Board Games

[AnalBumCover]

So, this year for Christmas, I decided to do something different, and a bit risky. I went to my FLGS and bought a gift-wrapped blind box of games to open on Xmas day. But it wasn't completely blind. On the box was a label with clues showing the type of game, what mechanisms the game uses. I selected the box of what I thought contained something for the whole family, games I'm fairly certain I don't have, and at a price point I wouldn't (shouldn't) feel remorse spending.

Here's where you come in. Read below, and take some guesses what games might be in this box. I'll report after we open it on Christmas day (or soon after).

Retail Value: $152.00
Sale Price: $85.00

Game 1: 2-4 Players
Type: Family
Category: City Building, Environmental
Mechanisms: Hand Management, Pattern Building, Set Collection, Tile Placement

Game 2: 2-4 Players
Category: Fighting, Territory Building
Mechanisms: Modular Board, Pattern Building, Rock-Paper-Scissors

Game 3: 2-5 Players
Category: Animals, Children's Game, Dice
Mechanisms: Dice Rolling

Game 4: 2-5 Players
Category: Card Game, Fantasy
Mechanisms: Cooperative Play, Deck/Pool Building, Hand Management

[AnalBumCover]

Hmm... after running a couple of searches through BGG, I think this blind box might be between "meh" and "not bad"

[bob]

Anyone know which version of Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective is best for beginners?

[Shkspr]

Start with The Thames Murders (If buying the Space Cowboys/Asmodee edition, the yellow box), as it was historically the "base" game. If you have all three rereleased sets, it might be fun to mix and match them according to chronological order, but as long as you're playing the cases in each box in order, you're fine.

[AnalBumCover]

Originally Posted by AnalBumCover

Game 1: 2-4 Players
Type: Family
Category: City Building, Environmental
Mechanisms: Hand Management, Pattern Building, Set Collection, Tile Placement

Game 2: 2-4 Players
Category: Fighting, Territory Building
Mechanisms: Modular Board, Pattern Building, Rock-Paper-Scissors

Game 3: 2-5 Players
Category: Animals, Children's Game, Dice
Mechanisms: Dice Rolling

Game 4: 2-5 Players
Category: Card Game, Fantasy
Mechanisms: Cooperative Play, Deck/Pool Building, Hand Management

So based on the advanced search feature on BGG, I came up with the following games:

Game 1: Quadropolis
Game 2: Kaiju Crush
Game 3: Pass the Pandas (or possibly Animal Upon Animal, but PtP is a 100% match on the search)
Game 4: The Big Book of Madness

Would like your opinions on these!

[nilodor]

Quadropolis is a lot of fun. Better with 3 or 4 but still good with two. A lot of fun moments where someone screws up your plans and you have to adjust on the fly. The inlay is also pure pornography the way all the tiles fit. I would recommend just playing the advanced version

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

Gloomhaven. Hands down.

I just pulled the trigger on this. Amazon has it for $107 which is probably the lowest I've seen it for.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

I just pulled the trigger on this. Amazon has it for $107 which is probably the lowest I've seen it for.

Nice. But I'm waiting for the digital version, hopefully cheaper, coming next year

[Shkspr]

I've got the digital port of Gloomhaven on my wishlist as well, but deep down inside I know it's going to be horribly reviewbombed in Early Access, and I hope the dev team knows it, too, and that they'll be ready to pour money into the port if EA sales estimates are affected by the forthcoming negative reviews. It isn't immediately going to have campaign or multiplayer, and I don't think it's going to be priced under $20 like everyone wants. Given the shitstorm that Terraforming Mars got for merely delaying hand drafting and a $25 price point, I'm anticipating a bloodbath when Gloomhaven finally hits EA.

On the bright side, my Broken Token inserts for my board copy of Gloomhaven came in, and next week staining and assembling them will make a neat little winter project for my father and I.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Shkspr

I've got the digital port of Gloomhaven on my wishlist as well, but deep down inside I know it's going to be horribly reviewbombed in Early Access, and I hope the dev team knows it, too, and that they'll be ready to pour money into the port if EA sales estimates are affected by the forthcoming negative reviews. It isn't immediately going to have campaign or multiplayer, and I don't think it's going to be priced under $20 like everyone wants. Given the shitstorm that Terraforming Mars got for merely delaying hand drafting and a $25 price point, I'm anticipating a bloodbath when Gloomhaven finally hits EA.

On the bright side, my Broken Token inserts for my board copy of Gloomhaven came in, and next week staining and assembling them will make a neat little winter project for my father and I.

The good news on the price point is that Asmodee is doing the Digital port, and they seem to have a sale somewhere almost every week. The initial price will probably be higher than their other digital games, but sales could make it "do-able" (I hope)

[Fidatelo]

I got two games for my birthday: Above and Below and Hoplomachus: Origins. I haven't played Above and Below yet, but I've had a couple solo games and a PvP game of Hoplo and it is really fun. Nice, tight tactical battles that can be played in like 15 minutes. Super fun!

[Vince, Pt. II]

Jenn and I have been digging into an "oldie but goodie," playing the absolute hell out of Agricola recently; I love that it seems to be very well balanced for just about every player count. Certain resources are more scarce depending upon the player count, but it doesn't seem to imbalance the game at all. While we also love Rosenburg's follow-up game Caverna, I think the insane variation that the cards add to Agricola make me appreciate it more.

[Warhammer]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

Jenn and I have been digging into an "oldie but goodie," playing the absolute hell out of Agricola recently; I love that it seems to be very well balanced for just about every player count. Certain resources are more scarce depending upon the player count, but it doesn't seem to imbalance the game at all. While we also love Rosenburg's follow-up game Caverna, I think the insane variation that the cards add to Agricola make me appreciate it more.

I think many of the older Euros are under appreciated now. Just because a game is more complex, does not mean it is a better game. Agricola to me is a nearly perfect worker placement game.

My only quibble with it, is it can be won at the card draw at the beginning, but there are different draw/draft methods that can mitigate this. It is a great game. I have also used this as an intro game for new players (believe it or not). The beauty is you can tell people to run a balanced farm and they get it. Unlike other "easier" games which people may not understand what they are supposed to be doing.

[jeff061]

Wife and I are still full on with Scythe, we love the game. Recently purchased both of expansions and will be playing through those.

We just dove into Anachrony, which seems promising so far.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by Warhammer

I think many of the older Euros are under appreciated now. Just because a game is more complex, does not mean it is a better game. Agricola to me is a nearly perfect worker placement game.

My only quibble with it, is it can be won at the card draw at the beginning, but there are different draw/draft methods that can mitigate this. It is a great game. I have also used this as an intro game for new players (believe it or not). The beauty is you can tell people to run a balanced farm and they get it. Unlike other "easier" games which people may not understand what they are supposed to be doing.

What draw/draft methods do you use? I've been trying to work this into our games, but my group doesn't like the full draft method because it takes too long, and I chafe at our draw 10 discard three compromise as I feel it doesn't give enough control.

[Warhammer]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

What draw/draft methods do you use? I've been trying to work this into our games, but my group doesn't like the full draft method because it takes too long, and I chafe at our draw 10 discard three compromise as I feel it doesn't give enough control.

I have not played this in a group setting in ages, but I believe we did a draw 7, pick one, pass to the left. Do that until you have 7 cards. That tended to keep things moving.

[AnalBumCover]

Originally Posted by AnalBumCover

So based on the advanced search feature on BGG, I came up with the following games:

Game 1: Quadropolis
Game 2: Kaiju Crush
Game 3: Pass the Pandas (or possibly Animal Upon Animal, but PtP is a 100% match on the search)
Game 4: The Big Book of Madness

Would like your opinions on these!

I forgot to report the games I got from the Blind Box. Looks like I was correct in 3 of the 4 games.

Game 1: Quadropolis
Game 2: Kaiju Crush
Game 3: Pass the Pandas
Game 4: Shadowrift

I was surprised about Shadowrift, because Big Book of Madness was a closer match on the search. But not too disappointed, as I already had a copy of Big Book.

[nilodor]

Originally Posted by AnalBumCover

I forgot to report the games I got from the Blind Box. Looks like I was correct in 3 of the 4 games.

Game 1: Quadropolis
Game 2: Kaiju Crush
Game 3: Pass the Pandas
Game 4: Shadowrift

I was surprised about Shadowrift, because Big Book of Madness was a closer match on the search. But not too disappointed, as I already had a copy of Big Book.

Any favourites from the bunch?

[tarcone]

Picked up the Mother of Dragons expansion for Game of Thrones.

It turns the game into an 8 player game adding the houses of Arryn and Targyen, And dragons. And a Vassai system And the Iron bank. And a 4th Westeros card. And HOLY SMOKES!

And I just bought the 3x3 play mat that incorporates the entire board.

Well, I pre-ordered it.

[MIJB#19]

Have been playing some Chronicles of Crime last weekend. Received it as a birthday gift from my sisters and brothers. It's been a puzzling (no pun intended) experience. I'm flipflopping between "awesome" and "I don't get it". I'm honestly not a fan of having to use my smartphone all the time to be able to play this (I honestly can't see this being any better with a tablet). I tried to approach this like good old Lucas Arts' adventure games, but investigating witnesses actually wastes too much time to solve the puzzle. You have to get into the thinking of whomever made the scenario to take the right guess at what the solution is. Hence being torn between "I don't get it" and "awesome". Right now, I'm sensing I'll end up rating this about 6 out of 10, barely recommend it to others and have it end up on the pile of games that looked too promising.

[cuervo72]

ping: QuikSand

Birds Star In One of This Year's Hottest Board Games | Audubon

She Invented a Board Game With Scientific Integrity. It’s Taking Off.

[tarcone]

Going to Geekway to the West again. Great gamers con. This year I invited my nephews to join me. One lives in DC the other Orlando, they are both coming.

Really excited about this

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

ping: QuikSand

Birds Star In One of This Year's Hottest Board Games | Audubon

She Invented a Board Game With Scientific Integrity. It’s Taking Off.

Whoa...bullseye.

[QuikSand]

My daughters and I have been playing Azul lately, it’s clever.

[QuikSand]

Played The Mind for the first time, and I see solid potential as a side-item game for casual fans, like my work colleagues. Not a hardcore game, but it definitely has a serious appeal.

[AnalBumCover]

The Mind had lost its appeal after one session with a certain group of mine. Everyone had been in high school band growing up, so we knew how to maintain rhythm in their heads. So once we all matched up rhythms, it was easy to play our cards when the numbers came. Each level gave little to no additional challenge to us, and we completed the game with no lives lost.

There are other groups I can introduce this game to, but I don't think I would participate in the game myself. It would be too frustrating to play with anyone else, after that one session where my internal clock was so beautifully in sync with the others.

[Danny]

Originally Posted by AnalBumCover

The Mind had lost its appeal after one session with a certain group of mine. Everyone had been in high school band growing up, so we knew how to maintain rhythm in their heads. So once we all matched up rhythms, it was easy to play our cards when the numbers came. Each level gave little to no additional challenge to us, and we completed the game with no lives lost.

There are other groups I can introduce this game to, but I don't think I would participate in the game myself. It would be too frustrating to play with anyone else, after that one session where my internal clock was so beautifully in sync with the others.

The black eyed peas tried this but they lost the first round

[Shkspr]

Originally Posted by Danny

The black eyed peas tried this but they lost the first round

I imagine the problem was that everybody in the band starts counting in their heads, "1, 2, 3, 4,..." and them will.i.am starts up in his head with some shit like, "1, 2, 3, 4, 1 1 1 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 111, 7. (beat) (beat) (beat)" and the whole thing is lost.

[Vince, Pt. II]

I have lost a lot of luster off The Mind personally, but it is still an absolute blast to teach and watch people play the game for the first time.

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

I have lost a lot of luster off The Mind personally, but it is still an absolute blast to teach and watch people play the game for the first time.

I played it a couple times, seemed kind of pointless to me. Not my cup of tea, I guess.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

I have lost a lot of luster off The Mind personally, but it is still an absolute blast to teach and watch people play the game for the first time.

I think I'll be in that camp, soon. It's mind blowing at first, but once the newness wears off, it tends to lose it's charm.

[AnalBumCover]

With Game of Thrones Season 8 upon us, I'll be inviting some family to a viewing party. I have some GoT themed games to play during the day while we wait for the premier that evening.

GoT: Board Game 2e (will pick up the Mother of Dragons expansion)
GoT: Catan
GoT: Hand of the King
and a GoT skinned version of Love Letter Premium that I created.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by AnalBumCover

With Game of Thrones Season 8 upon us, I'll be inviting some family to a viewing party. I have some GoT themed games to play during the day while we wait for the premier that evening.

GoT: Board Game 2e (will pick up the Mother of Dragons expansion)
GoT: Catan
GoT: Hand of the King
and a GoT skinned version of Love Letter Premium that I created.

awesome

[CleBrownsfan]

Originally Posted by AnalBumCover

With Game of Thrones Season 8 upon us, I'll be inviting some family to a viewing party. I have some GoT themed games to play during the day while we wait for the premier that evening.

GoT: Board Game 2e (will pick up the Mother of Dragons expansion)
GoT: Catan
GoT: Hand of the King
and a GoT skinned version of Love Letter Premium that I created.

Can I come over?! This sounds amazingly fun....

[Vince, Pt. II]

Going to cross-post this to the werewolf forums (does anyone go there anymore?), but I am extremely excited about the Blood on the Clocktower Kickstarter that has about two weeks left.

It's basically a souped-up version of werewolf (or mafia, if you are unfamiliar with Werewolf) that you play in person. It's a hidden role social deduction game where every single person has a secret role with a special power. There is one bad guy (demon) with a couple accomplices, a lot of good guys, and one storyteller, who is the moderator. Every day, the whole group votes to hang someone in an effort to root out the bad guy. Every night (typically), the bad guys get to kill someone. What's nice about this game is that players who die are still playing the game as opinionated ghosts. They lose their special powers, but get exactly one vote that they can use on any single vote for the rest of the game; this typically leads to a supercharged final night vote where all the ghosts cash in their votes to sway things a certain way.

The Kickstarter is pretty damned pricey, but the components are top notch, and the reviews I have read or have watched for the game are absolutely glowing with how much they enjoyed it. I am extremely intrigued by the complexity of some of the roles, and it sounds like playing the Storyteller is a hell of a good time as well.

Some of the interesting roles:

• Washerwoman: Start the game knowing that a specific role is in play, and that the role is being played by one of two players...but they don't know which one.
• Fortune Teller: Each night, pick two players and learn whether there is an evil player among the two you picked. Unfortunately, you sometimes register good players as evil... (Mechanically, one specific player registers incorrectly for them. It's the same player all game)
• Juggler: On the first day, publicly guess the roles of up to 5 players out loud. That night - if you survive - learn how many of your guesses were correct.
• Poisoner (Evil Minion): Each night, poison one player. That player has no role or special abilities for the remainder of that night and the following day. They do not know this, and the Storyteller is encouraged to give them false information while they are poisoned if they try to use their abilities.
• Beggar: Cannot vote unless dead players donate their last vote token to him. Whenever a dead player donates their token to him, the Beggar learns whether or not they were good or evil. The Beggar can only use each token one time. This character is a Traveller, and can be either good or evil.

[albionmoonlight]

Played Between Two Cities the other day. The premise is that the players sit around the table, and there is a city built between each player. So you build the city to the left in collaboration with the player to your left and the one to your right in collaboration with the player to your right. At the end, the cities are each scored on various criteria. You get the score of your lowest-scoring city (to keep players from just overbuilding one city).

It is a nice light game, but with enough strategy to keep it interesting. I think it would be great to introduce folks to strategy gaming (because it is not very intimidating) or as a lunch break if you have gaming-inclined co-workers (because once everyone knows what they are doing, a game takes about 20-25 minutes).

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

ping: QuikSand

Birds Star In One of This Year's Hottest Board Games | Audubon

She Invented a Board Game With Scientific Integrity. It’s Taking Off.

HBTM, opened this up and played a few times this weekend.

Excellent game... I think. There's a little bit of "whatever you do is good" which I find to be subtly depressing in some games, but there's a definite gulf
between good and weak strategies.

It is aesthetically beautiful, a lot of very nice art and a few trimmings that add value. The birds on the cards, incidentally, have a variety of game-relevant characteristics that match very, very well to the appropriate real-world characteristics, which is a nice plus for the bird-inclined but may be invisible to others.


To try to describe the genre, it's something of an engine/building type. The things you do in the game are essentially play bird cards, lay eggs, gain food, and get more bird cards. The more you do of each of those things, you more effective they become and the more spillover benefits might accrue from them.

Very good, well thought-out game. Will introduce it to friends, and will put some shoulder into firing it up.

[albionmoonlight]

Going to play Caverna for the first time this weekend. Any tips/strategies people want to share?

From what I can tell, part of what makes the game good is that there is no one dominating strategy, but if there's a "rookies often make this mistake" aspect to it, then I'd love to know what that mistake is :-)

[Vince, Pt. II]

Soooo many thoughts.

• Expanding your family is HUUUUUGE. It's still not as big as in Agricola (extra dwarves aren't worth as many points), but it's a big deal. Extra actions are awesome, and food is much easier to come by, so feeding the little buggers isn't nearly as difficult.
• The game is mostly about relative value and scarcity. As you mentioned, you can go a lot of different ways, so if you can zig while others are zagging, you will have an easier time of it.
• To expand on that a little - don't underestimate weapons and adventures. Free stuff is great, and being able to get an early cow or vegetable can be crucial. That being said, if two or three people are all angling for the ore needed to craft weapons, then you might be better off punting on weapons and taking advantage of the fact that the farming / gathering spaces are yours for the taking.
• The furnished caves (that is, the non-housing rooms) are all one-and-done; the first person to get them gets them, and that's all she wrote. With that in mind, if you're looking for a particular synergy beware of having a room taken off the board out from under you.
• You will definitely feel like you didn't have enough time / moves by the time the game is over, so don't get too cute or complicated with the planning.

Love Caverna - though I prefer Agricola, it is an excellent game.

[Vince, Pt. II]

More thoughts: don't overlook the idea that Donkeys can live in Mines; there's a furnished cavern that you can get that will provide you with food for every donkey in a mine, and that can be a killer combination on some often-overlooked worker placement spaces.

Other thoughts:

• Prayer Cavern and Peaceful Cave make a great combination - convert all your weapons to food at the end, your last harvest is covered AND you get the no weapons bonus.
• Along the lines of the Donkey tip above, Animal housing rules are probably the easiest to screw up - Dogs can herd sheep on unfenced tiles at a rate of Sheep = Total Dogs + 1 (so two dogs can herd three sheep), and Donkeys can live in Mines (1 Donkey per mine). You can't really "take advantage" of that, but it'll help you not screw your strategy up.
• Likewise, once you have "weaponized" dwarves, you MUST play your dwarf with the highest valued weapon FIRST. Since the Blacksmith is typically a hotly contested space, this makes it much, much more difficult to arm your dwarves once you already have one weapon. This rule can be ignored only if you spend a ruby. Rubies are awesome by default, but this little twist makes them even better to have.
• To emphasize the point in my first post above: your first goal should be to secure the materials you are going to need to furnish a dwelling so you are ready to have a baby dwarf the very first round it becomes available. Snagging the first player space the round BEFORE Wish for Children becomes available is a huge part of this strategy - though this is situational. If no one else has an additional dwelling yet, they can't take that space from you and you can wait them out.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Final thoughts, now that I'm not on my phone...

Random new player warnings:

• Mines can only be placed upon tunnels, and you can only place Furnishing tiles on caverns. Furnished caverns are only a single tile, but Mines are on twin tiles...which means you need two tunnels adjacent to one another to play them.
• Similarly, you can only place pastures (fenced areas for holding animals) on open meadows. So if you want to use the larger (and more efficient) two-tiled pastures, you need to have your meadows aligned.
• Typically the placement of your Excavation / Drift Mining / Clearing / Sustenance tiles doesn't matter, but don't overlook the bonuses printed on your player board; especially in the early rounds when you don't have much going on, the free food tiles for building on water sources can be huge. Also, be careful that grabbing the wild boar from the forest doesn't torpedo a strategy you have to get animals later. Animal housing rules are probably the most common misunderstanding I've seen while teaching this game.

One of the major decision points in the game comes down to how you build your "food engine." Typically, you have two choices: Animals or Crops.

• Animals: cost a little more investment up front in terms of actions (you need to clear land, acquire wood, build fences to house them, then acquire the animals), but once you get enough animals, they are nearly self-sustaining and won't require re-investment. Don't underestimate the cost that this requires resources (wood) that you could otherwise be putting aside to build a new dwelling.
• Farming: more straightforward (clear land, acquire crops, plant them), but after a few harvests you will have to re-plant.

Neither is stronger than the other in a vacuum; it'll be up to you to decide based upon what your opponents are doing what is the best strategy to follow. There are many Furnishing tiles that will improve one or more aspects of either of these; finding a combination that enhances what you are currently doing can be a huge boon.

[tarcone]

Concordia is a fantastic game.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Concordia is a fantastic game.

I will also heartily approve of this. Just a very well-designed game.

[albionmoonlight]

Thanks, Vince! I came in a very close second in a 4 player game. I ended up having no expeditions or armed dwarves whatsoever. I focused on building the family, so I kept having babies and getting furnishings that made feeding them easier.

I was behind, I think, for most of the game. But the last few turns, I was able to just spam victory points with my extra turns. It almost worked. Overall, it is a really fun game.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

Thanks, Vince! I came in a very close second in a 4 player game. I ended up having no expeditions or armed dwarves whatsoever. I focused on building the family, so I kept having babies and getting furnishings that made feeding them easier.

I was behind, I think, for most of the game. But the last few turns, I was able to just spam victory points with my extra turns. It almost worked. Overall, it is a really fun game.

Glad you enjoyed it, and more than happy to have helped! Caverna and Agricola get more table time than anything else I own, and I really enjoy both of them a ton. Excellent games.

[tarcone]

Above and Below is a really good game. The story telling really adds a really awesome element. I wish ot was longer. I think there are some fan made rules that extend it.

Really like this one.

[tarcone]

My game group got together after a year hiatus.
We had 5 hours.
One of the guys just started the Game of Thrones series and wanted to play again.
we got together at my house Thursday.

We played Game of Thrones with the Mother of Dragons expansion. WOW.

This expansion is fantastic. Incredible. Great.

The vassal system was the best addition to the game. We had 5 with 3 vassals. and it made the game so much better. Who controlled who was important. Deals were made to keep the vassal off your butt. Or to attck someone.

I was the Taragyen(sp?). And everyone went after me right away. My navy was bottled up and didnt help. I sacrificed a dragon early to improve their power. Then sent 2 to grab a victory point. Then lost both of them when 2 guys teamed up on me and crushed my dragons. This was ny turn 4.

lots of wheeling and dealing. And a great story developed.

We didnt get a full game in. I think we made it to turn 7 then had to quit.

I got an army of 3 nights on the main land by the last utrn of our game and claimed another loyalty token. Played the Drago card. WOW. thats a powerful card. use it wisely. It goes away.

That tied me for 1st place. Which I too after o losing my dragons.

Great expansion to a great game. I pre-ordered the 3x3 foot game mat. Cant wait to get that and play this game again.

This is easily one of my favorite games.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Game of Thrones is pretty awesome, but it can be a pretty slow game. And if you get screwed early (or at any time, really), it can be a really bad time for a really long time.

When it works, though, good lord is it a good game. The orders mechanic is just superb - secretly setting them is awesome enough, but the fact that they are all revealed simultaneously, only resolved one at a time, and each order's target is only set as they are resolved makes for some amazing "oh, shit" moments.

[Warhammer]

I have never understood why people love GoT so much, but many of these same people refuse to play Diplomacy. The strategic portion of the game is mostly the same, the main difference is the Dune style combat in GoT. Backstabbing is appreciated in GoT, in Diplomacy it is grounds for breaking off a friendship.

[tarcone]

I have never played diplomacy. Want to, but havent.

I wonder if the theme is the difference. In GoT, backstabbing is part of the story. So it is expected.