What boardgames did you just play?

For a while, Avalon was the one to get because of extra gameplay options. Now that the expansion is coming out (which includes loads of stuff), you should go with the original version.

Amazon mentions The Resistance: 2nd Edition, which has the The Plot Thickens expansion included. Is that what you mean?

Yep, that's the original. Hidden Agenda and Hostile Intent should also be available in one package after the Kickstarter copies are sent out.

Sounds good! Now I just need to convince my friends to actually play a game (or twelve).

Oh yes indeed. It can be a tough sell but once it hits the table, it's unlikely to leave, especially if you have enough for an epic game.

Bora Bora - Another Stefan Feld point salad! I quite like the dice mechanic in this one: the higher the number, the more "oomph" you get out of an action you pick. The lower the number, sure, the less powerful the actions are, but you also get to lock other players out of using that action if you picked it first. It also means you have wider variety of actions to pick if you're able to sneak your dice in under other players' larger rolls.

Although the actions' play areas make for a messy board (standard Feld fare), it's cool to see Feld make little concentrated islands of game mechanics that are all connected, kind of like...oh, you know. There are even assigned tasks that you get to see one round in advance, almost like In the Year of the Dragon popped in to say hello. It's a fun game, and not nearly as intimidating as many players would have you think. As point-heavy as Feld's games are, they also emphasize always having at least one good option to go with in case your current tactic backfires.

Are tabletop wargames welcome here?
I've been playing a bunch of warmachine with cygnar, and the new stormclad I picked up has been doing work.

Certainly. Tabletop is tabletop in my book. I assume you're referring to 40k?

Nope, warmachine/hordes, its smaller scale, less expensive, and the rules are less of a mess.

You are thinking of warHAMMER.

It's Alive! - The designer's daughter was visiting here from Israel and she brought this for us. Rather nifty and tense set collection where you have to collect all the body parts from cemeteries to make your own Frankenstein's monster. Every card you draw, you weigh auctioning for a body part as opposed to buying it. Sometimes the mob pops up, so you have to keep a junk card until another one comes along. This was originally Hanukkah-themed where you have to collect eight candles...I think I would have dug that, too, if it featured a lot of Hebrew history.

Istanbul - Like the city, this game has some luxurious-lookin' components. Travel around a randomly generated board and, uh, do stuff. Get some stuff! Sell that stuff! Gamble a little! But aha, don't be fooled. This is really an abstract game where you leave a little bit of yourself on every space you move. If you want to pull off collecting all the rubies, you'll need to plan out your moves in advance.

Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar - Ugh, my head. Don't play this after a tense workweek. The moving gears mean you have to think about what other players want to do and beat them to it...that is, if you know what your own strategy even is, which might get sidelined by the expansion's Prophecy track. I wasn't at my best that evening, either, so maybe I'm grumpier than I should be. One more play should do it.

Terra Mystica - Hmm...I was somewhat underwhelmed after hearing so much praise. Sure, the Catan-like blockage with buildings and terraforming is sorta cool, but there wasn't much else going on. The power and cult mechanics don't really add a lot to what boils down to "do I build this building or that building". It's not something I would mind playing, but for a box with so many components, I would have expected a bit more going on under the hood.

Played a bunch over the break, although I don't remember them all.

Settlers of Catan +Seafarers +C&K - Rocked a 13-4-4-3 win with some lucky rolls and rapid expansion across the sea where I found a '6' gold mine tile. Had 3 cities, I think, longest road, and the yellow metropolis forming the bulk of my points in this rush. I have a picture of it on my phone, I'll try to transfer it off and post it here.

St. Petersburg - Got to play this again after a long while, I really love this game. Narrow defeat because of an unlucky draw of unique nobles and upgrades in the final round.

Pathfinder - Played a goblin module with some friends, ended up murdering them all to steal the glory. Hey, I'm chaotic evil, right?

Munchkin - Yup, it was a typical Munchkin game. I dropped one of two winners' levels by 1 in the end out of spite for him screwing me over earlier in the game.

7 Wonders - First time I managed to get a good set of sciences going, but I ended up getting creamed by an even better set of sciences and a blue/yellow builder. I think there was a tie for 62 points, and I ended up with 56.

Love Letter - This is a fun and short game where you try to deliver your love letter to the princess by the person whose card you are holding. Every turn you draw a new card and play the ability on one of the two in your hand.

Twilight Struggle - A friend bought a copy to take back west and we tried to learn it from the rulebook. Made some progress and it seems like a solid game for history buffs and light wargamers, but we weren't able to get past 2-3 turns.

Played Puerto Rico for the first time last weekend.

It seems like it could be the kind of game that has a lot of tension because of no one wanting to do the crafting to just get screwed when the next player takes the captain role! It also seems like theres a couple of different ways to go for getting VPs but not that many.

Hows the replayability of this?

It has always been worth a replay to me, but I haven't optimized my strategy for the game.

To get around that tension, you gotta get a good cash crop like coffee or even tobacco going early and then use that cash to get additional buildings for shipping so you can either store goods and ship off-schedule from everyone else or get your own ship so you don't have to worry about them filling up. Alternatively, you can rush for corn and indigo to maximize your VPs early and hopefully no one catches up to you.

CivCube said:

Terra Mystica - Hmm...I was somewhat underwhelmed after hearing so much praise. Sure, the Catan-like blockage with buildings and terraforming is sorta cool, but there wasn't much else going on. The power and cult mechanics don't really add a lot to what boils down to "do I build this building or that building". It's not something I would mind playing, but for a box with so many components, I would have expected a bit more going on under the hood.

Click to expand...

I played a game of this and enjoyed it. And we were only two players too and that's not an ideal number of players.

I also enjoyed the fact that the game board and components don't have words on them and I don't need to have copies in different languages for people who know different languages around me.

Went halfway through a learning game of Merchants & Marauders yesterday. This will be fun to play only if all four players are present and everyone goes fast with their turns. It's sitting on this weird fence between "too easy" and "too fiddly" to work otherwise. If it does work, though, prepare for a silly afternoon of "STASH ME GOLD, ARRR!!!" and "SHIVER ME TIMBERS, I ROLLED MORE SUCCESSES THAN YE!"

Anyone make a 10x10 list for 2015? You have to play 10 games in your group's collection 10 times. Here's my list:

- Agricola - I do like this, I really do. I just need people who want to play older games.
- Archipelago - This has had a decent result with the group, it just needs more time.
- Dead of Winter - HUGE hit with one story-oriented group, so-so with the Euro group.
- Tales of the Arabian Nights - Alas, it might just be my brother and me for this one.
- Power Grid - Another older one that wants to be played.
- Netrunner - And this is the part where I realize I have an income, so I can buy the rest of the expansions...uh oh.
- Tigris & Euphrates - This game is pure awesome. It's just sitting there for now.
- Quantum - This will get the plays racked up. Pretty popular with the Euro group as a filler game.
- Race for the Galaxy - Still need to wrap my head around this one. I feel like I'm missing so much.
- Tzolkin: The Mayan Calendar - Good stuff. Head-hurting stuff.

If you pull that off, you'll be playing one game twice a week, every week (on average).

If I went with my five favourite owned games, I'd say Sylla, 7 Wonders, Carcassonne, Alhambra and Lords of Waterdeep, though I really want to get in at least a couple of games of Talisman (4th Edition) this year.

Yeah, if I can get five games scratched off that list, I'll be happy. Some of them like Quantum or Carcassonne on your list are pretty quick games. Well, Carcassonne without expansions, anyway...

With the expansions, it can easily run to 120 tiles per game, which is easily over an hour per game, plus thinking time.

Still one of the shorter games.
mmhh...could be possible to play every second week or so, on average 2 games, so that's max 40 sessions. -> not going to work with 10x10 ^^.
But yeah, need to play more. PowerGrid and Tigris & Euphrates are also sitting here, have only played them once. Not counting that I have 2 unplayed games and 1 unplayed 7 wonders expansion.
And I always like to buy more stuff .

I had another two weeks of heavy board gaming over the winter break. A little Power Grid, Catan + Expansions, St. Petersburg, the staples.

I bought 7 Wonders for the family and it was a big hit. I also learned several new games, prominent among them Temporum, which is a quick and fun time-travel game.