Board Games

[mckerney]

There's no actual board game version of it, but Hero Academy is very good. There's also a PC version with cross platform play.

[tarcone]

Originally Posted by bob

I just got an iPhone 4 today. Are there any good board games on there? I know Ticket to Ride, but anything else?

Check here:

iPhone | VideoGameGeek

I really like Dominion. TTR is hard for me because of size. I like it much better on the iPad.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by tarcone

TTR is hard for me because of size. I like it much better on the iPad.

I'm going to guess this will be an issue with a number of games.

Reaper Miniatures KS project rakes in $3.4 million.

[bob]

Thanks for suggestions.

[tarcone]

We had a game night at my buddies house last night. We got in a game of Game of Thrones the card game. And then a game of Eclipse.
The guys really liked Eclipse. I think that one will get into the rotation.
I finished last again. I cannot get my economy going in that game and the late rounds alawys find me way behind.
Im enjoying Eclipse.


Fun night.

[tarcone]

I forgot to mention that I purchased Tammany Hall on an auction on BGG. Got the game and all the stretch goals from their Kickstarter. This game looks fantastic. It should fit into my regular group great. I get the game in November and I cant wait.

[Matthean]

Had a weekend of gaming with friends. I've come to the conclusion my friend has horrible AP issues and I think he waits until his turn before processing anything. Starcraft is listed at 180 minutes. I will guess that means an hour per player in a three player game even though the game goes up to 6 players. Any game we play if it's 3 players goes 6-7 hours. Dude just takes forever and I don't think the other friend helps that much either. I finally won a game and then won a second. Due to horrendous play times we only got four games in.

The normal game is plagued by the random set up. One game I could either prolong my living by moving from my initial planet and grabbing the next two over even though they were crappier, or I could fight off the other player who was forced to go through me. Yep, I was gone in no time. Due to game length, I sat for a long time and just watched. Next game I placed my planets perfectly. Since I was the Protoss, I sat and turtled, which is the last thing you want to have happen if you are facing them. Once I saw I could get 4 VP where you had to have air units on them, I knew what I wanted to do. By the time the other two got to me I was steam rolling. Final game was everybody spaced out with really good planets so was the best free-for-all of the weekend. I won, again, due to randomness as the owner of the game had the needed points to win but an event card I drew reduced my opponents' VP by two. One round later and I had the highest VP.

I found out the game does come with scenarios for each player configuration. I really wished this was explored more. The one we did I thought was stellar, but since there is only one for three player, we mostly played the randomly generated ones. If the game had 3 scenarios for each player configuration, I think the game would have been much better received. The random factor will likely screw somebody about 33% of the time, but that's a guesstimate. With the random draw of planets, the order of placement of planets, and the gateways, it just feels like there's a high chance somebody in some way is going to get screw on some level. Two of our four games were truly balanced, but that's because one was a scenario.

[Warhammer]

Sweet gaming weekend. Played Space Empires 4x with my youngest son, and then played Advanced Civ and 1830.

[tarcone]

I bought Dark Angel Space Hulk Card Game today. Played through it once to learn it. I watched a video over at BGG to help. This game is awesome.
I cannot wait to play through the whole game. It is intense, strategic, annd random.
There are lots of little things that throw things out of whack.
It is a co-op or solo play game.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by tarcone

I bought Dark Angel Space Hulk Card Game today. Played through it once to learn it. I watched a video over at BGG to help. This game is awesome.
I cannot wait to play through the whole game. It is intense, strategic, annd random.
There are lots of little things that throw things out of whack.
It is a co-op or solo play game.

I played it once about a year ago. It was pretty good.

I played a game of Arkham Horror with Lady H_B, a good friend of mine and his girlfriend. Despite the fact that Arkham takes a long time to setup (and put away), runs long and can be quite complicated, it's still my favorite board game.

We had a great game. Everyone was involved and we won with only one spot left on the Doom track. It was really touch and go there for a while.

[Glengoyne]

I traded for Quarriors and Quarmageddon this week, and I've enjoyed the couple of plays we've gotten in. A nice quick light filler type game, that I hope to play with the family.

I eschewed it, favoring Dominion and the expansions, as we have them all. But after playing at Gencon, I decided to take the quarriors plunge.

[terpkristin]

I know it's not the same type of game as most of the ones discussed here, but I was introduced to Cards Against Humanity this past weekend at PAX. Really good (if not "wholesome") and fun game. Played it a few times with complete strangers and had a blast...it could devolve into a form of a strategy game if you play with people you know, trying to see how they would answer each...

Cards Against Humanity

Highly recommended...you can download a PDF version of it and make your own version, for free! But the $25 is worth it.

/tk

[sterlingice]

It's basically Apples to Apples if you skip to the part where it's 2am and you're saving up that Hitler or Hellen Keller card to play it on the most wrong things

SI

[britrock88]

Yeah, great game for terrible people. I just pity that my printing money expired before I could print off a copy...

[Vince, Pt. II]

Played our first ever full 6-person game of Eclipse tonight. Had three regulars, one semi-regular, a guy who's played twice, and one newbie. My peace loving roommate (who ruthlessly invaded me on the last turn completely unexpectedly last game) was the Planta (extremely expansionist and pacifist...their ships start at a distinct disadvantage) and immediately to my right. Immediately to my left was the newbie playing as humans. Two seats to my right was my other roommate, the warlike one who won the rights to draft first and predictably took the Orion Hegemony (his favorite race - for those who don't have the game yet they are extremely military-oriented). Two to my left was the semi-regular who ended up with the Hydran Progress (science loving exclusionists). Straight across from me was the two-game veteran playing Descendants of Draco (interesting middle of the road species who can be friends with hostile aliens and explore well). I still don't like the Eridani Empire, so I played Red Humans.

Caught between me and the Orion Hegemony, the Planta did a pretty good job of being isolationist quick, locking me out of any eastward expansion. The newbie to my left also locked me out, so I was pretty much stuck moving north/south. I got some nice draws, however, so even though I only had 5 tiles or so to work with, they were all ok. Draco across the table established a pretty nice perimeter early, and after making friends with the Hydrans it seemed like he was set up well...but Orion got out to a great start and as soon as the Hydran/Draco alliance formed he moved in and crippled the Descendants.

I rode a balanced economy for a few turns, beefing up my ship's defenses and building a fairly sizable fleet. My peaceful roommate pulled the final inner ring explore tile...and linked herself, the Orion and myself all through the one tile. With some hasty negotiation, she beat out a treaty with the Hegemony. She tried to do the same with me, but as she was now my only non-galactic-center avenue of expansion (the newbie human had completely locked me out at this point to my west), I was forced to remain aloof. While I had the horses to tackle the Galactic Center myself, I couldn't possibly do that AND push the Orion Hegemony, so I was content to leave it as a buffer between the two of us.

Meanwhile, the Hydrans were a little TOO isolationist, and with their Draco peace treaty found themselves locked out of the fun behind them and the Humans. With Orion massing behind the final Draco outpost, the Hydrans built a pair of massive star destroyers and beefed them out completely.

The game went on at a stalemate like this for a while - Orion couldn't expand without opening a flank to either myself or the Hydrans (no one was fooled by the Draco/Hydran alliance at this point), the Hydrans wouldn't be able to push through Draco first without giving Orion enough time to mass his fleet, and I couldn't get through the galactic center without leaving myself vulnerable to an Orion counterattack. The only question was whether or not I could get my fleet up and running before the Planta could plug that gap...

Fast forward to the last turn, and everything went crazy. The Hydrans splurged on a Wormhole generator and assaulted the newbie humans who thought they were safe behind the wall. Draco, who has amassed a ridiculous fleet of missile bearing starbases, launched one fighter into Orion space just to keep them honest, and I began with a token force moving into the galactic center, which STILL hadn't been taken. The Hydrans managed to push past the human bastion, taking one extra system. Orion manages to resist the bait that is my token force at the Galactic Center, and bolsters its defense behind the Planta wall. Undaunted, I assault Planta space, and manage to slip a fighter past the perimeter to take their undefended homeworld. With one last ship, I move again past the planta wall into Orion space, despite the stout defenses in hopes of drawing a high victory point tile. Only THEN does Orion make his move, blitzing the galactic center to take out my token force and hopefully claim the center for their own. In so doing, he leaves my attack and the Draco attack relatively unguarded with just one fighter of his own in each zone - it's all or nothing. Meanwhile, in a last ditch effort, the planta rush to build a reactionary fighter in their homeworld in hopes of staving off my attack.

The Hydran Star Destroyers make short work of the humans and carve out a nice little section of space for them at the end of the game.

Draco's one missile starfighter gets the consolation prize of stealing one of Orion's systems as the token defense force can't withstand the missile barrage.

As expected, the Planta barricade holds strong and defeats my large (yet mostly toothless) invasion force. I hold the distinction of rolling 32 dice in this battle and rolling exactly zero sixes.

My invading starfighter just barely manages to hold off the rush-built Planta fighter, and I take their homeworld. Amazingly enough, my far weaker fighter also manages to kill the one Orion ship that was left in their sector of space to give me another system before the end.

Finally, the Hegemony completely decimate the center of the map, dispatching my three cruisers (but not before I take down his dreadnought) and the galactic center itself with relative ease.

When we tallied it all up, the standings looked like so:

Hydran Progress 29
Orion Hegemony 28
Red Humans (me) 27

But then we realized that I hadn't drawn my battle tiles for losing that last battle at the galactic center! With one dreadnought down, I got to draw four tiles. I needed a 3 to tie and a 4 to win (the tile would replace a 1). I managed...

...a three, for the draw.

A lot of fun, despite the fact that I'm still up and I need to be awake in a scant four and a half hours. If Orion had gone a little less aggressively at the Galactic Center at the end, it would have been an easy win for them. If the Hydrans had been able to move a little earlier, nothing would have been able to withstand their Star Destroyers (6 hull with a +3 plasma cannon). If I had managed one more freaking research tile, I would have gotten my extra point to win the game.

[Matthean]

Well, until further notice my gamer group is dead. We started at 8 and then went to 9, 2, and 1 that's including me. I know of a number of people outside the group who play but don't come. I had a person e-mail this past week about it, and they didn't show. I have talked to a number of people about specific games that I have and they show genuine excitement about playing them. I tell them let me know when they want to game and yet they never do. One guy came when we had nine people, and he was obviously pumped about the group only to see him never show again. I don't get it. There's a number of people who play but yet organizing a group seems impossible right now.

I'll have to try again with the local area gamer group but the last meeting I went to nobody showed but that might have been in part due to GenCon. Adding to my frustration is one of the guys who I do game with a couple of times per year only seems to want to play Starcraft and that gets really old with its random factor and over 2x play time when my friends are involved.

[tarcone]

Yeah my group is on a hiatus. Lots of work and family going on. Its tough to get together. The game night I attend is during the week and is a 1/2 hour away. So playing there is tough.
Thats the reason I bought the Space Hulk game.

[Vince, Pt. II]

The only reason I get to game as much as I do is both of my roommates enjoy gaming. It's tough to get anyone else over, even though they rave about the games we've played.

[Matthean]

I have an unused second bedroom, but I've already gone through a list of people to be roommates only for none of them to move in. I guess I'm back to soloing, and I have games that work or it. I just wish some of my wargames would get here so I could play those.

[terpkristin]

Are there games better suited for "soloing"? Or some distinctly setup for it?

/tk

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Are there games better suited for "soloing"? Or some distinctly setup for it?

/tk

I hear Mage Knight is pretty good for it, though I've never played it and it aint cheap.

[SirFozzie]

I pledged $150 to support this game which is a futuristic version of Blood Bowl combined with Rollerball:

DreadBall - The Futuristic Sports Game by Mantic Games — Kickstarter

I wish I could get someone to paint the stuff *laughs*

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Are there games better suited for "soloing"? Or some distinctly setup for it?

/tk

Any co-op should work. Agricola, Le Havre, Ora et Labora, Race for the Galaxy with The Gathering Storm expansion, Arkham Horror, and Walnut Grove are all multiplayer games that offer solo play. Friday is one of the more known recent solo games. I personally don't mind soloing two player games that offer asymmetrical play. I know using Vassal on your PC is huge for wargames, but I think some regular games are on there as well. At least it makes it easier to find people to play with.

[tarcone]

I cant figure VASSAL out. I want to play Game of Thrones 2nd ed. on it badly. But I dont even go there.

I just bought Dark Angel Space Hulk card game. It is awesome for solo play. Intense and difficult. 3 games and no where near winning.

If anyone is interested, I will hold a FOFC weekend of gaming at my house over Christmas break. You guys get here, I will put you up for free and feed you. You bring your games that you want to play. I have a bunch.
I have a couple full sized beds and a pull out couch. Another couch and I can get an air bed or 2. If interested, PM me. I would think at least 3 of you showing up would be the minimum.

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Are there games better suited for "soloing"? Or some distinctly setup for it?

/tk

I really enjoy Lord of the Rings: The Card Game as a solo experience. Most scenarios play reasonably fast (30 minutes or so). The potential downside would be that you mostly need to construct specific decks to tackle each scenario solo, and some people don't enjoy that type of thing. I do enjoy it, but will admit that sometimes I want to try a different scenario but don't really have the time or energy to construct a new deck and end up just playing the same scenario I was last playing or not playing at all.

Mage Knight would be highest on my 'want' list if I didn't have young kids and could leave it set up, since I probably would need to play it over multiple evenings.

My friend says that the solo variant for Thunderstone can be kind of fun. THe bonus here is that you then also own a game that is fun to play when others are around, too.

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Are there games better suited for "soloing"? Or some distinctly setup for it?

/tk

Ghost Stories. There is even an iOS version to get that quick fix.

This is a very challenging co-op game that works well solo. Never won it solo or co-op so I don't know if solo is any more challenging that he standard game.

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by Glengoyne

Ghost Stories. There is even an iOS version to get that quick fix.

This is a very challenging co-op game that works well solo. Never won it solo or co-op so I don't know if solo is any more challenging that he standard game.

I picked up Ghost Stories for the iPad awhile back, but I've never managed to really figure it out. It looks intriguing, but it needs a tutorial.

[Izulde]

Thanks to this thread, I'm planning on picking up Mage Knight. I've been reading this thread since the beginning, but MK from my research looks like the first game with a solo component that I'd actually enjoy.

Be my first board game I've bought since I was a kid.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Make sure your budget can hang Izulde. When I finally caved and bought a new board game, I ended up with 5 after a few months. Now I'm up around 20-25.

[Izulde]

I'm very good at keeping myself from impulse buying this sort of thing. Didn't used to be when I was younger, but for example, now I buy maybe 2 or 3 video games a year at most.

Thanks for the warning of the addictiveness, though.

[Danny]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

Make sure your budget can hang Izulde. When I finally caved and bought a new board game, I ended up with 5 after a few months. Now I'm up around 20-25.

Me too, except I am up to around 200 or 330 with expansions.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Currently, I am considering "Mage Knight" and/or "Ghost Stories".

I love me some co-op games. I (or close friends) already have:

Arkham Horror
Defenders of the Realm
Pandemic
Space Alert
Dark Angel

Any other good ones out there?

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

Currently, I am considering "Mage Knight" and/or "Ghost Stories".

I love me some co-op games. I (or close friends) already have:

Arkham Horror
Defenders of the Realm
Pandemic
Space Alert
Dark Angel

Any other good ones out there?

Flash Point: Fire Rescue

I'm looking to play this one soon, but from what I hear and have read, the mechanics are different from the games in your list.

[Matthean]

Flash Point is slightly more fun than Pandemic for me but slightly not as good of a game mechanically. Elder Signs is another co-op but it's in the same theme of Arkham Horror so it might get a pass. I watched the Tabletop episode of it and it seemed decent, but not something I'm busting to get. Shadowrift is a Dominion type co-op that's suppose to be good. If you want more family based stuff, Mice and Mystics is coming out early October. It's in the spirit of the Redwall series and the Mouse Guard RPG.

EDIT: I knew I would forget one, Sentinels of the Multiuniverse is a superhero co-op game and likely the best current superhero game out, but there's a wave of them coming. Legendary is a Marvel one that's getting good early buzz, but I'm not even sure if it's coming out in 2012.

[tarcone]

Sentinels of the Multiverse is on my wish list. I am really intrigued by this one.
Another one that I am buying next is Battle Beyond Space. I have mentioned this before Im sure. But it loks like a lot of fun. A space brawl in an asteroid field. Movement is card driven. Pre-order only right noiw at my OLGS. But it sold at Gencon and people are saying it should have hit stores. But I will wait.

[Vince, Pt. II]

I hear Elder Signs is basically Arkham Horror light. Meant to be played with fewer people and in much less time.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

I hear Elder Signs is basically Arkham Horror light. Meant to be played with fewer people and in much less time.

I should have added that to the list. One of my friends has it. We played it once. It was all right. Definitely Arkham light, but I love Arkham so much that I'd rather play that - time and all - than a light version.

[Matthean]

For co-ops, I just watched two positive reviews for Atlantis Rising.

[tarcone]

Elder Sign in on Clearance at Minature Markets for $19

Elder Sign (Clearance) - Board Games - Clearance

[Izulde]

Won an eBay auction on a new, sealed in box Mage Knight from 100% rated seller. Pretty stoked about it.

Edit: $46 winning bid, just under $58 with shipping, so about the $55 price plus shipping I saw a lot of places (other than going the $100 for free shipping route at the one place)

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Are there games better suited for "soloing"? Or some distinctly setup for it?

/tk

Absolutely. I almost exclusive play board games solo except for a couple of kid games with my 5 and 9 year olds. Victory Point games has a huge set of games that are actually designed for solo. Many are historical war game types but some are not war games like Nemo's War which is a great game.
Here are some links to good solo games on board game geeks.com:
Solitaire War Games | BoardGameGeek
Always alone... the definitive list of single player games. | BoardGameGeek

also Victory Point Games site:
Victory Point Games

[tarcone]

I went to Minature Market to day to buy Battle Beyond Space. I was checking out the dent and ding wall. Man, there were several games I wanted to buy. But I was able to contain the impulse.

The game I really wanted to buy, but wasnt sure it would ever see a table because of length, and the fact that I just bought Eclipse. But Twilight Imperium 3rd edition was on the wall for $45. Unbelievable.
I wanted to buy it real bad. In fact, so bad I could taste it. It was in my hands several times. But I overcame and jsut got the one game.

[terpkristin]

Interesting. So now I've earmarked Mage Knight to pick up at some point (though I'm not sure I get, reading just BGG, how it would be done solo...the game seems to have many elements I dig) and bookmarked that ultimate solo list.

/tk

[Danny]

Originally Posted by tarcone

I went to Minature Market to day to buy Battle Beyond Space. I was checking out the dent and ding wall. Man, there were several games I wanted to buy. But I was able to contain the impulse.

The game I really wanted to buy, but wasnt sure it would ever see a table because of length, and the fact that I just bought Eclipse. But Twilight Imperium 3rd edition was on the wall for $45. Unbelievable.
I wanted to buy it real bad. In fact, so bad I could taste it. It was in my hands several times. But I overcame and jsut got the one game.

Damn, you should have bought it.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by tarcone

I went to Minature Market to day to buy Battle Beyond Space. I was checking out the dent and ding wall. Man, there were several games I wanted to buy. But I was able to contain the impulse.

The game I really wanted to buy, but wasnt sure it would ever see a table because of length, and the fact that I just bought Eclipse. But Twilight Imperium 3rd edition was on the wall for $45. Unbelievable.
I wanted to buy it real bad. In fact, so bad I could taste it. It was in my hands several times. But I overcame and jsut got the one game.

I would have so caved depending on the condition. When that game sells out I kind of doubt it gets reprinted, but you never know. At worst you could see it for profit on eBay.

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Interesting. So now I've earmarked Mage Knight to pick up at some point (though I'm not sure I get, reading just BGG, how it would be done solo...the game seems to have many elements I dig) and bookmarked that ultimate solo list.

/tk

I don't know who all else here has the game, but I do. I would love to say I have played it, but it gets put aside for other stuff. I had full intention on playing it with friends when we met up, but one of the guys hates new games and loves Starcraft so since he was the host, that's all we played.

Here's a complete playthrough type tutorial of the walkthrough.

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


Part 5


Part 6


Part 7


Part 8

[Danny]

I briefly owned and sold mage knight (without playing it while its value was high after 1st printing sold out). It seems like a fantastically designed game, but I do question how much fun I personally would have as it does seem to be a puzzle type of game and I know I would only be able to play it solo. I'd rather play a wargame if I am going to solo.

[Izulde]

The same guy who did the Walkthrough series of vids for Mage Knight also did a second solo playing series for the game titled Solo Campaign I think.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by Izulde

The same guy who did the Walkthrough series of vids for Mage Knight also did a second solo playing series for the game titled Solo Campaign I think.

I think he did, or is going to do a third.

[Matthean]

http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/23889.html

And the Mage Knight expansion is announced. I can't imagine what a 5 player game would look like since it's rather known for game length with four players. Early accounts say the boss is going to be hard.

[Izulde]

Very cool news. I'll have to put it on my Christmas list. Thanks for sharing.