OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 8:33 pm

I love the Great Dalmuti.

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 9:15 pm

Dalmuti is awesome, especially since everyone already knows how to play it. Of course, once I tell them "It's just like Asshole", their immediate reaction is "Ooh, let's play Asshole!" The Dalmuti deck makes Asshole so much more fun.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 2:53 am

We used to play the Great Dalmuti, but haven't for a long time. Unfortunately, I don't have any of these card games in my current location. I think I'm going to try BSG, but I'll have a better idea after I read the rules tomorrow.

The Rocketman · Post by **The Rocketman** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 3:00 am

El Guapo wrote:Oh, for *casual* gamers BSG would be perfect. It's not very complicated mechanics wise, and has a party-kind of atmosphere due to the constant talking about the players both about strategy to follow and about who is / is not a traitor. So I have to imagine that would go over very well.

Yeah, agree on this one. Casual gamers should like it for all the reasons El Guapo mentioned.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Thu Oct 14, 2010 2:00 am

I got my BSG copy today. I can't speak for this more casual group, but I know I am going to LOVE THIS GAME. And I think my more serious group will love it too (and they all watched BSG, except my Dad). I am very excited to give this one a go, it looks tense but classic!

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 1:44 am

We played BaHotH tonight. My wife really loved it. Our third player (the traitor) won after:

Spoiler:

I was getting beat mercilessly by the game from the get-go. Falling through floors, getting stuck in the furnace room, covered by Grave Dirt, getting bitten on the first turn. I would have been out of the game immediately if the haunt had already started. So when the haunt did start, I was at my last tick in both Speed and Might. Not a good place to be for our haunt.

All in all it was good, fast, semi-mindless fun. The rules were pretty streamlined, so that was nice, and it was always entertaining to see what was next. The final haunt reveal was fun too, and I don't think that playing this haunt once will "ruin it" for future plays. Sure, certain things are now revealed, but this is less of an issue than I thought.

Tomorrow I plan to play 3-player BSG with my wife and brother-in-law. I'm very excited!

Defiant · Post by **Defiant** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 3:19 pm

baelthazar wrote:We played BaHotH tonight.

It's awesome. Did you get the new one? If so, do you know if they fixed the various errors in the booklet, and if they don't have thousands of small cardboard pieces representing the tons of possible monsters? (when really, 10-20 generic pieces would be more than adequate)

Tomorrow I plan to play 3-player BSG with my wife and brother-in-law. I'm very excited!

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Hmm, 3 player BSG isn't that great, IMO. The finding who the cylon is is much less fun with 3 players. If you do do play it, don't choose baltar (or at least, don't use his ability to test someone. It can really ruin the game. Theres also a real chance that the cylon could put all the human players in the jail.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Sun Oct 17, 2010 12:22 am

Yes, I did get the new BaHotH, and it is pretty good. The production values are high (although I would have like thicker tiles) and I hear the errata have been fixed. I can't say if the booklet has been changed, because I never saw the old one. However, they DID make the counters generic (you know have green monster, red monster, purple monster, and orange monsters) and they are all inter-changeable. They did the same thing with the item tokens. There are still a good amount of tokens, but nothing unreasonable, and it seems like everything is a bit more streamlined.

We didn't get to play BSG today, unfortunately. I understand 3-player is a bit more limited, but I really wanted to learn the system because we have a 5-player game scheduled for next Saturday. I'm excited to get my first play in, though, and the 5-player game should be epic!

freelunch · Post by **freelunch** » Sun Oct 17, 2010 5:34 pm

Saturday:
Railways Of The World: The Card Game
Space Hulk: Death Angel - unfinished, we were losing badly so took a convenient meal break and moved on to something else :)
Castle Ravenloft - we tackled the fifth scenario, "The Final Transformation" for the first time, using our usual Fighter/Wizard/Cleric trio and lost (our first CR loss to date)
Dominant Species - an epic five-hour session with my two older kids, finishing up at 2am Sunday. It is a real shame this game takes so long since it means we won't get to play it often, but I'm very pleased to have it. easily the best new (to me) game I've played in 2010.

Sunday:
Ticket To Ride: Europe - we hadn't pulled this out in a while, my youngest can't read well yet but I thought he'd be up to the word-finding skills necessary to locate cities on the map in this game. he was and I imagine we'll be playing more TTR in the near future.
Magic: The Gathering - a "Winston Draft" using Magic 2011 cards with my son. I lost magnificently.
Onirim - spent about 30 minutes playing solo and getting nowhere.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Mon Oct 18, 2010 8:44 am

I played nothing this weekend.

Nobody loves me. I won't play nothing next weekend either cause I'll be hitting the bottle. It's entirely probable I won't play anything the week after that so I can get stuff done around the house. This sucks. I'm ready to turn in my gamers card.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Mon Oct 18, 2010 9:33 am

LordMortis wrote:I played nothing this weekend. Nobody loves me. I won't play nothing next weekend either cause I'll be hitting the bottle. It's entirely probable I won't play anything the week after that so I can get stuff done around the house. This sucks. I'm ready to turn in my gamers card.

Ah, but the weekend AFTER next...

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Mon Oct 18, 2010 10:42 am

hentzau wrote:
LordMortis wrote:I played nothing this weekend. Nobody loves me. I won't play nothing next weekend either cause I'll be hitting the bottle. It's entirely probable I won't play anything the week after that so I can get stuff done around the house. This sucks. I'm ready to turn in my gamers card.
Ah, but the weekend AFTER next...

Yeppur. It's my last vacation days for the year. I'm ready now. But I'm ready for a lot things now and none of them involved work, chores, or bill paying....

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:23 am

hentzau wrote:
LordMortis wrote:I played nothing this weekend. Nobody loves me. I won't play nothing next weekend either cause I'll be hitting the bottle. It's entirely probable I won't play anything the week after that so I can get stuff done around the house. This sucks. I'm ready to turn in my gamers card.
Ah, but the weekend AFTER next...

you ARE talking about the weekend of Nov. 5th, right?

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:48 am

hepcat wrote:
hentzau wrote:
LordMortis wrote:I played nothing this weekend. Nobody loves me. I won't play nothing next weekend either cause I'll be hitting the bottle. It's entirely probable I won't play anything the week after that so I can get stuff done around the house. This sucks. I'm ready to turn in my gamers card.
Ah, but the weekend AFTER next...
you ARE talking about the weekend of Nov. 5th, right?

Correct.

Jow · Post by **Jow** » Mon Oct 18, 2010 1:14 pm

same "non-playing" boat. Last semester of undergrad = no gaming to speak of in almost 2 months. My gamer card is lining my bird's cage at this point.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 12:34 am

Sat down tonight to demo a few rounds of Castle Ravenloft with my sister after we unpacked a Troll & Toad order of pre-painted minis. They're not exact substitutes but close enough.

SpaceLord · Post by **SpaceLord** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 12:10 pm

Horus Heresy was on the table again this weekend. Playing the Traitor, I was defeated by inertia: the all-important Initiative track was always in the favor of my opponent, due to his use of "Diversionary Tactics" during battle, which allowed him to attack me, get beaten badly, yet get another turn because of DT. Frustrating.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 2:22 pm

Other than Tide of Iron (which I freakin' adore), I don't really enjoy FFG's two player releases all that much. I don't know what it is about them, but they just aren't that fun to me.

The Rocketman · Post by **The Rocketman** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 3:12 pm

hepcat wrote:Other than Tide of Iron (which I freakin' adore), I don't really enjoy FFG's two player releases all that much. I don't know what it is about them, but they just aren't that fun to me.

Really? Are there any specific Tide of Iron scenarios you can recommend that are quick and balanced? I find the gameplay great, but the setup time is horrible, as well as the whole mechanic of creating your own squads is too fidgety.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 3:56 pm

Well, setup IS notoriously annoying for that game. But I kind of enjoy it in a perverse way. I also like to customize my squad whenever multiple types are included in the scenario.

As for scenarios themselves, get the Normandy expansion and try any of the beach scenarios. Storming up a beach as the allies while trying to survive the line of pillboxes on the ridge is just incredibly fun. It's only surpassed by BEING the germans in the pillboxes mowing down the allies.

The Russian expansion is coming out soon and I'm chomping at the bit for that one. Seppe and I used to play ToI a lot and I'm sure once that comes out, we'll be getting it to the table again.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Mon Oct 25, 2010 9:31 am

I played "Let's sell a bunch of old games in auction to pay for the banjo I bought three months ago!"

I won.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Mon Oct 25, 2010 1:00 pm

I played BSG yesterday (and a round of Glory to Rome, which was good fun). It was EXCELLENT! 4-player setup, I was Baltar, my Dad Adama, Friend #1 was Starbuck and Friend #2 Tyrell. Of course, I also started as the Cylon (reveal to damage Galactica) and the President. Being our first game, I played rather conservatively, putting in cards to "help" accompanied by larger hinder cards (I tried to "frame" the Tyrell player). I would have won but I made two mistakes. First, I started the game with a Quorum card to give the BSG +1 food (I figured this would "build trust" and make me look less like a Cylon). This would come back to bite me when I had the BSG down to 2 food (after reveal) and had the choice to make them do a skill check that would lose 2 food, or give them an automatic -1 food. They passed the food skill check, but had I not given them that extra food, I would have been able to end it there. My second mistake was not using my Quorum card to send Tyrell to the brig before revealing. I had forgotten that Adama couldn't send people to the Brig and a lone Starbuck attempt to send me to the brig as retribution would have been difficult. The Tyrell player had made a few mistakes (playing colors he didn't mean to play) so they would have probably tolerated the move. The Tyrell player was also pointing out which skill cards he played, because I hadn't made that No-No clear enough when reading the rules.

It was a close game. Nearly all of their dials were at 3 or less. But they emergency jumped to Kobol before I had the chance to finish them off!

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Mon Oct 25, 2010 1:11 pm

We played a three player game of Age of Industry, which I really enjoyed. Much better for me than Brass just because it's more straightforward. Clean strategy, perfect information, a bit of randomness, everything I like in a game

.

freelunch · Post by **freelunch** » Mon Oct 25, 2010 7:43 pm

on Saturday I played Colossal Arena with my kids, then several games of Werewolf with my daughter's birthday-party guests and later that night: Roma and Killer Bunnies and the Ultimate Odyssey with my 11yo son. I'm not convinced the new Killer Bunnies game is as much fun as the original, but it is certainly shorter and better-suited to two-player games.

on Sunday I played Hex Hex XL with my daughter and her friends (once they'd dropped to a suitable number), Haggis with my wife and more Haggis plus Roma and Perry Rhodan with my son.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Mon Nov 08, 2010 11:15 am

I've been thinking about picking up Small World recently. I'm a fan of "waves of civilizations" type games (i.e. History of the World, Britannia) and this seems like a good version of that with a fun theme. What do people think of this game? I know people here have mentioned playing it - does it hold up through repeated plays? How important are the expansions?

Also, where's the cheapest place to get it? Company website? Tanga? eBay?

Daveman · Post by **Daveman** » Mon Nov 08, 2010 1:38 pm

My son and I, and to a slightly lesser extent our extended gaming family/group, love Small World. I'm not familiar with the games you've mentioned so I can't compare it to those, but we like how the combination of races/special powers make the game different every time, how quickly the game goes by once people know what's going on, and how well the game scales with the number of players. My son and I play 2 player games a lot and love them. We've gotten to the point where they're always very close games.

We have all of the expansions except Leaders of the Small World. As much as we enjoy them, I'd say they're all strictly optional... adding new race/power choices, more of what we like about the game. Tales and Legends is a beefier expansion, adding a deck of cards that adds random events to each turn. On the plus side, the expansions are cheap so adding them isn't that big of a deal.

If you do get into the game, I'd say order the Be Not Afraid expansion first... and soon. It's the latest expansion, and comes with more races/powers than the others to date. If you order from Days of Wonder soon you'll also get an additional mini-expansion/scenarion called Necromancer Isle. We've yet to try it out, but it provides an additional way to play with 3+ players.

EDIT - Oh, since I gave the highpoints here's the one thing about the game I don't like. The rules for playing the game are very simple, but it's explaining to new players what all the various races/abilities do. They provide reference sheets that cover that info, but handing people a list of a couple dozen abilities doesn't help draw people into the game, so I wind up explaining each combo every time they come up.

SpaceLord · Post by **SpaceLord** » Mon Nov 08, 2010 4:42 pm

We played a tense game of Twilight Struggle. The previous two times, I'd played the Soviets, and got good draws, and crushed my opponent. This time, things were a lot more even.

That game is genius.

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Mon Nov 08, 2010 4:53 pm

I wasn't terribly thrilled with Small World. It felt like everything was too compressed time-wise. In something like Britannia, you get several turns to do something with a given nation, sometimes longer, so you wind up feeling invested in its fate. The nations in Small World show up, get a turn or two to be effective, and then you pretty much have to make them extinct. I get much less of a feeling of ownership in the nations from Small World.

I guess I didn't dislike the two or three games I played of it, but I certainly never felt a burning desire to play it again.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Mon Nov 08, 2010 5:38 pm

Played a basic scenario of Heroscape with my 4.8 year old on Friday afternoon. I killed Mimring with an EPIC die roll and she ran off screaming and crying. I felt bad about it at first, but she totally eliminated Sgt. Drake without remorse and couldn't reasonably expect me to not retaliate with Syvarris.

I keep telling myself she's learning valuable lessons, otherwise I feel like a creep.

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Mon Nov 08, 2010 6:24 pm

Thanks to Octocon, played Arkham Horror, Cutthroat Caverns, BSG, Neuroshima Hex, Last Night on Earth, Blokus, and Rumis.

Daveman · Post by **Daveman** » Mon Nov 08, 2010 9:56 pm

Chaz wrote:The nations in Small World show up, get a turn or two to be effective, and then you pretty much have to make them extinct. I get much less of a feeling of ownership in the nations from Small World.

That was my initial reaction to Small World as well. They have this wonderful assortment of races and powers, and I wanted to be attached to them. It took a few games to realize that's not the point. There are race combos that are good at staying on the board, attacking enemies and so on. There are combos that are good at securing a chunk of the board and squatting on them for as long as there's a point incentive for them to do so. There are also combos that are basically meant to come on the board for a turn, maybe two, then go away. The point of the game is to figure out, given the selection of races/powers, when is a good time to do any of those. You're meant to pick a race and squeeze as many points out of them as you can for what's usually 2-3 turns, then discard them and move on to someone else.

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Tue Nov 09, 2010 3:16 pm

Smoove_B wrote:Played a basic scenario of Heroscape with my 4.8 year old on Friday afternoon. I killed Mimring with an EPIC die roll and she ran off screaming and crying. I felt bad about it at first, but she totally eliminated Sgt. Drake without remorse and couldn't reasonably expect me to not retaliate with Syvarris.

I keep telling myself she's learning valuable lessons, otherwise I feel like a creep.

Um, she's only four. There's not a lot of reasonable expectations at that age

Maybe wait til six for the retaliation?

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Tue Nov 09, 2010 5:10 pm

Lorini wrote:
Smoove_B wrote:Played a basic scenario of Heroscape with my 4.8 year old on Friday afternoon. I killed Mimring with an EPIC die roll and she ran off screaming and crying. I felt bad about it at first, but she totally eliminated Sgt. Drake without remorse and couldn't reasonably expect me to not retaliate with Syvarris.

I keep telling myself she's learning valuable lessons, otherwise I feel like a creep.
Um, she's only four. There's not a lot of reasonable expectations at that age Maybe wait til six for the retaliation?

Yeah my 4 year old does not take my use of actual tactics in heroscape well, he generally counters by completely ignoring movement rules. His units, even 1 hit zombies, generally have teleportation, flying, impenetrable force fields and may all have pocket time machines or at least the innate ability to control the fabric of time and space. OK, he ignores all rules actually. Either way we have fun.

Note: Firefox is telling me teleportation isn't a word.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Nov 09, 2010 6:07 pm

Daveman wrote:
Chaz wrote:The nations in Small World show up, get a turn or two to be effective, and then you pretty much have to make them extinct. I get much less of a feeling of ownership in the nations from Small World.
That was my initial reaction to Small World as well. They have this wonderful assortment of races and powers, and I wanted to be attached to them. It took a few games to realize that's not the point. There are race combos that are good at staying on the board, attacking enemies and so on. There are combos that are good at securing a chunk of the board and squatting on them for as long as there's a point incentive for them to do so. There are also combos that are basically meant to come on the board for a turn, maybe two, then go away. The point of the game is to figure out, given the selection of races/powers, when is a good time to do any of those. You're meant to pick a race and squeeze as many points out of them as you can for what's usually 2-3 turns, then discard them and move on to someone else.

Interesting - good food for thought.

Out of curiosity, what other games like this are out there? That is, games where you play successive civilizations/factions rather than just as one side for the whole game?

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Tue Nov 09, 2010 8:21 pm

Of course Vinci would be like that, as it's the game Small World is based on. Puerto Rico and other role selection games might fit the bill too. You can search on role selection as a mechanic on Boardgamegeek.com.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Nov 09, 2010 11:37 pm

Lorini wrote:Um, she's only four. There's not a lot of reasonable expectations at that age Maybe wait til six for the retaliation?

I want to lie and say I felt bad, but there really are days when I enjoy it.

coopasonic wrote: Yeah my 4 year old does not take my use of actual tactics in heroscape well, he generally counters by completely ignoring movement rules. His units, even 1 hit zombies, generally have teleportation, flying, impenetrable force fields and may all have pocket time machines or at least the innate ability to control the fabric of time and space. OK, he ignores all rules actually. Either way we have fun.

Yeah, we're still playing the basic rules and she's not quite past the "Get 'em!" strategy that involves her making a B-line towards my guys and rolling dice...but I'm trying.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Wed Nov 10, 2010 10:01 am

coopasonic wrote:
Lorini wrote:
Smoove_B wrote:Played a basic scenario of Heroscape with my 4.8 year old on Friday afternoon. I killed Mimring with an EPIC die roll and she ran off screaming and crying. I felt bad about it at first, but she totally eliminated Sgt. Drake without remorse and couldn't reasonably expect me to not retaliate with Syvarris.

I keep telling myself she's learning valuable lessons, otherwise I feel like a creep.
Um, she's only four. There's not a lot of reasonable expectations at that age Maybe wait til six for the retaliation?
Yeah my 4 year old does not take my use of actual tactics in heroscape well, he generally counters by completely ignoring movement rules. His units, even 1 hit zombies, generally have teleportation, flying, impenetrable force fields and may all have pocket time machines or at least the innate ability to control the fabric of time and space. OK, he ignores all rules actually. Either way we have fun.

Note: Firefox is telling me teleportation isn't a word.

I'm not even in line for being sharpest bulb in toolshed but we were playing Stratego as tactically as you could expect a child to play at 4. Protecting our 8s, hiding our flags, sending out scouts for our 1, 2, and 3s to find, setting bomb fake traps, etc... That more than any other, probably was the game that got me in to hardcore gaming along with the parlor gaming we did with family.

...I wonder what went wrong. You'd think that with 36 years of experience as strategy gamer, I'd have a little bit of the whole strategy and tactics thing down. Now that I think about it, I play probably only slightly better than I did at four. How sad.

El Guapo wrote:Out of curiosity, what other games like this are out there? That is, games where you play successive civilizations/factions rather than just as one side for the whole game?

There are a lot aren't there? Vinci and History of the World are the first two that come to mind.

Vinci and Small World seem to have the unique characteristics of not just ending your civilization but learning how and when to call it quits as opposed to having your decline thrust upon you. That uniqueness is a large part of the strategy of the game. Recognizing when you are at your pinnacle and either quitting then or figuring out how long after the height of your civilization will you still be relevant.

I actually like Vinci better than Small World. I think I am very small minority there, though.

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Sun Nov 21, 2010 10:09 pm

Small World is up next our 'play with the new expansions' list. We played Dominion in the week, Munchkin satuday morn, and Talsiman after midnight. The Tales and Fables events look pretty cool and I am just DYING to play the Necromancer Island!

SlapBone · Post by **SlapBone** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 2:20 am

The boy and I broke out Claustrophobia this afternoon and played the 1st scenario once from each side. I think we both liked it quite a bit.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed Nov 24, 2010 11:46 am

That Borders tip that Daveman posted a couple pages back is gold. I saw a copy of Small World in the Borders near my office late last week and used a 33% off to pick up a copy of the game for a little over $30. Gave it a whirl last night...pretty fun! Not too complicated, free-wheeling, interesting balancing of factions and some interesting tribe / power combinations. So far I'd give it a thumbs up. And one other bonus factor is that since it's colorful, has a fantasy theme, and isn't hugely complicated it might be a good game to play with my daughter once she's old enough (not for several years, but still).

Borders e-mailed out a 50% off coupon last night, so I'm going to take a swing through on my way home tonight and see if there's anything interesting.