What board games are you BUYING?

This week I got the just released Stargrave rule book, and Cursed Hoard, the expansion to Fantasy Realms. Looking forward to trying both, although Stargrave is a lengthy read. It will be a while.

I didn't realize GMT did Samurai Battles for the Command and Color series so when I ran across it yesterday at my FLGS I picked it up.

Yeah, it's supposed to play pretty well. Very focused on retreats and such ("honor" ugh).

I've been very good with my restraint and then in the last month I picked up Xia: Legends of a Drift System plus expansions and then Betrayal Legacy ... I blame Lockdown boredom, oh well, two good games and good for both my AT and my Euro groups

A local person was selling off a copy of War Chest for cheap due to a badly damaged box. I'm not hung up on box condition, so it was an easy decision for 20 bucks. same person was selling an expansion to Eldritch Horror I did not have. Good pickups.

I bought my first board game purchase for myself (probably years) in a while that was not an escape game or a war game; and it was a doozy. A local store had a full Tainted Grail set on consignment and I ended up buying it after a very long discussion with my wife about it.

Hopefully, I actually enjoy the game...

Gary Sax wrote: Yeah, it's supposed to play pretty well. Very focused on retreats and such ("honor" ugh).

I've played it a few times. The battles tend to be on the smaller side - 5 flags seems to be the average victory threshold. The Dragon cards ( tactics cards paid for with honor tokens ) add a new wrinkle, kind of like the Inspiration tokens in MEDIEVAL but in some cases more powerful. It def adds some more uncertainty to the thing, kind of like always wondering if your opponent has FIRST STRIKE as you close to melee.

barrowdown wrote: I bought my first board game purchase for myself (probably years) in a while that was not an escape game or a war game; and it was a doozy. A local store had a full Tainted Grail set on consignment and I ended up buying it after a very long discussion with my wife about it.

Hopefully, I actually enjoy the game...

Well I hope you did strong research on the game and matched it up to your gaming preferences , it's an extraordinary game but not for everyone (or every couple).

UPDATE: As mentioned on the site a few times start the game in the Story mode variant in the back of the rulebook, especially if you're just doing it 2-player or solo. and move to normal rules when you think it is getting a bit too comfortable for you.

I'm struggling with spending too much lately.

My order just shipped with the TI4 expansion and Destinies. I bought the latter simply so I could review it as I'm skeptical it's something I'll keep in my collection long-term.

I'm also on the edge of buying the Prospero Hall F&F. I'm not a big fan of the film franchise, but I'm a big fan of car chases and that type of action. We don't have many board games like that.

Also struggling with wanting to buy the Fantasy Realms expansion, Black Orchestra (which would be a re-buy), MicroMacro Crime City, Paleo, Babylonia, and others. Too many appealing games.

Edit - "Destinities" is not a word, or a game.

I'm definitely going to buy MicroMacro once you can actually but it. Real hyped to play that one with my wife.

MicroMacro is great, and truly innovative. I’m not sure if it really qualifies as a game though, it’s more like a fun puzzle and plays very light. You could burn through it in a single sitting if you were dedicated to do that so we (my daughter and I) have just been dipping in for one or two cases once every few weeks, going slow and inventing our own narrative on the events that we see to pad out the experience. Been playing since Christmas and almost at the end now but Sornars mentioned that there is now a second release so we will definitely get that one to continue the fun.

FYI I quickly checked boardgameprices.co.uk and it’s easily available over here and shipped stateside for around forty dollars total. Probably a little pricey but depends on how keen you are!

re: MicroMacro Have you been playing with the "Hard mode" where you just get the case brief and ignore the question prompts? I feel like that injects enough challenge into the experience for it to feel more like a game. In general my feeling is that this is more activity than game (but still a very pleasant activity!).

re: Babylonia Everyone who has played seems to rate this very highly but it has generated next to no buzz from what I've seen. I would be keen to hear your thoughts if you do end up picking it up!

charlest wrote: ... My order just shipped with the TI4 expansion and Destinies. I bought the latter simply so I could review it as I'm skeptical it's something I'll keep in my collection long-term.
...
Edit - "Destinities" is not a word, or a game.

If you mean the KS Destinies then I'm in the same boat, by the time we had played the third of the four scenarios I had decided it was going, we're only playing scenario four to end the story and I'm not even going to bother with the expansions.
In short what they made didn't work - that is making a competitive game where all information, including your destiny paths since you share them with your opponents, is completely open. It would probably work well as a co-op with some sort of timer or game AI but, in it's current form, it is really only good for family or lighter/introductory gaming groups, experienced gamers need not show up.
Of course this is early days in app driven games, look at video games compared to now 30 years ago, so here's looking to the future.

sornars wrote: re: MicroMacro Have you been playing with the "Hard mode" where you just get the case brief and ignore the question prompts?

Yes, exactly that. In fact the way we play is that we try to figure out what is the prompt on the next card as my daughter loves to check our progress as we play

Yes, that one Southern. And the competitive nature of it is my biggest concern. The framework of these types of games doesn't support that mode of play well.

It's received a ton of hype though and I feel I need to cover it, couldn't get a review copy so I bought it.