Octopus Overlords

Which of these games should I get do you think?
What if I could only afford say 5 of them?

Puerto Rico
Tigris & Euphrates
Caylus
BattleLore
Mission: Red Planet
Through The Desert
Samurai
Marvel Heroes Board Game
Blue Moon City
Ra
Beowulf: The Legend
Warrior Knights
Hive

Here is a link to my boardgames on the geek
My Boardgames to give you a taste of what I own and like.

Grafvolluth wrote:Which of these games should I get do you think?
What if I could only afford say 5 of them?

Puerto Rico
Tigris & Euphrates
Caylus
BattleLore
Mission: Red Planet
Through The Desert
Samurai
Marvel Heroes Board Game
Blue Moon City
Ra
Beowulf: The Legend
Warrior Knights
Hive

Here is a link to my boardgames on the geek
My Boardgames to give you a taste of what I own and like.

Without looking at your collection, I'd say start with the classics:
T&E
Puerto Rico
Through the Desert
Samurai
Ra

That said, I am a huge fan of Caylus and really enjoyed Blue Moon City in my three plays of it.

If you are interested in those, consider trimming Through the Desert and T&E (ugh, I hate saying that instead of Samurai, but Samurai plays equally well for 2-4).

If you rated Memoir '44 with an 8, I'd say that Battlelore is a no brainer. I love playing both games. I haven't played any of the other games on your list, so I can't help you with more than that.

Nice list of games, though. I should go out and add all of mine sometime.

Looks like you have a nice variety of games and aren't bound to a single genera. So then I'd try and mix it up.

T&E is a great strat game. Max 4 players, Min 3 (realistically). I've never played another tile game quite like it.

Puerto Rico is one of my favs of all time. It's all formula but the forumla always changes.

Caylus is one I love but haven't played enough to know for how long. It's Puerto Rico like kind of game, so I'd get one or the other.

I'm hearing fantastic things about Hive. It's seems to be the board game rave game right now but I haven't played it (or anything new in quite some time)

I really remember enjoying Ra but I honestly can't remember the game.

I got nothing on the rest of 'em.

Grafvolluth wrote:Which of these games should I get do you think?
What if I could only afford say 5 of them?

Hey, we have pretty similar tastes. Here are my thoughts on your list based on what you have and like:

Puerto Rico - this is a pretty safe bet
Tigris & Euphrates - another very good choice
Caylus - I'm not a big fan, but if you like Power Grid this one might be good as well
BattleLore - the new hotness, and if you play a lot of Memoir then this is safe.
Mission: Red Planet - I personally love this game, very tight and quick. It uses role selection similar to Citadels, which you don't rate very highly. This is far better.
Through The Desert - good but a little dry.
Samurai - a little dry but the goodness overrules.
Marvel Heroes Board Game - haven't played
Blue Moon City - I was a little underwhelmed by this, partially because I think I'm getting a little burnt out on the "Euro" style.
Ra - intriguingly difficult, quite good
Beowulf: The Legend - haven't played.
Warrior Knights - long and complex, but if you like Game of Thrones and have a group to play with this is another very safe bet.
Hive - haven't played

Based on what you've played and really liked (in particular Power Grid and A Game of Thrones) I would suggest Warrior Knights, Tigris and Euphrates, and maybe Caylus. Of the rest, I can recommend Puerto Rico, Samurai, Mission Red Planet and Ra, but none more than the others. Personally I like Samurai and Mission Red Planet more than the other two but that's just my taste.

Battlelore I think will be good in about a year, when the system has been fleshed out more. Right now the scenarios all seem to be "kill the other guy", which I find kind of dull after awhile. I'd like to see some of the more mission-based scenarios like Memoir eventually spawned.

Recommended;
Tigris & Euphrates
Battlelore (I enjoy it more than memoir '44)
Samurai (although it plays similar to T&E, so maybe you don't need both. If you only get one, get T&E).

Not on your list; Shogun, the Wallenstein remake.

I have been looking at Blue Moon City, Caylus and Warrior Knights myself, but haven't yet made the leap.

Top Five Suggested

Puerto Rico
Tigris & Euphrates
Blue Moon City
Ra
BattleLore (I didn't think BL was quite as good as C&C:A, but it's still very good. That gives you some juicy combat in your top five.)

Next Five
Through The Desert
Samurai
Hive (Not played, but own. Heard great things.)
Marvel Heroes Board Game (Heard good things)
Caylus (VERY Euro-y and mechanical. Some love that, others don't.)

Caveat Emptor
Mission: Red Planet (Looks just too cool, but far too chaotic. Try Citadels. Same designer.)
Beowulf: The Legend (actually, I liked this and would play again, but it threw a lot of people. Deeper than it looks, but no real "combat."
Warrior Knights (Just didn't seem to "work" all that well, and felt convoluted and Euro-y. Very unforgiving.)

We have pretty similar tastes in games as well. I would say these three are must haves:

Puerto Rico
Caylus
BattleLore

You seem to like Fantasy Flight games a lot, so I would get one of these two, depending on whether you want a fairly long wargame lite, or a shorter, more German style game.

Marvel Heroes Board Game
Warrior Knights

These three are all Knizia semi-abstract games. You don't seem to have anything like them on your list, so I'd probably get one to try them out. They are all good, but I think Tigris and Euphrates is the deepest.

Tigris & Euphrates
Samurai
Through The Desert

Ra - Is a ton of fun if you like crazy bidding games.
Blue Moon City - Didn't really grab me. I like the two player card game more.

I have not played these:

Beowulf: The Legend
Hive
Mission: Red Planet

LordMortis wrote:I got nothing on the rest of 'em.

samurai wrote:Part of the Knizia tile-laying trilogy, this game is ostensibly set in medieval Japan. Players use hexagonal tiles to surround cities, which have one to three different figures: rice paddies, buddhas, or high hats. The tiles represent influence on particular facets of the cities, and the highest influence on a figure when the city is surrounded takes that figure. The object of the game is to have more of any one else in one category, and then have the most remaining figures.

We played this. We liked it. We wanted to own a copy.

But yeah, mark me down as a thumbs up for

Puerto Rico
Caylus
T&Euphr
Samurai
Ra

Chaosraven wrote:

LordMortis wrote:I got nothing on the rest of 'em.

samurai wrote:Part of the Knizia tile-laying trilogy, this game is ostensibly set in medieval Japan. Players use hexagonal tiles to surround cities, which have one to three different figures: rice paddies, buddhas, or high hats. The tiles represent influence on particular facets of the cities, and the highest influence on a figure when the city is surrounded takes that figure. The object of the game is to have more of any one else in one category, and then have the most remaining figures.

We played this. We liked it. We wanted to own a copy.

But yeah, mark me down as a thumbs up for

Puerto Rico
Caylus
T&Euphr
Samurai
Ra

Hey look at that. Jow brought over a copy Samurai and I had a pretty good time with it. I don't know if it's a keep for me but I'd play it again. And you need to play it twice to "get it." The game play is simple but the player dynamic is dumbfounding on the first try. That or I am just dumb... which I am...

Samurai rocks my socks. High-quality bits and very engaging.

Caylus: Good but I have to be in the mood for it because it's a bit heavy for my tastes.

Blue Moon City: Good, but games are always very close, with the winner usually just one turn ahead of everyone else. This begins to give you the impression that you're on rails a bit.

Ra: I own it and after several plays I'm still not sure what I think. Interesting to play but I'm not sure how weighty your decisions end up being.

How has that Age of Mythology boardgame worked out? Anyone?

JonathanStrange wrote:How has that Age of Mythology boardgame worked out? Anyone?

A lot of people here love it. I was less than thrilled by it but would play it again. Remus hates it as he seems to do really well at it which quickly at the beginning of the game which creates a two on one situation that gets him beat down mercilessly and downright pisses him off.

Boudreaux wrote:

Grafvolluth wrote:Which of these games should I get do you think?
What if I could only afford say 5 of them?

Mission: Red Planet - I personally love this game, very tight and quick. It uses role selection similar to Citadels, which you don't rate very highly. This is far better.

First let me say thanks for the great feedback from everyone.

Actually I rated Citadels a 6 , which according to BGG scale is "Okay game that I will play if I am in the mood", in retrospect its probably more of a 7 ("Good Game usually willing to play") but if my memory serves me correctly it seemed to suffer from 'needs the right number of players to be fun'. Even though its suggested for 2-7 players... 2 is far too few and 7 was too many.

From the original list the only one I am iffy on eventually getting is Caylus, the rest I plan on purchasing at some point , although as pointed out not sure I need all 3 of tile laying trilogy from Knizia but if I find I like one I will probably get the other 2 since I am a bit OCD when it comes to buying habits.


And as someone noted for some reason I do have alot of FFG games, some of that is cus' they are based here in the Twin Cities so I like to pick up their games to support them, but also I think I like bits, lots of wooden, plastic, ceramic, whatever material bits which they seem to have in aces.

Grafvolluth wrote:From the original list the only one I am iffy on eventually getting is Caylus, the rest I plan on purchasing at some point , although as pointed out not sure I need all 3 of tile laying trilogy from Knizia but if I find I like one I will probably get the other 2 since I am a bit OCD when it comes to buying habits.

Caylus is good but the game is played with a simalar approach as is Puerto Rico. It's a bit more "fuck you," in general, and a bit more intimidating, at first. I wouldn't get them both at the same time. And if you haven't played a counter the other player before he goes game like this before then I would go PR first. Both games don't play well until you get four players and only play "right" at five.

JonathanStrange wrote:How has that Age of Mythology boardgame worked out? Anyone?

I thought it was god-awful and just a steal from Puerto Rico. Most people who used to lovce it have moved on to other games by now, like FFG games. I'm a hug fan of the PC game and I loathed the boardgame implementation.

The one Eagle game that was pretty good was Railroad Tycoon.

Age of Mythology...

...and Puerto Rico.

Hmmm..

I just got Tikal in the mail yesterday, but I haven't been able to play a complete game yet.

Tikal had limited play in our group. It was ok.

I'm wondering if he meant Caylus and Puerto Rico were similar as I can't get my head around Age of Mythology being like Puerto Rico.

(I'm still putting together the old Eon Cosmic Encounter set... wish me luck finding expansion nine as I don't think I want to pay $350 for an unopened #9 since all I want to do is open it...)

God help me I picked up Die Macher for $28.99 today off of Tanga.com

God knows if I will ever play it but it was such a good price on a game that seems to usually spoken of in great awe.

Chaosraven wrote: Tikal had limited play in our group. It was ok.

Exactly.

Chaosraven wrote: I'm wondering if he meant Caylus and Puerto Rico were similar as I can't get my head around Age of Mythology being like Puerto Rico.

That's precisely the point. It really doesn't work, though AoM fans crowed about the combination of Ameritrash and Eureogames. Please. The PR role mechanic was implemented more successfully in TI3, but it felt mashed on there as well.

Simply too many great games out now to spend time with the ones that tried and failed. We're in the middle of a boardgaming renaissance, thank god.

I'm not sure if there's any seriousness to this, but I don't find Caylus to be anything like Puerto Rico.

Jow wrote:I'm not sure if there's any seriousness to this, but I don't find Caylus to be anything like Puerto Rico.

The Make your choices with Limited Resource and Options as others pick Thing?

Jow wrote:I'm not sure if there's any seriousness to this, but I don't find Caylus to be anything like Puerto Rico.

The premise in both games is that each round has the same set of choice that is laid out in front of you for every one to pick. The game changes because of very small random factors and because group forces a switching of dynamic. Both games are games where you are not just trying to anticipate your opponents moves but rather to set events in motion that force your opponents to do things that are your best interests while not doing things that are in theirs. Puerto Rico is much overt about it which is why I think I like it better. Caylus is more subtle and sadly that subtlety is a failure IMO. It allows players to become more short sighted and vindictive and caught up in the "fuck you too" element of the game which then makes it more like your regular old king maker game.

As someone who has recently discovered "German Games", all I have to say is WHERE THE HELL WHERE THESE ALL MY LIFE? Since playing my first game of Memoir '44, I haven't even touched video games. I'm just absolutely addicted to the great artwork, bits, etc. of these games. My only problem is finding people to play with. My small town has a gaming store but the majority of people there play Warhammer, which I have ZERO interest in. I've got my wife playing a few of the easier ones (she still won't play Battlelore with me), and I've gotten a few non-gaming friends interested with Ticket to Ride.

Anyway, I just made an order for $200 worth of games.. I think I need professional help.

SlapBone wrote:I just got Tikal in the mail yesterday, but I haven't been able to play a complete game yet.

Tikal is fantastic, one of my all-time favorite games. It gets a few knocks for being prone to analysis paralysis, but I've never had a problem with it. It's almost purely tactical, and the game never seems to get old for me. Great, great game.

Boudreaux wrote:

SlapBone wrote:I just got Tikal in the mail yesterday, but I haven't been able to play a complete game yet.

Tikal is fantastic, one of my all-time favorite games. It gets a few knocks for being prone to analysis paralysis, but I've never had a problem with it. It's almost purely tactical, and the game never seems to get old for me. Great, great game.

I really like Tikal as well, but none of the people I game with seem to care for it, so it collects dust.

El-Producto wrote:As someone who has recently discovered "German Games", all I have to say is WHERE THE HELL WHERE THESE ALL MY LIFE? Since playing my first game of Memoir '44, I haven't even touched video games. I'm just absolutely addicted to the great artwork, bits, etc. of these games. My only problem is finding people to play with. My small town has a gaming store but the majority of people there play Warhammer, which I have ZERO interest in. I've got my wife playing a few of the easier ones (she still won't play Battlelore with me), and I've gotten a few non-gaming friends interested with Ticket to Ride.

Anyway, I just made an order for $200 worth of games.. I think I need professional help.

Nah, I need the help. I just discovered Fantasy Flight Games and immediately bought:

Descent
Runebound and all expansions
Arkham Horror and all expansions
Doom and expansion
World of Warcraft and expansion
Warcraft and expansion
Marvel Heroes
War of the Ring and expansion
Twilight Imperium

Now, if only I can find someone to play with . . . .

ioticus wrote:

El-Producto wrote:As someone who has recently discovered "German Games", all I have to say is WHERE THE HELL WHERE THESE ALL MY LIFE? Since playing my first game of Memoir '44, I haven't even touched video games. I'm just absolutely addicted to the great artwork, bits, etc. of these games. My only problem is finding people to play with. My small town has a gaming store but the majority of people there play Warhammer, which I have ZERO interest in. I've got my wife playing a few of the easier ones (she still won't play Battlelore with me), and I've gotten a few non-gaming friends interested with Ticket to Ride.

Anyway, I just made an order for $200 worth of games.. I think I need professional help.

Nah, I need the help. I just discovered Fantasy Flight Games and immediately bought:

Descent
Runebound and all expansions
Arkham Horror and all expansions
Doom and expansion
World of Warcraft and expansion
Warcraft and expansion
Marvel Heroes
War of the Ring and expansion
Twilight Imperium

Now, if only I can find someone to play with . . . .

OUCH! That wasn't a cheap outing I'm sure. I do however want all of those games.. with the exception of Twilight Imperium.. that frankly just scares me.

El-Producto wrote:

ioticus wrote:

El-Producto wrote:As someone who has recently discovered "German Games", all I have to say is WHERE THE HELL WHERE THESE ALL MY LIFE? Since playing my first game of Memoir '44, I haven't even touched video games. I'm just absolutely addicted to the great artwork, bits, etc. of these games. My only problem is finding people to play with. My small town has a gaming store but the majority of people there play Warhammer, which I have ZERO interest in. I've got my wife playing a few of the easier ones (she still won't play Battlelore with me), and I've gotten a few non-gaming friends interested with Ticket to Ride.

Anyway, I just made an order for $200 worth of games.. I think I need professional help.

Nah, I need the help. I just discovered Fantasy Flight Games and immediately bought:

Descent
Runebound and all expansions
Arkham Horror and all expansions
Doom and expansion
World of Warcraft and expansion
Warcraft and expansion
Marvel Heroes
War of the Ring and expansion
Twilight Imperium

Now, if only I can find someone to play with . . . .

OUCH! That wasn't a cheap outing I'm sure. I do however want all of those games.. with the exception of Twilight Imperium.. that frankly just scares me.

Ditto. I have an unused copy ot TI sitting on my shelf. I should just sell that sucker.

LordMortis wrote:

Boudreaux wrote:

SlapBone wrote:I just got Tikal in the mail yesterday, but I haven't been able to play a complete game yet.

Tikal is fantastic, one of my all-time favorite games. It gets a few knocks for being prone to analysis paralysis, but I've never had a problem with it. It's almost purely tactical, and the game never seems to get old for me. Great, great game.

I really like Tikal as well, but none of the people I game with seem to care for it, so it collects dust.

I completed a game with the kids Saturday night. Overall, I really liked it but my daughter beat me because she picked most of the treasure tiles and was in a position with her camps etc... to collect a large chunk of the available treasure. I think she ended up with 4 triplets and two pairs. Great strategy game.

hentzau wrote:

El-Producto wrote:

ioticus wrote:

El-Producto wrote:As someone who has recently discovered "German Games", all I have to say is WHERE THE HELL WHERE THESE ALL MY LIFE? Since playing my first game of Memoir '44, I haven't even touched video games. I'm just absolutely addicted to the great artwork, bits, etc. of these games. My only problem is finding people to play with. My small town has a gaming store but the majority of people there play Warhammer, which I have ZERO interest in. I've got my wife playing a few of the easier ones (she still won't play Battlelore with me), and I've gotten a few non-gaming friends interested with Ticket to Ride.

Anyway, I just made an order for $200 worth of games.. I think I need professional help.

Nah, I need the help. I just discovered Fantasy Flight Games and immediately bought:

Descent
Runebound and all expansions
Arkham Horror and all expansions
Doom and expansion
World of Warcraft and expansion
Warcraft and expansion
Marvel Heroes
War of the Ring and expansion
Twilight Imperium

Now, if only I can find someone to play with . . . .

OUCH! That wasn't a cheap outing I'm sure. I do however want all of those games.. with the exception of Twilight Imperium.. that frankly just scares me.

Ditto. I have an unused copy ot TI sitting on my shelf. I should just sell that sucker.

If you do sell it, make sure to post it here first .

Ænima wrote:If you do sell it, make sure to post it here first .

Someone here (GG actually) once was going to sell me a full set of Supremecy for like $80 because he hadn't played it since forever ago. As much as I really wanted to take him up on his offer, I told him he had to go to ebay and if he still wanted to sell it to me and that the most I'd give him was $200 irrespective of the value, as that was all the set was worth to me. I want to say he parted it out or sold it complete for $800 there.

For the life of me I don't remember who that was anymore.

Ænima wrote:

hentzau wrote:

El-Producto wrote:

ioticus wrote:

El-Producto wrote:As someone who has recently discovered "German Games", all I have to say is WHERE THE HELL WHERE THESE ALL MY LIFE? Since playing my first game of Memoir '44, I haven't even touched video games. I'm just absolutely addicted to the great artwork, bits, etc. of these games. My only problem is finding people to play with. My small town has a gaming store but the majority of people there play Warhammer, which I have ZERO interest in. I've got my wife playing a few of the easier ones (she still won't play Battlelore with me), and I've gotten a few non-gaming friends interested with Ticket to Ride.

Anyway, I just made an order for $200 worth of games.. I think I need professional help.

Nah, I need the help. I just discovered Fantasy Flight Games and immediately bought:

Descent
Runebound and all expansions
Arkham Horror and all expansions
Doom and expansion
World of Warcraft and expansion
Warcraft and expansion
Marvel Heroes
War of the Ring and expansion
Twilight Imperium

Now, if only I can find someone to play with . . . .

OUCH! That wasn't a cheap outing I'm sure. I do however want all of those games.. with the exception of Twilight Imperium.. that frankly just scares me.

Ditto. I have an unused copy ot TI sitting on my shelf. I should just sell that sucker.

If you do sell it, make sure to post it here first .

Yikes! Best game in there is WotR and expansion. I'm not too crazy about most in-house FFG stuff. They usually need a patch I mean expansion in order to work well. Very Ameritrah with little of the elegance that Euros have brought. AH would be really great if it weren't for som much die rolling; breaks the mood.

Natus wrote:

Ænima wrote:

hentzau wrote:

El-Producto wrote:

ioticus wrote:

El-Producto wrote:As someone who has recently discovered "German Games", all I have to say is WHERE THE HELL WHERE THESE ALL MY LIFE? Since playing my first game of Memoir '44, I haven't even touched video games. I'm just absolutely addicted to the great artwork, bits, etc. of these games. My only problem is finding people to play with. My small town has a gaming store but the majority of people there play Warhammer, which I have ZERO interest in. I've got my wife playing a few of the easier ones (she still won't play Battlelore with me), and I've gotten a few non-gaming friends interested with Ticket to Ride.

Anyway, I just made an order for $200 worth of games.. I think I need professional help.

Nah, I need the help. I just discovered Fantasy Flight Games and immediately bought:

Descent
Runebound and all expansions
Arkham Horror and all expansions
Doom and expansion
World of Warcraft and expansion
Warcraft and expansion
Marvel Heroes
War of the Ring and expansion
Twilight Imperium

Now, if only I can find someone to play with . . . .

OUCH! That wasn't a cheap outing I'm sure. I do however want all of those games.. with the exception of Twilight Imperium.. that frankly just scares me.

Ditto. I have an unused copy ot TI sitting on my shelf. I should just sell that sucker.

If you do sell it, make sure to post it here first .

Yikes! Best game in there is WotR and expansion. I'm not too crazy about most in-house FFG stuff. They usually need a patch I mean expansion in order to work well. Very Ameritrah with little of the elegance that Euros have brought. AH would be really great if it weren't for som much die rolling; breaks the mood.

That's a little harsh. While I'm a fan of the Euro games and have a general disdain for dice, I wouldn't just label these as not good. Some people like dice/chance a lot and are more interested in a strongly themed, dynamic world. American games excel at that.

I think Descent gives the closest feel to an RPG of any board game that can be played under three hours. WotR is probably the best epic two player game available (except for hardcore grognards), and I've had a blast the few times I've gotten to play TI3.

Different strokes and all that...

Holy crow, that's quite a purchase. Hope you're able to find folks to play with (especially the two-player stuff - I have a hard time getting those on the table these days).

I just ordered the following:

Lost Cities
Gulo Gulo (to play with my kids)
Ticket To Ride 1910 Expansion
Settlers of Catan
Runebound 2nd Edition
Arkham Horror
Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation
Mr. Jack
Shadows Over Camelot


I'm really excited, and it was hard not to order more. Damn, I'm addicted.

I also bought:

HeroScape
Catan Card Game
Dungeon Twister
Puerto Rico
BattleLore
Axis and Allies Revised
Duel of Ages
Age of Mythology
Conquest of the Empire
Nexus Ops
Betrayal at House on the Hill

Oh yeah, and several thousand card sleeves, a shit load of tackle boxes, and a wooden dice tower.

Some good gaming ahead (I hope).

El-Producto wrote:I just ordered the following:

Lost Cities
Gulo Gulo (to play with my kids)
Ticket To Ride 1910 Expansion
Settlers of Catan
Runebound 2nd Edition
Arkham Horror
Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation
Mr. Jack
Shadows Over Camelot


I'm really excited, and it was hard not to order more. Damn, I'm addicted.

We play quite a bit of Gulo Gulo in our house. My kids really like that, as well as Knuckling Knights.

Descent
Runebound and all expansions
Arkham Horror and all expansions
Doom and expansion
World of Warcraft and expansion
Warcraft and expansion
Marvel Heroes
War of the Ring and expansion
Twilight Imperium
HeroScape
Catan Card Game
Dungeon Twister
Puerto Rico
BattleLore
Axis and Allies Revised
Duel of Ages
Age of Mythology
Conquest of the Empire
Nexus Ops
Betrayal at House on the Hill


Holy shit, that's 20 games, not including their individual expansions. In one fell swoop I think you just ordered more games than I own. How'd you pull that off (and if you don't mind me asking, how much did that run ya approximately)? Are you new to the hobby?