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[Board Games] Pandemic in a Pandemic
JonBob
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Being a fan of board games is weird these days.
Some people are playing more tabletop games than ever! With many people working (or not working) at home, games between couples and within families are booming. New folks are constantly joining the hobby, too, as they look for ways to pass the time. Fortunately there are more awesome games to play every year, like these modern classics:
For others of us, social distancing means we can't enjoy friendly gatherings we are used to. From weekly game nights to large conventions, in-person meeting opportunities are being shuttered. To fill this gap, we are discovering many online substitutes for in-person play. Here are some popular choices:
Tabletop Simulator, Tabletopia
These software packages are physics simulators. They have the benefit of flexibility, as almost all tabletop games are able to be represented within them, but because they are so general-purpose the interface can leave something to be desired. I've heard these referred to as "playing any game you want to play, but while wearing boxing gloves."
Board Game Arena, Boiteajeux
There are general-purpose sites that focus on a slightly more abstract representation of games. These tend to be a little better from an interface standpoint because the games have bespoke implementations, but sometimes at the cost of beauty.
Individual game adaptations
Steam, Google Play, and the iOS App Store are chock full of digital implementations of board and card games. Most of these support online play, and as a whole offer very nice interfaces.
Conference call solutions
Finally, it's possible to play a ton of games with physical components controlled by one player, and others playing remotely over video chat like Zoom. Here are some of the games my weekly group has played this way recently:
- Augustus
- Boggle
- Can't Stop
- Cartographers
- Cat Cafe
- Chicago Express
- Codenames
- Decrypto
- Diamant
- Don Quixote
- Endangered
- Finstere Flure
- Ganz Schön Clever
- Imhotep
- Just One
- Knit Wit
- Las Vegas
- Mint Works
- Montage
- NMBR 9
- Northern Pacific
- Pepper & Carrot
- Qwinto
- Qwixx
- Ra
- Railroad Ink
- Roll through the Ages
- Santiago
- Second Chance
- Sentient
- Tales of Arabian Nights
- Thingamajig
- Through the Desert
- Verflixxt
- Welcome To
- Wits and Wagers
What successes have you had during the quarantine? What new acquisitions are you most looking forward to getting to the table when we can gather in larger groups again?
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I saw that Tapestry is on sale, anybody have an opinion? To me it looks interesting, a middle-ish civilization-like game that has a degree of luck/swing-ey-ness, which I don't immediately mind.
I'm not a parent, but it seems to me like a good game to get kids into crunchy card games, in addition to just being a good game in its own right.
I don't personally know anybody that wanted to play Tapestry again after playing it once. I haven't played it to comment personally, but it landed with a responding meh in my group.
You've met me IRL and I love it. It's not without its flaws but my group was playing it nearly every week for a couple of months before the world ended.
I've played Tapestry at solo through 4 players a total of five times, twice at 2 players. I don't think I'd care to try playing it at 5. My personal takes:
Probably my least favorite aspect, in both the 3 and 4 player games we had people finish up way before others. While some of that was on the particular player, you end up with a game where it's possible for someone not have any more turns when everyone else is still playing. A strange form of hard elimination, essentially. I don't think this would be much of a problem with a group where people played this a lot -- but how many games actually get that much attention from a regular group? The answer for me is not many, maybe it's different for you.
have you seen the world?
go tapestry go
Being the last person playing also feels bad as you are holding up the other players while soloing.
Agree with you on the 100 dollar MSRP for Tapestry being insane, but coolstuffinc's 62 dollar sale price is much more palatable. I wouldn't even be interested otherwise.
I'm a big solo gamer so I need to figure out a good way to print out the solo cards for Duel to give that mode a spin.
I hope it does well enough that they can justify doing a little more with the game someday. While I really do love what's there, it feels like not having some sort of signature 3D standees (like the castles from Kingdomino) to add to your holes is the biggest missed opportunity. Was it you that was complaining about the lack of a windmill anywhere in the game? ;P
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
Yeah. The creator is probably sick of me. No windmills, tiki heads, volcanoes, pirate ships, or dinosaurs on a minigolf course WTF? Maybe the courses in Hong Kong are generic.
He did message me saying he is putting in a windmill, but we will see.
goldenticket.gif
We didn't have any rules trouble, but it was obvious pretty early on that previous experience with Clank would lead to better play. We learned pretty quick but the legacy aspect means we'd already burned a few games before we all knew what we were doing strategy-wise; playing a regular version beforehand would have given us more of a running start, as it were.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
https://www.target.com/p/z-man-games-pandemic-rapid-response-board-game/-/A-76151680
Someone posted this on BGG the other day and I ended up being able to order and pickup same day at my local store.
They're also all melee heroes, which is an interesting mix-up. Dr. Watson is Sherlock's ranged sidekick, but other than that, all the characters rely more on different movement abilities to close the distance.
They're all pretty wild and interesting characters that continue to toy with the game's core mechanics: The Invisible Man completely lacks any of the core packet of base cards that pretty much all of the other characters' decks share, while Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde count as separate characters for card effects, even though they share one miniature. Both new maps are fun and do better than ever at feeling like real spaces, while also bringing in a couple new intricacies. It's all quite clever.
Anyway yeah. Still plays quick, still gives both players a really interesting, shifting decision space while also being rules-light, and still remains thoughtfully, even playfully, thematic, with gorgeous artwork and expressive card mechanics.
Pretty good game, y'all.
They also asked for an additional info survey.
I... probably am going to give someone whiplash. I responded extremely positively on everything, then lambasted them for not giving me a retailer option to back the game. Literally my store owner is who got me into RDI, and where I got the first 5 expansions and most of the allies. But they keep putting things in the kickstarters that I can't get in the store, and it pisses me off.
Railroad Ink Challenge did the same thing.
Not saying I'm gonna do it, but...
How is Terraforming Mars? *cough*
There may be a kickstarter for a storage box for it... that is gorgeous...
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
Is it worth buying a giant box of tiles for it if you've never played it but figure if you are gonna play it, you are gonna buy everything for it?
No. That's absurd.
Just pledge $1 so you get their notifications, buy the game or start playing it on TTS, and by the time you know if you actually like it or not the BackerKit will be open.
In my case I'd go through my retailer. But yeah, seems the idea.
On Mars, now... 🤔
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
I want to know but at the same time I absolutely do not.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
I read them and you are not missing anything by not reading them.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/49049/robert-burke/linkeditems/boardgamedesigner?pageid=2
I haven't played any of his games and I think I will not be missing anything by not playing them ever.
On another note. I played architects of the western kingdom for the first time this weekend and I was pleasantly surprised.
I did make me think about it replacing raiders of the North sea in my collection.
Still the metal coins in raiders are nice.