What boardgames did you just play?
- Thread starter CivCube
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Eclipse: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/72125/eclipse
Second go and the game buyer won by 4 points. I came second with 30 and the host last with 24.
Second go and the game buyer won by 4 points. I came second with 30 and the host last with 24.
Kan' Sharuminar
Fluffy
Does Exploding Kittens count, despite being a card game?
Worked out well on Christmas Day, with slightly drunk parents and a slightly drunk me, and was a laugh all round. Very simple rules, very quick gameplay, and the first time we had all played it.
It's Ticket to Ride, on New Year's Day. I've played it before, and I love it, but I'm looking forward to seeing what the old folk's say about a more traditional board game.
Worked out well on Christmas Day, with slightly drunk parents and a slightly drunk me, and was a laugh all round. Very simple rules, very quick gameplay, and the first time we had all played it.
It's Ticket to Ride, on New Year's Day. I've played it before, and I love it, but I'm looking forward to seeing what the old folk's say about a more traditional board game.
CivCube
Spicy.
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Roll for the Galaxy - A perfect translation of Race for the Galaxy into dice-rolling that manages to be equal in decision-making. Might even be a better game for newcomers than its predecessor.
El Grande - Holy crap, this game is good. Area control that doesn't quite give you enough resources, and then you have to consider what powers your opponents are going to select that round. The tower works, the card selection works, the map is great...ahhhhhh, this game. It stands well against newer games.
El Grande - Holy crap, this game is good. Area control that doesn't quite give you enough resources, and then you have to consider what powers your opponents are going to select that round. The tower works, the card selection works, the map is great...ahhhhhh, this game. It stands well against newer games.
Only game I've played a few times recently was Bang!, both the dice and card version.
As a sheriff in a four-player game, I drew the character that let you play multiple bang cards in a single round. I unloaded three on Jimothy* and killed him on the first turn, and he happened to be an outlaw so it worked in my favor.
*Names changed to protect the innocent. Err, guilty.
EDIT: Also Trajan! Forgot about that one. I still don't have the hang of the mancala system, but I love it already.
As a sheriff in a four-player game, I drew the character that let you play multiple bang cards in a single round. I unloaded three on Jimothy* and killed him on the first turn, and he happened to be an outlaw so it worked in my favor.
*Names changed to protect the innocent. Err, guilty.
EDIT: Also Trajan! Forgot about that one. I still don't have the hang of the mancala system, but I love it already.
CivCube
Spicy.
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Twilight Struggle - This is a pretty decent two-player, if somewhat basic feeling on my first whiff. It's strange to say that, given how fiddly the game can be. There are a lot of countries to monitor, as your opponent rises in power around the world, so there are a lot of chits to juggle. The size of the card pool, completely comprised of single copies, also makes it difficult to predict exactly what your opponent will do. Not too many of them are huge game-changers, just annoying little chips at your iron curtain or little breaths on the dominos of democracy.
But the choices do seem more simple than on first glance. You can either play the card for its event or use its value to do one of four actions, three of which shift the balance of power somewhere in the world, or add to the space race (which has more to do with hand management, although there are big pay-offs if you persist with it).
This will grow on me, I'm sure. It's in a strange nook between Euro and wargame, potentially off-putting for both core audiences. I need to give it a few more plays before I can say anything. Is it deserving of one of the very top spots on BGG's all-time? Maaaaaaaybe. I'm more likely to play El Grande if I want a fun area control.
But the choices do seem more simple than on first glance. You can either play the card for its event or use its value to do one of four actions, three of which shift the balance of power somewhere in the world, or add to the space race (which has more to do with hand management, although there are big pay-offs if you persist with it).
This will grow on me, I'm sure. It's in a strange nook between Euro and wargame, potentially off-putting for both core audiences. I need to give it a few more plays before I can say anything. Is it deserving of one of the very top spots on BGG's all-time? Maaaaaaaybe. I'm more likely to play El Grande if I want a fun area control.
CivCube
Spicy.
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Played Eclipse again after about seven months. The game makes more sense if you're sitting next to all the upgrades and can look at them. What I like is how flexible your options are in light of other players' choices. Your neighbor's stocking up on weapons? Go ahead and get your hull upgrades a-go-go. Falling behind in territory? Upgrade your tachyon drives so you can move several hexes at a time. Our game ended up being a tense stand-off on turn 9, something that probably happens every game.
Lewis & Clark - Played the solo variant. It's about as friendly an intro to worker placements as it gets: there's a clear goal (providing clear choices) and the art is very well done. Its core mechanic is also rather interesting...you have to use your cards as fuel for other cards in your hand, sorta like Race for the Galaxy, but you have flexibility with your Indian workers (which are...ugh, racist red).
It also seems to scale up in difficulty with more players, like other worker placements. And let's face it, the theme is leaps and bounds more accessible than Lords of Waterdeep's D&D setting. I'd chuck this out at folks after they play Ticket to Ride.
Lewis & Clark - Played the solo variant. It's about as friendly an intro to worker placements as it gets: there's a clear goal (providing clear choices) and the art is very well done. Its core mechanic is also rather interesting...you have to use your cards as fuel for other cards in your hand, sorta like Race for the Galaxy, but you have flexibility with your Indian workers (which are...ugh, racist red).
It also seems to scale up in difficulty with more players, like other worker placements. And let's face it, the theme is leaps and bounds more accessible than Lords of Waterdeep's D&D setting. I'd chuck this out at folks after they play Ticket to Ride.
Had some board gaming time with my friends last weekend.
Played Dominion with Seaside and Dark Ages, ended up playing a really interesting game where I attacked my opponent's deck with pirate ships but she had too many provinces already. Although the game turned into a duchy-buying game because the gold was cleaned out.
Played Village for the first time, ended up I think 3rd out of 5 in a pretty close game. It's a worker-placement type game where you try to build and sell market goods, travel to neighboring towns, and move family members up in the church and town council. Being a first-timer, I didn't really have a strategy but started putting together moves later in the game.
And the biggie: Twilight Struggle as the Americans. The Soviets didn't pull any punches, holding Defectors in their hand so they could hit me with two Red Scares in the headline phase. I held through the early game, but Asia and the Middle East started collapsing fast. Managed to neutralize Fidel, though, and start breaking in Europe, pushing my opponent from a 14 VP lead down to 6. I thought I still had good odds to win if I took some chances in the Americas, Southeast Asia, and Africa to get to the late-game Europe victory. However, I gambled heavily by playing the Arab-Israeli War for realignments in Mexico and Panama to save my game, but I lost Israel on a natural 6 and then the Soviets rolled 3 6's in a row to hold onto Central America. Soviets won at the start of the 6th turn since they had full control of the Middle East, gaining them 12 points or something ridiculous like that.
Played Dominion with Seaside and Dark Ages, ended up playing a really interesting game where I attacked my opponent's deck with pirate ships but she had too many provinces already. Although the game turned into a duchy-buying game because the gold was cleaned out.
Played Village for the first time, ended up I think 3rd out of 5 in a pretty close game. It's a worker-placement type game where you try to build and sell market goods, travel to neighboring towns, and move family members up in the church and town council. Being a first-timer, I didn't really have a strategy but started putting together moves later in the game.
And the biggie: Twilight Struggle as the Americans. The Soviets didn't pull any punches, holding Defectors in their hand so they could hit me with two Red Scares in the headline phase. I held through the early game, but Asia and the Middle East started collapsing fast. Managed to neutralize Fidel, though, and start breaking in Europe, pushing my opponent from a 14 VP lead down to 6. I thought I still had good odds to win if I took some chances in the Americas, Southeast Asia, and Africa to get to the late-game Europe victory. However, I gambled heavily by playing the Arab-Israeli War for realignments in Mexico and Panama to save my game, but I lost Israel on a natural 6 and then the Soviets rolled 3 6's in a row to hold onto Central America. Soviets won at the start of the 6th turn since they had full control of the Middle East, gaining them 12 points or something ridiculous like that.
I don't do a lot of realignments; I favor coups if I can get away with them and direct influence placement to replace hits taken from card events.
However, one of my favorite tricks as the USA is to play Fidel myself and then immediately realign the Soviets out of Cuba, which has a decent enough chance of working and it really crimps their game there until Liberation Theology which you can coup out. There are a couple spots on the board where realignments can be useful, like around Thailand and in South America and Africa when the DEFCON is too low for coups, but I usually have other stuff I prioritize over it.
I'm not counting late game USA, since you have a bunch of good events that let you do realignments in Europe. Mostly because I've never gotten to the late game--my last game surviving to turn 6 is the best I have seen the US do.
However, one of my favorite tricks as the USA is to play Fidel myself and then immediately realign the Soviets out of Cuba, which has a decent enough chance of working and it really crimps their game there until Liberation Theology which you can coup out. There are a couple spots on the board where realignments can be useful, like around Thailand and in South America and Africa when the DEFCON is too low for coups, but I usually have other stuff I prioritize over it.
I'm not counting late game USA, since you have a bunch of good events that let you do realignments in Europe. Mostly because I've never gotten to the late game--my last game surviving to turn 6 is the best I have seen the US do.
Snerk
Smeghead
I think I can top that as I recently played Settlers for the first time. Reckon that was fairly overdue.
Snerk
Smeghead
I think I really want the Cyclades expansion Titans, looks awesome. But my group plays so infrequently so I can't really justify spending money on new board game when there's a few games laying around we've barely touched. Notably Istanbul, Escape, Elder Sign and Carcassonne (I've actually only played carcassonne once)
Spartan_X
Chieftain
Arkham Horror - And i think it is awesome. Not only because it is set in the Lovecraft universe of Cthulhu, the old ones, etc - but it is very enjoyable and very well made. Me and friends we are playing it so frequently ( once a week, or even more sometimes ), and we can never get bored with it. We also have almost all of its expansion sets - the exception being "The king in Yellow", which I sadly don't have it yet. To anyone who hasn't played it, I absolutely recommend it.
Only issue with this game is that because the game has literally hundreds and hundreds of cards, in tens of different decks that you have to keep them all tidy etc, You really have to be careful and mindful with the set up of the game, and have patience with it. But once you get to know where everything goes, and you learn the game rules - which are not that hard to learn - its a awesome experience.
Only issue with this game is that because the game has literally hundreds and hundreds of cards, in tens of different decks that you have to keep them all tidy etc, You really have to be careful and mindful with the set up of the game, and have patience with it. But once you get to know where everything goes, and you learn the game rules - which are not that hard to learn - its a awesome experience.
