As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/
Boardgames - Citadels - for when you need a game for over 5 people
Darian
Yellow WizardThe PitRegistered User regular
Yellow WizardThe PitRegistered User regular
OP stolen shamelessly from Darkewolfe; I'll modify it some this weekend
ITT we discuss board games and the culture surrounding them. We talk about what games we played last weekend, what games we'd like to play and how much we wish our SO's would share our enthusiasm for meticulously organizing little wooden chits.
Most discussed games:
Thunderstone
In Thunderstone, players build a deck through purchasing items, gaining and upgrading heroes, and defeating monsters. Each player's turn involves journeying to either the village to purchase items for your deck or delving into the dungeon to use your hand's heroes and weapons to slay the monsters that live there. Each card has a combination of attack, magic attack, light, strength, and gold and different the different phases of your turn utilize different parts of the same card, allowing for different play options even using the same hand.
Building heavily upon Dominion (to the extent that some were angry when it was not mentioned as an inspiration), the game starts out with Dominion's easy to explain rule set and moderately quick gameplay. On top of this however, Thunderstone adds a theme that unites the entire game and adds several more interesting gameplay points that add depth to the base game. It's a little more difficult to learn and set up than Dominion is, but just as, if not more, enjoyable once it gets going.
Settlers of Catan
In Settlers of Catan, players try to be the dominant force on the island of Catan by building settlements, cities, and roads. On each turn dice are rolled to determine what resources the island produces. Players collect these resources to build up their civilizations to get to 10 victory points and win the game. Multi-award-winning and one of the most popular games in recent history due to its amazing ability to appeal to non-gamers and gamers alike.
This is pretty much a genre defining game. It treads a strange area between the common boardgames you can find in any toyshop and the weird ones you have to go to specialist for. It's excellent, but like all gateway drugs you end up hungering for more.
There are some expansions too, the big ones being Seafarers and Knights and Cities. The former can be seen as essential (it was originally planned to be part of Settlers but was removed due to the expense) while the latter isn't quite an expansion in the normal sense, instead it changes the game into something very different. As a word of advice, avoid the 5&6 player expansions, they really damage the carefully balanced elegance of the basic three and four player game.
Agricola
In Agricola, you're a farmer in a wooden shack with your spouse and little else. On a turn, you get to take only two actions, one for you and one for the spouse, from all the possibilities you'll find on a farm: collecting clay, wood, or stone; building fences; and so on. You might think about having kids in order to get more work accomplished, but first you need to expand your house. And what are you going to feed all the little rugrats?
Agricola is a game about farming! Oh, it gets better. During a typical game, you will coral sheep, grow carrots and try to reproduce with your wife as much as possible! Don't forget to eat, though, having to beg for food is worth negative points! Can't see why this is one of the most popular board games in the world yet? Essentially the game is a simple, undistracting theme set on top of a rich and enjoyable low-competition Eurogame. As is typical with Eurogames, players don't come into direct conflict with each other but instead compete for highly limited resources in a game-length restricted environment. If you loved you some Settlers of Catan but don't know where else to branch into board gaming, this might be for you.
Fluxx
A card game where the cards themselves determine the current rules of the game. By playing cards, you change numerous aspects of the game: how to draw cards, how to play cards, and even how to win. There are 84 cards in the deck with additions available.
Fun, but in a very different way to most other games I'm going to talk about. It's very random (so much so that you won't ever really develop any strategies) but it makes you laugh and a game will only last about ten minutes at the absolute maximum, so it's a nice game to crack out with a couple of beers. It does get old fast though. It comes in a few different themed flavours, such as Stoner Fluxx, which has cards telling you to smoke.
Carcassonne
In this fairly light tile-laying offering, players pull a tile from the pool and place it against one of the previously played tiles. If you start a new object (city, road, farm, or monastery), you can place one of your control markers on the tile to denote your control. Markers (called Followers by the publisher and called Meeples by us) cannot directly compete when placed, so to achieve some gains, you must place your marker and use later tiles to connect up to it.
As subsequent tiles are arrayed on the board, objects get bigger or even merge. When roads or cities are completed, or a monastery is surrounded, the control marker is returned to you and you score the points. However, farmers are not returned and will score points at the game end (there are several rules variations for the farmer scoring).
Therefore, it's possible to have all of your control markers locked on the board on incomplete objects, and not be able to convert them into farmers later in the game. You must balance the need to score points during the game with the need to score farmer points at game end.
The goal is to have the most points at the end, which can be tricky to control considering your choice for each turn isn't the tile itself, but rather the placement of the tile that you drew. Think of a more strategic version of Metro's tile placement, with some of the scoring methods from El Caballero or even the Very Clever Pipe Game.
I'd say this is second to Settlers in terms of how commonplace it is. Nearly everybody who plays boardgames has played this. It's a solid game, lots of strategy and depth while not causing strokes. The main downside is that scoring can take some time at the end of the game.
Puerto Rico
The players are plantation owners in Puerto Rico in the days when ships had sails. Growing up to five different kind of crops: Corn, Indigo, Coffee, Sugar and Tobacco, they must try to run their business more efficiently than their close competitors; growing crops and storing them efficiently, developing San Juan with useful buildings, deploying their colonists to best effect, selling crops at the right time, and most importantly, shipping their goods back to Europe for maximum benefit.
A novel game system lets players choose the order of the phases in each turn by allowing each player to choose a role from those remaining when it is their turn. No role can be selected twice in the same round. The player who selects the best roles to advance their position during the game will win.
This is widely regarded as the best boardgame there is. There's very little luck involved which most people enjoy, as it means that most of the time the winner was the best player. The only downside is that interactions between players are rather indirect. Also some people don't like the theme, claiming it to be racist, but those people have special needs and should be sent to the camps.
Munchkin
Munchkin is a stand-alone card game designed by Steve Jackson that "simulates" (well, sorta') a fantasy-themed RPG (oh, ok, DnD) in a simple, card-based game that's chock full o' silliness. Everyone begins the game as a 1st level Human with NO Class (heh-heh) and via cards, they acquire Races (Elf, Dwarf, etc.), Classes (Thief, Wizard, Cleric, etc.), Items, Armor, Potions and more that they use to combat hideous monsters like the 4th level Undead Horse, the 10th level Net Troll and the 14th Level Unspeakably Awful, Indescribable Horror (very nasty, indeed). The object of the game is to reach Level 10 and levels are acquired via the slaying of monsters and the selling of acquired treasure (1,000 Gold Pieces equals 1 Level).
Often mentioned but not very good. Really it relies on your players having an understanding of roleplaying (specifically older D&D) humour, which as we all know is generally quite poor. Still, you'll laugh the first time and maybe play it three or four times but it quickly falls apart under scrutiny and the theme isn't strong enough to hold it alone. If you want something light and fast, Fluxx is a better bet. Although you could just keep buying Munchkin expansions to extend its life. Editor's note: Almost every gamer loved this game for awhile. However, it's been around a looong time and just isn't that replayable. If your group is completely new, you might really enjoy it.
Twilight Imperium
Twilight Imperium Third Edition is an epic empire-building game of interstellar conflict, trade, and struggle for power. Players take the roles of ancient galactic civilizations, each seeking to sieze the imperial throne via warfare, diplomacy, and technological progression. With new oversize geomorphic board tiles, finely detailed plastic miniatures, hundreds of cards, and a massive plurality of options,
The TI gameplay has been refined and redone by original designer Christian T. Petersen. The new design features faster gameplay, and involves players in a far more active game experience with much less downtime. In addition, TI3 will include new Race Cards, as well as a dramatic new approach to the structure of the gameplay itself using the new "Command" system.
If you've ever played Master of Orion then you will most likely like this. It's a lovely space empire simulation. Nice pieces, elegant rules and decent conflict between players. There's an expansion now, and you absolutely need to at least copy some of the rules from BGG, even if you don't buy the expansion itself. The biggest problem with the original rules is handily corrected. (For instance, objectives that draw players into conflict more often are included.) In my experience, the key criticism with this game is you will need most of a full day's gaming session to play. We once played a game over four sessions, over a course of two months. It is not as fast a game as most others. My group does not play it as much, because half the time we'll have to quit early anyway. Even allowing for the length, I will play this game every single chance I get.
Battlestar Galactica
After the Cylon attack on the Colonies, the battered remnants of the human race are on the run, constantly searching for the next signpost on the road to Earth. They face the threat of Cylon attack from without, and treachery and crisis from within. Humanity must work together if they are to have any hope of survival…but how can they, when any of them may, in fact, be a Cylon agent?
You might say that this game is popular. We don't really talk about it in this thread, because Starbuck-enthusiasts flood the thread. Please keep discussion on the topic to its custom thread:
Battlestar Galactica Thread
ITT we discuss board games and the culture surrounding them. We talk about what games we played last weekend, what games we'd like to play and how much we wish our SO's would share our enthusiasm for meticulously organizing little wooden chits.
Most discussed games:
Thunderstone
In Thunderstone, players build a deck through purchasing items, gaining and upgrading heroes, and defeating monsters. Each player's turn involves journeying to either the village to purchase items for your deck or delving into the dungeon to use your hand's heroes and weapons to slay the monsters that live there. Each card has a combination of attack, magic attack, light, strength, and gold and different the different phases of your turn utilize different parts of the same card, allowing for different play options even using the same hand.
Building heavily upon Dominion (to the extent that some were angry when it was not mentioned as an inspiration), the game starts out with Dominion's easy to explain rule set and moderately quick gameplay. On top of this however, Thunderstone adds a theme that unites the entire game and adds several more interesting gameplay points that add depth to the base game. It's a little more difficult to learn and set up than Dominion is, but just as, if not more, enjoyable once it gets going.
Settlers of Catan
In Settlers of Catan, players try to be the dominant force on the island of Catan by building settlements, cities, and roads. On each turn dice are rolled to determine what resources the island produces. Players collect these resources to build up their civilizations to get to 10 victory points and win the game. Multi-award-winning and one of the most popular games in recent history due to its amazing ability to appeal to non-gamers and gamers alike.
This is pretty much a genre defining game. It treads a strange area between the common boardgames you can find in any toyshop and the weird ones you have to go to specialist for. It's excellent, but like all gateway drugs you end up hungering for more.
There are some expansions too, the big ones being Seafarers and Knights and Cities. The former can be seen as essential (it was originally planned to be part of Settlers but was removed due to the expense) while the latter isn't quite an expansion in the normal sense, instead it changes the game into something very different. As a word of advice, avoid the 5&6 player expansions, they really damage the carefully balanced elegance of the basic three and four player game.
Agricola
In Agricola, you're a farmer in a wooden shack with your spouse and little else. On a turn, you get to take only two actions, one for you and one for the spouse, from all the possibilities you'll find on a farm: collecting clay, wood, or stone; building fences; and so on. You might think about having kids in order to get more work accomplished, but first you need to expand your house. And what are you going to feed all the little rugrats?
Agricola is a game about farming! Oh, it gets better. During a typical game, you will coral sheep, grow carrots and try to reproduce with your wife as much as possible! Don't forget to eat, though, having to beg for food is worth negative points! Can't see why this is one of the most popular board games in the world yet? Essentially the game is a simple, undistracting theme set on top of a rich and enjoyable low-competition Eurogame. As is typical with Eurogames, players don't come into direct conflict with each other but instead compete for highly limited resources in a game-length restricted environment. If you loved you some Settlers of Catan but don't know where else to branch into board gaming, this might be for you.
Fluxx
A card game where the cards themselves determine the current rules of the game. By playing cards, you change numerous aspects of the game: how to draw cards, how to play cards, and even how to win. There are 84 cards in the deck with additions available.
Fun, but in a very different way to most other games I'm going to talk about. It's very random (so much so that you won't ever really develop any strategies) but it makes you laugh and a game will only last about ten minutes at the absolute maximum, so it's a nice game to crack out with a couple of beers. It does get old fast though. It comes in a few different themed flavours, such as Stoner Fluxx, which has cards telling you to smoke.
Carcassonne
In this fairly light tile-laying offering, players pull a tile from the pool and place it against one of the previously played tiles. If you start a new object (city, road, farm, or monastery), you can place one of your control markers on the tile to denote your control. Markers (called Followers by the publisher and called Meeples by us) cannot directly compete when placed, so to achieve some gains, you must place your marker and use later tiles to connect up to it.
As subsequent tiles are arrayed on the board, objects get bigger or even merge. When roads or cities are completed, or a monastery is surrounded, the control marker is returned to you and you score the points. However, farmers are not returned and will score points at the game end (there are several rules variations for the farmer scoring).
Therefore, it's possible to have all of your control markers locked on the board on incomplete objects, and not be able to convert them into farmers later in the game. You must balance the need to score points during the game with the need to score farmer points at game end.
The goal is to have the most points at the end, which can be tricky to control considering your choice for each turn isn't the tile itself, but rather the placement of the tile that you drew. Think of a more strategic version of Metro's tile placement, with some of the scoring methods from El Caballero or even the Very Clever Pipe Game.
I'd say this is second to Settlers in terms of how commonplace it is. Nearly everybody who plays boardgames has played this. It's a solid game, lots of strategy and depth while not causing strokes. The main downside is that scoring can take some time at the end of the game.
Puerto Rico
The players are plantation owners in Puerto Rico in the days when ships had sails. Growing up to five different kind of crops: Corn, Indigo, Coffee, Sugar and Tobacco, they must try to run their business more efficiently than their close competitors; growing crops and storing them efficiently, developing San Juan with useful buildings, deploying their colonists to best effect, selling crops at the right time, and most importantly, shipping their goods back to Europe for maximum benefit.
A novel game system lets players choose the order of the phases in each turn by allowing each player to choose a role from those remaining when it is their turn. No role can be selected twice in the same round. The player who selects the best roles to advance their position during the game will win.
This is widely regarded as the best boardgame there is. There's very little luck involved which most people enjoy, as it means that most of the time the winner was the best player. The only downside is that interactions between players are rather indirect. Also some people don't like the theme, claiming it to be racist, but those people have special needs and should be sent to the camps.
Munchkin
Munchkin is a stand-alone card game designed by Steve Jackson that "simulates" (well, sorta') a fantasy-themed RPG (oh, ok, DnD) in a simple, card-based game that's chock full o' silliness. Everyone begins the game as a 1st level Human with NO Class (heh-heh) and via cards, they acquire Races (Elf, Dwarf, etc.), Classes (Thief, Wizard, Cleric, etc.), Items, Armor, Potions and more that they use to combat hideous monsters like the 4th level Undead Horse, the 10th level Net Troll and the 14th Level Unspeakably Awful, Indescribable Horror (very nasty, indeed). The object of the game is to reach Level 10 and levels are acquired via the slaying of monsters and the selling of acquired treasure (1,000 Gold Pieces equals 1 Level).
Often mentioned but not very good. Really it relies on your players having an understanding of roleplaying (specifically older D&D) humour, which as we all know is generally quite poor. Still, you'll laugh the first time and maybe play it three or four times but it quickly falls apart under scrutiny and the theme isn't strong enough to hold it alone. If you want something light and fast, Fluxx is a better bet. Although you could just keep buying Munchkin expansions to extend its life. Editor's note: Almost every gamer loved this game for awhile. However, it's been around a looong time and just isn't that replayable. If your group is completely new, you might really enjoy it.
Twilight Imperium
Twilight Imperium Third Edition is an epic empire-building game of interstellar conflict, trade, and struggle for power. Players take the roles of ancient galactic civilizations, each seeking to sieze the imperial throne via warfare, diplomacy, and technological progression. With new oversize geomorphic board tiles, finely detailed plastic miniatures, hundreds of cards, and a massive plurality of options,
The TI gameplay has been refined and redone by original designer Christian T. Petersen. The new design features faster gameplay, and involves players in a far more active game experience with much less downtime. In addition, TI3 will include new Race Cards, as well as a dramatic new approach to the structure of the gameplay itself using the new "Command" system.
If you've ever played Master of Orion then you will most likely like this. It's a lovely space empire simulation. Nice pieces, elegant rules and decent conflict between players. There's an expansion now, and you absolutely need to at least copy some of the rules from BGG, even if you don't buy the expansion itself. The biggest problem with the original rules is handily corrected. (For instance, objectives that draw players into conflict more often are included.) In my experience, the key criticism with this game is you will need most of a full day's gaming session to play. We once played a game over four sessions, over a course of two months. It is not as fast a game as most others. My group does not play it as much, because half the time we'll have to quit early anyway. Even allowing for the length, I will play this game every single chance I get.
Battlestar Galactica
After the Cylon attack on the Colonies, the battered remnants of the human race are on the run, constantly searching for the next signpost on the road to Earth. They face the threat of Cylon attack from without, and treachery and crisis from within. Humanity must work together if they are to have any hope of survival…but how can they, when any of them may, in fact, be a Cylon agent?
You might say that this game is popular. We don't really talk about it in this thread, because Starbuck-enthusiasts flood the thread. Please keep discussion on the topic to its custom thread:
Battlestar Galactica Thread
Come talk about boardgames with us
Darian on
0
Posts
In a galaxy far, far away... they need sewer systems, too. Corporation Incorporated builds them. Everyone knows their drivers -- the brave men and women who fear no danger and would, if the pay was good enough, even fly through Hell. Now you can join them. You will gain access to prefabricated spaceship components cleverly made from sewer pipes. Can you build a space ship durable enough to weather storms of meteors? Armed enough to defend against pirates? Big enough to carry a large crew and valuable cargo? Fast enough to get there first? Of course you can. Become a Galaxy Trucker. It's loads of fun.
This is a personal favorite of mine. It combines a fast-paced puzzle solving round with the standard semi-competitive competition for resources that many gamers are familiar with. At the beginning of each turn players take turns scrambling to build a ship from a common junkyard of scrap parts, after which they take their junkers to space in an attempt to haul the most valuable cargoes to the outer reaches of the galaxy. Anyone who doesn't like this game is a communist.
Arkham Horror
The year is 1926, and it is the height of the Roaring Twenties. Flappers dance till dawn in smoke-filled speakeasies drinking alcohol supplied by rum runners and the mob. It's a celebration to end all celebrations in the aftermath of the war to end all wars. Yet a dark shadow grows in the city of Arkham. Alien entities known as Ancient Ones lurk in the emptiness beyond space and time, writhing at the gates between worlds. These gates have begun to open and must be closed before the Ancient Ones make our world their ruined domination. Only a handful of investigators stand against the Arkham Horror. Will they Prevail?
This is one of the more popular fully-cooperative games round these parts. Personally, I think it lacks the mechanical depth of some other, less pretty looking cooperative games. However, who doesn't want to spend an evening with their mates battling the unnameable beings from beyond?
IA! IA CTHULhU FTAGWN!
There are also several expansions. These increase the somewhat limited replayability a good bit.
Race for the Galaxy
In Race for the Galaxy, players build galactic civilizations by game cards that represent worlds or technical and social developments. Each turn each player chooses one action, but the others will share in the actions chosen, each player secretly and simultaneously chooses one of seven different action cards and then reveals it. Only the selected phases occur. For these phases, every player performs the phase’s action, while the selecting player(s) also get a bonus for that phase.
This is a very popular card game. It's fairly new and still has expansions coming out for it. The base set doesn't allow for direct conflict and is almost more of a "race the clock that is being operated by your opponents" point-gaining game. A later expansion allowed for direct conflict, and more gameplay modes are to come. A solitaire mode is also available for shut-ins and angry, angry people.
Dominion
You are a monarch, like your parents before you, a ruler of a small pleasant kingdom of rivers and evergreens. Unlike your parents, however, you have hopes and dreams! You want a bigger and more pleasant kingdom, with more rivers and a wider variety of trees. You want a Dominion! In all directions lie fiefs, freeholds, and feodums. All are small bits of land, controlled by petty lords and verging on anarchy. You will bring civilization to these people, uniting them under your banner.
Last but in no way least is Dominion. As a card game, Dominion captures that special place in all of our hearts that made us love building Magic decks even more than playing them. This game is essentially an ongoing draft in which players are spending resources from their decks to modify and fine-tune them, all the while trying to stuff point-gaining cards in without clogging their decks. This and Agricola were the most popular board games of 2009. I'm not including BSG in that statement because BSG isn't a game, it's a life-consuming addiction.
Games you might be tempted to buy, but which Darkewolfe thinks you should stay away from:
Zombies!!! Just, just awful. Just awful. Take a claw hammer to your penis, you'll enjoy it more.
Red November Fairly random, frustrating co-op. On the plus side, it's cheap and some people seem to enjoy it.
Yetisburg: Titanic Battles in History I bought this on day one. It looked so cool. Spend the money on silly hats, buy a poker deck and play War, you will have a more fulfilling gaming experience.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are these words I keep hearing, Eurogame and Ameritrash?
There's not a hard and fast line, but most games are broken into two categories. Eurogames and Amerigames, often referred to as Eurotrash and Ameritrash, depending on which camp you favor.
Amerigames are often directly competitive. The rules are structured around a theme (think WWII game made so that the rules evoke the idea of warfare) and have a high toy factor.
Eurogames are usually less directly competitive and emphasize limited resources and turn limits. The rules are often not structured around the theme, instead the theme could be easily interchanged with any other and just gives the game some flavor. (Agricola is a good example. There's no reason it needs to be a farming game. It could be about who has the most blocks of black wood and it wouldn't affect the gameplay at all.) Additionally, components are often wooden abstract pieces, rather than the tiny plastic tanks and mans that are favored in Amerigames.
Where can I go to read more about Board games?
BoardGameGeek is pretty much the best place for any kind of board game information you could ever want. Feel free to ask any and all questions you have in this thread, but BGG is a great resource for reading about... anything board game related, really.
I would like to put some FAQ's in here. Things like:
I want to introduce my girlfriend/non-gamer friend/dog to boardgames. What should I start with?
I got my girlfriend/non-gamer friend/pool boy hooked, but we're desperately alone and don't have friends. What are some good two player games?
Lost Cities (rummy collection game, sort of. Has the Darkewolfe seal of approval.)
Battlelines (still haven't played it, but it is supposed to be spectacular)
1960: The Making of a President
Dungeon Twister
Mr. Jack
Twilight Struggle
Feel free to PM me suggested questions or answers.
Classic abstracts:
Go
Chess
Checkers
Othello/Reversi
2p only:
Lost Cities (rummy collection game, sort of)
Battleline (still haven't played it, but it is supposed to be spectacular)
1960: The Making of the President (Nixon v. Kennedy)
Dungeon Twister (wizard chess; no randomness beyond the initial board setup)
Mr. Jack (quick, adversarial logic)
Twilight Struggle (no personal experience with this one)
Abstracts that handle more but work well with 2p:
Blokus (Travel version for 2p only; I recommend the Trigon version if you often have 3p or 4p, though)
Qwirkle
Ingenious (recommend regular version; travel is 2p only, though, with smaller pieces)
Themed games that play well with 2p:
Dominion
Race for the Galaxy/San Juan/Glory to Rome (these all play similarly; card games for 2-4 players)
Agricola (farming for 1-5, about 30 min. per player)
Puerto Rico (2p rules on BGG, but really I play San Juan when I want a 2p PR fix)
Ticket to Ride (any version; Nordic Countries is designed for just 2-3p, though)
Power Grid
Cooperative games:
Pandemic (best quick co-op game)
Arkham Horror (best long co-op game)
Lord of the Rings (co-op; can switch to adversarial with the Sauron expansion)
Hey, so just getting into board games. I have a list of a dozen games on my wish, mostly light or shorter games (30-120mins at most). If I wanted to try a single longer game what would you recommend? Something like either StarCraft, MiddleEarth Quest, Decent or Runewars? Any one of those stand out as a "this is a great into to this type of game" or not?
And CitOW. And at least a mention of the Dominion expansions. Plus Space Alert in the Co-op section, Endeavor as another good (recent) Euro, etc. I've got work to do!
For 2010, I am keeping an eye on Labyrintus, Alien Frontiers, and Defenders of the Realm (along with Betrayal's reprinting).
Oh man, I didn't even notice CitOW wasn't in there.
Chop chop.
How many players are you talking about? If the number equals 6 or 8, then Twilight Imperium 3 (with Shattered Empires expansion rules) is fantastic (but basically requires a dedicated day for it - 11 AM to 6 PM or so). I think Axis and Allies also plays best with exactly 6, so that's another classic that is well worth the time investment.
Descent is a dungeon-crawl; you've got a game-master (DM) who handles the monsters then each of the players controls heroes, complete with campaign rules for gaining power over multiple play sessions. I've never played it, though; always felt to me that you'd be better off just going over to AD&D 4e if you want that level of complexity/length.
Runewars - there's a PbP of it starting up now; I hear good things about the StarCraft game, haven't heard much about ME Quest.
I'd recommend you steer clear of Talisman and Runebound - the mechanics in those just don't seem deep enough to me to be worth the playtime required, but some people do enjoy them.
Battlestar Galactica is a 3 hour game that can be fun with the right group, though it's very different from the others you were mentioning.
On the other hand, why are you looking for a long game instead of enjoying two (or three) nice 60-120 minute games, allowing for people to arrive late or leave early without breaking the group dynamic?
Of the four- I own, and have only played, starcraft. My thoughts:
The modular board is god-damn awesome.
Once we had an understanding of turns the game felt a lot faster than it played. Combat is a little fiddly and can slow it down.
Although combat is a bit slow, it isn't like in Risk 2210. The map is small enough (and has a Z axis) so that you can pretty much move to attack someone at anytime, where Risk2210 requires a bit of an investment (Conquering though a continent to get to another player or getting the ocean-dude and moving across there). This keeps you slightly interested in seeing the results of combat as it may influence your strategy.
I really felt that the boardgame emulated the videogame well. You have to upgrade buildings to build different units, you can upgrade different units to add new cards to your attack deck, and each faction FEELS different. Plus the minis, god damn.
Beware, though. Some people just aren't cut out for long games. My group's limit is about two to two and a half hours.
The only game I'm allowing myself to look at is the reprint of betrayal.
Hell, one group played it three times in a row they loved it so much. It was crazy.
I still haven't gotten to play it yet; iamtheaznman has a copy, but we didn't break it out at our DC games day. My impression is that they play it a lot in his group at college, though.
My group isn't into the super heavy tactical brain games but depth is always good (ie, I don't want to feel like we're working or using spreadsheets or need a lot of math!); something that can still be played while sipping a beer and having fun (just something a bit more... epic).
Hope that makes sense!
Again, new to board games and just trying to get a taste of different games to see what works with me and my friends. Btw, so far we love BSG!
And he expects me to buy it. I want to play it to but I just bought CinOW dammit!
I've never actually heard about it. Then again, I only hear about games from people I know who play them, so I suppose that just reinforces the idea that it's bad.
DOOM IS AN AWESOME DUNGEON CRAWL FORMULA D IS THE BEST RACING GAME BATTLELORE IS SIMPLE AND FUN THE MORE PLASTIC PIECES IN A GAME THE BETTER IT IS AMERITRASH 4 LIFE PEACE OUT Y'ALL
Just drop Fluxx; it can't really be "most talked about" if it hasn't shown up in like two threads...
Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
Yeah, CitOW really needs to be up there.
Now I pretty much have the rule system built, now just gotta figure out the specific cards.
I went to some site for it awhile back and was like "this is terrible", but at the end of the last thread someone was like "germany's internets are going to have PR!"
http://pr-game.com/ isn't bad, when it's up.
And it's up right now (right back to you, Ryadic). In other news, Puerto Rico does seem to be playable on BsW now; I'm registered there as DarianPA and lurking a game at the moment. Plus side to playing on BsW: real-time, faster games.
But that means it won't work for our usual method of PbP, slowly playing through with everyone on their own pace.
So did I... it's showing you as active again.
@admanb: I'm always up for a game.
edit: Scratch the bsw talk, I'll jump in on game 8 there.
You're in. Once a 5th player shows, we'll all need to check in and confirm to start the game.
Selling Board Games for Medical Bills
I'll play again, if you don't mind my usual lack of strategy. :P
Lack of meaningful decisions in a game that turns out entirely too random; there just isn't enough interesting gameplay there for me for it to hit the table over all the games that are so much better.
@LeumasWhite: added you to the game. Just need you and admanb to confirm and it should be ready to go.
It is very bad.
Oh, you want more.
The base game has two victory conditions: Heli escape and 25 zombie deaths.
25 zombie deaths is next impossible to pull off bar a freak combination of cards and turns due to the basic combat mechanic of the game and the loss of 1/2 zombie kills on death. This leaves Heli escape. The helipad is the last tile in the deck, the player in last place (by zombie kills) gets to place it. Given that it is next to impossible to win via kills and that exploring the town nets you very limited rewards (on balance you will expened exactly as many resources or fractioanlly less as you will retrieve from any building. Means the best strategy is to wait in the town center until the heli pad is revealed and then palce it in the most advantageous position as you will have no kills. Woot. Zombiess!!! is now a zombie killing exploration game where there is no incentive to kill zombies or explore. Good job game designers, good job.
Also, it was released years, years after Magic the Gathering, features a large amount interactive card play amongst multiple players and yet has No Card Playing Priority Mechanic. That is close to unforgivably poor.
I have played one game of Zombies!!!!, it was a 3 hour slog-fest. We struggled through trying to find the fun, it was never found. Don't talk to me about the expansions, don't talk to me about house rules, don't talk to me about the zombies mailing list, about how if you apply fix x,y,z and play with expansion alpha and shuffle in the helipad tile, and if only you BLAH BLAH FUCKING BLAH. It's not my job to fix the silly goose game.
Basically Zombies!!! is the exemplar of Americtrash games, hundreds of cool bits, great theme, baby killingly awful rules.
Every time you play Zombies!!! Jesus kills a kitten. And then feeds the corpse to another kitten. Who he then kills and starts the cycle again!
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.