What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

I played my first game of Cosmic Frog a couple of days ago, and I've been playing it in my head ever since. I waited for five months for a copy to go on sale at my favorite online game store, then grabbed it at a discount. A couple of weeks ago I had my first face-to-face (masked) game day and played Spirit Island, which was enjoyable, but I think my enthusiasm came more from hanging out face to face with gamers. So back to the frog--we went through all the five stages of Frog that everyone here describes:

1. Ooooh, cool minis!
2. Let's beat each other up!
3. This game is kind of random
4. I looks like there are ways to mitigate the randomness
5. Wow, the tile vault is its own game

I played with my buddy the creative writing teacher and his brother, the tv producer. They had been playing a DnD campaign weekly all during the pandemic, and are fun gamers. My son Joey had read the rules 20 minutes before we started because even after two reads I was iffy on some parts. Some thoughts:

1. The outer limits are important. We didn't read the rules closely about the OL, and quickly realized that players exit with their stored up action cards and recovered oomph and can wreak havoc. So when you leave the outer limits do you play your stored two action cards in a row, and can you oomph two additional actions at that point, for four actions?


Edit:

From page 11

You must use all the set aside action cards you have by taking one action per card at the end of the turn in which you return to Dimension Zero (place each card in the discard pile as you take the action). You may not take extra actions following actions taken using these cards. After you have used all your set aside action cards, play resumes using the Action Deck.

If you returned from the Outer Dimensions on your turn by way of a die roll, you may spend 2 oomph to take an extra action before you take any required actions using your set aside action cards.

2. I ended the game when we picked the last land tile, not realizing that we got to go through the remaining action cards. It was getting late (for us) so we probably couldn't have stayed longer

3. As noted here and elsewhere, even scoring your vault tiles is its own little mini-game.

4. Siphon engines are huge, but I wonder if it's possible to over-siphon, a point at which they produce diminishing returns

I saw the call for playtesters here and I'm really glad I didn't participate because it would have robbed me of the joy of playing this for the first time.

I had to carefully explain to the DnD players at the end of the game that this is sort of a boutique game that isn't going to show up at the local FLGS's which are kind of DnD/Magic dens that buy a lot of 6.3 "fun" games with catchy art and cute themes but aren't that compelling. I hesitate to call it a gamer's game because I think it has broader appeal than that, although it has too many moving parts to ever show up at Target.

Cosmic Frog has amazing art and is really fun. I like to think that Jim Fellini finished Zimby Mojo, evaluated its strengths and weaknesses, started microdosing mushrooms, and then got to work on Cosmic Frog.

I went all in on Iron Helm myself...it’s in the production queue or whatever, I’m really looking forward to it.

Played Anachrony with the Pioneers of New Earth expansion...it’s really cool, adds a kind of adventure element to it. You can enhance your Exoauuts on a new board and then send someone out for an encounter. There is some risk if you get a selection of adventure choices with high values and you aren’t tooled up enough you don’t get the big rewards. The encounters are all neat stuff with evocative titles that adds to the world building. Adds 0 minutes to playtime.

Too Many Bones is seeing regular table time. It’s a really great game...unlike a lot of modern designs, there’s always something new to explore or a unique situation to overcome. It’s funny because the variety and dynamism is really more in the characters and their skills than in the Encounter cards. The same encounter plays out differently with Ghillie and Boomer than it does with Picket and Stanza. The tactical game is really more interesting than Gloomhaven as it’s more constrained and less superfluous- the tight, fixed grid cuts down on crufty non-options. I got Undertow and it is definitely something of an “advanced game” expansion, the two characters there are more complicated. Stanza, the Bard, is really cool though- you have to choose, play and maintain her songs during the battle and they have some neat effects like charming enemies to do your bidding. Ghillie is another favorite, he’s got traps he can set and a choice of animal companions...along with some wicked bow skill options.

I would -not- recommend Undertow as a lower cost alternative to start with even though it is standalone.

Got a Veilwraith in from Tristan Hall. I played the first game totally wrong, misreading the two pages of rules. I was kind of afraid I might be sending a “decline to review” letter. But I was doing something critically wrong that totally changed the game. With the correction the game was much more challenging and puzzly, and I enjoyed a second and third outing. It’s a solo thing with a light campaign, I can see playing through it especially if the “vignettes” get tougher. It’s all monochrome black metal aesthetic so of course I like that. It’s simpler and easier to table than Marvel Champions, but it’s certainly not as dynamic or rich.

Michael Barnes wrote: I went all in on Iron Helm myself...it’s in the production queue or whatever, I’m really looking forward to it.

I almost went all-in but I'm not usually a fan of campaign stuff so I'm testing the waters with a pack of each level. Be warned the rulebook is really bad. I was able to learn the basics off it but there was stuff I missed until I read a player aid later.

More Iron Helm and tonight I won. I made it into room 4 before a plot card triggered the boss. Randomly the same boss and I was the same character as last time but knowing the game better I was successfully maxed out with cool gear and had a few resources still. I had the axe as my weapon and had just learned the Berserk skill that also adds +5 to a thrown axe. Because I only had the energy for one 2d6 attack I knew I'd have to throw my axe and only weapon at it. Throwing the axe does 3d6 damage and attacking without energy (or a weapon after throwing) would be only 1 damage. I was ignoring most of its damage and my first attack went well. Then as predicted all I had left was to throw my axe at it and I rolled well enough to not need the +5 but it still felt really good picturing that overkill of an axe splitting a beholder in half.
So when the game was over I thought "would I continue into a campaign?" and I'm still not sure. I did have probably the best armor, best shield, and actually got an Ice Axe weapon in the boss loot so I didn't even need a new axe. I checked my score in the back of the rulebook. I had 31 points and felt I did well. 31 points is the minimum to get above retiring in poverty. I had a nice but cheap cottage for my penny-pinching retirement. I'm guessing I need to campaign to increase my score and retire with a fortress to protect all my riches.

More Puzzle Dungeon too. Having the monsters pre-grouped in the box means I just grab a random hero, the monster group for it, and the playing cards. Then just deal out the setup and play. The text on some of the cards could be clearer but I'm good at interpreting what seems to work for the game rather than just what helps me. The quick playtime and low rules overhead will keep this off my shelf.

Made a very long trek (nine hours each way) to have an extended board game weekend with old friends.

In Vino Morte. A very fun wallet game, picked up due to Vysetron's praises of it. It's basically the Princess Bride wine scene: the dealer hands out cards, face down, to each player. Cards are either wine or poison. There has to be at least one wine and at least one poison handed out. Then, clockwise from the dealer, every person must either drink (flip their card face up) or swap with another face down card. Once everyone except the dealer has taken a turn, any remaining face down cards are flipped. If you drank poison, you're out. Pass dealer to the left; continue until there's only one survivor. Dead simple, plays fast. You could play with standard cards (red = wine, black = poison) but the little pack is fun and has nice art.

Sub Terra. Continues to deliver. I got separated from the rest of the cavers. They found the exit, I died screaming and alone in the dark.

Just One. A lovely party game, played twice. A friend ordered it immediately after the first game, which continues my streak of people buying the game after playing it.

Rallyman GT. I've been playing with this group on BGA but for some reason it wasn't clicking with them. So we played in person and I was able to teach more effectively. I came in second.

ALIEN, the RPG. Played the Chariots of the Gods scenario from the starter set. Pre-gen characters with secret agendas to hand out at the beginning of each of three acts. The plot has the PCs as long-haul space truckers (a la the crew from the first movie). MU/TH/UR drops them out of FTL and wakes them from cryosleep in response to detecting a distress signal in deep interstellar space. It's a derelict ship that's been missing for 75 years. MU/TH/UR reminds the crew that failure to investigate salvage will result in nonpayment for their current job, so the PCs investigate. Does everything go to hell, or will the PCs come out the other side intact? No points for guessing correctly.



The system is the same core as Fria Ligan's other games (assemble a pool of d6s, roll and get at least one six). But you get stress points for a variety of things, including but not limited to: Get attacked by an unknown creature, or by a crewmate. Discover someone is an android. Run low on air, food, or water. And my favorite: a scientist in your group fails a skill check to analyze something weird. "What do you mean you don't know what that thing is, man?"

For every point of stress, you roll a stress die, which are like regular dice but they have a little facehugger on the 1-side. If you get any facehuggers you roll for Panic: 1d6 plus your current stress points. Panic can result in nothing, tremors, screaming, catatonia, and lots of in-between things. Amusingly, some panic results can cause PCs to gain stress points or roll for panic themselves. A little bit of stress is good, because it's another die that can come up a six, so your odds of succeeding go up ("stay frosty"). But the more you get, the more you're likely to get a one, and flip the fuck out. Stress goes away at one per ten minutes of uneventful rest, but it can build quickly and cascade. It's the killer app of the game and does a fantastic job at replicating the feel of the movies.

A++ game. It went a little long, despite me trimming out almost every optional event in the scenario. About 7 hours, although we took breaks.

Decrypto. A fun team game, tangentially in the same family as Just One and Codenames. You're trying to give hints to your own team, while not giving away too much about your position to the other team.

Alien RPG makes me want to throw all “hidden traitor” board games in the garbage. I’ve done that adventure twice and it’s has been an absolute blast. It can be done in 5-6 hours if you keep everyone moving. But if you let it breathe and bring in the pirates and al that it can turn into a wonderful shitshow.

It’s really good for VTT play- it turns into a flurry of hidden messages and players sneaking around to complete their objectives...probably my favorite thing that happened was when the Android player in one game got a massive neck wound from a Xeno while he was still concealed...he played right into it and managed to avoid being around anyone else and wound up the sole survivor. The other game I had a single player get off the ship with had of Eva-6.

Seriously, why bother with Nemesis, this is the real deal. The cinematic mode is just outstanding, very excited to get Destroyer of Worlds going some time.

My sister and her bf came to stay for the weekend so we got some solid game time in. They had Villainous with them but as none of us had played it in over a year and couldn't remember the rules we decided to go for some old favourites that we could just dive into with no fuss after the kids were in bed.

First up was oldie Lords of Waterdeep. I have the expansion but we left that on the shelf. I'd forgotten what a fun game it is. Playing it again after a 6-7 year hiatus it was easy to see why it was so popular when it came out. It sets up quick, plays quick and has enough crunch and potential-to-go-wrong that it feels satisfying when you pull off your plans. The game results were all close which made scoring quite tense.
I haven't really kept up with where light-euro's are at these days but I can confidently say that this one is still great fun. I enjoy the D&D theme as opposed to farming or shipping or whatever. My Lord was trying to accomplish Skullduggery and Warfare quests so I was playing lots of Intrigue cards that had suitably underhanded names like Ambush, Crime Wave etc. I'm not going to argue it's the deepest implementation of theme and mechanics you can get on your table but there is a light yet tasty sprinkling of flavour there. We played a game both nights they were here.

Next up each night was oldie Dominion. This had also been sitting on the shelf for about 6-7 years and, again, it was cool to see how much fun it still is to play. Back in the day I'd made a 'travel kit' of about 20 sets and all the money and VP cards etc to take on holidays with me. I remembered this as a mix of the Intrigue expansion and Core box cards but it turned out they were all from the Intrigue expansion.
If you cast your mind back you'll recall that Intrigue added a few 'take that' and attack cards to the game. Even though I have a folder filled with 5 or 6 expansions we left that on the shelf and just kept randomising from the different sets I had in the travel kit.
Playing it after all this time it was obvious to see why it took the gaming world by storm when it was released. We played 4 games each night, had a lot of fun and would have played more if the late hour hadn't stopped us.
I know the Deckbuilding genre has evolved tremendously but I think there's still a spot for dusty old Dominion, especially as a gateway. Theme is minimal to non-existent yes, and oh boy do the back of the cards hurt your eyes.... but the gameplay is quick and the fun of it just sucks you in. I'm not going to buy any more sets, or entertain the 2.0 version, but I'm definitely keen to play what I already have a lot more.

We also played King of Tokyo with the kids in the afternoon. The 3-year old rolled my dice for me while the 6-year old not only held her own but won each of the three games we played. Her most memorable win being when she was in Tokyo and ended her turn with six attack claws to straight-up destroy every other monster at the table in one monster hit. Very funny and a solid victory.

We also played a game of Uno Jr. and all lost to the 3-year-old. Kid's a card shark already...

I think Dominion remains the best game in the genre it created. Having purchases and actions as different resources and the timing elements introduced by VP cards make the whole process much more interesting. And I agree with the designer that a fixed market is much better than a random one.

My parents visited this weekend, and one night I talked my dad (age 72) into trying Pax Pamir. In his career as an English professor he specialized in the Victorian era, so it was in his wheelhouse. He got the hang of it pretty quick, I have to say--we were able to play through 3 dominance checks before it got too late and we called it, but he was actually ahead at the time!

CranBerries wrote: 4. Siphon engines are huge, but I wonder if it's possible to over-siphon, a point at which they produce diminishing returns.

In my opinion, making more than 2 is a waste of time. Not only does it mean you probably aren't maximizing points in the vault, but it also BEGS someone to come fuck them up. I personally only make one.

Other tips:
1. ALWAYS pay 2 Oomph to take a second action, unless you have a good reason to not do so. Doing this, combined with the RECOVER action to get it back, will give you a lot more actions over the course of the game.

2. It's cheaper, action-wise, to steal lands out of another frog's mouth than to HARVEST them yourself.

I finally got to play Bullet face to face with people, and using the real time rules. It's so good that way! It starts breezy, with everyone saying "3 minutes seems like plenty of time!", Then 6 rounds later you're staring down 25-30 incoming bullets and the real time aspect comes into SHARP relief.

Erik Twice wrote: I think Dominion remains the best game in the genre it created. Having purchases and actions as different resources and the timing elements introduced by VP cards make the whole process much more interesting. And I agree with the designer that a fixed market is much better than a random one.

I agree 100%. I like Sirlin’s Puzzle Strike too because it keeps the formula intact. My guess is that Ascension style deckbuilders are cheaper to produce.

Trains and Aeons End are my favorite fixed market deckbuilders, but I never did play a lot of Dominion. I had the base set for a while and saw that it was good, but didn't want to buy a bunch of expansions for it. I wasnt gaming when it came out originally, so I missed the big "let's play a million games of Dominion" phase a lot of people had.

That and RftG definitely got a lot of playing time with us in the late 00’s early 10’s.

I wrote reviews of the early Dominion expansions over on BGG if you look around.

Jexik wrote: I agree 100%. I like Sirlin’s Puzzle Strike too because it keeps the formula intact. My guess is that Ascension style deckbuilders are cheaper to produce.

I would love to play Puzzle Strike but I haven't found a copy around and I heard Sirlin is releasing a new edition sometime next year.

It has been on my wishlist for years and years