The Big Board-Gaming Catch-All

gregrampage wrote:

Black Friday/Cyber Monday, my birthday, and Christmas are all within a 1 month span. Thanks to this my board game collection is growing these days. LOTR card game, Game of Thrones card game, Pandemic, Agricola, and Quarriors have all entered my house lately or are going to soon. Oh also the MTG cards I got from the donation drive contest.

Going to be a fun Christmas break.

Update: Apparently I also got The Resistance today.

Are you posting these messages from Heaven? Does God prefer Ameritrash or Eurogame-style? Who is giving you all these wonderful toys?

Spoiler:

I can't find an 'Envy' emoticon

I don't share any interests with my family, for the most part, so Christmas/Birthday shopping is always difficult for them. About 6-7 years ago I realized everyone wins if I just make a wishlist online and let them take their pick from things on it. I've used Amazon most years. Between my parents/in-laws and my siblings I got most of those. I bought the AGOT game myself because it was so cheap on Amazon.

gregrampage wrote:

I don't share any interests with my family, for the most part, so Christmas/Birthday shopping is always difficult for them. About 6-7 years ago I realized everyone wins if I just make a wishlist online and let them take their pick from things on it. I've used Amazon most years. Between my parents/in-laws and my siblings I got most of those. I bought the AGOT game myself because it was so cheap on Amazon.

So, you do live in Heaven after all. Sigh. Now I wished I hadn't sinned so much.

Just a reminder that today is the last day to enter my Eminent Domain giveaway contest!

1000th play - and a contest!

If you use boardgamegeek.com, you've probably come across summaries of boardgame rules written by a guy called Universal Head. These things are very well produced and, I suspect, have been downloaded thousands of times; he's made gaming easier for a lot of people.

I interviewed him and we chatted about all sorts of stuff, such as how he got into gaming, how he does his summaries and what he thinks of videogames and tombstones. I was worried it would be too niche a subject for most people, but I've had some surprisingly good comments on it. One chap said he wasn't afraid of boardgames anymore.

MP3:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/hatchetjob...

1Dgaf wrote:

If you use boardgamegeek.com, you've probably come across summaries of boardgame rules written by a guy called Universal Head. These things are very well produced and, I suspect, have been downloaded thousands of times; he's made gaming easier for a lot of people.

I interviewed him and we chatted about all sorts of stuff, such as how he got into gaming, how he does his summaries and what he thinks of videogames and tombstones. I was worried it would be too niche a subject for most people, but I've had some surprisingly good comments on it. One chap said he wasn't afraid of boardgames anymore.

MP3:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/hatchetjob...

Fun! Peter and I have chatted a few times by way of BGG, and I helped put together a collective to get him the Descent: Road to Legend expansion some years ago. He's a good guy, and his rule summaries are THE best.

Amazon had Chaos in the Old World for $35. I was unable to resist. Now I just need to find a time to play it.

ChrisGwinn wrote:

Amazon had Chaos in the Old World for $35. I was unable to resist. Now I just need to find a time to play it.

It's good. I'm just ordering the expansion as we write.

1Dgaf wrote:

If you use boardgamegeek.com, you've probably come across summaries of boardgame rules written by a guy called Universal Head. These things are very well produced and, I suspect, have been downloaded thousands of times; he's made gaming easier for a lot of people.

I interviewed him and we chatted about all sorts of stuff, such as how he got into gaming, how he does his summaries and what he thinks of videogames and tombstones. I was worried it would be too niche a subject for most people, but I've had some surprisingly good comments on it. One chap said he wasn't afraid of boardgames anymore.

MP3:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/hatchetjob...

Thanks for this. I'm going to print out several copies for all my games and put them in the box for new players.

Natus wrote:
ChrisGwinn wrote:

Amazon had Chaos in the Old World for $35. I was unable to resist. Now I just need to find a time to play it.

It's good. I'm just ordering the expansion as we write.

I normally don't buy expansions until I play the base game a few times, but I wonder if this one is worth it just so I can play with 4 or 5 players. I've been told that CitOW is not worth it with less than the full set of players, and I'd get some flexibility that way.

ChrisGwinn wrote:
Natus wrote:
ChrisGwinn wrote:

Amazon had Chaos in the Old World for $35. I was unable to resist. Now I just need to find a time to play it.

It's good. I'm just ordering the expansion as we write.

I normally don't buy expansions until I play the base game a few times, but I wonder if this one is worth it just so I can play with 4 or 5 players. I've been told that CitOW is not worth it with less than the full set of players, and I'd get some flexibility that way.

It plays a bit different with less people, it's more relaxed. 4 people is Chaos and wonderful. I bought the expansion but haven't found time to play it yet.

Based on glowing reviews from up above in this thread and on Amazon/BGG, I opted to pick up 7 Wonders and Ticket to Ride for my family (wife & 3 daughters age 12, 9, 5). I'm assuming that these will be too difficult for my youngest to play, so she'll probably end up co-playing with someone else. I'm anxiously looking forward to trying them out. Any suggestions for best gaming experience?

We all love playing Apples to Apples Jr which we got for Christmas last year. I introduced my 2 older daughters to M:tG via premade decks, but we've only played a handful of times; I was strongly considering Dominion, but I'm not sure how well it would work for them. Any other recommendations?

merphle wrote:

Based on glowing reviews from up above in this thread and on Amazon/BGG, I opted to pick up 7 Wonders and Ticket to Ride for my family (wife & 3 daughters age 12, 9, 5). I'm assuming that these will be too difficult for my youngest to play, so she'll probably end up co-playing with someone else. I'm anxiously looking forward to trying them out. Any suggestions for best gaming experience?

Can't speak for TtR, but you should be fine with 4-5 people for 7 Wonders. The game scales up and down really nicely I think.

Merphle, check out Coloretto.

merphle wrote:

Based on glowing reviews from up above in this thread and on Amazon/BGG, I opted to pick up 7 Wonders and Ticket to Ride for my family (wife & 3 daughters age 12, 9, 5). I'm assuming that these will be too difficult for my youngest to play, so she'll probably end up co-playing with someone else. I'm anxiously looking forward to trying them out. Any suggestions for best gaming experience?

We all love playing Apples to Apples Jr which we got for Christmas last year. I introduced my 2 older daughters to M:tG via premade decks, but we've only played a handful of times; I was strongly considering Dominion, but I'm not sure how well it would work for them. Any other recommendations? :)

Carcassonne works well for young kids, if you eliminate the concept of farms and just go with cities/roads/priories; started playing when my daughter was six and she picked it up fine. Farms require a bit more long-term planning and strategy, so it's a bit beyond her level.

As for Dominion, I've finagled a few people into playing it who say they just don't like games, but they've really loved it. Really approachable, good for kids as well (but probably not the young one).

oilypenguin wrote:

Merphle, check out Coloretto.

Or Zooloretto, which is based on the same mechanics but has animals. I haven't played it but have heard good things.

Never hurts to once again bring up Forbidden Island, which plays up to four people cooperatively.

Dreaded Gazebo wrote:
oilypenguin wrote:

Merphle, check out Coloretto.

Or Zooloretto, which is based on the same mechanics but has animals. I haven't played it but have heard good things.

Never hurts to once again bring up Forbidden Island, which plays up to four people cooperatively.

Ah! I remember checking out Zooloretto months ago... completely forgot about it. That'll go on my BGList for the next birthday/holiday/whatever time.

Forbidden Island is going on the BGList too -- I really like the concept of cooperative board games (especially when kids are involved). I bought D&D Ashardalon early this year, but I think it ended up being way too complex for all of us. Maybe when they get a bit older, and we have a few more games under our collective belts...

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Carcassonne works well for young kids, if you eliminate the concept of farms and just go with cities/roads/priories; started playing when my daughter was six and she picked it up fine. Farms require a bit more long-term planning and strategy, so it's a bit beyond her level.

As for Dominion, I've finagled a few people into playing it who say they just don't like games, but they've really loved it. Really approachable, good for kids as well (but probably not the young one).

I have Carc on the 360, and love playing it solo. My oldest tried it, but didn't care too much for it... and honestly, I think I really prefer the electronic interface for that game, both for scorekeeping and enforcing rules. Does that make me a bad person?

There's no doubt in my mind that I'll end up getting Dominion eventually.

merphle wrote:

I have Carc on the 360, and love playing it solo. My oldest tried it, but didn't care too much for it... and honestly, I think I really prefer the electronic interface for that game, both for scorekeeping and enforcing rules. Does that make me a bad person?

No way. I first played Catan in an electronic form and I can't imagine playing that in real life. Sounds really tedious.

merphle, I have two nieces in that age range and the two games that have really hit big with them are Survive and Dixit. Dixit is very similar to Apples to Apples but with pictures, and easy for a broad age group to play. Survive can get a bit cutthroat as you are sometimes literally sending sharks to eat your opponents, but the nieces love it, and that's not the majority of the game. My son won't touch it though.

I haven't played Dixit with my family yet, but I've played with friends and it's a great time. I can definitely see where it'd be a good fit with a younger group of gamers.

Stilgar Black wrote:

merphle, I have two nieces in that age range and the two games that have really hit big with them are Survive and Dixit. Dixit is very similar to Apples to Apples but with pictures, and easy for a broad age group to play. Survive can get a bit cutthroat as you are sometimes literally sending sharks to eat your opponents, but the nieces love it, and that's not the majority of the game. My son won't touch it though.

I'm not sure I'd be able to manage Survive with them, but Dixit sounds great! Added!

(how deep does the board-gaming rabbit hole go?)

merphle wrote:

(how deep does the board-gaming rabbit hole go?)

Pretty damn deep.

gregrampage wrote:
merphle wrote:

(how deep does the board-gaming rabbit hole go?)

Pretty damn deep.

Think more "Black Hole" than "Rabbit Hole" and you're getting there..

merphle wrote:

I have Carc on the 360, and love playing it solo. My oldest tried it, but didn't care too much for it... and honestly, I think I really prefer the electronic interface for that game, both for scorekeeping and enforcing rules. Does that make me a bad person?

There's no doubt in my mind that I'll end up getting Dominion eventually. :)

Carcasonne on the iPad also comes recommended, mostly for the same reasons (rules enforcement and scorekeeping).

As for Dominion (and boardgames in general), I don't own a copy because my friends have several copies between them. It's a great problem to have, except it means I don't have copies to introduce to my non-gaming friends.

Amazon is having a sale on a whole bunch of Fantasy Flight games right now. Some pretty good deals in there.

gregrampage wrote:

Amazon is having a sale on a whole bunch of Fantasy Flight games right now. Some pretty good deals in there.

Damn. Chaos in the Old World for $28? Done!

HedgeWizard wrote:
gregrampage wrote:

Amazon is having a sale on a whole bunch of Fantasy Flight games right now. Some pretty good deals in there.

Damn. Chaos in the Old World for $28? Done!

I almost jumped on that too but I have too many rarely played games as it is.

So it turns out that my girlfriend had a copy of the revised version of vanilla Risk sitting in her closet. Apparently she'd bought it, was disappointed that it wasn't the classic game, and had never actually played it. I read the rules and managed to talk her and her roommate into trying the game out.

I've played Risk for most of my life. I'm especially fond of the Lord of the Rings version because it fixed a lot of the problems I'd had with the original. But this time, something happened which has no precedent: when the game was over, somebody asked if we could play again. We got through 2 more games before we'd had our fill.

Even when LotR Risk was at its best, when the game was done so were we.

Risk, with the 2008 rules revisions, isn't just faster, it's a lot more dynamic and just plain Fun. Now I'm trying to figure out how to make LotR Risk play more like this version...

(My apologies if this is old news, but y'all do reward higher post counts and the guys on the podcast said I don't have to read an entire megathread before posting...)

Vargen wrote:

So it turns out that my girlfriend had a copy of the revised version of vanilla Risk sitting in her closet. Apparently she'd bought it, was disappointed that it wasn't the classic game, and had never actually played it. I read the rules and managed to talk her and her roommate into trying the game out.

I've played Risk for most of my life. I'm especially fond of the Lord of the Rings version because it fixed a lot of the problems I'd had with the original. But this time, something happened which has no precedent: when the game was over, somebody asked if we could play again. We got through 2 more games before we'd had our fill.

Even when LotR Risk was at its best, when the game was done so were we.

Risk, with the 2008 rules revisions, isn't just faster, it's a lot more dynamic and just plain Fun. Now I'm trying to figure out how to make LotR Risk play more like this version...

(My apologies if this is old news, but y'all do reward higher post counts and the guys on the podcast said I don't have to read an entire megathread before posting...)

I liked LotR Risk, too, until the Star Wars Risks blasted them away. The SW Risks were so thematic and very much like card-driven games, whereas the Good and Evil factions in LotR Risk had no relation to each other, and a quarter of the cards were simply playing out the game clock.

I haven't tried Revised Risk, yet, but I own it, and I can't wait to try Risk:Legacy. No one need be ashamed of being a Risk fan these days!

Vargen wrote:

So it turns out that my girlfriend had a copy of the revised version of vanilla Risk sitting in her closet. Apparently she'd bought it, was disappointed that it wasn't the classic game, and had never actually played it. I read the rules and managed to talk her and her roommate into trying the game out.

I've played Risk for most of my life. I'm especially fond of the Lord of the Rings version because it fixed a lot of the problems I'd had with the original. But this time, something happened which has no precedent: when the game was over, somebody asked if we could play again. We got through 2 more games before we'd had our fill.

Even when LotR Risk was at its best, when the game was done so were we.

Risk, with the 2008 rules revisions, isn't just faster, it's a lot more dynamic and just plain Fun. Now I'm trying to figure out how to make LotR Risk play more like this version...

(My apologies if this is old news, but y'all do reward higher post counts and the guys on the podcast said I don't have to read an entire megathread before posting...)

Vargen, you're in a rare spot here. I think you really should look into Risk: Legacy. You have a chance here to start up a little board gaming group if you play your Christmas cards right. Very similar fast play mechanics, sans air bases, but for all intents and purposes liquid awesome in a nicely appointed box.

http://www.armchairgeneral.com/risk-...