OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

Defiant · Post by **Defiant** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 12:50 pm

Another good one is 1960: The Making of the President.

Also, Scotland Yard, although it supports up to 6 players is solid at 2 players (since with more players the police can be less organized).

wonderpug · Post by **wonderpug** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 12:57 pm

Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, perhaps?

edit: Oh! Mr. Jack! Two players and minimal luck-based elements.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 1:07 pm

Twilight Struggle. It should always end with Twilight Struggle.

p.s. Wonderpug, they're releasing the previously unavailable expansions for Consulting Detective sometime later this year/early next year. I too love that game.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 1:50 pm

Tash-Kalar
GIPF games, I like YINSH
I haven't played Gravwell with two yet, but two would minimize the random element (since basically the randomness is other players).
Specter Ops, new Plaid Hat game similar to Whitechapel and Scotland Yard.
Mage Wars only has randomness in damage dice.
Battle Line
The Duke (chess-ish with more piece variety)

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 2:00 pm

Hep has already mentioned Twilight Struggle, which is a pretty legendary (in my mind, anyway) two-player game - I would definitely check it out.

GMT has a couple other two-player games that I like. I know hep doesn't like Labyrinth (their War on Terror two player game), but I like it quite a bit. 1989 (the TS model with some twists played out in Eastern Europe at the end of the Cold War / fall of the USSR) is fun as well, though it's my least favorite as there are some design choices that I don't love).

You should also definitely check out War of the Ring, which is a phenomenal two-player game with a lot of depth and a great (LotR) theme.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 2:05 pm

coopasonic wrote:Tash-Kalar

I wanted to like that game so much. But it just drove home the point that I really don't like most abstract games.

But Mage Wars is definitely a game I agree is perfect for two players. Zarathud and I bemoaned the fact that since we were flying back from Origins, we couldn't find room for the new battleground games they're releasing this summer and that were available at the convention.

El Guapo wrote:
GMT has a couple other two-player games that I like. I know hep doesn't like Labyrinth (their War on Terror two player game), but I like it quite a bit.

I got the third degree about this from Tom Chick over on Qto3 a while back. Apparently, since I played it solitaire only before forming my opinion on it, I was a dick. I'm willing to admit that it may very well be a great game for two players, but I (being a dick) didn't give it a chance.

I bought 1989 and Seppe and I put in a full 8 hours or so playing it one day. That alone should tell you why I don't play it. However, I actually enjoyed the little mini game you play for control of countries.

But yeah...8 hours.

Ralph-Wiggum · Post by **Ralph-Wiggum** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 2:12 pm

Thanks everyone. I've played a few of those games (Mage Wars and the Hive) but haven't heard of a lot of them. I'll check them out.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 2:14 pm

hepcat wrote:
coopasonic wrote:Tash-Kalar
I wanted to like that game so much. But it just drove home the point that I really don't like most abstract games.

Abstract? It's super-thematic! You are totally summoning epic creatures to do battle in the arena... that look like colored circles on a grid. Err.. ok, never mind.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 2:19 pm

I can never remember that this is a game that I've played multiple times. Even the name is abstract.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 2:20 pm

...and in November you will play it again!

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 2:32 pm

One of my favorite two player strategy games is Memoir '44. Something about that game just hits the spot for me. Has the right level of strategy and randomness and, most importantly, fun. Plus, a game can be played in about 45 minutes or so, so you can get several games in in an evening. If you have any interest in D-Day at all, it's a great game to pick up.

Also, A Few Acres of Snow is a really good game. Just beware, there is a game breaking strategy that can pretty much give the British the win most of the time. But a fun deck building card management strategy game.

Defiant · Post by **Defiant** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 2:37 pm

hentzau wrote:One of my favorite two player strategy games is Memoir '44. Something about that game just hits the spot for me. Has the right level of strategy and randomness and, most importantly, fun. Plus, a game can be played in about 45 minutes or so, so you can get several games in in an evening. If you have any interest in D-Day at all, it's a great game to pick up.

You can check it out on Steam where it's available to play for free (My only experience with the game was playing a couple of times online).

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 2:53 pm

hentzau wrote:
Also, A Few Acres of Snow is a really good game. Just beware, there is a game breaking strategy that can pretty much give the British the win most of the time. But a fun deck building card management strategy game.

I think they patched that problem out in the newer editions.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 4:06 pm

2 player non-miniature games:
Star Realms - awesome, fast deck builder
Brewmaster Card Game - light card set collection game about brewing beer
Eminent Domain - trick-taking card-based 4X that plays best with 2-3 and the expansion
Race for the Galaxy - While Roll has more choice and a better explained icons, a little patience really pays off with a deep card game based on building combos
Mage Wars Arena - strategic mage spell battle with character movement (upcoming versions with/without movement boards)
Twilight Imperium - classic, epic historical strategic brain-burner

I am waiting for GenCon to try Eminent Domain Microcosm which is a highly streamlined 2 player only version

If you can get 3 players regularly, I would recommend Trieste. It's an asymmetrical card game about police, thieves and the merchants they prey upon. Hepcat will sings its praises more, but it really drives player strategies in bluffing and deductive play.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 4:12 pm

hepcat wrote:
coopasonic wrote:Tash-Kalar
I wanted to like that game so much. But it just drove home the point that I really don't like most abstract games.

But Mage Wars is definitely a game I agree is perfect for two players. Zarathud and I bemoaned the fact that since we were flying back from Origins, we couldn't find room for the new battleground games they're releasing this summer and that were available at the convention.

El Guapo wrote:
GMT has a couple other two-player games that I like. I know hep doesn't like Labyrinth (their War on Terror two player game), but I like it quite a bit.
I got the third degree about this from Tom Chick over on Qto3 a while back. Apparently, since I played it solitaire only before forming my opinion on it, I was a dick. I'm willing to admit that it may very well be a great game for two players, but I (being a dick) didn't give it a chance.

I bought 1989 and Seppe and I put in a full 8 hours or so playing it one day. That alone should tell you why I don't play it. However, I actually enjoyed the little mini game you play for control of countries.

But yeah...8 hours.

You big jerk!

Anyway, I've never played Labyrinth solo so I have no idea whether it sucks as a solitaire game or not. But I enjoy it a lot as a two-player game, partly because I really enjoy the theme (and the fact that, unlike TS, the sides are asynchronous in how they work, which is pretty interesting).

I like 1989 a lot, my main gripe is that it feels a little more luck-centric than other GMT games. Mainly because a lot rides on a small number of post mini-game rolls. Like, the democratic player can do everything right, win the power struggle, and then roll snake eyes on two rolls in Poland, and that will cost them so many points that they might lose the game as a result.

I get the impression that the game is intended to be a little more chaotic, to reflect the uncertain back and forth of the struggles at the time, which is fine, if you like that sort of thing.

paulbaxter · Post by **paulbaxter** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 10:01 pm

Played Pandemic with the boys tonight. Oddly enough, a government grant came through right at the end of the game to save humanity. Just like in real life.

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Thu Jun 18, 2015 5:18 am

Isgrimnur wrote:Letters from White Castle would work as well.

Nobody told me about the burger-themed remake of this? Geez.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Jun 18, 2015 8:22 am

Oh, I wish it were real.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Thu Jun 18, 2015 9:02 am

El Guapo wrote:
I like 1989 a lot, my main gripe is that it feels a little more luck-centric than other GMT games. Mainly because a lot rides on a small number of post mini-game rolls. Like, the democratic player can do everything right, win the power struggle, and then roll snake eyes on two rolls in Poland, and that will cost them so many points that they might lose the game as a result.

I can fully understand that. The same thing bothers me in Fallen and Agents of SMERSH. You spend your time trying to position yourself for the best possible outcome...then a simple die roll can erase much of that work. For the former, I'm hoping the expansions being planned help to mitigate that frustration, for the latter I just sold it at Gencon because that was one of many problems I had with the game.

Zarathud wrote: If you can get 3 players regularly, I would recommend Trieste. It's an asymmetrical card game about police, thieves and the merchants they prey upon. Hepcat will sings its praises more, but it really drives player strategies in bluffing and deductive play.

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around how to that play that one. But it really is a unique experience. I just wish the quality of the cards was better. It's Victory Point Games and they're not known for high quality cards, unfortunately. Definitely a game for which you want to sleeve the cards.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Thu Jun 18, 2015 9:20 am

Made the trek to the south side last night to meet up with my pastor and play some games. A buddy of his from seminary was in town for a conference and so they wanted to get together for some gaming. We really only got one game in, the Firefly card game "Out to the Black". Very enjoyable little game. It was a little weird, because we kept being interrupted by other people from the conference (we were playing in the hotel lobby) who a) wanted to know what we were doing and then b) talk to the other two pastors about the conference, the presentation, doctoral theses, etc. But I really enjoyed the game, even though it took way longer than it should have because of the interruptions and side conversations. I'm planning on picking up a copy as a filler game now.

MythicalMino · Post by **MythicalMino** » Sat Jun 20, 2015 11:18 am

FINALLY!

I have finally succeeded in the Local Heroes scenario in Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, Rise of the Runelords (Burnt Offerings).

That one took me several tries. But I finally did it. Now my life can continue....

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Sat Jun 20, 2015 12:44 pm

By the end of this weekend the sycophants of the dead Emperor will lie crushed on the altar to Khorne!

GRIMDAAAAARK!

(So, yeah, my parents are visiting and I hope my Dad will play Forbidden Stars with me. I just got it in the mail yesterday!)

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Sat Jun 20, 2015 2:18 pm

Apparently today is free RPG day. Trying to fit that into my schedule now.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sat Jun 20, 2015 7:15 pm

Don't forget the Drive Thru RPG store.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sun Jun 21, 2015 1:17 am

Star Realms - 2 games. A quick little 2-player deck builder that has a minimum of set-up. Definitely something to consider for a quick game bag.
Revolution - I taught it to three players, and came in dead last.
Yedo - Which was not Edo. I came in last, but managed a late run, completed a red mission, and got a couple good scoring cards. Too bad I got my meeples taken away twice by the city watch.

Chrisoc13 · Post by **Chrisoc13** » Sun Jun 21, 2015 1:20 am

Played airlines of Europe which I really enjoyed a lot. I like Alan r moon's games so no surprise. Really fun game.

Then played castles of mad king Ludwig, which was a very pleasant surprise and enjoyable. Wouldn't mind taking another crack at it. Great gaming recently.

Yeah star realms is a really great little card game extremely well suited for 2 players. I've enjoyed having it available.

Defiant · Post by **Defiant** » Sun Jun 21, 2015 1:07 pm

Played Space Cadets: Dice Duel. Since some of the players were (very) light board gamers we ignored the tractor (and crystals and nebula, etc) entirely. It ended up being reasonably fun - we skirted around the map doing damage to each other, until we ended up face to face and were just trying to shoot damage to each other to try to do the final point of damage to each other. They kept concentrating on shields, while we did shields and jammers, which gave us an edge, and after shooting several missiles at them, we finally got a missile at them when their shields weren't completely up.

It's reasonably fun (for a dice game, anyway).

Lordnine · Post by **Lordnine** » Sun Jun 21, 2015 2:16 pm

baelthazar wrote:By the end of this weekend the sycophants of the dead Emperor will lie crushed on the altar to Khorne!

GRIMDAAAAARK!

(So, yeah, my parents are visiting and I hope my Dad will play Forbidden Stars with me. I just got it in the mail yesterday!)

Impressions? I ordered this from a local place instead of online because they were offering a big discount but I haven't even gotten a notice as to when it will arrive there yet.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 12:29 am

Lordnine wrote:
baelthazar wrote:By the end of this weekend the sycophants of the dead Emperor will lie crushed on the altar to Khorne!

GRIMDAAAAARK!

(So, yeah, my parents are visiting and I hope my Dad will play Forbidden Stars with me. I just got it in the mail yesterday!)
Impressions? I ordered this from a local place instead of online because they were offering a big discount but I haven't even gotten a notice as to when it will arrive there yet.

My Dad and I really enjoyed it. Mechanically, the game is fairly easy to learn, besides the idea that you have to plan your turns "backwards" in a sense (order tokens stack and the last one put on the stack is resolved first). Strategically the game is very complex - do you rely on numbers of low-tier troops, high-tier elites, or heavily upgraded combat cards? All are viable strategies. Each faction is drastically different, which is very cool, and both Chaos and the Ultramarines played thematically in line with their backstory. Chaos relies on Cultists to "summon" and transform into the higher-tier units while they "seed" cultist units for free in various areas. The Ultramarines are stronger, have straightforward combat cards that prize defense and holding the line. Just from looking at their cards, it seems like the Eldar are based on mobility and hit-and-run while the orks are glass cannons that will likely take out the enemies.

Overall, a very cool game. If you love WH40K, then the game will be even cooler. My only complaint is that this is the first FFG game that I have experienced a slight amount of board curl due to humidity. Now this may just be environmental, as we have been getting flood-level rains this week.

Ralph-Wiggum · Post by **Ralph-Wiggum** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 9:17 am

Played another round of Dead of Winter, this time getting (mostly) the rules correct. We got to the final round (the original victory condition was to last 5 rounds but then I made the decision off of a Crossroads card to add the condition of no zombies at the hospital or gas station in order to get a boatload of weapons) and everything looked good. We had 7 moral, plenty of food, and the zombies mostly taken care of. But on the last turn of the last round, the betrayer revealed himself. He managed to get our moral to 1 and had a 50/50 noise die roll that would have let the zombies break through. But the die failed him. So instead, every player lost the game.

One thing I learned though: don't start a game at 12:30 AM unless you want to go to bed at 4 AM.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 10:35 am

Ralph-Wiggum wrote:We had 7 moral, plenty of food, and the zombies mostly taken care of. But on the last turn of the last round, the betrayer revealed himself. He managed to get our moral to 1 and had a 50/50 noise die roll that would have let the zombies break through. But the die failed him. So instead, every player lost the game.

Which moral was it? The idolatry one? Theft?

Chrisoc13 · Post by **Chrisoc13** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 9:21 pm

Played another game of eclipse tonight, this time with the expansion rise of the ancients or whatever it is called. Really helped out a 2 player game a lot. A lot more interaction with the alien home worlds around to run into. It fixes a bit of the emptiness of the space that you get with just 2 players. So I think with two players we generally will use the expansion.

I need to try the game out with a few more players. I feel like 4 players would be a happy medium where it wouldn't be excessively long but still would be a lot of fun. Maybe soon I will get a chance to try that out.

I do like eclipse quite a bit, but after playing it a few times there are a few things that bug me about it that I don't think are likely to change depending on how many players you add. With these problems I have a hard time seeing how it is a top ten game... a good game, but it has some flaws I have trouble getting around. The first is the combat. I mean g's pretty uninspired. I feel like it just ends up being a rather boring roll-a-thon during big fights. It's not the worst combat system, nor is it inherently that terrible, but next to the beauty of the rest of the game it sticks out a bit as a sore thumb for me.

The other thing is the ridiculous number of little tokens. It gets a bit fiddle. I have the broken token organizer which does help a lot, but still the game feels like it is a bit bogged down by the ridiculous number of similar looking tokens.

Great game, just a few little flaws that stick out a bit to me.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 10:38 am

I agree with all of the above, although I very much also disliked the length of the game, even with only three players. There was too much to fiddle with, too much to think about, and too many ways to tank your economy with a bad move. Funny enough, the iPad version of the game is more fun, but it also highlights that, mechanically, the game is more about fiddling with pieces than it is about substance. Since the iPad does the fiddling for you, the game seems simplistic and a bit unoriginal.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 10:52 am

Blasphemy. The dice rolling is the Ameritrash in the Euro 4X. The penalty on overexpansion is real. I also like how the tech and exploration give you options to save a bad start.

Combat gets a bit long at times if you turtle, but my strategy has turned to getting into more battles early to get the best probability for high value VPs.

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Sat Jun 27, 2015 9:59 pm

Monthly game day!

Played Hanabi - fireworks co-op card game - where you can't see your own cards! My daughter greatly enjoyed this. We played twice with a couple other people and a quick game on our own as filler. First time we blew up, then we figured it out better and ran til we ran out of cards and scored "Excellent" both times. Kind of fun, definitely an interesting twist with not being able to see your own cards.

Tokaido - This was enjoyable, slightly goofed my understanding of one mechanic and didn't plan my last move quite well enough or I would have won instead of losing by 3 points or so. Found that to be entertaining. Kind of liked how people moved.

Istanbul - bad starting strategy, ended with a great plan and ability to execute, but lost as by that point, guy just needed 1 more ruby and he had the money to buy it and win. Interesting, bit of a headache though, so had a bit of trouble focusing.

Avalon - Camelot, questing knights, but 2 people (6 players) were traitors and tried to cause the missions to fail. Then you played sort of like Werewolf, discussing who the traitors were, except a few rounds. This was a lot of fun. Guessed the traitors in the first game, but one of them through me off completely when the second to the last mission, she was on and it succeeded. If it had failed, traitors would win. So she had fun, letting us go on one more quest before causing the traitor winning failure. And she had guessed (correctly) who Merlin was, so she would have won for them anyway. Second game, me and my kid were the traitors. Couldn't quite convince everyone else to let us win (got it close!). And totally blew the Merlin guess.

Finished up with a game of Love Letters to kill time. The girl who never played won.

Chrisoc13 · Post by **Chrisoc13** » Sun Jun 28, 2015 1:55 pm

Zenn7 wrote:
Istanbul - bad starting strategy, ended with a great plan and ability to execute, but lost as by that point, guy just needed 1 more ruby and he had the money to buy it and win. Interesting, bit of a headache though, so had a bit of trouble focusing.

Istanbul is a game I've been looking to play. Not sure why but it seems to intrigue me a fair amount. What are your general thoughts on it?

Last night we had our what is now becoming a regular game night with some friends and played Keyflower and Roll for the Galaxy.

Keyflower was new for me, and somehow I ended up pulling out the win. I really enjoyed this game actually. I found it quite enjoyable and fun. Simple, yet elegant with lots of areas for strategy. I managed to build a nice little ore machine and then score plenty of points based off my ore. Then I also collected red meeples and scored a great deal of points off all of my red meeples. It really worked out well. That's a game I could consider buying in the future. Really found it pretty interesting.

I taught roll for the galaxy to two new people, played a 4 player game. I still really enjoy the game. I think next time we are going to try race for the galaxy. The other players play a lot of race and have never played roll, and I play a lot of roll but have never played race so it should work out. The guy who really plays a lot of race really enjoyed roll but thinks he likes race better, but the other player who has played some race enjoyed roll more. So overall it went well. Great addition to my collection I must say.

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Sun Jun 28, 2015 5:37 pm

Chrisoc13 wrote:
Zenn7 wrote:
Istanbul - bad starting strategy, ended with a great plan and ability to execute, but lost as by that point, guy just needed 1 more ruby and he had the money to buy it and win. Interesting, bit of a headache though, so had a bit of trouble focusing.

Istanbul is a game I've been looking to play. Not sure why but it seems to intrigue me a fair amount. What are your general thoughts on it?

I enjoyed it, would play again. Not super-great, but good. Think it's definitely a game that benefits from more players (we had 5, think it would be much less interesting with only 2 or even 3). You have 16 areas, and any time you move to an area where another player is, you have to pay them to use the area (if more than one player is there, you have to pay each one that is there). With 5 players, we had that come up a couple times and/or come up that people didn't want to (or couldn't) so they had to modify their plans. With only 2 players, would not see that happening so much.
One of the guys playing said it reminded him of 5 Tribes. I've played that once before, didn't really see it other than how the random board tiles were laid out.

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Sun Jun 28, 2015 8:02 pm

I attempted to get my daughter (5) into Castle Panic. (My 3-year old played as well, which was basically me telling him what to do while praying he didn't bend the cards).

While she couldn't fully grasp every nuance of the game, she was able to understand from a high level what she could and couldn't hit, and the turn order (for simplicity's sake, I skipped over the ability to trade a card each turn back to the deck, and trades between players). We understandably got our asses handed to us, and she seemed to grow bored and went to go ride her bike.

However, the next day I found her excitedly "teaching" the game to my wife and wanting to play.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Sun Jun 28, 2015 8:04 pm

YellowKing wrote:I attempted to get my daughter (5) into Castle Panic. (My 3-year old played as well, which was basically me telling him what to do while praying he didn't bend the cards).

While she couldn't fully grasp every nuance of the game, she was able to understand from a high level what she could and couldn't hit, and the turn order (for simplicity's sake, I skipped over the ability to trade a card each turn back to the deck, and trades between players). We understandably got our asses handed to us, and she seemed to grow bored and went to go ride her bike.

However, the next day I found her excitedly "teaching" the game to my wife and wanting to play.

And so it begins...

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Jun 29, 2015 9:12 am

Saturday, Seppe came over for some Star Trek Attack Wing. I had just bought a star mat for our games, and we were determined to play out the Gorn episode from TOS.

I played the damn lizards, while Seppe was Kirk on the Enterprise. The mission starts off with the Enterprise bereft of its officers, as they're on Cestus III investigating the colony's destruction. That's when my Gorn raider attacks. The goal was for him to remain near the planet to beam back his officers, then destroy me. I was to destroy him before he rescued them, or run away if he was able to get them back onboard.

Fortunately, the dice gods were with me and, while I did injure him a bit, I was able to win by exiting the map...my recon data intact for my lizard overlords.

We then tried a 120 point tournament game, with me playing the Klingons and Seppe as the Feds. But that ended very quickly after I made some pretty ridiculous tactical errors and found myself with 1 ship destroyed, 1 ship near death and another ship apparently crewed by Laurel and Hardy within 5 turns. I surrendered rather abruptly.

That last game served to strengthen my belief that STAW is best when played with missions. The game really only sets itself apart from other games because of the heavy theme that comes from playing missions you've seen on the show (for me), and/or that give you a purpose beyond rushing to the center and shooting at each other.

Then we broke out Shadows of Malice, which I mentioned a few weeks ago in this thread. When playing with two, it takes on a new dynamic in comparison to solo games. Banding (the coop rule in the game that allows avatars to group for better actions) can be huge, if played right. We weren't able to stop the big bad from appearing, but we did kill him. I think we erred on our side with a few of the rules, but I still really enjoyed it.

Finally, we played a bit of Three Cheers for Master, which is like a card game version of Tetris. And finished the day off with some DC Dice Masters.