Board Games

[Matthean]

Finally played Agricola. I need some more plays to get a better feel of how much I like it. I did notice that being first player is way more important than compared to a game like Lords of Waterdeep where I can essentially never be first player and still place 1-2. I was expecting certain options to be available at the start that aren't and only come out later in the game somewhat randomly. I can see playing it with a draft as the ideal way to play it, but I think it will take some plays to get there. It will end up being in the 8-9 area. My only somewhat "disappointment" with the game is I built it up to be this grail game, and it wasn't an instant "this is a 10" first time play. Side note, I can't imiagine playing the game without the various upgraded meeples. Just subbing my copies of the animals was a huge help. Once The Goodies expansion gets reprinted, I can upgrade the rest and not look back.

[Warhammer]

That is part of the reason why going for start player is important. Of course, if you are going a route different from the other players, that is not as big of a deal.

[Matthean]

We did a four-player game. The two women went after the planting
aspect so hard it was near impossible to try to do it as well. I sat with a single plowed field for a long time. By the time the second Sow option came out I grabbed it and the other guy complained. I think there is a certain amount of optimized yard you are going for but then you have to figure out what part is going to be your VP makers. My field was OK, but I did well in the cards. I still took 3rd though. Since I have the game, I'm going to try some solo plays of it before playing it again.

[tarcone]

3 of us got together and played a couple games. Well, a game and a half. We played 1775: Rebellion. Close game won by the British on the turn when the Colonialists played their 2 truce cards in round 4.
The Colonialist player was by himself and a 1st time player. He played well.
Myself and the other guy were the British and the loyalists.
Tight game 4-3 was the final.

Then we played a half a game of Empires of the Void. I really like this game. It was a 1st time for the other guy. We only got through a few rounds. I really want to get this to the table more often.
I really consider it TI3 lite. Its as close to TI3 as you can come, that isnt as long.

[Matthean]

Snowdonia and its expansion are on sale at CSI. The base game is for 57% off. It is a medium weight worker placement game that is on the more tactical side as the game plays against the players and there's a random weather element as well. Richard Ham has a play of it that helped put it further on my radar.

[SirFozzie]

If you like Blood Bowl (and the new release Dreadball), or other such "Violent sports games" this week is an embarassment of riches as THREE games of that kind are or will be on kickstarter

Slaughterball: Slaughterball - Brutal Sports Board Game by Frog the What Games — Kickstarter (It's going to be interesting to see if this game makes it to the target

Guild Ball: (http://www.guildball.com/) Goes live at 4 PM EST today... not much known but the test Kickstarter page is up: Guild Ball - A Tabletop Medieval Football Game by Guild Ball — Kickstarter (not the actual KS page, that goes live at 4 PM)

DreadBall Xtreme: Basically, the Street Level of Dreadball. Take away the glitz, glamour and massive tv contracts of Dreadball, and you get Dreadball Xtreme (other wise known as Street Dreadball.) No refs, no rules, no mercy. Looks like it's going to go live on Friday.

Get ready for Guild Ball! | Geek Pride

edit: Oh, anyone who wants a pickup game of dreadball (or even perhaps a league) on Vassal, let me know

[tarcone]

Got Jamaica in the mail the other day. Played it with my daughters. They realy liked it. And so did I. Lots of decisions for a race game. Great theme. I really like this one. And it doesnt take too long. I would guess an hour or a little more.

[SirFozzie]

So, an update:

Both Guild Ball and Dreadball Xtreme have launched, and already met with success:

Dreadball Xtreme wanted $100K, and is currently close to $160,000.. not bad considering it just launched two hours ago. (it met its funding goal in 39 minutes)

Guild Ball was looking for 30K english pounds.. they've made it on day 2, but just barely..

Now, what will happen with Slaughterball, will folks abandon their pledges, or will folks interested in the area move on to this one too?

[Matthean]

Played LoW. I scored 107 with the expansion. I haven't scored that low since I first played it and only using the base game. I have literally doubled that score with the expansion. I at one point was lapped by one player and another player was tied with me although they were also around the board for the second time as well. Insult to injury is the player who had lapped me played a mandatory quest on me during the final round where I had everything planned out how to do my final two quest. I instantly lost out on 22 points.

Add in my trying to teach the game and the person who loves playing it so much continually interrupting me even though I told her to merely focus on setting the game up and both her and another player kept repeating what I already said to the new player. It just all irked me. Next time I'm setting something else up and LoW won't be an option for awhile. And yes, this was my 13th play of the game. I guess I was cursed going in.

[PadresFan104]

Hey everyone, I'm trying to spread the work for this Kickstarter Campaign by my friend Keith from PLAAY Games. It's a relatively small effort intended to improve the component quality of the game, specifically one of the dice that is unique and requires a special order from his supplier.

Factory-Made Decider Die for HISTORY MAKER BASEBALL! by Keith Avallone — Kickstarter

He's already reached his goal (and then some), but if you were on the fence about trying this game, one of the pledge amounts will get you the game for less than usual. If you are looking for a unique tabletop-baseball game, something a little different than Strat/APBA/Replay/Dynasty League/etc where intangibles can have an impact on the outcome of a game, I'd encourage you to give it a try!

You can learn more about the game itself here:
HISTORY MAKER BASEBALL Big League Baseball Board Game

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by PadresFan104

Hey everyone, I'm trying to spread the work for this Kickstarter Campaign by my friend Keith from PLAAY Games. It's a relatively small effort intended to improve the component quality of the game, specifically one of the dice that is unique and requires a special order from his supplier.

Factory-Made Decider Die for HISTORY MAKER BASEBALL! by Keith Avallone — Kickstarter

He's already reached his goal (and then some), but if you were on the fence about trying this game, one of the pledge amounts will get you the game for less than usual. If you are looking for a unique tabletop-baseball game, something a little different than Strat/APBA/Replay/Dynasty League/etc where intangibles can have an impact on the outcome of a game, I'd encourage you to give it a try!

You can learn more about the game itself here:
HISTORY MAKER BASEBALL Big League Baseball Board Game

Thanks for the reminder Al! i am in for that awesome hall of fame card set for a great and fun game.

[PadresFan104]

Originally Posted by Galaril

Thanks for the reminder Al! i am in for that awesome hall of fame card set for a great and fun game.

Thanks Dan. Just finished a game from my 1977 Phillies season. Cubs come to town, Reuschel vs. Carlton. Both pitchers are on fire, but neither gets the decision as the game goes to extra innings tied at 1. Finally in the top of the 12th, the Cubs HAMMER the normally solid Garber and before I know it, Sutter shuts us down in the bottom half and the home crowd goes home pissed off watching the 6-1 Cubs win.

HMB is such a great game, hope folks on this thread give it a look!

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by PadresFan104

Thanks Dan. Just finished a game from my 1977 Phillies season. Cubs come to town, Reuschel vs. Carlton. Both pitchers are on fire, but neither gets the decision as the game goes to extra innings tied at 1. Finally in the top of the 12th, the Cubs HAMMER the normally solid Garber and before I know it, Sutter shuts us down in the bottom half and the home crowd goes home pissed off watching the 6-1 Cubs win.

HMB is such a great game, hope folks on this thread give it a look!

Yes HMB is THE game for baseball board gamers for sure. Your Phillies 77 replay is a great example of how close to real life the results can be but still have some divergence possible from real life. How close are the 77 Phillies to their real life win -loss in your replay?

[ColtCrazy]

Jamaica is back in stock on CSI, so I snagged a copy. Figured with so much positive vibes from it, I'll get some use out of it.

[tarcone]

Originally Posted by ColtCrazy

Jamaica is back in stock on CSI, so I snagged a copy. Figured with so much positive vibes from it, I'll get some use out of it.

You will like it. My girls and I really enjoy it. Fun game with some meaningful decisions to make. Simple concept done very well.

[oykib]

Originally Posted by Galaril

Thanks for the reminder Al! i am in for that awesome hall of fame card set for a great and fun game.

Did anyone else get suckered into the $75 level so he'd be able to have a card of himself made?

[PadresFan104]

Originally Posted by Galaril

Yes HMB is THE game for baseball board gamers for sure. Your Phillies 77 replay is a great example of how close to real life the results can be but still have some divergence possible from real life. How close are the 77 Phillies to their real life win -loss in your replay?

I just finished game 88 and am 50-38. They were 51-37 in real life. Pretty cool, but I'm still hoping to finish better than real life and take out the Dodgers in the NLCS!!

[PadresFan104]

Originally Posted by oykib

Did anyone else get suckered into the $75 level so he'd be able to have a card of himself made?

Of course!!

[Vince, Pt. II]

Decided to back this as well. Looking forward to checking it out!

Has he mentioned where the extra cash is going now that he's surpassed his goal? I didn't notice any stretch goals or anything of that nature.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by PadresFan104

Hey everyone, I'm trying to spread the work for this Kickstarter Campaign by my friend Keith from PLAAY Games. It's a relatively small effort intended to improve the component quality of the game, specifically one of the dice that is unique and requires a special order from his supplier.

Factory-Made Decider Die for HISTORY MAKER BASEBALL! by Keith Avallone — Kickstarter

He's already reached his goal (and then some), but if you were on the fence about trying this game, one of the pledge amounts will get you the game for less than usual. If you are looking for a unique tabletop-baseball game, something a little different than Strat/APBA/Replay/Dynasty League/etc where intangibles can have an impact on the outcome of a game, I'd encourage you to give it a try!

You can learn more about the game itself here:
HISTORY MAKER BASEBALL Big League Baseball Board Game

Originally Posted by Galaril

Yes HMB is THE game for baseball board gamers for sure. Your Phillies 77 replay is a great example of how close to real life the results can be but still have some divergence possible from real life. How close are the 77 Phillies to their real life win -loss in your replay?

Just watched the youtube review, complexity of results, but easy to follow. This game looks amazing, going to get it for sure!

[PadresFan104]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

Decided to back this as well. Looking forward to checking it out!

Has he mentioned where the extra cash is going now that he's surpassed his goal? I didn't notice any stretch goals or anything of that nature.

Awesome! No, he hasn't mentioned any stretch goals. His goal was $1250. He mentions on the kickstarter page that the actual cost for the minimum dice order is $2500. And on top of that, there is the cost of all the rewards he has to fulfill. My guess is that he'd have to hit the $4-5K range before there is truly any extra cash.

I think he was willing to "eat" half the cost of the decider die order, and the cost of the rewards since this was his first kickstarter venture and he was unsure what the reaction would be. I would expect that if he does this again with one of his games, there will be more stretch goals and rewards for sure.

[Matthean]

Considering my wishlist keeps getting shorter and shorter, I'm adding Level 7: [Omega Protocol] to it. I watched the Dice Tower review to put it on my radar, and Ricky Royal's semi play of it sealed the deal. A guy is doing a series of videos for each scenario so I'll watch those but there's honestly nothing bad that sticks out about the game. I know Joel Eddy posted on his Facebook page about how much he's liking Galaxy Defenders, but I don't see that topping this until proven otherwise.

[CleBrownsfan]

Finally got Kemet to the table. 3 person game and I won pretty easily. I'm banking it on because I knew the rules, tile/DI cards strengths, and watched a couple videos prior to playing. I was able to control 2 temples round one and the other two weren't effectively attacking me. I kept the two temples the whole game, so gaining a permanent VP each round was awesome. I think we played 5, maybe 6 rounds before I had the 8 VP's and was declared the winner.

I think it was a hit - although my one gaming buddy was pretty frustrated that he kept tying me when attacking.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Thanks to Christmas and a birthday, I've had a bit of a board game haul the last few months:

- "Eldritch Horror" - Me and Lady H_B played a two player game. It was very quick. It's like Arkham Horror, but different. Many fewer pieces and cards and some different concepts, but with a lot of the mechanics. Some people may like it more because it's much less fussy and complex than Arkham, but, for whatever reason, I love Arkham so I think when we play this I'll always be left a bit wanting.

- "Eclipse" - Still in the box.

- "Ghost Stories" - I opened this last night, looked over the pieces, set it up, read the rules. Looks interesting. I do love my co-op games.

[Matthean]

Watched Watch it Played's series for Descent. One thing that stuck out to me in the end was the fact that after the scenario was over, it was merely part one. People talked about how the game has two encounters and for some reason it came across as something that should happen a lot faster than the two hour game play listing and it made me wonder why things took so long and more so for the first edition. The light finally went on after what really happens was explained. Still glad my one friend is the one getting the game versus me being the one to keep up with the expansions.

[cschex]

Ghost Stories is vicious and really fun. I would recommend a player aid for the first couple of games because the layout of the rulebook kinda sucks IMO (not Arkham bad but not good either)

[tarcone]

Played 2 games of Sails of Glory at my FLGS. Fun game. Quick and tactical.

Bought Love Letters today. This is a very light, fun game. My family really enjoyed it.

[BYU 14]

Just picked up the Walking Dead board game (Robert Kirkman Z-man version) Looking forward to cracking it open when the kids get here.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Just picked up the Walking Dead board game (Robert Kirkman Z-man version) Looking forward to cracking it open when the kids get here.

Pretty easy to learn and definitely at it's best with 4-6 players as you can get a lot more cut throat. 2-3 is nice as well, but it is a little easier to win. I drew Shane as my character and Arnold as his follower. Didn't really need anyone else to get through the Zombie encounters as they both are solid at fighting.

Takes 45-60 minutes to play, fun game and again at it best with more people as the game board can become a mine field of Zombies.

[Matthean]

Found out that not only does the Clash of Cultures expansion have 14 different civs, each of them have four different leaders. That's, a lot of replay right there. CSI has it up for preorder and under $30. Crazy.

[Matthean]

Found out a friend bought his father in-law Battle Cry only to have the father file for divorce later on, and he left behind the game. Looks like I have no need for BattleLore anymore so I don't see us playing more than one C&C based system. I just need to find out what edition of it is. I would be slightly more pumped if it was the 150th anniversary edition.

Star Realms is a sci-fi deckbuilder with mostly PvP play and some variants added in. It plays 2-player but you can get additional copies to add in additional players. CSI has it for $9.99 so I used some store credit and got two copies since I see little need for a 5-6 player game. It should be here tomorrow or Monday at the latest. It fits what I was looking for and the reviews were rather ecstatic enough about the game I broke my rule of not buying a game in the same year it came out. For just under $20 I figure it was worth the risk.

[Danny]

Well, battle cry is often considered the weakest game in the system. Though I cant say for sure since its the only one I havent played. In general, Civil war is not a game I enjoy playing.

[Matthean]

Still don't see the need to get another C&C game when we both will have one after I convert Samurai Battles to a block game. He might keep it to play with his son after he gets older, but I wouldn't be surprised he trades it for something else. Having it tied to his ex-father in-law can't be that fun. We really don't play historical stuff anyway.

[tarcone]

I havent gotten into blocks yet. Im not sure if it is something I will try.

But, I was at my FLGS the other day and there was gaming going on. A historical gaming group was there. One guy has turned his C&C: napoleaonics game into a minatures game. It looked cool. Very well done.

[Matthean]

In terms of historical versions of C&C, I think I would like C&C:N the most. For gateway people, C&C block games have the advantage of the stickers being on both sides so they aren't "real" block wargames, but they at least give a feel of it. I think C&C:N would be the easiest to turn into a miniature game as well. I just think games like Sekigahara and Strike of the Eagle are more my style for block games. SotE being close to ideal.

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Got Jamaica in the mail the other day. Played it with my daughters. They realy liked it. And so did I. Lots of decisions for a race game. Great theme. I really like this one. And it doesnt take too long. I would guess an hour or a little more.

I'm going to have to look into this one. Racing and pirates!

[tarcone]

Visited my FLGS last night. I was just in to look at what wargames they had in stock. They have a copy of A House Divided that I was thinking of buying. That was the one I was going to look at again.
I walked by the new game rack because it is near the entrance. And I like to see whats on it. And there was the game i have wanted to purchase for a couple years now. Nuklear Winter '68. Its a wargame set in an alternate history.
Berlin was laid to waste by atomics at the end of WW2. Some nazis survived and moved underground. In 1968 the reappear. Their homeland is a wasteland occupied by mutants. But the nazia want to take the world over again. So Nato forces come in to geal with the situation. Did I mention the Mutant army?
Its a 1-3 player game. It is a wargame. Hex and xounter.

Its been OOP for a couple years and recently came back. Its been on LnL for a couple months, but I didnt like the price. Well, it was $8 cheaper at my FLGS and I avoided shipping. A win.

I bought that and Sabatouer. That one looks like a game my family should enjoy. We will see.

Also purchased Love Letter a couple weeks ago. My family really likes that game.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by tarcone

And there was the game i have wanted to purchase for a couple years now. Nuklear Winter '68. Its a wargame set in an alternate history.
Berlin was laid to waste by atomics at the end of WW2. Some nazis survived and moved underground. In 1968 the reappear. Their homeland is a wasteland occupied by mutants. But the nazia want to take the world over again. So Nato forces come in to geal with the situation. Did I mention the Mutant army?
Its a 1-3 player game. It is a wargame. Hex and xounter.

Its been OOP for a couple years and recently came back. Its been on LnL for a couple months, but I didnt like the price. Well, it was $8 cheaper at my FLGS and I avoided shipping. A win.

I had it wishlisted for some time since it was a 3-player game but the third player in our group I haven't seen in some time so it kind of slipped away. I'm still curious to know how well you like it.

[Matthean]

Looks like Myth is going to fall victim to the curse of KS projects for board games made by a miniatures company due to abysmal rule book. I know Joel and Tom did reviews for it and other players have played it and enjoyed it, but I think it is rather universally agreed that it is playable only in how willing you are to slog through the rule book and even if you do, your guess is good as anybody's in terms of how right you might be on a rule. Not surprising but disappointing. It looks like as close to a dungeon crawl system that I would want so far. It looks like the rule book and cards need various amounts of makeover to get things working properly.

[tarcone]

Im sure there will be a 2nd edition. KS 1st editions are really buggy it seems. I guess the people are trying to push it before sufficient play testing occurs.

[Matthean]

Quite a bit of play testing was suppose to be done on the game. People are wondering if it was all internal though versus passing it off to someone and then having them try to learn it from scratch. There's literally no "how to play the game" section. It is vastly rules in free form. You have to look around just to figure out how to do the initial set up. Even Joel said after additional plays the game has the same issue that Eldrich Horror does in that it needs more cards for replay so it demands an expansion. The publisher is working on fixing things, but the rating for the game I think will still suffer.

[MIJB#19]

Finally got around to play Cash & Guns. It was quite fun, the first way around. But as the winner of that first game, the second game I was playing with bulls eyes on my forehead, getting eliminated after just three rounds, without any loot. Still a fun game, thankfully it doesn't last for hours if you're eliminated early.

[CleBrownsfan]

Originally Posted by Matthean

Looks like Myth is going to fall victim to the curse of KS projects for board games made by a miniatures company due to abysmal rule book. I know Joel and Tom did reviews for it and other players have played it and enjoyed it, but I think it is rather universally agreed that it is playable only in how willing you are to slog through the rule book and even if you do, your guess is good as anybody's in terms of how right you might be on a rule. Not surprising but disappointing. It looks like as close to a dungeon crawl system that I would want so far. It looks like the rule book and cards need various amounts of makeover to get things working properly.

I got Myth through KS too. I agree - the rules are very poorly laid out and there is a lot of "stuff" plainly left out of the rulebook. BGG has an unofficial FAQ and the publisher posted some PDF references that are getting updated here: link

Mercs has also came out and said they understand the frustrations and are making several videos to help clear the air.

All that said- Myth has potential to be an amazing game. I spent several hours reading the BGG forums after my 1st play through. I know I got several rules wrong or didn't understand a specific interpretations of some rules but I'm still having a blast playing the 1st story quest.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by CleBrownsfan

I got Myth through KS too. I agree - the rules are very poorly laid out and there is a lot of "stuff" plainly left out of the rulebook. BGG has an unofficial FAQ and the publisher posted some PDF references that are getting updated here: link

Mercs has also came out and said they understand the frustrations and are making several videos to help clear the air.

All that said- Myth has potential to be an amazing game. I spent several hours reading the BGG forums after my 1st play through. I know I got several rules wrong or didn't understand a specific interpretations of some rules but I'm still having a blast playing the 1st story quest.

I think as a system it has huge potential. The problem is they are treating it like a miniatures game. There are things listed in the game that aren't currently there in the retail version but are coming to KS backers. People can get the additional stuff at an additional cost to the point of being hundreds of dollars. I fear the same will be done with any expansion. So while the game will work when it is all said and done, if people want the complete game, there's an additional investment. With a rulebook that bad, I wonder how good the rules will be from here on out on any new additional expansion or is it going to be more of a "Don't worry, we use a living rulebook" attitude. As much as I love the potential of the system, I think ultimately I'm bowing out on this, but even if I did get it, I'm waiting until a completely redone manual comes with the base game.

And in other KS news from a company that knows how to put out a game:

Sentinel Tactics: The Flame of Freedom by GreaterThanGames — Kickstarter

[Matthean]

After a decent break from playing, I got three games of San Juan in. I had kind of written it off and thought it was a decent game but maybe not something that I would get if I was building as collection again. I bumped up my score after last night. It still lacks that certain something to make it really standout, but the game is just really solid, and I like how games can be on the tighter side. Last game I was one card away from playing a huge VP generator. One player took a build action to end the round, and the next player took it again at the start of the next round to end the game. I held off on the first build hoping for that one card to so I could build what I wanted. Final score ended up being 23-22-21 with me at 22. I know another game I lost by one as well.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Board game sale over at Amazon.......

Strategy Board Games Sale: Dominion $25, 7 Wonders $28, Forbidden Island $10 & Much More - Amazon Deals, Coupons and Promos

[Coffee Warlord]

Finally played Clash of Cultures last night. Long game, but I quite enjoyed it.

[Thomkal]

Happy International TableTop Day! Check the discount thread where I added a link to a site where you can get over $70 of Introductory RPG system rulebooks and suck for Free.

[ISiddiqui]

I cashed in at the Amazon sale, getting Dominion, Dixit, and AEG Love Letter for $50 combined.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Damn. I'm interested in Nations and Diplomacy but I really don't need to be buying any more board games. Too many I don't play already.

Speaking of too many board games that I don't play...anyone here interested in Galaxy Trucker? I'm interested in trading it for something I don't already own. Too many people in our group dislike the game, so I never have anyone to play it against.