What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

Hmm. I get enough schedule management in my actual life.

Exactly- which is why the "fun" is sort of in question.

It's scheduling in the same way that Space Alert is scheduling.

I've been playing eldritch horror to ease the stress of the day recently but today I wanted something more... direct. So I got Gears of War out and played the first scenario. I love how the first scenario isn't done as a soft lead up tutorial but a real fuck you kick in the balls---"guess what motherfuckers, this is what this game is about." Within 15 minutes and three rooms it was an intense gunfight that ended with all my ammo expended and one remaining drone killing Marcus and Dom. I had mowed through like 12 enemies before I ate it, but stuck one turn too long drawing grenades for the last room. SO GOOD.

It is tragic this game didn't get more attention. Add two more short scenarios and fix some minor AI issues and you're done, maybe among the best games of all time?

But I've been over this here before.

*sigh* Would that someone at FFG listen to Gary Sax...

Please Mr. Petersen...redo Gears of War with not just a Star Wars setting but a Star Wars Scum and Villany setting. Playable heroes- Boba Fett, Bossk, IG-88, Dengar, 4LOM and Zuckuss.

^YUP!

I'd rather have Gears of War. Or Doom using Gears of War.

I soloed a round of Betrayal at Calth tonight, mission 2. The word bearers won pretty easily, mainly due to poor rolls on the part of the Ultramarines, and a rather easy victory condition. All they have to do to win is prevent the leader of the Ultramarines from performing a special action in a hex that they can easily control. If they lock it down for 5 rounds, they win.

I tend to enjoy scenarios where both sides have an equal chance of victory.

Michael Barnes wrote: *sigh* Would that someone at FFG listen to Gary Sax...

Please Mr. Petersen...redo Gears of War with not just a Star Wars setting but a Star Wars Scum and Villany setting. Playable heroes- Boba Fett, Bossk, IG-88, Dengar, 4LOM and Zuckuss.

That would be sick. Let's add smartphone A.I. so we can ditch all but equipment, hand, and stat cards.

Jexik wrote: I had a lot of fun with this too.

I strongly recommend trying the "only talk between loops" rule, just because it can be so hard on the mastermind once you have a team of experienced guys... I've still not done it though. Listening to a table of 3 people dissect and dismantle your plans is one of the most uneasing and nerve-wracking experiences I've had in games- up there with the last couple tables of a day-long tournament. I usually give people the option of more loops and no talking during the loops, or fewer loops with talking "on." And they always go for the latter.

Seeing the Protagonists try to figure your plans is an amazing experience, I can't help but cackle like an anime villain everytime.

I think we'll let the best player run the game as mastermind and then decide on the table talk rule, though I'm pretty sure it will end up eventually in.

Played more Gears scenario 1 this morning before work, a glorious win. Last turn there is no ammo left on any weapon on either COG and Marcus gets a reaction chainsaw on the last wretch who was attacking a 0 card Dom.

I played Ascension: Storm of Souls last night. It's essentially the same as previous editions only it adds some events into the mix. Every now and then a sideways event card will show up and be a global and persistent effect for everyone. There can only be one event going at a time, so new ones replace the old ones. This was a 4-player game with one guy that had never played Ascension before, and he's an older guy who tends to struggle with card games anyway. The game took over an hour and the new guy "won," but largely because the guy who owns the game basically walked him through every turn and probably spent more time thinking about new guy's turns than his own! As for the game itself, I'm still not that big on Ascension. I always preferred Dominion (and it's Sirlin spawn, Puzzle Strike); it's easier in those to form some kind of consistent strategy and build an engine. Ascension always just feels like grabbing points- it's essentially a point salad game. It's interesting that most of the other 'big' deckbuilders (Legendary, Star Realms, probably more that I'm forgetting) follow the Ascension model of having a random deck that spews out a group of 6 cards to pick from.

Last night was also the second time that I played Broom Service. I've not played Witch's Brew, but I've been told that this is the same game only with a spatial element and sort of a pick up and deliver thing going on. I like games like this where you have to pick some things simultaneously and try to work through what other people are thinking. It plays quick and I think the family will love it. It's also available for under $30 and Witch's Brew is essentially nonexistent. One of my SO's favorite movies is Kiki's Delivery Service, so it seems like a natural fit.

Played some more games.

First, we tried the "table talk off" rule in Tragedy Looper and it's a marked improvement! It smooths the general play of the game quite a bit and also makes it much more tense.

1) It prevents the Protagonists from blocking every single move made by the Mastermind. There's a point in the game in which the Protagonists can try to block all of the Mastermind's movements, heavily limiting his available options. Since this requires perfect coordination, no talk between loops does away with this gamey tactic and restores the power of the Mastermind's movement cards.

2) It allows the Mastermind to bluff Intrigue on locations: If players play two "Forbid Intrigue" cards at the same time, they cancel each other. With perfect coordination, this cannot happen so there's no reason for the Mastermind to bluff. But with table talk off, he can use this tactic and the game gains breadth.

3) It keeps deduction fresh by letting each player work on the mystery on his own and then share their impressions. Basically, this makes the game more of a true cooperative and is far more fun than debating every single time you play a card.

4) It keeps the Protagonists honest: They must actively work to gain information instead of relying on "power plays" to avoid losing, helping balance.

5) The game doesn't become slower nor significantly harder: Playing 7 or more days without being able to share information seems like a huge overhead but it doesn't actually have much of an impact on the Protagonists. Turns go by fast when you don't waste time arguing over everything and it's not difficult to avoid steping on each other's toes.

Basically, the game feels far more balanced and specially more "fair" with this rule. I'm going to use it from now on and heavily recommend it once you play a couple scenarios.

PD: One of the guys I've been playing with has liked this game so much he bought the Americanized version himself. Yuck! I hope we can keep playing my copy.

We also beat Warhammer Quest. It's....okey, I guess. The game is the video game version of a bobbler, those old RPGs that had you killing lots and lots of critters in a dungeon. That's a good thing and the core design is actually interesting, the problem with it is that it's less Wizardry and more Dragon Quest than it should: It has a lot of "kill, regain health, repeat" and not enough in the way of strategy. I think what the game needs is being able to inflict enemies with a variety of status effects.

I was also a bit bummed by some balance issues. It feels to me that the game overcompensates its lack of strategy by throwing tons of damage at the players whether they play well or not. Similarly, bosses are hard to kill, not because they require better planning but because they have "armour" that reduces the number of successes in your dice rolls. The only reason we beat the camapign and specially the third scenario is that the Elf's trapping weapon deals two unavoidable points of damage per turn.

It's not a game I would refuse to play, but I have no interest in playing it more, either.

My self-esteem requires psychotherapy after my contact, last night, with the Grim Reaper in Dungeonquest. We played four games. And, seriously, I now need time on a couch with Jung because we, as character avatars, voluntarily kept going back and back and back into its dungeon--AND, It didn't matter that it promised only death with the narrowest sliver of hope for riches and glory.

Hubris propelled us deeper. Greed drove us forward. Pride deceived us. After chasms collapsed, traps sprung, shades lingered, unstable potions potentiated, monsters mangled, rooms reoriented, and pendulums cleaved us in two, we still played on.

My son came closest to attaining victory with a sack of loot and what appeared to be an easy exit only to be cleaved asunder by a pendulum blade two spaces from an escape from the dungeon. The look on his face was priceless. Prior to being cleaved apart, he had crowed loudly and beat upon his chest that victory was to be his--after all, he was the last survivor of our adventuring party. Unfortunately for him, he had no prior experience with Dungeonquest--the Grim Reaper wasn't kind. Yet, reentry is certain.

Lovely!

I think I need to put my modeling skills to the test and make a figure of Father Pedo.

boardgamegeek.com/thread/562438/many-dea...y-luck-his-concubine

A skinny dude in a hooded robe, hauling a wheelbarrow (ladies and gentlemen, we have an optimist), a shovel, loot sacks, prybar and a corpse-looting bat.

The perfect adventurer.

I had a really lengthy post that got eaten when my 1.5 year old ripped out the router. So in brief summary...
Sushio-Go Sucks
Blood Rage I finally won, I think its OK, but everybody else loves it
Dungeonquest (GW) an all time great. Everyone died.