What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

Last night I got to play Theseus against a real opponent for the first time. He played the Marines and I played the Scientists. For most of the game he was beating me, but at the very end I managed to nail him with a defense system and got some data points as well, beating him by 4 points. Now that the game has "clicked" for him, he's eager to try it again.

This game, more than any other I've played in a long time, really has that "lightbulb comes on" moment where you really get it.

hotseatgames wrote: Last night I got to play Theseus against a real opponent for the first time. He played the Marines and I played the Scientists. For most of the game he was beating me, but at the very end I managed to nail him with a defense system and got some data points as well, beating him by 4 points. Now that the game has "clicked" for him, he's eager to try it again.

This game, more than any other I've played in a long time, really has that "lightbulb comes on" moment where you really get it.

Theseus shouldn't be as satisfying as it is, but, its mechanics meld together into something that makes you forget you're playing a board game. My opinion, as stated a few pages ago in a mini review, is that it captures that child-like feeling of playing chase or tag or spinning on a merry-go-round/round-a-bout. Of course, I also felt that same way about another game when I've played Nuns on the Run which feels like playing hide-and-seek, but, on the table top. Both of these games capture a primordial essence of humanity that defines what it means to play and have fun. Theseus's Mancala mechanic may add another layer of good feeling to it since it is an ancient archetype of the human psyche expressed in a simple game mechanic.

Here are some of the things I've been playing lately:

Roll for the Galaxy - We played 3 times in one session, something I rarely do, and the game is starting to appeal to me more. Despite the amount of dice manipulation available, you can still get screwed by your dice, which is a necessary outcome, in my opinion, for a dice game. Also the business of trying to figure out what your opponents are going to do in order to piggyback is more pronounced here than in the card game. I'm pretty pleased with this one so far.

Omen: A Reign of War - This sent Battle for Souls to the trade shelf, and would have sent Draco Magi there too if Draco Magi didn't get there itself by being not any good.

Sky Tango - Lovely, mean-ass card game with a dumb name. Claims to play 3 and 4, but I don't see much point in going above 2.

Byzantium - Bluuhhhhhh no.

Baseball Highlights: 2045 - this is getting a lot of buzz ("even if you hate baseball you'll love it!") It's fine but there isn't a whole lot to it. By the time it was over I actually was a little angry that it wasn't just about baseball. I'm not a fan, but jesus, what does it say that these people felt obligated to add robots and shit to baseball because otherwise nerds would turn up their nose at it.

Thunderstone Advance: Numenera - I like Thunderstone a bunch and this set has a nice idea with the different color XP tokens, but the Numenera setting was 100% lost on me and felt like yet more generic fantasy bullshit instead of anything new or different. Haven't decided if I'll keep it or not. I've barely scratched the Thunderstone I already have and don't really need another box of it.

Luchador! - Here's what I said on BGG:

Luchador! comes with several different wrestlers you can pick from. You'll want to consider which one you use carefully, as it will be one of the few decisions you'll be able to make. I'm sort of kidding but sort of not. You don't have too many options on your turns. Unlike King of Tokyo, there isn't even much of a push your luck element. You roll the dice once and just deal with whatever comes up.

Nevertheless, I don't have much of a problem with that, since whatever comes up is usually fun. Assuming the players are engaged, they will yell and curse as their luchadors throw table slams and choke holds on each other, attempt to pin, and sometimes just strut around giving the audience a show. It's a dumb game, but it buys into its theme to the point that you can't help but play along. I'd of course like there to be a little more for me to do than there is, but I wouldn't want to bog it down with a bunch of fussiness for the sake of "realism".

Theseus: BOTS - I love Theseus and the Bots are great.

Merchants & Marauders: Seas of Glory -

M&M is not ideal with two, but pal Matt and I couldn't wait until a third would let us try this out. We love M&M and were eager to dive into this.

It's a multi-expansion, featuring several modules you can swap in and out. Some are no-brainers, extra captains and events and such. The storm and wind rose are neat, and so is the treasure galleon, though in our two-player game a horde of NPC ships kept us from going full pirate. I'm not sure NPC ships also need add-ons, as they're already fairly intimidating. Contraband I'm unsure about, since it seems to give more of a boost to merchanting, which I'm not convinced needs it. The favor track was pretty good, but the loyalty track was a damn nightmare that did nothing but eat gold. We didn't visit the locations at all, and none of them particularly wowed me. As we both were merchants, not many of the other things came into play.

Still, there's a lot to dig into here, and the good news is that it didn't clutter up the game too much. I'm eager to try again with another player and hopefully get some actual piracy going on.

The Contraband balances out when using the new special ammo types. With the special ammo additions Pirates now have 6 auto-successes on Merchant Raids and can stay at sea longer.

Played my favorite multi player game Chaos in the Old World last night. I was the Horned Rat with 5 players. It took a scoring region for the others to figure out how the Rat got points since he doesn't place corruption. Khorne went for the upgrade giving him points for kills with his warrior unit as the first pick. Tzeentch won 4 turns into the game with 3 ruined regions, Rat had around 40 and Khorne had around 40 with Slaanesh furthest on the dial. Nurgle really struggled this game. I like the 5 player a lot, enough that I'd gladly play either the base game or the expansion game with all the new cards.

Tried Unhappy King Charles. Wow is that game picky with rules, I did a play through first and thought I got it. No way. Recruitment itself has three different types and sets of rules to follow, some different for each side. The GMT rules are laid out pretty poorly although they are clear. I like the game but need to play it a couple more times. Didn't realize it would be such a significant step up in complexity from Hannibal or Sekigahara.

Played Small World Underground last night. That felt like a more fiddly version of Small World. I think I'll go back to vanilla SW for the future.

Played Theseus twice last night against a new opponent. First I was the Aliens and he was the Grays. I was ahead the entire game until the very last turn when he beat me by one point.

For the second game, I was the Scientists and he was the Marines. He pretty much kicked my ass the entire match, until I had a great turn and closed the gap 8 points, but it still wasn't enough.

Bots get delivered today and I'm excited to check them out. So far I think the Scientists are my favorite faction but I like them all.

Couple of attempts at Assault on Doomrock. I say "attempts" because I've lost badly both times. But this is very clever. I'm enjoying the abstracted but tactical combat system, and the way you adventure between fights is fun, trying to make the most of your limited time and the available locations. And there's some wit and humor in the whole presentation as well, in a way that is more subtle but also more palatable than say, Munchkin. So far, I'm really enjoying it, and have already backed the expansion, which is on KS now.

Post Geekway chilling I'm moseying into the Shadows Of Malice - Seekers of a Hidden Light expansion. It's pretty interesting.

I've mentioned how hard and unforgiving the first coop scenario for Descent was. Last night we tried the second one, Nature's Ire. Well what do you know, we ended up completing it on the very first try! The rules are the same, so I'm not sure what made this one so much easier. Maybe weaker monsters (cave spiders and goblin archers instead of barghests and flesh moulders), more lenient room special rules, perhaps giving us a little more room to breathe? Don't really know.

It's pretty long altogether, maybe 3.5 h from setup, choosing characters and classes and putting it away. It is however more satisfying to reach the end, win or lose, than to get punishingly hammered and die less than halfway through. Those Peril cards still hurt a lot though with random damage and fatigue being handed out. Had some interesting ones though, with spiders appearing besides heroes who failed attribute tests, and one that forced a hero to always move towards a master monster. Attribute tests play a large role in these games.

It also seems to me like the first scenario is more difficult, but I like both of them. But both are, I think, a lot easier with three or four characters than with just two.
The games run a little long, I think, so I usually remove one encounter from each pile and then start by advancing doom by one. It seems to do the trick in terms of a shorter but still balanced game.

charlest wrote: Post Geekway chilling I'm moseying into the Shadows Of Malice - Seekers of a Hidden Light expansion. It's pretty interesting.

Let us know what you think Charlie. I've already ordered it because I think it's essential, There's not enough to do outside of the Mystic and City encounters in the game as it stands. So I'm hoping that these side quests will fill in time where you might have just passed or wasted time summoning a useless encounter. That said, if they're too time consuming you could be wasting time better spent preparing since the game essentially runs on a timer.

I'm interested in learning how well it integrates and whether it improves the game play experience.

Got to play an old chestnut - Jamaica. It's a very light but clever pirate racing game. Worth checking out if you haven't played it before.

Also played Luna, which is a rare Stefan Feld title that is being reprinted. Very much a Feld - extremely euro in feel, and a 'point salad'. But there are some interesting combos that you can set up with special abilities you get from the different islands. And you need to balance scoring on this turn versus setting up your guys for next turn, which is interesting. It seems really confusing on first reading of the rules. But once we got going it was pretty straightforward.

I understand a reprint is coming soon, so if you like that kind of thing you may want to give it a shot.

mikecl wrote:

charlest wrote: Post Geekway chilling I'm moseying into the Shadows Of Malice - Seekers of a Hidden Light expansion. It's pretty interesting.

Let us know what you think Charlie. I've already ordered it because I think it's essential, There's not enough to do outside of the Mystic and City encounters in the game as it stands. So I'm hoping that these side quests will fill in time where you might have just passed or wasted time summoning a useless encounter. That said, if they're too time consuming you could be wasting time better spent preparing since the game essentially runs on a timer.

I'm interested in learning how well it integrates and whether it improves the game play experience.

Your concerns are the main thing that interested me about the expansion and I think you will be pleased about your pre-order. Only played two games so far though so need more time with it.

Imperial Assault campaign mode with the Nephew yesterday. He loved it. I found my Heir Apparent.