What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

Jexik wrote:
Meanwhile, even people at adjacent tables are commenting that it’s a “great game.” And today I’m still grumpy about going out for 3 hours to play this thing.

I know I'm late, preaching to the converted, and not saying anything new anyway, but, really, it really is a different hobby from whatever my hobby is sometimes, the differences are so stark. "Great game". i can hear the hushed tone. I get it, but like I said - different hobby from mine!

An old friend is in town for a few days to demo his soon to be published game Epic Wars Confrontation. So I went to the local game shop to give it a try. The game is for 2 to 6 players, and takes about a half hour for six players. We played a six-player grand melee, with everybody against everybody.

Each player gets a hero and two other cards that start in play. The hero starts with somewhere from 15 to 20 hit points. Starting hand size is two cards, and you draw one card at the start of each turn. Each card in play can be tapped to play a resource, and cards cost between 1 to 5 resources to play. You also tap cards for actions or action modifiers. Some cards are allies who can attack or block attacks. Most attacks can be opposed with a defense, and each is typically a d6 roll added to a stat.

I played an elven archer. The other heroes were a paladin, a ninja, a fire mage, a warlock, and a druid. I tended to spend most of my turns just putting more cards into play, followed by an ineffectual attack. Meanwhile, the paladin and the druid hammered on each other, while the ninja and the warlock battled. The fire mage got me once really good with a fireball, also peppered other players equally. Finally, I went on the attack once I got a card that allowed me 1d6+1 arrow attacks. I rolled a 7, and hit everybody with 1 attack except the druid who whacked me on the previous round got 3 arrows.

It was a gamble based on my read of the table and my past experience in comparable games. I might have just pissed everybody off and ensured my destruction. Or the damage that I did might have encouraged people to go for the kill against their worst enemies at the table. Fortunately, that is what happened. The fire mage killed the druid, then the warlock finished off the fire mage. My turn came around again and I rolled and got 6 arrow attacks, plus 3 other attacks from tapping other cards. I killed the ninja and badly injured both the paladin and the warlock. Amazingly, they went after each other even though the warlock proposed an alliance against me. They wounded but didn't kill each other and I killed them both on my next turn.

Epic Wars Confrontation is an okay filler game with a definite ameritrash approach. The artwork is normal board/card game quality. The hit point trackers are decent, like Marvel Champions hit point trackers on a diet. Each player gets a custom die for their deck, but some color combinations were easier to read across the table than others.

I played Foundations of Rome, which is an overproduced monster (22 lbs!) of a game with a bunch of plastic buildings. Looks pretty cool on the table when everything's built, I have to admit.

But it's a dirt-simple game. There is a grid of spaces, and a card for each space. On your turn you either build/upgrade a building on your owned spaces, buy a space, or get money. That's literally it. At three points you score. Buildings produce money, VPs, or population (a way to get a bunch of VPs when scoring). The minis are packed so that each player has their own tray with all their buildings in it, so setup and takedown is very fast. Which is good, because this is a quick game without much meat on it. We played with the optional player powers, which were obscenely imbalanced, with some being pretty worthless and one being well OP.

It's a pretty game, but in my opinion not worth the KS cost or shelf space. The bling is pretty much all it has going for it; without that there isn't much reason to play it.

Oh, and it has metal coins because of course it does.

My wife and I finished our fourth Talisman game. Gordo the Gladiator (my wife) certainly seemed to have the edge after Dennis De Young Dark Cultist died, but then Dennis De Older Evil Wizard picked up the mantle, attracted as many as seven followers at one time, *ahem* exchanged most of them for gold, bought some nice stuff in the City, actually won in the Dungeon, ended up in the Middle Region after the fight, entered the Inner Region, and discarded a Dungeon treasure to teleport to the Crown of Command.

There are certainly "better" games, even "better" adventure games, but I think this is the adventure game I've enjoyed best.

I bought Tiny Epic Dungeons last week - partially because of the praise Jackwraith has given it on this site - and I've already played it a lot. The choice of icons over text makes it a game that seems much more complex than it really is, but at its core it's really just part dungeon crawl part race against time.

I love that it's easy to set up, that you get to collect nice loot, and that it's a bit hard to win. And I also very much like that the 6yo can tag along and play a hero with me controlling the game clock and so on.

For me Tiny Epic Pirates was a bit of a letdown. It felt too mechanic and too limited in scope, and while I enjoyed Tiny Epic Zombies, I never really had the urge to play it for some reason. But TED looks to be a game I'll be playing a lot, and now I just have to consider whether I actually need the story expansion or not. I probably do need it at some point, but does it do much more than add more content?

FOR THE KING AND ME, 4p. I won. Definitely better in person than on BGA; it's easier to track what everyone's going for.

SCOTLAND YARD, 4p. My first time playing this chestnut. Holds up surprisingly well. Has some weird thematic things -- "Welcome to work, inspector; here's your envelope full of tickets for the day; we'd like to give you more, or even your own car, but budget constraints you know...." I was an inspector and we lost badly due to a brilliant move by Mr. X that bamboozled us.

FURNACE, 3p. A brilliant auction mechanism combined with a ho-hum "optimize giant chains of resource conversions." The auctions involve placing bid discs (numbered 1-4) on the cards you want. You can't duplicate a number that's already on there, nor can you put a second bid of your color. Winner gets the card, but losers get resources on the card, multiplied by the value of your losing bid. So lots of times you just want the resources, and are hoping someone outbids you. Keeps you paying attention to the other tableaus. Would be great if the rest of the game were more engaging.

TENPENNY PARKS, 3p. Never heard of this and it was a complete treat. Build an amusement park. It's kind of a grab-bag of mechanics. Mostly worker placement, but then there's placing the attractions on your land (they are weird polyominoes, and you can have corners touch but not edges). Plus your land has trees on it that block where you want to put stuff. You can remove them, but that's an action, and there's not many actions in the game. The production is really top notch, the art pops and the cardboard is thick and chunky. The art on the cards for the attractions is retro-50s style that is charmingly reminiscent of old Disneyland posters. ("THRILL to the terrors of the DEEP!") You try to balance getting income (through building concession stands) and manipulating the emotional tenor of your park -- thrills, awe, and joy. Sounds routine typed out, but thematically it really just work. Really looking forward to playing again.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: The Rise and Fall of Anvalor - I've played several solo games of it last week and over the weekend. It's actually starting to grow on me with further plays, it's gone from "It's okay" to "This is rather enjoyable". I think my favorite faction is the Free Guild (Shooty Army From Hell) and my favorite enemy faction is the Skaven (I've always been partial to the rat men. So much so, that during breaks between playing I devolved using Skaven speak around my wife. "Hate hate. Kill Kill." (go over to wife typing on her laptop) "Poke poke. Smooch smooch." She just rolls her eyes and continues doing what she's doing.

Return to Dark Tower - Again, the game curbed stomped me and I'm looking up at it, teeth missing and blood running from my nose, and exclaiming, "You're fucking awesome!" Also, I've now got to go out and find new batteries for the tower, as it finally sucked the three AA batteries dry.

mads b. wrote: and now I just have to consider whether I actually need the story expansion or not. I probably do need it at some point, but does it do much more than add more content?

Stories kind of has three different levels. First, it adds more heroes, items, minions, and bosses, which is a good thing and makes it worth it just for them. A couple of the heroes in that box are really exciting and quite different from the base group. It also adds the "stories", which is another way to add replayability, as they add new tasks on top of the usual dungeon run. But it also adds the campaign, where you'll be in a dungeon with multiple floors (See? Levels!) and multiple bosses.

Both of the latter aspects are very much "extended play." If you think you'll really be spending a lot of time with it and might appreciate an even larger challenge, then they're great. But I already think Stories is worth it just for the additional stuff noted above, so the different play modes are just gravy.

On another note, I agree with you that Pirates is probably my least favorite of the series because it's more functional than flavorful (a problem I also have with Galaxies.) It's also the most reminiscent of a larger game (M&M) which is a stigma that none of the rest of them seem to have. I appreciate Zombies for its ability to weave in almost all the stupid plots of zombie movie lore and still stay pretty tight, mechanically. Pirates is just missing a bit of that "lore" angle that the rest of the series has in abundance. Can't win them all, I guess. (Next up is Tiny Epic Vikings, which didn't elicit much more than a yawn from me, but we'll see what the game is like.)

Rliyen wrote: Return to Dark Tower - Again, the game curbed stomped me and I'm looking up at it, teeth missing and blood running from my nose, and exclaiming, "You're fucking awesome!" Also, I've now got to go out and find new batteries for the tower, as it finally sucked the three AA batteries dry.

I like how they carried the nostalgia factor all the way to the point of including batteries vs so much stuff these days being USB rechargeable.

I played Tiny Epic Dungeons again today, this time with the 9yo who liked it. However, I noticed that when goblins spawned new goblins as part of the attack, things could quickly spiral out of control. So after looking at different rules questions I found out that goblins do not spawn new goblins. It's not a +, but a x which means that the most common goblin simply deals extra damage based on the amount of goblins. Makes sense, but fuck those icons.

In the next game (with the right rules) controlling goblin population was easier, but we got beaten a lot more so all in all still difficult, but also still fun.

And thank you for telling more about the expansion, JW. I think I'm hoping that the story cards will add more than extra playtime to the game. I think there's a lot of story in the game with the nice room tiles and funny goblins, but after seeing it all some times, it gets kinda samey. Not in a bad way, but just in a, I would like to see more-way. But I guess all the extra heroes and minions might do that.

Right. There's a limit to the tiny box and that factor is one of them. Only leaving out four of the dungeon tiles every session means you're going to see the same rooms on a regular basis. Having different people to tromp through the maze with, as well as occasionally some different treasures and minions, will certainly help keep things fresher than they otherwise might be. And, yes, the icons are a bit trying. I realize why they relied so heavily on them, since there would've been no way to fit everything on the cards or in the box if they didn't, so in one respect, it's a bit of a design marvel that the came carries as much heft as it does for its size. That's a regular feature of the TE series but I think they went above and beyond with this one. But it's still mildly annoying to have to keep referring to their appendix that they provided after many plays.

ARK NOVA

Played this for the first time, 2P. It's been compared to TERRAFORMING MARS and I can see that, but mechanically it's a bit more involved. You are acquiring cards and playing them, but you are also manipulating a small mapboard where you are building a zoo. You place enclosures in which you then populate with animals you play with cards. Each animal has a scoring value, maybe some special ability. There are also Sponsors ( which give discounts, buffs etc ) as well as a side display with scoring a la Awards/Milestones. 

Its a bit overwhelming at first, and it's not helped by what IMO is not a great rulebook. It has all the hallmarks of a ruleset that was proofed by people way too familiar with the game. 

After stumbling through the first half dozen rounds we got into a rhythm and then got cranking. The scoring is a bit odd - you have two scoring markers at the opposite end of a horseshoe shaped track; the game ends when one player's markers meet up. But they advance in different ways and it's not intuitive at first; end game scoring is a bit opaquely explained but it makes sense after you see it once. We'll play it again now that we have the rules down. I suspect it will still come in a bit longer than TM.  Between basic/advanced maps and like 300 cards it should have a decent amount of replay value.

dysjunct wrote: .

SCOTLAND YARD, 4p. My first time playing this chestnut. Holds up surprisingly well. Has some weird thematic things -- "Welcome to work, inspector; here's your envelope full of tickets for the day; we'd like to give you more, or even your own car, but budget constraints you know...." I was an inspector and we lost badly due to a brilliant move by Mr. X that bamboozled us.

Scotland Yard the Dice Game is really great. Takes the original and improves the not-so-great bits imo. Comes in a tiny box, probably get it for a tenner at the moment because it has created zero buzz. But it's really cool. I don't mind a bit of Scotland Yard, but find it kind of drags in between those cool moments where Mr X is on the edge of the net - they only happen a few times, and it takes an hour or so. Also it always felt a bit flat that the tickets didn't really mean anything for Mr X at all - like, why is he collecting them, it basically never happens that management of them is an important thing for that player.

So the dice game is really snappy - 15-20 minutes max - it's a really tight modular board with a couple of "hard" options if you prefer, but more importantly, it means that Mr X is basically ALWAYS on the edge of the net - it's like reveal, move, move, move, reveal, what, 4 times, I think, across far fewer locations, then game over.. And best of all, the dice are really neat and create cool situations. The detectives roll a few dice, and then pick one to actually use - there's an X (no move), and then 2x taxi, 2x bus, 1x subway. Then Mr X can ONLY choose from whatever the detectives actuaally used that turn. So if you know where Mr X is, as the detectives, it's possible to actually make it impossible for him to move, holding him there as you get closer. But it also means sometimes you NEED a certain roll to win, or have a chance at winning, so it has that, which is always great.

Highly recommended. I took Scotland Yard the original up to the op shop after one play.

I've been playing the Memoir 44 alpha on BGA quite a bit lately. It is really well implemented. I hope there is room to upload custom maps so the stuff from Vassal can be moved over at some point.

Played some ROOT on the mountain map. Vagabond (Tinker) won with a new player playing Cats, another guy playing moles for the first time, and me being really disruptive but not really scoring until late as the Lizards. Such a fun faction to play though. I get some real Palpatine vibes playing them. "YES, ATTACK ME AND I BECOME STRONGER. YOUR RAGE FEEDS ME."

Then the group broke with some going to play something else, and the Mole player and I started playing some 2p games, a rarity here. First I showed him RED7, which he liked, but said it'd better with more. (He was right).

Then we realized he'd have to wait awhile for his ride to finish his game, so we jammed two games of Summoner Wars 2e, with me using my shiny new Cloaks. He's a pretty savvy younger player (by that I mean late 20s, lol), so I sort of informed him I'd pull no punches so he can see what cool things can be done. He played the Vanguards first, and then the Savanna Elves. He likes the game all right but was offering his opinions on balance. And to be fair, I don't think he's altogether wrong. The Cloaks are pretty powerful and tough to defend against, especially before you know what all they can do. The Vanguards are widely considered to be the worst faction right now in the budding competitive scene. (SE are considered top tier but the Cloaks might be a bad matchup for them, like 40/60).