OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

[AWS260]

My wife and I took Dinogenics with the new expansion for a spin tonight. I really like how the expansion tweaks the gameplay. The new aquatic creatures are fun, but the real stars in my opinion are the refined/polymorphic DNA, which gives more flexibility in creating dinos, and the specialists, whose unique abilities can translate into serious VPs. Taken as a whole, the expansion mechanics make Dinogenics feel more expansive and flexible.

Our game ended 164-163. I had a sizeable lead for the entire game, getting an early megalodon and regularly feeding mutants to my mosasaurus to please the crowds. But she took a couple of choice specialists, I suffered a an unfortunate ankylosaurus rampage, and that was just enough for her to edge ahead by a single point.

[Lordnine]

That is a really close game! One of the goals of Controlled Chaos was to give players more control over how they build their parks and reduce some of the randomness of card draws. I'm glad it's working for you.

[YellowKing]

I played a game of Endangered last night over Tabletop Simulator with my gaming group. This is a co-operative game, and the TTS version is an official demo from the publisher which allows you to play two different scenarios, Otters and Tigers. We chose the Tigers scenario.

In Endangered, you play one of several roles, each with their own special abilities (wildlife TV host, lobbyist, environmental lawyer, etc.) Your goal is to convince four members of the UN to support your conversation efforts with a species of animal. To do this, you'll have to meet the various goals required by the UN Ambassadors before the voting year. In the meantime, you'll also be working to protect your dwindling population of animals from the threats they are facing in the wild (such as deforestation) while encouraging mating pairs to produce more offspring.

The game features a dice-placing mechanic in order to take actions that I really enjoyed. On your turn, you roll your three d6, and place one die on each action you want to perform (actions are represented by cards that describe what happens when you take that action). At the beginning of the game, there are only four basic actions to choose from, but by taking the "Play Card" action, players can add action cards from their hand to the action pool. In this way, your "pool" of available actions steadily increases throughout the game as players build an entire tableau of action cards.

The neat twist to this is that you can never play the same action twice on a turn, and anyone who takes an action a previous player already took MUST place a die with a higher value. So for instance, if I took the "Remove a Deforestation tile" action with a 3, someone who wanted to take that action on their turn would have to take it with a 4,5, or 6. This mechanic forces you to think about what other players are going to do, and adds another level of strategy to taking your actions. By placing a 6 to perform an action, you're essentially barring anyone else from taking it that round. It also makes turn order extremely important, so you're constantly optimizing that for each round.

After taking actions to move animals, clear deforestation, add influence to ambassadors, etc. you go through a series of phases that impact the game state. You check to see if any of your mating pairs bred, boosting your population. A threat appears such as deforestation, so you roll to determine where that happens. Then an impact card is revealed which is usually a global bad effect that can potentially persist in the game. This cycle repeats until you hit a voting year, where you check to see if you met 4 ambassador goals. If you did not, you get one more year to try to meet those goals, then the game is over.

I really liked this one. It's easy to learn, fairly light, but the theme is very strong and the mechanics unique enough that it stood out from a lot of the other co-ops I own. However, there's enough strategic depth there to make it really interesting. There is a very tricky balance in protecting your animal population while also meeting the objectives for the ambassadors, and our game came down to a nail-biting victory. I'd kind of put it in the same complexity level as a Flash Point Fire Rescue. Strong educational theme that really shines through; I could see this being a big hit in schools, zoo gift shops, etc.

At any rate, one of my gaming buddies just backed the expansion on KS, so at some point next year maybe we'll get to play it in person. The game offers a lot of variability in terms of the random ambassadors, and the different animals you can fight to save. The mechanics of how the animals reproduce and how the threat to their environment works are very different from creature to creature, so there seems to be a lot of replayability.

[AWS260]

I introduced a couple of friends to Village last night. It remains delightful (in a family-members-dying-left-and-right way).

[Lorini]

Root releases on Steam in Early Access today. Can't wait!

[coopasonic]

Root releases on Steam in Early Access today. Can't wait!

I love the concept of asymmetric games. Such a pain to teach.

[Skinypupy]

I picked up the iOS version of Cartographers because I’d heard good things about it.

I understand the general gist of the game, but am utterly baffled by the scoring system. The app gives you a summary at the end that makes absolutely no sense to me at all. I think I’m doing well because I’m scoring points based on the objectives, but I end up with an atrocious overall score...and have no idea why. None of the scores on the summary sheet seem to connect what what I scored during the course of the game.

I’ve read the instructions 10 times (including the PDF from the physical game) and still can’t make heads or tails of how it it scored. Frustrating.

[Smoove_B]

I’ve read the instructions 10 times (including the PDF from the physical game) and still can’t make heads or tails of how it it scored. Frustrating.

To try and summarize, you add together the values of the scoring cards for the round (the value in the lower right corner). You then add up your own score and subtract the sum of that 4 card total from it. That final number generated is the number value used to rate your performance.

[Fardaza]

Wife and I were supposed to move to Tennessee today. Both would get in our cars and drive cross-country in a caravan.

Covid-19 has nixed that plan. She tested positive on Wednesday, I (falsely) tested negative. Doctor had me tested again yesterday (Friday). This time I was positive also. We've both felt headachy, coughy, and feverish for several days. Neither of us have had a fever today, so that's a good sign.

Meanwhile our house is empty since we shipped everything out already. One chair and an inflatable mattress are about all we've still got here. Friends from church brought us food yesterday and today. We'll head out after quarantining for 10 days, assuming our fevers don't come back.

So, I asked my buddy to order Terraforming Mars for me. It's supposed to be here tomorrow. I'm not sure if my wife will play or not. I plan to play solo if she doesn't.

That's what I'm playing this weekend! (If my headache gives me a break.)

[Smoove_B]

Holy crap! That's insane you and your wife are dealing with that *right now*. Get healthy!

Terraforming Mars has lots and lots of bits. Engine builders aren't my thing, but I know it's a highly regarded game.

[Zarathud]

Engine builders aren't my thing, but I know it's a highly regarded game.

If you like engine builders, it doesn't get much better than Terraforming Mars.

I love it, because I'm a slut for engine builders.

[Fardaza]

Engine builders aren't my thing, but I know it's a highly regarded game.

If you like engine builders, it doesn't get much better than Terraforming Mars.

I love it, because I'm a slut for engine builders.

Holy crap! That's insane you and your wife are dealing with that *right now*. Get healthy!

Terraforming Mars has lots and lots of bits. Engine builders aren't my thing, but I know it's a highly regarded game.

I'm not sure what an engine builder is, but I look forward to finding out!

[Anonymous Bosch]

I'm not sure what an engine builder is, but I look forward to finding out!

If you've never tried one before, you may find it useful to dip your toes in the water by trying Keldon's Race for the Galaxy AI, which is basically a completely free PC version of the renowned Race for the Galaxy card game (which remains one of the greatest engine builder games there is). It's totally legitimate, and allows you to play the full game against formidable AI opponents without needing to own any physical version of the game at all. It also provides online multiplayer support, and even includes the content of most of the numerous expansions.

Suffice to say, it makes for a terrific solo brain-burner game, and you'd be hard-pressed to find many other games that rival its strategic depth.

However, Keldon's AI does not include a tutorial or instructions. So if you've never played the game before, I recommend first watching this RFTG rules and gameplay tutorial video:



That video teaches enough of the fundamentals to get you up and running in fairly short order. Some people find the game's iconography can initially be somewhat challenging to learn, though the aforementioned video does a great job of clearly illustrating and explaining that particular aspect of game. But if you remain in any doubt and need to quickly and easily decipher a card, I recommend grabbing this handy PDF player aid which clarifies every icon combination used in the game. If you like, you can also download the PDF manual for the physical game.

You'll almost certainly get your arse handed to you on a fairly regular basis by Keldon's AI during most of your initial games. However, those losses can also provide some tremendously useful insight into skillful strategic play by carefully observing how the AI plays. So give it a whirl and see what you think.

[Zarathud]

I second and third Race for the Galaxy. Once you get the iconography (hint: Each card lists the icons next to the turn they take effect), it's an amazingly deep game.

An engine builder is a game where on turn 1, you produce 1 gold. But you can use that gold with a card, so that the next time you can turn a gold into 2 wood. And a few turns later, you have what you need to permanently convert 2 wood into 3 technology. And then that technology can be used to produce 3 gold. And so on, until it's the end of the game and you've used your production to generate victory points for the win.

Engine builders turn into very satisfying logic puzzles to optimize long-term benefit, especially when the game integrates its theme. For Race for the Galaxy, it's colonizing/conquering planets, building techs and trading. For Terraforming Mars, it's building cities and forests and oceans while heating up a cold planet and generating usable oxygen. And many Terraforming (Victory) Points from tech/effects centered around the theme of space colonization.

[RMC]

I second and third Race for the Galaxy. Once you get the iconography (hint: Each card lists the icons next to the turn they take effect), it's an amazingly deep game.

An engine builder is a game where on turn 1, you produce 1 gold. But you can use that gold with a card, so that the next time you can turn a gold into 2 wood. And a few turns later, you have what you need to permanently convert 2 wood into 3 technology. And then that technology can be used to produce 3 gold. And so on, until it's the end of the game and you've used your production to generate victory points for the win.

Engine builders turn into very satisfying logic puzzles to optimize long-term benefit, especially when the game integrates its theme. For Race for the Galaxy, it's colonizing/conquering planets, building techs and trading. For Terraforming Mars, it's building cities and forests and oceans while heating up a cold planet and generating usable oxygen. And many Terraforming (Victory) Points from tech/effects centered around the theme of space colonization.

And in Terraforming Mars you can Nuke yourself to heat as well, so that is always fun.

[Skinypupy]

Lots of gaming for the birthday weekend. Two games of Lords of Waterdeep, a round of Dungeon Royale, Legend of Drizzt, and solo rounds of Descent and Street Masters.

Also, my local store was having a 30% off summer sale, so I picked up Boss Monster, Tiny Epic Zombies, and Ticket To Ride (searching for that ever-elusive game that Mrs Skinypupy will play with us).

Got lots to learn tonight.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Lots of gaming for the birthday weekend. Two games of Lords of Waterdeep, a round of Dungeon Royale, Legend of Drizzt, and solo rounds of Descent and Street Masters.

Also, my local store was having a 30% off summer sale, so I picked up Boss Monster, Tiny Epic Zombies, and Ticket To Ride (searching for that ever-elusive game that Mrs Skinypupy will play with us).

Got lots to learn tonight.

Ticket to Ride has to rank among the greatest gateway games there are, especially in terms of accessibility. So if you're unable to hook the Mrs with that one, you've got a seriously tough nut to crack.

[Skinypupy]

Lots of gaming for the birthday weekend. Two games of Lords of Waterdeep, a round of Dungeon Royale, Legend of Drizzt, and solo rounds of Descent and Street Masters.

Also, my local store was having a 30% off summer sale, so I picked up Boss Monster, Tiny Epic Zombies, and Ticket To Ride (searching for that ever-elusive game that Mrs Skinypupy will play with us).

Got lots to learn tonight.

Ticket to Ride has to rank among the greatest gateway games there are, especially in terms of accessibility. So if you're unable to hook the Mrs with that one, you've got a seriously tough nut to crack.

The challenge is rarely learning or understanding the game. She does just fine in that regard.

The problem that she cannot - under any circumstances - turn off her competitiveness when she plays games. She gets extremely frustrated, angry, and often just downright nasty any time things don’t go her way. All of which is very strange, because playing board games are literally the only time or place that behavior manifests itself.

For whatever reason, games just bring out the absolute worst in her. To the point that she has actively refused to participate for years.

[Anonymous Bosch]

The challenge is rarely learning or understanding the game. She does just fine in that regard.

The problem that she cannot - under any circumstances - turn off her competitiveness when she plays games. She gets extremely frustrated, angry, and often just downright nasty any time things don’t go her way. All of which is very strange, because playing board games are literally the only time or place that behavior manifests itself.

For whatever reason, games just bring out the absolute worst in her. To the point that she has actively refused to participate for years.

How interesting. Have you ever tried playing a cooperative game with her instead? Perhaps she'd have an easier time of learning to tame her animal instincts with family-friendly co-op games like Forbidden Island, The Crew - Quest for Planet Nine, or The Mind.

[Skinypupy]

Those are actually worse, tbh. If anyone else does something in the course of the game that she finds suboptimal, she gets extremely cranky about it.

It's honestly a strange and fascinating thing to watch because it is completely and wildly out of character for her. Board games are the only thing that triggers that sort of competitive response in her, and neither of us really know why.

We all just know that it's best not to have Mom join in.

[coopasonic]

...based on what you are saying, I am almost certain Ticket to Ride is a time bomb. Someone is going to block her route and there will be blood.

[Isgrimnur]

That OKC/KC/STL/LR box caused a fight between my wife and I.

[Lorini]

Try two player co ops like Gloomhaven or Too Many Bones. Then it's just you and her and if she wants to do something a certain way, it's probably fine I'd also advise that when she starts feeling that way to walk away from the table and take some breaths. A lot of time it's losing yourself (as in who you actually are) in the moment. Again I'd try this with just the two of you at first otherwise others might take it personally or something.

[Smoove_B]

...based on what you are saying, I am almost certain Ticket to Ride is a time bomb. Someone is going to block her route and there will be blood.

Yeah, we only played one game in my house because my daughter had a meltdown over routes. It did not go well.

[AWS260]

I played Yokohama online last night. It's the second time I've ever played it, and the first was two years ago, so I had pretty much no idea what I was doing.

I went very heavy into the Church, and ended up leading both the Church and Customs House, which award end-game VPs. But I neglected all of the other end-game scoring elements and couldn't close out the game soon enough to prevent others from grabbing them. In the end, three of us were within a single point of each other, with the winner about 12 point ahead of the pack.

The game is very reminiscent of Istanbul, but with a much more complex economy and decision space. I'm not sure that I like it any better than Istanbul, however.

Boardgamearena.com's implementation of Yokohama is very well-done and easy to parse. One caveat: the game requires so much table space that you have to do a lot of scrolling around on a laptop-size screen.

[hepcat]

...based on what you are saying, I am almost certain Ticket to Ride is a time bomb. Someone is going to block her route and there will be blood.

Yeah, we only played one game in my house because my daughter had a meltdown over routes. It did not go well.

You flipping the table, screaming LOSER at her, then performing a 25 minute victory dance that you demanded the entire family stay for probably didn't help.

[Smoove_B]

You flipping the table, screaming LOSER at her, then performing a 25 minute victory dance that you demanded the entire family stay for probably didn't help.

It retrospect, that was definitely bad parenting.

[hepcat]

Standard caveat to apply to most of my posts:

hepcat's posts are fever dreams best ascribed to spicy foods before bedtime.

[YellowKing]

This is why our gaming group only plays co-op. Our four personalities are really different, and just don't mesh well with competitive titles.

I'm terrible at thinking several turns ahead, so I tend to have tunnel vision on one particular strategy, usually to my detriment.

J is a brilliant strategic thinker, and is most likely to dominate the rest of us. Playing competitive games with Jay is like playing checkers with your dad when you're a kid. Unless he runs into some colossal bad luck or lets you win, you're doomed.

D is the analysis paralysis guy, and has a terrible time making a decision when presented with two equally viable choices. In co-op games he's fine because he can be swayed by the group, but on his own? Forget it.

T is the eternal pessimist. As soon as the going gets tough, he's ready to throw in the towel. He also takes any kind of backstabbing move very personally.

We're all engineers, so we figured out early on that the problem-solving nature of co-ops worked the best for us. All of our personalities can be tempered by the rest of the group since we're working as a team.

[$iljanus]

...based on what you are saying, I am almost certain Ticket to Ride is a time bomb. Someone is going to block her route and there will be blood.

Yeah, we only played one game in my house because my daughter had a meltdown over routes. It did not go well.

You flipping the table, screaming LOSER at her, then performing a 25 minute victory dance that you demanded the entire family stay for probably didn't help.

(The part of Smoove_B has been played by Alan Wakeman Rickman for this purpose of this reenactment)

[Isgrimnur]

Alan Wakeman

Alan Rickman when you get his name wrong:

[$iljanus]

Alan Wakeman

Alan Rickman when you get his name wrong:

Yeah, I deserved that...

[Fardaza]

J is a brilliant strategic thinker, and is most likely to dominate the rest of us. Playing competitive games with Jay is like playing checkers with your dad when you're a kid. Unless he runs into some colossal bad luck or lets you win, you're doomed.

Reminds me of one member of our old group. He was a high school math and physics teacher. First time we introduced Ticket to Ride to him, he took the rules into the living room while the rest of us ate dinner. He read them once. When we played, he scored the only continuous line with every one of his trains I've ever seen! He recently moved his family to D.C. area. Don't know if I'll ever get to play in a game with him again. Probably just as well. I might win more now!

[Montag]

Try two player co ops like Gloomhaven or Too Many Bones. Then it's just you and her and if she wants to do something a certain way, it's probably fine I'd also advise that when she starts feeling that way to walk away from the table and take some breaths. A lot of time it's losing yourself (as in who you actually are) in the moment. Again I'd try this with just the two of you at first otherwise others might take it personally or something.

I will add Spirit Island to the mix. It is cooperative and a little more complex. I think the complexity is a strength where you will offer up how you could help or ask if you can do this, then I can do that. It is not something where one person can dictate play and dominate the flow.

[Skinypupy]

Try two player co ops like Gloomhaven or Too Many Bones. Then it's just you and her and if she wants to do something a certain way, it's probably fine I'd also advise that when she starts feeling that way to walk away from the table and take some breaths. A lot of time it's losing yourself (as in who you actually are) in the moment. Again I'd try this with just the two of you at first otherwise others might take it personally or something.

I will add Spirit Island to the mix. It is cooperative and a little more complex. I think the complexity is a strength where you will offer up how you could help or ask if you can do this, then I can do that. It is not something where one person can dictate play and dominate the flow.

As much as the kids and I love board gaming and would love for her to join, I don't really push it with her. Even without the hyper-competitiveness, board gaming simply isn't something that she finds enjoyable. She just rolls her eyes whenever some of the bigger games (Gloomhaven, Sword & Sorcery, Mage Knight) hit the table. She can understand the mechanics of nearly any game just fine, she just doesn't find them fun in any way whatsoever.

She knows she has a standing invitation to join us at any time. I'm hopeful that as the collection grows and the kids get more and more into it, that she'll join us at some point. But if she doesn't, that's OK too.

[YellowKing]

My kids have almost zero interest in board games, which is a disappointment since I thought when they were babies that I'd be growing my own gaming group.

They will occasionally break out Monopoly (ugh!) or some other horrible kid game, but every time I've tried to introduce them to something a little more advanced they either have no interest or quit after 10 or 15 minutes.

It's fine because I enjoy solo games and still have my regular gaming group on the side for Gloomhaven. So I get my fix elsewhere. Just goes to show though that you can't really force it.

[Skinypupy]

I’ve read the instructions 10 times (including the PDF from the physical game) and still can’t make heads or tails of how it it scored. Frustrating.

To try and summarize, you add together the values of the scoring cards for the round (the value in the lower right corner). You then add up your own score and subtract the sum of that 4 card total from it. That final number generated is the number value used to rate your performance.

Thank you for saving my sanity with this post. Trying to figure out the calculations (the app instructions just sorta skips on by the scoring card value) was driving me absolutely insane.

Really enjoying the app, now that I know what I'm doing. I'm still terrible (best score in a couple dozen games is -18), but getting better.

[Fardaza]

My copy of Terraforming Mars was delivered by my buddy 2 days ago. The first solo game I was beaten badly using a beginner corporation. Oxygen and temperature were only about half of the winning amount. My wife said, "What do you mean you don't have any idea what you're doing? It's easy isn't it?" Thanks Babe.

Second session I won using Helion Corp. with a score of 83. Third session was a win with Ecoline and a score of 82. Both games were won on the last generation! Great fun!

Not sure going forward how to play without either of these 2 corporations. The massive boosts they provide to production seemed to make decisions easier for me. I especially found using heat as credits to be a major help! I guess it's time to dive in and try a less obvious path to victory.

Any suggestions on which corporation to use or avoid while still learning the ropes?

[Skinypupy]

My local store's Summer Sale is seriously bad for my wallet. 25% off any purchase over $100. Just came home with Firefly: The Game, Unstable Unicorns, and 7 Wonders Duel.

I haven't even played all the games I picked up last weekend yet.

[Anonymous Bosch]

…and 7 Wonders Duel.

Definitely one of my all-time favourite two-player games. Be warned though, it does tend to be a much more confrontational knife-fight experience in comparison to the original 7 Wonders.

If you're looking to minimise confrontation, I highly recommend playing regular 7 Wonders with the 2-player variant that uses a dummy player. It's surprisingly enjoyable and remarkably thematic. Because it plays very much akin to having a vassal kingdom manipulated by the two opposing human players, providing a much greater degree of control over the game in comparison to the full multiplayer experience.