What board games are you BUYING?

The Runaways had like 19 bass players, so this was bound to happen.

My Kickstarter for Worms - the board game just arrived! Looking forward to checking it out.

I don't normally enjoy filler games, because the ratio of play time to setup/rules explanation time is usually not great. And also because there tends to be minimal sense of theme or narrative or strategy or interesting decisions to make. However, I decided to buy This Game is KILLER, based on Charlie Theel's recent and enthusiastic review. I always appreciate Charlie's thoughtful reviews, even though our taste in games is somewhat different, and this seems like a thriller of a filler. A fast character elimination game that is a little semi-co-op and very nasty, with just enough components to convey that it is a bughunt (Alien/Aliens) sort of game. In fact, it seems to match up particularly well the recent Alien: Romulus movie more than any other entry in the Alien franchise. This Game is KILLER seems ideal for my upcoming day of Halloween board games that I host every October.

Stopped by the Gamezenter (formerly Fantasy Flight’s Game Center until Christian Petersen bought it back to give it a worse name and remove the kitchen but did expand the free play space). Picked up the gorgeous Godzilla decks for UniVersus and some singles for Star Wars Unlimited, but what I didn’t buy is the real story.

Tucked on its own two shelves were forgotten and early editions of Fantasy Flight games. I’m not just talking the Runewars Miniatures Game or Twilight Imperium Third. I don’t even mean Dust Tactics and Mutant Chronicles, both of which were represented. I’m talking Doom 2016 and 2004. I’m talking unpunched Warcraft (not World of, but the real-time strategy game with wooden tokens). Space Hulk: Death Angel for $65. Petersen even dove back to 1997 for his own design GolfMania (5.1 on BoardGameGeek). What a trove.

I always wanted to get good enough at playing the overlord in DOOM 2016 to kick the space marines' asses but they steamrolled me, every time.

Have you considered worse opponents? Perhaps young children?

Ha! At this point I'd consider any opponents. I haven't had a game night since... August?

Ordered one of the last copies of Hellapagos. A reprint has been hinted at, but no date yet. After the last two years' disappointments I do need a better game for large groups in two months.

I saw Hellapogos recently at our Barnes and Nobel, but ended up buying Cartographers.

I have a gaming friend who is ill and unloading board games he doesn't have the energy to play. Although I am selling most of my games right now (mostly grail games that I would love to play but you know the drill) I couldn't turn down Sekigahara for $25.

Some preorders from a long time ago finally came and some early Christmas gifts came too plus a few from my bday a month and a half ago that came:
Arcs
Burning Banners
LoTR Duel for Middle Earth
Flip 7
Matcha expansion for The White Castle

That will keep me busy for the winter months.

I’ve played LotR Duel for Middle Earth about a half dozen times and am really digging it. It’s better than 7WD IMO.

Bought a few games, when they popped up for good prices, that I got rid of a few years back but I'm back where I want the opportunity to play them again:
Deep Madness KS bundle
D&D: Legend of Drizzt
Nexus Ops (FFG 2nd edition, pretty impossible to get the original without paying silly money)

The last two are good short/medium length fun with low rules overhead, while Deep Madness is just an impossibly hard underwater dungeoncrawl - well if you can call running for your life to the objective before drowning or being eaten (too much combat just speeds up your inevitable death).

I got Marvel Champions and the Mutant Genesis Campaign expansion in trade a few weeks back, and have played a half dozen games of the base set solo dual handed. Loving it.

Of course, there was a bunch of deals on Amazon for Black Friday, so I also picked up the Sinister Motives and Wolverine for a song.

I've been spending the last week or so researching what else I should get. I'll probably end up with most (if not all), but I won't be able to get it all at once and need a plan.

Yes, I like LotR Middle Earth Duel much better than 7W Duel. My son and I sat down and played it multiple times in a row and plan to play it again tomorrow night a few times.

This and Star Wars the Deckbuilding game will be regulars in the father/son rotation for quick 2 player games.

Cappster_ wrote: I got Marvel Champions and the Mutant Genesis Campaign expansion in trade a few weeks back, and have played a half dozen games of the base set solo dual handed. Loving it.

Of course, there was a bunch of deals on Amazon for Black Friday, so I also picked up the Sinister Motives and Wolverine for a song.

I've been spending the last week or so researching what else I should get. I'll probably end up with most (if not all), but I won't be able to get it all at once and need a plan.

Depends on what you enjoy about the game. If you aren't going to do much deckbuilding, the campaign boxes are the best value in the game (after the base set), with 2 heroes and 5 scenarios in each campaign. If you are going to deckbuild, you will need at least one or two hero decks for each aspect that you plan build. Scarlet Witch has the best thwarting cards (Justice), but other aspects tend to have their best cards spread out amongst various hero decks, and any given deck probably has a specific aspect strategy. For example, War Machine uses leadership cards to bring out expensive allies temporarily and then sacrifice them immediately for good thwarts or attacks. The only way to get the 'Pool aspect is to buy the Deadpool hero deck, but it has enough 'Pool cards to support two different hero decks.

In general, most hero and villain decks offer a distinctive experience that usually matches the character well in a thematic sense. Even if you don't like a specific character, you might find that character is fun to play in this game. If you are not planning to spend a lot on the game, it will be more efficient to focus on heroes from a specific group (Avengers, X-Men, Web Warriors, Champions), because there will be cards only work for a specific group.

A brief rundown of the campaign boxes:

The Rise of the Red Skull: Spider-Woman and Hawkeye are both fun characters to play. This campaign is one of the easier ones, except for the Red Skull scenario, which is tough.

The Galaxy's Most Wanted: I skipped this campaign, because the general consensus is that 3 of the 5 scenarios are not fun, and the final scenario is extremely difficult.

The Mad Titan's Shadow: Adam Warlock and Spectrum are fun decks to play, and all five of the scenarios are interesting, especially the Thanos scenario. However, the Loki scenario is unusually difficult.

Sinister Motives: Many fans consider this one of the best campaigns. The two hero decks are good, especially if you enjoyed the Spider-Verse movies. The scenarios are all innovative and fun, except the final scenario is extremely brutal.

Mutant Genesis: This is one of my favorite campaigns. Both hero decks are interesting, but the Shadowcat one requires careful timing to play well. All of the scenarios are good, and the Magneto one strikes a nice balance between fun and challenging.

NeXt Evolution: Possibly the easiest campaign, but still good. I am not a fan of X-Force, but the hero decks and the scenarios are all entertaining.

Age of Apocalypse: I skipped this campaign because I don't like any of the characters, and there is a fiddly new mechanic involving sending your allies on side missions.