The Big Board-Gaming Catch-All

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Played Talisman for the first time the other night. One guy loves the game, the other four of us were new to it. Really liked it until we got to the end, where the victory condition consists of sitting in the middle of the board and rolling a die; on 1-3, nothing happens, on 4-6, all the other players lose a single life. As most of us were newbies, people had been going around the outside of the board, and people had just kept acquiring bonus life points. I think the person with the least life at that point had something like seven life points, and I simply sat in the middle for like an hour and a half rolling a die, and, thanks to the stupid bastard odds of probability, rolling lots of ones, twos, and threes. This is their idea of a fun endgame? I mean, I enjoyed the "Nerd Monopoly" aspect of the game (as I phrased it), but that's the single worst endgame I think I've ever encountered in a boardgame. I not only want to never play Talisman again, I'm having to resist driving the 20 miles or so up to Fantasy Flight Games' HQ in Roseville in order to burn the place down to scour any further trace of Talisman from the surface of the planet.

Suffice to say, I don't think I'll be playing Talisman again.

Played this a few times when I was 14-15 and I grew to dislike it for that reason. Then after playing other games, I also learned to dislike the large amounts of extra unnecessary randomness

Flashpoint: Fire Rescue is a great game. It got a lot of play at Pencon 2012. It's like FTL where the situation just gets worse and worse. I mean the game, not Pencon 2012.

MonoCheli wrote:

I have been playing this some with the Mrs. when we have a chance and we have been enjoying just playing it with the base decks, but I am starting to feel that to do it right we need to get a set or two each so we can each make our own customization, building your own decks prior to playing.

I also just got the first data pack for it and it is not a pre-made usable deck. It is cards you can add to your existing decks and you have to add them using the deck building rules so I guess it is time for me to start building my own.

Lucky you, our FLGS said to check back on Tuesday to see if their distributor sent them any copies of the first booster

I think I'm just getting boosters, no real need for a second or third copy of the base set. Will need to keep card lists on file for any decks I make, but them's the breaks.

Very happy to see more people playing this. Maybe we can get a round or two in at PAX?

Well, I guess that Pandemic is the game to get. Thanks guys!

Here's a picture of my nephew on Thanksgiving. Thanks to all of you people, we were playing Ticket to Ride.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/rXGY0l.jpg)

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Well, I guess that Pandemic is the game to get. Thanks guys!

Too late to chip in but Pandemic is awesome. Get the expansion as well.

Strangeblades wrote:
MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Played Talisman for the first time the other night. One guy loves the game, the other four of us were new to it. Really liked it until we got to the end, where the victory condition consists of sitting in the middle of the board and rolling a die; on 1-3, nothing happens, on 4-6, all the other players lose a single life. As most of us were newbies, people had been going around the outside of the board, and people had just kept acquiring bonus life points. I think the person with the least life at that point had something like seven life points, and I simply sat in the middle for like an hour and a half rolling a die, and, thanks to the stupid bastard odds of probability, rolling lots of ones, twos, and threes. This is their idea of a fun endgame? I mean, I enjoyed the "Nerd Monopoly" aspect of the game (as I phrased it), but that's the single worst endgame I think I've ever encountered in a boardgame. I not only want to never play Talisman again, I'm having to resist driving the 20 miles or so up to Fantasy Flight Games' HQ in Roseville in order to burn the place down to scour any further trace of Talisman from the surface of the planet.

Suffice to say, I don't think I'll be playing Talisman again.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Played Talisman for the first time the other night. One guy loves the game, the other four of us were new to it. Really liked it until we got to the end, where the victory condition consists of sitting in the middle of the board and rolling a die; on 1-3, nothing happens, on 4-6, all the other players lose a single life. As most of us were newbies, people had been going around the outside of the board, and people had just kept acquiring bonus life points. I think the person with the least life at that point had something like seven life points, and I simply sat in the middle for like an hour and a half rolling a die, and, thanks to the stupid bastard odds of probability, rolling lots of ones, twos, and threes. This is their idea of a fun endgame? I mean, I enjoyed the "Nerd Monopoly" aspect of the game (as I phrased it), but that's the single worst endgame I think I've ever encountered in a boardgame. I not only want to never play Talisman again, I'm having to resist driving the 20 miles or so up to Fantasy Flight Games' HQ in Roseville in order to burn the place down to scour any further trace of Talisman from the surface of the planet.

Suffice to say, I don't think I'll be playing Talisman again.

Ahhhh, Talisman. Yup, that sounds about my every experience playing this game.

Talisman is the worst. Was in on a game of it at Pencon 2011 where the players mutually decided to abandon ship a couple of hours in. So yeah, +1 for the expedition to Fantasy Flight HQ to set things right.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Well, I guess that Pandemic is the game to get. Thanks guys!

Here's a picture of my nephew on Thanksgiving. Thanks to all of you people, we were playing Ticket to Ride. :)

Reject Hobbit cards! Buy the 1910 expansion!

I signed up for an interesting deal through our distributor. They are going to ship us a big ole box of games, with a total retail value of $400 or more, once a quarter, for $30. These are games that they're trying to get exposure for, or that aren't getting the love they feel the deserve, or realistically that they're just trying to get off their shelves.

We got our first box this week, with $518.46 worth of games in it. You can imagine the types of games that are included in this. Heck, I can still hear MonoCheli's eyes rolling, and we opened the box two days ago.

Even so, the Mrs. and the girls grabbed a few that looked interesting to them, and we just finished our first play of Flapjacks and Sasquatches. You're a lumberjack (and you're ok), trying to chop down 21 points worth of trees before the other players. Surprisingly, it was rather entertaining. Very quick to learn, played in about 20 minutes, and had a lot of screw-your-neighbor mechanics in it that the girls thoroughly enjoyed.

Just to be contrarian, I really don't care for Pandemic. I feel like the sort of puzzle of it is too thinly veneered with the theme, and every time I've put it in front of someone the final reaction was usually, "meh." Dunno, but there are way better co-op games out there IMO.

Teneman wrote:

I signed up for an interesting deal through our distributor. They are going to ship us a big ole box of games, with a total retail value of $400 or more, once a quarter, for $30. These are games that they're trying to get exposure for, or that aren't getting the love they feel the deserve, or realistically that they're just trying to get off their shelves.

We got our first box this week, with $518.46 worth of games in it. You can imagine the types of games that are included in this. Heck, I can still hear MonoCheli's eyes rolling, and we opened the box two days ago.

Even so, the Mrs. and the girls grabbed a few that looked interesting to them, and we just finished our first play of Flapjacks and Sasquatches. You're a lumberjack (and you're ok), trying to chop down 21 points worth of trees before the other players. Surprisingly, it was rather entertaining. Very quick to learn, played in about 20 minutes, and had a lot of screw-your-neighbor mechanics in it that the girls thoroughly enjoyed.

Shoot call it a mystery package put it on woot and you'd probable make a decent sale.

Minarchist wrote:

Just to be contrarian, I really don't care for Pandemic. I feel like the sort of puzzle of it is too thinly veneered with the theme, and every time I've put it in front of someone the final reaction was usually, "meh." Dunno, but there are way better co-op games out there IMO.

I agree. It also seems even more prone to one person dominating the gameplay than most co-op games.

Also, because people here love it: I'm going to be playing Here I Stand on New Years Day. Any tips for a first time player?

Bring provisions, you're in for a long haul.

Daughter wanted to play Pandemic (she is four years old) and with some quick thinking I turned it into a cube collecting geography game.

How it works: all players start in Washington as usual. Draw 3 outbreak cards and place a cube there. Next draw 3 player cards. Each player can take 1 step or fly using 1 of their cards. When you land in a city with a cube on it, you collect it.

After all the players have done their turn, you draw a new infection card and place a cube on it. Rinse and repeat until one player has 10 cubes.

Daughter liked that she could practice her alphabet and reading, and we talked about the different parts of the world as we played.

Minarchist wrote:

Just to be contrarian, I really don't care for Pandemic. I feel like the sort of puzzle of it is too thinly veneered with the theme, and every time I've put it in front of someone the final reaction was usually, "meh." Dunno, but there are way better co-op games out there IMO.

I concur!
Frankly, my favorite co-ops are dungeon crawls, or ones with a hidden traitor.

Dysplastic wrote:
Minarchist wrote:

Just to be contrarian, I really don't care for Pandemic. I feel like the sort of puzzle of it is too thinly veneered with the theme, and every time I've put it in front of someone the final reaction was usually, "meh." Dunno, but there are way better co-op games out there IMO.

I concur!
Frankly, my favorite co-ops are dungeon crawls, or ones with a hidden traitor.

Having at least the chance of a hidden traitor is important I think. It helps keeps people from dominating the game.

shoptroll wrote:

Lucky you, our FLGS said to check back on Tuesday to see if their distributor sent them any copies of the first booster

I think I'm just getting boosters, no real need for a second or third copy of the base set. Will need to keep card lists on file for any decks I make, but them's the breaks.

Very happy to see more people playing this. Maybe we can get a round or two in at PAX?

I am totally game for a game.

Teneman wrote:

We got our first box this week, with $518.46 worth of games in it. You can imagine the types of games that are included in this. Heck, I can still hear MonoCheli's eyes rolling, and we opened the box two days ago.

You are neglecting to mention winners like this jem:

IMAGE(http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic1054807.jpg)

The only co-op that I've really liked and found fascinating is Knizia's Lord of the Rings. Totally worth a play.

MonoCheli wrote:

You are neglecting to mention winners like this jem:
IMAGE(http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic1054807.jpg)

Wow when did Troma get into the broad game business?

Made even better by the comic sans on the cover.

edosan wrote:

Just got back from a Christmas party where we played Zombicide. Holy crap what a great game. Would talk more but going to sleep now.

Anyway, to follow up on my previous post, we were able to get in a six-player game of Zombicide with only one person having played before and it was great. If you've never heard of it, it's a co-op game with each player taking on the role of a survivor/zombie hunter. Like other co-op games like Pandemic, problems keep popping up over the board and the team has a set objective (in the scenario we played, we were supposed to find six food cards, pack them in a vehicle, and leave the board).

As in a lot of other co-op games, each character has a special power and a set amount of actions they can do in a turn. Everyone takes a turn, then it's the zombie turn. They attack if possible and them move toward the source of the most noise. Then you spawn more zombies and play progresses.

Lots of dice, lots of combat but it wasn't that complicated really -- most of the table discussion was around strategy rather than rules discussion. There is a lot of possibility for this game since the modular boards and different scenarios allow you to keep changing things up. I guess there was a big Kickstarter campaign so I'm missing out on a bunch of fun extras but at least you can print out the extra character cards from the website and use proxies for them.

Needless to say, I ordered a copy the very next day. Here's hoping it gets here in time for my birthday!

Can't wait until Christmas day when our son opens up King of Tokyo and we can get the gaming going.

Nevin73 wrote:

Can't wait until Christmas day when our son opens up King of Tokyo and we can get the gaming going.

I introduced it to my wife and a couple friends over the weekend. I have never seen the fire of destruction light up in her eyes as much as I did that night, when she pressed everyone to "ATTAAAAAACK!"

...made me so proud.

SommerMatt wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Well, I guess that Pandemic is the game to get. Thanks guys!

Here's a picture of my nephew on Thanksgiving. Thanks to all of you people, we were playing Ticket to Ride. :)

Reject Hobbit cards! Buy the 1910 expansion!

Heh heh, I was getting ready to say the same thing. 1910 has been out long enough that DOW really needs to include it in the base game.

I finally got to try Spartacus: A Game of Blood & Treachery when my borther and his wife paid us a visit this weekend. There was trechery! Rigged games! And unfortunaly, 'spreading of cheeks'. Its always hard to tell after one play if its great or not. The rule book asks you to start at 7 influence for your first game but I think that took out some of the fun, as there was barely a need to ask other players for favors to play most of the schemes. The bidding, betting and deciding whether or not to kill the gladiator at the end of a round was great. We started kind of late and my gf was getting a little tired near the end. I will give it another shot over the holidays now that everyone feels more comfortable with the rules.

Amazon currently (12/18) has Descent: 2nd Edition for $35 -- almost 60% off.

I so wish I could justify getting that. But I can't. It'd never get played.

Chaz wrote:

I so wish I could justify getting that. But I can't. It'd never get played.

That's the issue I ran into. Hence this thread.

I so wish I could it it for that price here. I'd find a way to get it played, damn it. Stupid amazon.ca

Is Descent 2nd Ed really that good? I haven't really heard people raving about it until now. I'd heard that the original Descent was just...Decent (haw haw).

Playdek just released the PENNY ARCADE deckbuilding game on iOS.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/penn...

$4.99.