What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

I played with the family gamers this weekend, and I got out Machi Koro. I won one, and my brother won one. That makes four plays of Machi Koro for me. I like it - it's kind of a lightweight build-your-victory-engine sort of dice game that doesn't take 2 hours like Kingsburg. You can get whipsawed pretty hard by the dice, but hey, it's dice. I'm not sure how the rest of the family feels about it, so it might end up being moved over to the coworker game pile.

When I picture the coworker pile:

I played FFG's Civilization before Clash of Cultures, and have the same perspective on the victory conditions as Gary Sax. If you dig FFG Civ though the expansions are really good.

I've never played the original Civilization but I've played a good bit of Advanced Civ. From my recollection focusing into one color of cards is a good general idea in Advanced Civ as well. I only ever diversified much if there was a card out there that would net me some immediate benefit or protection and the other players have left enough room for me to do so. The thing that forces diversification is getting the Calamities into the hand of people who can't defend against them. That'll teach you to not always put all your eggs in one basket Advancement-wise. I haven't played my MegaCiv yet though so I don't know if that's still valid.

I got my kickstarter copy of Catacombs out and tried my first game solo. It's a cool game but on first glance impossibly difficult for the heroes. I can see why the previous version was some kind of generically grim artwork given the challenge of even the easiest boss enemies. I think it would be a little different if my flicking improved.

The baseline gameplay is shockingly simple, though, even with what at first looks like a mountain of chrome on it. I think having the kickstarter expansions is actually quite nice, it's great having more monster and hero variety.

Gary Sax wrote: I got my kickstarter copy of Catacombs out and tried my first game solo. It's a cool game but on first glance impossibly difficult for the heroes. I can see why the previous version was some kind of generically grim artwork given the challenge of even the easiest boss enemies. I think it would be a little different if my flicking improved.

It is way too hard for the heroes at first. Don't play with any poison monsters and consider handicapping them with additional gold at the beginning. Also, don't pick a lot of monsters with synergy in the rooms that allow you to pick...

My friend brought over his Kickstarter edition of Mercs: Recon. I was so close to buying in on this one myself, and I'm SUPER glad I didn't do it. Not only for the reason that he DID, but after one play I'm pretty lukewarm on it. You've got your standard co-op min-maxing going on, combined with some Space Hulk blip-style enemy movement. When you get to a room you need to clear, you shift over to a side board for a breach & clear. Which sounds cooler than it actually is.

Component quality is average. Some of the icons get lost in the board artwork. Speaking of the board, you build it inside a frame, much like Earth Reborn, but with bigger pieces so it doesn't take 10 years.

I'm willing to try it again, but I'm not crazy about this one.

Played a game of Argent 2 player with my wife. Lost 6-6 influence tiebreak. No influence on the board, so when she got control of those spaces early I was always going to trail. Game keeps getting better IMHO, even when it's played more passive aggressively than aggressively.

For some reason I got FAB: Sicily out because I had a strange urge to play the series. Started soloing the campaign game. What a great wargame series.

Had a really good time this evening. I like boardgaming, even some of it solo, way better than staring at the TV or a laptop all night.

But the laptop has b00bies!!!

Played Epic last night with two other MtG veterans. We did a very basic draft beforehand. It was a blast, with a lot of reversals of fortune, trick moves, and a slugfest for the win. There really is something here.

Also two games of The Grizzled, the second of which we actually won. A lot depends on if you just get screwed by the cards, but that fits well with the rest of the game, really.

Last night I played War of the Ring for the second time. This time knowing all the rules and mechanics and such I stomped out the Shadow with a ring dunk at like 5 corruption and the game didn't take very long. He couldn't roll a 6 on the hunt dice to save his life allowing me to plow to Mordor with almost the full fellowship and like only 3 corruption. Seeing how well that was going I just stacked cards that would help with the final path and was VERY well prepared, it also meant that Shadow crushed Gondor with little resistance. However any further military campaign looked to take too much time to effect the outcome. The game is definitely affected greatly by hot/cold dice it seems and in this play a little more of strategy showed up from knowing the cards better, however the bulk seems to still be tactical in relation to the action dice you roll. Now I need to give the Shadow a play or two.

A third player popped in and I taught them both Clash of Cultures. I realized when teaching this, just like when teaching Dune, I lose focus on what I am doing myself and tend to play horrible... I was last. I love the expansion stuff, but think it may not be best for new players. While the actual Civs I think help connect new players by giving them some historical reference and a vague idea of some advances to pursue, the additions of elephants, cavalry, the new city growth buildings, and pirates add enough complications to make it a bit tougher on the new players. I went strong military way too early hoping to show them that side of the game and combat mechanics. My very poor performance reinforces my idea that its best to build strong economically/culturally then switch to military when needed for defense or most advantages in the mid or late game. They both were down to play a second time which should be more fun for all with a grasp of the rules now shared.

The hot/cold dice thing was an issue in WotR for me too. I think with more experience it would be less of an issue, but it always aggravated me that a game of such grand scale found a way to just not feel that way sometimes.

I have the same issue with teaching games. I'm more focused that everyone else is having a good time and getting the hang of things that I'm barely competitive.

Played a solo game of scenario 2 of Shadows Over Normandie yesterday; the Allies got decimated and didn't even accomplish a single objective. I might actually get to play it tonight against a real opponent, but first we are playtesting my own design, so we may run out of time.

The third one is where it starts to get really good...kind of a WW2 tactical dungeon craw.

Played another 2 player game of Argent this evening. It has been a good week for gaming!

Played the first 2 player game of my latest version of City of Lycans tonight. The werewolves completely decimated the wererats. They definitely need nerfed a bit. I'm also going to shorten the game up a bit. Best compliment I got was "that was worth the 4 hours." That means a lot.