What Board Game have you been playing? ARCHIVE

played the Battle of Blore Heath from Richard Borgs Blood and Roses. The last Borg game i played was Blackbeard, which whilst a fair solo game didn't really do much for me. This is good. Its part of the Men of Iron series and its surprisingly rules light. Quite abit of unimportant stuff is abstracted. Its pretty violent for a hex and counter, your men can really drop fast. The Lancastrians had a rather disastrous cavalry charge at the Yorkist lines. Its a neat game.

Next played a four player game of Republic of Rome. This was my second game. Rome sucumbed to the second punic war and a bunch of other wars. We probably could have beaten them, but we sent 2 leaders out from the same player with one legion and one fleet. The first time it was because he had 24 influence, the second, because it was funny. Two of the players wanted to do it a third time, but i downvoted it and he lost the war anyway. Awesome game, very fiddly but worth it.

Then we played a load of Tichu.

DukeofChutney wrote: We probably could have beaten them, but we sent 2 leaders out from the same player with one legion and one fleet.

A note, you cannot send anyone to fight a war if his forces don't match the strenght of the war. If you send him to fight a war of strenght ten, he needs at least ten legions.

(The Republic of Rome simply doesn't let you do anything the easy way. Everything must have a risk attached to it!)

I did not know this. It was entertaining giving him no hope though.

Yesterday I soloed a game of Crusoe, Scenario 2 for the first time...My carpenter died of exposure.

Today I played X-Wing for the first time in nine months or so. The first game I had Luke, Wedge and Ten Nub (Pilot Sill 8 B-Wing dude) all with Push the Limit. He had Fett, a PS2 Tie Advance with some missiles and two Ties one of which was Howl Runner. The first game was a slaughter, I just kept creeping up my trio firing first and using Focus and Target Locks on all the attacks. He conceded with Slave 1 down to one hull and an Academy Pilot left and me down just two shields total.

We then setup and played again with him fielding the same ships but a few different upgrades on Slave 1. I two two PS2 B-Wings, Hortan (the Y-Wing that allows you to move Target Locks) and the HWK where you can move Focus, but I forgot to take the Recon Specialist crew that gave you two Focus a turn. Being a bit rusty my setup was off and my first turn pointed my B-Wings in directions that I didn't want them to point. So between a bad opening move and a list that didn't do exactly what I hoped for I was off.

Both my B-Wings lost their shields a few turns in but he was never able to really finish them off. The Ion Cannons from the HWK and Y-Wing were causing some fun. Towards the end it came down to Slave 1 who was just down two shields against a B-Wing with no shields and an almost fresh Y-Wing. I really had no idea which direction the game was going to go until he flew Slave-1 into an asteroid which starting his downhill slide. The way the movements were going the B-Wing and Y-Wing were chasing Slave-1 and alternating who was in his rear arc so he never could focus on one to take it out. A few turns of chasing and Fett was sucking vacuum.

It really felt good to get some X-Wing in after such a long break. I finished the afternoon with Leaping Lemmings. I still can't decide exactly how I feel about the game. It feels like it should provide more fun an excitement than it does, not to say it doesn't but you'd think with a theme like jumping lemmings off of a cliff there'd be a bit more. I still really like the game though and was really happy to play that one again.

I didn't do much gaming on tabletop day, randomly played a game of Takenoko, which is what it is.

Yesterday, however, I met some people at the FLGS and got in a few good games. We started off with 4 player Robinson Crusoe, and played the first scenario due to all of them being new to the game. We did pretty well until we hit all 3 weather dice and succumbed to starvation.

Next we played 7 Wonders with both Cities and Leaders. I came in last, which I typically do, as this isn't really my game.

Finally, we ended with Glory to Rome, in which I almost won thanks to completing the Forum but lacking 1 Patron to finish the game. I always forget how excellent this game is until I convince myself to pull it off the shelf.

Three of us managed to play a couple of games last night. Both games were excellent, and I found myself surprised at how much I had to exercise my brain. I guess I'm out of practise!

First up was Steam with the Brussels Metro expansion. There was quite a bit of blocking on the tight map (the Brussels expansion has a rule that you can't build track unless it extends your existing track somehow, so no jumping around the map). I love the challenge of trying to thread track around or through things to connect with target cities. Really tight game.

Next was Tigris & Euphrates. The amorphous and fluid nature of the kingdoms and conflicts in this game was a nice counterpoint to Steam. My opponents are still new to the game and were struggling to wrap their minds around it, but they are sold. I'd love to get more plays in of this classic. We always play until the bag runs out, regardless of how many treasures are on the map, because otherwise I find the game ends too quickly and abruptly.

Hatchling wrote: Next was Tigris & Euphrates. The amorphous and fluid nature of the kingdoms and conflicts in this game was a nice counterpoint to Steam. My opponents are still new to the game and were struggling to wrap their minds around it, but they are sold. I'd love to get more plays in of this classic. We always play until the bag runs out, regardless of how many treasures are on the map, because otherwise I find the game ends too quickly and abruptly.

Playing through all the tiles is probably the best way to play T&E until everyone is reasonably experienced. Being able to end the game through treasures can be useful sometimes, but it's more meaningful with experience.

I got a chance to play the Nile 2P map a while ago and thought it was decent, but I still like T&E better with 3+.

Went to Coolstuff on Saturday for Tabletop day. I joined a game of Terra Mystica to start off the day. I really like that game. I thought I was doing well but ended up in 3rd at the end of the game as two players surprised me by tying my lead on two of the 4 cult tracks. It was a really close game as the leaders were all within 3 points of each other. I got bored and didn't play anything for a while but managed to get one of my friends to play a couple games of the store copy of Summoner Wars. I don't know why I don't play this game more, it's really good. After the raffle I invited 3 friends back to my apartment which was so much better an environment to play. We got in a game of Love Letter, Modern Art which I really suck at and Cyclades. Cyclades is another game I wish I played more of.

Sunday I went to some another friend's house and we played two new games to me that I liked. The first was Euphoria. That has such a cool theme and the mechanics are great too. I focused on getting stars on the markets early but didn't end up having enough cards or ways to get cards and have enough hand size to be able to get my remaining stars out fast enough. I ended with one star left to place while the player to my left finished it. Nice game, I think I would love to play again.

Finally we finished things off with A Study in Emerald which was new to all of us. We totally butchered several rules wrong and realized we should have ended the game several turns earlier when I blew up a revolutionist's starting agent. Unfortunately I did it with my starting agent which is also a no-no. By that point we just went with the mistakes we'd made and called it but we all want to play this again. It took me quite a while to wrap my head around how the game worked, but once I did I really got into the theme. I got the vampire card at one point and used it later on my own agent to make him immune from bombings. Then I turned another player's agent into a vampire. Another guy started spawning zombies late in the game and it would have been cool to see how that turned out. I think out of the two games, this one left me wanting to play again just a bit more.

Played two games of Dungeon yesterday, using the 8 variant character class cards that somebody posted on BGG. The cards make it easy to randomly select character class, and also give you a special ability that can be used at least once per game. When you use the ability, you flip the card over and it stays out of play until you roll a natural 12 (on 2d6) for an attack roll.

First game, my cleric (+templar, for a one-shot fireball) beat my friend's fighter (+duelist, for a one-shot re-roll in combat) easily. I poked around in the lower levels of the dungeon, especially 2nd level, and just steadily piled up the loot. My friend's fighter got into one of those nasty grudge situations, where the monster beats you once and happens to take your best piece of loot. He became obsessed with beating it until he lost everything. He finally won, but by then I was headed for the exit for the win.

Second game, his wizard (+necromancer, able to ignore one fight in a big chamber) beat me badly. He spent most of the game struggling with 4th and 5th level rooms and was damn near out of spells. That was bad, because spells take a long time to get back, at 1 spell per turn in the starting chamber. Meanwhile, my fighter (+lancer, with a one-shot ranged attack) was efficiently looting the 3rd and 4th level rooms on the other side of the map. Then I ran into a drow that I should have easily defeated with my +2 sword, only I missed on my attack. Then the drow got a lucky shot and killed me.

I came back with a rogue (+assassin, for a one-time ability to attack a previously revealed opponent as if attacking as a fighter). That was as good a combo as I could have hoped for, because the rogue would have almost a 50-50 shot at beating the drow on his first attack and then scoring a winning pile of loot. I hit a few 1st level rooms on the way in hopes of scoring a magic sword that would improve my odds, but came up empty-handed, and meanwhile that sneaky wizard-necromancer got over there quickly enough to fight the drow. On his second attack, he killed the drow and picked up my deceased fighter's large pile of loot. I scambled to hit a couple of 2nd and 3rd level rooms, in hopes that the wizard would be massively delayed by the secret door, but he waltzed through on the first try and won two turns later.

We had played Dungeon a few times before and dismissed it as too light to be interesting, but this time it really clicked. I suppose the character class variant cards helped a bit, but also the repeat plays allowed us to appreciate that the game had more balance than we realized. The balance isn't in the characters themselves, but in the layout of the map and the differences in the attack values on the cards. Previously, we thought that the wizard was fun and powerful, but now we understood that he is also maddeningly slow and prone to wasting spells. The rogue and cleric struggle to win their fights, but their rooms are more readily accessible, and the rogue has a much easier time moving about the map due to his ability with secret doors. The fighter has a decent shot at killing almost anything in the place through 4th level, and with a +2 magic sword, he even has a decent shot at the 6th level rooms.

I love Dungeon.

My all-time favorite session of Dungeon!, other than my very first which was in a hotel room in Hilton Head around 1981 with some friends and a copy of the game I bought at a toy store having absolutely no idea what it is (I was six), was when Will Kenyon and I sat down with Jarvis to play it. Jarvis had never played. Will and I just said "fuck it, he'll figure it out". We did not explain any rules to him whatsoever. He won the game.

Dungeon! is a perfect game. It is absolutely unpretentious. It does the exact same thing lots of dungeoncrawlers do but with virtually no mechanics. Move, flip a card, roll die and recieve reward or penalty. That's all! A couple of very minor embellishments like the spells and such. But its the kind of game where if you bitch about some part of its design, balance, luck or whatever...you're pretty much just sending up the red "I do not get this" flag.

I actually found a copy of that first version I played in an antique shop for $15, sealed. I had to buy it. Absolutely never parting with it, it was pretty much my first-ever hobby game.

I think I want to play this tonight, actually. Haven't brought out that reprint copy in a while.

It was my original hobby game, as well. My mother had no idea what she was starting when she bought it for my brother and I.

Michael Barnes wrote: My all-time favorite session of Dungeon!, other than my very my first which was in a hotel room in Hilton Head around 1981 with some friends and a copy of the game I bought at a toy store having absolutely no idea what it is (I was six)

This is exactly what I want my kids to experience and why I will no longer buy boardgames for them. Nor will I hem and haw and go look-up reviews on any game they want to spend their own money on. Whether it's some junk they buy at Target or elsewhere.

If they are going to get into this hobby it is going to be because they found their own path. Yes, we play some boardgames as a family, but I don't want their childhood to be an experience that was directed down from on high. Let them find their own games and have their own experience with friends.

I had considered getting that new catacombs reprint (with art that looks like Wind Waker or something...and is pretty cool), but have decided against it. IMO, that's the type of niche game that I want them to find on their own. They already have Dungeon!, Heroscape, Micro Mutants, and Nexus Ops. I may have already gone too far. If they are going to be 'gamers' in the nerdier sense it will because they have chosen that path themselves, not because I directed it at them.

I mainly play wargames anymore anyway and those boxes don't seem to draw their attention as much.

EDIT: Don't confuse this with being embarrassed, but moderation. I also take them fishing, hiking, help them practice their sports and dance, etc, but I don't overly encourage nor feed their interest in them. What they decide to pursue as an individual is up to them. I support and help them along the way, but won't shove any of it in their faces. I don't want to take away childhood's 'joy of discovery'.

OMG that is irresponsible gamer parenting! What if you bought them a game that had less than a 7 BGG rating? That is tantamount to child abuse! When they break out Cootie or whatever you are supposed to produce a copy of Ticket to Ride and say "would you fancy playing a SUPERIOR game?" And then deliver the usual party line about in Germany, board games are more common than underpants or whatever.

River and Scarlett's favorite two games right now- that they picked out themselves- are Star Wars Operation and the Disney Princess Cupcake Game. Don't tell anybody.

Our daughter turns two this Sunday (I also turn 36), and she has absolutely become obsessed with Disney princesses. She is a little young for games, but loves to do imaginative play with the eight princess figurines. I'll probably get her that Princess Candyland or the the series of 3 games you can link together --- I think she would like the spinner.