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Thread: Board Games!

  1. - Top - End - #91
    Ettin in the Playground
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    I am so very tempted, btw, to go in on this. It looks amazing and a great value.

    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...1429?ref=users

    I just don't know if I can justify $60 for it.

  2. - Top - End - #92
    Ettin in the Playground
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    Has anyone played the Honorverse-based Saganami Island Tactical Simulator? It looks interesting, and I'm considering buying it if I see it on Ebay or in a local store again (the publisher's store seems to be down, and I don't know when or if it will be up again), but the high price makes me wary.

  3. - Top - End - #93
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kerrin View Post
    Any suggestions folks have for good card games?

    We don't really enjoy deck building games or collectible card games so those would pretty much be out. We had a blast playing the heck out of Sentinels of the Multiverse this summer and it's still one of our more favorite recent games.

    Any suggestions for other great card games?
    So, is there something specific you don't like about CCGs? Because if it's just the "have to get random cards to beat everyone else" element, some of Fantasy Flight's LCGs might be worth looking into, most notably Lord of the Rings, which is a pure cooperative game. The decks are customizable, and there's expansion packs of varying sizes, but you can play the game with just the core decks. (On the other hand, if you don't enjoy the deckbuilding element period, they won't be a good pick for you.)

    I think I mentioned Boss Monster earlier; it's a great bit of fun where you lure adventurers through a dungeon to their doom for points.

    Coup doesn't have a lot of cards, but it's a very fun bluffing/deduction/power-combination game. You have roles on cards, and each role has a different power. You have to figure out how to tactically combine powers...because you can claim to have any role. Figuring out what to bluff about and when is an intense part of the game, especially at 3-4 players.

    Love Letter is a blazingly-fast card game where your hand is one card. You draw, and you play one of the cards. When the dust settles, one person is on top. Repeat for Round 2. And so on.

    Tichu is a classic trick-taking game that uses partners. Lots of strategy (as with all classic games), but it requires a lot of player parity/knowledge.

    Battle Line is a neat head-to-head game where you're trying to form three-card sets at various points in your army's battle lines. If you outrank your opponent's set in three adjacent spots (or in the majority of spots), you win.

    Hanabi is a clever co-op game that works by restricting the amount of information you can know. You get to see everyone else's cards, but clues are a resource, and they can only tell you which cards in your hand are a certain color or a certain value. You play blindly.

    I haven't played Koi Pond yet (I intend to, as soon as I can), but it's got a very brilliant (and slightly mentally funky) bit of card-flow gameplay. You have a hand of cards, and you play cards in front of you (and discard other cards into a personal discard pile). At the end of a round, you compare the points in your hand with the points in front of you; score the lower value. Everyone's discard piles then empty into the center of the table, where they can be drawn from (as well as from the deck). You then begin another round.
    Last edited by CarpeGuitarrem; 2014-02-04 at 06:20 PM.
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  4. - Top - End - #94
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    Quote Originally Posted by CarpeGuitarrem View Post
    Battle Line is a neat head-to-head game where you're trying to form three-card sets at various points in your army's battle lines. If you outrank your opponent's set in three adjacent spots (or in the majority of spots), you win.
    I like Battleline. It's like game by proof.
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    Down like a dog on the highway,
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  5. - Top - End - #95
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    Quote Originally Posted by CarpeGuitarrem View Post
    So, is there something specific you don't like about CCGs? Because if it's just the "have to get random cards to beat everyone else" element, some of Fantasy Flight's LCGs might be worth looking into, most notably Lord of the Rings, which is a pure cooperative game. The decks are customizable, and there's expansion packs of varying sizes, but you can play the game with just the core decks. (On the other hand, if you don't enjoy the deckbuilding element period, they won't be a good pick for you.)

    I think I mentioned Boss Monster...

    Coup...

    Love Letter...

    Tichu...

    Battle Line...

    Hanabi...

    I haven't played Koi Pond yet...
    Yes, the CCGs turn me off because I like to know what I'm purchasing. LCGs seem better on that point. Deck building doesn't really interest me - don't get me wrong, back in the day I spent many hours building vehicles for Car Wars, characters for Champions/HERO, armies for Warhammer Fantasy Battles, etc. I just don't have the time or interest to do that anymore.

    I'll check out some of the card games you mentioned. Boss Monster may be interesting. I read about Love Letter but haven't played it, but it sounded kind of simple. Is a single card interesting?

    Some of the card games we have include Sentinels of the Multiverse, Munchkin, Killer Bunnies, and older ones like Uno, Flinch, Mille Bournes.

    Thanks for the suggestions, I'll check 'em out.
    Frolic and dance for joy often.
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  6. - Top - End - #96
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kerrin View Post
    Yes, the CCGs turn me off because I like to know what I'm purchasing. LCGs seem better on that point. Deck building doesn't really interest me - don't get me wrong, back in the day I spent many hours building vehicles for Car Wars, characters for Champions/HERO, armies for Warhammer Fantasy Battles, etc. I just don't have the time or interest to do that anymore.

    I'll check out some of the card games you mentioned. Boss Monster may be interesting. I read about Love Letter but haven't played it, but it sounded kind of simple. Is a single card interesting?

    Some of the card games we have include Sentinels of the Multiverse, Munchkin, Killer Bunnies, and older ones like Uno, Flinch, Mille Bournes.

    Thanks for the suggestions, I'll check 'em out.
    I'll also throw in a recommendation for Hanabi. It's a great little logic game to play when you just want something light to kill a bit of time.

    There's also 5 Crowns. It takes a lot longer than Hanabi (you play through 13 hands), but it's surprisingly addictive.
    Last edited by Cristo Meyers; 2014-02-04 at 09:49 PM.

  7. - Top - End - #97
    Ettin in the Playground
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    Couldn't you just get two decks of cards and play Canasta?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gnoman View Post
    Couldn't you just get two decks of cards and play Canasta?
    Slightly different. There are no 2s in 5 Crowns and 5 suits.

    Not sure if that makes a big difference, not very familiar with Canasta.

    #edit: also, in Crowns the hand size increases by 1 every round, starting with 3 and ending with 13. In the first hand, 3s are wild. The last, Kings. Hence the tagline: "the game isn't over until the Kings go wild!"

    Also, just realized that's 11 hands, not 13...
    Last edited by Cristo Meyers; 2014-02-04 at 10:16 PM.

  9. - Top - End - #99
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kerrin View Post
    Yes, the CCGs turn me off because I like to know what I'm purchasing. LCGs seem better on that point. Deck building doesn't really interest me - don't get me wrong, back in the day I spent many hours building vehicles for Car Wars, characters for Champions/HERO, armies for Warhammer Fantasy Battles, etc. I just don't have the time or interest to do that anymore.
    Totally sensible.
    I'll check out some of the card games you mentioned. Boss Monster may be interesting. I read about Love Letter but haven't played it, but it sounded kind of simple. Is a single card interesting?
    Love Letter is definitely simple--I'd class it as a filler game (and for $12 or so, not a bad buy!). You can play a round, once everyone knows how to play, in under a minute. You play until someone wins four rounds. Or you just keep playing for the heck of it, not keeping score. Repeat. (It's actually fairly replayable, until you've played it 20 times in a row. )

    Each card has a unique ability, and those abilities interact with one another in various ways. As cards get discarded, you start to figure out what cards other players might have, and you can use your cards to take action against them. Because you always choose one of two cards on your turn, decisions are simple. At the same time, they're not uninteresting decisions.

    It's a straightforward game with just enough depth to be interesting, which is perfect for the length, IMO. (Coup is like that, but longer and deeper.)
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  10. - Top - End - #100
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    Quote Originally Posted by Joran View Post
    I actually have a couple issues with Puerto Rico.

    1) It's not particularly fun with a newbie. Trying to mix together a group of people who've played a few games and someone who's new is going to end with all sub-optimal play. I've joked with my friends that the best strategy is to sit next to the worst player; he's bound to make a mistake and give that guy a major advantage. A poor player drastically alters the balance in the game.

    2) A lot of the fun was destroyed when we all started going to BGG to get optimal strategies. Some people didn't like being told what the "right" way to play was.
    While item 2) isn't a problem for us generally, item 1) I am in total agreement with. A newbie screwing up and screwing themselves in a game is fine. But a newbie screwing up and giving a HUGE advantage to the person sitting right after them in turn order is very frustrating for the rest of the players.

  11. - Top - End - #101
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kerrin View Post
    Any suggestions folks have for good card games?

    We don't really enjoy deck building games or collectible card games so those would pretty much be out. We had a blast playing the heck out of Sentinels of the Multiverse this summer and it's still one of our more favorite recent games.

    Any suggestions for other great card games?
    Fluxx is fun to play, and really easy to get into. A game can last 2 minutes, or it can last an hour and a half. And there are plenty of different versions of it to give a bit of variation of the same theme.


    I don't get to play as much board games as I'd want to, since the schedules of my friends are usually not in sync to set anything up.
    I just got the Firefly board game last week, and playtested it for the first time on Monday, and it looks a plays really interestingly.
    Will need some more play time to give it a thorough review, though.

    Personally, I enjoy playing all sorts of board games. Small World, Ticket to Ride, Nuclear War, Puerto Rico, Carcassonne, King of Tokyo, Smash Up, Ankh Morpork,... There are a lot of good games out there.

    I'm one of those people who play games because it's fun to play the games rather than always wanting to win. Of course I try to win when I play, but I don't let not winning ruin the game for me.
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  12. - Top - End - #102
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    Quote Originally Posted by Joran View Post
    1) It's not particularly fun with a newbie. Trying to mix together a group of people who've played a few games and someone who's new is going to end with all sub-optimal play. I've joked with my friends that the best strategy is to sit next to the worst player; he's bound to make a mistake and give that guy a major advantage. A poor player drastically alters the balance in the game.
    Interesting. I didn't see this issue at all - though the veteran players were all out of practice, and the newbies were all the sort to have lots of experience playing games more complex than Puerto Rico, so it might just have been that the skill gap simply wasn't there. That both newbies did well also suggests this - so I suppose it might be that we just didn't have any actual poor players.

    Quote Originally Posted by Kerrin View Post
    We had a blast playing the heck out of Sentinels of the Multiverse this summer and it's still one of our more favorite recent games.
    It really is a good game. Plus, the balance issues are actually non-issues due to it being cooperative, even if they can pack a nasty surprise occasionally. Taking a non-A team up against The Chairman in the Pike Industrial Plant was a mistake. A mistake that took two complete rounds to wipe the party, partially on account of horrendous luck involving the Villain deck bringing out a full set of Underbosses and minions, and the Environment deck killing them all and throwing damage around, and partly because the likes of Chrono Ranger are not up for that combination.

    Also, Absolute Zero is the best hero.d

    As for card games worth looking into - On the low complexity end, look into what Cheapass Games has. I haven't played Falling or whatever their space game was called, but they look interesting and everything else Cheapass makes is pretty good.
    Last edited by Knaight; 2014-02-05 at 11:49 AM.
    I would really like to see a game made by Obryn, Kurald Galain, and Knaight from these forums.

    I'm not joking one bit. I would buy the hell out of that.
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  13. - Top - End - #103
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    Quote Originally Posted by Knaight View Post
    It really is a good game. Plus, the balance issues are actually non-issues due to it being cooperative, even if they can pack a nasty surprise occasionally. Taking a non-A team up against The Chairman in the Pike Industrial Plant was a mistake. A mistake that took two complete rounds to wipe the party, partially on account of horrendous luck involving the Villain deck bringing out a full set of Underbosses and minions, and the Environment deck killing them all and throwing damage around, and partly because the likes of Chrono Ranger are not up for that combination.

    Also, Absolute Zero is the best hero.
    Iron Legacy is worse. The one time we went up against him I was wiped out on the first villain turn. Two heroes gone before we even got to act.

    There's supposed to be something new for Sentinels coming down the pipe relatively soon, though I can't remember what it was.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cristo Meyers View Post
    Iron Legacy is worse. The one time we went up against him I was wiped out on the first villain turn. Two heroes gone before we even got to act.

    There's supposed to be something new for Sentinels coming down the pipe relatively soon, though I can't remember what it was.
    Iron Legacy we've played once and were all set to get smeared but ended up beating him with only a little fuss. I think we benefitted by the order his cards came out. I'm expecting a much harder time the next time we play him.

    When we play we generally choose which heroes we want to play (aka what looks interesting today), then randomly pick a villain, and randomly pick an environment. So we never tune our hero choices to a given villain or environment.

    A couple of our most memorable fights were against Warlord Voss on the Mars Base and against The Dreamer in Silver Gulch.

    EDIT: To add, the new thing coming out for SotM is Vengeance
    Last edited by Kerrin; 2014-02-05 at 12:30 PM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by KuReshtin View Post
    Fluxx is fun to play, and really easy to get into. A game can last 2 minutes, or it can last an hour and a half. And there are plenty of different versions of it to give a bit of variation of the same theme.
    Ooo, yeah, we haven't tried Fluxx yet. I think we may have a deck around somewhere we got as a free extra along the line. We'll have to try it out. Thanks!
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    Quote Originally Posted by Knaight View Post
    Taking a non-A team up against The Chairman in the Pike Industrial Plant was a mistake. A mistake that took two complete rounds to wipe the party, partially on account of horrendous luck involving the Villain deck bringing out a full set of Underbosses and minions, and the Environment deck killing them all and throwing damage around, and partly because the likes of Chrono Ranger are not up for that combination.
    Heh, we've both beaten and been beaten by The Chairman.

    In one encounter we had with The Chairman we had Tempest and Visionary in the group of heroes. Visionary managed to pull early both copies of her card that allows her to play it on any target and decide if they get -1/+1 to damage they deal, -1/+1 to damage they take, or can change their damage type. (I think I'm recalling the card correctly). They were stackable so she dropped both on Tempest and gave him double +1 to damage he dealt. Tempest's attacks can often hit multiple targets so The Chairman kept getting his flunkies wiped out by Tempest every round.

    Go teamwork!
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  17. - Top - End - #107
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kerrin View Post
    Heh, we've both beaten and been beaten by The Chairman.

    In one encounter we had with The Chairman we had Tempest and Visionary in the group of heroes. Visionary managed to pull early both copies of her card that allows her to play it on any target and decide if they get -1/+1 to damage they deal, -1/+1 to damage they take, or can change their damage type. (I think I'm recalling the card correctly). They were stackable so she dropped both on Tempest and gave him double +1 to damage he dealt. Tempest's attacks can often hit multiple targets so The Chairman kept getting his flunkies wiped out by Tempest every round.
    We decided to take an A team to the Chairman for revenge after what happened to the previous team. It was glorious, and kind of one sided - I think the lowest anyone got HP wise was 9, with 16 the second lowest. Tachyon kept disabling attacks from The Operative, then with The Operative disabled we beat the heck out of the Underbosses with a bonus +2 to attack every round from Legacy. The last round involved some ludicrous damage drops (e.g. 42 damage from Absolute Zero).
    I would really like to see a game made by Obryn, Kurald Galain, and Knaight from these forums.

    I'm not joking one bit. I would buy the hell out of that.
    -- ChubbyRain

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    Cristo Meyers's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by Knaight View Post
    We decided to take an A team to the Chairman for revenge after what happened to the previous team. It was glorious, and kind of one sided - I think the lowest anyone got HP wise was 9, with 16 the second lowest. Tachyon kept disabling attacks from The Operative, then with The Operative disabled we beat the heck out of the Underbosses with a bonus +2 to attack every round from Legacy. The last round involved some ludicrous damage drops (e.g. 42 damage from Absolute Zero).
    Sounds like what happened one time when we took on the Chairman. It turned into a huge curbstomp that ended with us knocking the Chairman out in like 3 hits. We were doing ludicrous damage just like you were.

    The best battle I've had was against Warlord Voss. It was only three of us, but we each took two heroes so it evened out pretty nicely. We came within a hair's breadth of losing when he summoned enough reinforcements to trigger his win condition, but because of the way turn order works we were able to squeak by.

    ...then he just started pummelling all of us until it came down to him getting unloaded on the totally-not-the-Punisher (can't remember her name...) Shotguns solve everything, apparently, even intergalactic warlords!

    I've also had one game end where the kraken just decided to grab the villain and make off with her. "Attacks the target with the lowest HP" indeed.

  19. - Top - End - #109
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cristo Meyers View Post
    I've also had one game end where the kraken just decided to grab the villain and make off with her. "Attacks the target with the lowest HP" indeed.
    That's awesome!
    Frolic and dance for joy often.
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    I grew up on the classic boardgames and those friends of mine who owned these more complex games have all moved off, so I don't have much experience with most of what I see here.

    I played Hero Quest once, though we didn't finish the adventure. There was this one game I played a few times where everyone is part of a Roman Senate and there are different ways to win, usually involving lots of political deal-making. Everyone can lose too if Rome fails to defeat an opponent during a war. Can't remember the game's name, but I'm sure lots of you know it.

    I played OotS once, had fun with that one.


    Quote Originally Posted by Joran View Post
    My favorite memory of Robo Rally was when my friend got confused, screwed up his operations order, and sent his robot off the board on turn 1.
    I never got to play Robo Rally, and I'm honestly worried about trying it. I had three friends who were roommate with each other and one of them owned the game. They never let me play because they swore the game was cursed. The last three times they played:
    • Friend 1 got dumped by his girlfriend though email.
    • Friend 2 got a phone call that his manager fired him and his team that night.
    • Friend 3 got a call that his grandmother died of a sudden heart attack.


    I even got confirmation on those events so... yeah. I never bothered try the game out.


    Quote Originally Posted by KuReshtin View Post
    Fluxx is fun to play, and really easy to get into.
    I played that one a couple of times. It's pretty fun, though I agree that time-per-game varies a LOT.
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  21. - Top - End - #111
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    Quote Originally Posted by DigoDragon View Post
    There was this one game I played a few times where everyone is part of a Roman Senate and there are different ways to win, usually involving lots of political deal-making. Everyone can lose too if Rome fails to defeat an opponent during a war. Can't remember the game's name, but I'm sure lots of you know it.
    That's actually a toughie. Ancient Rome is one of the most popular boardgame themes, in my experience--especially with eurogames. It's sorta like saying "I watched this movie where Bruce Willis was shooting people".

    By the by, one of the most fun games I've played in recent memory that I don't own yet? Space Cadets: Dice Duel. It's a real-time game where you have two competing teams of players trying to shoot one another; both teams control different stations on their respective warship, and, well, it's wonderful chaos.

    Engineering starts rolling dice to distribute power to various other stations. Once a station is powered up, they get to roll dice to try and get something according to their station. You have to coordinate to fly around the map, load up torpedoes, build up shields and defensive radar jamming, get target lock on the other ship, and then FIRE AWAY!

    Unfortunately, the other team is doing the same thing in real time.

    It's glorious.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Saph
    Unless everyone's been lying to me and the next bunch of episodes are The Great Divide II, The Great Divide III, Return to the Great Divide, and Bride of the Great Divide, in which case I hate you all and I'm never touching Avatar again.

  22. - Top - End - #112
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kerrin View Post
    Any suggestions folks have for good card games?

    We don't really enjoy deck building games or collectible card games so those would pretty much be out. We had a blast playing the heck out of Sentinels of the Multiverse this summer and it's still one of our more favorite recent games.

    Any suggestions for other great card games?
    What do you not like about them? The purchasing-more-cards or the putting-together-decks element? Because there are a lot of board/card games which simply have a single "set" and the strategy is either drafting cards (7 Wonders) or picking up cards to build decks (Ascention, Dominion). I'm a fan of card games myself, and while I haven't played the above yet, I do have several others that I've liked.

    I've been visiting a local game show since the beginning of the new year, and so I've had the chance to play a bunch of different games. Most I've liked, a few I didn't care for, most I'd like to try more than just once. However, there's still a lot more that I wanted to give a chance, so I haven't had the time. Yet.

    Once Upon A Time is a fun little card game that's been quite popular whenever it comes out. It's basically a storytelling card game, where the players collectively tell a story in turns with the intention of playing the cards in their hands as they come up in the story. The goal being, to play all your cards and play your Happily Ever After (conclusion) card. Play can be hectic, though, as mentioning a story element on someone else's card will allow them to steal the turn from you. It's easy to learn and easy to teach, so easy for the new people at the table to understand. TableTop has a playing of the game.

    Fluxx is anothe card game that's popular whenever it comes out. It's basically similar to most other card games, except that all the rules are on the cards, and the rules don't exist (including no victory conditions) until they cards are played. Much like Once Upon A Time, it's easy to teach and learn, and tends to be liked when it comes out. And TableTop did an episode on Fluxx as well.

    Quote Originally Posted by DigoDragon View Post
    I played that one a couple of times. It's pretty fun, though I agree that time-per-game varies a LOT.
    I've found that Fluxx games without Creepers (Monster Fluxx has none) tend to resolve a lot quicker than normal Fluxx games.


    Other games? Dixit is good, and plays very similar to most party games like Say Anything or Apples to Apples or Cards Against Humanity, where most of the game is being familiar with the other people at the table. Settlers of Catan is another one popular around here, but I find that a large amount of the game is determined by where you set your buildings at the beginning. Ticket to Ride is popular as well, and I liked it a bit better. Smash Up is another fun card game, where the game comes with eight "decks" and players combine two for the combined deck they'll use for the game. The Gnomes of Zavandor is an unusual one, not at all what I was expecting, and actually played rather well (although it was quite complex to set up and play). I've also had the chance to play Six and another with wood tiles and marbles (name forgotten), which is actually pretty good if you like two-player games like chess.
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  23. - Top - End - #113
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    Quote Originally Posted by DigoDragon View Post
    I played OotS once, had fun with that one.
    I'd love to give the OotS game a try. Maybe next time I can get to a UKitp meetup I can give it a shot, I think I saw someone with it last time.

    I've heard that it's a really long game though.


    I recently saw reviews for BattleCON: Devastation of Indines, and Kemet, and they both look pretty sweet.
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  24. - Top - End - #114
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    Quote Originally Posted by CarpeGuitarrem View Post
    Totally sensible.

    Love Letter is definitely simple--I'd class it as a filler game (and for $12 or so, not a bad buy!). You can play a round, once everyone knows how to play, in under a minute. You play until someone wins four rounds. Or you just keep playing for the heck of it, not keeping score. Repeat. (It's actually fairly replayable, until you've played it 20 times in a row. )

    Each card has a unique ability, and those abilities interact with one another in various ways. As cards get discarded, you start to figure out what cards other players might have, and you can use your cards to take action against them. Because you always choose one of two cards on your turn, decisions are simple. At the same time, they're not uninteresting decisions.

    It's a straightforward game with just enough depth to be interesting, which is perfect for the length, IMO. (Coup is like that, but longer and deeper.)
    I'll second the bolded part. It's been a popular game with each audience I've played it with, but I will give it one huge cavaet - play it with at least three players. At 2 players, it boils down to who has to discard the Baron first or who gets lucky with a Guard first.

    Important detail about the card-guessing left out above - at least one card is discarded face down each game.

    FLUXX - I'm going to second the complaint about the game lengthy varying wildly, too. I seem to be in the minority for not liking it however (it crosses the bridge into the land of Too Random for me).
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  25. - Top - End - #115
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheEmerged View Post
    FLUXX - I'm going to second the complaint about the game lengthy varying wildly, too. I seem to be in the minority for not liking it however (it crosses the bridge into the land of Too Random for me).
    I'm with you here. FLUXX is cool conceptually, but in practice it has always been unbelievably boring for me.
    I would really like to see a game made by Obryn, Kurald Galain, and Knaight from these forums.

    I'm not joking one bit. I would buy the hell out of that.
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  26. - Top - End - #116
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    Quote Originally Posted by Diego Havoc View Post
    I recently saw reviews for BattleCON: Devastation of Indines, and Kemet, and they both look pretty sweet.
    I will certainly vouch for Kemet! (I haven't been able to play Devastation of Indines.) Kemet is a hyper-aggressive (as in, you have to attack and advance to get victory points) game where you're trying to build up the best combo of powers possible. Also you can get a giant scorpion. The tech tree power combos are probably the best part, since you have to puzzle out what strong power combinations are...and get them before anyone else can.
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  27. - Top - End - #117
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    I'll second Kemet. It really encourages getting out and engaging instead of turtling. Plus the artwork and components are fantastic.
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  28. - Top - End - #118
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kerrin View Post
    Ooo, board games! Our collection has a few hundred in it....
    oh man I thought I had a lot, last count was about 80, but have added many since then.

  29. - Top - End - #119
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    Wrapped up my Self vs. Self run of War of the Ring tonight. The Free Peoples snatched an unlikely win from Sauron through military victory, when some careful engineering led to the destruction of Orthanc by the Ents, and its subsequent seizure by Boromir and the Rohirrim. A well timed use of Druidan forest teleported the bulk of Rohan's army into position behind the severely depleted army of orcs and Haradrim besieging Minas Tirith, and promptly annihilated them. Thus emboldened, the Captains of the West crossed Anduin and advanced towards Minas Morgul. Sauron promptly deposited three Nazgul and a load of orcs in Morgul Vale, secure in the knowledge that as soon as the action dice cooperated, he had sufficient forces in the vicinity to smash the combined might of Gondor and Rohan permanently. This was a feint however, and Gandalf swung south and assailed Umbar, which had only a token garrison and was stormed in the second attempt. That gave the Free Peoples four victory points, cinching the win.
    Blood-red were his spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,
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  30. - Top - End - #120
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kerrin View Post
    TI is a glorious, big, sprawling, thematic, space game. It does take some serious stamina though to get through a game. Our family can play in a reasonable amount of time and its still the longest game we play by a long ways.
    I always got a headache and felt my stamina drained after playing AGOT, but not with Twilight Imperium, eventhough the game might last longer than AGOT though.

    Quote Originally Posted by Kerrin View Post
    Any suggestions folks have for good card games?

    We don't really enjoy deck building games or collectible card games so those would pretty much be out. We had a blast playing the heck out of Sentinels of the Multiverse this summer and it's still one of our more favorite recent games.

    Any suggestions for other great card games?
    I'm the same with you. Currently, I have three card games. Munchkin, Anima Shadow of Omega, and Dungeoneer. I don't know if they're good enough to recommend, but I'll try to explain Anima and Dungeoneer to you (we don't really need to explain Munchkin anymore do we?)

    Dungeoneer is basically... a dungeon crawling game. You create a dungeon using cards that make dungeon rooms, then your character move on them, fighting monsters, and attempting quests (usually by finding specific room you need). The dungeon grows each turn because you build the dungeon using the cards until you run out of room cards. Every time you enter a room, you collect Glory Point and Peril Point. You use Glory Point to equip equipments or boons, and your opponent use your Peril point to send monsters against you or sabotage you .

    I actually find the concept of this game, really neat. Tracking the glory point and peril point is a chore though.

    Anima is... a jrpg card game? The illustrations are very JRPGish anyway. Basically, each player build a party, which gives you attack points, speed points, and special abilities. Then you move between area cards, attempting to do your quest, which need a specific area card. But of course, there are monster cards you need to fight, and your opponent will try to sabotage you.

    The concept is good enough, but my problem with this game is, the cards are full of tiny texts, which everyone need to read. So annoying. And a round in many player games will take quite a long time.

    I don't regret buying either of the game, but I don't know if they're good enough to wholeheartily recommend though.
    Last edited by Fri; 2014-02-06 at 08:14 AM.
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