I'm picking up a christmas gift for a 12 year old I know nothing about, and his only wishes were "games" so naturally I'm assuming he meant boardgames.
Anyone know a good game for a 12 year old, around 2-3 (but can have more) people that has super simple rules and around 20-30 bucks?
Blokus - travel/Duo version is strictly 2p, Blokus Trigon plays well with three or four (2p with that one has each controlling two colors).
Or, for something more thematic, Small World (though that is running $35 at coolstuffinc, so it might be out of your price range).
Qwirkle (or Qwirkle Cubes) is a nice abstract with simple rules. Handles any number from 2-5. Ingenious would also work (either the regular (1-4p) or 2p travel version).
Lego Creationary would work, as well; it's pictionary but you build things out of legos for people to guess rather than drawing them.
I'm picking up a christmas gift for a 12 year old I know nothing about, and his only wishes were "games" so naturally I'm assuming he meant boardgames.
Anyone know a good game for a 12 year old, around 2-3 (but can have more) people that has super simple rules and around 20-30 bucks?
Set and Too Many Cooks are the ones from my stash that are popular with the younger crowd.
I dunno about FoD's "cat and mouse" play. The game seems so imbalanced towards Dracula. (...) But after playing it a few times, with each game just being Dracula dragging out the clock (and even when you do manage to find him its so easy for him to escape), the fun didn't pan out.
I've always felt that Dracula dragging out the clock is a very unsatisfying way to play the game. And it's not even a particularly effective strategy either. In the games I've played, Dracula usually won by beating a hunter once and maturing 1 vampire. The last two points sort of came about during the course of play; after about a dozen or so turns and you're at 6 vampires. Really, the fun part is sneaking the vampire token past the hunters and trying to confront one of them, when they're weakened. Mina is a usually a good choice for that. A Dracula player who just runs away all the time, waiting for the timer to get him the points to win is effectively sabotaging the game. Sure, you can play Dracula that way... but why would you?
I agree that the game can be a little slow-going at first, when the hunters are just roaming about, getting equipment and trying to stumble over Dracula's trail. But once you do manage that, the tension usually ramps up pretty quickly. Even with Dracula's trail clearing after a successfully matured vampire token, you usually still have enough of a clue as to his location. So trying to cut off his means of escape, and trying to nudge him towards a certain directions is quite fun. That's where the cat-and-mouse thing comes into play, where you're trying to bluff and counter-bluff the next few moves. Evasion (Dracula may move to any location on the board) can be a devestating card for the hunters though.
There's also the fact that during your turn you don't really have that much to do, unless you're actively on Dracula's trail. So the slow-moving parts at the beginning of the game, shouldn't really take that long... you are after all just moving to the next city (or rolling a die) and getting cards. It's only once Dracula has a 3 or 4 cards on his trail, that you really have to co-ordinate the hunters' movement.
Nuns is definitely more dice based, but I don't think I agree with fiddly. The great thing about Nuns is that every turn each player gets a chance to be detected/detect someone around them based on the noise/listen rolls.
The times I've played it, trying to explain when the nuns have to roll ("Prioress ran last time, so she can't hear you... but Abbess didn't so you roll for her, even if she is on the other side of the board"), what they subtract from roll and how they apply the dice roll to the board has been a little convoluted. Not to mention the thing about sightlines, and the easy to miss doors on the board. The game is great fun, but it doesn't play as smoothly as one would expect.
Autoplay just means if someone doesn't take their turn within some ridiculously long period of time (either 48 or 72 hours, I think), the game will make a reasonable choice for them to keep it moving.
Game 18 created on www.pr-game.com
I went ahead and invited admanb and jakobagger.
Still room for two more with the usual password (wang); PM me here if you have any problems joining or questions.
Seems as though it already filled up and started (and everyone else had done their first action and were waiting on me). We can start up another if there is more interest, though.
Gah, I didn't read the FAQ very closely it seems. Oh well, at least I will play however much 100 ingots will get me. I can't see paying to play it when live let alone beta.
Gah, I didn't read the FAQ very closely it seems. Oh well, at least I will play however much 100 ingots will get me. I can't see paying to play it when live let alone beta.
I had wondered to myself, "Self, I wonder why there isn't an online version of Memoir '44?"
The answer, apparently, was "They haven't found a way to ruin it with micropayments yet."
I picked up the Stark expansion for Battle for Westeros over the weekend. Now to talk someone into actually playing with me.
My friend picked up Dungeon Lords (by the same guy who makes another favorite of mine: Galaxy Truckers). The premise is that you are a Dungeon Lord, trying to build a healthy dungeon to employ all the local imps while dodging guild taxes. If the damned adventurers would stop barging into your dungeon and wrecking your shit, it'd all be peachy.
The rules are fairly tedious during initial run through, so we didn't get to play a full game. It looks really fun and well put together, though. It also comes with several tools for running training scenarios with your friends to get them playing quickly. Can't wait to get another solid game in.
Darkewolfe on
What is this I don't even.
0
Casually HardcoreOnce an Asshole. Trying to be better.Registered Userregular
edited November 2010
I did a search and nothing showed up so I'm asking this.
Never heard of it; there's a review on the Geek, though. Luck/Dexterity game (target zones in the box top that you try to roll your dice onto to kill zeds).
Guessing this just came out?
Drawbacks: There's a lot of luck involved, even with the dexterity-based combat. Also, with more than 2 players, player elimination becomes a concern. One player could conceivably be knocked out very early, leaving one bored player while the rest duke it out.
Overall: I really enjoyed the game. There is a lot of room for trying to come up with a sure-fire strategy, but limited supplies and random events mean there are no guarantees. The gameplay is simple and easy to manage, but there are lots of tough decisions to make. I could see where play could slow down if players got into overthinking, but this game is less likely to appeal to deeply strategic players anyway. Looking forward to trying it 4 players, but it's certainly fun for two.
Gah, I didn't read the FAQ very closely it seems. Oh well, at least I will play however much 100 ingots will get me. I can't see paying to play it when live let alone beta.
I had wondered to myself, "Self, I wonder why there isn't an online version of Memoir '44?"
The answer, apparently, was "They haven't found a way to ruin it with micropayments yet."
Asmodee also started shipping 7 Wonders today to U.S. distributors and retailers today. Expect to start seeing it on the shelf of your favorite game stores this week -- let the madness begin!!!!
Also, Asmodee Editions announced today that the U.S. copies of 7 Wonders are now sold out at the publisher (no reprint date announced yet). For now there will be plenty of copies available "down stream" at your favorite retailers, but expect the game to become harder to find as winter holidays approach.
Picked up Civ from my FLGS on Sat, then played Dominant Species, Homesteaders, then Agricola. Last place, first place, last place respectively.
Gah, I didn't read the FAQ very closely it seems. Oh well, at least I will play however much 100 ingots will get me. I can't see paying to play it when live let alone beta.
I had wondered to myself, "Self, I wonder why there isn't an online version of Memoir '44?"
The answer, apparently, was "They haven't found a way to ruin it with micropayments yet."
What the fuck are they doing
:x
Well, they *have* said it's experimental and they wanted to test out the concept.
I dunno, if it just costs one ingot per base game, and you get 100 for free for signing up (for free, also), I think that's fair. Gotta recoup development costs somehow...
Maybe have a option where you could permanently buy a expansion, and not have to pay extra ingots when you want to use it?
PMAvers on
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
Am I the only one who turns off when "Zombie" and "Boardgame" are in the same sentence? I actually like last night on earth but I just know too many people who would eat that shit up based on the fact that zombies are like, so cool, and it being in a boardgame automatically makes it good.
They mentioned when it goes live that they plan on having updates every two weeks so they need some way to pay for it. Haven't tried it myself so I could be wrong but it looks like you can get more then enough games in to see if its something you like or not so if you want to continue after that it seems fair to pay.
Zombie Survival Game
Its pretty new. I like the concept of zombie board games so I checked into it a bit. It looked really cool until I got to the mechanic with rolling a die into the game box for killing zombies which seemed like a really horrible dexterity concept.
Newblar on
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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admanbunionize your workplaceSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
edited November 2010
I could see paying upfront for M’44 and then buying new scenarios and content, but I can't see myself paying just to play games. M'44 just isn't that good.
I have a question for anyone who owns the WoW Adventure Game:
Having recently purchased it during FFG's ridiculous Winter Sale, which, if any, of the additional characters are worth buying? I'm tempted to buy the Paladin/Shaman just because those classes don't come in the base game, but are any of the others worth buying?
I think you should just play the base game first. I remember my groups first base game took around 4 hours. Adding Pegasus will extend/complicate the game (more rules/explanations/looking things up) and I think it's best to get the hang of the game first.
In semi-related news: 7 Wonders and BSG Exodus Pre-order + a bunch of games from a math trade = awesome winter break coming up.
You can add the new characters easily enough (though I'd recommend against using the Cylon leaders). The Pegasus ship itself can be added easily. I'd leave off New Caprica, it seems to lengthen the game and doesn't add enough fun.
So the new version of Betrayal at the House on the Hill of the Prepositions is pretty cool, they've made some improvements, such as only being able to use the stat-boosting rooms once per game per player (although there's no convenient way to track this, unfortunately.)
We did manage to get haunt 46 into a ridiculous state, though...
The heroes can escape with the victims out the front door, then can come back in to rescue more. If any victims escape, the traitor can only win by killing all of the heroes. But there's nothing that says that the hero who escapes has to ever come back inside, and since the traitor can't go outside, the heroes can force a condition where the best the traitor can do is a stalemate. Easily houseruled that you have to move back inside if you start your turn outside the house, but still, I had hoped they'd solved the degenerate board problems.
antherem on
0
Casually HardcoreOnce an Asshole. Trying to be better.Registered Userregular
edited December 2010
Well, I was walking around Barne and Nobles and stumble across WH40K Space Hulk: Angel of Death.
Is this the best impulse buy or the worst impulse buy? We'll soon find out...
Doh, forgotten the question.
Any opinions on 'Zombies!!!'? The box make it out to be Left 4 Dead: The boardgame. IF that's the case, I'm all over it!
Well, I was walking around Barne and Nobles and stumble across WH40K Space Hulk: Angel of Death.
Is this the best impulse buy or the worst impulse buy? We'll soon find out...
Doh, forgotten the question.
Any opinions on 'Zombies!!!'? The box make it out to be Left 4 Dead: The boardgame. IF that's the case, I'm all over it!
According to the thread- Zombies!!! is ass and sucks and is terrible and you'll hate yourself for playing it or buying it. Last Night On Earth is usually the replacement suggestion, although there have been a number of zombie games that have come out. Zombie State(IIRC) got rave reviews in this thread, Mall of Horror is fairly well respected on bgg.
starmanbrand on
0
Casually HardcoreOnce an Asshole. Trying to be better.Registered Userregular
edited December 2010
Well, Angel of Death is pretty damn fun once you figure out how to play the damn thing.
Seriously, whoever wrote the manual needs to have a good hard look at their career. You can seriously condense the instruction to 1/4 of its size and still give a clearer outline of what to do. This whole 'set up your terrain card (for more information to terrain cards go to page 26)' thing is cumbersome.
Posts
Anyone know a good game for a 12 year old, around 2-3 (but can have more) people that has super simple rules and around 20-30 bucks?
Google +
Or, for something more thematic, Small World (though that is running $35 at coolstuffinc, so it might be out of your price range).
Qwirkle (or Qwirkle Cubes) is a nice abstract with simple rules. Handles any number from 2-5. Ingenious would also work (either the regular (1-4p) or 2p travel version).
Lego Creationary would work, as well; it's pictionary but you build things out of legos for people to guess rather than drawing them.
All of those are easy to pick up and play.
Set and Too Many Cooks are the ones from my stash that are popular with the younger crowd.
I've always felt that Dracula dragging out the clock is a very unsatisfying way to play the game. And it's not even a particularly effective strategy either. In the games I've played, Dracula usually won by beating a hunter once and maturing 1 vampire. The last two points sort of came about during the course of play; after about a dozen or so turns and you're at 6 vampires. Really, the fun part is sneaking the vampire token past the hunters and trying to confront one of them, when they're weakened. Mina is a usually a good choice for that. A Dracula player who just runs away all the time, waiting for the timer to get him the points to win is effectively sabotaging the game. Sure, you can play Dracula that way... but why would you?
I agree that the game can be a little slow-going at first, when the hunters are just roaming about, getting equipment and trying to stumble over Dracula's trail. But once you do manage that, the tension usually ramps up pretty quickly. Even with Dracula's trail clearing after a successfully matured vampire token, you usually still have enough of a clue as to his location. So trying to cut off his means of escape, and trying to nudge him towards a certain directions is quite fun. That's where the cat-and-mouse thing comes into play, where you're trying to bluff and counter-bluff the next few moves. Evasion (Dracula may move to any location on the board) can be a devestating card for the hunters though.
There's also the fact that during your turn you don't really have that much to do, unless you're actively on Dracula's trail. So the slow-moving parts at the beginning of the game, shouldn't really take that long... you are after all just moving to the next city (or rolling a die) and getting cards. It's only once Dracula has a 3 or 4 cards on his trail, that you really have to co-ordinate the hunters' movement.
The times I've played it, trying to explain when the nuns have to roll ("Prioress ran last time, so she can't hear you... but Abbess didn't so you roll for her, even if she is on the other side of the board"), what they subtract from roll and how they apply the dice roll to the board has been a little convoluted. Not to mention the thing about sightlines, and the easy to miss doors on the board. The game is great fun, but it doesn't play as smoothly as one would expect.
Google +
I think thats better then I've done. I'm a slow learner when it comes to PR
Ah, you just need more practice then.
Barkeep! Another round, if you please.
Some of the lego games are dumb fun like Wild Wool but I am debating about buying a lego bucket to make creationary much more
I went ahead and invited admanb and jakobagger.
Still room for two more with the usual password (wang); PM me here if you have any problems joining or questions.
However I've been in the last couple so I'll see if you fill them first
I went ahead and added SlickShughes and TheCowKing. We've got room for up to two more, or we can start the game whenever with fewer.
Memoir '44 Online Open Beta
http://blog.daysofwonder.com/2010/11/25/memoir-44-online-beta-call-for-volunteers/
Gah, I didn't read the FAQ very closely it seems. Oh well, at least I will play however much 100 ingots will get me. I can't see paying to play it when live let alone beta.
Just a little Dominion maths there for you.
I made a game, it has penguins in it. It's pay what you like on Gumroad.
Currently Ebaying Nothing at all but I might do in the future.
I had wondered to myself, "Self, I wonder why there isn't an online version of Memoir '44?"
The answer, apparently, was "They haven't found a way to ruin it with micropayments yet."
My friend picked up Dungeon Lords (by the same guy who makes another favorite of mine: Galaxy Truckers). The premise is that you are a Dungeon Lord, trying to build a healthy dungeon to employ all the local imps while dodging guild taxes. If the damned adventurers would stop barging into your dungeon and wrecking your shit, it'd all be peachy.
The rules are fairly tedious during initial run through, so we didn't get to play a full game. It looks really fun and well put together, though. It also comes with several tools for running training scenarios with your friends to get them playing quickly. Can't wait to get another solid game in.
Zombie Survival Board Game.
Is it good??
Guessing this just came out?
What
the
fuck
are
they
doing
:x
Picked up Civ from my FLGS on Sat, then played Dominant Species, Homesteaders, then Agricola. Last place, first place, last place respectively.
Switch: US 1651-2551-4335 JP 6310-4664-2624
MH3U Monster Cheat Sheet / MH3U Veggie Elder Ticket Guide
Well, they *have* said it's experimental and they wanted to test out the concept.
I dunno, if it just costs one ingot per base game, and you get 100 for free for signing up (for free, also), I think that's fair. Gotta recoup development costs somehow...
Maybe have a option where you could permanently buy a expansion, and not have to pay extra ingots when you want to use it?
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
Google +
They mentioned when it goes live that they plan on having updates every two weeks so they need some way to pay for it. Haven't tried it myself so I could be wrong but it looks like you can get more then enough games in to see if its something you like or not so if you want to continue after that it seems fair to pay.
Zombie Survival Game
Its pretty new. I like the concept of zombie board games so I checked into it a bit. It looked really cool until I got to the mechanic with rolling a die into the game box for killing zombies which seemed like a really horrible dexterity concept.
Having recently purchased it during FFG's ridiculous Winter Sale, which, if any, of the additional characters are worth buying? I'm tempted to buy the Paladin/Shaman just because those classes don't come in the base game, but are any of the others worth buying?
Thanks!
For our first game, do you recommend just the base game, or to toss in Pegasus straight away?
In semi-related news: 7 Wonders and BSG Exodus Pre-order + a bunch of games from a math trade = awesome winter break coming up.
IOS Game Center ID: Isotope-X
We did manage to get haunt 46 into a ridiculous state, though...
Is this the best impulse buy or the worst impulse buy? We'll soon find out...
Doh, forgotten the question.
Any opinions on 'Zombies!!!'? The box make it out to be Left 4 Dead: The boardgame. IF that's the case, I'm all over it!
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=1797
And has a new character preview.
Somebody's going to end up with a bullet in them.
EDIT: Didn't see that it was in the BSG thread already, but I figure it doesn't hurt to cross-post in case you don't check it.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
NOOO!!
DONT YOU DARE SAY THAT! That train wreck was fucking aweful!
According to the thread- Zombies!!! is ass and sucks and is terrible and you'll hate yourself for playing it or buying it. Last Night On Earth is usually the replacement suggestion, although there have been a number of zombie games that have come out. Zombie State(IIRC) got rave reviews in this thread, Mall of Horror is fairly well respected on bgg.
Seriously, whoever wrote the manual needs to have a good hard look at their career. You can seriously condense the instruction to 1/4 of its size and still give a clearer outline of what to do. This whole 'set up your terrain card (for more information to terrain cards go to page 26)' thing is cumbersome.
Other then that, it's good fun.