It sort of stalled in the P500 system. IIRC, the same designers are the ones behind Title Chase Basketball which might hit KS as well.

I need a couple of suggestions for board games for the family and figured maybe some people here can help me out.

Basically the family plays board games from 1-4 times a week. The games either are:

2 player (me and my wife)
3 player (me, my wife, and oldest daughter 12 years old)
3 player (me, my wife and youngest daughter 5 years old)
5 players (me, my wife, and three daughters 12, 8, 5)

We currently have a bunch of various hasbro/parker brothers type games (sorry, aggravation, life, monopoly, risk, etc), but home favorites lately have been either ticket to ride or small world, which they really like playing 5 players.
We also own Carassonne and Catan Jr. board games, as well as the Game of Thrones Card Game (kind of like Magic I guess) but those don't get played or picked as often.

On the ipads we have trivial pursuit, risk, monopoly, carcassonne, Dominant species, scotland yard, small world, lehavre, catan, puerto Rico, TTR, TTR Europe, Tigris and Euphrates, Forbidden Isle, NS Hex, Alien Frontiers and Caylus.

I guess I am looking for perhaps 2 or 3 different suggestions for board games to get for Christmas:

1) Something that my wife and I would enjoy playing together as a 2 person game.
2) An Older Kid level game (age 12-13-14ish) that is a good 3 player game
3) A good 5 player game that is family friendly. Doesn't have to be down to 5 years old, as my 5 year old picked up Small World and Ticket to Ride ok, but probably ideally 8 years old or less.

Any suggestions?

Current shopping cart at miniature market for black friday.

Remove item Suburbia (Preorder)
Suburbia (Preorder)
$38.99 $38.99
Remove item Love Letter (Preorder)
Love Letter (Preorder)
$6.49 $6.49
Remove item Ginkgopolis (Preorder)
Ginkgopolis (Preorder)
$29.24 $29.24
Remove item Flash Point: Fire Rescue - Urban Structures Expansion Pack (Preorder)
Flash Point: Fire Rescue - Urban Structures Expansion Pack (Preorder)
$9.74 $9.74
Remove item Flash Point: Fire Rescue - 2nd Story Expansion Pack (Preorder)
Flash Point: Fire Rescue - 2nd Story Expansion Pack (Preorder)
$9.74 $9.74
Remove item Legendary: Marvel Deck Building Game (NewArrival)
Legendary: Marvel Deck Building Game (NewArrival)
$41.97 $41.97
Remove item Star Wars: X-Wing - X-Wing Expansion Pack
Star Wars: X-Wing - X-Wing Expansion Pack
$9.72 $9.72
Remove item Star Wars: X-Wing - TIE Advanced Expansion Pack
Star Wars: X-Wing - TIE Advanced Expansion Pack
$9.72 $9.72
Remove item Star Wars: X-Wing - TIE Fighter Expansion Pack
Star Wars: X-Wing - TIE Fighter Expansion Pack
$9.72 $9.72
Remove item Star Wars: X-Wing - Y-Wing Expansion Pack
Star Wars: X-Wing - Y-Wing Expansion Pack
$9.72 $9.72
Remove item Jungle Speed - Rabbids (Clearance)
Jungle Speed - Rabbids (Clearance)
$12.50 $12.50
Remove item Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Command - Sting of Lolth (Clearance)
Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Command - Sting of Lolth (Clearance)
$22.00 $22.00
Remove item Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Command - Heart of Cormyr (Clearance)
Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Command - Heart of Cormyr (Clearance)
$22.00 $22.00
Remove item Catacombs: Horde of Vermin Expansion (Clearance)
Catacombs: Horde of Vermin Expansion (Clearance)
$13.00 $13.00
Remove item Carcassonne The City 2 (Clearance)
Carcassonne The City 2 (Clearance)
$18.00 $18.00
Remove item 1989: Dawn of Freedom (Clearance)
1989: Dawn of Freedom (Clearance)
$32.50 $32.50
Remove item Quarriors! Quest of the Qladiator Expansion (NewArrival)
Quarriors! Quest of the Qladiator Expansion (NewArrival)
$29.99 $29.99
Remove item Perfecto Brush Set (Clearance)
Perfecto Brush Set (Clearance)
$4.00 $4.00
Remove item Descent 2nd Edition - Lair of the Wyrm Expansion (Preorder)
Descent 2nd Edition - Lair of the Wyrm Expansion (Preorder)
$22.72 $22.72
Remove item Archipelago (NewArrival)
Archipelago (NewArrival)
$51.99 $51.99
Remove item Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Command - Tyranny of Goblins
Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Command - Tyranny of Goblins
$25.99 $25.99
Remove item Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Command - Curse of Undeath (NewArrival)
Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Command - Curse of Undeath (NewArrival)
$25.99 $25.99
Remove item 7 Wonders - Cities Expansion
7 Wonders - Cities Expansion
$19.49 $19.49
Remove item CO2 (Preorder)
CO2 (Preorder)
$38.97 $38.97
Remove item Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective (Preorder)
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective (Preorder)
$26.00 $26.00
Remove item St. Petersburg (Clearance)
St. Petersburg (Clearance)
$17.48 $17.48
Remove item Set -The Game (Clearance)
Set -The Game (Clearance)
$6.50 $6.50
Remove item Reverse Charades (Clearance)
Reverse Charades (Clearance)
$10.00 $10.00
Remove item Gonzaga (Clearance)
Gonzaga (Clearance)
$24.95 $24.95
Remove item Edo (Clearance)
Edo (Clearance)
$29.98 $29.98
Remove item Elfenland (Clearance)
Elfenland (Clearance)
$22.48 $22.48
Remove item Conflict of Heroes: The Marsh Expansion Pack (Clearance)
Conflict of Heroes: The Marsh Expansion Pack (Clearance)
$5.00 $5.00
Remove item Maori (Clearance)
Maori (Clearance)
$17.48 $17.48
Remove item 1955 - The War of Espionage (Clearance)
1955 - The War of Espionage (Clearance)
$12.50 $12.50
Remove item Alea Iacta Est (Clearance)
Alea Iacta Est (Clearance)
$17.48 $17.48
Remove item London (Clearance)
London (Clearance)
$27.50 $27.50
Remove item Pergamon (Clearance)
Pergamon (Clearance)
$20.00 $20.00
Remove item Trollhalla (Clearance)
Trollhalla (Clearance)
$25.00 $25.00
Remove item Mousquetaires du Roy (Clearance)
Mousquetaires du Roy (Clearance)
$29.98 $29.98
Remove item Hansa (Clearance)
Hansa (Clearance)
$15.00 $15.00
Remove item Alhambra Big Box
Alhambra Big Box
$51.97 $51.97

Going to have to edit it down a bit lol. I did sell some games to clear up about $400 of spending cash though. Also for those not aware, the sale is 8% of site wide and 4% rewards, so really like 12% off. I also have 7% from my discover so I will be getting about 20% off this Friday

I need a couple of suggestions for board games for the family and figured maybe some people here can help me out.

Basically the family plays board games from 1-4 times a week. The games either are:

2 player (me and my wife)
3 player (me, my wife, and oldest daughter 12 years old)
3 player (me, my wife and youngest daughter 5 years old)
5 players (me, my wife, and three daughters 12, 8, 5)

We currently have a bunch of various hasbro/parker brothers type games (sorry, aggravation, life, monopoly, risk, etc), but home favorites lately have been either ticket to ride or small world, which they really like playing 5 players.
We also own Carassonne and Catan Jr. board games, as well as the Game of Thrones Card Game (kind of like Magic I guess) but those don't get played or picked as often.

On the ipads we have trivial pursuit, risk, monopoly, carcassonne, Dominant species, scotland yard, small world, lehavre, catan, puerto Rico, TTR, TTR Europe, Tigris and Euphrates, Forbidden Isle, NS Hex, Alien Frontiers and Caylus.

I guess I am looking for perhaps 2 or 3 different suggestions for board games to get for Christmas:

1) Something that my wife and I would enjoy playing together as a 2 person game.
2) An Older Kid level game (age 12-13-14ish) that is a good 3 player game
3) A good 5 player game that is family friendly. Doesn't have to be down to 5 years old, as my 5 year old picked up Small World and Ticket to Ride ok, but probably ideally 8 years old or less.

Any suggestions?

Survive: Escape from Atlantis. 4 player base game, but there's a mini expansion that lets you play with up to 6.
Pit if you don't mind a lot of yelling.
Saboteur 2
Battle Line and Cold War: CIA vs KGB are my favorite 2 player games.

For survive, this is a mean game, so only get if your family is not easily upset. Otherwise a great suggestion.

1) Something that my wife and I would enjoy playing together as a 2 person game.

Balloon Cup is fantastic, though hard to find.

2) An Older Kid level game (age 12-13-14ish) that is a good 3 player game

It's not strictly an "older kid level" game, but Dominion is great three player. Alhambra gets a lot of pub as a good three player game, and Carcassone is pretty much at the sweet spot with three people.

3) A good 5 player game that is family friendly. Doesn't have to be down to 5 years old, as my 5 year old picked up Small World and Ticket to Ride ok, but probably ideally 8 years old or less.

That's a tough call to keep it accessible. Most of the games we play with five people (Eclipse, Arkham Horror off the top of my head) aren't so kid friendly. The one someone mentioned here earlier, Sewer Pirats! (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/102898/sewer-pirats) may be worth looking into.

thanks for some of the suggestions. For the 5 player game, in some cases we go 4-player and let the youngest team up with someone. So if there is a kid-friendly 4-player game that is great, that also might fit the bill.

I'll take a look at the ones you all listed.

could go with the new release Mice Mystics as it could fill all three of your criteria and has strong appeal with kids. Can play 1-4 people, fully co op, great theme.

Oh, also King of Tokyo is a great 3-5 player family game.

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/70323/king-of-tokyo

Oh, also King of Tokyo is a great 3-5 player family game.

King of Tokyo | Board Game | BoardGameGeek (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/70323/king-of-tokyo)

2-6 player. Plays better with more people. Two player isn't bad, but if you are only playing two player, there are better options out there.

I left off 2 cause its not good and left off 6 cause Alan wanted up to 5 ;)

I was done buying games. Then this comes across my computer:

THUNDER ALLEY by GMT Games — Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/252813679/thunder-alley)

I am sure to be backing this game. Looks like a great game. And I love a good racing game.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/UCwVpU5vAgM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Smashup is pretty cool even though it has a lousy name,

You choose between zombies, leprauchauns, wizards, pirates, aliens, ninjas and dinosaurs and try to get the most points by destroying buildings and stuff.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/122522/smash-up

thanks for some of the suggestions. For the 5 player game, in some cases we go 4-player and let the youngest team up with someone. So if there is a kid-friendly 4-player game that is great, that also might fit the bill.

I'll take a look at the ones you all listed.

I'll second saboteur one and two. Also King of Tokyo.

CSI has a 10% off everything sale through Monday. Code is BF2012.

CSI has a 10% off everything sale through Monday. Code is BF2012.

Since I have an order on hold since July, I went and calculated getting my order adjusted with Black Friday pricing. I could then add the expansion to King of Tokyo for a net difference of around $3.

Freshly local game store had 20% off, picked up Zombie Munchkin and Target had Dixit for $18.

CSI is doing daily deals. Today is the new Netrunner for $20.99. DVG is doing their end of year sale with BOGO.

Picked up Puerto Rico, Lords of Waterdeep and Legendary the other day. Haven't gotten into Puerto Rico yet, but my roommate and I played a couple 2-player games of the other two.

Lords of Waterdeep is a worker placement game like Agricola with a Dungeons & Dragons theme and several twists. Basically you have 4 workers and players take turns placing one on specific board locations to acquire resources. Once a space on the board is taken, no one else can play it that round. The twist is that unlike Agricola, which adds more action locations turn by turn at (semi) random, the players are in charge of adding new locations to the board via the building location. You pick a location from three available to place on the board, and it becomes a valid placement for anyone else. The cool twist is that whoever built the building gets a benefit if any other player uses it. Also, unlike Agricola where you simply collect things to score points, you use your gathered resources to complete quests throughout the game. I found that most people I introduced Agricola to were put off a little by the scoring system because there is so much to keep track of, the questing system here is much more straightforward. Two players is not ideal for this game, but we still had a good time. What really struck me about it was the production value. All the pieces and cards are of very high quality, and the detail is fantastic. The cardboard cutout currency in the game even have a heads and tails to them. The box is probably the most well designed box I've ever seen. The insert not only has a space for putting everything in, the slots are designed so that it's easy to get everything OUT while setting up. Can't wait to play the game with a few more people to get a better idea of how it runs.

Marvel: Legendary is a deck building game with, you guessed it, a superhero theme. The cards are of decent quality, but playing it after playing Waterdeep it was easy to be disappointed that the cards weren't of higher quality. This is a competitive/cooperative game: everyone is playing against the Mastermind chosen at the beginning of the game, but by the end of the game one player will end up with more victory points than the rest. The cards are designed well, with strong synergy between the heroes you build your deck with. Playing hero cards from the same "team" (X-Men, the Avengers, etc) or of the same type (telekinetic, strength, gadget) will typically allow you to get more out of each card you play. Unfortunately, unlike other deck building games like Dominion, not every card is available to everyone at all times. There are only 5 cards (chosen at random from the hero deck) available at any one time. As soon as one is purchased, it is replaced immediately with a new card from the deck. As such, there is definitely an element of randomness to putting your deck together. If you get unlucky and don't have much spending power on the turn that The Hulk's big card shows up, you're probably not going to get him on your team. What IS nice about the game is that there are a ton of different combinations you can use. At the beginning of the game, you pick a Mastermind. Each has different abilities and strength, so the games will be different depending upon who you're fighting. But the real brilliant move is that there is a separate deck of schemes, and you pick one of those per game as well. These dictate victory and loss conditions, so each game is bound to be different. I've read ad lines like that before and have been disappointed often, but having played two games last night, I can attest that each had a very different feel to it. There are something like 37 different combinations of Mastermind and Scheme in the base set, so you have a ton of variation in game style. I'm definitely going to need more time with the game before I draw any conclusions, but a great theme with good (original) artwork on the cards and a fantastic mechanic for adding variability to replays should be more than enough to overcome my loathing of the randomness feature that is the hero deck.

We had the biggest game night of the year on Saturday. 10 total people, it may have been the lure of a Thanksgiving dinner that brought some of them there. I even had a door prize for the first person to arrive (Zombie Dice).

We played Zombie Dice a couple times first, which is a nice light dice game that everyone liked, it's a good ice breaker to get people into the gaming mood, for $13 bucks it's worth it.

Then we moved on to playing The Resistance. If you are familiar with the game Werewolf that people play here (also known as Mafia) or if you have ever played the game Bang!, this is pretty much the same type of concept. Everyone caught on pretty quick and we must have played around 7 or 8 games. We played the base set the first two times with the Spies winning both times, and then we moved onto adding the expansion cards which give people special abilities when they are picked for missions. Everyone had a lot of fun and it's a cool game that isn't took complex once you get everyone to understand the basic concepts of the teams.

Watch It Played just did a play through of Legendary. I think I'm past the whole deck building thing. If I had to pick, I would get Sentinels of the Multiverse instead since each player gets to play a character versus Legendary's more mash up style of superhero playing. They already announced the first expansion for it. They are doing big expansions and smaller ones. The next one is a big one containing 350 cards. I'm not saying it is a bad game because it is not. I'm just getting past the whole "Here's a new card game that we are going to spam the hell out of with expansions."

Here's the play list for people wanting to check it out.

Legendary - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHvfN_pNBj_GVEwPkkD8zc_-J-oSw2aV-&feature=plcp)

FYI, the game is simply named Legendary. People have pointed that out saying it leaves the door open for more than just Marvel being part of the system.

I'm really interested in Legendary because it is very solo-friendly. I really hope I get it for Christmas.

FYI, the game is simply named Legendary. People have pointed that out saying it leaves the door open for more than just Marvel being part of the system.

Ah, didn't even realize that. The Marvel logo is all over the place, but I'd assume that's because of the content.

Ah, didn't even realize that. The Marvel logo is all over the place, but I'd assume that's because of the content.

It's probably similar to how VS was handled (started as Marvel and went to DC if I remember right).

No reviews on Dreadball yet? I see it is available at my fave OLGS. Wondering if anyone here has been playing it yet.

I think it is just coming out so not many have it yet.

I saw it was available at an OLGS. I figured the KS guys would have gotten their copies.

Depends how they do the shipping. Unless it was part of the KS project, there's nothing really preventing from shipping it to everybody at once. I know some KS projects have options for retailers as well.

I did a search and see it was mentioned once in the Magic the Gathering (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?p=2615795&highlight=octgn#post2615795) thread, but I just came across OCTGN myself night. There are a number of card-based games that this software supports for online play. I have the Core Set for Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game. OCTGN is an easy way to play without all of the setup. And it looks like you can try out some of the newer modules/expansions to see which one you like to actually buy. Some of the "how to play" videos about this game are created using the OCTGN software. Just thought I would remind everyone of this option.

I read about a 50 Shades of Grey party board game being released the other day, and I thought it sounded like something my wife might find fun on 'girls nights' or weekends with her friends. So yesterday I went to my FLGS and looked for it, but of course they had none in stock. So I went to the counter and asked the owner if she had any way of ordering one in. Let's just say this was a mistake. The conversation started with her not knowing about the game at all, led to Google searching with lots of game results like "Sexxxation", and finally ended after she had called her 'good friend' that owns a local "Love Nest" store to see if they were carrying it. It was... awkward.

Board games just got sexy ...

I read about a 50 Shades of Grey party board game being released the other day, and I thought it sounded like something my wife might find fun on 'girls nights' or weekends with her friends. So yesterday I went to my FLGS and looked for it, but of course they had none in stock. So I went to the counter and asked the owner if she had any way of ordering one in. Let's just say this was a mistake. The conversation started with her not knowing about the game at all, led to Google searching with lots of game results like "Sexxxation", and finally ended after she had called her 'good friend' that owns a local "Love Nest" store to see if they were carrying it. It was... awkward.

Heh!

Yes, that is something I'd only ever order on-line.

Heh!

Yes, that is something I'd only ever order on-line.

I guess I've heard the book referenced as "Mom porn" but given how mainstream it seems to be I didn't really think it qualified as 'sex shop' material. Especially because the description of the game is basically that a scenario is presented and then you secretly right down which other player you think matches that scenario. Kind of mildly dirty but it's not like some sort of spin-the-dildo game or something.

But apparently I was wrong. By the end of my time at the game store I was half-expecting the woman behind the counter to open up some door to her sex dungeon downstairs.

http://www.spacehulk-game.com/

Space Hulk to go digital.

...but it's not like some sort of spin-the-dildo game or something.

Where is quote of the moment when you need it?

Space Hulk (http://www.spacehulk-game.com/)

Space Hulk to go digital.

That was one of the most useless trailers for a game I've seen :)

I thought it was awesome. I got the tense feeling I get when I play Death Angel.

Tammany Hall shipped today. See if I get my copy. I bought on Geekbay. Guy changed the address. But no confirmation.

Crossing my fingers.

I got a couple more plays in of San Juan. First game was to teach it. I won easily. The second game was a battle of one person playing a number of buildings and the other playing fewer buildings but with more VP involved per each. I was the one with fewer buildings. I counted out the number of buildings and tried to squeeze the last buildings I could get in for high points. I figured if I got the one that gave 1 VP for each violet card I would be in the running. The other player only had one building to go but filled it with a 5 VP card. I lost by one.

I finally got to play Lords of Waterdeep as it has been the game for whatever reason I never see get played even at Cons despite its popularity. I liked it enough to where I might bump its rating compared to what I thought it was going to be after getting it to a teachable level. Now I just need to play a game with more players to give it a little more bite.

After game night I went and got some stuff from 7-11 and talked to the guy there. His wife is a huge gamer so we were talking about games. He asked what my favorite multiplayer game was. I couldn't think of anything offhand a number of games qualify as really good. I told him the best game I have played this year that I don't have is Cosmic Encounter. After telling him about the game, he was like, "Dude that sounds awesome" and I reply, "Yeah it kind of is." Point is, I had nothing on my wishlist for Christmas so I was basically asking for money, but my Mom wants me to have something "exciting" to open on Christmas so I think I'm going to go with Cosmic Encounter.

If Band of Brothers doesn't show up today at CSI it means Worthington Games sent it out over three weeks ago, it still isn't there, and thus I'm e-mailing WG. People on BGG have mentioned it being elsewhere much earlier and even including Canada. There's no reason why a delivery from an American publisher can't get it to an American store in over three weeks. At this point I'm just hoping an order I put in during July actually gets to me in the same year.

Amazon.com: Descent: Journeys in The Dark Second Edition Board Game: Toys & Games (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1616611898/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&tag=article-boardgamegeek-20)

Descent for $35.54(56% off) and free shipping.

I've heard the second edition isn't as good. Anyone played it?

I haven't played either, but I don't see how the first edition is better unless you are hell bent on the epic 6 hour adventure in all its FFGs fiddliness. The campaign that was added in the Road to Legend expansion for the first edition is part of the base game for the 2nd edition as well. I think any cons is so outweighed by the pros people are preferring the newest edition. The Dice Tower review was virtually giddy about the game.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/XH1ENL3J8ks" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Having played several more games of Legendary, I'm still enjoying it. The game gets significantly more difficult with more players, as more villains come into play while the players' decks are still weak and underdeveloped.

That being said, the quality of the cards is simply atrocious. After fewer than ten play throughs, the cards are sticking to each other badly, wearing at the corners and are generally a pain in the ass. If you're goin to get the game I highly recommend sleeving the cards.

I am getting Escape! The Curse of the Temple for Christmas.
I showed one of my daughters and my wife the play through video from BGG. They both said they would like the game.
I cant wait to open it on Christmas. We have no plans that day. I am going to try and get a bunch of plays of this in.

My DreadBall and acrylic pitch arrived yesterday. I didn't get a chance to play, but the models are true 28mm (ie. small for those used to GW), have a fair amount of flash, and some require a significant amount of assembly. Look great though, the forge fathers in particular. The acrylic pitch is very nice.

Eclipse expansion pack should be out. CSI doesn't have it listed but they are sending out e-mails to people who ordered saying their order is ready to ship. Mine of course is still waiting on Band of Brothers, and after numerous e-mails I found out the distributor responsible for sending out CSI's preorder forgot to sent it. :banghead: So now I have to wait for them to send it and then CSI can finally ship my order. It will be a long time before I preorder again.

D&D game that can be played solitaire for sale right now.....

Amazon.com: Dungeons and Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game: Toys & Games (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0786955570/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?t=slicinc-20&tag=slicinc-20&ie=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER)

The next KS game Im backing is Tomorrow. It is a semi coop/competitive game where you try and eliminat some population of the world to save humanity.
You are also trying to collect VPs to be the leader of the world.
There are nukes and bioweapons, as well as other options.
It looks like a fantastic game.
The game is described as an apocalyptic nightmare.

Tomorrow: an apocalyptic nightmare by Conquistador Games &mdash; Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1893407396/tomorrow-an-apocalyptic-nightmare)

I remember seeing images of it and going, "It's Pandemic 2.0." I know it isn't, but it will be interesting to see how well it plays.

Tomorrow preview.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/dEt2lOWQKNw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Well I got Mage Knight: The Board Game for Christmas and tried to play the walkthrough last night. I'd played the game once before with a couple friends so I was vaguely familiar with how things went, yet it still took me 2.5 hours just to set up along with the walkthrough and play the first round of the game. It then became apparent that there was no real point to the walkthrough scenario for a solo player (unless I was doing something wrong) so I packed up. I'll have to read the main rulebook and then try one of the real scenarios to get a better appreciation for how the game plays solo. Hopefully I also get better at cutting down the setup time, what a beast of a game in that regard!

Heh, my wife got me Mage Knight as well. Haven't cracekd it yet.

Hopefully I also get better at cutting down the setup time, what a beast of a game in that regard!

Having games like Earth Reborn and Mansions of Madness make me chuckle at this. Mage Knight in all honesty doesn't seem that bad. Starcraft tends to be on the tedious side as well.

Anyone play Merchants of the Middle Ages or Merchant of Venus here?

I got Escape! The Curse of the Temple.
My family played it several times. Very intense and fun. My daughters enjoyed as did my wife. I may get some good play out of this one.

It is a good ten minutes of chaotic fun.

Having played several more games of Legendary, I'm still enjoying it. The game gets significantly more difficult with more players, as more villains come into play while the players' decks are still weak and underdeveloped.

That being said, the quality of the cards is simply atrocious. After fewer than ten play throughs, the cards are sticking to each other badly, wearing at the corners and are generally a pain in the ass. If you're goin to get the game I highly recommend sleeving the cards.

Played this on Christmas with the kids, a lot of fun and my son actually sleeved every single card in the game, for the reason you state. We were playing with 5 players and it definitely made it more challenging.

Also played Blood Bowl Team Manager, which is a really nice 35-45 minute play, lot of strategy involved and things can swing pretty quick.

D&D game that can be played solitaire for sale right now.....

Amazon.com: Dungeons and Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game: Toys & Games (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0786955570/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?t=slicinc-20&tag=slicinc-20&ie=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER)

How are these D&D board games? I just read a little bit about this one and looks pretty interesting. My buddy and I were talking this past week that we wanted to get a role playing or war board game to mess around with.

Got King of Tokyo, Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries and the Eclipse Expansion over the holidays. Haven't gotten into TtR:NC yet, but have played the other two.

King of Tokyo is awesome. It's like Yahtzee with a more flexible scoring system and giant monsters. Games are quick, the rules are incredibly easy to pick up and even losing is somehow fun. Basically, you have six dice and three total rolls. After each roll, you can keep any, all or none of the results and roll again. The ability to strategize which dice you are keeping and which you are re-rolling does a great job of curbing the 'random' feel that dice games usually give. Our resident 'I hate everything random' player even commented on how he didn't at all feel screwed by the dice. There's still a strong random element to the game, but having this control really helps to offset that. We've played it with three players, we'll be giving it a crack with four (maybe five) this evening.

Eclipse: Rise of the Ancients is a modular expansion that adds a whole slew of things to the original game, most notably four new alien races, rare technologies and beefier ancient aliens with some special rules. We played a three player game with EVERYTHING included, and we were able to play each of the new races except for the Magellan. Including the beefy ancients does a pretty good job of slowing expansion early, while the new technologies (which are for the most part defensive - Intelligent Hull which provides +1 to attack rolls AND a point of hull, point-defense systems that allow you to attempt to shoot incoming missiles out of the sky, etc) give the game a bit more balance. We've only given it one run through (three players), but with the expansion the game seems to have even more options for different winning strategies. Tonight we'll be giving it another go with at least four players, and possibly five.

How are these D&D board games? I just read a little bit about this one and looks pretty interesting. My buddy and I were talking this past week that we wanted to get a role playing or war board game to mess around with.

I have played this one several times and it is enjoyable. There are a number of scenarios and given some of the randomness, I think there is some replayability.

I just got eliminated on turn three of an Eclipse game. Playing as the peace-loving researching Hydran Progress, I had an overexuberant Orion Hegemony neighbor I couldn't box out with exploration tiles. Complete and utter shit luck the whole time.

I love this game.

My order that has been on hold since July finally got a tracking number. Not sure how, but it says it was shipped on the 27th and is suppose to be here on the 29th. I don't think I have ever gotten something from CSI in two days. Add in weather and I'm guessing early next week. This is definitely one of those orders you start off with and watch it grow as time goes on and since you are getting free shipping anyway. Next thing you know it's like, "Oh crap, that's huge." I'm likely done with getting games outside of birthdays and Christmas for some time anyway. Even the most wanted game feels like I might get it eventually.

Game day Sunday. We are starting at noon. Not sure the number of people, but it looks like 5. Probably 4. Im taking Game of Thrones, Eclipse, Escape! and maybe one or 2 others. Havent looked yet. One guy has Cards Against Humanity. And Im sure other games will be played. Im thinking a good 8 or 9 hour session with breaks to watch the Rams.

Picked up D&D board game: The Legend of Drizzt and Ticket to Ride. Having a couple guys coming over tomorrow night to try them out- can't wait!!! ;)

Anyone play Merchants of the Middle Ages or Merchant of Venus here?
I played Merchant of Venus once about two years ago. I enjoyed it a lot. So much so, I just punched my own copy of the reprint last night. Even more components than I remembered. I'm going to try to get it on the table this weekend, but probably only so far as to figure it out and pick a rule set, either the classic game or FFG's take on it.

I just got eliminated on turn three of an Eclipse game. Playing as the peace-loving researching Hydran Progress, I had an overexuberant Orion Hegemony neighbor I couldn't box out with exploration tiles. Complete and utter shit luck the whole time.

I love this game.


Never had that happen so early. You must have just been steam rolled.
Not that that is a bad thing. =)

Picked up D&D board game: The Legend of Drizzt and Ticket to Ride. Having a couple guys coming over tomorrow night to try them out- can't wait!!! ;)

You haven' played ticket to ride?



http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/ten_thousand.png




In the words of XKCD, you are one of today's lucky 10,000!

Never had that happen so early. You must have just been steam rolled.
Not that that is a bad thing. =)

Well, he had connected to me by the end of turn one. He drew a Materials discovery tile and dropped two cruisers on my home planet in turn two. As the Hydrans, you have one interceptor and two materials to start. I had absolutely no hope. I managed to squeeze out a cruiser with improved hull and a gauss shield, but the dice didn't go my way and I had lost my home sector by the end of turn two. Turn three was just mop-up. It was ridiculous. And awesome.

Edit: It was a pretty perfect storm that wiped me out, but being neighbors with the Orion Hegemony as the Hydran Progress is a tough go even when everything isn't stacked against you.

Anyone play Merchants of the Middle Ages or Merchant of Venus here?

Yes, Merchants of Venus many, many times. So much so that some of the money has food and drink stains.

Got my dreadball game, just need to find opponents now :)

Made my call, opted for MoV.

Just got home from Game day.
Played Cards Against Humanity. What a crazy game. With the right group this is a really fun game. Raunchy, Hilarious, and a good time. I really enjoyed it,.
Then Game of Thrones. I was Baratheon. Struggled, but got to the point where I was one castle from winning and armies that had a chance to take a castle. Greyjoy also was one away from winning. Before the turn we bid on the tracks. I bid everything on the iron throne. Hoping to go 1st and get a castle. But I made a mistake not trying to get higher on the sword track. I was unable to either castle because of this. And Greyjoy got their 7th castle to win.
Next was Munchkin. It was the one where you played as spies. It was fun. A different spin on it. Lost that too.
Then we played Mission:Red Planet. This is a fun game. Im glad it got to the table. The guys enjoyed. Its a pretty simple, but strategic game. And lost again.
Played on last game of Cards Against Humanity. And lost that also.

Had a great time. We started about 1 and playeed until 9. We watched a football game and took a break to get food. But a nice long day of games.

Played some Axis and Allies over the weekend and had a blast. Are there any war games that any of you would say were better than A&A? I'm thinking about getting the 2nd edition Europe and Pacific but was wondering if any of you suggest a different (better) game...

We had a New Year's Eve board game fest. Lady H_B made some homemade mole and tamales and we had friends over for some gaming.

We played:

1. Zombicide (won)
2. Arkham Horror (lost)
3. Pandemic (lost)
4. Two games of Defenders of the Realm (lost and won)

Co-op gaming goodness!

Played a marathon game of Cards Against Humanity at New Years. Fucking hilarious.

My personal favorite winner:

"The Pope - Kid Tested, Mother Approved."

I love Cards Against Humanity as well. I think my favorite combo that I've ever played was:

The new Lifetime movie about ___________ was called ____________.

I filled in the blanks with "the Virginia Tech shooting" and "the Big Bang Theory."

Played a marathon game of Cards Against Humanity at New Years. Fucking hilarious.

My personal favorite winner:

"The Pope - Kid Tested, Mother Approved."

I once played that and didn't win the round. Travesty.

Cards Against Humanity is basically Apples to Apples at that point in the night where you've gone through the deck a time or two, long enough to be holding onto cards like Hitler and Helen Keller so you can play them for maximum "wrongness" value.

SI

I did have MechaHitler. :)

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/DpsQbnup0oE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

TableTop is back, this time with Dodger!

Cards Against Humanity is a fantastic game! Totally Apples to Apples for dirty minded people.

The maker of Axis and Aliies is making a WWI version.

Axis & Allies 1914 World War I Announcement | Axis & Allies .org (http://www.axisandallies.org/p/axis-allies-1914-world-war-i-announcement/)

Got my one order in and my Christmas was very much a board gamers Christmas. The big thing was getting Cosmic Encounter. I'm going through and reorganizing my whole collection. I'm starting to use GMT trays and Plano boxes as well. I really got tired of the plastic bags. I'm still not 100% set, but I'm a lot closer.

I think for this year I'm going to sit back and wait to set what comes out that will be awesome and get it in 2014. There's not a lot on any BGG geek lists for games coming out in 2013 that get me that excited. My goal for getting games in 2013 is down to Suburbia, Agricola, and maybe Sekigahara when it gets reprinted. All of those will be birthday and Christmas gifts if I can stand the wait. I'm mostly looking at going to the three conventions in MI(two being a stone's throw for me), building my own gamers group, and playing my own stuff. I already recruited a guy for my gamers group that has over 400 games.

Question for 7 Wonders players: Has anyone played the 2 player variant? If os, impressions or thoughts? It's a game that looks really fun but due to family situation, it's typically just my wife and I who can play on a regular basis so it's harder to find time to play with more than two. We typcailly play Dominion, Pandemic, Blokus and a few others but I want to expand our gaming cabinet

7 Wonders is playable with fewer, but it's not nearly as good a game. The 2 player variant involves the two players taking turns playing the third hand. Sadly, my normal gaming group doesn't like the game very much, so it doesn't get much table time. I think it's fantastic with 4+.

I haven't played a board game since August, because I started buying computer games again after getting a new video card and Civ V. I also recently purchased both Blood Bowl and Ticket to Ride for my computer and have been playing online quite a bit.

While I don't count online versions of board games played, I did keep track of the physical board games that I played last year using BGG.

I played a total of 86 different games. Twelve game I played more than once last year:

Agricola (10 times)
At the Gates of Loyang (5 times)
Pandemic (5 times)
Friday (3 times)
Kingdom Builder (3 times)
Bios: Megafauna (2 times)
Campaign Manager 2008 (2 times)
Dungeons & Dragons: The Legend of Drizzt Board Game (2 times)
Flash Point: Fire Rescue (2 times)
Imperial 2030 (2 times)
Ora et Labora (2 times)
Power Grid (2 times)

Kingdom Builder was easily my favorite game to play last year and I wish I could have played it more than 3 times.

Played some Axis and Allies over the weekend and had a blast. Are there any war games that any of you would say were better than A&A? I'm thinking about getting the 2nd edition Europe and Pacific but was wondering if any of you suggest a different (better) game...

Attack! and the Expansion. I have been reading up on these. They seem more detailed and more flexible than A&A. The basic game of Attack! it like $9 on Amazon. The Expansion is $89.
I am really intrigued by this game. But My wife and I have put a limit on spending this year. So it may be awahile before this one is purchased.

Cardboard Children – Board Game of the Year 2012 | Rock, Paper, Shotgun (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/01/07/cardboard-children-board-game-of-the-year-2012/)

Rab Florence says the game of the year is Spartacus, a surprising tie in to the STARZ show.

UndeadViking, a well known reviewer on BGG, put it as his number two fully admitting it had flaws, but yet being too fun to deny.

Kingdom Death: Monster not only took the mantle of largest KS for a board game, it more than doubled it finishing over 2 million. First time designer, no publisher, base game with 10 expansions(even if small ones), and over 5K in orders. The dude literally did a KS to just find somebody to make him the miniatures in the first place.

:popcorn:

Well I got Mage Knight: The Board Game for Christmas and tried to play the walkthrough last night.

Heh, my wife got me Mage Knight as well. Haven't cracekd it yet.

I three got Mage Knight from Christmas.

I haven't really dug into it yet either.

Cardboard Children – Board Game of the Year 2012 | Rock, Paper, Shotgun (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/01/07/cardboard-children-board-game-of-the-year-2012/)

Rab Florence says the game of the year is Spartacus, a surprising tie in to the STARZ show.

I've got to say that of the 2012 releases I've played, Spartacus is the run away winner. Just a helluva lot of fun. The only games that come close are a couple of 2011 releases in Eclipse and Kingdom Builder.

Anyone have any suggestions for computer or apps games for any of the mention games in this thread? I was really hoping for a Dominion game somewhere but can not find one...

Carcassone is pretty good, and the Ticket to Ride ones are also great.

Anyone have any suggestions for computer or apps games for any of the mention games in this thread? I was really hoping for a Dominion game somewhere but can not find one...

I think there are some online Dominion games, though nothing official.

Check out VASSAL - it has a lot of modules for boardgames. Some are better done than others.

www.vassalengine.org (http://www.vassal.org)

I have some modules for Vassal and overall, it's very enhhhhhh

Vassal is basically awesome for wargamers and specifically for chit based wargames.

The designer of Forbidden Island is making Forbidden Desert.

I just installed VASSAL a couple days ago to try out the Mage Knight module. It seems pretty fiddly but it might allow me to play a game over multiple days, which I can't do with the physical board because I have nowhere to leave it set up.

There is also an app called OCTGN that I have tried in the past for playing Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game. It seemed a little more straight forward but doesn't seem to have as much of a user base.

Dola

To the original question, there are lots of great board games on iOS, but outside of that the best site I've seen online is Yucata (http://www.yucata.de/en). There are a few big names on there like A Few Acres of Snow, Thunderstone, and Stone Age but mostly it appears to be stuff I've never, or only vaguely, heard of.

Vassal is basically awesome for wargamers and specifically for chit based wargames.

The designer of Forbidden Island is making Forbidden Desert.

Wow, that's awesome news. We got Forbidden Island for Christmas as a good co-op game for our 6 year old to play woith us (wife and I love Pandemic so we figured it'd be a good choice). We've played pretty much every day since we got it (it helps she's obsessed with Avatar: the Last Airbender and the elements coincide). I think Leacock is a great designer and this looks awesome.

Found a neat site to play Dominion online: hxxp://dominion.isotropic.org

Found a neat site to play Dominion online: hxxp://dominion.isotropic.org

played a game there once and got the shit kicked out of me. and by that, I mean, like 48-3.

I cant figure VASSAL out. I wanted to play Game of Thrones (2nd ed.) on it. But ha no idea how to set up a game.

played a game there once and got the shit kicked out of me. and by that, I mean, like 48-3.

Contrary to a lot of people's opinion, there is a lot of skill in Dominion. I see this every time my wife plays and beats me. It was confirmed when I recognized the 2011 champ at the world boardgame championships was a former magic the gathering champion, Randy Buehler.

For those who play Settlers: a kickstarter for a modular Catan board (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1330163305/hexels-the-completely-modular-settlers-of-catan-ga). Looks pretty awesome, and has already reached its funding goal.

I'm not a huge Dominion fan, but it certainly does take some skill.

Contrary to a lot of people's opinion, there is a lot of skill in Dominion. I see this every time my wife plays and beats me. It was confirmed when I recognized the 2011 champ at the world boardgame championships was a former magic the gathering champion, Randy Buehler.

well, yeah, i know that... but it was just being unprepared and not vetoing the "take over the other player's hand" card. coupled with the throne room which let him do it three "turns" in a row... brutal.

well, yeah, i know that... but it was just being unprepared and not vetoing the "take over the other player's hand" card. coupled with the throne room which let him do it three "turns" in a row... brutal.

Oh...those cursed alchemy cards. I play with the entire rest of of the universe, but not the Alchemy set.

I wasn't infering btw that you were some sort of know nothing rube, rather that when you venture onto the online sites, some of those people have mad skills that no casual player will be able to cope with.

I got a couple plays of Dominion in. I had only played once before and it was a 5 player game that was brutal from the interaction standpoint with Witches, Assassins, etc. This time it was just two player and we started with the basic setup and then did the interactive one. I only made it close in the first game due to getting 12 VP on my last turn. The second game I won though.

Oh...those cursed alchemy cards. I play with the entire rest of of the universe, but not the Alchemy set.

I wasn't infering btw that you were some sort of know nothing rube, rather that when you venture onto the online sites, some of those people have mad skills that no casual player will be able to cope with.

QFT, Glengoyne...

But i'm mostly a beginner as only get to play when visiting family as my wife and I have the original but not much free time to play after the 1yo goes to sleep...

but i got the shit kicked out of me.

i hate alchemy.

Now, the beatdown was bad, but also my opponent was giving strategy tips that may seem condescending in retrospect on what to do in the beginning game to do much better the next time around...

my current start strategy, especially if i get 3/4 coins in the first two turns is to get two silvers and go from there.

I just bought Arkham Horror using some Xmas amazon gift cards. I have read it can be very overwhelming and hard to grasp at first. Any recommendations or anything that may help the 1st few game plays/ setup easier? How about expansions- any must get expansions??

I just bought Arkham Horror using some Xmas amazon gift cards. I have read it can be very overwhelming and hard to grasp at first. Any recommendations or anything that may help the 1st few game plays/ setup easier? How about expansions- any must get expansions??

Arkham Horror is very likely my favorite board game. I've played it about 50 times or so. I have all of the expansions.

The Dunwhich Horror is a great expansion. If you go with any of the larger ones, the additional maps, I'd recommend that one. I never play with Kingsport or Innsmouth. I like the expansions for the new cards and characters, but Kingsport, as a map, isn't very good. It adds nothing to the game really and just forces a character or two to go there and play whack-a-mole to prevent bad things from happening.

As for the smaller expansions, I really like the King In Yellow.

For help playing.

I would go to the Fantasy Flight site and print off the most recent FAQ. It goes a long way clarifying some rules and issues that arise.

I downloaded some other guide that really help simplify the game, but can't remember where I found it. I will look and see.

I've been looking at AH, but it's mainly just my wife and I who can play. How is it for solo'ing or two player?

Playlist of a playthrough.

Arkham Horror - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5UyaJ4tfEqzplgxExw-dCK0nBPi7cRuG)

I've been looking at AH, but it's mainly just my wife and I who can play. How is it for solo'ing or two player?

I think if you each took two characters it'd be great. My wife and I have tried to play it just the two of us, unfortunately our dog was having none of it and kept barking at us. He's an odd dog.

Still, we've had friends over and played it and my wife really enjoys the game.

Z-Man is putting out a 5th year edition for Pandemic and its expansion. It has new art and two new roles in the base game.

We got The Walking Dead board game for Christmas (the comic book version) and really enjoyed playing that, I lost both games my wife and I played together. When we played with friends we had a group of 6 and I guess no one really won since it ended up being last man standing at the end.

Everyone had a blast playing cards against humanity as well...

Z-Man is putting out a 5th year edition for Pandemic and its expansion. It has new art and two new roles in the base game.

After buying it a month ago... *facepalm*

Ran across this at BGG. Dice Tower KS project. They are looking for support and have some great "stretch" rewards.
The Pandemic viruses look sweet. But a lot of promo packs that might interest you.
Dice Tower are great at reveiwing games. Probably my favorite.

The Dice Tower - 2013 by Tom Vasel &mdash; Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tomvasel/the-dice-tower-2013)

Anyone try Lords of Waterdeep?

Anyone try Lords of Waterdeep?

I played it once, seemed like it had lots of strategic options. I thought it had a similar play style to Pillars of the Earth. Its on my playlist for my boardgame weekend coming up.

Sorry, not much info for you, but I think if you have pillars of the earth and liked it, you would like Lords of Waterdeep.

I found a local store to run a dreadball league. Now I just gotta find players... :)

Anyone try Lords of Waterdeep?

Own it and played it. Very simple to learn and it played better than I thought it would. I would prefer it to be 3-5 players though.

I found a local store to run a dreadball league. Now I just gotta find players... :)

I know CoolStuffInc added a bunch of stuff for it, but I don't know if it is stuff that came with the KS project or what.

Before each Christmas, they have a calander and board game shop that pops up called "Go!". It's a seasonal store only, so after Christmas, they often offer all their games and calenders at deep discounts.

I picked up Axis and Allies for 20 bucks, and they were offering Lords of Waterdeep for 15 bucks. I bought it, but I haven't really looked at it much so far.

We played our first game of Flash Point tonight. The wife and I got fairly lucky dice rolls early in the game which kept much of the fire from overrunning the house. It was hilarious as every time my wife and I rolled to advance the fire it would also go to a location she had just moved from. We had a running story that her firefighter was the most incompetent firefighter on the squad. We ended up not only saving the required 7 POI we were able to save all 10 POI as well as the blank ones. Fun game seems easy to learn. We only played the basic setup looking forward to trying it out with the roles and experienced rule set.

I really like flashpoint. Still not at a point where we can win consistently, or even very often as far as that goes. The advanced game can be really tough, but we find the wins very satisfying.

I picked up Axis and Allies for 20 bucks, and they were offering Lords of Waterdeep for 15 bucks. I bought it, but I haven't really looked at it much so far.

(shakes fist)

Someday I will stumble upon a deal like that. I'm pretty sure I could sum up the rules to LoW on a single sheet of paper and not even needing all of it. There's a player aid on BGG for each of the houses. I need to get mine laminated at some point.

Flash Point was rather fun for me. It was likely my second favorite play at a Con outside of Cosmic Encounter. My needing to get it depends on if I can ever get a couple who have it to join my gaming group. They have a game night on Thursdays so it would mean two nights in a row.

Found out a guy I recruited for my game group has Legendary.

Our last two monthly game nights have been 7 or more people. Back in December we played an entire night of The Resistance and everyone had a blast (10 total participants).

I'm hoping to have the wife and I try our luck at The Manhattan Project sometime this week.

Playlist of a playthrough.

Arkham Horror - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5UyaJ4tfEqzplgxExw-dCK0nBPi7cRuG)

Thank you for this link. I watched from start to finish the past couple days and it gave me a great overview how to play AH. I have a buddy coming over tomorrow night to try it out. Do you suggest we play 2 investigators each or shall we give it a go with one each? My first thought is two each because if/when we fight the boss at the end it would be pretty damn tough with only two investigators.

Thank you for this link. I watched from start to finish the past couple days and it gave me a great overview how to play AH. I have a buddy coming over tomorrow night to try it out. Do you suggest we play 2 investigators each or shall we give it a go with one each? My first thought is two each because if/when we fight the boss at the end it would be pretty damn tough with only two investigators.

I would go with two each, if you think you can handle it. It will also allow you to get the flavor of the different characters.

To be honest, I don't know how tough it is to fight the boss at the end. We never play that way. When we play, if the the Old One awakens, the game ends.

I would go with two each, if you think you can handle it. It will also allow you to get the flavor of the different characters.

To be honest, I don't know how tough it is to fight the boss at the end. We never play that way. When we play, if the the Old One awakens, the game ends.

Why do you play game ends when the Old One awakes? Just curious...

Why do you play game ends when the Old One awakes? Just curious...

It's just a house rule that me and my friends came up with when we first got it. It's more conceptual than anything. None of us fancied the idea or concept of taking down Chthulhu or any of the other Great Old Ones with shotguns, rifles and dynamite. That's it really.

I wouldn't say that's how everyone (or anyone) should play it, but that's how we've done it for years now.

That said, there are a few cards in the Outer Planes where you encounter a Great Old One and have fight him mano-y-mano. We do play with those cards. They are horrible those cards.

Played a six player game of Battlestar Galactica today. Was great fun, but got to see some of the hiccups with the game. I was a human the entire way through, but for some reason or another my roommate (who was also human the whole way through) was convinced from nearly the beginning that I was a cylon. Queue Admiral Tigh throwing me into the brig on the second turn, and me staying there for well over half the game. The game can get real boring real quick in the brig. My old college roommate revealed himself as a cylon shortly after the sleeper phase kicked on, but then the humans got incredibly lucky with a string of 6 or 7 crisis cards with no cylon ships appearing. Playing a cylon can be pretty boring if there's no ships to activate.

The cylons ended up pulling out a narrow victory thanks to a little luck and some brilliant play by the non-revealed cylon. By the time we finally pulled a cylons attack card, we had made it past 8 on the jump cycle, and were a few steps on the FTL track away from winning the game. The revealed cylon player (Chief Engineer Tyril) immediately attacked Galactica, damaging the FTL and keeping us from forcing a jump. His second base star attack hit two characters hanging out at the science lab, putting them into sick bay. With one more jump track move needed to win the game, the final cylon player revealed himself, placing two more damage counters on Galactica and destroying her with 6 damage tokens.

Fun, fun game. Wish there were a way to make it drag a little less. When a player is stuck in the brig or has run out of cards, there's not much to be done and it can be frustratingly slow.

Played a six player game of Battlestar Galactica today. Was great fun, but got to see some of the hiccups with the game. I was a human the entire way through, but for some reason or another my roommate (who was also human the whole way through) was convinced from nearly the beginning that I was a cylon. Queue Admiral Tigh throwing me into the brig on the second turn, and me staying there for well over half the game. The game can get real boring real quick in the brig. My old college roommate revealed himself as a cylon shortly after the sleeper phase kicked on, but then the humans got incredibly lucky with a string of 6 or 7 crisis cards with no cylon ships appearing. Playing a cylon can be pretty boring if there's no ships to activate.

The cylons ended up pulling out a narrow victory thanks to a little luck and some brilliant play by the non-revealed cylon. By the time we finally pulled a cylons attack card, we had made it past 8 on the jump cycle, and were a few steps on the FTL track away from winning the game. The revealed cylon player (Chief Engineer Tyril) immediately attacked Galactica, damaging the FTL and keeping us from forcing a jump. His second base star attack hit two characters hanging out at the science lab, putting them into sick bay. With one more jump track move needed to win the game, the final cylon player revealed himself, placing two more damage counters on Galactica and destroying her with 6 damage tokens.

Fun, fun game. Wish there were a way to make it drag a little less. When a player is stuck in the brig or has run out of cards, there's not much to be done and it can be frustratingly slow.

I think you've just described every game of BSG I've ever played.

Yeah, I'm intrigued to try The Resistance this weekend. Picked it up (should be arriving today) for a game night we're holding tomorrow. I like the premise (Werewolf/Mafia with more impetus for interaction throughout and without eliminating any players as the game goes on), but it will be interesting to see how it actually plays out.

You kind of have to go for it with The Resistance. If everybody just sits there and there's little communication, it is a boring play. Now, if you are a spy and the other person isn't and you fail a mission, simply say something like, "Damn, I didn't think you were a spy," and let the fun times roll. The game is really just a framework. The more vocal and willing people are to throw others under a bus the better it gets.

You kind of have to go for it with The Resistance. If everybody just sits there and there's little communication, it is a boring play. Now, if you are a spy and the other person isn't and you fail a mission, simply say something like, "Damn, I didn't think you were a spy," and let the fun times roll. The game is really just a framework. The more vocal and willing people are to throw others under a bus the better it gets.

This is exactly how I feel. And as you play more and more rounds along with a little bit of beer it really opens the game up. We had 4 couples and 2 singles and everyone had a blast. Couples were trying to play each other out of the game and it really adds to it when you have close friends because they play on each other. Not to mention it's a great icebreaker game.

The Resistance isn't bad, but its not great either. I am finding that in a lot of games that are trying recreate Mafia/Werewolf style of play that they really don't hold up all that well.

Anyone have an opinion about Hegemonic, I realize it hasn't come out yet but I'm not experienced in 4x games. Wondering what I should get.

The 5 (Or So) Board Games To Get Excited About In 2013 (http://m.kotaku.com/5976648/the-top-5-board-games-coming-in-2013)

I'm a sucker and these all sound great.

My copy of Tammany Hall should be shipping very soon.

My copy of Tammany Hall should be shipping very soon.

Mine too! ;)

Mine 3.

And Im really interested in Hegemonic. You need to go to BGG. There are threads over there titled "Convince me to KS Hegemonic" or similar.
This looks better then Eclipse and along the lines of TI3. But not as epic in scope.
It is $69 as a KS price which is $6 cheaper then MSRP. I am on a spending freeze, so I wont be KSing this one. But I will probably buy it when it hits retail.

Someone Convince Me To Kickstart Hegemonic | Hegemonic | BoardGameGeek (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/11079471#11079471)

I guess the question becomes Hegemonic versus Exodus as that's proving to be a TI3 light game. 4X games are reaching to deck builder status. There becomes so many of them fewer of them stand out.

It's also obvious the designer has his sights on Eclipse since he did a lengthy breakdown between the games. I get it, but it just seems like people only compare a 4X game to Eclipse versus anything else out there.

Hegemonic Compared to Other 4X Games (e.g. Eclipse) | Hegemonic | BoardGameGeek (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/915206/hegemonic-compared-to-other-4x-games-e-g-eclipse)

I have Eclipse and SPace Empires 4x. I dont plan to add another space 4x game to my collection unless it does something really unique.

I have to be honest and say that I haven't played any of the other 4x games...but Eclipse is pretty fantastic. Is it surprising that everything is being compared to it?

Played a session of Arkham Horror over the weekend. Couple questions:

1) When the Ancient One awakes do you lose clue tokens you haven't spent? Or can you save/use them for more rolls in combat?

2) When casting a spell - it says to exhaust but it's active until the end of combat. Does this mean that I only have to successfully cast it once for the entire time fighting the Ancient One? Or do you have to cast it each turn to "activate" it? I had a spell that gave me NINE rolls and that pretty much saved us to beat the Ancient One.

Played a session of Arkham Horror over the weekend. Couple questions:

1) When the Ancient One awakes do you lose clue tokens you haven't spent? Or can you save/use them for more rolls in combat?

2) When casting a spell - it says to exhaust but it's active until the end of combat. Does this mean that I only have to successfully cast it once for the entire time fighting the Ancient One? Or do you have to cast it each turn to "activate" it? I had a spell that gave me NINE rolls and that pretty much saved us to beat the Ancient One.

I can't answer the first, but as for the second, it needs to be recast after each combat round with the Ancient One. It refreshes, but you need to make the roll again and spend any sanity required to re-cast it.

I played Lords of Water Deep over the weekend.

Lots of fun. I look forward to playing it again. It's very similar to an Agricola type game, where you send your people to gather certain resources and what not, but with some new twists that allow you to be a little more active against your opponents.

Good game.

I can't answer the first, but as for the second, it needs to be recast after each combat round with the Ancient One. It refreshes, but you need to make the roll again and spend any sanity required to re-cast it.

Gotchya - after the battle we looked at each other and said "that was a lot easier than we thought" I was rolling 9 (spell) plus 4 (fight check) -3 (AO's modifier) every round. ;)

Since I got the final factions for Summon Wars I decided to restart my tournament of factions. Jungle Elves vs. Cloaks was everything I love about the game. It went completely down to the wire with both decks emptied and three total creatures left. I did Vanguard vs. Fallen Kingdom and I finally felt the brunt of the possible randomness of the game. Vanguards drew two champions in their opening two draws. Fallen Kingdom drew two Magic Drains. The Vanguard never had a chance to get going, and the Fallen Kingdom don't need that much help in getting stuff played. It is likely the only time the game can be random enough to where a player is screwed from the get go. I could have played the Vanguard better, I likely need to edit the deck, etc, but still. My guess is Magic Drain won't be part of second summoners. It's not an overpowered card, but it's just rather difficult to overcome in that particular situation. I could see house ruling it to one magic versus 2.

I'm working on getting The Castles of Burgundy down.

I can't answer the first, but as for the second, it needs to be recast after each combat round with the Ancient One. It refreshes, but you need to make the roll again and spend any sanity required to re-cast it.

After doing to some research on FF's board you are able to collect and spend clue tokens as re-rolls vs. the boss.

Went on a splurge and ordered the following (but have yet to receive them)...

Carcassonne
Catan: Junior
Blokus
Forbidden Island
Flash Point: Fire Rescue
Castle Panic
Ticket to Ride 1910 Expansion

We enjoy games but as far as modern games go, all we really have is Ticket to Ride. I've heard good things about all of these and am looking forward to trying them out.

I played Lords of Water Deep over the weekend.

Lots of fun. I look forward to playing it again. It's very similar to an Agricola type game, where you send your people to gather certain resources and what not, but with some new twists that allow you to be a little more active against your opponents.

Good game.

Own it as well and my group enjoys it. Need to play it more :)

TOY VAULT ANNOUNCES ‘FIREFLY’ BOARDGAMES!!! « Boardgames in Blighty (http://rivcoach.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/toy-vault-announces-firefly-boardgames/)

Archer: The Board Game (http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/24865.html)

Went on a splurge and ordered the following (but have yet to receive them)...

Carcassonne
Catan: Junior
Blokus
Forbidden Island
Flash Point: Fire Rescue
Castle Panic
Ticket to Ride 1910 Expansion

We enjoy games but as far as modern games go, all we really have is Ticket to Ride. I've heard good things about all of these and am looking forward to trying them out.

Lots of good co-op/2 person games in there. If you have kids, Forbidden Island is a very good "gateway" co-op game and Catan Junior is also really fun. Blokus is a game I need to play more of to feel competent in terms of strategy.

OK, so I'm having a bunch of guys over for a game of Risk in a few weeks. First time attempting to do something like this. Does anybody have suggestions for house rules? More importantly -- what the hell do you do when the first few guys are knocked out of the game and the rest still have hours to go? I'd love to make this a somewhat-regular get-together, so I'd like it to go smooth.

Thanks for any and all tips.

OK, so I'm having a bunch of guys over for a game of Risk in a few weeks. First time attempting to do something like this. Does anybody have suggestions for house rules? More importantly -- what the hell do you do when the first few guys are knocked out of the game and the rest still have hours to go? I'd love to make this a somewhat-regular get-together, so I'd like it to go smooth.

Thanks for any and all tips.

We used to have risk sessions of 5-6 players and would sometimes form co-ops/alliances between 2 or more players. We could call in our allies to help if things went bad, plus there was also the inevitable backstabbing, which is always fun.

For keeping everyone in the game, if you have 6 or 8 players

We played with 3 teams of 2 a couple times, so only 3 different armies in play and 2 people splitting the 'fronts'. This was actually pretty fun as you had to strategize together and it kept everyone in the game until very close to the end.

If you have 8 players I imagine it would be even more fun with 4 teams.

Added Clash of Cultures to the wishlist. After looking at reviews and posts it seems to hit the right amount of depth while being streamlined for me. Even people who said they like Through the Ages better said CoC will hit the table more often. The manual did seem incredibly short for this type of game so that's a plus.

We used to have risk sessions of 5-6 players and would sometimes form co-ops/alliances between 2 or more players. We could call in our allies to help if things went bad, plus there was also the inevitable backstabbing, which is always fun.

For keeping everyone in the game, if you have 6 or 8 players

We played with 3 teams of 2 a couple times, so only 3 different armies in play and 2 people splitting the 'fronts'. This was actually pretty fun as you had to strategize together and it kept everyone in the game until very close to the end.

If you have 8 players I imagine it would be even more fun with 2 teams.

Genius. Thank you!

Played Kingsburg and Smash Up. Kingsburg felt rather good for most of the game but then I started to analyze the game more. I think having 18 different places to place your dice feeds into the randomness of the dice roll although more plays might need to be done to confirm. It just felt like you still needed the good rolls to get the best return for your placement of dice. Even the guy who won in a landslide said the strategy for the game is to roll high. It is still a game of a march towards VP even if the monster attacks help balance it a little bit and the best place to get VP on your player board is the top row and it goes lower as you go down your board. I liked it enough to keep my rating around a 7, but I honestly don't see a ton of replay coming from it.

I played one game of Smash Up. There were enough mixed reviews I didn't hold out much hope. Early on it felt fine. Later one I felt like I was fighting my deck since the wizards give you so many ways to draw more cards and the robots offered additional options. I felt like I couldn't play my hand fast enough. I got to 8 VP and started to plan out what I was going to do in terms of going after bases and when a base when down one player said the game was over, and I was like, "Wait, what?" I'm to blame from this as much as anything, but the game felt done way too quick. I think I would need to play it more so I can get a better working combo or just see how much the various decks do or don't work together. I'm guessing the future expansions will help it out. I can see more replay in Smash Up, but I felt like Kingsburg was the better game although not by much.

Any suggestions for a game that works well playing solo? I've been playing Arkham Horror solo lately but the length of set up is too damn long for an evening of play.

Also, anybody play(ed) Risk Factions (http://www.amazon.com/Hasbro-JUN118204-Risk-Legacy/dp/B005J146MI/ref=pd_sim_t_42)? Looks interesting...

What length are you looking for? Pretty much any co-op works solo.

I would say around the 1 - 3 hour range... Any thoughts on Mage Knight (http://www.amazon.com/NECA-WZK-70495-Knight-Board/dp/B005S8KR6Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1359481953&sr=1-1&keywords=Mage+Knight) for solo play?

I would think Mage Wars works well enough for solo, though selection paralysis could be an issue depending on how deep you want to get with it. Summoner Wars seems a better bet to knock out in a quicker time frame.

On a tangentially related note, just got to play Sentinels of the Multiverse and I have the base + 1 expansion arriving tomorrow. Love the theme, love the game play, excited about both soloing it and playing with wife+daughter

I would say around the 1 - 3 hour range... Any thoughts on Mage Knight (http://www.amazon.com/NECA-WZK-70495-Knight-Board/dp/B005S8KR6Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1359481953&sr=1-1&keywords=Mage+Knight) for solo play?

Outside of wargames, it's likely the best for solo play.

I would say around the 1 - 3 hour range... Any thoughts on Mage Knight (http://www.amazon.com/NECA-WZK-70495-Knight-Board/dp/B005S8KR6Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1359481953&sr=1-1&keywords=Mage+Knight) for solo play?

Mage Knight is fantastic for solo play. However, it is not short. I got it for Christmas and I've played about 4 times, each session was 2-4 hours.

My latest game was a couple nights ago, and here was my experience:
- I spent about 15 minutes setting up (this could be shortened if I played more frequently and could remember everything better).
- I then played for just under 2 hours, getting through approximately 55-60% of the game (this would be shorter if I played more frequently and could remember things better). At that point I knew I could not win, and it was getting late, so...
- I packed up (that took another 5 minutes).

Overall I love the game, but I don't play it super often because it takes so long, and I also am not substantially faster because I don't play it that often. It's sort of chicken-and-egg. I'm guessing eventually I will commit enough information to long-term memory that I will be able to play through an entire game in 2.5-3 hours, but I'm not there yet.

Mage Knight works very well solo.

After like 10 games, I -finally- beat Ghost Stories on my ipad

After like 10 games, I -finally- beat Ghost Stories on my ipad

Kudos.

That is no small feat. I've tried a number of times with the board game itself, and have NEVER won.

You are the wind beneath my wings! Well for the next hour or so.

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Castles of Burgundy moves into #3 for me behind Summoner Wars and Cosmic Encounter. That's just a beautifully designed game. I did a play through for a two-player game, and I can kind of see where two-player is better than the max of 4. I definitely can play the basic boards a couple more times before moving on to the others, and I even have the expansion boards as well. I'll have to get the expansion tiles too.

By all accounts my gaming group should have died at various stages but I and another person kept coming to it even if it meant it was only us. After having something like 7 of the 9 times having only 1-2 people show up, it looks like we will have roughly 5-7 playing twice a month.

Minature Market has Dominant Species as their deal of the day. This is being considered one of the best games out there. Great mechanics, interactive, war gamish, euro gamish.
The reviewers all love it.
It is lengthy. 3-4 hours.
$40 today only, marked down from $79.

And my Federal refund came last night. Coincidence?

Im on this one.

Here is the link:
Dominant Species (http://www.miniaturemarket.com/gmt1011-12.html)

That's a great deal. I wish I had more people to play it with or I would be all over that.

I've thought about adding it, but I'm still not sure. I think I need to play it first. I went and planned out my collection as far as I could trying to hit as high of a number possible to see if I went beyond what I would consider a max sized collection, and I still have room but games are also still being made. :lol:

Game group is tomorrow and going to see if I can finally see if I can get Glory to Rome played. Long story short, Ed, the guy behind CGF, lost enough money through GtR's KS and went without a contract job long enough the company had to shut down and is only recently starting back up now that Ed has a new six month contract job. There are people still without their KS copies of the game, even in the US, and I still don't have replacement cards. The estimate now is another black box reprint doesn't happen until the fall so I might have to wait a full year to get replacement cards.

I've thought about adding it, but I'm still not sure. I think I need to play it first. I went and planned out my collection as far as I could trying to hit as high of a number possible to see if I went beyond what I would consider a max sized collection, and I still have room but games are also still being made. :lol:

Game group is tomorrow and going to see if I can finally see if I can get Glory to Rome played. Long story short, Ed, the guy behind CGF, lost enough money through GtR's KS and went without a contract job long enough the company had to shut down and is only recently starting back up now that Ed has a new six month contract job. There are people still without their KS copies of the game, even in the US, and I still don't have replacement cards. The estimate now is another black box reprint doesn't happen until the fall so I might have to wait a full year to get replacement cards.

Interesting, since none of this has been communicated on the KS updates. Heck there aren't even any complaints there.

I've thought about adding it, but I'm still not sure. I think I need to play it first. I went and planned out my collection as far as I could trying to hit as high of a number possible to see if I went beyond what I would consider a max sized collection, and I still have room but games are also still being made. :lol:

Game group is tomorrow and going to see if I can finally see if I can get Glory to Rome played. Long story short, Ed, the guy behind CGF, lost enough money through GtR's KS and went without a contract job long enough the company had to shut down and is only recently starting back up now that Ed has a new six month contract job. There are people still without their KS copies of the game, even in the US, and I still don't have replacement cards. The estimate now is another black box reprint doesn't happen until the fall so I might have to wait a full year to get replacement cards.

I'm going to be playing some games tomorrow as well and am really hoping to play Tammany Hall for the first time after getting it last week.

When we last played a couple weeks ago we played Letters from Whitechapel for the first time. I loved the mind games you can play as Jack the Ripper and had the police pretty well fooled the first two nights, but got a bit careless and got caught the third even though I had them off base as far as where my hideout was. If I'd played it a bit safer I would have easily reached my hideout the 4th night.

I played Last Night on Earth with some co-workers the other night. It seems like a fun game and we had a good time, although I've never been a fan of the whole zombie thing that seems to account for 50% of all game themes lately.

Overall though it's certainly a game I'd play again, as the 'us vs them' teamwork was a lot of fun and the dice-rolling added some epic "oh SHIT!" moments. If you like zombies, even better.

I played Last Night on Earth with some co-workers the other night. It seems like a fun game and we had a good time, although I've never been a fan of the whole zombie thing that seems to account for 50% of all game themes lately.

Overall though it's certainly a game I'd play again, as the 'us vs them' teamwork was a lot of fun and the dice-rolling added some epic "oh SHIT!" moments. If you like zombies, even better.

I have a buddy I am really trying to recruit for some gaming. He loves Zombie themes so I was thinking of either getting LNoE or Zombicide. (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/113924/zombicide)

Crap. Waited to long. Dominant Species is sold out.

Interesting, since none of this has been communicated on the KS updates. Heck there aren't even any complaints there.

ED is posting an update on the 25th. I'll assume people have moved on from complaining on KS. There's just some minor stuff on BGG at this point. Any person communicating with backers on BGG have been gone from the company since around October at the latest. Even CGF's Twitter account has been silent. The company has as few of people running it as possible.

When we last played a couple weeks ago we played Letters from Whitechapel for the first time. I loved the mind games you can play as Jack the Ripper and had the police pretty well fooled the first two nights, but got a bit careless and got caught the third even though I had them off base as far as where my hideout was. If I'd played it a bit safer I would have easily reached my hideout the 4th night.

I waiting for the reprint/new edition of this.

I wouldnt buy a cambridge games factory game, definitely wouldnt kickstart one. I bought a copy from boards and bits to trade though and ended up getting dunwich horror and smash up for it.

I purchased 'The Walking Dead' board game last night to play solitaire. Will post my impressions after I give it a whirl, but was curious if anyone else had played it.

Are you talking about the Cryptozoic one or the ZMan Games one? I own the ZMan version, and I enjoy it. There are several event cards that play mind games with the group, for example one has everyone decide whether they are going to fight or flee. If everyone says 'fight,' everyone gains one resource. If everyone says 'flee,' everyone takes 1 damage. If there's a mixed result, the people who said 'fight' take 1 damage, and the people who said 'flee' gain a resource. So if you have just one guy (or girl) who's selfish, he/she can screw the whole group out of benefits. Which makes you rethink what YOU'RE going to answer...

The game is somewhat luck based - the randomly chosen encounter cards each have different rewards, and some (specifically gaining an extra follower) are far more valuable than others. Gaining an extra follower or two early is a huge advantage that can be difficult for other players to overcome. It's also not the shortest game in the world, and if someone falls behind early, there's a tendency for someone to lose interest and feel like they have no shot to win. I've actually come from behind by a lot to win (if you die, you have the option to start over as one of the remaining unused characters...I died about halfway through), so that's not at all the case...but it can definitely seem that way.

As a solo game, I'm not sure that it would be that great - the best parts of the game are the social interaction cards such as the one I described above. Without those, the game is slightly above average at best.

Dola

Any tips (Ping: H_B) on turning people on to Arkham Horror? I love the heck out of the game, but it's so gosh darned hard to get people into the game. A lot of confusion and a slow moving game at the beginning, and people are usually ready to give up before we get halfway through the game. Tonight we tried a 6 player variant. Three of us were familiar with the game, two had played it once before but it was a while back, and the last one was coming in cold. These are all pretty avid gamers (we play [and love] Eclipse regularly in this group), and by about the 5th turn it was clear that all three of the new people were no longer interested in the game. I'm familiar with the rules and am pretty good at explaining things, but it hits our table so infrequently that even I have to look back to the rules to clarify things occasionally.

When the game fell apart tonight, we opened up Descent: Journeys in the Dark (2nd Edition) to get a taste for the action. There are an awful lot of pieces for the game, but it seems to be fairly straightforward for what it is. We dove right in to the campaign's first mission to try learning the rules, and all of us ended up with a pretty decent grasp of things within the first half hour or so. Curious to see how the game works in campaign mode, with the characters leveling up as we go.

Dola

Any tips (Ping: H_B) on turning people on to Arkham Horror? I love the heck out of the game, but it's so gosh darned hard to get people into the game. A lot of confusion and a slow moving game at the beginning, and people are usually ready to give up before we get halfway through the game.

I am not sure if I have any tips to make the game more engaging. It can be a pretty complex and challenging game. There are so many rules, cards, tokens, etc. I have found it easy to get people to enjoy it because it's a co-op game. It makes teaching the game easier, since you're all in it together, and helping someone learn the rules doesn't hurt you or someone else.

The group I tend to play with is not all that competitive. We pretty much all prefer to play co-op games as opposed to competitive games, though we do play a few.

I think if a game is going to be a bigger undertaking you kind of preface that aspect before getting into the game. I try to give people a feel of the game and not just the rules of it. Plus, some people aren't simply going to like certain games. I think AH given its intensive epic nature is going to have a love it or hate it kind of nature with people. Even with my group I try to plan out games based on who is coming.

I played Glory to Rome. I think I need to rephrase saying the game swings to say it avalanches. :lol: Opening hand I got the card that would allow me to win instantly, but I had to play the card as a building, build it, and then complete two sets of cards in order to trigger the effect. Needless to say it's a pain to complete. The other person played a more normal hand and after slowly getting past the initial learning curve really started to combo stuff. At one point there was only one material left to be grabbed but she couldn't pull it off despite having numerous cards and clientele. I eventually was able to pull off my victory condition, and I'm glad I did since I had zero chance of ever catching up to her.

I give it an initial 8. I need to play it more for that to go up, but there's a definite learning curve that prevents it from going higher right now.

I played Glory to Rome. I think I need to rephrase saying the game swings to say it avalanches. :lol: Opening hand I got the card that would allow me to win instantly, but I had to play the card as a building, build it, and then complete two sets of cards in order to trigger the effect. Needless to say it's a pain to complete. The other person played a more normal hand and after slowly getting past the initial learning curve really started to combo stuff. At one point there was only one material left to be grabbed but she couldn't pull it off despite having numerous cards and clientele. I eventually was able to pull off my victory condition, and I'm glad I did since I had zero chance of ever catching up to her.

I give it an initial 8. I need to play it more for that to go up, but there's a definite learning curve that prevents it from going higher right now.

It's a very good game, and it is balanced, however, skilled players who know the deck will beat unskilled players every time.

Yep. Both in our initial play took some time playing early on. I can see once you get the hang of it you can ride the avalanche aspect of it as where new players have to go through that whole process. Since my games tend to be on the strategic side and I own them, I'll likely tell new players don't be surprised if I win a number of games by default, and it's more about them getting better and having fun. I really should have lost that one but again it fell just right for me.

Just got done playing a couple games of Last Night On Earth: Timber Peak stand/alone expansion. We played the same scenario twice (blow up the town) and zombies won both times. The objective is to search for explosives to plant in certain buildings. Easy enough - only problem is there were only 5 explosive cards out of 40 (I think) so it was just a matter of luck where the cArds land in the hero card pile. We both lost because we would have pretty much had to go through 90% of the deck to get the fourth explosive. Next time we may make a house rule where we take out some of the item cards to make it a little more easier for huge hero to win. We both had a good time playing LNoE over a couple of beers and watching 1st season of the Walking Dead :)

Michael's has another 40% off sale so I went and grabbed a 8x10x2.25 shadow box picture frame and now I have a dice tray for just over $10.

Had a lot of fun playing Tammany Hall. There was a great deal of negotiation and scheming that goes along with the very simple actions on your turn. Nearly won after controlling an immigrant population (the Italians loved me) and two of the bonus coastal regions all game along with being elected mayor twice, but someone else did the same and beat me by two points. Was cursed by winning the first election for mayor which feels like it sets you back quite a bit.

I posted this on the WW game I was playing, but it wasn't appreciated there lol. I did a quick change of lyrics to go along with a game auction I am running at BGG title "Some Games That I Used To Know: Auction"

Now and then I think of when we were together
Like when you made me so happy I could die
Told myself that you were right for me
Gave all my other games some company
But that was love and it's an ache I still remember

You can get addicted to a certain kind of buying
Like resignation to CSI, always CSI
Playing by myself did not make sense
So told myself that I could make some friends
But I'll admit that no wanted to come over

Then my credit card cut me off
My bank account was empty and I had nothing
Now I don’t even need your love
But I never even played you and that feels so rough
I hope your value didn’t drop too low
Have paypal collect your funds and reduce my collection number
I guess that I don't need that though
Now you're just some games that I used to know
Now you're just some games that I used to know
Now you're just some games that I used to know

Had a lot of fun playing Tammany Hall. There was a great deal of negotiation and scheming that goes along with the very simple actions on your turn. Nearly won after controlling an immigrant population (the Italians loved me) and two of the bonus coastal regions all game along with being elected mayor twice, but someone else did the same and beat me by two points. Was cursed by winning the first election for mayor which feels like it sets you back quite a bit.

Still havent gotten my copy yet. :(

Looks very much similar to Forbidden Island with a new theme, which is to be expected.

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Seems like the demo guy is trying to cram as much as possible in the time frame given. I still need to get a lot more plays out of Castles of Burgundy, but this will be worth picking up in a year or so.

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I picked up the Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game core set a week ago, pretty much strictly for solo play. I've played 15 times since, and I absolutely love it. I'm still using the pre-built decks against the beginner scenario, but I can't wait to start making my own decks and trying the harder scenarios as well as a bunch of custom scenarios that I've found over on BoardGameGeek. I can easily see myself getting sucked into buying some Adventure Packs down the road.

You still playing this Fidatelo? I just ordered the core set - mostly for solo as well. Are there any "must have" expansions?

Looks very much similar to Forbidden Island with a new theme, which is to be expected.

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Seems like the demo guy is trying to cram as much as possible in the time frame given. I still need to get a lot more plays out of Castles of Burgundy, but this will be worth picking up in a year or so.

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Excited about a more complex version of FI. My daughter really enjoys that (she's 6) and while we're on Mice and Mystics right now, I think she'd get a kick out of Forbidden Desert.

Castles of Burgundy is going to be the next two player purchase for my wife and I. I'm really excited about it as I've messed around a bit with the online version and it's just really fun.

You still playing this Fidatelo? I just ordered the core set - mostly for solo as well.

In total I have played 96 solo games (all of them tracked lovingly in this Google Doc (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsklYrVFXiq3dDJjRjJQbk55UmdEcWdVVFpfV29wN1E#gid=0) :) ), however I've only played a handful of times in the past 6 months. I still love the game, and I am positive that I will get back to it in the not-too-distant future.

Ironically what happened is after I played through the core set I started to make my way into the adventure packs, but then became overwhelmed with the deck-making aspect once I had all these new options. This is really odd because I have been playing CCGs for as long as they have existed so I'm no stranger to deck-building, and in the past I loved it. But for whatever reason, perhaps age or having kids or both, making a new deck became this daunting task. By the time I got home from work, got the kids in bed, cleaned up, etc the thought of pouring over all the cards just seemed too tasking. I can think of numerous times where I sat there staring into the box for 10 minutes and then just closed it up and put it back.

I truly believe that once I get over this mental block I'll be right back into the game and probably rip through another 50+ plays. I've still got, all unplayed, 4 scenarios from the first series of adventure packs, the Khazad-Dum major expansion that I just got for Christmas, the Hobbit expansion, and a bunch of fan-made scenarios that I bought on Arts Cow. There is just too much appealing content there for me to ignore long-term.

Are there any "must have" expansions?

If you got through the wall of text above, you'll know I haven't really explored the expansions yet. So I can't fairly say if any are 'must have'. I can say that of the ones I own, the one that excites me the most is The Hobbit. It looks super fun and I love the idea of finding treasures in one scenario that can then be used in the next.

Thanks for the feedback/reply! I'm fairly new to the card / deck building. What does that mean? Go through the cards to put your "ideal" stack together? Could you just make the decks random and play? Or is that part of the game - to build/stack decks to your liking?

Thanks for the feedback/reply! I'm fairly new to the card / deck building. What does that mean? Go through the cards to put your "ideal" stack together? Could you just make the decks random and play? Or is that part of the game - to build/stack decks to your liking?

Deck-building is an important aspect of the game, and is pretty much required to be successful against everything but the initial scenario. You need the correct card synergies in order to adequately fend off the nasty stuff coming out of the encounter deck. What I've found is that you pretty much need to tailor a deck to the scenario you are attempting, and very few decks are strong against all scenarios.

One of the more fun aspects for me is to not read any of the scenario or encounter cards in advance of playing them. It makes it feel like I'm truly exploring and encountering the stuff just like the characters would be. The end result is almost always that I get trounced, but then as I gain information about the scenario I modify my deck to counter it, which lets me get further, which leads to getting trounced by a new unknown. Tweak my deck again, rinse, repeat. I find this to be very rewarding, but maybe I'm just sadistic. :devil:

One thing to be aware of is that some scenarios are very, very hard, especially solo. I honestly feel that the third scenario in the core set, Escape From Dol Guldur, is virtually impossible solo, no matter what you do with your deck. The way it is set up just seems to require more than one player to defeat, which is kind of disappointing. I got more than enough enjoyment out of the first two scenarios, however (Journey Along the Anduin is my favorite, it is hard but solvable, almost like a puzzle).

Gotchya - just got the game in so I'll be ready some rules tonight ;)

So got a better run at Descent (2nd Edition) in today, and started the campaign for real. We played the starter quest "First Blood" and the first half of "Fat Goblin". I'm running as the Overlord (basically the Dungeon Master), and I have four friends playing as the adventurers. The team they are running:

Grisban the Thirsty (Fighter)
Leoric of the Book (Mage)
Widow Tarha (Mage)
Ashrian (Healer)

The first battle (First Blood) was a joke, as the heroes won it on turn two. They got an extremely lucky first turn, taking out my basic Ettin and stunning 3 of my 5 Goblin Archers. The berserking dwarf then took Mauler down in one turn to end the quest.

The first encounter of Fat Goblin was much more balanced. My goal was to make off with four bundles of grain, while the heroes were trying to secure the same four bundles into storage before I could get them. I quickly managed to snag one of the bundles of grain, but Ashrian's stun effects halted me in my tracks (literally). Though he managed to lock up my Goblin Archers for a couple of turns, I was able to get off a mind control spell and move him the hell away from my archers so they could start getting out of Dodge with the grain in tow. I got a second bundle of grain out the door and had a third most of the way there when my luck broke. Widow Tarha sprinted over and killed two of my goblins in one turn, stealing the grain in the process. Though I was able to kill Tarha before she could get the grain stored away, the heroes used some great teamwork to daisy chain the bundle (that had been mostly stolen) all the way back to the storehouse. I managed to kill Tarha, Grisban and Ashrian several times, but Leoric finally secured the last two bundles of grain. We'll be firing up the second half of the encounter in our next session.

Overall, I like the game. Positives:
-Although the rules are a little involved, they're not too difficult to understand.
-The heroes really have to use teamwork to get through the challenges, and the Overlord has to use everything in his arsenal to keep the heroes off his back. There were several points during that second quest where one side or the other seemed to be on the verge of a crushing victory. A well played card or a clever move swung the momentum back each time.

The negatives:
-Looooong setup time. There are a ton of little pieces, and finding which map segment goes where can be a pain. Although each map segment is marked, there are quite a few of them in the box, and several of them are very similarly shaped.
-Zero exploration. For a dungeon crawler, the fact that the entire map is visible and that every player has perfect knowledge of the whole situation is a little...off.
-Line of sight is...pretty easy to game. You draw lines from any corner of your square to any corner of their square. As long as you can draw a line that doesn't go through something, you have line of sight. Very rarely will you find that you don't have an option to get to someone with line of sight.

Still need more time before I come up with a definitive opinion on it, but so far so good.

Vince fwiw thats how descent is supposed to be. It's not really a dungeon crawler but more of a fantasy tactical miniatures game

Got a few plays of 'The Walking Dead' in last night. It's a fun little solitaire play. Good strategy and it doesn't take more than 20 minutes for a single play. I found myself getting the 'what, more zombies?' feeling in a couple of games. There's a shotgun card which carries great power but also provides a one in six chance that another zombie hears you and attacks. I was unfortunate enough to hit that chance twice in a row, resulting in three zombie attacks instead of one.

I'm interested in playing the four person game. In that one, as you are killed, you switch to the role of a walker/zombie. Once two are dead, it then becomes a team game where the survivors try to survive and finish all scenarios while the walker team's sole purpose is to try to kill the survivors to win. So you can lose initially and become a walker and still win in the end.

Vince fwiw thats how descent is supposed to be. It's not really a dungeon crawler but more of a fantasy tactical miniatures game

Yeah, I know. For a game called "Descent: Journey Into the Dark" there's not much 'dark' though. I do like the tactical aspect of it (one of my favorite things so far is the varied objectives), but I think it would be cool if some of the quests were more exploratory in nature.

Hanabi comes out at the end of March. It's a co-op card game where you have cards facing away from you, and you need other players to help figure things out. It's been out before but not just the game itself in the US. This would be a cheap, nice, light, co-op that I think would work rather well.

Had to switch out Snow Tails for Formula D in my wishlist. I think Snow Tails would only work at my house versus where we game due to setup, has some rule issues that would bug me, and I would need to house rule anyway. I'm just not sure when I would get Formula D though. It's kind of an "at some point" kind of thing.

Been playing 'Robo Rally' with my boys recently - its one of those 'simple but complex' games, no chance at all involved but gets extremely complicated (and somewhat funny) the more people are involved in it.

Its set in a factor with conveyor belts etc. and you play as robots racing from a set position to a destination.

You get a deck of cards which all allow you different types of movement with a 'speed' (ie. the order in which your move happens in amongst the players) - you have to set up 5 moves at once which are then played out one at a time.

For instance you might setup:
Forward 1
Forward 2
Turn Right
Forward 1
Turn Right

The complication comes in that other robots can ram you and move you around the board, plus each robot has a laser and shoots automatically in front of themselves at the end of a turn - if you're in their path then you get hit and take damage ... which means you get less cards to choose from the next turn.

(for an example of how one little shove can change things - my eldest son won tonight after shoving me one square forward ... the resulting reposition meant I moved not onto a safe square but onto a fast moving conveyor belt which took me off the map and effectively destroyed my robot)

I'd definitely recommend the game - not only is it good fun, but its also a subtle way of teaching people to program because you're effectively simulating the 'flow' of a simple series of computer orders.

This was a contender for a racing game as well. It might get placed back on the wishlist. Again, I'm not really busting my butt to add a racing game just yet.

Is that original RoboRally or the AH version?

I'd love to get me some Crash and Burn.

Hanabi comes out at the end of March. It's a co-op card game where you have cards facing away from you, and you need other players to help figure things out. It's been out before but not just the game itself in the US. This would be a cheap, nice, light, co-op that I think would work rather well.

Had to switch out Snow Tails for Formula D in my wishlist. I think Snow Tails would only work at my house versus where we game due to setup, has some rule issues that would bug me, and I would need to house rule anyway. I'm just not sure when I would get Formula D though. It's kind of an "at some point" kind of thing.


Hanabi looks interesting.

On Snow Tails...What are the Rules Issues that you need to house rule? I've found it to be among the most balanced of the racing games I've tried. I love the genre, but many of them end up with one player running away from the field such that they'll never be caught.

I enjoy Robo Rally as well. My son loves it, but understands that he doesn't have the attention span to stick with the whole game. So he just tries to run his robot into the pits(insta-kill) and shoot his sister and father as many times as possible along the way.

Formula De works best as part of a racing season.

The amount of trees that get placed on the sections for them looks like it would be more difficult to navigate than would be fun. The other rule where if you have a balanced sled you get to move up one spot per your position makes me think somebody could be in last and shoot to the lead at the end although I doubt it happens often enough to be an issue. Everybody would have to know that it could happen and plan for it. As usual, this is probably a rule that in my head doesn't work but in reality it does.

Hanabi looks awesome and I have two copies on the way to me as we speak.

Anyone who doesnt want to wait can order from GameSurplus. This is not the edition that is scheduled for late march, but it supposed to be exactly the same.

GameSurplus (https://www.gamesurplus.com/product_info.php?products_id=2307)

Snow Tails is an ok game. I played it a couple times and traded it away. I enjoyed myself, but nothing there to really grab me and say to myself "Yeah lets play that some more.

Formula D I also traded away, but is a more fun game. I traded it because its not that great with 2 or 3 which is what most of my plays are.

Hanabi looks awesome and I have two copies on the way to me as we speak.

Anyone who doesnt want to wait can order from GameSurplus. This is not the edition that is scheduled for late march, but it supposed to be exactly the same.

Already saw this posted on the geek and added an order.

Snow Tails is an ok game. I played it a couple times and traded it away. I enjoyed myself, but nothing there to really grab me and say to myself "Yeah lets play that some more.

I think this is part of problem trying to cover various genres. Some of them just aren't that strong. I might ultimately get Escape: The Curse of the Temple as a racing game simply because it is done in real time even though it is a co-op game.

The amount of trees that get placed on the sections for them looks like it would be more difficult to navigate than would be fun. The other rule where if you have a balanced sled you get to move up one spot per your position makes me think somebody could be in last and shoot to the lead at the end although I doubt it happens often enough to be an issue. Everybody would have to know that it could happen and plan for it. As usual, this is probably a rule that in my head doesn't work but in reality it does.

I think those two things are are the catch up mechanics that keep the game from being a run away. The trees slow everyone down, and that slingshot when balanced can be really big when played right. I used to avoid the tree tiles when building a course, but changed my mind after re-playing the same course with the trees after playing without them.

Played my first game of Castles of Burgundy with my wife tonight. I love this game. My kind of Euro - strategic options without being overly complex for complexities sake and very easy to learn. Scales great to two player as well


Also, the newest Sentinels of the Multiverse expansion started shipping out this week, so we're excited about getting that soon

I just bought Attack! and its expansion on a BGG. It looks like the type of war game I have been looking for. Politics, diplomacy, world expansion, war, economics.
Check it out on BGG.
I was a fan of Supremacy in the 90s. I have been looking for a game that was a little more in depth then Axis ans Allies. But not Hard to learn and/or play.
I think this scratches the itch.

Played my first game of Castles of Burgundy with my wife tonight. I love this game. My kind of Euro - strategic options without being overly complex for complexities sake and very easy to learn. Scales great to two player as well


Also, the newest Sentinels of the Multiverse expansion started shipping out this week, so we're excited about getting that soon

I've got to get my wife to try this one. I think she'll like it, but that two hour play time for my first play with three players had her and my daughter balking. After the first play, the game goes much faster. Just have to get over that first play or two.

I really wonder about my reading comprehension for rules. I read the rules for Hanabi and got locked onto one rule which made it feel fundamentally broken only to factor in some other rules later on. I swear anytime I learn a new game I'm getting 20% of the rules wrong. :lol:

CoB was another game I got a number of rules wrong. I even thought I had them down after a couple of plays only to watch Richard Ham's playthrough and see I had another rule wrong. I need to play a game versus somebody because solo two-player is a bit long for what it is. To me it plays smooth but just thinking for both sides adds too much time. I would much rather crank out a game of Summoner Wars. I need to try the two-player variant for Tikal because I think that would play quick, and I could get the rules and strategies down.

I really wonder about my reading comprehension for rules. I read the rules for Hanabi and got locked onto one rule which made it feel fundamentally broken only to factor in some other rules later on. I swear anytime I learn a new game I'm getting 20% of the rules wrong. :lol:

CoB was another game I got a number of rules wrong. I even thought I had them down after a couple of plays only to watch Richard Ham's playthrough and see I had another rule wrong. I need to play a game versus somebody because solo two-player is a bit long for what it is. To me it plays smooth but just thinking for both sides adds too much time. I would much rather crank out a game of Summoner Wars. I need to try the two-player variant for Tikal because I think that would play quick, and I could get the rules and strategies down.

Matthean, if you want, they've added CoB to Boite a Jeux (((( Boîte à Jeux ))) (http://www.boiteajeux.net/index.php?p=regles)). It's turn based, not real time like board game arena, but I'd be more than happy to play with you if you're wanting to try it out vs someone/ If other people want to join in I can set up a 4 player as well

I probably can't do much until late next week due to school and all of my teachers deciding the week after Spring Break was the best time to have tests and projects to be done. :banghead:

No rush, whenever you want to try it out with other folks, let me know via the thread or PM

So awesome! One of my close friends that comes to our monthly game night surprised me with a copy of King of Tokyo today from Amazon!

We had another game night on Saturday and we played the 5 person version of Settlers of Catan, it was new for two of the people. Everyone seemed to have lots of fun and enjoyed themselves. With that many people it can be a really long game, especially since we have one person that didn't want to do any trading until very late in the game.

We had the robber moved twice very early in the game and then no one hit 7 for about 40 turns... (rolling a 7 is a 17% chance). Overall in about 60 turns 7 was only rolled 3 or 4 times total.

Then we played a quick and dirty 4 person Cards Against Humanity that was a blast as always.

6 Board Games That Ruined It for Everyone | Cracked.com (http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-board-games-that-ruined-it-everyone/)

Anyone play Alien Frontiers that they mention. Sounds very interesting.

Amazon has it for preorder for just over $26.

http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic1590236.jpg

6 Board Games That Ruined It for Everyone | Cracked.com (http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-board-games-that-ruined-it-everyone/)

Dear Lord, is there anything that doesn't have a set of hipsters trying to be too cool for the rest of the world?

So, my next big order from CSI will be later this month when all of the Sentinels of Multiverse expansion content hits. I've got a gift cert and want to hit $100 for the free shipping, so I'm debating on the last 30 or so bucks to get there. I'm down to:

King of Tokyo + Power Up
Ghost Stories
Legendary

It's myself, my wife and our 6 yr old daughter currently (one on the way in a few months) and co-ops are a big hit in our house. However, KoT has a lot of appeal for the relatively simple mechanics and fun theme. Anyone have thoughts on any of those games they've played?

Are you only playing 3-player?

2-3 player get the majority of plays. I have a regular lunch "group" with co-workers but heavily thematic games don't go over as well with that crowd. I make a local meet-up once a month or so but not enough to ensure 4 player + up

Amazon has it for preorder for just over $26.

http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic1590236.jpg

Excellent. I have only played "Lords of Waterdeep" once, but really enjoyed it.

6 Board Games That Ruined It for Everyone | Cracked.com (http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-board-games-that-ruined-it-everyone/)

Anyone play Alien Frontiers that they mention. Sounds very interesting.


Alien Frontiers is really pretty good. I avoided it for a while, but I think it really hits the nail on the head for what my most common circle of gaming friends like to play. It is light to medium in complexity, and very accessible. I think all of us first time players had our own strategies developed pretty early on. I'll be picking this one up.

Dear Lord, is there anything that doesn't have a set of hipsters trying to be too cool for the rest of the world?

I didn't actually read the article, I just skimmed looking at their recommendations and counter parts. But, I certainly have no trouble with anyone disparaging the games they call out as exercises in boredom or whatnot. While no one would ever confuse me with a hipster. I've got over 150 board games in my house, and none of them are Monopoly or Risk or any of the other "old school" games referenced in the article.

6 Board Games That Ruined It for Everyone | Cracked.com (http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-board-games-that-ruined-it-everyone/)

Anyone play Alien Frontiers that they mention. Sounds very interesting.

That does sound interesting. Reading up on BGG, seems like it's Agricola in space using dice instead of simple workers. Different locations require different die rolls (singles, pairs, three of a kind or runs), though there are cards you can get that will help you modify your die rolls.

I have a couple people in my game group that absolutely HATE randomness, so probably not for us. I'd like to give it a shot at some point though.

Just got my copy of Tammany Hall from UPS. I am so excited. I think I will be sitting down tonight and checking it out. This game looks amazing and right up my groups alley. Lots of politicians I play with. (Local NEA President, oone guy ran for alderman in our town, stuff like that).
It should be a blast.

So, my next big order from CSI will be later this month when all of the Sentinels of Multiverse expansion content hits. I've got a gift cert and want to hit $100 for the free shipping, so I'm debating on the last 30 or so bucks to get there. I'm down to:

King of Tokyo + Power Up
Ghost Stories
Legendary

It's myself, my wife and our 6 yr old daughter currently (one on the way in a few months) and co-ops are a big hit in our house. However, KoT has a lot of appeal for the relatively simple mechanics and fun theme. Anyone have thoughts on any of those games they've played?

2-3 player get the majority of plays. I have a regular lunch "group" with co-workers but heavily thematic games don't go over as well with that crowd. I make a local meet-up once a month or so but not enough to ensure 4 player + up

KoT is probably decent with 3, but that would be about it. I know people play it two-player and add in a variant for only getting one VP for being in Tokyo at the start of your turn. One of the future expansions will add teams since the first expansion hints at it and has "Expansion No. 1" on the box. This could allow single players to have more than one monster.

No real issue with Ghost Stories as long as you understand that's it's one of if not the most difficult co-op to win at. If you want something with roughly 50% of winning, this won't be it.

For Legendary, I prefer the idea of controlling a single character versus a mash up of team members, but I have heard too much good about it to really not make it an option.

If you are trying to include the 6-year old, you might want to look at Blokus or Qwirkle. Both should be had for cheap. Survive: Escape from Atlantis is another good family game as long as everybody accepts getting screwed repeatedly although I have seen some people play it nice as possible. If you want more serious, Samurai plays best with 3. It counters the typical gang up on the leader by using secret scoring. From my own wishlist, Suburbia, which is like Sim City without the disasters.

Yeah, we have Blokus, that one's a hit. Survive is one i've been looking closely at because it just looks like a blast to play. Thanks for the rec on Samurai, I'm a fan of Knezia's older designs but haven't played that one.

I'm leaning towards Ghost Stories because the idea of a hard co-op for my wife and I is fairly appealing.

Escape! The Curse of the Temple is a great game. It lasts 10 minutes. Would work great with 2,3, 4. This a hit woth my family. It is intense, fun and difficult. I am sweating when the game is over. I highly recommend this game.

Dear Lord, is there anything that doesn't have a set of hipsters trying to be too cool for the rest of the world?

Cracked is a bunch of hipsters now? :confused:

The nice thing about Survive is there is so little of strategy due to the randomness that just about anybody could win. If I don't win one of my strategy based games, I'm going to do well. I suck at Survive. :lol:

My game group has been erratic as hell in terms of attendance, but it might have finally turned the corner. We used two tables tonight and this could be normal with the potential for 3. There's only four in the room, so it would be fun to get to a point where I have to reserve a second room at the church.

Buddy came over and we played a a game of Zombicide. Real fun and intense co-op if you enjoy the theme. We beat the scenario (10) with 3 out of the starting 6 survivors.

Played three new games.

Coloretto. End of the night filler. It's OK. Not a bad game but very bottom of the barrel that I would play.

Legendary. I found it odd that between me and another player we both own about 450 games and yet the new player who had never played a deck builder won. I could never recruit the top cards. I could never build up enough to hit Loki, but I could clean house on pretty much any villain. I was trying to do as much Hulk as possible, but I added in some other stuff as well for combos. I have 7 or so games ranked as an 8, and I would put this in there initially. It's still outside my Top 10, but it has lots of room to move due to being in that pack of 8s.

Hanabi. Until further notice, I think this is the best gateway co-op. There is serious debate if I should rank this over Castles of Burgundy simply due the the gateway factor and knowing I'll play it more. Since I'm lazy, I'll copy my comments on the game from BGG, and I'll add more when there is the geek list for "new to me" for the month.

The Goal: To sort 5 different suites of cards into piles numbered 1-5 with no gaps or repeated numbers.

The Problem: You can't look at your cards. Ever.

Player's Turn: Play a card, discard a card, or use one of the limited clue tokens and give a clue to another player. Clues are either they have card(s) with a specific number, "These two cards are fours," or color, "These three cards are red." If a player makes an illegal play, the players earn one strike. Three strikes and the game ends with a score of zero. Players can earn clue tokens back by discarding or completing a stack.

But is it fun? The games that separate themselves are the games with dynamic moments. Like a player showing their initial hand and reviling 3 green 1s. The two other players laughing and the person holding the cards going, "What?" Two clues later and everybody is laughing.

The moment when there is a stack of green cards with a 2 on top. You and another player have a green 3. Both know they have a green or a 3 and see the other players green 3. The one player discards his and you suddenly know you have a green 3 and play it.

Knowing only one thing about a single card out of the hand you have and deciding it is worth playing since if it was worth discarding you would have hoped the other players would have clued you in. You play it successfully.

Asking a person what they know about their hand, finding out they are wrong about two of them, you only have one clue to give if that, and you can't correct them. There's only two copies of fours. Was one of the cards they had wrong a four? Yes, yes it was.

The ultimate fun one, there's no clues to give so you have to play, and you literally know nothing about any of your cards. And yes, this will happen often. Good luck.