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The Board Game Thread

Started by radiator, 21 February, 2014, 03:13:04 PM

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Colin YNWA

Can't remember these being discussed before so apologise if they have, and they aren't boardgames but hopefully fit well enough into the ballpark to count.

For whatever reason I went to bed last night thinking about a series of fantasy combat books and for the life of me not believing I remember enough about them to dig them out. I woke this morning and for some crazy reason they were still lodged in my head. So to the internet and of course a couple of Google searches later nostalga was satisfied. Bless the Internet.

Anyone else remember these bad boys

http://lostworlds.com

A5(ish) fantasy combat books that gave you POV illustrations of the opponent your were fighting. They were perfect school time break fodder as I recall and really very good fun.

JamesC

I've never heard of them but they look great.
I'm a big fan of the Fighting Fantasy style game books and have fond memories of the 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books too.
It seems a shame the genre seems to have died out somewhat, you'd think things like Harry Potter or The Hunger Games would lend themselves to these kinds of products.

Greg M.

I've never seen those Lost Worlds ones, but I did have (and still have) books from the Fighting Fantasy, Sorcery!, Golden Dragon, Way of the Tiger, Lone Wolf, Legend of Skyfall and Cretan Chronicles series. The closest I ever saw to the ones plaguing Colin was Joe Dever's Scarlet Sorceror / Emerald Enchanter books, where you had to fight the guy who had the other book.

I never knew anyone who had the other book.

radiator

So Machi Koro is a hit - we've played half a dozen times this week with two, three and four players, and it's converted a friend, who previously had zero interest, to board games.  :D

I think it's probably a little light for serious gamers but for something casual it's great. Similar to Carcassonne in that it's 50% luck, 50% skill and has just enough potential for screwing with other players plans to make things interesting.

Less successful was Diamonsters - a simple card game by the same creators as MK. The components are beautiful and charming but there's so little skill involved it can barely be called a 'game'. In fact I kept reading and rereading the instructions because winning seems so random I felt like I must be missing something. Though some in our group enjoyed it, I'd say it's definitely one primarily suited to families with young children and I'm not in hurry to play it again.

radiator

The onset of autumn is making it way easier to pitch game nights!

Last night we dusted off Splendor and Love Letter, games i've owned for months but never had the chance to play properly.

Both were great. Love Letter is what I hoped Diamonsters would be. Very simple and light, with the occasional random knockout but a lot more strategy. We tried it two player ages ago and were a bit underwhelmed but its much, much better with three or four.

Splendor is great too. The high quality artwork and components (proper, satisfyingly weighty poker chips) really makes this gem-collecting game pop. Easy to learn, quick to play, but always keeps you on your toes as you have to keep an eye on what your opponents are doing and forever be planning future purchases. Great stuff, loved it even with two players, suspect its even better with three or four.

Now I've got my eye on Codenames, which looks like a fun party game, and Coup - a nerdy looking secret identities game i feel like might get the time of day from my friends now that I've softened them up with some quirky gateway games!

Timothy


TordelBack

Quote from: radiator on 25 September, 2015, 07:44:25 PM
So Machi Koro is a hit - we've played half a dozen times this week with two, three and four players, and it's converted a friend, who previously had zero interest, to board games.  :D

Hmmmm, saw the Deluxe MK tin for Eur56 in my FLGS today. Steep, but given that the contents separately come to about 80 without the snazzy tin, not too bad. Verrry tempted. Mind you, a gorgeous-looking Travel Catan, Ticket to Ride Europe and the Fantasy Flight Force Awakens starter, also all around 50, were also pulling at my purse strings. Good job I'm skint, really!

I was wading through the tables of an ongoing largish Magic tournament while browsing the shelves, and was struck by what a polite, chatty and( best of all) deodorized crowd they were. Games are definitely moving out of the ghetto.

radiator

Well if it helps I'd recommend sticking with the non-deluxe version - we played a round with the Harbor expansion yesterday, and while it was good it did make the game drag on way past it's welcome me and people were getting a bit fed up by the end.

radiator

I get the feeling that it's a bit like Carcassonne - the base game is so tight and perfectly formed its almost a shame to add in a load more elements.

TordelBack

Quote from: radiator on 26 September, 2015, 08:47:40 PM
Well if it helps I'd recommend sticking with the non-deluxe version - we played a round with the Harbor expansion yesterday, and while it was good it did make the game drag on way past it's welcome me and people were getting a bit fed up by the end.

That does indeed help - as does your Carcassonne comparison (probably the default boardgame in our house - although Quirkle and Fluxx are contenders - so it's a handy barometer).  Think I'll rustle up the cash for the vanilla edition next time a client deigns to pay me. 

But oh, the possibilities of Travel Catan! 

radiator

Quote from: Tordelback on 26 September, 2015, 11:05:27 PM
Quote from: radiator on 26 September, 2015, 08:47:40 PM
Well if it helps I'd recommend sticking with the non-deluxe version - we played a round with the Harbor expansion yesterday, and while it was good it did make the game drag on way past it's welcome me and people were getting a bit fed up by the end.

That does indeed help - as does your Carcassonne comparison (probably the default boardgame in our house - although Quirkle and Fluxx are contenders - so it's a handy barometer).  Think I'll rustle up the cash for the vanilla edition next time a client deigns to pay me. 

But oh, the possibilities of Travel Catan!

I googled out of curiosity and found a lot of threads on the Boardgamegeek boards where people are saying the same thing, essentially that the expansions introduce an element of randomness to the buildings (cards) on 'sale' for players to add to their hand (it's fixed in the base game), and though this is a great idea in theory, if you're unlucky the marketplace can get clogged with useless cards no one wants to buy, and it slows progress to a crawl. And this is exactly what happened to us. What should be a bright and breezy little 'one more go' game turns into a painfully slow war of attrition. I think they need to tweak the rules a bit.

I do like the Carcassonne expansions, but we tend to find that one at a time is enough - anything more that that tends to make it drag a bit. The beauty of games like Carcassonne and MK is their simplicity, and that they leave you wanting more, but sometimes it's best to leave it that way.

radiator

We've been playing a few rounds of Coup. It's fun but always over a little too quickly, and a fatal flaw with the game so far is, at least with my group, hardly anyone ever tries to bluff, so the vast majority of the time challenges fail and winning or losing ultimately just comes down to how lucky you were with the original cards you were dealt.

Looking forward to playing again though, this time with four or five players instead of just three.

Keef Monkey

Bea got Coup for her birthday recently, haven't had a chance to crack it open yet though!

sheridan

Quote from: radiator on 01 October, 2015, 07:46:30 AM
We've been playing a few rounds of Coup. It's fun but always over a little too quickly, and a fatal flaw with the game so far is, at least with my group, hardly anyone ever tries to bluff, so the vast majority of the time challenges fail and winning or losing ultimately just comes down to how lucky you were with the original cards you were dealt.

Looking forward to playing again though, this time with four or five players instead of just three.


Yes, that would be a problem - I can't imagine playing Coup and not having most or all of the people trying to bluff.

sheridan

Quote from: radiator on 27 September, 2015, 02:28:54 AM
I googled out of curiosity and found a lot of threads on the Boardgamegeek boards where people are saying the same thing, essentially that the expansions introduce an element of randomness to the buildings (cards) on 'sale' for players to add to their hand (it's fixed in the base game), and though this is a great idea in theory, if you're unlucky the marketplace can get clogged with useless cards no one wants to buy, and it slows progress to a crawl. And this is exactly what happened to us. What should be a bright and breezy little 'one more go' game turns into a painfully slow war of attrition. I think they need to tweak the rules a bit.

I do like the Carcassonne expansions, but we tend to find that one at a time is enough - anything more that that tends to make it drag a bit. The beauty of games like Carcassonne and MK is their simplicity, and that they leave you wanting more, but sometimes it's best to leave it that way.


Is that first paragaph also referring to Carcassonne?  I'm not sure what the buildings and sale references are about.