What board games are you BUYING?

I have not played Mean Streets yet, it looks interesting and impacts the entire campaign.

Grime and Gold at the Ghost Gates is terrible. Highly recommend you do NOT buy that.

The character expansions are neat, but incredibly expensive.

Not a game, but my deluxe wooden tokens for Bullet Heart arrived. Not going to convince someone who doesn’t like the game that it’s good, but they just make everything better. Digging through the bag has the satisfying sound of a bingo machine, everything moves easier and the boards just look better with those chunks sitting on them.

I’m always appreciative of great components or upgrades. I think it enhances a game’s experience when the parts show thought in how they function, and when they look, feel or sound great.

charlest wrote: I have not played Mean Streets yet, it looks interesting and impacts the entire campaign.

Grime and Gold at the Ghost Gates is terrible. Highly recommend you do NOT buy that.

The character expansions are neat, but incredibly expensive.

The plague stuff I can take or leave, I like the settlement encounters a lot though.

The two dungeon book things are fun I think, but they're basically their own little one shot mini games.

The character expansions are great but dubious value wise it's true. They all add more variety and fun stuff.

I think the lore books are really fun if you like the game. Lots of cool uh lore in there, and art and stuff. A couple of them have new missions too.

The new mission books and card packs and stuff that are coming look great too but they aren't here yet so y'know.

The short answer is the base game has a crap ton of content in it and you don't need anything else at all, but if you get it and like the vibe basically everything they've released is cool imo. I recommend playing the base game and watching it for a sale on everything else is you like it. They tend to run 25-50% off sales on their website somewhat regularly.

n815e wrote: I’m always appreciative of great components or upgrades. I think it enhances a game’s experience when the parts show thought in how they function, and when they look, feel or sound great.

Same. It's why I always cite Eric Lang's assertion about "making something that looks cool on the table" as a significant design focus. Yes, you could do cardboard standees, but there's something cool about moving gigantic Osiris and company around the board and just looking at a board covered in gods, warriors, and monsters. It's basically the raison d'etre of Cthulhu Wars' existence. Yes, Cthulhu Wars: Duels is much more transportable and plays the same game with standees, but it's also not as cool as moving gigantic Hastur around the board.

I've had similar reactions with other games that don't involve minis, like War Chest. It's just coins/discs that easily could've been done with cardboard tokens. But half the fun of the game is just plunking down one of your metal coins or shuffling them against each other in your bag like a pro with chips at any poker table. They just have a great feel to them, in the same way that playing chess with bog-standard plastic pieces and a paper board is fine, but moving your nice marble pieces around an actual wooden table just feels better. Ostentatious? Sure. OTT? Probably. But just more fun.

In b4 Sag can say "Fuck table presence."

I've been playing Warcry almost exclusively since last April, so you know what side of the fence I fall on. Love chromed out components, can take or leave bespoke storage, and will never believe there is a single "Gaming Table" that will comfortably fit every game I want to play on it.

A month and a half after I made a test purchase of OOP Forge World models from an online seller that I couldn't decide was a scam, a foreign package finally showed up at my doorstep. I'll have to post about that later.

I bought Barcelona, a super comboey point salad euro ass euro. It looks nice and not toooooo crunchy/tight, and it's got combos on top of combos and points torrentially raining down on you. Hopefully the teach isn't too bad so I can get it to the table enough to justify it.

Virabhadra wrote: In b4 Sag can say "Fuck table presence."

Fuck table presence!

Actually you and I are on about the same page. I don’t mind a pretty game, it’s all the bullshit people want to wrap around it that seems like a colossal waste of money to me. Custom tables, shelving units, wooden inserts . . . I like to spend that money on games instead.

I have $1200 worth of model airplanes to back this up. It’s really shameful. Oh, and I’m looking for the Baker Se5a if anyone has it. I’ll pay full price.

It’s the phrases themselves that make my eye twitch. ”I haven’t played the game yet, but I’m kinda concerned about the table presence . . .” Dude! You’re not allowed to bitch about a game until you figure out if it’s any good or not! Great games are allowed to be cheap!

No, I'm totally with you there. I LOVE The King is Dead and all it comprises is a map of England, a few cards with simple illustrations, and a bunch of cubes. It's a brilliant game, just as it is. I just think there's still room, literally and figuratively, for things like the plastic figures of Ankh, the cardboard vehicles of Heroes of Land, Air and Sea, and the elaborate artwork of Abyss, as well. Those features help make those games what they are in the same way that the cubes and the simple, vinyl volcano of The Downfall of Pompeii makes it what it is and which is still one of the most eye-catching of any of the games I've played in a public space. Visual design doesn't have to be confined to one type of pattern is all I'm saying.

The original release for Monsterpocalypse (2008) is still one of my favorite games and I've got a complete collection in my back pocket in case we ever want to try something other than Warcry. (I'm not sure whether this helps, but if you've never played MonPoc, it's a lot like that indie game INTO THE BREACH.)



I was hoping that the Mythic Games kickstarter would be my one-stop upgrade to the second edition, and we all know how that turned out. Someone posted this image on one of the big MP Facebook groups and somehow the discussion did not involve "Privateer Press is switching from poured resin to 3d printing their miniatures and the quality difference is flabbergasting." I'll keep playing with my pre-painted models from the first edition, thanks.

There's a guy in his early sixties who shows up at the thrift store when it opens and immediately raids the game shelf. One time he looked so miserable when I grabbed a copy of Samurai Sword that I just handed it to him. His day job is working retail at Batteries Plus. I am 90 percent certain there is a little neurodivergence in the mix. My thrifting buddy refers to him as "The Greedy Goblin."

So he went on the local FB marketplace and listed all the games he has acquired, at the thrift store (Deseret Industries) and from some local sales. His prices are ridiculous, but he'll come down. Do you see anything in the $30 range that looks really good? I'm probably going to get the Trekkin the National Parks because it has good reviews and my family might play it.

docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vc1-y5QK...xjs/edit?usp=sharing

Note he is selling Samurai Sword for $80. :\

Pandemic Iberia is good if you like Pandemic variants. Amazon lists for $45.

A Goblins' hoard!
Samurai Sword seems to be on the list twice, one for 10$. Spyfall, Dutch Blitz and Codenames are fun party games. Bakong is utter shit.I have heard good things about Marrying Mr. Darcy and Tragedy Looper.
Nothing I know to be great and would buy for that money, though.

Virabhadra wrote: The original release for Monsterpocalypse (2008) is still one of my favorite games and I've got a complete collection in my back pocket in case we ever want to try something other than Warcry. (I'm not sure whether this helps, but if you've never played MonPoc, it's a lot like that indie game INTO THE BREACH.)

I was hoping that the Mythic Games kickstarter would be my one-stop upgrade to the second edition, and we all know how that turned out. Someone posted this image on one of the big MP Facebook groups and somehow the discussion did not involve "Privateer Press is switching from poured resin to 3d printing their miniatures and the quality difference is flabbergasting." I'll keep playing with my pre-painted models from the first edition, thanks.

Don't hate me, but I use a couple of the buildings from Monsterpocalypse to bling out my King of Tokyo set

ChristopherMD wrote: Pandemic Iberia is good if you like Pandemic variants. Amazon lists for $45.

I think the kids would play Pandemic, especially this version. And I'm trading a $3 copy of Endeavor for one of these games, so I'll probably get it relatively cheap. Thanks!