The Board Game Thread

[Daft]

So I don't get Ticket to Ride. I've only played it twice and I realised Europe is a death trap full of inadequately short lines to waste time on. I fucking hate it...kind of.

 

...Okay, I'm just bitter.

 

Anyway, anyone else play boardgames regularly?

 

I often play Catan, FLUXX (I'm including card games), Battlestar Galactica and Pandemic.

 

Anyone else a regular boardgamer?

[Goafer]

A friend of mine and her boyfriend are obsessed with them to the point that they go to board game fairs. I'd probably enjoy board games more if the boyfriend wasn't like rainman when it comes to them (I'm talking actual shorts with socks type guy). They're aways really competitive and almost always win. No fun whatsoever.

 

Although if we're counting card games here, Cards Against Humanity and Magic: The Gathering are rad as fuck.

[Rummy]

I'm a tabletopper, as not all of them have boards. Used to regular play Dominion(self contained card deck builder) a LOT, others I've played are Ticket to Ride, Catan(haven't for ages), Pandemic, Cards Against Humanity, Cranium, Carcassonne, 7 wonders, Galaxy Trucker, Coup(everyone loves it), Skull and Roses, The Resistance(sorta mafia like), Munchkin, Gloom, Fluxx, just two days ago played Dobble for the first time, and probably some others still that don't jump to mind. Don't own them all myself, so limits when I actually get to play some.

Edited June 15, 2014 by Rummy

[Shorty]

Coup is ace, it's like The Resistance meets Cheat.

 

Anyone ever beaten Shadows Over Camelot?

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

Huge fan of tabletop games. Really got into them after binge-watching Wil Wheaton's webseries TableTop. We meet once in a while at my dorm to play. Favourites are Munchkin (we have about 5 sets), Catan, Dominion, The Resistance: Avalon and recently Small World (in a German edition, which makes everything better). I'd love to try Pandemic at some point.

[EEVILMURRAY]

I go to a Monday night gamers thing every week-ish at a local pub where we play various games and get drunk whilst we're at it.

 

I myself have - Zombie Fluxx, Oz Fluxx, Munchkin Deluxe, Pathfinder Munchkin, Elder Sign, Tsuro, Dominion, Cards Against Humanity, Super Dungeon Explore

[Sheikah]

I've always liked playing Munckin. Easy to play and bags of fun.

[EEVILMURRAY]

It's good until everyone gets to level 8-9, then the backstabbing begins and it can take awhile.

 

Other games I've played: Pathfinder, Space Team Cadet (or something like that), Castle Panic, Mansions of Madness, Last Night on Earth, Invaders from Outer Space (Same as Last Night but martians instead of Zombies), Hero Quest, Dreadfleet, Bang, Sopio, We Haven't Even Playtested This,

 

Also have Karaokards.

[Dog-amoto]

Cough! http://www.n-europe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32941&highlight=board+games

 

Cough! http://www.n-europe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27847&highlight=board+games

 

Cough! http://www.n-europe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20109&highlight=board+games

 

[Cube]

They're all quite old, so a new thread is fine.

 

Amusingly, one of the last posts there is me talking about The Firefly Game.

 

I want that, but it's very unlikely that I'll ever play it.

 

Well, I actually have played it. The main problem is finishing it as it takes ages. It's a lot of fun but can be a mess at times - the rules are well thought out from a in-universe perspective, but aren't always well explained.

 

Anyway, since the last thread I ended up watching all of Wil Wheaton's TableTop (side note: don't even try his new SyFy show, it's one of the worst things I've witnessed) and on TableTop Day this April I used their handy map to find a group near me. I enjoyed it a lot, and I don't think there's single game so far that I haven't enjoyed. Here's some quick thoughts on what I've played (or what I remember, anyway)

 

- Ticket to Ride: Europe. At first I was worried after seeing how similar the colours were (I'm partially colourblind), but the designers were thoughtful enough to put symbols on them. It wasn't as hard as I was expecting it to be to complete routes, either.

 

- Pandemic. Lots of strategy and forward-thinking involved in this. After other players passing cards to me and moving me, I was able to Research Lab on the very last go and create the final cure (we initially thought we had lost, but checking the rules revealed that you don't have to clear the board).

 

- Tokaido. I've played this a few times and it's a surprisingly deep games in terms of planning on what you want at the start and towards the end you need to think about what everyone else has (everyone has their points and cards visible) and then figuring out the best way to maximise your points while blocking others from getting points.

 

- Smash Up!. Played this one a few times. Crazy and a lot of fun. The first time round I had Steampunk Zombies while the second time it was Alien Plants - I found the Steampunk Zombie combination to be much more successful.

 

- King of Tokyo. This seems to be the go-to game for when a quick one is needed at the end of the day or while waiting for another group to finish before playing a larger game together. I seem to be pretty successful at this.

 

- The Resistance: Avalon. We played with Merlin and The Assassin. I was pretty worried as I'm not exactly a great talker. The first round I was evil. We managed to win on the last round and were also able to guess Merlin (on the final round, he picked all good players which was luckily vetoed). The second game, I was Merlin. We managed to win that, and they didn't guess that I was Merlin (actually, one of the evil people said that he somehow thought that I was evil, even though he knew who was evil). Must be my Mafia skills.

 

- Smallworld. Choosing when to abandon your army at the right time is interesting. I started off with Priestesses so I was able to spread them out and create a tower netting me a healthy amount of points each term. In the end, it wasn't quite enough to win.

 

- Forbidden Desert. The sequel to a game called Forbidden Island. We started off well, but it eventually turned into a game of prolonging our deaths while we didn't get any closer to the goal.

 

- Carcassonne. Probably my least favourite so far, but I think I need to play it a few more times to get the hang of it.

 

- Settlers of Catan. I got absolutely trounced at this. I constantly had trouble getting materials, so I ended up focusing on the development cards. I did end up with the largest army.

 

- Star Fluxx. This is one I have my self. Always crazy and a ton of fun.

 

- Kingdom Builder. I screwed myself over on the very first turn as I picked a location in a varied area. If you can place new tokens next you ones you have on the board, you have to go there (while you can pick wherever on the board if you can't). This meant that I could never choose where to place my tokens.

 

- Agricola. Surprisingly tough, yet it feels really well balanced by the end. The object of the game is to build a farm - you get better points for more of one item (lots of cattle means lots of points), but you also lose point if you don't have certain stuff. So you have to build a varied farm while having to feed your family. I was one point away from the winner.

 

Those are the main ones I remember. I've played a few more. but can't quite remember at the moment.

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

Oh, yeah, we also played a couple of games of Hero Quest a while back. Don't know why that fizzled out.

 

I'm also in an RPG group playing a home-made campaign in Pathfinder. We're hilariously noobish at times, but it's amazing fun, and we're rather invested.

[Shorty]

It's good until everyone gets to level 8-9, then the backstabbing begins and it can take awhile.

 

This pretty much kills the game for me, it's the Mario Kart finish of board games because the person in first gets hammered at the last minute, and nobody had anything left to stop the person in second place from stealing the finish.

[jayseven]

I got forbidden island and forbidden desert (as mentioned in previous threads, I'm sure). They're really good as 2-player games, and I was looking for some time-passers for me and my girlfriend. They're not overly complex and don't reek of nerdism.

 

I'm friends with a few guys who spend all their free time at a board games shop, but they're more into tabletop war games and I frankly lose interest in any game after an hour or two. They're also masters of tactics and I always feel an utter noob. The Forbidden games are the kind of easy-going intro games, but Cards Against Humanity! is a crowd pleaser, even with folk who know nothing other than Monopoly, and who think that name-dropping Frustration is a sign that they're clued up with the board game lingo.

 

Cube's list is a pretty comprehensive one of games I've played/heard of. I love pandemic (even though it's fairly roguelike!) and smallworld, but anything over 2-3 hours of gameplay and I just really get bored.

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

I recently bought the Catan app for Android and have become fairly addicted.

[Rummy]

I recently bought the Catan app for Android and have become fairly addicted.

 

I didn't even know this was a thing. I'm getting proper hankerings for Catan, was meant to have a 6 man recently but it fell through, really hoping for a reschedule soon! As good as e-versions are, there's nothing quite like all being around a table, especially in a game like Catan - tends to get super political lol.

 

Coup is ace, it's like The Resistance meets Cheat.

 

That's an excellent description, and it's good since you can play with less than 5 people. One criticism a couple folks who played it mentioned though is that it's all on all, every man for himself and a team aspect could make it interesting. Then The_Aribitor told me there was actually an expansion of sorts(not sure if official or unofficial) that gives a whole new element to it by introducing factions - will try to find it and link it for you. I've yet to play it myself as I missed out on the game when folks were playing to sort out some other stuff - but the people playing said it made it rather a different game, in a good way.

[Cubechris]

You guys seen this? Looks neat —*https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1618405531/game-of-phones

[Daft]

Played the Cities & Knights expansion for Catan yesterday. Fuck it's fun! It almost feels like an RPG. I came second because I really fluffed my settlement placement at the beginning, I think I was a little unlucky too with the dice rolls.

 

 

The city development stuff is great. Can't wait to give it another go now I know what I'm doing.

[The Bard]

I've got a set of Metal Gear Risk which I really really love because who doesn't love risk, and who doesn't love the ability of Metal Gear to confuse and complicate the most simple concepts?

 

A friend has invited me to come over and play Catan in a week or so. A little intimidated, since I've never really played board games seriously. I really want to get into them though because the time I've spend with MGR and Cards Against Humanity has been great for a social gaming experience.

[EEVILMURRAY]

Settlers of Catan always has me feeling... Urrm. I haven't played it and that's why. I know people rave about it and it's won awards and stuff. It's just that I'm going to be so shallow and go on aesthetics that it doesn't look that good*.

 

I know I'm going to get around to playing it at some point in the future, but I just keep looking at it and wondering how something which looks bland can keep my attention. I fall to this in other board games too, which I know is depriving me of some good times. If someone had it at our gaming nights and invited me to play, I'd give it a go. But currently I don't feel like going out of my way.

 

 

Same can be said for Castle Panic (which I've played) and Elder Sign, with all it's lil bits (which I own).

[Jim]

I'd recommend that you both give Catan a go. There's plenty of places you can try it out online too It's a great game in that it's simple enough to pick up and play, but just complex enough to have you regretting everything you did, and you'll definitely fix it next time... :P Games only take an hour or less once everyone knows how to play, which is always good.

 

Spent a bit of time over the weekend playing Tzolk'in - http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/126163/tzolk-mayan-calendar

 

Pretty interesting, lots of different strategies and just enough possibility of screwing your friends over to make it enjoyable. Games take a while though =/

 

Other favourites of mine are Munchkin, Agricola, Ticket to ride, Carcassonne, Smallworld, Risk, ehh.. I'll try anything :P

[Cube]

Also, with Catan, you can ask "does anyone have wood for sheep?".

[Daft]

Catan is the shit (but I know what you mean because that's what I think of Carcassone). It's such a well balanced game and the expansions all put different spin on the main game, so you can basically tailor Catan to whatever mood your in; exploration, fighting, trading, town building.

 

Also, it's one of those games where the mechanics don't get in the way of much deeper strategy. It's kind of like Risk crossed with chess.

[Jim]

Been playing a lot of Catan lately on playcatan.com. I'm a big fan of the game, the more I play the more I realise that it's hard to recover from poor starting locations even having one of your starting roads blocked is a massive pain in the arse

[Rummy]

@Cube I know you mentioned it whilst we were chatting during Splatoon last night so thought I'd ask about Ticket to Ride - one possible criticism I've seen levelled at it is that if you play it like lots you can get to a point of learning the routes and eventually knowing what others are up to thus killing it a bit - have you had that at all? I probably only play it once or twice a year if that so can't really judge it myself.

 

Anyhow what also came up is that a mate started doing a mostly regular weekly table top(I try to get in once a month or so) and I've played some different games since my last post. Cube mentioned King of Tokyo which I've quite enjoyed for the few times I've played it, though mostly only in 2 player(once or twice with 3). Our tabletoppers have changed a bit and my mate's cousins are getting involved bringing us some broader options too.

 

I've also since managed to have one go on Forbidden Island and witnessed some playing of the Pandemic expansion In the Lab? which looked quite interested but sadly the crew weren't up for another game of it so soon after.

 

One time I only went round for 'just one game' - but it turned out to take a few hours as my mate decided to bust out the hench Carcassonne box with literally like every expansion in it - was fun being new but dragged a bit(of course I had expected to be done sooner). He's also got a copy of Carcassonne:Gold Rush which seems to be the same basic concept in a different setting but mixing up a couple of the basics that made it feel a little more accessible to newbies possibly.

 

Has anyone played Sheriff of Nottingham or Love Letter? Another two I got introduced to. Love letter's a very simple game and another quick 'in between' sort of dealie or when you're feeling a wind-down, and Sheriff's got an interesting element of interaction/potentially buggering folks over but without too much pressure in it. I personally haven't bought anything for a while(hard not to buy games you like, but then it's no use us all having the same) but I'm looking forward to both kickstarter projects Exploding Kittens finally arriving when its done in the next few months and I've got another one called Posthuman that I backed sheerly on a mate's whim(but he had no money). I didn't look into it at the time but it looks like it could be all right when it arrives.

 

(ps @dazzybee I know you were there too, this could be a good place for inspiration if you were looking to get started!)

[Cube]

@Cube I know you mentioned it whilst we were chatting during Splatoon last night so thought I'd ask about Ticket to Ride - one possible criticism I've seen levelled at it is that if you play it like lots you can get to a point of learning the routes and eventually knowing what others are up to thus killing it a bit - have you had that at all? I probably only play it once or twice a year if that so can't really judge it myself.

 

The main routes are definitely pretty obvious, not so much the smaller ones (there are plenty of those). Although I play with my siblings/nephew, so we don't play aggressively (i.e. purposefully blocking people).