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[ianp622]

Just finished playing the original Squad Leader with my mom today. She bought it in 1980 (the receipt was still in the box) and had never played it before a couple days ago. Since we were learning the first game took place over a couple of days

I think the calculations and rules can get a little overbearing, but once you get used to it, the tactical elements really shine in even the most simplistic scenarios.

So my mini-review from only about a sixth of the full instructions (it uses programmed instructions so you learn as you go)

Likes:
- Seems like a faithful representation of combat
- Haven't come upon rules that don't make logical sense
- Rules enforce good tactical movement strategies and tactics
- Scenarios set up really interesting games

Dislikes:
- Lots of calculations and line of sight checks (because LOS is checked against symbols in hexes, not the hexes themselves)
- Can get a little slow because of the calculations
- Pieces are difficult to manipulate because you have to have stacks of them (sometimes more than 5 pieces in a single hex) and you have to pull them apart to look at their stats.

I will definitely be playing again with my mom, and I hope to advance to more complicated rules once we get a hang of the basic ones. Who knows, we might even buy Advanced Squad Leader someday.

 

[AstroLad]

Yeah, that's why Catan is probably the most popular gateway game (even ahead of TtR); you can appreciate the depth right from your first play and there's enough luck to keep things fairly close.

yeha.

but man...that board is a fucking pain in the ass to set up. the outside pieces just wont stay together correctly

It can be a bit finicky, and it could certainly stand to be nicer and better fitting but it's not too bad.

 

[killdatninja]

Looks like the Arkham Horror Innsmouth Horror expansion released a few days ago. I still haven't purchased any expansions (I still need to play the game more, argg ).

http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=574
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/40776

* 1 Rulebook
* 1 Game Board
* 16 Investigator Sheets
* 16 Investigator Markers
* 16 Plastic Investigator Stands
* 96 Personal Story Cards
* 8 Ancient One Sheets
* 2 Herald Sheets
* 36 Arkham Location Cards
* 42 Innsmouth Location Cards
* 36 Mythos Cards
* 16 Gate Cards
* 24 Ancient One Plot Cards
* 10 Innsmouth Look Cards
* 12 Small Dust Cards
* 32 Monster Markers
* 6 Deep One Uprising Tokens
* 8 Ghatanothoa’s Visage Tokens
* 2 Aquatic Markers
* 1 Zhar Token

 

[Neverfade]

yeha.

but man...that board is a fucking pain in the ass to set up. the outside pieces just wont stay together correctly

Buy the 4th edition. Problem solved.

 

[platypotamus]

Buy the 4th edition. Problem solved.

The older editions of the Cities and Knights expansion also solve it. Cities and Knights is awesome anyway.

 

[Screaming_Gremlin]

Looks like the Arkham Horror Innsmouth Horror expansion released a few days ago. I still haven't purchased any expansions (I still need to play the game more, argg ).

My friend who just loves Arkham purchases this yesterday. I should have a chance to play it in another week or two. Looking forward to it. I always liked the board expansions, even if sometimes it makes the world a bit too big.

 

[AstroLad]

I have all of them as well, but I'm gonna wait a while on Innsmouth since I just don't foresee myself having the ~3-5 hours with a group to play it for a little while. It sounds really good though.

 

[biggyfries]

Tonight I tried Settlers of Catan at my local Magic: the Gathering store. Settlers of Catan counts as a boardgame, right? It was fun, although the end of the game tended to sneak up on me. The strategic thinking was intense.

I have the card game, if you (or anyone else here at GAF) would like it. Just not my cup of tea.

 

[Screaming_Gremlin]

Jut got back from a massive boardgame day. We played 3 games of Battlestar Galactica (first for all of us) and a game of Red November.

Red November we died to the Kraken at the 15 minute mark. All of the outside hatches were closed off by fires and even then we had to get through blocked hatches to have a chance to put out the fire. Still a fun game that is easy to explain and play.

Battlestar was extremely fun. The Cylons won all three games, but the first two were extremely close. The first game we lost on the same crises card that would of allowed us to jump to victory. The revealed Cylon actually had both Cylon cards and used the action on the resurrection ship (I think it is that one) to give his hidden one to our president who then sabotaged us.

The second game the humans were on the final jump track. I was a Colonel Tigh and a hidden Cylon. I made a power play by trying to put the Adama in the brig so I could get the Admiral card. Based on everyone's skills, I figured I would be fine until my next turn so I could play martial law and get the presidency as well. Unfortunately I lost the brig skill check by one and was thrown in the brig by the President using a Quorum card. I revealed and next turn wrecked the fleet with my super crises. The next player was Adama who ended up being the other Cylon finished the humans off by wiping out the last of their population.

The last game should of been an easy human win, but we fucked it up. The Cylon was revealed in the first round. The guy playing him is color blind and mistook the blue skill another player had with purple and when he played a purple card to sabotage a skill check we were able to figure out he was the Cylon. But then myself and one of my friends started trying to screw each other over for the presidency and ended up killing us off by the second jump track. :lol Still had a ton of fun.

 

[AstroLad]

Heh, finally survived through a game of Red November yesterday (3 out of 4 of us). It really is a great light game; underrated on BGG. Faidutti is quickly becoming my hero. I have yet to try BSG, funny enough.

 

[Eaten By A Grue]

Tonight I tried Settlers of Catan at my local Magic: the Gathering store. Settlers of Catan counts as a boardgame, right? It was fun, although the end of the game tended to sneak up on me. The strategic thinking was intense.

Settlers of Catan is like a gateway drug to getting really into boardgames. I found out the hard way because I now own what I consider 5 "adult" board games and have not received board games since I was a kid.

 

[platypotamus]

I have the card game, if you (or anyone else here at GAF) would like it. Just not my cup of tea.

wat


The Card game is fantastic. What didn't you like about it? My wife and I have probably played like 20 games in the past month :lol

 

[Salazar]

TV and GAF are linking up: Jumanji just started.

 

[AstroLad]

The Play.

The player that wants to play this game goes first. Then you roll, move, and get a card. You get to read the little rhyme and reveal a symbol. The player then flips over the timer and the rest try to roll a matching symbol or a wild hourglass. If they all succeed you discard the card, and the people who "saved" you gets to move a number of spaces revealed by the card. If they fail the card is placed on a "Doomsday" grid, and the player who wasn't saved moves back a number of spaces revealed on the card. Repeat until someone gets to the center by exact count. There are a few special spaces on the board. The Rhino Space - You can block someone with the Rhino until they roll an even number. Wait for 5 or 8 - Each player takes turns rolling the die and you move back one space for each time players roll anything but a 5 or 8. Forest Space - All players are stuck until you save each other by tghe conditions on a card card. The game can win if the "Doomsday" grid fills up before there is a winner.

The Review.

A simple roll and move game. A game that is all luck. Except for choosing a player to put the Rhino in front of there are no decisions to make. This game does add excitement for kids in the quick rescue dice throwing. Unless you have little kids that only have the ability to roll dice you won't get much enjoyment out of this game.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/318172

ps
just packed my bags for e3. brangin a TON of games. this is a new record for me.

 

[Neverfade]

My birthday shipment of games is coming in today. I know I'm getting Say Anything! as part of the deal but the wait for the rest is killing me. I suspect there will be several others...I think my girlfriend ordered enough for the free shipping @ CSI.

 

[Des0lar]

Ok, so I played my first game of Arkham Horror yesterday and we had great fun even if Cthulhu stomped us to little pieces :lol But, oh well, next time we know what to look out for


So here I am again, looking for another recommendation:

Citadels is really a great game and, as noted before, you can screw your friends over, but my group insisted we needed a game where you can screw over each other even more.
Probably something where you really can ruin the plans of one another.
I've already purchased Illuminati, so that one's out.

Thanks for ya help guys

 

[Neverfade]

Wasn't there one of you who plays the Game of Thrones LCG here?

I have about 4 million questions regarding the core set alone...

 

[jasonng]

Robo Rally just came in the mail today, I'm excited to try it out. I don't even remember how I heard of it or how I knew everyone was raving about it (probably because of this thread?) but I've been wanting to try it for the longest time.

I do have a question for you hobbyists though. A bunch of friends and I are all going to spend a weekend together in a lake house away from regular life and I want to be in charge of boardgames. To help picture the kind of people we are, all the guys play video games casually and they're all bringing their girlfriends. Some of the girlfriends are bringing their lady friends as well and no, none of the girls really play video games. We're all no strangers to drinking games (with playing cards or whatnot) and there will be a lot of booze. I don't know them all that well but if I have to guess, their most strategic board game they ever played would be a tie between Monopoly or Life. The following games that are going to make an appearance that weekend so far will be:

Robo Rally
Uno Spin
Connect 4
Cranium

I want to ensure us board game newbies will have a good time and I'm concerned. Yeah, we'll be drinking when we're playing but I'm definitely worried that something like Robo Rally might even be too intimidating for the girls. If I can get the guys interested enough, maybe board game night would be the gateway drug to future exploration with other games which is what I'm hoping to do. My ultimate goal is to finally have a group of friends to play Settlers of Catan with (I LOVE that game).

tl;dr

My question to you guys is: How do you get your casual friends interested in playing board games with you? Any tips/tricks that helped?

 

[Chris R]

Anyone have a suggestion for a good, easy to get into, 2-as many as 8 player strategy (well, risk like) game? Me and my friends are kinda worn out on risk (AGOT any good? I love the books). Also, where do the majority of you get your stuff from?

 

[AstroLad]

My question to you guys is: How do you get your casual friends interested in playing board games with you? Any tips/tricks that helped?

I do this a lot, and the best advice I can give is to learn the game inside and out first. Nearly all of these games are much more difficult to learn than they are to teach, and Robo Rally itself is a good example. Learn it yourself and it's a lightweight game. Try to sit down and learn it as a group and you'll be grappling with the basic mechanics (and later the tricky little situations) so much that everyone will get bored and frustrated before you get any chance to play.

Anyone have a suggestion for a good, easy to get into, 2-as many as 8 player strategy (well, risk like) game? Me and my friends are kinda worn out on risk (AGOT any good? I love the books). Also, where do the majority of you get your stuff from?

Came up recently. Check out this geeklist: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/38013

I get my stuff from coolstuffinc. Cheap and good customer service.

 

[Neverfade]

Anyone have a suggestion for a good, easy to get into, 2-as many as 8 player strategy (well, risk like) game? Me and my friends are kinda worn out on risk (AGOT any good? I love the books). Also, where do the majority of you get your stuff from?

Some to research on boardgamegeek.com:

A Game of Thrones (2-5: 6 w/exapnsion)
Warrior Knights
Age of Conan (2-4)
War of the Ring (2 player only)
Memoir 44 (2 player generally, 8 player if you want to shell out money for another copy. "Overlord" Rules)
Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage
Twilight Struggle (2 players only)

 

[XiaNaphryz]

Anyone have a suggestion for a good, easy to get into, 2-as many as 8 player strategy (well, risk like) game? Me and my friends are kinda worn out on risk (AGOT any good? I love the books). Also, where do the majority of you get your stuff from?

See my History of the World suggestion above. Just remember it may be hard to find right now, though allegedly a reprint may be in the works sometime in the future.

 

[Neverfade]

Hooking one is all it takes. Then via mutual friends, have then back you up on the fun factor when X person snarls at the suggestion. Haven't had any problems though personally.

 

[Neverfade]

I get my stuff from coolstuffinc. Cheap and good customer service.

This. Despite its unfathomably awful name, CSI is so good, especially if you're an east coaster. Fast shipping. I had my first customer service issue just this week. Shipped the wrong item, they overnighted the correct one before the UPS guy even had a chance to pickup the wrong item. So good.

 

[platypotamus]

My question to you guys is: How do you get your casual friends interested in playing board games with you? Any tips/tricks that helped?

The easiest way is to identify the gateway games that will work for your group. For a bunch of my casual/drinking hang out friends, I went with Werewolf/Mafia: http://www.eblong.com/zarf/werewolf.html Perfect because it's almost entirely social, and very little strategy (or at least, nearly all of the strategy is social).

From there, my group went to "Bang!" for smaller groups. It's a game with simple rules, and again, most of the strategy focused on social aspects, and pretty much a light game. From there, it was obvious who were the folks who wanted to play more serious games, and then you can jump into something like Catan with them.

 

[biggyfries]

My question to you guys is: How do you get your casual friends interested in playing board games with you? Any tips/tricks that helped?

Well, I have not had good luck. Got the wife to like Fluxx, and a couple of its iterations, but i tried to get her to play Pandemic. She looked at me, said, "You've got to be kidding me.", and abruptly turned back to the TV.

My daughter likes some games (blink, Monopoly Jr, Kinder Bunnies), and my son LOVES Electronic Battleship.

It has taken a while for my kids to warm up to games; my wife...that is another story.

Oh yeah, we did have a couples' game night about 6 months ago, with 2 other couples. I brought Fluxx to ease everyone in, and one couple thought it was the worst game ever, since the rules change with almost every card.

I would give you advice, but there will be other people around here that can do much better than me. :lol

 

[AstroLad]

I might go to PAX actually. Seems pretty dope and a cool environment for board gaming. May even go on my own dime even if I don't have any vg-related projects that would justify me going out there for clients. Also PNW is the only part of the country I haven't visited before so hey. Think I'd have to bring like three suitcases of games for that trip though.

 

[Neverfade]

I might go to PAX actually. Seems pretty dope and a cool environment for board gaming. May even go on my own dime even if I don't have any vg-related projects that would justify me going out there for clients. Also PNW is the only part of the country I haven't visited before so hey. Think I'd have to bring like three suitcases of games for that trip though.

Save some money for PAX East '10! I'm hoping to go to that one!

 

[AstroLad]

Yeah I'll definitely go to that if I'm still out here.

 

[platypotamus]

So I'm not sure if this was described way back before I subscribed to this thread and it just hasn't come up since, but through BGG I stumbled upon something that I find pretty darn awesome:

http://www.brettspielwelt.de/

It's a client for playing a whole bunch of board games online. Browser capable/java stand alone app. I've played some Dominion on there, and despite having a terrible lobby/game creation interface, the program is pretty damn fun for playing games online. Free too.

I would say that we should try and schedule some sort of GAF gaming on there, but the lobby system is so terrible that I haven't ever figured out how to start a table (lol). It doesn't help that the help is mostly in German either.

Anyway, if you sign up, my username is platypotamus, and I'm down for getting some online gaming happening.

 

[Vinci]

Any perspectives on Vanished Planet? I snatched it up from a local store for my brother as another cooperative game. Good, bad? Read up on BGG, but I'd like to hear something about it from you guys.

 

[AMUSIX]

So for my birthday this past week, my friends got me all 6 expansions to Arkham Horror.

Is there a good way to incorporate them all into a single mega-game?

So far, all we've done is play a 'permanent exhibit' mode game of Curse of the Dark Pharaoh, and the new event cards were indeed fun. I've also pulled out all the Characters and Ancient Ones from the town expansions and have just added them to the general queue (almost all of them seem to work fine in the basic game).
However, since getting together an Arkham night is always an event (and always seems to go on for 4-5 hours, what with pinball breaks and such) I'd like to create a single massive game, if possible. Has anyone tried this (or tried playing with several of the expansions at once)? Does it work? Are there ways to balance it, like removing certain event cards?

Suppose I could check boardgamegeek for this, but figured I's ask here as well.

 

[Neverfade]

Any perspectives on Vanished Planet? I snatched it up from a local store for my brother as another cooperative game. Good, bad? Read up on BGG, but I'd like to hear something about it from you guys.

Never heard of it until now.

45 second BGG browsing reaction: Twilight Imperium Super Lite.

 

[Vinci]

Never heard of it until now.

45 second BGG browsing reaction: Twilight Imperium Super Lite.

It's gotten really good reviews, won an award or something ... Frankly, I don't think my family could handle Twilight Imperium. They're just not that dedicated yet, but we'll see - maybe this will inspire something.

Tried a one-player test game the other night and I really got my ass kicked. On easy.
Yes, I suck that hard. :lol

Also kind of like that it was made by the people who are selling it, not some big company, but that's neither here nor there in terms of game quality.

 

[FnordChan]

Has anyone tried this (or tried playing with several of the expansions at once)? Does it work? Are there ways to balance it, like removing certain event cards?

I've played with most, if not all, of the expansions available going simultaneously. It's fun to have that much Arkham spread out on the table and the expansions all work well together. The problem you get is that it tends to dilute the game somewhat. For example, The King in Yellow aspect becomes much easier, as you will rarely see a next act card pop up, and you'll have fewer gates will open in Dunwich if you have all the extra mythos cards going at once. And so and so forth. Unfortunately, I don't really know of a good way to trim down the game without just sort of yanking cards out and seeing what happens. I wouldn't recommend it myself; trimming down, say, Illuminati with both expansions is one thing but there's a lot more to weed through in Arkham.

I'm coming round to the opinion that Arkham works best with a single expansion mixed in, or at most a board expansion and a card expansion. This isn't to say you shouldn't have an all-Arkham blow out, of course, but I think there's more novelty involved there than anything else.

FnordChan

 

[Flynn]

I played with all the expansions once. The set up took longer than the game. Each expansion ratchets up the difficulty a bit more, so jumping straight to the whole shebang can make play really difficult.

 

[Shoogoo]

So for my birthday this past week, my friends got me all 6 expansions to Arkham Horror.

I want your friends

 

[Neverfade]

FnordChan, were you playing Uncharted 2 beta tonight? I saw your name in a Village deathmatch. Probably my worst game so far. 2 and 9. I was sad.

 

[AstroLad]

Platy Alert

Mayfair Games will release Artisans & Benefactors, the seventh expansion for the Catan Card Game, in late June 2009. This expansion, released in German in 2006, allows you to increase the happiness of the citizens within your part of Catan, and as all politicans and economists know, happier citizens work harder.

Catan Card Game: Artisans & Benefactors includes 36 cards, retails for $6, and requires the Catan Card Game base set in order to play.

Also some super-dope info on Rebel vs. Imperium for fellow RftG Freaks:

The focus is on new cards (with twice as many play cards as in the first expansion), new powers, and seven new 6-cost developments, which open up new strategies. Several powers we had earlier avoided as being too complex for new players, such as “mix explore draws with your hand, then discard,” now appear.

Action cards for a sixth player are included. With three new start worlds in the expansion, bringing the total to 12, two start worlds (one “red”, tending towards Military, and one “blue,” tending towards goods or Consume powers) are now dealt to each player. Players then receive their six initial cards and, based on these cards as well as the goals in play, decide which start world to play, discarding the other one along with two cards.

Choosing a start world makes the goals more interesting, as which goals are in play can influence your choice. This tends to equalize the luck of the draw; a player with a strong combination in his initial cards will often ignore the goals, while a player without one can often choose a start world to grab a “first” goal to compensate, while gaining new cards along the way until a strategy emerges. Rebel vs Imperium adds two new “most” goals and three new “first” goals for further variety.

Changing the card set obviously affects stategies. Military strategies receive boosts with new Imperium and Rebel 6-cost developments, as well as a 9 Defense “Rebel Stronghold” and an 8 Defense “Alien Monolith.” Building “interlocking” 6-cost developments, due to the increased number of these cards, becomes a much stronger route to victory. Developments such as “Galactic Salon” (gain a VP during consumption, no good required) and “Galactic Advertisers” (gain a card during consumption) allow strategies based on placing very few worlds to be viable. The “Uplift Code” and several new Uplift worlds create an Uplift strategy, while the “Galactic Exchange” boosts consumption strategies based on diversity.

In addition to new cards, Rebel vs Imperium also allows for takeovers, in which players can, under certain conditions, conquer a military world in another player’s tableau.

More here: http://www.boardgamenews.com/index....review_race_for_the_galaxy_rebel_vs_imperium/

Some of the new cards are so so fresh:

 

[Saerk]

I need a good game that is around $30 to round out my order from CoolStuffInc for free shipping. So far I'm getting my friend for his birthday Agricola and for myself Dominion. I was thinking Small World for the third, but I'm open to other suggestions. Cool pieces and decent strategy are pluses.


(Not Catan, Carcassone, Ticket to Ride, or Axis and Allies since those are already owned.)

 

[AstroLad]

# of players?
Light/Medium/Heavy?

 

[FnordChan]

FnordChan, were you playing Uncharted 2 beta tonight? I saw your name in a Village deathmatch. Probably my worst game so far. 2 and 9. I was sad.

Yep, that was me. In case you didn't notice, I'm really, really bad at online shooters. I was mostly there to check out how swanky Uncharted 2 was going to be when the full release comes out later in the year, but I'll probably have to hop back online a couple more times if only to try to improve upon my scrubtastic performance last night.

Saerk, have you tried Race for the Galaxy? It gets a lot of love in this thread and is a nice card game adaptation of the ever-popular Puerto Rico that picks up the pace and adds a bit of luck to the strategy. It's not quite at thirty bucks - they're selling it for $22 or so - but you could throw in a small card game like Guillotine or Bang and round things out nicely.

FnordChan

 

[Saerk]

# of players?
Light/Medium/Heavy?

Usually 3-4 and at odd times 5 or so. I'd go with light to medium. Heavy would alienate some of the players I'd think.

 

[AstroLad]

To follow up on Fnord's recommendation above, you could throw in the RftG expansion and have a nice set. If you can get your group rolling with RftG, it's absolutely amazing and you'll want to go back again and again. Plays very well with four. It's a solidly mediumweight game though, so it may be a tad too heavy. But then again it's definitely lighter than Agricola.

Alternately, you could go with a nice light card-game combo like Citadels (awesome 2-8 player card game with lots of player interaction) and For Sale (super-quick auction game that is a great nightcap).

 

[Freest Rolexes]

I'm of the opinion that Race for the Galaxy has a pretty steep learning curve and doesn't fall under light/medium weight. The first time I played I understood the rules by the end, but combining those with the special text on a large number of cards was overwhelming. To me this game wouldn't really meet the criteria set above.

Dominion is a good game for 2-5 people, easier rules than Race, but almost as much strategy. Even the interaction level is about the same. And if that game works with your friends you could then transition to Race, which is a great game.

 

[AstroLad]

It's not really a Heavy in my mind (e.g., Steam, Brass, ok anything by Martin Wallace, Cuba), but I take your point. It's definitely not a gateway.

If you know San Juan/Citadels/Glory to Rome I'd put it at a solid Medium at most. The cool thing is you can check out the instructions on Rio Grande's site. Some people are scared off by the reliance on symbols, but I actually think they make the game easier (then again, Advanced Symbolic Logic was one of my favorite courses at uni, so take that fwiw).

I'd recommend San Juan, but I have a hard time seeing San Juan for its own merits anymore as I prefer RftG with a real gaming group and Citadels as a party/light game.

 

[Flynn]

Developer preview of Race For the Galaxy: Rebel vs Imperium

 

[platypotamus]

Thanks for the heads up on that Catan Card Game (almost wrote CCG, heh) expansion, Astrolad. Didn't even know it was coming but will definitely pick it up. Six bucks? Sold!

Wish these Race for the Galaxy expansions were a bit cheaper though...

 

[AstroLad]

At least it ain't Dominion! I will say though that I'd gladly pay more if they quality of RftG was just a little higher (VPs, card stock), but I'll take what I can get when it comes to my favorite game.

 

[platypotamus]

I think this RftG expansion looks a little bit more robust than the last one anyway. The goals were a nice addition, but there didn't seem to be enough new cards for the price. I don't mind the price enough that the purchase is regretted or anything, I just mind it enough to grumble slightly