Board Games

[ColtCrazy]

Originally Posted by Matthean

Fantasy Flight Games [News] - Imperial Assault

Yep.

Well, might as well earmark money for that.

[mckerney]

Ugh, clearly the money I've spent on Edge of the Empire and X-Wing plus my planed purchases of The Witcher Adventure Game and XCOM weren't enough. FINE, JUST TAKE ALL MY MONEY FANTASY FLIGHT.

[mckerney]

New Scum and Villainy faction for X-Wing miniatures, 3 new ships for it plus it will have pilots for Firespray, Z-95, Y-Wing and HWK.

[tarcone]

Fire and Axe: A Viking Saga is being produced by IDW and Pandasauras.

I have had a couple dealings with Pandasauras and wont deal with them again. But thought some might be interested in this game.

News from Gen Con 2014: Fire & Axe and Wildcatters Coming from IDW/Pandasaurus in 2015 | BoardGameGeek News | BoardGameGeek

[Thomkal]

For about another 16 hours, Amazon's Gold Box Deal of the Day is 40% off select Strategy Board Games, about 20+ in all. I'm getting Sentinels of the Multiverse probably.

[Abe Sargent]

Two players die at world chess event in Norway | Sport | The Guardian

[tarcone]

War game math trade going on over at BGG.

Its a geek list.

[Carman Bulldog]

So the Lords of Waterdeep iOs app is on sale for $3.99. The IAP expansions (Skullport and Undermountain) are also on sale for $0.99. I think all this would normally run you $13 total. I've never played it before but took the plunge. Agricola and the IAP are also on sale.

[ColtCrazy]

Ended up getting Formula D on the Amazon deal. Was a pretty good deal, even several less than CSI. Looking forward to getting it.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Commander,

You've defeated the Aliens in the Digital World, can you now defeat them in the board game world???

Fantasy Flight Games [News] - You Are Humanity's Last Hope

Looks like it will be a lot of fun. Interesting that it has a digital component, and that each player takes on a specific role in the XCom hierarchy.

NEW: PCGamer got to play a demo game of this at a games convention and loved it. Here is their thoughts on the game:

http://www.pcgamer.com/previews/xcom...s-and-anxiety/

[Matthean]

I wasn't paying attention to it since it was based on the Legendary game, but the Aliens version looks like they took care of every issue I had with the Marvel one.

[Glengoyne]

Thunder Alley has been mentioned here before, and my first play would have led to another but for the fact that we'd gathered for our Twilight Imperium game. I went directly to Coolstuffinc to order the game. I like the idea of racing games, but have only rarely enjoyed them. Now Snow Tails and Thunder Alley are race game staples.

The movement mechanic with the cards is a lot of fun, and teamwork is truly rewarded including stretches where opposing teams stick together from time to time. The event system gives you a nice random element and a catch up mechanic with the occasional yellow flag. The whole thing works really well. There are going to be some racing leagues popping up at board game tables this year.

[tarcone]

Originally Posted by Glengoyne

Thunder Alley has been mentioned here before, and my first play would have led to another but for the fact that we'd gathered for our Twilight Imperium game. I went directly to Coolstuffinc to order the game. I like the idea of racing games, but have only rarely enjoyed them. Now Snow Tails and Thunder Alley are race game staples.

The movement mechanic with the cards is a lot of fun, and teamwork is truly rewarded including stretches where opposing teams stick together from time to time. The event system gives you a nice random element and a catch up mechanic with the occasional yellow flag. The whole thing works really well. There are going to be some racing leagues popping up at board game tables this year.

I told you Thunder Alley was awesome. It is my 2014 Game of the Year.
I have played one game on VASSAL using Skype and am currently playing a game PBEM on VASSAL. Plus Im in the middle of a 10 race series I have put together with 24 1:144 die cast cars. Im having a blast playing it solo.

Go to GMT and check out Grand Prix. It is on the P500 list. The tracks are interchangable with TA. And it looks like there will be 5 tracks for Grand Prix. I think.

[Matthean]

One of the main local Cons is happening in two weeks. We had 150 last year. I saw the games that are being demoed and I'm not really blown away. I just wish Cubra Libre wasn't 30 minutes after Netrunner. Here's my rough draft of what I'm taking. I'll cut down from here.

Cosmic Encounter
Clash of Cultures
A:E, although this is vastly for the 6pm on Sat.
Chronicle
El Grande
Glory to Rome
Hanabi
Lewis and Clark
Meuterer
No Thanks
Coup
The Resistance
Star Realms, I have two copies
Suburbia + expansion
Summoner Wars, everything first Summoners
Taluva
Trains
Walnut Grove

[Vince, Pt. II]

Had a fantastic weekend of board games the entire time with some friends in town. Reminded me of a few things:

-Splendor is a simply fantastic game that I can't recommend highly enough. Simple mechanics, plays quickly, very limited randomness with plenty of room for strategy.

-Ascension is an extremely good deck-builder. I think I still prefer Dominion, but this would easily be #2 for me.

-Finally got a second play of Twilight Struggle in. I really enjoy the mechanics of the game, but I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing strategically. This play also felt like the USSR was playing at a disadvantage immediately and for the whole game. The US won by points on turn 8 despite the USSR holding a decided territory advantage in both Europe and Asia. I (the US) was able to get the Europe scoring card out early before my opponent's territory advantage became pronounced in Europe, but it felt...almost cheesy that I could win based on Africa and the Americas. I need more plays before I make any definitive balance statements, but both players agreed it felt unbalanced this play through.

-Suburbia is a game I want to get more plays of, but the game goes quite slowly when I teach it and I find that my participants usually aren't fond of the game because of the slow play - which is mainly due to understanding tiles and how they interact. Any Suburbia fans care to chime in with tips to improve that aspect for new players? Should I simply make early playthroughs use fewer tiles in each stack (A, B and C) to expedite the game?

-Eclipse is still awesome.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by ColtCrazy

Ended up getting Formula D on the Amazon deal. Was a pretty good deal, even several less than CSI. Looking forward to getting it.

Once you've played it a time or two, if you enjoy it I'd highly recommend picking up one or two of the expansions. Having a couple extra racetracks to cycle through really keeps the game fresh.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

-Suburbia is a game I want to get more plays of, but the game goes quite slowly when I teach it and I find that my participants usually aren't fond of the game because of the slow play - which is mainly due to understanding tiles and how they interact. Any Suburbia fans care to chime in with tips to improve that aspect for new players? Should I simply make early playthroughs use fewer tiles in each stack (A, B and C) to expedite the game?

The game is combo heavy with higher than normal book keeping. I would mention this somewhere in the teaching of the game. At least this way people know to expect that sort of thing. I personally can play through it fairly quickly, but I'm analytical enough to process things quickly and have 7 plays of it. The book keeping really is one of the few complaints about the game.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Yeah, I also really enjoy it, but it's hard to get a game to the table when everyone else doesn't

I'll let you know if I come up with a better way to introduce it.

[Matthean]

Not sure I can fit all of the games I want to into tomorrow, but so far El Grande is my game of the Con. Even the guys I played with kept talking about how much they liked it.

[tarcone]

Had a couple guys over tonight. We got in Love Letter, Kemet, Thunder Alley, DC Comics Deck Building. It was a lot of fum. Lots of good games there.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Had a couple guys over tonight. We got in Love Letter, Kemet, Thunder Alley, DC Comics Deck Building. It was a lot of fum. Lots of good games there.

How was the DC Comics game?

[tarcone]

I dont like deck builders, but I really like the DC game. I love the theme and the game itself is really well done. It is one deck builder that I can get into.
I really recommend it.

[ColtCrazy]

Got out of the house and played games with a friend. Two games of War of the Ring (each of us playing each side once) and an introductory game of Mage Knight to teach him the game. I think he liked Mage Knight a lot, though he did think it was difficult. It was just my 3rd game of it and I know I'm not comfortable with it yet, but I love the game. Both WofR games went down to the wire with me winning as the free people with just 3 corruption remaining and then me winning as Sauron (10 VPs) with him two steps from Mt Doom.

[cschex]

Originally Posted by Matthean

Not sure I can fit all of the games I want to into tomorrow, but so far El Grande is my game of the Con. Even the guys I played with kept talking about how much they liked it.

Having only gotten into gaming a couple of years ago, I didn't get to play El Grande until one of the regulars at the Austin meetup brought it a few months ago. Since then, I've made sure to play it every time it's at the meetup. It's an amazing game I hope the reports of a Big Box reprint coming out end of this year/next year are true.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by tarcone

I dont like deck builders, but I really like the DC game. I love the theme and the game itself is really well done. It is one deck builder that I can get into.
I really recommend it.

Thanks, given I'm a Comics fan, and DC Comics in particular, I had hopes it would be a good game. But I said that about DC Universe MMO as well.

[tarcone]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Thanks, given I'm a Comics fan, and DC Comics in particular, I had hopes it would be a good game. But I said that about DC Universe MMO as well.

If you get the game, make sure you get the blue box. The orange box has the less mainstream heroes and villians.
The game play is great. The card interaction and the powers of the cards are outstanding.
Everything is there. From Superman to Bizzaro to the fortress of solitude to wonder womans lasso to the batmobile.
The supervillians are nasty is game play.

Just a fun game.

[Warhammer]

Originally Posted by cschex

Having only gotten into gaming a couple of years ago, I didn't get to play El Grande until one of the regulars at the Austin meetup brought it a few months ago. Since then, I've made sure to play it every time it's at the meetup. It's an amazing game I hope the reports of a Big Box reprint coming out end of this year/next year are true.

There's only one issue with El Grande. You need 5 for it to shine. In my opinion it is one of the best gaming experiences out there.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by Warhammer

There's only one issue with El Grande. You need 5 for it to shine. In my opinion it is one of the best gaming experiences out there.

Four player felt fine, but I get why 5 is best. After day 2 it was still my favorite, but we only did a very quick play of Lewis and Clark. That might end up being #2 over time after I get some additional plays. 3 out of the 4 fav games were ones I owned with two being new. Coup and 7 Wonders remain as ones I'm not sure about or still aren't. I can at least see a game in 7 Wonders. Coup might suffer from it feeling like it is too much of a guessing game. I'll geeklist the experience when I get the time.

[Autumn]

7 Wonders has turned into probably our most played game. It seems to strike the right balance between easy to teach people, quick enough to play, and scratching the fun strategy itch for experienced players.

I've been playing Innovation the last couple weeks and really enjoying it. It has that balance I like of a simple base mechanic but with a huge variety of cards that throw wrinkles into it.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by tarcone

If you get the game, make sure you get the blue box. The orange box has the less mainstream heroes and villians.
The game play is great. The card interaction and the powers of the cards are outstanding.
Everything is there. From Superman to Bizzaro to the fortress of solitude to wonder womans lasso to the batmobile.
The supervillians are nasty is game play.

Just a fun game.

How does it compare to Legendary (marvel deck building game)? My kids absolutely love Legendary as they are huge marvel fans anyways.

My oldest daughter (almost 14 years old) plays ascension with me on the ipad, and plays dominion at times and is into a DC kick lately.. I'm curious if it is something she would enjoy.

[tarcone]

I havent played Legendary. I dont like Dominion.
The DC universe is very well represented in this game. I imagine your family would really enjoy it. It would be right up your 14 year olds alley. It is easy to learn and play.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by tarcone

I havent played Legendary. I dont like Dominion.
The DC universe is very well represented in this game. I imagine your family would really enjoy it. It would be right up your 14 year olds alley. It is easy to learn and play.

FYI, people keep comparing Dominion to the other deck builders and honestly Dominion has a rather different feel to it so for me I pause at making those comparisons. I rate Legendary as a low 7. If you have the players who like the Aliens theme, Encounters really does fire it.

[tarcone]

I wasnt comparing Dominion. He mentioned and I expressed my feelings. Dominion is one reason I dont like deck builders. DC Comincs is outstanding. I rate it an 8. I will play it any time.

It was the last game we played the other night and it took about 50 minutes with 3 of us. Just another tidbit about it.

[Matthean]

It actually took Trains for me to like more pure deck builders, and I have played a couple past Dominion including Legendary. I was so close to sticking a for into the mechanic, which ended up being one of my friends favorite. Star Realms I had played once via PC but played it twice at the Con. Considering it retails for $15, that's an easy recommendation. I think it is the definitive 2-player gateway deck builder.

[ColtCrazy]

Dominion was one of my first games when I got into gaming. I enjoyed it and still do, but I do like Legendary more (the theme got me even if the mechanics aren't significantly different). Trains is one I am interested in, but deck builders don't get on the table too often.
Another card game I like is Masters of the Gridiron, a kickstarter that came out earlier in the year by Sports Mogul. Not a bad little game really if you enjoy card games and football.

[cschex]

Star Realms is so simple but never fails to be fun AND is great two player, which I find is not the case for many other deck builders. We still have Dominion and Intrigue and whenever I break it out every 6 months or so (usually with friends who request it) I find it's still enjoyable if I don't overplay it.

[Autumn]

I know there was someone on here who did an afterschool gaming group for high school age kids, i think. I'm about to start something similar and I'd love to get some advice from that fellow in particular. I'm also interested in suggestions for games you think would be good starting points for a group whose gaming experience may be low, or varied.

[Matthean]

This Town Ain't Big Enough for the 2-4 Of Us | Board Game | BoardGameGeek

A guy played this with his son and me at a Con, and I think it would work well. Plus, it's cheap.

[tarcone]

Here is a 5 step program at BGG for starting an afterschool group. There is a forum there called Games in the classroom.

How to Start an Afterschool Game Club in Five Easy Steps | BoardGameGeek | BoardGameGeek

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by Autumn

I know there was someone on here who did an afterschool gaming group for high school age kids, i think. I'm about to start something similar and I'd love to get some advice from that fellow in particular. I'm also interested in suggestions for games you think would be good starting points for a group whose gaming experience may be low, or varied.

Without looking into the previous answers, off the top of my head here are a few games that I think would work well:

King of Tokyo - Killer theme, simple mechanics, quick and fun.
Dominion - Simple mechanics, quick game with some depth to it. Theme may be tough for high schoolers, but it's not terrible.
Ticket to Ride - Another game that is easy to pick up, has room for strategic thought and plays quickly.
Ascension - This has become my group's deck builder of choice, and may be a better fit than Dominion. It takes longer to play, but feels shorter because the turns are much quicker. It's also a bit stronger thematically, so it's easier to be immersed.

[Warhammer]

For any after school group, Cosmic Encounter is awesome. It plays completely different from other games, and the replayability is there. No game is ever the same.

[ColtCrazy]

I do a lunch hour game group with my 5th graders. It's an award and really motivates some kids. They get to come back to the room during lunch and lunch recess (on rainy days) and play games. We played several last year:

1775 Rebellion
Conquest of the Empire
Lewis & Clark
King of Tokyo
Merchants & Marauders
Liar's Dice
Settlers of Catan
Timeline

I then gave away the games at the end of the year to students. Haven't started this year yet, but I have a small 5th grade account I can pull money from to buy some new games. 1775 will be a definite repeat as well King of Tokyo and Timeline. Adding Fauna, Ticket to Ride, and Founding Fathers.

[Matthean]

Even if I'm not much of a fan, Splendor would work well in that situation. (Rise of) Augustus would be good as well. Merchants & Marauders and Lewis & Clark are a bit much in this situation.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by Matthean

Even if I'm not much of a fan, Splendor would work well in that situation. (Rise of) Augustus would be good as well. Merchants & Marauders and Lewis & Clark are a bit much in this situation.

I thought of Splendor, but the concept is a little abstract. I'm probably underestimating 5th graders, but I'm not sure it would be chosen over other games if the kids had the choice.

[Matthean]

I do think what age they are might help. I obviously haven't tried abstracts with kids so I have no idea. It's a soft recommend simply due to the fact I wasn't that engrossed by it either, but I know many who do like it.

Speaking of Splendor:
Post DaveCon Report | BoardGameGeek

[ColtCrazy]

Also forgot Jamaica, which worked very well (and is considerably easier than Merchants). It's a fun little racing game.

I haven't tried many abstracts either. Straight on dice fests seem to work well.

[Matthean]

I was going to mention Jamaica as an option as well. Thinking back to when I was a kid, abstracts would be harder to pull off. Taluva could work due to the visual aspect, but the game isn't really a good bang for buck pricing and more so if you don't know if it will work or not. Dice games? Hell yeah those would work for me. Bonanza/Bohnanza should work as well. It goes without saying that Takenoko is a super easy pick. Machi Koro could work as well.

[Autumn]

I don't know the exact kids that will be involved yet, but they are between 6th and 10th grade. I don't know yet how many "gamers" there will be among them, that will influence things. Thanks for all the ideas guys! Based on ones I own I'm planning on starting out with King of Tokyo and maybe Dominion.

[britrock88]

I'm curious about El Grande with the earlier talk of it in this thread. Putting this out there... would anyone want to play an FOFC game on yucata.de?

[cschex]

Originally Posted by britrock88

I'm curious about El Grande with the earlier talk of it in this thread. Putting this out there... would anyone want to play an FOFC game on yucata.de?

If you can get 4-5 players, I'm down