Any Board Gamers Up in This Piece?

[TexArcher 37,761]

4 hours ago, workswithseed said:

I seem to suck at Euro games, but I have fun play both of these games. Agricula always kicks my ass, TM not as much.

Yeah, Agricola's tough.  It's one of my favorites, but I'm pretty mediocre at it.  I kick ass at Castles of Burgundy and Concordia.  And I have no idea if I'm good at Twilight Struggle or not because I always play it against the same guy and we split the games down the middle, lol.

My latest addition is Brass:Birmingham and I can't recommend it highly enough.  It went straight into my top 5.

Edited May 19, 2020 by TexArcher

[atomheartbevo 89,623]

On 5/17/2020 at 1:14 AM, troph said:

Some of these fantasy games look intense.

We played Catan with the kids and my mom their grandmother tonight after buying it back in March. We haven’t laughed that much in a long time. The robber feature and the trading is a riot. Great game for preteens. Surly teens need not apply.

They have a younger version of Catan (pirates!) that has turned out to be a lot of fun with our first-grader.  Never too frustrating, but so much more fun than the typical first-grade games.  He's also been playing the younger version of Ticket-to-Ride for a few years, and that's been a lot of fun.

[atomheartbevo 89,623]

DP

Edited May 22, 2020 by atomheartbevo

[troph 24,781]

4 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

They have a younger version of Catan (pirates!) that has turned out to be a lot of fun with our first-grader.  Never too frustrating, but so much more fun than the typical first-grade games.  He's also been playing the younger version of Ticket-to-Ride for a few years, and that's been a lot of fun.

Ticket to ride got me back into board games. Hoping to laugh like maniacs with my boys for a few more years playing these games. 

Edited May 23, 2020 by troph

[BoomMF 1,398]

Here is my One Year Anniversary Shelfie. Started from the Trivial Pursuit variants and Bed Bugs and now we here.
 
The Milton Bradley types are not long for the world. Shelf space is becoming precious. Sorry Christmas Story: The Board Game but I'm not the man I used to be.
 
The 4x4 Expedit is about to get replaced with a 5x5 Kallax to help tame the beast. Pour one out for yet another retired Expedit.
 
What started with Battleship has become an obsession with grand epics like Nemesis, Tainted Grail, and 7th Continent, thinky Euros like On Mars, The Gallerist, and Barrage, and quirky yet compelling oddities like Too Many Bones and Edge of Darkness. In fact, the latter two are on my desert island list, along with Scythe, Rebellion, and Root. Well, they all bow down to Dungeons and Dragons, but, to me, that's really a different animal.
 
Here's to the next 365 days.

[troph 24,781]

That’s impressive.

[MillerEP 30,447]

Very impressive, I'm envious.

I just started really taking it seriously. Since the lockdown, we had 1 visitor from out of town and since they couldn't go anywhere I picked up Pandemic, and since then it turned into Terraforming Mars and the new Dune. I've added a bunch of the games listed here to my wishlist. Now all I need is people to play with on the reg.

[CooterBrown 18,002]

We’ve gotten into board games over the pandemic. We isolate with our neighbors so once a week we have game night. We’ve been playing Catan, Unstable Unicorns, and Pandemic.

I just went on a buying spree...

[workswithseed 2,088]

On 6/11/2020 at 1:02 PM, MillerEP said:

Very impressive, I'm envious.

I just started really taking it seriously. Since the lockdown, we had 1 visitor from out of town and since they couldn't go anywhere I picked up Pandemic, and since then it turned into Terraforming Mars and the new Dune. I've added a bunch of the games listed here to my wishlist. Now all I need is people to play with on the reg.

I should really read Dune. Might after Ender's game.

[CooterBrown 18,002]

Played Secret Hitler on Saturday. It says 5-10 players but I’d recommend 8-10. We had 5 players and it wasn’t quite enough to take advantage of a lot of the game mechanics. It does get very stressful towards the end and would be more so with more players.

[atomheartbevo 89,623]

Has anybody played Space Park?

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/243358/space-park

 

[atomheartbevo 89,623]

On 6/17/2020 at 7:19 AM, CooterBrown said:

Played Secret Hitler on Saturday. It says 5-10 players but I’d recommend 8-10. We had 5 players and it wasn’t quite enough to take advantage of a lot of the game mechanics. It does get very stressful towards the end and would be more so with more players.

We've been playing Resistance on Zoom with a bunch of people.  I think a few of us would really enjoy it.  Can it be played over Zoom/etc?

[CooterBrown 18,002]

12 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

We've been playing Resistance on Zoom with a bunch of people.  I think a few of us would really enjoy it.  Can it be played over Zoom/etc?

There are a few logistical items to figure out. I think it could be done most easily if you have a designated game manager who is sitting out that round.

[TexArcher 37,761]

PSA: Steam is doing a huge summer sale right now: a lot of good games are only a few bucks each.  Awesome way to test drive a game before spending $50-100 on the tabletop version.

 

If you want to play something on there, I'm TexArcher.  Send me a friend invite.

 

I've got:

Twilight Struggle

Terraforming Mars

Scythe

Terra Mystica

Through the Ages

Race for the Galaxy

Shards of Infinity

Etc...

[atomheartbevo 89,623]

Lords of Waterdeep.  Still working on learning it.

[CooterBrown 18,002]

We decided that the co-op games are our favorite. Found a list ranking them and I picked up the top 3...

Robinson Crusoe
Atlantis Rising
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective

I’m kinda scared to add up what I’ve spent on games in the past two months.

[TexArcher 37,761]

So Longhornmaniac8 and I finally got together on Steam to rewrite the Cold War with Twilight Struggle. 

It was a back-and-forth tug-of-war with neither superpower getting close to the knockout during 10 rounds over 3.5 hours, so it went to the judges' scorecards, and...

It's a draw, which is damn near impossible.  Gawd damn, that was tense and awesome!

[CooterBrown 18,002]

Played Azul tonight. That’s a fun one. Highly recommended.

One thing we’ve learned over the past few months is ignore the rule book and watch a gameplay video on YouTube. You can pick up the game in 15 minutes doing it that way. We’ve yet to see a rule book that’s clearly written.

[Hefeweizen 5,310]

Azul is great.  We also play chess, Memoir 44, Earth Reborn, Doom, and looking forward to trying Jaws and Die Hard .  I grew up playing squad leader and I am pretty sure that’s not happening with my teenagers but they are pretty good at games.  

[CooterBrown 18,002]

Last night, I started focusing on getting 5 of a tile and a completed column due to the high bonus points for each. Won every game where I had one of each. Thought I’d figured out a fail proof strategy.

We walked our 7 year old through a game today and she kicked our ass focusing just on the 1, 2, and 3 tile rows. She scored 87 points and destroyed my method by 20 points.

[BoomMF 1,398]

Have been able to try out a lot of games these past few weeks. All good stuff. In fact, spent last weekend visiting family and they insisted on playing Detective: City of Angels back-to-back-to-back (I was the Chisel, sort of the game's GM, for all of them) and even I was starting to suck wind.

 

Rebellion

 

Horrified

 

Tiny Towns

 

Quacks of Quedlinberg

 

Lisboa

 

Cloudspire

 

Glen More II Chronicles

 

Edge of Darkness

 

Detective: City of Angels

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MillerEP 30,447]

I want your gaming table.

[BoomMF 1,398]

23 hours ago, MillerEP said:

I want your gaming table.

Thanks. Here's the plans I used, modified a little bit:
 

 

 

[Longhornmaniac8 255]

On 7/3/2020 at 2:30 PM, TexArcher said:

So Longhornmaniac8 and I finally got together on Steam to rewrite the Cold War with Twilight Struggle. 

It was a back-and-forth tug-of-war with neither superpower getting close to the knockout during 10 rounds over 3.5 hours, so it went to the judges' scorecards, and...

It's a draw, which is damn near impossible.  Gawd damn, that was tense and awesome!

It was a bizzare, epic, really fucking awesome game!

[BoomMF 1,398]

The Carnomorphs are coming.

[atomheartbevo 89,623]

Not a boardgames, but probably not a dedicated DND thread.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/20/us/dungeons-and-dragons-longest-game-great-big-story-trnd/index.html

Quote

For the past 38 years, Wardhaugh has been playing the same game of Dungeons & Dragons in Canada. Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game that usually involves lots of miniatures, lots of imaginary worlds, and lots of high adventure. Starting in 1982, that might make it the longest continuously running Dungeons & Dragons campaign, ever. Or, at least the longest Wardhaugh has ever heard of.

Quote

Wardhaugh first began playing when a friend introduced him to the game and accidentally left some rule books at his home. He was hooked, and as he moved from high school, to college, to graduate school, he kept collecting friends along the way who wanted to be a part of his epic campaign. What started out as just four players has grown to nearly 60 today.

Quote

And while not everyone plays at Wardhaugh's house, many people drive and fly from all over Canada to take part. And many others video chat in, some streaming from as far as the United Kingdom. During the ongoing pandemic, Wardhaugh has relied on video chat more than ever, but it hasn't been all bad.

"My players keep pointing out to me, there's now more sessions than there's ever been because of Zoom," says Wardhaugh. He estimates that now he's probably hosting sessions two, three and sometimes even four times a week.

Yeah, I play a couple of times a week, with old friends that I wouldn't have otherwise been able to play with, thanks to Zoom and Roll20.  It had been a few decades since I last really played before the covid stuff.

Quote

Over the past 38 years, many things have changed. Players have come and gone, the game has grown ever bigger (he boasts a collection of 20,000 miniatures), and Wardhaugh has adapted to play by his own rules.

Quote

Above all else, the game has allowed him to serve his initial purpose: To spend time with his friends. "One of the greatest successes of my game has been the fact that it has fulfilled its ultimate objective, which is keeping my friend group together," says Wardhaugh. "I knew early on that if I was able to create a game that was good enough, that they would keep coming. And that they would play with me, no matter where I was." That game is hopefully set to continue for many more decades to come.

"One of the things that sets my game apart from all other games is that the only thing that's going to limit it, I suppose, is my lifespan," says Wardhaugh. But his game has certainly created a legacy. His teenage daughter has been involved with the game since she was 8 years old. And his students have also started to take an interest.

 

[workswithseed 2,088]

Dominion is like clank, but no board. Definitely fun.

[BoomMF 1,398]

My 5E book collection is almost complete, but the one I'm missing is a pain to find. So if anyone has the ins on a Volo's Guide to Monsters with the Hydro cover, holler atcha boy.

[workswithseed 2,088]

Just got Through the Desert. I'm going play with the girlfriend, and friend and see if it's fun.

[MillerEP 30,447]

On 9/28/2020 at 8:49 PM, BoomMF said:

My 5E book collection is almost complete, but the one I'm missing is a pain to find. So if anyone has the ins on a Volo's Guide to Monsters with the Hydro cover, holler atcha boy.
 

ebay has a few:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Volos-Guide-to-Monsters-Limited-Edition-Dungeons-and-Dragons/284041034614?hash=item42222a3b76:g:0NoAAOSwvQdfgd2k

Edited October 15, 2020 by MillerEP

[BoomMF 1,398]

Yeah, I set alerts, but damn..

[atomheartbevo 89,623]

Damn, that is a lot for a manual.

I love looking through those auctions though.  The late '70s D&D aesthetic was awesome.  If I bought this manual, 

I'd have to buy this car

Or this van

[workswithseed 2,088]

On 10/16/2020 at 5:13 PM, atomheartbevo said:

Damn, that is a lot for a manual.

I love looking through those auctions though.  The late '70s D&D aesthetic was awesome.  If I bought this manual, 

I'd have to buy this car

Or this van

That's totally wizard.

[BoomMF 1,398]

I have that 1st ed Monster Manual and the artwork inside looks like it was done by Napoleon Dynamite. It's awesome.

[BoomMF 1,398]

Marvel Champions has been my first LCG. I can see how these things become a problem. Between monthly releases and Etsy, it can get out of hand pretty damn quick.

I can only imagine how this will be when they start producing decks for heroes and villains I actually give a damn about...

 

 

Been playing this solo game, too. Everything Lost is a very small production run (200 copies) zombie apocalypse survival game out of the Netherlands that uses a very clever action card system. It drips with theme and each of four chapters in the campaign plays in about 45 minutes.

 

 

If you have a change to play Pax Pamir, especially the 2nd edition, you should. If you like contentious multi-player tableau-builders with many opportunities to flip the board, it'll be up your alley. The designer, Cole Wehrle of Root fame and a Lifetime Longhorn, took a lot of time to include painstaking historical detail. Things like the zero sum nature of the economy of the time (19th century Afganistan) is reflected in the economy of the game. I enjoy reading the factoids about the historical figures as much as I like using them to assassinate a character in a rival player's court. Neat stuff!

 

 

And for more family fun, Calico is a cat-themed game that plays like trying to solve about 7 different puzzles at one time. It's easy to learn, difficult to master. The only interaction is possibly taking a tile from the market that someone else might want - so it's a great game if you want to keep it PG.

 

 

Also played a bit of Smartphone KS Edition which feels like a more simple Food Chain Magnate. But, unlike FCM, it isn't murder on the eyes.

 

 

And I introduced Raiders of the North Sea to the in-laws. We played with all the expansions and a great time was had by all. Side note: The official neoprene mat is the most vibrant neoprene play surface of any I've seen, period. It's on sale right now in the Garphill store if you're interested.

 

 

One of our favorite genres is whodunnits. We're going through the base game of Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game and after finishing the base cases in Detective: City of Angels we've started the first expansion Bullets Over Hollywood, with the expansion that just came out, Smoke and Mirrors, waiting on the shelf. 

 

 

 

And now, dear reader, you are pretty much caught up.

Edited November 17, 2020 by BoomMF

[BoomMF 1,398]

I last posted my shelfie in May (at the top of this page). Here's 6 months later.

I've lost contain.

[BoomMF 1,398]

Continuing my mission to play everything ever, according to my wife...

 

And I've come to enjoy blinging out the games damn near as much as playing them.

 

Anachrony is an amazing game. I ended up buying it twice to get an Infinity Box. It's that good.

 

 

Hauled it to the in-laws', too.

 

 

Which lead me to getting Trickerion: CE. Mindclash produce some impressive experiences. Late pledged Perseverance to avoid any future snafus. Lesson learned.

 

 

Dwellings of Eldervale Legendary Edition is another over-the-top production, which is just where I want my games in relation to the top.

 

 

Dune: Imperium is on the other end of the spectrum production wise, but the gameplay is stellar, especially if you are familiar with the source material.

 

 

And the game it gets compared to most, its cohort The Lost Ruins of Arnak. Both are worker-placement deck builders with entertaining themes. I can't decide between the two, my mind says Dune but my heart says Arnak.

 

 

I picked up Zombicide: Night of the Living Dead because Brian said, and I'm paraphrasing, "Zombicide games are the best games." It plays like an alternate Cthulhu: Death May Die, which is perfect. I bloodied the dice because of course.

 

 

Honey Buzz Deluxe is more excellent family fun. Family Game of the Year level stuff here.

 

 

And played Cleopatra: Society of Architects. Lavish production that outshines the gameplay. They "streamlined" the game for this edition, which I guess means taking away some of the compelling decisions you have to make. But what's left is still enjoyable and accessible, even if it looks like a big Playmobil set on the table when you're done constructing thicc-ass Cleopatra's palace. 

 

 

And Trekking the World. The family really liked Trekking the National Parks, and this is more of the same with just minor gameplay tweaks. We make everyone read about the location when they claim it. Learned a fair bit about places I've never even heard of before. Humans are pretty neat.

 

 

I've played so much Mystic Vale on PC and Android that when I played it physically I longed to have all the calculations done for me because I'm lazy.

 

 

Western Legends is a fantastic sandbox game with a theme that hasn't been done elsewhere as effectively. Don't bring that Great Western Trail nonsense in here. This one, you actually feel the theme and it has purpose.

 

 

Rococo Deluxe is why Eagle Gryphon is one of my favorite game producers. I mean, look at it!

 

 

Solo-only game Under Falling Skies is Space Invaders in a box, in case you felt you ever needed Space Invaders in a box. Except now you have interesting decisions to make.

 

 

And I've started printing my own inserts. Here's the insert for Viscounts of the West Kingdom designed by Shem Phillips, designer of the game, himself, though he didn't leave much space for sleeved cards - fixed that with a dremel.

 

 

I used a resin printer, Anycubic Mono X, for the fertility idol from Indiana Jones. It's going on the table when we play Lost Ruins of Arnak.

 

 

Since I'm never done upgrading Scythe, here's the factory for the middle of the map, printed and painted. It has a little flickering LED tea light in the middle to simulate activity going on inside. 🤣

 

 

Anyone here playing something I need to check out? And, possibly, go overboard upgrading?

Edited February 1, 2021 by BoomMF

[TexArcher 37,761]

On 2/1/2021 at 1:04 PM, BoomMF said:

Anyone here playing something I need to check out? And, possibly, go overboard upgrading?

We've talked about this, but Commands and Colors: Napoleonics is one that I fully expect you to go apeshit on someday: 3-D terrain and town hexes, painted infantry and cavalry, etc.  The base game has about 15 battles and it's fast for a wargame (45 to 90 mins).  Stock up on blue and red paint.

[BoomMF 1,398]

I've been trying to broaden playing opportunities in the pandemic, and I find TTS and the like to be lifeless, cumbersome experiences, so I put together a streaming setup. Watched a few streaming channels to cop their moves and the product came out surprisingly good. Even installed a little color-keyed area to display detail shots of game bits and cards so people can see them up close and study them.

 

It works really well for games with no hidden hands and everything's public. But some of these game boards push 1080p to its breaking point. 4K is out of the question!

 

...for now.

 

 

[Hawndoh 2,386]

If anyone is a fan of the hit indie video game Stardew Valley, a few days ago the creator of that game dropped Stardew Valley: The Board Game as a total surprise. He worked with some folks over the last two years to develop it, and it is a co-op game for 1-4 players that tries to model the vibe of the video game.

The first printing promptly sold out the first day, but I snagged one. It looks to be a pretty involved co-op game, tons of components, cards, tiles, dice, etc. Estimated play time of 40 mins per player.

I don't have it yet, waiting for it to ship, but I will try to come back here after I've gotten my hands on it to answer any questions.

The creator has already said on Twitter that there will be a second printing since the first sold so quickly.

[atomheartbevo 89,623]

13 hours ago, Hawndoh said:

I don't have it yet, waiting for it to ship, but I will try to come back here after I've gotten my hands on it to answer any questions.

My 8 year-old loves the Stardew Valley video game , and he's working through some of the classic board games (he's currently learning Settlers of Catan). 

I'd be curious if you think he could handle the boardgames of SV.

[Hawndoh 2,386]

Here is a link to the info, in there you can read the whole rulebook and see if it sounds like something they could handle.

https://shop.stardewvalley.net/

There's a lot to it but it is also co-op so they could be helped during a playthrough.

Edited February 27, 2021 by Hawndoh

[RDCanecutter 26,378]

Makes me miss the old days back at Great Hall Games.

[Sheep Have Wool 1,053]

For those of you who like social deduction games (Secret Hitler, The Resistance, Avalon, Mafia/Werewolf), Scape Goat is an excellent low player social deduction game that flips the normal hidden role mechanic on its head. It plays extremely well at low player counts that other social deduction games fall apart at, too. And it's like $15-$20. Definite recommendation.

[atomheartbevo 89,623]

https://catanshop.com/catan-3d

Quote

This long-awaited CATAN® 3D Edition is based on terrain tiles hand-sculpted by Klaus Teuber himself.

All of the terrain is hand-painted for stunning color. The intricately-designed player pieces are antiqued for a look that's full of history and character.

[atomheartbevo 89,623]

[atomheartbevo 89,623]

Also, I've mentioned before that I've been noticing an uptick in friends and family playing board games, AD&D, etc., during the Time of Covid, and it's been discussed in this thread, but I'm seeing it kind of stick around, and seeing an increase.

Long story short, a friend mentioned on Facebook last weekend that some of us were playing AD&D online through Roll20, and a bunch of my high school and college friends and former co-workers chimed in that they've started playing it again as well.  Most of us have not played it since high school/college, and a long conversation ensued - seems like many of them started picking it up in the past 6-12 months.  It's quite a few things that got them back in from what was said - Stranger Things and a few other shows highlighting it, live streaming of it (and topics around it) getting really popular on YouTube/Twitch, people in our 40s trying to recapture our youth or something, 5E is making it easy for a lot of people to get back into it, etc.

Also, AD&D stuff seems to be a lot more visible in game stores, regular stores, etc.

Just interesting, since it's such a resource-intensive (time mainly) game compared to other games.

[BoomMF 1,398]

According to this thread, May is my anniversary month. So, one more again, here's the shelfie one year after the last.

This has to be the end. There's no more room for another 5x5!

This time last year the collection was in a 4x4 and bursting at the seams. Covid overcorrection.

Edited May 27, 2021 by BoomMF

[MillerEP 30,447]

Sooo, jealous!

 

I recently picked up the entire Villainous series, and missed out on the new Goonies preorder by just a few hours (they sold out of preorders within about 4 hours): https://www.target.com/p/-/A-82006442

I'll try again in June.

 

Also, rumors are game nights might start back up next month!

[BoomMF 1,398]

Villainous is such a great game, and perfect to gateway people into board games - it's a theme that everyone "gets" and has a base interest in from the start. That wooden box under the Villainous collection is from a guy on Etsy that holds the entire series and I haul it to family get-togethers. He also made the Marvel Champions box up there that performs the same function. I'm a sucker for collections being in one box because I hate choosing.

And speaking of recent interest in D&D, have y'all noticed the pricing for the books, even recently printed books? Tasha's alt cover, which is only a few months old, fetches $100 on eBay. All the alt covers, even for unpopular titles like Saltmarsh, have shot up. I'm never going to get Volo's alt at this rate. That thing hit $1000 now. When I mentioned it earlier in this thread it was around $350. That looks like the golden age at this point. Ravenloft's alt, which isn't even 2 weeks old, has sold out and is already about to eclipse Tasha pricing. Ridiculous.