I played Zombies only once, at the end of a long day of board-gaming, when I hadn't had any dinner and there was no food to be found. I get ratty when I'm proper hungry, and after the 57th time the zombies took out someone and sent them back to 'respawn' I decided I hate that game.
Apples to Apples is definitely a good party game, potentially hilarious if a couple of people have the same kind of humor (I won 'endless' with 'screeching' because the noun's description was simply 'please stop').
I need to have you guys over sometime to teach my relatives how to play the game, because they just don't get it.
Primary advantage to winning a five and a half-week long game of Twilight Imperium with your coworkers?
Referring to yourself as the Lord Regent in all e-mails the next day.
Were you taking less than one turn a day?
We only played about once a week, for about four hours a day. The game went through almost the entire deck of objectives. (Also, we don't play with the 2 victory point role card. It speeds things up, but it's detrimental to the juicy strategy and politics of the game, we think.)
Apples to Apples is definitely a good party game, potentially hilarious if a couple of people have the same kind of humor (I won 'endless' with 'screeching' because the noun's description was simply 'please stop').
I need to have you guys over sometime to teach my relatives how to play the game, because they just don't get it.
Surprisingly my family is really good at making this game exciting. Very good at making some ironical choices in card selection. Apples to Apples is one of my favorite party games.
kuhlmeye on
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UtsanomikoBros before DoesRollin' in the thlayRegistered Userregular
Apples to Apples is definitely a good party game, potentially hilarious if a couple of people have the same kind of humor (I won 'endless' with 'screeching' because the noun's description was simply 'please stop').
I need to have you guys over sometime to teach my relatives how to play the game, because they just don't get it.
"Don't get it"? Do they not grasp the basic grammar-building rules, or are they essentially robots?
I mean your siblings are kind of like robots, but they still seem to understand playing. You'd have to despise any game that wasn't such as throwing balls into hoops to dislike Apples to Apples.
Is this dilemma going on as we speak? I could head over after work.
today, i am going to buy a boardgame. but only one.
currently i have two contenders: arkham horror and puerto rico. which do y'all suggest?
If you are only going to have one new game, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, a thousand times Puerto Rico. Arkham Horror is a very fun game, but it does not have variable replayability like Puerto Rico does. One game is a jolly romp through Arkham, fun with beers, the other is a masterful demonstration of how deep a company can take the strategy on a simple game system.
Battlestar Galactica
So I have played the BSG game and I have to say I was incredibly pleased.
A very basic run down of the game.
There are four dials Population, Fuel, Morale, and Food. As bad stuff happens these dials get turned down. Additionally if you don't have fuel you can't jump, however there are ways to acquire more fuel.
Everyone has different Character cards. They all have different positive effects and one shitty effect, for example Saul is a drunk so I think he has to give away cards from his hand every turn. On the cards there are stats for how many cards from the different ability cards you can draw. For example Starbuck could draw 2 from piloting, 2 from engineering, and maybe one from leadership (not the real stats I don't remember them). One character is always an admiral, and the other is the president this allows for special abilities and desicion making capabilities. The admiral is the only one who can launch nukes, and the only one who can decide to jump.
Also everyone draws a card that says whether they are or are not a cylon. Usually its just one or two people. And again halfway through the game another set is handed out to indicate sleeper agents. Unfortunatly there is no Bob Dylan to play during this phase. If a cylon is ever outed a special card is drawn, and it is usually some terribly tragic. The outed cylon is then sent to either caprica, or the ressurection ship. Either way they still have a significant role in the game after being outed.
Your position on the ship is important from the command center you can launch raptors, or from the gunning station you can shoot at ships outside. There is a brig where you can throw suspected Cylons, and from their they can't do anything.
So a typical turn would go as follows (mind you I have only played it once)
You draw the number of cards indicated by your character sheet.
Then you get to move to a different location. (you may also launch in a raptor, or fly over to Colonial one)
You may then play an action, this may be associate with your location (fight a cylon ship in your space, or do some research in the lab etc..) or you may play a card from your hand.
Next you draw an event card. This is almost always something terrible. It usually does multiple things. If it is a challenge it lists a series of skills, for example politics and engineering. Next everyone puts cards (all the skill cards are associated with a skill and have a number in the upper corner.) face down into a pile. All the numbers that have the needed skills are totalled inorder to beat the score. Any cards that are in the pile that aren't associated with the skill are subtracted from the score. Thus the cylon agent is able to sabotage skill challenges. Failed skill challenges typically end in the loss of resources.
Another event that can happen is a map showing the placement of Cylon ships, these ships are then placed and start attacking.
Every once and a while an event card will have a little star. This indicates that you can move the jump prep counter up to the next step. Jumping is required to get closer to finding earth, and it also clears the board of cylon fighters and base stars.
I've left out some of the other things that happen (boarding parties, Ship combat, civilian ship protection, chain of command.) What I really want to get across is how frantic the game feels. You might be one step away from jumping, you could jump now but you would probably lose some civilian ships, and there are about 50 cylon raiders outside, and that son of a bitch baltheir is acting terribly sketchy. You have to work together and survive, but at the same time you are struggling to figure out who the Cylon is. I had a blast playing it and to be honest it is the best game I've played all year.
I apoligize if the grammer in this post is shit, I'm at work and really don't have time to look it over, but I figured you all would like to see what it's all about.
Primary advantage to winning a five and a half-week long game of Twilight Imperium with your coworkers?
Referring to yourself as the Lord Regent in all e-mails the next day.
Were you taking less than one turn a day?
We only played about once a week, for about four hours a day. The game went through almost the entire deck of objectives. (Also, we don't play with the 2 victory point role card. It speeds things up, but it's detrimental to the juicy strategy and politics of the game, we think.)
Ehh, I suppose if you have the space to dedicate to the game the entire time, go for it, but I'm not sure I see the benefit of it too much. Then again, sometimes our games get pretty heated.
today, i am going to buy a boardgame. but only one.
currently i have two contenders: arkham horror and puerto rico. which do y'all suggest?
If you are only going to have one new game, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, a thousand times Puerto Rico. Arkham Horror is a very fun game, but it does not have variable replayability like Puerto Rico does. One game is a jolly romp through Arkham, fun with beers, the other is a masterful demonstration of how deep a company can take the strategy on a simple game system.
but there are numerous expansions for Arkham, are there not?
today, i am going to buy a boardgame. but only one.
currently i have two contenders: arkham horror and puerto rico. which do y'all suggest?
If you are only going to have one new game, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, a thousand times Puerto Rico. Arkham Horror is a very fun game, but it does not have variable replayability like Puerto Rico does. One game is a jolly romp through Arkham, fun with beers, the other is a masterful demonstration of how deep a company can take the strategy on a simple game system.
but there are numerous expansions for Arkham, are there not?
There are about 6ish I think.
EDIT: Nice write up Troy. I want to get that game 1000x more now.
but there are numerous expansions for Arkham, are there not?
Sure, but if you're only buying one game, I imagine it's for budgetary reasons, so expansions might be out. Besides, I think Puerto Rico is one of the classic, best board games there are, while Arkham Horror is just one of the "really fun" games.
Yeah, Puerto Rico would be the better choice of the two. Not that there's anything wrong with Arkham Horror, it's still fantastic. It's just that Puerto Rico will likely last you longer, and has a little more depth.
And thanks, Troy, for the writeup. Now I'm tempted to go to PAX just for a chance to get that game.
today, i am going to buy a boardgame. but only one.
currently i have two contenders: arkham horror and puerto rico. which do y'all suggest?
If you are only going to have one new game, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, a thousand times Puerto Rico. Arkham Horror is a very fun game, but it does not have variable replayability like Puerto Rico does. One game is a jolly romp through Arkham, fun with beers, the other is a masterful demonstration of how deep a company can take the strategy on a simple game system.
but there are numerous expansions for Arkham, are there not?
I own both and would go with PR unless you and your friends all have tons of free time, because AH can take 4+ hours to play. If that's what you're looking for, cool, just fair warning because I bought it and rarely, rarely have time to play it.
Nice write up, Troy. As soon as my friend gets back I'm sure we will play the hell out of it and I will attempt a little write up of my own. Also, it sounds awesome.
hmmm. my concern was that the group i'll be playing boardgames with in the short term future might want a nice co-op experience instead of a rules-intensive competitive one, but if AH takes 4 hours, i might go for PR instead.
hmmm. my concern was that the group i'll be playing boardgames with in the short term future might want a nice co-op experience instead of a rules-intensive competitive one, but if AH takes 4 hours, i might go for PR instead.
Four diseases have broken out in the world and it is up to a team of specialists in various fields to find cures for these diseases before mankind is wiped out.
Players must work together, playing to their characters' strengths and planning their strategy of eradication before the diseases overwhelm the world with ever-increasing outbreaks. For example, the Operation Specialist can build research stations, which are needed to find cures for the diseases. The Scientist needs only 4 cards of a particular disease to cure it instead of the normal 5.
But the diseases are breaking out fast and time is running out: the team must try to stem the tide of infection in diseased areas while developing cures. If disease spreads uncontrolled, the players all lose. If they find the cures, they win.
The board shows earth with some big population centres. On each turn a player can use four actions to travel, cure, discover and build. Cards are used for this but the deck also contains Epidemics...
A truly cooperative game where you all win or you all lose.
One of my favorite games of 2008. Very elegant, tons of fun, and it can be played in under an hour.
Apples to Apples is definitely a good party game, potentially hilarious if a couple of people have the same kind of humor (I won 'endless' with 'screeching' because the noun's description was simply 'please stop').
I need to have you guys over sometime to teach my relatives how to play the game, because they just don't get it.
"Don't get it"? Do they not grasp the basic grammar-building rules, or are they essentially robots?
I mean your siblings are kind of like robots, but they still seem to understand playing. You'd have to despise any game that wasn't such as throwing balls into hoops to dislike Apples to Apples.
Is this dilemma going on as we speak? I could head over after work.
I'll ask and see if it's okay if you guys come over tonight - though now that I consider it, you've never actually been to my dad's new place...
Fluxx has to be one of my favorite games ever and I've gotten several friends hooked as well.
Betrayal at House on the Hill
The players start off working together to explore a tile-based house, discovering horror-movie events called Omens. Once enough Omens happen (determined randomly), the Haunt begins and one player turns traitor against the rest, trying to complete a goal chosen from the scenario booklet. There's a tremendous amount of variety in the scenarios ranging from mundane (House is flooding; get to the boat before traitor does) to bizarre (traitor is an alien, transports house to another dimension).
Only played a few times but had a blast each time.
This game is so fucking siiiick. Evidently it's out of print though?
The classic game of negotiations and betrayal, the players take the roles of the major powers at the turn of the twentieth century, each vying for domination of Europe. Notable for its lack of dice or any other chance-inducing elements, Diplomacy is a game of resource management and clever use of agreements with other players. Agreements can be made or broken at any point in the game, making for some intense moments, with the various factions never quite certain who to trust.
Has anyone played Dust? I vaguely recall seeing it mentioned in some previous thread, and it looks pretty cool, visual-wise... is it worth ordering? How intimidating would it be for relatively casual board gamers to pick up?
ed - Also, we've had some Diplomacy pbp games here on the forums in the past. I'm too swamped at work to try running or playing one at the moment, but there might be enough to round up another game, if there are fans out there.
My friends have gotten into Imperial, which they like to call Riskopoly. Basically you invest in different nations as they go to war, and the one who's managed their investments and countries the best wins. It was difficult at first because after playing Risk for solong, you begin to see everything as game of territory control, but if you ignore the investment element, you do poorly. Worth a look if you ever get a chance to play it.
Fluxx has to be one of my favorite games ever and I've gotten several friends hooked as well.
Betrayal at House on the Hill
The players start off working together to explore a tile-based house, discovering horror-movie events called Omens. Once enough Omens happen (determined randomly), the Haunt begins and one player turns traitor against the rest, trying to complete a goal chosen from the scenario booklet. There's a tremendous amount of variety in the scenarios ranging from mundane (House is flooding; get to the boat before traitor does) to bizarre (traitor is an alien, transports house to another dimension).
Only played a few times but had a blast each time.
This game is so fucking siiiick. Evidently it's out of print though?
It is, but it's occasionally still available at Toys 'R' Us for some ungodly reason. Check the boardgame section at your local stores. Supposedly Hasbro's mentioned republishing at some point, but for now your only hope is finding an old copy.
And yes, it is fantastic. I'm running a game of Settlers of Catan tonight, and if there's time we'll do a run of Betrayal as well. Lives will be threatened before the night is out.
[Edit] - my history was bad. Reading is fundamental!
The classic game of negotiations and betrayal, the players take the roles of the major powers at the turn of the twentieth century, each vying for domination of Europe. Notable for its lack of dice or any other chance-inducing elements, Diplomacy is a game of resource management and clever use of agreements with other players. Agreements can be made or broken at any point in the game, making for some intense moments, with the various factions never quite certain who to trust.
DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME. It ruins friendships...
I'm not shitting you, I know of several friendships that were actually ruined by this really great, complex, magnificent game.
I love Diplomacy a lot. Some people take it too seriously, though. It's still possible to have a calm game of Diplomacy, so long as everyone knows not to take the inevitable betrayals personally.
I know the designer of Republic of Rome considered Diplomacy too tame, and tried to include some extra mean-spiritedness into his game. Some people are sick.
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Mike Danger"Diane..."a place both wonderful and strangeRegistered Userregular
edited August 2008
Troy: Do the cards of the BSG game have the corners cut like the paper on the show?
Has anyone played Dust? I vaguely recall seeing it mentioned in some previous thread, and it looks pretty cool, visual-wise... is it worth ordering? How intimidating would it be for relatively casual board gamers to pick up?
ed - Also, we've had some Diplomacy pbp games here on the forums in the past. I'm too swamped at work to try running or playing one at the moment, but there might be enough to round up another game, if there are fans out there.
Dust is fantastic for a simple war-game. I'd say the level of complexity is like a 4/10, with Monopoly being a 1 and most chit-based war-games being a 10.
Troy: Do the cards of the BSG game have the corners cut like the paper on the show?
Because if they do, instant buy.
Yes and no. Many of the cards do have 45 degree corners, however the skill cards which you use the most are traditional rounded corners. From what I understand the special cut costs a lot more and would have pushed the game past the 39.99 price point that FFG is trying to hit with a lot of their new games. (I do not know however if the game I played was an actual product release or a demo version.)
Which is really cool to me because so many of Fantasy Flight games I would love to own, but they all cost 50-80 dollars. With BSG and the most recent WoW adventure game costing forty dollars, and yet being really good games, let us thrifty gamers hope this trend will continue.
I just wanted to chime in about Zombies! and say that although the concept is cool, and it is fun until you realize that the end game is basically a who gets to put the helipad next to themselves, and who is lucky enough to wade through zombies race (with a 50-50 chance per zombie it can get incredibly frustrating). Though the hundreds of zombies are great for that D&D scenario when you want your hero's to wade through an entire zombie city. New minion rules FTW.
Glad to see that we have a new boardgame thread as well.
I was the person who mentioned Dust in the other thread and I agree with JNighthawk. It's not really that complex compared to other wargames, but I think it's a million times better than Risk.
I played Agricola for the first time last week. I LOVED it. It plays kind of like a more complex Puerto Rico. It was a lot of fun, comes with a TON of components and is beautiful. I'm really looking forward to playing it again.
Other favorites of mine are the aforementioned Puerto Rico, Power Grid, Game of Thrones, Diplomacy, E.T.I., and my favorite for casual games: Bang!
From BGG:
"The Outlaws hunt the Sheriff. The Sheriff hunts the Outlaws. The Renegade plots secretly, ready to take one side or the other. Bullets fly. Who among the gunmen is a Deputy, ready to sacrifice himself for the Sheriff? And who is a merciless Outlaw, willing to kill him? If you want to find out, just draw (your cards)!"
This card game recreates an old-fashioned spaghetti western shoot-out, with each player randomly receiving a Character card to determine special abilities, and a secret Role card to determine their goal.
Four different Roles are available, each with a unique victory condition:
* Sheriff - Kill all Outlaws
* Deputy - Protect the Sheriff and kill any Outlaws
* Outlaw - Kill the Sheriff
* Renegade - Be the last person standing
A player's Role is kept secret, except for the Sheriff. Character cards are placed face-up on table, and also track strength (hand limit) in addition to special ability.
There are 22 different types of cards in the draw deck. Most common are the BANG! cards, which let you shoot at another player, assuming the target is within "range" of your current gun. The target player can play a "MISSED!" card to dodge the shot. Other cards can provide temporary boosts while in play (for example, different guns to improve your firing range) and special one-time effects to help you or hinder your opponents (such as Beer to restore health, or Barrels to hide behind during a shootout). A horse is useful for keeping your distance from unruly neighbors, while the Winchester can hit a target at range 5. The Gatling is a deadly exception where range doesn't matter - it can only be used once, but targets all other players at the table!
Plus, any game that comes in a big plastic bullet HAS to be awesome!
I played Agricola for the first time last week. I LOVED it. It plays kind of like a more complex Puerto Rico. It was a lot of fun, comes with a TON of components and is beautiful. I'm really looking forward to playing it again.
My copy from Pozy should arrive tomorrow. Can't wait.
I played the Civilization board game for the first time a few weeks ago and I will never play it again. The game was so complicated and had so much crap going on, it was almost like they were making it so hard to play that they were saying that they would rather have you buy the PC game out of frustration.
Attack and the Attack Expansion however kicked ass.
So, I need a bit of help from you guys. I bought Settler's of Catan and my friends and I played a game over the weekend. I loved the shit out of it. One of my friends however, who was playing it for the first time, states he still likes Monopoly better. Wait... what? Now, I enjoy the sparse game of Monopoly from time to time, but it gets old really fast. The thing I liked about Catan was the trading aspect. It forces you to try to get resourses from other players to proceed, and those players will usually trade because they know they'll need stuff from you in the future. This is one of the aspects of Monopoly I like the most. Trading. So, I ask you citizens of CF, what other board games are there that do this trading aspect and do it better, if possible, than Catan? I think that this will get my friends away from playing Monopoly.
Also, are any of the Catan expansion sets worth it? With the game came a small advertisement advertising the other games that Catan has to offer. So can someone answer these questions and help me out?
Here is the first expansion for me to consider. We had 6 people at our game night, so we couldn't play Catan till two left, which didn't take too long. Two of them left after round 4 or 5 of Phase 10, another game I can't stand playing, so we got to play. But what's a game of Catan like with more than 4 players?
Then you have this which looks pretty fun. But is it? What are the major changes? From what it looks like, it just changes the board from one island to multiple, smaller, islands, and a way for players to go across the sea to these islands for trading or something like that. Looks pretty fun from what I read on here.
And what about this one? The website didn't really explain a whole lot, but seems to add a lot of different elements to the game that make them go longer. Does this equal more fun?
I know that the two latter expansions I posted have other expansions that expand the player base up to 5 - 6 as well. Is it worth it to get all these expansions? Is the game most fun with the Seafarers and Knights expansions all going at once with 6 people? Or is it just too much?
Personally, and I've heard other say this as well, the expansions only dilute Catan. It's elegant in its simplicity.
Also, your friends prefer Monopoly? I can't really wrap my brain around this. Most of the strategy board games that enthusiasts delve into begin at Catan, and then become more complex from there. Perhaps someone will disagree with me, but if someone simply prefers Monopoly to Catan, I don't think they're really a board gamer...
Darkewolfe on
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Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
I played the Civilization board game for the first time a few weeks ago and I will never play it again. The game was so complicated and had so much crap going on, it was almost like they were making it so hard to play that they were saying that they would rather have you buy the PC game out of frustration.
It's not really that complicated, it just doesn't have the feel of the computer game. Which is a damn shame. I'm pretty sure that all it needs to make it more fun are random events.
Mojo_Jojo on
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
Personally, and I've heard other say this as well, the expansions only dilute Catan. It's elegant in its simplicity.
Also, your friends prefer Monopoly? I can't really wrap my brain around this. Most of the strategy board games that enthusiasts delve into begin at Catan, and then become more complex from there. Perhaps someone will disagree with me, but if someone simply prefers Monopoly to Catan, I don't think they're really a board gamer...
Well my friends have only been introduced to the "norm" board games that the average person is exposed to. Life, Monopoly, Clue, Risk, Stratego (a personal favorite of mine), Candyland... you get the picture. I am more "nerdy" than my friends. I enjoy strategy, which is why Stratego is a favorite of mine. I play Magic: The Gathering and play other video games that involve strategy and thinking. My friends usually play NCAA Football 2009 on Xbox Live. So their type of gaming is different from mine.
I'm trying to get them into games that are more and more like Catan because I think it's a fun game. They did enjoy it, but here's where I think we went wrong. First off, we set the board up the way it was set up in the instructions for "beginners". When we got to playing, we realized, that while these are decent set ups, that it takes away from planning out strategy that could've been important at the start to that particular player.
Secondly, we kept our resource cards showing. I think I misread the rules, but I thought you only kept the development cards hidden. I thought the resource cards were public knowledge since you were constantly trading and getting cards. I didn't realize that you kept these hidden throughout the game. Can someone confirm if this is true?
Third, it was a learning experience. The game is simple, but until you know everything there is to know about it, it's complex. It was a game that went very slow and took a while to pick up. It wasn't until about a third into the game that everyone was like, "Ooooooooh, ok this game is really making sense and I know what I need to be doing now to win." Also once we saw what all the development cards did, then we could also strategize around that as well.
Personally I liked how the game gives you multiple options of winning. There's one win condition, 10 victory points, but there's so many outlets to get that victory. You can just go straight settlement/city. You can go for the longest road. You can go for development cards to get largest army/victory point cards. Or you can do any combination of those. It's also got a random element to it, but it doesn't ever seem to screw anyone over like other games do with random dice rolls (Risk, Monopoly, Clue).
-Edit-
Also, Darkewolfe, can you elaborate a little more what you mean by dillute it? Now, I understand what you mean that it's elegant in it's simplicity, and I agree. It's fun cause it's doesn't try to do too much. I guess I'm just trying to find out what the expansions do to the game itself. Also, I really wanna know if the expansion for the 5 - 6 players is worth it. Or is having that many players just too much of a hassle?
Looks like we're going to get another game going, and we're going to have one new player. So it will be four people with three people who are familiar and one player who is new. What's the best way to get this one player into the game so it's fun for her and she doesn't feel like we're dominating her since we're familiar with the game.
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I need to have you guys over sometime to teach my relatives how to play the game, because they just don't get it.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Referring to yourself as the Lord Regent in all e-mails the next day.
We only played about once a week, for about four hours a day. The game went through almost the entire deck of objectives. (Also, we don't play with the 2 victory point role card. It speeds things up, but it's detrimental to the juicy strategy and politics of the game, we think.)
Surprisingly my family is really good at making this game exciting. Very good at making some ironical choices in card selection. Apples to Apples is one of my favorite party games.
"Don't get it"? Do they not grasp the basic grammar-building rules, or are they essentially robots?
I mean your siblings are kind of like robots, but they still seem to understand playing. You'd have to despise any game that wasn't such as throwing balls into hoops to dislike Apples to Apples.
Is this dilemma going on as we speak? I could head over after work.
currently i have two contenders: arkham horror and puerto rico. which do y'all suggest?
If you are only going to have one new game, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, a thousand times Puerto Rico. Arkham Horror is a very fun game, but it does not have variable replayability like Puerto Rico does. One game is a jolly romp through Arkham, fun with beers, the other is a masterful demonstration of how deep a company can take the strategy on a simple game system.
So I have played the BSG game and I have to say I was incredibly pleased.
A very basic run down of the game.
There are four dials Population, Fuel, Morale, and Food. As bad stuff happens these dials get turned down. Additionally if you don't have fuel you can't jump, however there are ways to acquire more fuel.
Everyone has different Character cards. They all have different positive effects and one shitty effect, for example Saul is a drunk so I think he has to give away cards from his hand every turn. On the cards there are stats for how many cards from the different ability cards you can draw. For example Starbuck could draw 2 from piloting, 2 from engineering, and maybe one from leadership (not the real stats I don't remember them). One character is always an admiral, and the other is the president this allows for special abilities and desicion making capabilities. The admiral is the only one who can launch nukes, and the only one who can decide to jump.
Also everyone draws a card that says whether they are or are not a cylon. Usually its just one or two people. And again halfway through the game another set is handed out to indicate sleeper agents. Unfortunatly there is no Bob Dylan to play during this phase. If a cylon is ever outed a special card is drawn, and it is usually some terribly tragic. The outed cylon is then sent to either caprica, or the ressurection ship. Either way they still have a significant role in the game after being outed.
Your position on the ship is important from the command center you can launch raptors, or from the gunning station you can shoot at ships outside. There is a brig where you can throw suspected Cylons, and from their they can't do anything.
So a typical turn would go as follows (mind you I have only played it once)
You draw the number of cards indicated by your character sheet.
Then you get to move to a different location. (you may also launch in a raptor, or fly over to Colonial one)
You may then play an action, this may be associate with your location (fight a cylon ship in your space, or do some research in the lab etc..) or you may play a card from your hand.
Next you draw an event card. This is almost always something terrible. It usually does multiple things. If it is a challenge it lists a series of skills, for example politics and engineering. Next everyone puts cards (all the skill cards are associated with a skill and have a number in the upper corner.) face down into a pile. All the numbers that have the needed skills are totalled inorder to beat the score. Any cards that are in the pile that aren't associated with the skill are subtracted from the score. Thus the cylon agent is able to sabotage skill challenges. Failed skill challenges typically end in the loss of resources.
Another event that can happen is a map showing the placement of Cylon ships, these ships are then placed and start attacking.
Every once and a while an event card will have a little star. This indicates that you can move the jump prep counter up to the next step. Jumping is required to get closer to finding earth, and it also clears the board of cylon fighters and base stars.
I've left out some of the other things that happen (boarding parties, Ship combat, civilian ship protection, chain of command.) What I really want to get across is how frantic the game feels. You might be one step away from jumping, you could jump now but you would probably lose some civilian ships, and there are about 50 cylon raiders outside, and that son of a bitch baltheir is acting terribly sketchy. You have to work together and survive, but at the same time you are struggling to figure out who the Cylon is. I had a blast playing it and to be honest it is the best game I've played all year.
I apoligize if the grammer in this post is shit, I'm at work and really don't have time to look it over, but I figured you all would like to see what it's all about.
Ehh, I suppose if you have the space to dedicate to the game the entire time, go for it, but I'm not sure I see the benefit of it too much. Then again, sometimes our games get pretty heated.
but there are numerous expansions for Arkham, are there not?
There are about 6ish I think.
EDIT: Nice write up Troy. I want to get that game 1000x more now.
Sure, but if you're only buying one game, I imagine it's for budgetary reasons, so expansions might be out. Besides, I think Puerto Rico is one of the classic, best board games there are, while Arkham Horror is just one of the "really fun" games.
And thanks, Troy, for the writeup. Now I'm tempted to go to PAX just for a chance to get that game.
I own both and would go with PR unless you and your friends all have tons of free time, because AH can take 4+ hours to play. If that's what you're looking for, cool, just fair warning because I bought it and rarely, rarely have time to play it.
Nice write up, Troy. As soon as my friend gets back I'm sure we will play the hell out of it and I will attempt a little write up of my own. Also, it sounds awesome.
If you want a great co-op game, I'd recommend...
Pandemic
One of my favorite games of 2008. Very elegant, tons of fun, and it can be played in under an hour.
I'll ask and see if it's okay if you guys come over tonight - though now that I consider it, you've never actually been to my dad's new place...
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
The store had neither Arkham nor Puerto Rico so I picked up Power Grid, which I've heard great things about.
Azulan Saul Tigh
This game is so fucking siiiick. Evidently it's out of print though?
Diplomacy
The classic game of negotiations and betrayal, the players take the roles of the major powers at the turn of the twentieth century, each vying for domination of Europe. Notable for its lack of dice or any other chance-inducing elements, Diplomacy is a game of resource management and clever use of agreements with other players. Agreements can be made or broken at any point in the game, making for some intense moments, with the various factions never quite certain who to trust.
ed - Also, we've had some Diplomacy pbp games here on the forums in the past. I'm too swamped at work to try running or playing one at the moment, but there might be enough to round up another game, if there are fans out there.
Azulan Saul Tigh
It is, but it's occasionally still available at Toys 'R' Us for some ungodly reason. Check the boardgame section at your local stores. Supposedly Hasbro's mentioned republishing at some point, but for now your only hope is finding an old copy.
And yes, it is fantastic. I'm running a game of Settlers of Catan tonight, and if there's time we'll do a run of Betrayal as well. Lives will be threatened before the night is out.
[Edit] - my history was bad. Reading is fundamental!
DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME. It ruins friendships...
I'm not shitting you, I know of several friendships that were actually ruined by this really great, complex, magnificent game.
I know the designer of Republic of Rome considered Diplomacy too tame, and tried to include some extra mean-spiritedness into his game. Some people are sick.
Because if they do, instant buy.
Dust is fantastic for a simple war-game. I'd say the level of complexity is like a 4/10, with Monopoly being a 1 and most chit-based war-games being a 10.
Yes and no. Many of the cards do have 45 degree corners, however the skill cards which you use the most are traditional rounded corners. From what I understand the special cut costs a lot more and would have pushed the game past the 39.99 price point that FFG is trying to hit with a lot of their new games. (I do not know however if the game I played was an actual product release or a demo version.)
Which is really cool to me because so many of Fantasy Flight games I would love to own, but they all cost 50-80 dollars. With BSG and the most recent WoW adventure game costing forty dollars, and yet being really good games, let us thrifty gamers hope this trend will continue.
I just wanted to chime in about Zombies! and say that although the concept is cool, and it is fun until you realize that the end game is basically a who gets to put the helipad next to themselves, and who is lucky enough to wade through zombies race (with a 50-50 chance per zombie it can get incredibly frustrating). Though the hundreds of zombies are great for that D&D scenario when you want your hero's to wade through an entire zombie city. New minion rules FTW.
I was the person who mentioned Dust in the other thread and I agree with JNighthawk. It's not really that complex compared to other wargames, but I think it's a million times better than Risk.
I played Agricola for the first time last week. I LOVED it. It plays kind of like a more complex Puerto Rico. It was a lot of fun, comes with a TON of components and is beautiful. I'm really looking forward to playing it again.
Other favorites of mine are the aforementioned Puerto Rico, Power Grid, Game of Thrones, Diplomacy, E.T.I., and my favorite for casual games: Bang!
From BGG:
"The Outlaws hunt the Sheriff. The Sheriff hunts the Outlaws. The Renegade plots secretly, ready to take one side or the other. Bullets fly. Who among the gunmen is a Deputy, ready to sacrifice himself for the Sheriff? And who is a merciless Outlaw, willing to kill him? If you want to find out, just draw (your cards)!"
This card game recreates an old-fashioned spaghetti western shoot-out, with each player randomly receiving a Character card to determine special abilities, and a secret Role card to determine their goal.
Four different Roles are available, each with a unique victory condition:
* Sheriff - Kill all Outlaws
* Deputy - Protect the Sheriff and kill any Outlaws
* Outlaw - Kill the Sheriff
* Renegade - Be the last person standing
A player's Role is kept secret, except for the Sheriff. Character cards are placed face-up on table, and also track strength (hand limit) in addition to special ability.
There are 22 different types of cards in the draw deck. Most common are the BANG! cards, which let you shoot at another player, assuming the target is within "range" of your current gun. The target player can play a "MISSED!" card to dodge the shot. Other cards can provide temporary boosts while in play (for example, different guns to improve your firing range) and special one-time effects to help you or hinder your opponents (such as Beer to restore health, or Barrels to hide behind during a shootout). A horse is useful for keeping your distance from unruly neighbors, while the Winchester can hit a target at range 5. The Gatling is a deadly exception where range doesn't matter - it can only be used once, but targets all other players at the table!
Plus, any game that comes in a big plastic bullet HAS to be awesome!
Another great casual game is Citadels: Citadels
My copy from Pozy should arrive tomorrow. Can't wait.
Attack and the Attack Expansion however kicked ass.
Also, are any of the Catan expansion sets worth it? With the game came a small advertisement advertising the other games that Catan has to offer. So can someone answer these questions and help me out?
Here is the first expansion for me to consider. We had 6 people at our game night, so we couldn't play Catan till two left, which didn't take too long. Two of them left after round 4 or 5 of Phase 10, another game I can't stand playing, so we got to play. But what's a game of Catan like with more than 4 players?
Then you have this which looks pretty fun. But is it? What are the major changes? From what it looks like, it just changes the board from one island to multiple, smaller, islands, and a way for players to go across the sea to these islands for trading or something like that. Looks pretty fun from what I read on here.
And what about this one? The website didn't really explain a whole lot, but seems to add a lot of different elements to the game that make them go longer. Does this equal more fun?
I know that the two latter expansions I posted have other expansions that expand the player base up to 5 - 6 as well. Is it worth it to get all these expansions? Is the game most fun with the Seafarers and Knights expansions all going at once with 6 people? Or is it just too much?
Thanks ahead of time.
Also, your friends prefer Monopoly? I can't really wrap my brain around this. Most of the strategy board games that enthusiasts delve into begin at Catan, and then become more complex from there. Perhaps someone will disagree with me, but if someone simply prefers Monopoly to Catan, I don't think they're really a board gamer...
Well my friends have only been introduced to the "norm" board games that the average person is exposed to. Life, Monopoly, Clue, Risk, Stratego (a personal favorite of mine), Candyland... you get the picture. I am more "nerdy" than my friends. I enjoy strategy, which is why Stratego is a favorite of mine. I play Magic: The Gathering and play other video games that involve strategy and thinking. My friends usually play NCAA Football 2009 on Xbox Live. So their type of gaming is different from mine.
I'm trying to get them into games that are more and more like Catan because I think it's a fun game. They did enjoy it, but here's where I think we went wrong. First off, we set the board up the way it was set up in the instructions for "beginners". When we got to playing, we realized, that while these are decent set ups, that it takes away from planning out strategy that could've been important at the start to that particular player.
Secondly, we kept our resource cards showing. I think I misread the rules, but I thought you only kept the development cards hidden. I thought the resource cards were public knowledge since you were constantly trading and getting cards. I didn't realize that you kept these hidden throughout the game. Can someone confirm if this is true?
Third, it was a learning experience. The game is simple, but until you know everything there is to know about it, it's complex. It was a game that went very slow and took a while to pick up. It wasn't until about a third into the game that everyone was like, "Ooooooooh, ok this game is really making sense and I know what I need to be doing now to win." Also once we saw what all the development cards did, then we could also strategize around that as well.
Personally I liked how the game gives you multiple options of winning. There's one win condition, 10 victory points, but there's so many outlets to get that victory. You can just go straight settlement/city. You can go for the longest road. You can go for development cards to get largest army/victory point cards. Or you can do any combination of those. It's also got a random element to it, but it doesn't ever seem to screw anyone over like other games do with random dice rolls (Risk, Monopoly, Clue).
-Edit-
Also, Darkewolfe, can you elaborate a little more what you mean by dillute it? Now, I understand what you mean that it's elegant in it's simplicity, and I agree. It's fun cause it's doesn't try to do too much. I guess I'm just trying to find out what the expansions do to the game itself. Also, I really wanna know if the expansion for the 5 - 6 players is worth it. Or is having that many players just too much of a hassle?
Looks like we're going to get another game going, and we're going to have one new player. So it will be four people with three people who are familiar and one player who is new. What's the best way to get this one player into the game so it's fun for her and she doesn't feel like we're dominating her since we're familiar with the game.