What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

Gary Sax wrote: Hmmm, interested. How confrontational?

Not hugely. There are some cards that can take resources from other players but it's mostly passive-aggressive.
ETA: Not wanting it to sound like multiplayer solitaire, because it isn't- you're all competing for the tile placements on the main board.

Terraforming Mars is Tableau/Engine.

The gist:
You get cards, which represent projects and events. Cards cost money to play, though some can be paid for with two resources: steel and titanium.
Actions consist of playing cards, using some played cards, using your resources (usually plants and heat) to change the global conditions (and earn money/VPs).
Cards will increase resource production, provide VPs, change global conditions, provide resources, allow tile placement, and occasionally allow making other players lose resources/resource production.
Resources are not generally, converted, not in a typical euro X->Y->Z->VPs way. You may have a card that lets you burn an X to make a Y and a Z, but that's not how production usually goes.
Tiles on the board represent water, greenery, and cities. Placement can score money and bonus things, and will determine VPs at end.
You can claim milestones, but only 3 of 5 will be claimed in a game. You can also sponsor an award, meaning it will count for VPs at end of game. Again, only 3 of the 5 can be chosen.
End comes when all three global variables -- water, oxygen, temp -- are maxed, winner is VPs.

It's very well done. I'm glad to have a solid sci fi game that isn't PEW PEW EAT LASERS FOR MY EMPIRE

^awesome, I hope to try it.

Gary Sax wrote: ^awesome, I hope to try it.

It's good, Gary... and it's different every time. You will constantly be torn between planning ahead, and getting stuff done now -- each with benefits and downside. It's a fascinating title. (RE: Terraforming Mars).

Had a very rare one turn win in NETRUNNER. Girlfriend does a blackmail run on my hand and grabs a 3 pointer (25% chance). Then snags a pair of 2 pointers from my unprotected R&D. Game over, turn one. It was hilarious.

Played a 3-player game of Runewars on Sunday, with a bunch of our house rules to change it up. My wife likes the game quite a bit, but if it were up to me, I think I'd get rid of it. Even though the mechanics aren't the same, Forbidden Stars replaces Runewars in my head - they're both 2-4 player economy + conquest games with modular boards and threaded turns. I just like F.Stars better.

Also, I can't believe anyone complained about the downtime of combat in F.Stars. Runewars is at least twice as long, what with the card drawing, special ability resolution, deciding who to rout and who to wound, new units getting summoned...

I straight up *love* the combat in Forbidden Stars.

Delobius wrote: Also, I can't believe anyone complained about the downtime of combat in F.Stars. Runewars is at least twice as long, what with the card drawing, special ability resolution, deciding who to rout and who to wound, new units getting summoned...

Are you sure? Generally we solve Runewars very fast. First timers may take a while deciding what to rout/wound. Special ability doesn't come up that often.

(but we're used to Nexus Ops, which involve more or less the same what-killed-cant-strike-back dynamic)

No, Runewars combat is kind of slow. Complain all you want about how the Rebellion combat sucks (it doesn't), they've come a looooong way from Runewars.

You know, even though it's more sound from a design standpoint, I really don't like having to hold my runes until the end of the round. I prefer the instant win, cheap as it is. I love that order card mechanic, and I like the game well enough, but I am so ready for it to be over after a point.

I've been playing with the kids lately (4 and 8). Lots of Talisman with the Dungeon and the Highlands. We also played Galaxy Trucker (simplified) over the weekend. Both Talisman and Galaxy Trucker both end in tears quite a bit, but they are short lived and the kids always ask to play again.

I haven't been able to play my copy of Terraforming Mars with other people yet, but I did try the solo thing out. You get 14 turns to terraform the planet or you lose. I managed to do it with turns to spare, and while it started off pretty tough, it got ridiculously easy by the end. Not sure how valid it is as a solo game, but I still really enjoyed the systems the game runs on and saw where interaction is really going to kick things into high gear.

I've been playing a lot of Zombicide Rue Morgue this week, too. I missed a pretty major rule in every game up to yesterday, that being the spawn in every room when you first open a building. Dumb mistake, sure, but any of this editions rulebook is kind of awful. It's a pretty simple game, but I feel like things are both overexplained and not explained enough. Throw in references to other sets and it's pretty easy to miss something. Anyways, after realizing my mistake, I set up the first scenario (which was far too easy when I played with Uba and Al) and bRely made it out alive. Can't wait to play again. I'm as jaded on zombies as the next guy, but there's an addictive quality to this game that I haven't felt about any game in a long time.

Are you sure you played Terraforming Mars correctly? Someone on BGG with a similar comment was selling cards for their face cost, not 1MC for example.

Yup, I did that right.

I would check over the rules to make sure. I haven't heard of anyone having such an easy time with the solo game. It should take a few rounds just to get up from zero production everywhere using the corporate era cards.

London Dread is pretty interesting- not sure where I stand with it after one two player game, but it is definitely doing some unique stuff and that is good. I'm wondering if it's more interesting than fun though.

It's a story-based adventure game so you have unique characters, they investigate stuff, cooperate, get items, etc. What is different is that the game goes off in two parts. The first is a real time thing where you have twelve minutes to program where your character is going to be at what time, using this scheduling clock. There are four districts with six cards each and over the twelve minutes, anyone can reveal one to see what is there. The idea is that you want to get to the cards where you can contribute the most attribute symbols OR arrive at the same time to team up if you can not supply enough to beat the difficulty rating of the card.

After the RT part, you then go around and try to solve the cards, which due to the time pressure of planning may or may not go well.

So this is exceedingly tricky, especially because new cards get revealed and you might have to reroute. Anything left I revealed increases a dread track by two, but if you reveal it and don't resolve it you might risk more. Dread makes the antagonist of the story stronger at the end so you need to keep it down.

On top of all of this, you have to find and plan to resolve the key plot cards at certain times of day. It is all about coordination more than cooperation...getting everyone's schedules to work together where needed and to afford enough time to hit the most harmful events.

I've never played anything quite like it, it is very different and it has the kind of non-standard gameplay concepts I like. But I'm not crazy about planned movement or real time, so I'm a little hesitant on it.

Very interested to play the next story though. Definitely one to look at for those interested in innovative, singular designs.