What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

RobertB wrote: @Erik Twice - I played Vitor, she played Point Luna, and we played on the green board. I picked Terraformer as the free Award, and pushed TR really hard. Close to the end of the game I was 20 points ahead of her there, so I forced the ending. Usually she relies on end-of-game points, and if I try to play a long game with her I usually lose. But I like 60-70 Me income turns too much to play smart all the time.

Even though I win the vast majority of my games, I actually suffer from that, too. I just buy too many cards, build too much of an engine and try too many cute little tricks to be truly competitive. I just think it's too fun to fill Mars with microbes or whatever have you.

Played some stuff yesterday at my friend’s birthday party...

-Welcome To... - I haven’t had such a lukewarm reaction to a game in awhile. It’s not terrible, it’s far from great, it’s just...there.

-Campy Creatures - It’d been awhile since I’d played this and after breaking it back out I need to play it more. It’s a better time waster than most and it has my favorite artwork in all of gaming.

- Root - Fuck, I liked this way more than I wanted to.

Illimat - We play this all the time, still a favorite.

Nyctophobia - I thought it was great. There’s nothing else out there like it. I think everyone else liked it, but man did it live up to what I wanted it to be.

I'm starting to enjoy Terra Mystica. Familiarity means less time wracking my brain on plotting three turns ahead. That's coming automatic, and I'm starting to see what actions others are likely to take. The interaction element is starting to become apparent, and it's much stronger than I thought. It doesn't take long to see the cleverness of this game. It takes a few plays to digest it and see a good game behind the cogs.

Josh Look wrote: -Campy Creatures - It’d been awhile since I’d played this and after breaking it back out I need to play it more. It’s a better time waster than most and it has my favorite artwork in all of gaming.

I'm very fond of Campy Creatures, but I'm not willing to spend more than $15 for it. BGG has a couple of used copies in my price range, but I don't plan to buy any more boardgames until I find my next job.

You know that copy of Space Hulk: Death Angel that's been lingering in my game closet ( not even on the shelf) for years? Well I dug that out and gave it a try. My space marines were wiped out in very short order. I did have fun though and the game flows pretty smooth.

Then my wife asked if we could go get her own set of polyhedral dice. After I regained consciousness, we headed down to my FLGS "The Game Gougers" and she picked out not one but two sets of dice. I'd be lying if I said it didnt bring a tear to my eye. Don't think I've been this emotional since my grandson was born.

We then returned home and played some more of Pathfinder: The Adventure Card Game where Rip Nugget, the gecko riding goblin, was easily slain by my wife's monk's unstoppable karate chop.



_{So Proud}

Went to the local game club on Saturday. First game was Rising Sun. It was four players, taught by the one player who had played the game once before. That lead to some, "Oh yeah! You have to do x here." But I've been guilty of that too, so no big thing. I played the Turtle Clan, and sort of played it right. "Sort of" however made me mess up on how won battles were scored, and they turned out to be a little more valuable than I thought. I did still come in second. I might try to convince my friends into giving it a try.

Then I played Terraforming Mars with two new players and a friend. One player would show us her cards after every deal and ask, "Why would I want to keep these?" I was trying to impress on her and her friend that for most of the cards, "It depends." That an awesome card early can be much less useful late, and that the vast majority of the 200+ cards in there are "Okay, depending on what you're wanting to do". I ended up losing to a friend, on the cash tiebreaker.

My wife and I have played three games of Great Western Trail since we picked it up for my birthday a little over a week ago. I was quite into it for the first game and for whatever reason a little less enthusiastic about it for the second two. There's a lot I like, and it flows together surprisingly well, but it might be a bit on the mechanistic side for me. It's no Terraforming Mars, my birthday game from last year, but then again not many games are.

Played three games of X-wing 2.0 on Saturday, played Kagi (lamda shuttle) and 3 interceptors. I played against to rebel squads - mostly x-wings with one player flying a A-wing and the other a Y-wing. The last game was against a Decimator and TIES.

My group is still learning the 2.0 rules, so there were some rules confusions. The force is a pretty powerful addition, making the Luke a played against a serious threat. The decimator player kept forgetting to adjust his turret. I had a hard remembering that built in autothrusters on the interceptors are not push the limit. You have to focus and then boost not the other way around.

On Sunday I took my kids to play with their cousins and brought along Trains with all the expansions and played three games with my sister-in-law and her boyfriend while drinking a few beers. Was a great way to spend a overcast Sunday.

Played the fourth mission of MacGyver: The Escape Room Game. It's definitely a step up in difficulty, but it still is not not very good. We were actually lost for a couple of minutes at the beginning because the game had trained us to only open things it told us to open. However, one of the envelopes was not actually sealed so we could technically open it.

Unless the fifth (the finale) mission is absolutely amazing, I see no reason to ever buy this over any other escape game. The difficulty is just so low, no super cool components (which save the Escape the Room game), or cool theme (it plays like a series of disconnected puzzles). I would rather play Escape Room: the Game, and I hate that one.

barrowdown wrote: Played the fourth mission of MacGyver: The Escape Room Game. It's definitely a step up in difficulty, but it still is not not very good. We were actually lost for a couple of minutes at the beginning because the game had trained us to only open things it told us to open. However, one of the envelopes was not actually sealed so we could technically open it.

Unless the fifth (the finale) mission is absolutely amazing, I see no reason to ever buy this over any other escape game. The difficulty is just so low, no super cool components (which save the Escape the Room game), or cool theme (it plays like a series of disconnected puzzles). I would rather play Escape Room: the Game, and I hate that one.

I got a copy of this and I need to review it. Not looking forward to it at all but we may play the first mission this week.

The newest Unlock! wave is fantastic. We finished it up last week. I enjoyed the cheesy minigame in Tombstone Express as it was a nice change of pace. I'm astounded how creative the designers have been as they've gotten a ton of mileage out of such a condensed format.

charlest wrote: The newest Unlock! wave is fantastic. We finished it up last week. I enjoyed the cheesy minigame in Tombstone Express as it was a nice change of pace. I'm astounded how creative the designers have been as they've gotten a ton of mileage out of such a condensed format.

Unlock! third wave was really solid. Tombstone was my least favorite (and I think Exit's mystery game was better), but Noside was a solid easy difficulty game and Adventurers of Oz was amazing. They are definitely pushing the games in an interesting direction. I'm hoping wave 4 leans even harder into the story telling aspects that were evident here. The descriptions for the three (time travel & dinosaurs, Arabian nights, and dream battles) look like that will be probably true.

edulis wrote: Played three games of X-wing 2.0 on Saturday, played Kagi (lamda shuttle) and 3 interceptors. I played against to rebel squads - mostly x-wings with one player flying a A-wing and the other a Y-wing. The last game was against a Decimator and TIES.

My group is still learning the 2.0 rules, so there were some rules confusions. The force is a pretty powerful addition, making the Luke a played against a serious threat. The decimator player kept forgetting to adjust his turret. I had a hard remembering that built in autothrusters on the interceptors are not push the limit. You have to focus and then boost not the other way around.

what did you think of the new decimator? I've never loved large-base ships, but I like the idea of a pure gunboat ramming down someone's throat.

I played some X-Wing as well, Guri + Palob + 2xQuadjumpers, Soontir + 2xdefenders, Guri + Boba Fett + Quadjumper.

I played all of them against iterations of the same list. My buddy Mike had picked up Lando's Millennium Falcon and was itching to try it.

So we started with Han + Lando in the escape craft + Dengarr. The Jumpermaster 5000 is trash. Most people picked up on it all ready, it is too many points, 2 die attack, terribad dial...but seeing it in person was pretty eye opening.

I played Denger is my last 1.0 tournament and was really impressed with the strengths of the chassis. In 2.0...man, it just has nothing going for it that Lando's Falcon doesn't do better.

Guri is a monster, despite having to fly against two I6 ships. Quadjumpers are amazing. having two fly up and just 'move' the Falcon out of the way is amazing. and tractoring that one defense die away constantly...just mean. I'm not sure having two in a list is worth it...but 1 could be an ace killer. Palob + Lando + Moldy Crow title is just fun. Stock up some focus tokens, steal some if they are out there and always have focus + rerolls for every attack (and re-rolls on defense!)

2nd game he tweaked the loadout on the falcon/dengar, I pulled out Soontir + Defenders. New Soontir is still really good. He wants predator/outmaneuver to give his attacks alittle more oomph. Defenders are really strong. Overall, Soontir and the Jets was a good, but almost boring? list.

3rd game he gave up on Dengar, pulled (z-95)N'Dru Suhlak and (Y-Wing)Kavil with a dorsal turret and proton torpedoes into the list. I wanted to try Boba, so dropped Palob and a Quad for him.

So..one of the hot lists with Boba is Han Gunner and Perceptive Copilot crew. it went...ok. I took 2nd player, so Guri would have the option of dancing around Kavil better. Unfortunately this (and having Han on the other side at I6) kinda messes with the HanGunner shenanigans. So what happens is ideally, Boba boosts into range 1 of the enemy. He gets free re-rolls for being in range 1 of an enemy. then Han Gunner lets him take a red focus action before he engages. Perceptive co-pilot gives you two focuses when you focus. one for attack, one for defense.

1st, the firespray dial still doesn't do great with stress.
2nd, shooting after Kavil and Han, means that you get the focus for attack, but can't use it for defense against those guys.
So, alittle underwhelming. Boba is still a very good ship, but this was a lot of points for a set of upgrades that didn't do a ton.

Han on the falcon threw 5 attack dice, and was close to getting a 6 attack dice on another occasion.
Kavil throws 4 dice at range 1 with the dorsal turret, which is awesome.

Guri got shot at with a proton torpedo. 4 dice attack, 3 hits after the re-roll. 3 natural evades. Wait! kavil has saturation salvo which allows him to spend charges to force the defender to re-roll. re-roll two of those evades. 2 more natural evades. that's 5 evades on 5 dice. Mike doesn't get angry...but he sure got annoyed here.
the new damage deck can be really mean. there's potential for crits to feed into crits to feed into more crits. This, rotating turrets, bullseye abilities all mean FFG really doesn't want lots of fat large base ships running around.

Still, I was very impressed with the new Falcon. I want to try it in the future. Han + Guri sounds nice, except that it needs more Quadjumper.





Mike was playing in our store's Kill Team season before we played X-Wing. It looked good. He said he could give me some models if I wanted to step in. I need a new mini game like a hole in the head, but I might get sucked in.

edulis wrote: On Sunday I took my kids to play with their cousins and brought along Trains with all the expansions and played three games with my sister-in-law and her boyfriend while drinking a few beers. Was a great way to spend a overcast Sunday.

Land of the rising sun? I think my kids would actually play this, especially with the Japanese theme. Then again, I can’t get Downforce on the table. My family just asked what I was typing and I told them I was reading Boardgame pornography, about people spending afternoons with family, playing great games.

cranberries wrote:
Land of the rising sun? I think my kids would actually play this, especially with the Japanese theme. Then again, I can’t get Downforce on the table. My family just asked what I was typing and I told them I was reading Boardgame pornography, about people spending afternoons with family, playing great games.

All you have to do is come out to Trashfest and you can live the dream with your surrogate family, the ones who really "get" you.

Played Exit: The Sinister Mansion, which was awesome. It was probably on the easier side of the spectrum, but a lot of the puzzles were new and interesting uses of the components. It's the first with the new codesigner (Ralph Querfurth) who BGG indicates will be the main designer going forward as the Brands step back.

I was worried that Unlock! would be the only series pushing the boundaries, but wave 3 Exit: has also been changing things up (Sunken Treasure with its more linear storytelling, Murder on the Orient Express with side rooms and the mystery layered over the top, and Sinister Mansion with some very clever puzzle design). If both series keep evolving, I have a hard time seeing how any of the other competitors could hope to compete (unless they rely heavily on the physical component gimmicks).