What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

cranberries wrote:
I used to have a number of decks and was subscribed to the rules revision email list. Something about playtesting just destroys games for me. Especially with BGFW there was a grognardian level of rules fussing and complaining that I foolishly exposed myself to that left the game feeling broken when in fact it was fine. It was also too heavy for my sons at the time, and now it feels too expensive.

It cracks me up that over a decade later the Dark Elves are still selling for twice as much! It looks like there are some $15 decks on Ebay and at Your Move Games, with various amounts of shipping.

update: I just checked out the forums and so much of the discussion consists of modding units so that they're not "broken" or have more balance. I think the metagame of BGFW is tweaking the units, since they don't have anything to paint.

I expected to find some deals on the Geek Market but didn’t see a lot which surprised me. At least they’ve still got a fan base out there.

Carthage
I can't wait to review this. Strikes all the right chords. Deck building in an arena setting with modules that are all gladiator inspired. Need a few more 4 and 5 player games and to try it solo with the app. Short, sweet and suitably brutal.

I played some twilight struggle. Finally got beat by the opponent I have been horsewhipping for 5+ years. He has been playing a lot with the app, so that makes sense. I would say that's an underrated strength of there being an app for a game like this; it depends so much on experience, having a way to just play a bunch of games by yourself is helpful.

Played quite a bit of stuff this weekend.

My brother came over Friday night after telling me he was tired of the word games his girlfriend own, so he wanted me to introduce some new stuff to them. Resisting the urge throw them into the deep end with TI4 or forever ruining their relationship with Intrigue, we started with The Quest For El Dorado. It’s a terrific little deck builder that does a few interesting things with the genre. There are no VPs, it’s a pure race game, and the way it handles the market is really neat. The game was a huge hit, they immediately ordered a copy.

Up next was Whitehall Mystery. I adore this game, as I’m always going to be an advocate for designs that stay laser focused on what makes a specific mechanic fun. While I like Fury of Dracula and Last Friday more, Whitehall is a better example of why hidden movement is great overall. Unfortunately I was pretty buzzed at this point, so I was quickly found before I could even commit my second murder.

We finished the night with Survive!, which anyone with a lick of sense already knows is the greatest family game of all time. My brother is trying to hold off on picking a copy up, but is losing that battle quickly. Mission accomplished.

Last night I got together with Al, Repo, an Uba. We started with Jurassic Park: Danger. Everyone agreed that it’s a fine game, but everyone but me thought it best for kids. I really enjoyed though, being someone who bows at the Church of Dinosaurs, and can’t wait to play again. Another game to play with my brother.

We finished with Roll For the Galaxy, which contrary to recent rumors, is much better than “mostly harmless.”

Josh Look wrote: We finished with Roll For the Galaxy, which contrary to recent rumors, is much better than “mostly harmless.”

Nah, only good if you dislike Race for the Galaxy, which fires every middleweight Euro in existence. The other factor I can guess is if you have an irrational aversion to cards and a love of dice.

If you like Thunderstone more than Dominion, you might also like Roll more than Race.

Roll > Jump Drive > Race. I’ve played all of them a metric shitton, at least 50+ plays each, Race is by far the weakest. Boring, boring, boring game. Jump Drive is swingy, but at least it’s fun.

I like neither Thunderstone nor Dominion, FWIW.

I'm interested in trying Jump Drive; I've played it zero. Roll like 2 times and found the explore phase to be a game killing drag to the speed. So for me it's:


Race for the Galaxy >>>> Puerto Rico > Most euros printed after 2009> San Juan >>> Roll for the Galaxy

RFTG is one of my favorite games of all time though; so I'll fight for it all day. The decisions are way crunchier than any of the other games listed, and at a very quick pace. Which expansions do you play with for RFTG? I run the first two, with no takeovers ever.

I love SAN JUAN. Dang. I always felt like this prototyped modern deckbuilders. The whole cards-are-currency thing. I find RACE FOR THE GALAXY a bunch of symbol soup and just never clicked with it. If I am playing a deckbuilder, I hope it's PUZZLE STRIKE or ASCENSION.

I’m with James on Race for the Galaxy. I play with all the expansions and I’ve always found it to be a good time. I still like the PC bootleg version best because there’s way less maths to do, though.

TBH, I find Race to be so boring becauseI either have really good luck with it or I just get the puzzle because it isn’t a challenge whatsoever for me. I like the first expansion, never liked any of the others. Even the first expansion added more bloat than I would have liked. The game is long out of my collection because I prefer the other two so much more.

Jump Drive, more often than not, levels the playing field between me and the other players more often than not. I also like the fast, frantic pacing. There are no phases, you just play cards simultaneously and the game moves at a breakneck pace. It’s 10-15 minutes per game, so I’m very forgiving of dud games when they do happen.

Deckbuilders: I make no excuses for myself, I love the mechanic. Pure deckbuilders that I’ll take off the shelf are few and far between these days, with Aeon’s End being my top choice, but I’m really loving the stuff that adds more special elements, like Clank, Tyrants of the Underdark, and El Dorado.

jeb wrote: I love SAN JUAN. Dang. I always felt like this prototyped modern deckbuilders. The whole cards-are-currency thing. I find RACE FOR THE GALAXY a bunch of symbol soup and just never clicked with it. If I am playing a deckbuilder, I hope it's PUZZLE STRIKE or ASCENSION.

I can kind of see that... but most deckbuilders kind of throw out the hand-size-as-currency* aspect by giving you a full hand each round. I agree on Puzzle Strike; I mentioned it on the last page as one of my favorite Deckbuilders. I don't like Ascension (and most deckbuilders which follow its lead of the conveyor belt appearance of cards) as much because it just feels like a grab for points rather than creating a cohesive strategy most of the time. This really shows itself when you play against the hard AI on the app- it just buys mechana constructs whenever possible, even if it never ends up using them.

I played both Puerto Rico AND San Juan after RftG and just thought, "yeah, Race is better." Those first few games are a bear, but I've found that with good teaching of the rules, you can get people into it on the first play. My big secret for that first game? Give them the recommended hands, and play_open_handed. This takes away a lot of the confusion and pressure of trying to win and trying to grok it at the same time.

Josh Look wrote: Deckbuilders: I make no excuses for myself, I love the mechanic. Pure deckbuilders that I’ll take off the shelf are few and far between these days, with Aeon’s End being my top choice, but I’m really loving the stuff that adds more special elements, like Clank, Tyrants of the Underdark, and El Dorado.

Dominion and its closest relatives (Puzzle Strike) are my favorites. I do not like the Ascension style nearly as much. Although Star Realms is cute with how little it is, and I dug the Rick and Morty one with how excited my teenage nephew was to receive it. Clank is OK, and my wife and I enjoy the Harry Potter one.

I couldn't understand why the Ascension-style deckbuilders are more popular until I thought about setup time. Totally makes sense.

SuperflyTNT wrote: I’m with James on Race for the Galaxy. I play with all the expansions and I’ve always found it to be a good time. I still like the PC bootleg version best because there’s way less maths to do, though.

Yeah, I'm a little ashamed that I've probably played more Keldon AI games than real ones.

*The very best example of a combination of cards-as-currency mixed with "draw to 5 cards" has to be Summoner Wars, but I'm a bit biased there. Granted, I didn't become biased and start testing for it until I played well over 100 games. It also adds a spatial component AND some little die roll luck. Truly a great game; it was the indie sleeper that launched Plaid Hat Games.

Didn't like Race for the Galaxy at all. I will still play San Juan specifically for its simplicity though.

We played Race for the Galaxy for a year or two, with multiple expansions. I liked the idea in principle, but it eventually became multiplayer solitaire. We didn't talk to each other. We didn't interact with each other in the game. We just sat there trying to build our own tableaus and occasionally muttering something about not getting the right cards or maybe looking over to see how close someone was to completion. We could've been doing this online at our own places without any kind of social interaction at all. I traded it away. The saving grace for Terraforming Mars, which uses a very similar system (right down to the massive amount of symbols on the cards) is that you're directly competing with your opponents on the board and for various goals, several of which precipitate the end of the game.

As far as deckbuilders go, I haven't played a ton of them, but Dominion didn't sway me. The best I've found is Rune Age, since there are multiple ways to play (PvP, PvE, co-op) and direct interaction with opponents is a necessity. A close second is Blood Bowl: Team Manager, although that veers away from the deckbuilder model somewhat, since it's often as much about enhancing what cards you already have than adding to your deck.

Put me in the category that prefers Roll. Now that we punched out the expansion and played a few games with it, I'm thoroughly pleased that it has turned into a regular ask for family game night and non d and d game groups.

I burned out on Race pretty quickly. I think the expansions ruined it for me. I much prefer playing heads up than multiway.

I far prefer Puerto Rico to it