As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/
Options
[Board Games] - ITT: Gaslighting Jergarmar with snuggles and hugs.
ChaosHat
Hop, hop, hop, HA!Trick of the lightRegistered User regular
Hop, hop, hop, HA!Trick of the lightRegistered User regular
Hey there! This thread is about board games. Let me tell you about them!
A different kind of board game is on the rise. Invading pop culture. Invading Target, Barnes and Noble, Toys R Us. Invading Penny Arcade itself.
There are brand-new games about dying in the desert:
or 20-year old card games getting new life:
or even family-friendly train games that stir something black in the soul:
This thread exists to convey one simple message: board games have come a long way since Monopoly and Risk.
Perhaps you’re looking for something for your lunch hour.
Perhaps you’re looking for something to play when you’re just hanging out with friends.
Perhaps you’re looking for something like chess but more fun for newcomers.
Perhaps you’re looking for an all-day simulation of the asymmetrical struggles of Europe during the Protestant Reformation.
No problem, gotcha covered. So without further ado, let me attempt to give you a barely-sketched outline of what is possible in cardboard, wood and plastic.
Oh, and watch out for that pig-flooping.
GREAT GAMES FOR JUST ABOUT ANYONE (especially those new to games):
Ticket to Ride
Quite possibly one of the best entry-level games. Draw cards into your hands, claim a route between two cities with your train cars by laying down same-color cards that match a route on the board. Simple, intuitive. Kids can grasp it, adults can play it more cut-throat and get into deeper strategies. Many versions have been made; they are pretty much all great, but check to see how many people can play. There’s also plenty of expansion maps, including a highly-rated Asia map for team play up to 6.
Trains
Trains, while having a similar theme to Ticket to Ride, is almost entirely different! Trains is a deck builder. That's not to say it's like Magic: the Gathering, but instead you build your deck during the game! Furthermore, there's a board you'll be playing on, trying to connect routes and build stations and block your opponents from doing the same. However, beware Waste! You generate waste when you build things and it clogs up your hand, taking up the space of more useful cards.
Carcassonne
Another older game, which has aged well because of its short length and wide appeal. Pick up a tile, add it to the tiles already placed so that you match the road, castle, or field. You may optionally “claim” a road, castle, or field with one of your followers or “meeples”, which gives you points. A great, quick game for pretty much all ages, but it is especially good for a younger crowd.
Lords of Waterdeep
Newer game, but it has really made a splash. It’s a fairly light worker-placement euro that non-gamers (or minimal-gamers) really seem to enjoy. The “worker-placement” part is themed up as sending knights and wizards off to accomplish quests, and there’s even a bit of back-stabbery against the other players.
Forbidden Desert
An amazing little cooperative game that starts with formula that made Forbidden Island and Pandemic so popular, and then develops and improves that formula into something magical. You must explore and excavate tiles to find pieces of an airship, while a sandstorm moves the tiles around and dumps sand everywhere. Everybody has their own special ability, and they work together in amazing ways. Get all the parts, find the launch pad, GET TO DA CHOPPA, and escape to safety. But you'll probably die of thirst first. Great components, too.
Okay, so I'm done with those gateway games! What's everyone really into nowadays?
ChaosHat's picks!
ArcSyn's top two games of right now:
JonBob's top two games of right now:
iguanacus's top 2 game (right now)
Drascin's two current favorite games:
mysticjuicer: Let's do this favourite games thing
The Mantiz's top two games of right now:
The old OP has a ton of recommendations too!
A different kind of board game is on the rise. Invading pop culture. Invading Target, Barnes and Noble, Toys R Us. Invading Penny Arcade itself.
There are brand-new games about dying in the desert:
This thread exists to convey one simple message: board games have come a long way since Monopoly and Risk.
Perhaps you’re looking for something for your lunch hour.
Perhaps you’re looking for something to play when you’re just hanging out with friends.
Perhaps you’re looking for something like chess but more fun for newcomers.
Perhaps you’re looking for an all-day simulation of the asymmetrical struggles of Europe during the Protestant Reformation.
No problem, gotcha covered. So without further ado, let me attempt to give you a barely-sketched outline of what is possible in cardboard, wood and plastic.
Oh, and watch out for that pig-flooping.
GREAT GAMES FOR JUST ABOUT ANYONE (especially those new to games):
Ticket to Ride
Quite possibly one of the best entry-level games. Draw cards into your hands, claim a route between two cities with your train cars by laying down same-color cards that match a route on the board. Simple, intuitive. Kids can grasp it, adults can play it more cut-throat and get into deeper strategies. Many versions have been made; they are pretty much all great, but check to see how many people can play. There’s also plenty of expansion maps, including a highly-rated Asia map for team play up to 6.
Trains
Trains, while having a similar theme to Ticket to Ride, is almost entirely different! Trains is a deck builder. That's not to say it's like Magic: the Gathering, but instead you build your deck during the game! Furthermore, there's a board you'll be playing on, trying to connect routes and build stations and block your opponents from doing the same. However, beware Waste! You generate waste when you build things and it clogs up your hand, taking up the space of more useful cards.
Carcassonne
Another older game, which has aged well because of its short length and wide appeal. Pick up a tile, add it to the tiles already placed so that you match the road, castle, or field. You may optionally “claim” a road, castle, or field with one of your followers or “meeples”, which gives you points. A great, quick game for pretty much all ages, but it is especially good for a younger crowd.
Lords of Waterdeep
Newer game, but it has really made a splash. It’s a fairly light worker-placement euro that non-gamers (or minimal-gamers) really seem to enjoy. The “worker-placement” part is themed up as sending knights and wizards off to accomplish quests, and there’s even a bit of back-stabbery against the other players.
Forbidden Desert
An amazing little cooperative game that starts with formula that made Forbidden Island and Pandemic so popular, and then develops and improves that formula into something magical. You must explore and excavate tiles to find pieces of an airship, while a sandstorm moves the tiles around and dumps sand everywhere. Everybody has their own special ability, and they work together in amazing ways. Get all the parts, find the launch pad, GET TO DA CHOPPA, and escape to safety. But you'll probably die of thirst first. Great components, too.
Okay, so I'm done with those gateway games! What's everyone really into nowadays?
ChaosHat's picks!
Voyages of Marco Polo
In Voyages of Marco Polo you'll play as a historical trader looking to fulfill trading contracts and travel to the East. This game is a worker placement game that uses dice instead of standard workers. The die you place determines how effective your move is, put a one down at the camel stall at the market? Get one camel. Place a six? Get six camels! You'll be swimming in camels. High numbers carry their own disadvantage though. If your opponent places a die at the place you wanted to go to before you, you can still go there but you'll have to pay gold equal to the cost of your die. As you send your trader travelling and setting up trading posts, you'll gain new spaces to go to to get resources and points. Finally, each player will get their own special character with a unique and ridiculous power.
Arboretum
This 2-4 player card game has each player trying to make the best possible arboretum. On your turn you'll draw two cards, either from the draw deck or the discard piles of the players, or some combination of the two. Then you place a card from your hand adjacent to another tree in your arboretum. Be careful, once placed, your trees can't be moved around! Each tree type has eight cards numbered 1-8, and your goal is to make an increasing path of adjacent cards that also start and end with the same color (the colors in between can be of any color.) Then you discard a card and the next player takes their turn. The longer the paths, the more points you get. However, you need to reserve some cards in your hand for scoring. At the end of the game, you may only score one path of each tree type. The right to score that path is given to the player who has the highest total value of cards of that type in hand. You might have a really great path of Maple trees, but if your opponent has more Maple cards in hand at the end, you won't get any points! Excellent couples game.
Honorable mentions:
Roll for the Galaxy
Android Netrunner
Rococo
In Voyages of Marco Polo you'll play as a historical trader looking to fulfill trading contracts and travel to the East. This game is a worker placement game that uses dice instead of standard workers. The die you place determines how effective your move is, put a one down at the camel stall at the market? Get one camel. Place a six? Get six camels! You'll be swimming in camels. High numbers carry their own disadvantage though. If your opponent places a die at the place you wanted to go to before you, you can still go there but you'll have to pay gold equal to the cost of your die. As you send your trader travelling and setting up trading posts, you'll gain new spaces to go to to get resources and points. Finally, each player will get their own special character with a unique and ridiculous power.
Arboretum
This 2-4 player card game has each player trying to make the best possible arboretum. On your turn you'll draw two cards, either from the draw deck or the discard piles of the players, or some combination of the two. Then you place a card from your hand adjacent to another tree in your arboretum. Be careful, once placed, your trees can't be moved around! Each tree type has eight cards numbered 1-8, and your goal is to make an increasing path of adjacent cards that also start and end with the same color (the colors in between can be of any color.) Then you discard a card and the next player takes their turn. The longer the paths, the more points you get. However, you need to reserve some cards in your hand for scoring. At the end of the game, you may only score one path of each tree type. The right to score that path is given to the player who has the highest total value of cards of that type in hand. You might have a really great path of Maple trees, but if your opponent has more Maple cards in hand at the end, you won't get any points! Excellent couples game.
Honorable mentions:
Roll for the Galaxy
Android Netrunner
Rococo
ArcSyn's top two games of right now:
Fief: France 1429
Fief is probably the heaviest game in my collection, and the most expensive. Perhaps that's partly the cause of it placing on this list. Besides that, it is a fantastic game of diplomacy, strategy, and deception to control France and won favor for your family. It's got a bit of randomness, through card draws, disasters, and battle, but a lot of strategy to overcome and keep from falling behind. Alliances can be fleeting or binding, a powerful weapon or an anchor, and game-changing or ineffective. It's just a fun game and I love when I can get it to the table. Plays best with 5-6; though probably 5 is my preference. Takes about 3 hours to play, depending on your group.
In addition, there are many expansions u haven't even gotten to try yet to change up the game of it gets stale.
Flashpoint: Fire Rescue
I just recently renewed my love for this game after getting it to the table twice during vacation. It's a cooperative game of firefighting using action points for each turn. It can play simply for younger players or new learners or extremely complicated and difficult setups for experienced groups. Each player becomes a firefighter, and can even pick a specific role with extra rules for how they work, and try to rescue people from burning buildings. It's got a bit of randomness in setup and how the fire spreads.
In addition, there are many expansions out that add new buildings, roles, ships, and more that can keep the game fresh for any group for a while.
Honorable mentions:
Race for the Galaxy
Cosmic Encounter
Monikers
Fief is probably the heaviest game in my collection, and the most expensive. Perhaps that's partly the cause of it placing on this list. Besides that, it is a fantastic game of diplomacy, strategy, and deception to control France and won favor for your family. It's got a bit of randomness, through card draws, disasters, and battle, but a lot of strategy to overcome and keep from falling behind. Alliances can be fleeting or binding, a powerful weapon or an anchor, and game-changing or ineffective. It's just a fun game and I love when I can get it to the table. Plays best with 5-6; though probably 5 is my preference. Takes about 3 hours to play, depending on your group.
In addition, there are many expansions u haven't even gotten to try yet to change up the game of it gets stale.
Flashpoint: Fire Rescue
I just recently renewed my love for this game after getting it to the table twice during vacation. It's a cooperative game of firefighting using action points for each turn. It can play simply for younger players or new learners or extremely complicated and difficult setups for experienced groups. Each player becomes a firefighter, and can even pick a specific role with extra rules for how they work, and try to rescue people from burning buildings. It's got a bit of randomness in setup and how the fire spreads.
In addition, there are many expansions out that add new buildings, roles, ships, and more that can keep the game fresh for any group for a while.
Honorable mentions:
Race for the Galaxy
Cosmic Encounter
Monikers
JonBob's top two games of right now:
Codenames
This was the big hit of Gen Con 2015, and for good reason. There's something in the water over in Czechoslovakia, as Vlaada Chvátil keeps churning out game after game, all awesome, but each as different as can be.
Codenames is a word guessing game, like Password. There are two teams, and each team has one "spymaster." The spymasters look at a 5x5 grid of nouns, and only they know which words belong to which team, and which word is the assassin. The spymasters' job is to give one-word clues to their team that match as many of their own words as possible, without matching the other team's words. And God forbid your clue matches the assassin! The brain-burniest "party game" you'll ever come across.
Zendo
Zendo is a game played with Looney Pyramids (formerly known as Icehouse Pyramids). It is one of the few inductive reasoning games. Players construct small arrangements of pyramids, known as "koans," and try to extrapolate from these examples a hidden rule that only one player knows. Rules could be things like "contains at least one red pyramid," "has a pyramid stacked on another one," or "contains an odd number of small pyramids." More a puzzle than a game, but it's a really good puzzle, and often devolves into a co-op game as players just want to figure out the solution at all costs.
Honorable mentions:
Montage
Linko
Mascarade
This was the big hit of Gen Con 2015, and for good reason. There's something in the water over in Czechoslovakia, as Vlaada Chvátil keeps churning out game after game, all awesome, but each as different as can be.
Codenames is a word guessing game, like Password. There are two teams, and each team has one "spymaster." The spymasters look at a 5x5 grid of nouns, and only they know which words belong to which team, and which word is the assassin. The spymasters' job is to give one-word clues to their team that match as many of their own words as possible, without matching the other team's words. And God forbid your clue matches the assassin! The brain-burniest "party game" you'll ever come across.
Zendo
Zendo is a game played with Looney Pyramids (formerly known as Icehouse Pyramids). It is one of the few inductive reasoning games. Players construct small arrangements of pyramids, known as "koans," and try to extrapolate from these examples a hidden rule that only one player knows. Rules could be things like "contains at least one red pyramid," "has a pyramid stacked on another one," or "contains an odd number of small pyramids." More a puzzle than a game, but it's a really good puzzle, and often devolves into a co-op game as players just want to figure out the solution at all costs.
Honorable mentions:
Montage
Linko
Mascarade
iguanacus's top 2 game (right now)
Mundus Novus
A neat little trading game where everybody is 15th or 16th century Spanish traders, exporting goods from The New World back to markets in The Old. Two to six players and a playtime of about an hour. Very little downtime thanks to enforced back and forth trading every round keeping everybody involved. Just looking at the boxart makes me feel a longing for the sea, with the white foam of the waves reminding me of clouds, making the seas a mirror of the azure skies.
Viticulture and it's expansion Tuscany
Go grab a bottle of vino, put on your favorite Gianni Morandi or Mina record and relax, the vines are fine and the grapes don't have to be harvested for another... oh shit, somebody took the last spot! Viticulture is a great medium weight worker placement game for 2-6 playing out in about 90 minutes to 2 hours (less if you lay off the vino but screw that). Everybody is an owner/operator of a small Italian vineyard and winery. As the seasons pass you're doing the best you can to grow, harvest and sell your wine while the testa di cazzo to your right is taking all the good spots. Rules are all very straight forward and a great intro to worker placement IF the group is already familiar with modern boutique boardgaming. If this is for a complete newbie it's still great but it's got more moving parts than something like Stone Age or Lords of Waterdeep so keep the rules handy and maybe check out the Watch It Played video to get everybody on the same page.
Tuscany just makes a great game fantastic. Only add to the game after you've become very familiar with the base stuff, it's modular nature means that you should experiment (one at a time) to see what works for your group and play style. Once you've got a handle on what you like and don't like experiment with mixing 2 of the modules together. Also adds a hard as hell solitaire variant so you can play even if your all alone and can't get a second or third.
A neat little trading game where everybody is 15th or 16th century Spanish traders, exporting goods from The New World back to markets in The Old. Two to six players and a playtime of about an hour. Very little downtime thanks to enforced back and forth trading every round keeping everybody involved. Just looking at the boxart makes me feel a longing for the sea, with the white foam of the waves reminding me of clouds, making the seas a mirror of the azure skies.
Viticulture and it's expansion Tuscany
Go grab a bottle of vino, put on your favorite Gianni Morandi or Mina record and relax, the vines are fine and the grapes don't have to be harvested for another... oh shit, somebody took the last spot! Viticulture is a great medium weight worker placement game for 2-6 playing out in about 90 minutes to 2 hours (less if you lay off the vino but screw that). Everybody is an owner/operator of a small Italian vineyard and winery. As the seasons pass you're doing the best you can to grow, harvest and sell your wine while the testa di cazzo to your right is taking all the good spots. Rules are all very straight forward and a great intro to worker placement IF the group is already familiar with modern boutique boardgaming. If this is for a complete newbie it's still great but it's got more moving parts than something like Stone Age or Lords of Waterdeep so keep the rules handy and maybe check out the Watch It Played video to get everybody on the same page.
Tuscany just makes a great game fantastic. Only add to the game after you've become very familiar with the base stuff, it's modular nature means that you should experiment (one at a time) to see what works for your group and play style. Once you've got a handle on what you like and don't like experiment with mixing 2 of the modules together. Also adds a hard as hell solitaire variant so you can play even if your all alone and can't get a second or third.
Drascin's two current favorite games:
BattleCON
Do you like fighting games? Do you like games that pair simple basic mechanics with massive tactical depth? If you answered yes to any of that, BattleCON is almost certanly going to be your jam.
BattlCON is an open-information dueling card game that imitates the fast-paced, tactical positioning game of fighting games like Street Fighter or Guilty Gear. The basic mechanics of BattleCON are simple - each beat (which are how BattleCON calls its turns) you pick a "Style" card and a "Base" card, and combine them into a single move, then compare it against your opponent and see what happens. And since at every point you know what options your opponent has, the more you play the more you transition from the equivalent of mashing buttons on your controller to a game of prediction and bluffing, "I know that you know that I know" and two-moves-ahead thinking - playing BattleCON is stupid easy, but mastering a character is something else altogether! And with a roster of literally dozens of characters, each one with completely different Style cards and passive abilities that modify their cards, the amount of options is incredible. The game's big box, Devastation of Indines, comes with thirty characters, support for six modes of play including normal duel, tag duel, singleplayer, multiplayer up to 4, co-op up to 4-vs-1, and special stages - if there ever was a big box that justified its price with amount of replayability, it's this one.
Seasons
Now, there are a lot of point salad games in the world. But I don't think I've met any one of them that combined simplicity, engaging-ness (is that a word) and beautiful artwork as nicely as Seasons.
Basically, you and your fellow players (up to 4) are wizards competing to have the most crystals at the end of a tournament. And because when wizards go into a tourney they play for keeps, the tournament lasts three whole years, throughout which the seasons change. With each seasn change, the energy you can extract from the world changes - Water is on the rise in Winter, but good luck getting some Fire out of the snowed-in landscape. And this is important, because you need elemental energies to summon all sorts of amulets, items, and servants you will need to get those tasty crystals you so want, or to play havoc with the crystal reserves of all those other thin-bearded upstarts. All this, seasoned (pun not intended) with a really pretty, fairytale-ish presentation and beautiful artwork in the cards.
And it actually has a legitimately well thought out insert, to boot, where everything has a place and the pieces click in no problem without mixing. Which seems small, but after trying to make FFG's Descent work, believe me, you come to appreciate it.
Honorable mentions:
Android: Netrunner
Descent 2nd Edition (which I've been playing with my family lately)
Pixel Tactics
Do you like fighting games? Do you like games that pair simple basic mechanics with massive tactical depth? If you answered yes to any of that, BattleCON is almost certanly going to be your jam.
BattlCON is an open-information dueling card game that imitates the fast-paced, tactical positioning game of fighting games like Street Fighter or Guilty Gear. The basic mechanics of BattleCON are simple - each beat (which are how BattleCON calls its turns) you pick a "Style" card and a "Base" card, and combine them into a single move, then compare it against your opponent and see what happens. And since at every point you know what options your opponent has, the more you play the more you transition from the equivalent of mashing buttons on your controller to a game of prediction and bluffing, "I know that you know that I know" and two-moves-ahead thinking - playing BattleCON is stupid easy, but mastering a character is something else altogether! And with a roster of literally dozens of characters, each one with completely different Style cards and passive abilities that modify their cards, the amount of options is incredible. The game's big box, Devastation of Indines, comes with thirty characters, support for six modes of play including normal duel, tag duel, singleplayer, multiplayer up to 4, co-op up to 4-vs-1, and special stages - if there ever was a big box that justified its price with amount of replayability, it's this one.
Seasons
Now, there are a lot of point salad games in the world. But I don't think I've met any one of them that combined simplicity, engaging-ness (is that a word) and beautiful artwork as nicely as Seasons.
Basically, you and your fellow players (up to 4) are wizards competing to have the most crystals at the end of a tournament. And because when wizards go into a tourney they play for keeps, the tournament lasts three whole years, throughout which the seasons change. With each seasn change, the energy you can extract from the world changes - Water is on the rise in Winter, but good luck getting some Fire out of the snowed-in landscape. And this is important, because you need elemental energies to summon all sorts of amulets, items, and servants you will need to get those tasty crystals you so want, or to play havoc with the crystal reserves of all those other thin-bearded upstarts. All this, seasoned (pun not intended) with a really pretty, fairytale-ish presentation and beautiful artwork in the cards.
And it actually has a legitimately well thought out insert, to boot, where everything has a place and the pieces click in no problem without mixing. Which seems small, but after trying to make FFG's Descent work, believe me, you come to appreciate it.
Honorable mentions:
Android: Netrunner
Descent 2nd Edition (which I've been playing with my family lately)
Pixel Tactics
mysticjuicer: Let's do this favourite games thing
Yomi: Fighting Card Game
Yomi is a bluffing/risk-and-resource-management card game for 2 to 4 player that's inspired by fighting games like Street Fighter or Guilty Gear. Games take between 10 and 25 minutes. Every turn, players will draw a card, and play a combat card face down which is revealed simultaneously, and then combat is resolved following rock-beats-scissors-beats-paper rules. Each character is represented by a standard poker deck, with normals and command normals on the cards from 2 to 10, special moves on Jack, Queen, and King, and powerful super moves on their Aces. The cast includes a big variety of fighting game archetypes with grapplers, rushdown, vortex, and zoning characters all represented, and characters range from very easy to learn, to "I play blue in Magic" levels of complexity.
Fantastic 2 player game if you have a friend (or more) who you like to play competitive, head-to-head games with. I've played this game consistently for more than a year now, and am still learning more ways to improve, more subtleties in different match-ups, etc. It's a blast, and in spite of the strategic depth, can be taught in about 20 to 30 minutes. The game can also be played solo (akin to fighting bots in a fighting game), and in a 2v1 boss-fight mode, and a 2v2 tag-team mode.
The card art is near-universally fantastic, the cards are quality, and the game perfectly recreates the local multiplayer "got you now you OH MY GOD YOU DIDN'T JUST WAKE-UP SUPER ME YOU $#@&*!" moments that make playing fighting games against your friends so damn fun! If you'd like to give this game a shot without spending any money, send me a message and I'll gladly play some games with you online. :biggrin:
Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization
Through the Ages is an economic civ game for 2 to 4 players that's played without a map. It's without a doubt my favourite civ/econ game. Take your civilization from antiquity to the space age, vying for economic/industrial/military technology with your neighbors, as you try to eke out cultural advantage by the 19th or 20th turn to win the game. Games take between 4 and 5 hours, if you're playing the full game (as opposed to the simpler learning versions of the game).
Can you afford to let an advanced mining technology fall into your neighbors hands, or will you spend your whole turn's worth of actions to deprive her of it? Can you eschew military development to establish an unrivalled cultural engine, or will your neighbors sack and loot your incredible cathedrals and theatres? Do you have too much or too little food, or building resources? Are you in danger of revolt? Will a revolution turn your theocracy into a democracy, or a violently fundamentalist society?
The Agricola feeling of puzzling out the best possible use of your resources, the next available technologies that may turn up, strong combinations of buildings, leaders, and wonders, the pressure of having just one less food/stone/civil action makes this a really intense and really fun game. The value of the six resources in the game and how they change as the game moves from the 1st to the 4th age is really satisfying and evocative. The effect of military development and potential arms races on people's final cultural scores is similarly really evocative and feels right.
Guh! It's just so damn good, if you can deal with the game length and if you're into the economic-engine-but-that-guy-has-tanks feeling!
Yomi is a bluffing/risk-and-resource-management card game for 2 to 4 player that's inspired by fighting games like Street Fighter or Guilty Gear. Games take between 10 and 25 minutes. Every turn, players will draw a card, and play a combat card face down which is revealed simultaneously, and then combat is resolved following rock-beats-scissors-beats-paper rules. Each character is represented by a standard poker deck, with normals and command normals on the cards from 2 to 10, special moves on Jack, Queen, and King, and powerful super moves on their Aces. The cast includes a big variety of fighting game archetypes with grapplers, rushdown, vortex, and zoning characters all represented, and characters range from very easy to learn, to "I play blue in Magic" levels of complexity.
Fantastic 2 player game if you have a friend (or more) who you like to play competitive, head-to-head games with. I've played this game consistently for more than a year now, and am still learning more ways to improve, more subtleties in different match-ups, etc. It's a blast, and in spite of the strategic depth, can be taught in about 20 to 30 minutes. The game can also be played solo (akin to fighting bots in a fighting game), and in a 2v1 boss-fight mode, and a 2v2 tag-team mode.
The card art is near-universally fantastic, the cards are quality, and the game perfectly recreates the local multiplayer "got you now you OH MY GOD YOU DIDN'T JUST WAKE-UP SUPER ME YOU $#@&*!" moments that make playing fighting games against your friends so damn fun! If you'd like to give this game a shot without spending any money, send me a message and I'll gladly play some games with you online. :biggrin:
Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization
Through the Ages is an economic civ game for 2 to 4 players that's played without a map. It's without a doubt my favourite civ/econ game. Take your civilization from antiquity to the space age, vying for economic/industrial/military technology with your neighbors, as you try to eke out cultural advantage by the 19th or 20th turn to win the game. Games take between 4 and 5 hours, if you're playing the full game (as opposed to the simpler learning versions of the game).
Can you afford to let an advanced mining technology fall into your neighbors hands, or will you spend your whole turn's worth of actions to deprive her of it? Can you eschew military development to establish an unrivalled cultural engine, or will your neighbors sack and loot your incredible cathedrals and theatres? Do you have too much or too little food, or building resources? Are you in danger of revolt? Will a revolution turn your theocracy into a democracy, or a violently fundamentalist society?
The Agricola feeling of puzzling out the best possible use of your resources, the next available technologies that may turn up, strong combinations of buildings, leaders, and wonders, the pressure of having just one less food/stone/civil action makes this a really intense and really fun game. The value of the six resources in the game and how they change as the game moves from the 1st to the 4th age is really satisfying and evocative. The effect of military development and potential arms races on people's final cultural scores is similarly really evocative and feels right.
Guh! It's just so damn good, if you can deal with the game length and if you're into the economic-engine-but-that-guy-has-tanks feeling!
The Mantiz's top two games of right now:
Keyflower
This is my absolute favorite Eurogame right now. You are each given control of a little village full of hopeful pioneers and you have a year to expand your village and earn as many points as possible. Each season you are given a boat full of workers in different colors, and have to use them to bid for new buildings. But you also have to use these workers to activate the abilities of the buildings, and you have access to all the buildings on the table. Even the ones that your other players have already won. This creates a perfect combination of worker placement and bidding that will make your brain hurt from trying to figure out how to spend your workers in the best way.
This is also not your typical friendly eurogame where you just mind your own business and count out the points at the end. This game can be absolutely brutal, and players will fight for the best pieces and you will curse at the guy who just wanders over and uses your horse to transport his goods and leaves it too expensive for yourself to use.
Lords of Vegas
You know that guy who still wants to play Monopoly even though you have a large collection of wonderful designer board games? Make him play this. Lords of Vegas scratches that Monopoly itch with a fun mix of dice rolling, area control and trading. You play as casino owners in the early years of development in Las Vegas. You are each given a few empty parkinglots and some run-down liquor stores but you quickly start building sprawling casinos in different themes in their place. The main goal is to build casinos in the right theme, since each round starts with a card that determines what theme is going to pay out this round. So are you going all-in on the space theme and hope for that big pay-out or are you going to spread out the risk by making smaller casinos? You use six-sided dice to show your influence on the different casinos, and the die with the highest number is the current boss of the casino. But if you have enough money, you can re-roll all the dice in a casino and cause a total reversal of the powerstructure and become the owner of a casino that your friend spend a lot of time building. Or you can waste millions of dollars on giving your friend better numbers to the amusement of the whole group. But that's part of the fun of this game.
Lords of Vegas has totally replaced Monopoly for me, since it gives you the same feeling of expanding your empire and screwing over your friends, but plays within a reasonable timeframe and doesn't leave players hopelessly behind. And Lords of Vegas is an actual good game.
Honorable mentions:
Sheriff of Nottingham
Imperial Settlers
Star Realms
Click Clack Lumberjack
This is my absolute favorite Eurogame right now. You are each given control of a little village full of hopeful pioneers and you have a year to expand your village and earn as many points as possible. Each season you are given a boat full of workers in different colors, and have to use them to bid for new buildings. But you also have to use these workers to activate the abilities of the buildings, and you have access to all the buildings on the table. Even the ones that your other players have already won. This creates a perfect combination of worker placement and bidding that will make your brain hurt from trying to figure out how to spend your workers in the best way.
This is also not your typical friendly eurogame where you just mind your own business and count out the points at the end. This game can be absolutely brutal, and players will fight for the best pieces and you will curse at the guy who just wanders over and uses your horse to transport his goods and leaves it too expensive for yourself to use.
Lords of Vegas
You know that guy who still wants to play Monopoly even though you have a large collection of wonderful designer board games? Make him play this. Lords of Vegas scratches that Monopoly itch with a fun mix of dice rolling, area control and trading. You play as casino owners in the early years of development in Las Vegas. You are each given a few empty parkinglots and some run-down liquor stores but you quickly start building sprawling casinos in different themes in their place. The main goal is to build casinos in the right theme, since each round starts with a card that determines what theme is going to pay out this round. So are you going all-in on the space theme and hope for that big pay-out or are you going to spread out the risk by making smaller casinos? You use six-sided dice to show your influence on the different casinos, and the die with the highest number is the current boss of the casino. But if you have enough money, you can re-roll all the dice in a casino and cause a total reversal of the powerstructure and become the owner of a casino that your friend spend a lot of time building. Or you can waste millions of dollars on giving your friend better numbers to the amusement of the whole group. But that's part of the fun of this game.
Lords of Vegas has totally replaced Monopoly for me, since it gives you the same feeling of expanding your empire and screwing over your friends, but plays within a reasonable timeframe and doesn't leave players hopelessly behind. And Lords of Vegas is an actual good game.
Honorable mentions:
Sheriff of Nottingham
Imperial Settlers
Star Realms
Click Clack Lumberjack
The old OP has a ton of recommendations too!
ChaosHat on
0
Posts
Also, I don't think the OP should be a repository to find games, since asking in the thread will yield more targeted info. I still want to keep gateway games and stuff up there for newbies, but I want instead to just have everyone tell me what games they're passionate about. So everyone will get their own little spoilered podium to go up on and you can list me like, maybe five games you really like. Buuuut, what would be nice is if you give me a nice paragraph about your top two games right now. Not necessarily of all time but just right now. Why you like them, why others should play them, etc. Also, gimme a cool picture to go with it.
Maybe this one will be better after some errata comes out.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Fief: France 1429
Fief is probably the heaviest game in my collection, and the most expensive. Perhaps that's partly the cause of it placing on this list. Besides that, it is a fantastic game of diplomacy, strategy, and deception to control France and won favor for your family. It's got a bit of randomness, through card draws, disasters, and battle, but a lot of strategy to overcome and keep from falling behind. Alliances can be fleeting or binding, a powerful weapon or an anchor, and game-changing or ineffective. It's just a fun game and I love when I can get it to the table. Plays best with 5-6; though probably 5 is my preference. Takes about 3 hours to play, depending on your group.
In addition, there are many expansions u haven't even gotten to try yet to change up the game of it gets stale.
Flashpoint: Fire Rescue
I just recently renewed my love for this game after getting it to the table twice during vacation. It's a cooperative game of firefighting using action points for each turn. It can play simply for younger players or new learners or extremely complicated and difficult setups for experienced groups. Each player becomes a firefighter, and can even pick a specific role with extra rules for how they work, and try to rescue people from burning buildings. It's got a bit of randomness in setup and how the fire spreads.
In addition, there are many expansions out that add new buildings, roles, ships, and more that can keep the game fresh for any group for a while.
Honorable mentions:
Race for the Galaxy
Cosmic Encounter
Monikers
Snake Oil
A really light party game, can be taught as you are playing it. You have hands full of cards with single words on them, and you combine two of them to make a product that you pitch to a judge, who has a type of customer category (drawn randomly). For example, in the last game I played, the judge was a 'Couch potato'. One player pitched them a 'poop tunnel', so that they wouldn't need to get off the couch to poop. Another then pitched them 'animal freedom', so that they wouldn't feel shame about pooping on or eating off of the floor. Allows for a lot of creativity in deciding what your product actually does, and the style can fit a wide variety of groups, as it's tailored by the players themselves. If you find yourself bored/offended by Cards against Humanity or Apples to Apples, try this out.
but after that, I don't know. Either Mage Knight, Karesansui, Lord of the Rings LCG, or Carcassonne.
For 1v1 play:
Command and Colors Napoleonics
It's just incredible solid. Light enough that you can pick up and start playing almost instantly. Meaty enough that you can feel like a real tactical genius when you perform combined armed attacks with your units by using cavalry to force units into squares which you then crush with artillery supporting infantry in melee. Random enough to take the sting out of losing and forcing you to make lots of on the fly, seat of your pants decisions, but those decisions affect the outcome enough to make them feel meaningful and not just like you are watching madness unfold.
Good enough that the friend I am regularly playing it with called it his favorite boardgame of all time. We are 14/15 battles done in the base box, and I just finished stickering the Austrian expansion which has some very interesting looking scenario design at a skim.
For Casual play:
Machi Koro
It's just fun and colorful and a joy to play.
For Cut-throat Play:
Dogs of War
Seriously if your group of friends derives any enjoyment at all from scheming, brokering deals, breaking said deals to broker new deals, only to break those deals, etc etc etc. Just buy this game already it is worth every dollar. It's like a worker placement game where the value of every worker is derived mostly from the workers placed earlier in the turn, and therefore everyone hangs on every worker placement, and tries to influence every worker placement.
For passing an entire evening in a blink of an eye with good friends in the spirit of jolly cooperation:
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective
Yes, there are typos. Yes, there are some obtuse moments in some puzzles. Yes, sometimes the harder part of solving a case is not figuring out what you want to look up next but HOW to look up that next thing. Yes, sometimes the game is incredibly racist for no good reason at all (seriously what the fuck case number 8?) But my god when this game shines it shines. It is immensely satisfying, immensely enjoyable and really is just a treat to play with close friends. It is satisfying on a primal level, like eating a big steak primal level. You think back on the case you solved a couple days ago and smile warmly with satisfaction. I wish it had just a bit more spit shine and polish on it buy its completely worth putting up with the occasional rough patch.
In the OP under the Weekend Consuming Endeavors were you thinking of Middle-Earth Quest instead of War of the Ring? Middle-Earth Quest is the one where one person plays as Sauron and everyone else plays as heroes stopping him. While War of the Ring is a (amazing) 1v1 wargame (or 2v2) where 1 player is Sauron and all the forces under him and 1 player controls the fellowships and all of the armies opposed to Sauron.
Who is this for?
Is it online?
What timezone and time?
Neither of which I haven't played in a fair bit and one of which I don't own a copy of, but they're both games I'd be willing to play right damn now, where I able.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Humans.
Yes.
Time zone is in flux. Probably something like 9 eastern.
This was already in the OP and I C&P'd it as a placeholder while I work on stuff. So I have no idea.
Nintendo ID: Pastalonius
Smite\LoL:Gremlidin \ WoW & Overwatch & Hots: Gremlidin#1734
3ds: 3282-2248-0453
My favorite board game right now is probably Five Tribes: The Djinns of Naqala. I'm a sucker for point-salad type games (where there are multiple paths to gaining victory points, and a winning strategy often combines two or three) and Five Tribes scratches that itch. The strategy is surprisingly deep, but being flexible pays off. In addition, the game itself is beautiful, with well made pieces and great art.
Runners up are currently
Eclipse
Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia
Cyclades
The Castles of Burgundy
Warmachine (miniatures)
The first 3 games I'd instantly return to my collection without blinking if my house burnt down tomorrow:
Rex
I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but reading the rulebook for the first time it was like someone had distilled all my favourite game ideas into a game made just for my tastes. Asymmetrical factions? Traitor generals? Alliances built right into the rules? Bloody, attritional warfare and desperate last stands? Feints and bluffs and special action cards and random economies and that unholy fleet of unstoppable terror raining down inescapable death? Someone created the perfect game for me, and I want to inject it right into my veins.
7 Wonders
I've heard it referred to as a gateway game before, but I always thought it was a half step up from that. Or if it is a gateway game, it's got the longest legs of any game for beginners I know, as I still love it long after I put other games like Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride on the harder-to-reach shelf. It still plays brilliantly, particularly if you have the 6-8 players that puts it at its best (although 3 isn't bad either). I just still really like it, even after all this time. Even though my group all know the strategies now, the game strikes just the right balance between skill and luck to keep the game from getting stale.
Space Alert
Space Alert is really not like any other game I know. It's hectic, it's manic, it's laughing at failure. It's the best time fucking up you'll ever have. And then you'll ace it one day and you'll feel like bullets could bounce off you. It is one of the most fun and frustrating games I know, simultaneously brilliant and despairing, and it triggers more endorphins and recrimination and genuine laughter than anything else I've ever played. It's not easy to pick up - for anyone - but that difficulty is exactly what makes screwing up so hilarious. Watching your friends get sucked out into the vacuum of space because someone accidentally went through the wrong door or pushed the red button instead of the green one just, well, it just seems to work.
The ones I'd be looking out for because I'd still want to own them, but you know, maybe wait for the next sale or deal or whatever:
Archipelago
Galaxy Trucker
Doomtown Reloaded
Libertalia
Race for the Galaxy
Eclipse
Arkham Horror
It doesn't seem overflowing with components or anything so I don't see why it is sold for a such a premium. Is this games workshop being a pain?
It has a lot of plastic mans, I think.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
£70/$100 is a not insignificant amount of money, yes. Could it have been cheaper if they had used some other IP like their own REX universe? Probably true. But you do get a lot in that box.
Mage Knight deserves an entry with the long game, especially for its ability to be scaled between "Bring a sleeping-bag," to an evening-eater with Blitz and Solo options, which is really pretty rare.
Five Tribes, Mascarade, Sentinels of the Multiverse (my turnaround on that one is pretty much complete at this point), Euphoria: BABD, Sushi Go, and Dead of Winter may all be deserving of mention as well.
Yeah, to be honest I can't think of anything I've bought with a similar amount of plastic.
TI3 probably has more (or just comes in a misleadingly enormous box), and I know I paid ~£50 for that, but it was about a decade ago. So with inflation it's probably not that far off.
FINE. I'll continue to consider it.
Especially as it's only £60 online. Hmmm.
There's a dude at work who is into board games, has been into that shit for way longer than me. We've played some Netrunner (went through each of the pre-builts so, of course, I had to go and buy some packs to keep it going), X-wing Miniatures and just started up Mage Wars on Friday. Mage Wars is pretty dope. I'm looking forward to getting some games under the belt so we can get in to the spell book building.
Whoo, that is a dense game. There are so many things going on with Circles and Magic and Science and Gem Economy and Infinite Gems and Card Draws and point modifiers and Attacks.
And scoring is a complete cluster-fuck, because numerous things are worth different points based on which level of the pyramid they're on. But the. Those same things have point modifiers based on color, so counting it all up is kind of confusing.
It's a fun game though! Definitely a heavier version of Splendor, and double definitely will take a few games before you realize how everything slots together as you move towards the end-game.
There are a couple big fans around if memory serves. One of them will probably enthusiastically tell you how great it is shortly. It fell kind of flat for my wife and I, but I thought it was alright enough. It seemed to be more about card counting than we like in a game, and we also only got two characters so we didn't get to play around with the variability aspect. You can play online somewhere I think, if you want to try it out before going all in on the quite expensive full game.
ASK ME ABOUT LOOM YOMI
If you like fighting games, and you like bluffing, and you have friends who like the same (and you could get a 2 or 4 player max game to the table), I think Yomi is a fantastic choice. I've been playing it for a year now, and it's only gotten more fun to play. The characters have great visual design overall, which pretty quickly tells you something about their playstyle. There are characters of different levels of complexity, from relatively simple to I-like-to-play-Blue-in-Magic. Lots of variety of characters, from all-rounders, vortex characters, grapplers, rush-down, and footsie characters.
If you're looking for suggestions on what decks to buy, or if you're interested in playing online (you can play with a rotating free character in the 20 person roster through the browser version), let me know! I'm always happy to talk about Yomi or show people the ropes. I also have a youtube channel with some "how to improve" basics beyond the "how to play" 101 level. Also there are a ton of resources I could link you to. :biggrin:
Uh. Sorry. That happens sometimes. :so_raven:
I've gone to more than my share of EVOs, including when they used actual cabs and it was known as B3, ie pre-evo. I own my own cabs as well, so yes I like fighting games. I've also met Sirlin several times since... wow the 90s with Street Fighter Alpha2.
I picked it up on iOS and have been debating buying the set from the web for local game nights. I go here and here http://www.labyrinthgameshop.com/ http://boardroomdc.com/ for local games. But I've never seen anyone play it and don't know how complicated vs pickup game it is. The iOS version has a lot of hand holding. Money isn't the problem here, I just don't want to bother with it if it's a really niche game that won't work for that.
I'll take that advice and the chance to play online vs a real opponent, I've only tinkered with the AI so far so I suck. Let me know if you want to do iOS or the browser version, kick me your youtube channel, and if you have skype or vent/team speak let's plug in a mic and do this. I'd like to be competent at it before I try and make other people play it.
Snake Oil is pretty much the only 'party' game I own, and only picked up because we were leaving Gen Con on a Sunday and the guy literally sells it to us as we're leaving the hall, 5 bucks. It's great fun and it is MILES better than CAH IMO.
Speaking of Gen Con, I hate this time of year because I can't justify buying new games when the con is so close.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
I got the Forgotten King kickstarter stuff and I really want to get my hand on the original set and both expansions. I even got the new dungeon tiles from the add-ons.
Aaaand nevermind. A friend of mine who moved away gave me his copy. I just need to get it. I might still be willing to trade, however... Just PM me some offers. I'm still looking for Caverns of Roxxor and Von Drakk Manor. Does those two for Zombicide sound like a fair trade?
Nevermind that. His younger brother still uses it. Original request stands: Looking for SDE, offering Zombicide!
Oh nice! Okay, so at the very least it sounds like it could be up your alley! :biggrin: The way I always sell it to my friends is "it's a fighting game where you don't have to have any execution requirements." So, I would say it's pretty friendly to pick up and play, with some caveats. It's very easy to get the basics, but like any fighting game, what it means to be "playing well" is very match-up dependent: in some fights your fireballs are incredibly hard to deal with, and in some you can get punished and punished hard for putting it out there too often, etc. But the basics of "here is how the game works, this is how you play it, these are what your moves do" you can teach in like 10/15 min.
I wouldn't say it's "minutes to learn, lifetime to master" because the learning curve is much gentler than that suggests. I think anyone could pick up any character and be able to learn 90% of everything that's possible with them within a month or two of semi-regular play. The part that will take longer is building enough experience against every member of the cast to be competitive (if you're into that sort of thing). :biggrin:
I'm absolutely down for doing a teaching session over Skype sometime! I'll PM you my contact details. My youtube channel is in my signature: www.youtube.com/c/SimonBraendli and the series is called "Getting Good at Yomi" if you want to check it out.
steam info sent. I've got two others online now.
If I love Legendary Marvel and Sentinels of the Multiverse, what other deck builders should I be looking at?
Those are the main two, honestly, that aren't Dominion or Arctic Scavengers, which aren't cooperative and are much more point and action-economy oriented.
Ascension and the DC-system deckbuilders are enjoyable, but simpler.
ShadowRift and Thunderstone are more complex and sometimes-clunky options. The former has a lot of similarities to Legendary, but isn't as tightly designed. The latter, since the Advance ruleset and editions started coming out, is much improved but very text intensive. Shouldn't be daunting if you're into Sentinels but it's got a lot of the layout-reading elements of Dominion - you really need to know what you're buying and for what reason, turn to turn.
Can I ask you about Loom too? I remember bits about that game from back in the day!
The uh... the only thing I know about Loom is the "ask me about Loom" joke from Monkey Island. Sorry. :bigfrown:
My reaction to Forbidden Stars was a little mixed... I really like the essence of each of the mechanical ideas, particularly the way action planning works, but it has that same feeling as Runewars where I didn't feel like everything connected smoothly into one elegant game. I might like it better on a second run through.