hellapagos was fun, but I think this was the star of the show tonight. Highly recommended if you have the right group. I might suggest that the way to play this game with new people is to explain at the outset that you will play one game as a learning game. Fully grasping it can be difficult, but once everyone understands, the gloves will come off and it gets brutal. Great stuff. Honestly, I like Bemused too, but I don't think I'd bring out Bemused now that I also have Duhr. Bemused is simpler, but Duhr delivers more moments since it has the addition of event cards.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
This game has made me interested in playing the Arkham Horror LCG with this group. If anyone is burning out on their copy and looking to sell, please let me know. The Dunwitch cycle is between printings and hard to find.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- Posts: 1728
- Thank you received: 771
Ares Project - Still ace. My opponent played a rule wrong as the space wizard people. I was marines twice, first time I carpet bombed him to oblivion and quite liked my strategy, all in on airforce. The second game i was rubbish but still won because of the rules error.
Brass Birmingham - The reprint and new map for this have given it a sort of renaissance. I love it, a good balance of route building and industry development but I am surprised the modern lovers of shorter games with 'elegant' mechanics like it, because this is neither. It does however have more artistic vision and commitment to its conceit than the average euro.
Sakura - A Knizia riff with programmed movement and hand management. This is ace, and very simple. You conga line behind the emperor trying to be in the best position when he hits a scoring spot. Game play is trying to move yourself and the emperor with cards with turn order mis-calculations throwing your plans into chaos.
Rail Road Ink - quite satisfying roll and write game. Building a network is far more interesting than playing with numbers or filling boxes that most roll and writes work on.
Dice Hospital - I won this by going all in on red dice. I tend to dislike games when maxing out on X is a good strategy. Running a hospital is good fun and this game is sort of convincing but I wonder whether there is much under the cute hood.
Pandemic Fall of Rome - Better than Pandemic, as is every Pandemic variant, it has dice combat and vestal virgins.
City Council - Semi coop that i found more interesting about 5 years ago.
V- Commandos - This sucked. The idea is a good one, create the Commandos video game series as a coop game. The main issue is the stealth system generates zero tension. Its very simple and playable but feels completely arbitrary. In simple terms if you move slow on small board bits you stay stealth, if you move fast or enter a bit board bit, you get seen, period. Enemies walk in random card driven directions leading to occasional disappointment.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
Root - new players played the Eyrie and the Marquise. I had the Woodland Alliance and my wife picked River Company. The Cats made a major move against the Eyrie that really set the tone for most of the game. She built in the one clearing that the eyrie needed to build in. The birds came in and tried to fight, but didn't do enough damage to clear the build spot. So they collapsed fairly early and never really threatened the Cats militarily again. Before this, I had placed my first WA support in the corner farthest away from the cats industrial base(3/4 woodmills clustered in the corner)....so it took me forever to work my way close enough to threaten those woodmills.
The River company? flush with cash. just sat back, drew cards, crafted and spent other people's people like it was nothing. The eyrie really had a rough time of planning, so kept spending on the cards. The cats did to, just to grab those bird card from the River company.
So, before we knew it, the Cats were up in the 20+ pt range, with the rest of use down in the ~10s. that stirred everyone up, and we convinced the River Company to rise up and use their greater mobility to strike at that industrial base. Which they were glad to, for a price. So a grand alliance between the 3 other factions rose up to strike down the Cats. We stopped them at 28 pts. and lost to the River Company, who by that time could craft as they willed and had built all their trading posts.
Villainous - Prince John, Ursula, Jafar, Maleficent.
Game started fairly slow, as we all just felt out what we needed to do. then each person would realize that they were relatively close to finishing (John was easiest to see this) and just dumped on by 'fate' attacks. sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn't....Maleficent ended up winning, after fighting through two rounds of everyone else dumping fate attacks on her.
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.
Glory to Rome -
I finally won this. its been 10 years! I had to win on Tie breaker, since I "thought" on my last turn. I always love GTR.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- hotseatgames
- Away
- D12
- Posts: 7177
- Thank you received: 6293
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.