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[FlyinJ]

It wasn't that they actively disliked it, more that all they wanted to play back then was Diplomacy. Which is an awesome game, but man, sometimes you want to play something different.

I love RoboRally, as do my friends. However, it involves waaay too much card shuffling and dealing. You're shuffling this huge deck, then dealing out 9 to 3 cards to every person every round.

I wish you could buy an automatic card shuffler that allowed you to specify how many cards to spit out. We'd play a lot more RoboRally if we had something like this.

 

[Zalasta]

Speaking of conventions, if anyone is close to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, you should consider going to BGG.con, held by the biggest boardgaming website. It's 3 and half days of open boardgaming, and since it's held in November. Most, if not all of the new Essen releases will be available to play. I went last year and had a blast.

 

[FnordChan]

Thank you sir! I'm picking this up tonight.

I'm kinda scared of the King in Yellow after reading your play reports. :X

The King in Yellow, especially when it's the only expansion in play, can be a pretty solid kick in the ass. If you wanted one of the cheaper card only expansions it's the most difficulty for your buck. That said, I have a great deal of affection for Curse of the Dark Pharoh, which has a lot of theme and ramps up the difficulty significantly, but not as harshly as KiY. For your twenty bucks you can't go wrong either way.

That said, iapetus is right: if you're buying one Arkham Horror expansion you want the Dunwich Horror. It adds all manner of cool stuff to the game: new characters, the extra board, new mechanics (particularly the injury and madness cards), and tons of nifty stuff. It's absolutely worth the scratch if you play Arkham on even a semi-regular basis.

(In case you're wondering, the verdict is still out on Kingsport Horror for our group. We like it, but you really need someone patrolling the sub-board and it's just not that exciting up there. The new characters are awesome, however.)

Finally, I can second the Princes of Florence recommendation as well. Man, I need to dust that one off, it's been a while.

FnordChan

 

[slayn]

Not a bad idea in theory but I don't think this would work in practice. I don't think you could properly spawn all the initial monsters. The way it's written, there are only a couple of monsters in designated spots on the map. The Overlord then picks a batch of monsters to spawn and places them anywhere on the board that isn't in the designated line of sight area. It would be awkward, not to mention unfair, to reveal those spawns as the heroes moved through the dungeon, Hero Quest-style.

actually, if I remember correctly, the overlord isn't allowed to spawn monsters in rooms that the heroes haven't opened yet. The point of spawning monsters is to put monsters *behind* the heroes that harass them as they keep trying to move forward. At least that is how we did it.

So like when the heroes turn that first corner, you start spawning monsters at the entrance. Unless the compaign version has very different monster spawning rules.

And even if you lay out the whole board ahead of time, the heroes are definitely not supposed to see the monsters/treasure until they enter the room that has them. At least in the base rules, it is as you say 'hero quest style.'

 

[TimeKillr]

I don't see how there can be such a strategy - certainly not by a single player, because it'll only ever work sitting in a particular position in the auction. There may be a best possible strategy for the first auction, but even then it only takes a single player to push the price up beyond the optimum level on the relevant item and it all falls to pieces.

I'll ask my buddies what it was exactly - I didn't play it as much as they did, but iirc it had something to do with winning something very specific in an auction. I don't remember the details exactly. I shall be back with more!

Let me guess... the complainers also rarely win?

Not necessarily. It's just that these 2 players are crazy hardcore power gamers, and they hate losing (and being in a losing situation). They love german games because they don't have much direct interaction, so if they're in a situation of power they can't just be attacked directly. I tried introducing Twilight Imperium the last time we played - we all agreed it was fun, but it took a long time to get the game started, and as I said some of the people in our group took so freaking long for their turns it became unbearable.

In any case, it's not that they rarely win, it's that they hate spending 3 hours on something they know they'll lose. They'd rather want it to get done quickly so they can start over. To them, if you don't finish first, you lose (even in a 5-player game).

I have a different approach to these games - quite often if I'm in a losing position and I know there's nothing I can do to salvage my position, I go into disruption mode. I pick out someone who's strongest and make crazy suicide attacks, whittling their defenses and generally doing very unsafe things because I don't care about the outcome of the game. Strangely I've won some games playing that way because then the other players, who are too much involved in their own thing and what their closest opponents are doing, start ignoring me. That's a huge mistake - this lets me do whatever I want, whenever I want, and I leave with the victory, although it doesn't make much sense

 

[AstroLad]

Speaking of conventions, if anyone is close to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, you should consider going to BGG.con, held by the biggest boardgaming website. It's 3 and half days of open boardgaming, and since it's held in November. Most, if not all of the new Essen releases will be available to play. I went last year and had a blast.

Yeah, I would love to go to that. I was actually batting around the idea of going to GenCon this year but not sure. I'm not really into the fantasy/anime stuff they have there so I don't know if it would be worth it to spend three or four days there (although my wife was surprisingly excited by the idea).

They must have some of these bigger conventions on the east coast too right?

 

[FnordChan]

They must have some of these bigger conventions on the east coast too right?

While gaming is only a part of it's everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach, with approximately 30,000 attendees each year there's still plenty of gaming to be had at DragonCon in Atlanta. As for GenCon, I've never been but my understanding is that gaming is really the focus, and while that generally means RPGA tournament Dungeons and Dragons, there will likely be more boardgaming than you can shake a stick at.

Meanwhile, it's a shame it conflicts with Animazement every year, else I'd probably actually try to play some games at DixieCon here in town, rather than kibitz as I used to before my Memorial Day weekends were spoken for.

FnordChan

 

[AstroLad]

While gaming is only a part of it's everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach, with approximately 30,000 attendees each year there's still plenty of gaming to be had at DragonCon in Atlanta. As for GenCon, I've never been but my understanding is that gaming is really the focus, and while that generally means RPGA tournament Dungeons and Dragons, there will likely be more boardgaming than you can shake a stick at.

Meanwhile, it's a shame it conflicts with Animazement every year, else I'd probably actually try to play some games at DixieCon here in town, rather than kibitz as I used to before my Memorial Day weekends were spoken for.

FnordChan

Hmm may check it out then. Hopefully there is something big in NY/NJ/MA at some point.

GenCon has a huge game library and a 24-hour room for board gaming apparently. That's just badass. Haven't been to any sort of convention since I was a kid (which I used to go to the Chicago Comicon all the time) but seems fun.

 

[Zalasta]

They must have some of these bigger conventions on the east coast too right?

There are also plenty of local conventions that gear more towards boardgames rather than a conglomerate of everything gaming and/or geek related. Which state(s) are you thinking of?

Hmm may check it out then. Hopefully there is something big in NY/NJ/MA at some point.

List of game conventions on BGG

 

[AstroLad]

NJ/NY pretty much. I am probably unfairly biased toward the bigger conventions since as a kid I remember loving Chicago Comicon but feeling a bit creeped out at the small conventions.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

Have you ever tried:

?

:lol

Heh, always wanted to check that out just for the lulz. But the only other racing boardgame I've played would be Ave Caesar.

 

[iapetus]

Heh, always wanted to check that out just for the lulz. But the only other racing boardgame I've played would be Ave Caesar.

Formula De is where it's at.

 

[Gatekeeper]

Formula De is where it's at.

You are my first favorite mod.

I killed so much time playing in a Formula De' League 7-8 years ago. we did the entire circuit then finished it off with the 10th anniversary track. Time trials and everything before each race.

 

[Gatekeeper]

Hmm may check it out then. Hopefully there is something big in NY/NJ/MA at some point.

GenCon has a huge game library and a 24-hour room for board gaming apparently. That's just badass. Haven't been to any sort of convention since I was a kid (which I used to go to the Chicago Comicon all the time) but seems fun.

Man, I could write a dissertation on all the shit at GenCon there is to do. You could easily spend all 4 days in the Board Gaming area and not play everything and easily avoid the fantasy/anime stuff. The dealer hall is some 160,000 square feet of publishing companies and specialty stores and is the place to find anything you need. Last year, the con expanded into electronic gaming and had 10-20 publishers or developers showing off games. This year they're adding an E-game arena for DS & PSP play, and Video Games Live is doing performances Friday and Saturday night at the Indianapolis Symphony. There's even usually a Colts preseason game the same weekend, although now its across the street at the new stadium and not in the same dome. Shit, even people watching is a trip. And the media celebrities. I've met J. Michael Strazynski, Ernie Hudson, James Marsters, Billy Dee Williams, and Tricia Helfer.

Seriously, I recommend anybody who's in to hobby gaming at all make the trip once. It's pretty much Mecca.

 

[AstroLad]

Man, I could write a dissertation on all the shit at GenCon there is to do. You could easily spend all 4 days in the Board Gaming area and not play everything and easily avoid the fantasy/anime stuff. The dealer hall is some 160,000 square feet of publishing companies and specialty stores and is the place to find anything you need. Last year, the con expanded into electronic gaming and had 10-20 publishers or developers showing off games. This year they're adding an E-game arena for DS & PSP play, and Video Games Live is doing performances Friday and Saturday night at the Indianapolis Symphony. There's even usually a Colts preseason game the same weekend, although now its across the street at the new stadium and not in the same dome. Shit, even people watching is a trip. And the media celebrities. I've met J. Michael Strazynski, Ernie Hudson, James Marsters, Billy Dee Williams, and Tricia Helfer.

Seriously, I recommend anybody who's in to hobby gaming at all make the trip once. It's pretty much Mecca.

It sounds great; I think I'm going to wait 'til next year and hopefully visit a few other conventions before then. Looks like the hotel rooms are all booked up so I dunno maybe too late to get in this year. Also my wife is just now getting into all these games so I figure she'll have a lot more experience when next year rolls around and be able to play a lot more of the games.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

Formula De is where it's at.

I agree, and I did mention it in an earlier post. However, I only have the original track that came with the game, and can't find any of the expansions.

I know Formula De is due to a re-release, but I'm a bet hesitant on that one after hearing they'll be messing with the game mechanics.

 

[AstroLad]

I've seen them on sale, but they are pricey. I'm waiting for a re-release since I'm kind of sadly accumulating a tabletop backlog here (Arkham Horror mostly).

Also I just picked up a new timer, mostly for me to put the clamps down on my wife and her five-minute-long perfect Mr. Jack moves.

 

[AstroLad]

Had a crushing and rare early-game U.S. Twilight Struggle victory this weekend thanks to a quick move by on the Middle East and two early Middle East scoring rounds. Getting to space race (five moves up the track in two turns) also helped. I've said it before, but I enjoy Twilight Struggle so much more than the still-awesome 1960, though ironically, playing 1960 first makes learning Twilight Struggle much quicker, and also makes you appreciate the mechanics in Twilight Struggle that much more.

This brings my streak at "my games" (1960, Twilight Struggle, Catan card game) to seven, although my losing streak at "my wife's games" (Ticket to Ride, Mr. Jack) went to six. Gotta love balance. At least we go tit-for-tat on Last Night on Earth, even in groups, which is a bit ironic considering some seem to think it's rather unbalanced (although imo they probably haven't played the game enough).

Pre-ordered/ordered the following (in a bit of a wargamey mood):

Conflict of Heroes

Have not played it myself, but a beautiful card-draw game with supposedly "elegant" (read: simple) rules.

For the People

A slightly less elegant but still relatively straightforward card-draw game. Also not really quite in the mood to spend >$100 for new versions of the similar We the People or Battle Cry.

Waiting on the following pre-order/orders: Mr. Jack Expansion, A Touch of Evil: The Supernatural Game, Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries

 

[FnordChan]

The only game I played this weekend was Illuminati with both expansions. It turned out to be a very low-powered game, with Bavaria across the table openly despairing, Discordia making a good attempt at the win (only to be stymied with a special card), and, ironically, while Shagri-La got the only two high-powered cards that showed up - the CIA and the Defense Contractors - she was too sleepy to really take advantage of her ability to beat the hell out of the other players. Yours truly won the game as the UFOs, announcing my victory with a privileged attack and a hearty "Praise Bob!" when it succeeded. Hurrah for the Subgenius victory condition - one card less than everyone else's general victory condition - and the entire table overlooking the artifact (specifically, Hitler's Brain) that I had beside my power structure.

In other news, something I should have mentioned earlier is that Fantasy Flight is running an Arkham Horror league this summer, with scenarios coming out every couple of weeks. With only two of the eight scenarios currently available, it's not too late for any avid fans here to jump in. My local team, The Bavarian Horror, has had two solid wins. The first was interesting in that we had three players and very few clues on the board, leading to one of the only times I've seen the Science Building's power (exchange five toughness or one gate trophy for two clue tokens) used extensively. Thanks to leaving a few strategic gates open we were able to get six seals on Yig, not bad for a 10 turn doom track. Meanwhile, in our second game, four brave adventurers kicked the shit out of Nyarlathotep in about an hour and a half. So far so good...but the next scenario will send us to Dunwich, at which point things may start to get ugly. We'll see how it goes.

FnordChan

 

[iapetus]

Thanks to FnordChan (shakes fist) I discovered I was missing an Arkham expansion, so picked up Kingsport Horror at the weekend. Haven't played it yet - I suspect I need a larger table.

Along with it, I grabbed Pandemic. Didn't take long to realise that it was far too easy (even though we'd ignored the recommendation to start on the introductory difficulty level), as we romped to three cures, abusing the role combo of Scientist and Dispatcher horribly (the Dispatcher got the two together in the appropriate places and handed off cards to the Scientist to research cures).

Then the final disease went critical and everybody died.

Second attempt was very different. We went with different randomly selected roles - medic and operation specialist. The medic proved outstanding at keeping diseases under control, and the operation specialist set up a network of research stations that made it easy to jet around the world as required. The diseases never had a chance - we completely obliterated one, and kept the others under control to the point that we only had a handful of outbreaks. Time was the biggest enemy, as it happened - we finished the final cure with only four or so turns left.

This one's great fun, and quite different. I was worried that the simple rules and mechanics might make it a bit dull, but it turned out fine. The epidemic mechanic works particularly well - after initially finding the rules for epidemics a little strange it suddenly made a lot of sense as we went into the first game.

Will definitely play again, and it looks like it might make a decent enough solitaire game as well.

 

[AstroLad]

I'm picking up Pandemic for our group games; goes along well with Last Night on Earth.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

A slightly less elegant but still relatively straightforward card-draw game. Also not really quite in the mood to spend >$100 for new versions of the similar We the People or Battle Cry.

Isn't Battle Cry the first to use Richard Borg's game system? You can spend less and pick up something like Memoir 44, C&C Ancients, or Battlelore. Of course, if you wanted the Civil War setting that doesn't really help...

 

[AstroLad]

Yes, quite like Memoir '44. I think with For the People coming in I'm going to hold off on getting my own copy for now though.

 

[Arkaerial]

Interesting that I stumbled across this thread since I have been wanting to play a board game as of late.

Well after reading this thread I ended up ordering Arkham Horror with the Dark Pharaoh and Dunwich Horror expansions...tried for the King in the Yellow but it seems to be sold out everywhere. Hopefully I'll have it by the end of the week to try and get my friends (and maybe my girlfriend to play).

 

[XiaNaphryz]

Interesting that I stumbled across this thread since I have been wanting to play a board game as of late.

Well after reading this thread I ended up ordering Arkham Horror with the Dark Pharaoh and Dunwich Horror expansions...tried for the King in the Yellow but it seems to be sold out everywhere. Hopefully I'll have it by the end of the week to try and get my friends (and maybe my girlfriend to play).

I know it's been mentioned several times in the thread already, but it bears repeating - go through a few solo runs first and try to get a good sense of the rules and game flow. There's numerous player aids available that can help speed things up as well, dig through the thread for some links.

 

[Arkaerial]

I know it's been mentioned several times in the thread already, but it bears repeating - go through a few solo runs first and try to get a good sense of the rules and game flow. There's numerous player aids available that can help speed things up as well, dig through the thread for some links.

Thanks again, yeah that is why I was hoping to get it before the end of the week. So I can hopefully do at least 2 dry runs. Just look at the components included and what it looks like set up has a slight intimidating factor to it.

 

[FnordChan]

Thanks again, yeah that is why I was hoping to get it before the end of the week. So I can hopefully do at least 2 dry runs. Just look at the components included and what it looks like set up has a slight intimidating factor to it.

Start with the basic set before jumping in with the expansions. You can integrate Curse of the Dark Pharaoh anytime you like after that - it fleshes out the game nicely and the increase in difficulty is fairly modest - but things really crank up once you introduce Dunwich into the mix. And, as mentioned, the solo runs will really help ensure that when you're sitting there with your friends you aren't spending too much time setting up or flipping through the rulebook - Arkham Horror is basically perfect for solo play, so after a couple of dry runs you'll be ready for just about anything. Let us know how it goes!

FnordChan

 

[Zalasta]

Thanks to FnordChan (shakes fist) I discovered I was missing an Arkham expansion, so picked up Kingsport Horror at the weekend. Haven't played it yet - I suspect I need a larger table.

Have you preordered this one yet?

 

[iapetus]

Have you preordered this one yet?

No, but I'll be picking it up from my local game store when it comes out.

 

[AstroLad]

Have any of you ever tried http://wargameroom.com/? Apparently they have 1960, C&C: Ancients, Twilight Struggle, Hannibal and many others available for play online.

Some of you may know that I think an electronic versions can dilute, and sometimes even ruin board games, but it seems interesting nevertheless.

I would definitely love to play some gaffers at TS or 1960 if it's workable.

 

[dreadfulwater]

Have you preordered this one yet?

holy shit thats one cool fucking cover.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

Have any of you ever tried http://wargameroom.com/? Apparently they have 1960, C&C: Ancients, Twilight Struggle, Hannibal and many others available for play online.

Some of you may know that I think an electronic versions can dilute, and sometimes even ruin board games, but it seems interesting nevertheless.

I would definitely love to play some gaffers at TS or 1960 if it's workable.

I've known about the various electronic versions, but have never tried them. If there's interest, I'd be down for some TS or 1960.

 

[AstroLad]

I've known about the various electronic versions, but have never tried them. If there's interest, I'd be down for some TS or 1960.

Let me try it out and let me know if you happen to get it working. I downloaded the TS file but clicking on the .bat per the instructions didn't do anything for me (could be a Vista issue; I hope not).

In related news I just ordered/pre-ordered Hannibal, Pandemic, and Nordic Countries. Whoo.

 

[FlyinJ]

After preordering the reprint of Race for the Galaxy four months ago, it finally got here. Can't wait to give it a try.

 

[Flynn]

Speaking of conventions, if anyone is close to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, you should consider going to BGG.con, held by the biggest boardgaming website. It's 3 and half days of open boardgaming, and since it's held in November. Most, if not all of the new Essen releases will be available to play. I went last year and had a blast.

Interesting. One of the regulars in our board game group is pushing for this show over GenCon. Tell me more.

 

[AstroLad]

Interesting. One of the regulars in our board game group is pushing for this show over GenCon. Tell me more.

Considering about going to that as well with my wife. I don't post very much on BGG though so I don't know if it would be worth it. Seems fun though. Maybe if enough gaffers went. Otherwise it would probably be just my wife and me playing Twilight Struggle and Ticket to Ride like every other night. :lol

 

[AstroLad]

Well I finally get wargameroom to work. It's definitely a very, very barebones approach but it's hard to complain when they've got the entire ruleset for 10+ great games (including two of my top five, 1960 and Twilight Struggle) implemented in there. I think I'll be sticking to the tabletop versions though; not having the cards in my hand and the little support blocks to move around was just wrong.

Managed to snag Antiquity today as well.

 

[jakncoke]

anyone ever play apples too apples ? fun game, needs card expansion packs though(perhaps already out?). If you never played it before, say you have 8 ppl playing. You get 7 cards. There is 8 rounds, each round 1 person reads off a subject card and out of the cards you were dealt you have to give a card that is a) closest to the subject b) what you think the person will pick. the person that read the subject then chooses which he thinks best or you can create your own rules like my family did and choose the top 3 and have a point system going on.

 

[platypotamus]

I've got a Descent night tomorrow night. We're playing with the Road To Legend (I think? Campaign based) expansion. Just entering our second dungeon (and then we've got to book it to save one of the cities from the Overlord's Lt.). I loves me some Descent.

Last week, I played Citadels and Ticket To Ride one night, and the same dude won both games by a single point (I was in second on Ticket To Ride, dead last on Citadels).

We were playing Citadels by candlelight because the power went out :lol

 

[Zalasta]

Interesting. One of the regulars in our board game group is pushing for this show over GenCon. Tell me more.

Hmmm...well, it really depends on what you are looking for in a convention. GenCon is pretty much all encompassing, probably with a heavier emphasis on RPG. I've only been to it once, and it was just for half a day (plus I wasn't really into tabletop stuff back then), so I can't really make any more comparison than that.

I got into boardgaming last summer. Found BGG and shortly after registered for the BGG.con. It's very unusual for me to do that, but I was enthusiastic. Luckily I was able to get to know a few people at some local events a couple of weeks prior to BGG.con, so I didn't have to go alone.

Basically if you like boardgaming, then this is 72+ hours of bliss for you. The owner of the BGG website bring in his own collection (1500+ games?) and you can check them out to play. Since it is held pretty much right after Essen, a lot of people will be bringing many of the newest titles just debuted and released in Germany. These are stuff that you may not see until well into 2009 and some won't even be published here domestically, so unless you or someone in your gaming group imports them, you won't be able to play them anywhere else. Lots of prototypes from aspiring designers as well as companies (such as Fantasy Flight Games, Z-Man and Rio Grande) testing pre-released stuff. Free drawings every evenings (there is a prize table during registeration, so you are guaranteed at least one free game I believe). They have puzzle hunt and will probably have Rock Band set up again if you want something different. Wargames have a presence there albeit a small one. Then there is of course Werewolf being played late into the night. Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the Texas Hold'em tournament.

People are friendly and I don't remember ever having a hard time finding a game (I turned down many because I was just not interested in playing some of what was offered). Some go with a checklist of stuff they want to try, because this is the place to be if you are looking for obscure or hard to find items AND someone that could possibly teach them to you. Since this is held for the sole purpose of playing boardgames, I would recommend it over all other conventions (because let's face it, GenCon, Origins DragonCon, etc are more geared towards the marketing of games) if that's what you want to do.

 

[FnordChan]

Managed to snag Antiquity today as well.

Based on the one half-game I managed to play, Antiquity is completely awesome in a not-fucking-around sort of difficulty level. About the time my group figured out what we were doing (with the teacher, who had played two previous partial games, trying to re-learn the rules along the way) we'd all entered our death spirals and figured we'd play another game sometime now that we had an idea of how it worked. That was six months ago, but I'm hoping to actually play a full game come New Years. If I can find a copy for a quasi-reasonable price at DragonCon I may go crazy and pick it up, though god knows when or if I'd have the chance to play it.

FnordChan

 

[AstroLad]

Based on the one half-game I managed to play, Antiquity is completely awesome in a not-fucking-around sort of difficulty level. About the time my group figured out what we were doing (with the teacher, who had played two previous partial games, trying to re-learn the rules along the way) we'd all entered our death spirals and figured we'd play another game sometime now that we had an idea of how it worked. That was six months ago, but I'm hoping to actually play a full game come New Years. If I can find a copy for a quasi-reasonable price at DragonCon I may go crazy and pick it up, though god knows when or if I'd have the chance to play it.

I ambled through a couple of games, but I'm also going to have to learn from scratch. What I like is the varying approaches depending on the saints and the resultingly different gameplay. I think it's clearly comparable to Civ, but I prefer unique victory conditions to Civ's more generic approach. It will definitely take 2-3 playthroughs before we have any sense of what we're doing, but once again my wife and I will be the happy test subjects before we play with friends.

FWIW this place is selling it new for $117 CAD, which is a good deal cheaper than I've seen it most places recently.
http://www.fungamescafe.com/fgcIndex.php?command=showgame&gameId=335

People are friendly and I don't remember ever having a hard time finding a game (I turned down many because I was just not interested in playing some of what was offered). Some go with a checklist of stuff they want to try, because this is the place to be if you are looking for obscure or hard to find items AND someone that could possibly teach them to you. Since this is held for the sole purpose of playing boardgames, I would recommend it over all other conventions (because let's face it, GenCon, Origins DragonCon, etc are more geared towards the marketing of games) if that's what you want to do.

I'm seriously considering going; will have to see what my vacation schedule is like. Do people bring their own games as well or just use the library?

 

[Seth C]

Hey, can anyone give a recommendation of one good board game to get? I will say that I play Catan on Xbox Live and love it, so perhaps I should go for that, but I want suggestions. The only real restriction is that it can't be something too hard to find, as I'd like to go pick it up today for playing tonight and over the weekend. I have several good comic/gaming shops in town though, so any of the reasonably popular games should be available.

Also, a couple friends of mine are headed to Indy GenCon, so I'm thinking of going with them. Anyone else going?

 

[AstroLad]

Hey, can anyone give a recommendation of one good board game to get? I will say that I play Catan on Xbox Live and love it, so perhaps I should go for that, but I want suggestions. The only real restriction is that it can't be something too hard to find, as I'd like to go pick it up today for playing tonight and over the weekend. I have several good comic/gaming shops in town though, so any of the reasonably popular games should be available.

How many players do you plan on playing with most often?

 

[Seth C]

How many players do you plan on playing with most often?

It would probably be 3-4 people most often.

 

[The Blue Jihad]

I have a different approach to these games - quite often if I'm in a losing position and I know there's nothing I can do to salvage my position, I go into disruption mode. I pick out someone who's strongest and make crazy suicide attacks, whittling their defenses and generally doing very unsafe things because I don't care about the outcome of the game.

You and I would get along very very well. I have the same strategy. If I'm going down, I'm taking someone down with me.

 

[AstroLad]

It would probably be 3-4 people most often.

Ok, you have a lot of choices then. If you liked Catan, you really can't go wrong with that for 3-4. The three expansions are good too, Cities & Knights in particular. Another all-time classic is Puerto Rico. By the way, you can check out all these games and pics, rules, etc. at boardgamegeek.

If you're looking for something with a bit more interesting theme (I love the mechanics in games like Catan, but sometimes the style/theme just bores to death in a bigger group), I can recommend Last Night on Earth, which is a 2-6 player zombie game with two sides that works great with any number of people. Perfect for a horror-themed night. Memoir '44 is a pretty, easy to pick up and play hex-based wargame.

If you want something basic but very fun with 3-4, try Ticket to Ride. You can play it free online and check out the rules as well, but it's a simple game where you build a train line across America to get points and completely your unique "tickets" and the fun starts when you start screwing the other players by blocking their lines.

Finally, my personal favorite for 4 or more is Robo Rally. Each player has a robot and you race to various flags on different maps through different environments and obstacles. The game is great because your make moves based on what's in your hand, and sometimes you have to be very creative if you don't get the right cards. Also, the robots shoot and push each other and it's impossible to know where exactly others will go so mayhem always ensues when you have four or more.

 

[platypotamus]

Tigris and Euphrates is awesome (4 player max). Essentially, you are settling the Tigris/Euphrates region. You earn points in four categories (religion, farming, political, trade). Final victor is determined by the whoever has the highest value for their LOWEST score. Only your lowest counts for that victory, forcing you to balance your advancement. Tons of fun, often pretty unpredictable, and very strategic. I've been itching to play it lately, but we've had more than 4 folks.

 

[AstroLad]

Finally got to sit down for a real (solo) game of Arkham this weekend and it's fun as hell. Can't wait to teach it to my wife; going to be fun to have some co-op action. Setup is hilariously long though.

 

[AstroLad]

After that playthrough, and reading through all the rules, flowcharts, and guides again (as well as perusing the Rules section of the BGG sub-forum), there is no doubt in my mind that 95% of people inevitably play Arkham Horror in a fundamentally wrong way (see esp.: flying monsters, gate closing rules and effects, varying discard rules).

Fun as hell though; can't wait to pick up the expansions. We have a really big gaming table but that we'll definitely be testing its limits.

Looking forward to getting this set up:

:lol

Super late edit: The really fun thing about single-player AH is that "one more turn" feeling that you get from great strategy games like Civ. I've been playing maybe 30-60 minutes a day for a few days, but even when I woke up this morning I had to do "just one quick turn" before heading out. When you're just a few gates away from winning, it's so tempting to take one jump into the Other Worlds, and then you think, "well I'm already there, might as well progress all the way until I seal." Then you fail the fight check, have to clear out a few monsters, and before you know it you've been playing for an hour or more.

pps Won my first game of AH. I won't really consider it a "legit" win since it was my first time and I probably only followed around 90% of the rules in total, though I think the misses cut both ways (e.g., occasionally skipped a rumor roll, but also earlier was playing such that flying monsters moved regardless of symbol, bunch of little things like that). Still, beat Yog-Soggoth (two investigators) by sealing the last gate with one sanity just when the terror track had gone to 10 and even the doom track was only three markers away. Really looking forward to my first "proper" game. I'm a stickler for rules and this game certainly works out your rule muscles. I think I've learned nearly every nook and cranny (as relates to just the base game of course), although certainly the various interactions between the different mechanics seem to present new rule issues on a regular basis (which I find fun actually).

Next game for sure I will focus much more on keeping the terror track down. For whatever reason I was scared to fight monsters early on even though Monty had some badass weapons and items to handle them and the terror track really started to get out of control the last ten or so turns even though my investigators themselves weren't really getting battered or anything. Just one gate rush away from having to face Yog-Soggoth thanks to the Terror Track=10, Monsters 2x limit rule. Of course even the sealing victory itself was tenuous, I think I would have absolutely annihilated Yog thanks to his lack of Physical Immunity/Resistance and the +6 and +7 my investigators were getting from their physical weapons alone.