The Board Game Thread

[Theblazeuk]

Got Dead of Winter. Desperately want to play it with more people than my wife, so we can do the betrayal/secret objectives and Exile votes.

[TordelBack]

Got Dead of Winter. Desperately want to play it with more people than my wife

Co-op board games, gateway drug to the Swinger lifestyle.

I feel your pain.

[NapalmKev]

Not a board game as such but the Dredd Rpg by W.O.I.N is now live on Kickstarter. In the time it took me to choose a pledge full funding had already been attained.

Cheers

[wedgeski]

Lately we have been playing:

* Legendary: Alien: an Alien-themed deck builder that has you play through all four films. Wildly variable art, but really awesome once you have a table full of people who know how to play these things. Takes frigging ages to set up though.

* Zombicide: Miniatures-heavy zombie-survival skirmish game. Quite cool, but not pacey enough for my liking.

* Imperial Assault: The very best of modern miniatures skirmish. Lean and evocative, but rock hard, and some classes overshadow others.

* Skull: Top-tier bluffing game, simplest of the simples, truly brilliant. Usually goes hand-in-hand with a few games of Coup, Enter the Dungeon, and Sushi Go!, all equally good.

[Keef Monkey]

I love Legendary: Alien! Have had some really great tense games of that, both on my own and with people. The fact it holds up so well solo is a real bonus for me too, as it's meant it gets a lot more play than it would otherwise. The set-up does take a while especially with the way the cards are packaged in the box, but I've found since organizing them all into neat sections in the box I can set it up pretty quick now.

You've reminded me that I only played the first scenario in the expansion so I should really go back to that.
As well as new scenarios/cards it added an Alien Queen game-mat so one player can control the aliens, but haven't tried that yet. The Predator and Big Trouble In Little China games that Legendary do are also good fun (Legendary have kept my wife in xmas gift ideas for a few years now ), BTILC in particular went down really well with the group I played it with. Predator feels a bit more limited than Alien as it only recreates the first two movies, an update would be nice!

Also played a fair bit of Zombicide, but have been unable to beat the first main mission (City Blocks) and am far too stubborn to push onto the other ones. So I wheel it out now and then, fail miserably and then put it away again for a couple of months! It's started to feel a bit of a chore to set up now so haven't been back for a while.

If I thought for a moment I could get enough people around a table regularly enough to play the Dredd RPG I'd be backing it like a shot. Haven't played that style of game since I was a kid (Cyberpunk and TMNT were so good!) because it takes a pretty committed group to run any kind of campaign. That just doesn't seem doable with my circle of friends which makes me sad.

[radiator]

Skull is wonderful - it only really comes alive with 5-6 players though I find.

[Colin YNWA]

Skull is wonderful - it only really comes alive with 5-6 players though I find.

I went to Treehouse in Sheffield last night with work, its a bar where you eat, drink and play games from their astonishing collecton (recommend it to anyone in South Yorkshire looking for a fun night out with folks). Anyway we wanted to play Skull but some other bugger had got it - same with Terra my fav from last time we went.

Anyway for all the great games we played it was the late evening, slightly drunken round of Cards against Humanity that of course won the day. I do love that game!

[wedgeski]

Skull is wonderful - it only really comes alive with 5-6 players though I find.

This is true. Most of our gaming is with a cadre of four players, and we know each-other so well that Skull can sometimes descend into a psycho-drama with all of us trying desperately to play against type. It's the kind of emergent gameplay that is part of the unique brilliance of tabletop gaming.

[radiator]

we wanted to play Skull but some other bugger had got it

You know you can make your own set with some beer mats and a pen, right? 

[radiator]

Skull is a great icebreaker, and - paraphrasing from the Shut Up & Sit Down review - the only game that it's possible to teach new people to play when everyone's drunk.

What I think is really great about it is that you have to be incredibly bold and audacious to stand a chance of winning, which really adds to the excitement.

Most of our gaming is with a cadre of four players

Highly recommend Azul for four players - beautiful - and surprisingly spiteful - game, addictive and easy to pick up.

[wedgeski]

Flamme Rouge! Continuing our shameless stalking of Shut-Up & Sit Down for all board-gaming advice, we had our first couple of games. I had fun, especially when we introduced the interesting terrain, but... I dunno. The strategy is kind of simple, and with eight riders it seemed awfully random. Maybe the more advanced tracks will kick things up a notch. It sure is pretty, as well.

[Keef Monkey]

My wee brother is visiting from Canada for a few days so we jumped on the chance to play some games together. Played the Legendary editions of Predator and Big Trouble In Little China, and Into The Echoside (I'd got an expansion for that so was nice to finally wheel out some of the new rules).

Was excellent, no amount of skyping across the world can match a couple of afternoons sitting round a table with a board game.

[radiator]

Flamme Rouge! Continuing our shameless stalking of Shut-Up & Sit Down for all board-gaming advice, we had our first couple of games. I had fun, especially when we introduced the interesting terrain, but... I dunno. The strategy is kind of simple, and with eight riders it seemed awfully random. Maybe the more advanced tracks will kick things up a notch. It sure is pretty, as well.

I really, really want to love Flamme Rouge. I love the theme, the artwork, the whole concept. The box leapt out at me in my local game shop despite never having heard of it before. It's also a really accessible, breezy game that is easy to teach and pick up, and the fact that there's no downtime or waiting for you turn is a huge selling point, especially for people who aren't really into board games....

But my major issue with it is that there doesn't seem to be any benefit whatsoever for trying to play the game strategically. I generally try and pace myself, conserving my best cards for late into the game and minimising the risk of burning out, but it never seems to pan out, and I will invariably end up losing every game to people who are simply playing the strongest card in their hand every round, essentially reducing it to luck of the draw, and not a very satisfying game.

The reason for this in my experience is that there simply isn't enough penalty for breaking away and taking an early lead. Yeah, you end up with loads of exhaustion cards, but you rarely if ever have to actually play them as the game will always tend to end before your deck becomes too diluted. Conversely, biding your time in the pack is rendered far too risky given that overtaking the leader is so difficult and can easily result in you wasting your best card at a critical moment.

Honestly, it kind of feels like a broken game (or at least one in need of balancing). I like Euro style games that have a nice balance of luck and strategy , but this game feels far too weighted towards luck. I've heard the Peloton expansion (and the cobble tiles) add a little more complexity. I really hope so.

[Satanist]

If you preorder the new Dredd Cursed earth game from Osprey publishing you will get a bonus 3 promo cards. Tabetop magazine have a different promo card free with the March issue.

[Keef Monkey]

Got The Cursed Earth a little while ago but have only had a couple of goes on my own, should really go back to it.

I did get the Hellboy board game at the weekend which looks very nice. I'd seen the Kickstarter but decided I really didn't have the time/space/need for another board game, but it turns out a couple of lunchtime pints before stopping into the board game shop was all we needed to put all that pesky rationalizing to one side and just get it.

Grud knows when I'll get round to playing it, but it's lovely so glad to add it to the collection.