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board games: epic adventures on cardboard tiles
robotsunshine
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so let's talk about board games.
we've been playing descent a lot lately, which i imagine would probably run faster if everyone weren't agonizing over every possible move, but otherwise is pretty fun. it's a dungeon crawler, nothing very innovative about it, and from what i hear, it closely resembles the doom board game, which i may end up getting just because it's doom.
i'm trying to implement board game day at the local gaming shop of preference, with descent and risk heading up the front, and hopefully twilight imperium to come soon (my goodness it's beautiful.)
to fill the gap, i'm thinking of adding puerto rico to the mix since it gets such excellent reviews. and we need a good interactive strategy game to draw in interest.
so what games fill the void for everyone else?
we've been playing descent a lot lately, which i imagine would probably run faster if everyone weren't agonizing over every possible move, but otherwise is pretty fun. it's a dungeon crawler, nothing very innovative about it, and from what i hear, it closely resembles the doom board game, which i may end up getting just because it's doom.
i'm trying to implement board game day at the local gaming shop of preference, with descent and risk heading up the front, and hopefully twilight imperium to come soon (my goodness it's beautiful.)
to fill the gap, i'm thinking of adding puerto rico to the mix since it gets such excellent reviews. and we need a good interactive strategy game to draw in interest.
so what games fill the void for everyone else?
robotsunshine on
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There's a company that is doing a reprint of Talisman later this year; unfortunately, my Google-fu is apparently weak and I can't find it. I want to say "Black Mountain Games" or something like that.
I feel your pain. I used to love Talisman, my buddy had pretty much all the expansions and we had epic games all throughout junior high and high school. Now it costs a fuckzillion dollars on E-bay.
You might want to check out Dungeoneer and Runebound, two Talisman-esque games that have come out in recent years. Dungeoneer is notable for its system that allows you to directly send monsters at your opponents, which removes alot of the downtime.
IOS Game Center ID: Isotope-X
big city might work for you - it too has a modular board, and works on building and trading. plus, the pieces don't look that bad, if that's a factor for you. i also hear good things about chinatown, which has a strong emphasis on trade.
i hear it has that effect on people, yeah. that's why i'm gunning for it
Switch: nin.codes/roldford
Downsides are the downtime and the fact that sometimes it feels like everyone is playing solitaire, but they're trying to fix that up with the expansions. Make it more interactive.
like, regardless of its train gender
it's really good - varied enough to get everyone thinking, but easy enough to get you hooked. i haven't met a person yet who didn't enjoy it. i also have a soft spot for train games, so all the better.
Please tell me it is.
I haven't gotten to play mine yet.
Carcassone and Puerto Rico are great games that would be excellent additions to your game collection. As is Ticket to Ride.
Have you tried Power Grid?
Ticket to Ride, on the other hand, is pretty simple to learn and get a hang of, but still a lot of fun.
Carcassone is also a cool game, and the variants on it are fun too.
i was going to buy caylus, but the 60 dollar price tag drew me away. instead, i may head towards some traditional axis & allies play (which i still believe is most fun with only two players) since axis & allies: war at sea miniatures are really big around here. a friend of mine mentioned playing axis & allies "blind", which is essentially where you set up two boards - one for the axis, one for the allies - which are both out of sight for each other, and each one containing only their respective players' pieces. you then play as normal, except when you move into enemy territory, you have no idea what they have or what's there. it's all watched over by a judge. sounds pretty neat.
Yup, just don't go in expecting space Risk.
I really want the expansion but I've not been near enough people willing to play in about a year. Stupid people getting jobs in other cities!
It's still incredibly fun, though.
Latest gaming:
Pompeii - A decent, light-weight-ish game in two parts (populate the city with your people, then get your ass out of Dodge before the lava consumes the entire town). It's fun to throw people into volcanoes.
Arkadia - interesting little Tetris-looking stock market game. Well worth picking up (I think the RGG version is out now).
Age of Steam - awesome game. Tons of brain-burny bankruptcy goodness.
Trans America is a fun little game that doesn't take very long. My group usually plays a few games of it while they wait for the stragglers to show up.
Black Industries. It's 4th edition, not a reprint.
so beautiful
Bookmarking. Then waiting for October '07.
Here's what I'd recommend the gamer who can grok Twilight Imperium, but has yet to experience Puerto Rico:
Medium length and player numbers
1) Puerto Rico. It is as deep, wide, and replayable as everyone says it is.
2) Antike. Up to 6 players, simple rules but lots of strategy, and one of the most balanced wargames I have seen in a long time.
3) Amun Re. An auction game with a twist - after the midpoint of the game, all ownership of territory is lost; in the second half of the game, you are bidding for plots that have already been partially developed.
4) Alhambra. This tile-building game is easy to learn (the rules are maybe 2 pages long), but has lots of replayablinty built in. The mechanics center more on cost/benefit analysis and predicting other player's moves, rather than a land-grab like Carcassone.
5) Elasund. A Catan game about fluctualting control over a shared resource, this game is good for players that are good at Settlers, but have started to look for something with sharper knives.
6) Lous XIV. A classic 'influence' game centered around getting the most by spending the least, this game forces player to plan for the future, and also has several good strategic options that can all lead to victory.
Lighter Fare (Generally shorter, simpler, and more suited to casual players. Good gateway games.)
1) Attika. Not to be confused with 'Antike' above, the main resource in the game is the shared board. Players race in the early game to connect opposite corners of the board, which leads to lots of blocking moves and crossing paths. If no one makes a complete crossing line, players then race to play all of the buildings for their side, which requires more careful resource planning.
2) Ticket To Ride. This one is a too loight light fare for usual group, but players that don't want to put a lot of effort into learning new rules sets will enjoy it - a good 'gilrfriend' game. I'd stay away from the original (US) and go for Europe or Maarklin (germany) instead.
3) La Strada. Literally - 'The Roads', this game is about connecting points on the board with your roads and accessing as many cities as you can for greater commercial opportunities. The game is over when the board is full, and most games are very close. It sounds simple, but the player interaction at the heart of the game makes every session different.
4) Blue Moon City. The game of restoring a destroyed capitol features fantastic artwork, very competetive gameplay, and simple rules. There is no text outside of the rulebook, so you know you won't need to go hunting for obscure rules as you play.
5) Citadels. Anyone familiar with a CCG draft will recognize the main mechanic here, but what you are drafting for are turn order and special abilities to use each turn. Great for as many as 8 players, which is a boon.
Deep Dishes (Not necessarily longer, but more complex, more thought-inducing games)
1) Caylus. It is very much worth the 60 bucks - as deep and replayable as Puerto Rico, if not moreso. It is a little steeper, and more prone to analysis paralysis (for the first few games), but also more rewarding, I think.
2) Struggle for Empires. A fantasticly political and diplomatic wargame that seats up to 7 players, but plays well with 4 or more. Forgive the cardboard chits - this game plays as the best combination of A&A, Adv. Civ, and Dip I have ever played.
3) Imperial. The grown-up big brother of Antike uses similar combat and turn selection rules, but instead of playing as a country, you play as bankers that control the countries. When control of a country changes (and it will), the game gets much more interesting.
4) War of the Ring. Best with 2 players, this is LotR meets A&A. The sides have distinctly different goals, and different possible plans of attack. Every element of the game reeks of flavor and hobbit-ness.
5) Dune. If you can find a copy, the 1970s version of this game is a great for finding new ways to backstab your friends. The rules are pretty complex - more exceptions than rules, really - but your efforts will be rewarded.
Games I Avoid (There's no accounting for taste, but I would not recommend these games)
1) Descent. It's not a good D&D substitute, and it's not a very good combat game. If the DM is competant, you will spend longer setting this game up than you will playing it. If not, most of the challenges will pale before the might of the PCs midway through any level.
2) Power Grid. A great game, until someone figures it out. There are no mechanics that allow players to bring down the guy in the lead without also sacrificing their chances for victory. You can often take down the score at the 20% complete point, and it will be the same at the end of the game.
3) Mare Nostrum. The concept sounds good - ancient mythology meets wargame - but it's another 'war' game where the fastest way to lose is to involve yourself in combat. Without combat, the game is 5 player economic solitaire.
4) Munchkin. The more people you add, the more time you spend bored. The randomness of the game overwhelms any kind of strategy, and the cuteness wears off before you have read every card.
This post reminds me to updtae my BGG collection page. Once I'm done, I'll post it here. Hope some of this info was useful.
I've really started to hate Descent, and all the random stupid shit in it. A DM with even the slightest bit of insight into how the rules work can make the player's life a living hell. "Roll a surge... oops, guess you're gonna have to attack your buddy now." Next round: "Roll a surge... oops... oh, you decided to stand so you weren't in line of sight with any of the other characters? Stab yourself in the head instead." "You drag yourself out of a pit, and another pit opens underneath you. You drag yourself out of that pit, and another pit opens underneath you. You drag yourself out of that pit, and a boulder drops on your head. Gimme victory points."
And if it's not like that, the DM is either going easy on you so you have half a chance at getting to the end of the encounter, or amassing hero fucker points for something big next turn. I'm a fairly easy-going gamer, but there have been a few times where I've actually wanted to burn that fucking game.
Not to mention that the game generally devolves into:
- on player X's turn, check to see if he's lvl 8-9.
- if so, fuck him over by playing a Humongous Ultra Mega Fucker Advance X <cute D&D pun> on him.
- repeat until everyone is so sick of the game that they just let one person win. Thank <deity of choice> it's finally over.
Illuminati suffers from the exact same problem.
I'm gonna pick up Axis and Allies sometime this week.
Anybody wanna tell me more about how it plays?
Just fine. Even with expansions. It's an excellent starting "war machines across a world" game.
Just remember the cardinal rule: You can move pieces from Eastern US to Western US.
Believe me, the first time I played this was at some kid's house and he insisted (b/c he owned the game and hid the rules) that you couldn't go from one side of the board to the other. It took weeks to convince him otherwise.
It's a combination board / card game, really where everyone gets an alien "power" that lets them be an exception to one or more rules (each power is different). Your goal is to establish bases on other people's planets.
In theory, it's 2-6 players, but the 2-player version is kinda odd, and 3 players really isn't as much fun because of the way conflict and allies shift around from one turn to the next.
However, like Talisman, I think it's currently out of print and hard to find.
I wish my family played more complicated board games... I taught them to play Wits and Wagers and Family Business.. but anything beyond that is far too complicated... be happy you got your family to play settlers.
I've read both rule books (3rd edition and expansion) multiple times as well as many articles at BGG and have gathered that it's best to use the Age of Empires option and use the pre-set maps to make the game smoother for noobs.
Though I've never played I like a lot of the expansion cards both practically and thematically. Should I use one set over the other or are there any suggestions of a combination of the two? Since I'm concerned about length and plan on using the AoE option it seems like I could use all the expansion cards except for using the original Imperial card to keep the flow of VPs going. (Nevermind, I just figured out that the only cards you can swap are the I&II versions, the others belong to a balanced set. Guess that makes things easier and means I'll be purchasing the expansion when I get around to buying the game. Who needs to pay rent anyway?)
Also I'm aware it's a hefty investment for something I'm not 100% about but I've already recieved some donations to the cause and I think the chrome alone will get their attention. We enjoy embarking on epic yet impracticle endeavors.
-Louis C.K.
I will be going on a weekend holiday with my family next month and my mom asked me today if we should buy a new board game for the occasion so we can play together. Here's the difficulty though, I need a game my dad will also play and he rarely, if ever, plays board games. In fact, the only things he's played that I know of are Trivial Pursuit (he probably likes this because he always wins), Settlers of Catan, some and uh... Scrabble. He's notoriously hard to even get to join in on games (though he may sometimes join in on a new game just for the first try, then never joins in again). I'd take Settlers with us and just play that, except we'll be with 5 people and although I could get the expansion set for it, I'd really like to try and find a new game he might also enjoy.
Any suggestions for a good board (or heck, card) game suitable for 5 players which my dad may also enjoy? (also not overtly complex, because then it might become a problem for my mother).
fluxx is a fun card game that's extremely easy and addicting. maybe deadwood, by cheapass games.
in fact, try just about anything from cheapass games. they sell you the game for 8 dollars or less, you supply the tokens and dice.
You just have to have discipline.
And a timer + pokey object. "Done yet? Done yet?"
Get Family Business or Bang! in card games. They are both quite fun, and easy to learn (Family Business moreso than Bang!).
I forgot to mention that I'm in the Netherlands and not every one of those games is available here (and although I wouldn't have a problem with an english version, I'm sure my mother would). But as far as I can tell, Bang! and Fluxx are available here, Family Business doesn't appear to be (shame the description makes it sound like a fun game).
More suggestions are always welcome.
There's a newer version (made by Avalon Hill) that the purists at boardgamegeek.com apparently believe is made from evil and shit. But screw them. If you can find a copy, grab it. It does only allow for a maximum of 4 players, and you definitely want all 4 in the game.
My advice would be to give each player two powers and let them choose one...it cuts down on the boring powers.
IOS Game Center ID: Isotope-X
I seriously need a new boardgame along the lines of Risk, but somewhat more complex.
Suggestions?
Axis and Allies.