F:ATties Five Favorites - Ameritrash

DukeofChutney wrote: RE Ares Project; I am one of the few people that really digs it. I like double blind systems (which this is) I like the video gamey strategy feel to it, and i like the in built tempo to the game. You build up armies behind screens and then throw dice at each other. After a few games you start to learn the speed at which the different factions build up, and the different routes you can take with each deck. I also quite like the base building aspect. In some respects it feels similar to Sirlins newer rts inspired magic clone. It is also sort of unique, no other card game plays like it. It is definitely worth a spin but i think it will always be a niche game. Its a 2 player, or 2 team game, the 3 and 4 way bashes can be fun but don't really work.

I've always wanted to play his game but the number requirement prevents me from doing it. I think it would have been fantastic with my old group, actually.

I had some lovely and well-written responses about each of my favorite games... then my computer crashed. Instead, you just get a list of my top five favorite Ameritrash games...

1. Betrayal at House on the Hill v.1/v.2/Legacy

2. Wings of War/Glory/X-Wing v.1

3. DungeonQuest

4. Star Wars Imperial Assault

5. ah crap, are you going to make me choose? I mean Kingdom Death: Monster or Thunder Road? Camp Grizzly or Red November? Star Wars: The Queen's Gambit or Survive: Escape from Atlantis? Screw you, I'm picking them all.

You start preaching the word about Wings of War and you're going to end up being Sag's new best friend.

Star Trek Ascendancy
Viktory II
Axis & Allies
Fortress America
Titan

Honorable mentions

Ogre
Shogun
Conquest if the Empire
Buck Rogers Battle for the 25th Century
War and Peace
Crucible
Old Milton Bradley's Broadside, Dogfight, and Screaming Eagles

My own mixes

Hero Fix - various house-ruled versions of HeroClix including my son's with Lego minifigs
Blood Feud New York with Sons of Anarchy

and not yet published

Shores of Tripoli - a light wargame we're playtesting with Viktory II pieces, others are using Broadside pieces

Forgot this thread was pinned. Here is my list, revised as of 2/14/11 1/02/12 1/03/13 9/21/21:

1. Camp Grizzly - All the good AmeriTrash games tell stories, and Camp Grizzly consistently tells entertaining stories. It's a semi-cooperative game, so there is occasionally a vast betrayal. The five small expansions add significant replay value, but the base game is a very solid, well-rounded experience, perfectly capturing the summer camp slasher movie style with a simple board, some dice, and some decks of cards. The play time is typically 60 to 90 minutes and it is easy to teach, so Camp Grizzly hits the table often and everybody enjoys it.

2. Marvel Champions - I grew up reading comics, especially Marvel superhero comics, and I have long been searching for a good superhero game that really captures the feel of the genre. Marvel Champions finally delivers the goods, in a co-op/solo game about scheming super-villains and the heroes that thwart them. The game is not extremely complicated, but there is enough meat on the bones of the rules that the designers have been able to successfully and thematically express a wide range of characters. The game offers the chance to customize player decks, but doesn't require it, and I am the rare CCG veteran who never enjoyed deck design.

3. Arkham Horror - With all the expansions in the mix, Arkham Horror offers a thematic sandbox with near-infinite variety. The mythos cards function like punch cards for a cardboard computer that generates the illusion of a great interactive story. I would play this constantly if I didn't own any other games. Setup is lengthy and it hogs the whole table, but the experience is memorable.

4. The Gothic Game - By every reasonable standard, The Gothic Game should be a bad game. It uses mechanics that have fallen completely out of favor, like player elimination and roll-and-move and keeping track of things with pencil and paper. Many of the important things that happen in the game are random. Players often have few choices. And yet, every single person who has played this game with me has loved it. The bizarre board delivers great atmosphere and the weird events from the room decks complete the experience. And everybody seems to get a sick thrill from playing a game that encourages them to directly attack and kill the other players, or at least their playing pieces.

5. Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress - I have also been looking for a great dungeon crawl board game for decades, and Blackstone Fortress is the best that I have found, despite the science-fiction setting. The map tiles are vivid and evocative. The characters offer distinctive play styles. The combat is very tactical, and there is a nice though small mixture of enemies, ranging from vicious HTH fighters to ones capable of psychic attack from a distant corner of the board. The overall game is a bit easy, but a few injuries can abruptly ramp up the difficulty, and all the boss fights are tough.

What left my list this time and why:

Space Hulk: Death Angel is a great little game, but the difficulty level makes the game a bit too tense to fit my current definition of fun. It's a great design and nearly always a great play, but I just don't have quite as much enthusiasm for it and so it hasn't hit the table recently.

The Hills Rise Wild - Still a great budget tactical game, but the headcount is too particular for frequent play. Two players is fine and four players is great, but three players tends to leave one player getting squeezed hard by the other two. Or two engage in total war while the third player tiptoes away with the win.

Fury of Dracula - This is still a great game, but I feel that the greatness is slightly diluted by the various editions. Each version has different advantages or disadvantages, and each feels like it falls slightly short of an ideal version of the game.

Cosmic Encounter - This one also fell off my list due to a headcount issue. It's perfectly playable with 3 to 8 players, but I feel that 5 or 6 players is a much better experience. More dynamic combinations possible in play, and better multi-player dynamics. With 7 or 8 players, it is entirely possible for the game to end before everyone has had at least one turn.