The Board Game Thread

[Bobblehead]

He kind of designed it. Back in the day in the '90s he  made a collectible card game called Netrunner, a spin off of the Cyberpunk 2020 RPG. Fantasy Flight Games brought the rights, rejigged it to the setting of their Android/Infiltration games and changed it from a collectible card to a ''living card game" i.e no buying packs of randomly assorted cards, all sets come with the same cards so you know what to buy to build what decks you want.

  Ah yes,i actually played the Netrunner card game,might still have a few cards somewhere still,was quite enjoyable. Still doesnt beat Vampire: The Eternal Struggle as my fave CCG though (with Legend of the Five Rings a close second)

[The Bissler]

I'll be checking out Netrunner,sounds good from what ive heard.
Also is that Richard 'Magic the Gathering' Garfield whos made that? Good pedigree!

He kind of designed it. Back in the day in the '90s he  made a collectible card game called Netrunner, a spin off of the Cyberpunk 2020 RPG. Fantasy Flight Games brought the rights, rejigged it to the setting of their Android/Infiltration games and changed it from a collectible card to a ''living card game" i.e no buying packs of randomly assorted cards, all sets come with the same cards so you know what to buy to build what decks you want.

I absolutely loved GMing Cyberpunk 2020 but wouldn't allow players to be Netrunners because it was such a waste of time.  The Netrunner rules were a real mess, I'm assuming that the card game was a system to fix this.  Still didn't make much sense though to have a team of people enjoying the role playing experience for it only to stop while the Netrunner character played a solo game.

[mimikeke]

Played Geek Out last night for the first time and I nearly choked myself laughing at this card.  Basically you split into two teams, roll a colored die, and then draw a card and read the corresponding color.  Then both teams 'bid' on how many of that category they can guess and the group with the highest bid has to prove they can list that many.  Of course no one else here even knows what Dredd is, doubt they could name another character other than Dredd in the series! 

You guys on the other hand would have quite a bidding war....some of you probably could list over 50....

[Dandontdare]

You people need to be watching/reading the following sites to keep up to date with these things!

http://www.shutupandsitdown.com/ For reviews with a British flavour

http://www.dicetower.com/ For reviews with an American flavour

http://boardgamegeek.com/ For everything you could possibly need.

or even Game Board!

[TordelBack]

Oh yeah, where's Tordelback? I'd thought he'd be all over this thread!

As with my love life, so with board games: I spend the allotted time doing it, not talking about it with you losers.


So I play for about 3 minutes a week.


Nah, I've been reading this with interest.  Had a fantastic game of vanilla Munchkin last night with the missus and the boy, some great single-turn runs of backstabbing followed by assistance followed by backstabbing followed by assistance until one monster yielded 9 treasures... It's a rare family game where you give your wife crabs and halitosis and feel good about it.  The only downside is that I now hear the Tabletop montage music playing whenever people are drawing and discarding cards...

While I've never played it, Lords of Waterdeep completely fascinates me, as does Escape: The Curse of the Temple, two I have to try to get this year.

In terms of new /old stuff, I played 1989's Excalibur for the first time last year, and we had great if protracted fun pushing miniscule bits of vaguely mildewy card around the vale of Camelot, and then back home again in time for the harvest, or last orders anyway.

[Ancient Otter]

While I've never played it, Lords of Waterdeep completely fascinates me,

I never played Dungeons & Dragons and know nothing about the Forgotten Realms setting but it doesn't matter at all - it's a easy worker placement game to get into and the setting does capture your attention. I heard hard-core gamers look down on it for being simple but it's a lot of fun.

Got my first taste of Battlestar Galactica at a convention yesterday. Played it with 3 other new players and 2 other experienced players, 4 hours flew by. Barely lost and would definitely play that again.

[Moggot Lover]

If you got young one's in the house, I can highly recommend D&D Dungeons. Pretty cheap to buy.
The rules are really easy and my and my recently turned 4yr old son, play it frequently and the last game we had lasted over 2hrs. Which is pretty good going for a 4yr old.

[radiator]

I may be going mad but I vividly remember someone (Cosh?) posting a few good board game suggestions, which seem to have disappeared from the thread....

There was some kind of gardening-based one, and/or one about building castle walls? They sounded really good and I wanted to investigate further... I was putting off buying any new games until I moved but I'm here now.

[radiator]

Ah, never mind - I misremembered, it was James Stacey!

Would really appreciate if anyone has any suggestions for games along the lines of Carcassonne - ie easy to pick up and quick to play - looking to expand my collection a bit.

[Ancient Otter]

Ah, never mind - I misremembered, it was James Stacey!

Would really appreciate if anyone has any suggestions for games along the lines of Carcassonne - ie easy to pick up and quick to play - looking to expand my collection a bit.

I only have Carcassonne & Tsuro but there are two lists on Boardgamegeek that pop up on Google straight away that might help you:

Carcassonne-like tile-laying games

Tile Laying Games NOT Featuring Hex or Rectangle Shaped Tiles

El Caballero is one I'm thinking of getting myself.

[radiator]

Interesting...

But I was thinking not so much similar to Carcassonne in terms of game type, more games that are different but similarly accessible and light (Carcassonne being extremely easy to grasp, but also very deep and rewarding the more of it you play). Anything with too many tokens/dice/cards/whatever, or anything that looks too complex or serious (wizards and goblins etc) isn't going to fly with my girlfriend. At the moment I'm swaying towards Catan, Ticket To Ride, Alhambra and Tsuro.

Should mention that before I left the UK I had about 15 various friends and family thoroughly addicted to Carcassonne, and helped to shift at least 3 extra copies and assorted expansions!

[Ancient Otter]

Interesting...

But I was thinking not so much similar to Carcassonne in terms of game type, more games that are different but similarly accessible and light (Carcassonne being extremely easy to grasp, but also very deep and rewarding the more of it you play). Anything with too many tokens/dice/cards/whatever, or anything that looks too complex or serious (wizards and goblins etc) isn't going to fly with my girlfriend. At the moment I'm swaying towards Catan, Ticket To Ride, Alhambra and Tsuro.

Should mention that before I left the UK I had about 15 various friends and family thoroughly addicted to Carcassonne, and helped to shift at least 3 extra copies and assorted expansions!

I have Tsuro which is fun but it's light and very quick. I've played Ticket to Ride: Europe and Settlers of Catan. Not too mad about Catan personally, but it is one of the board games of the last twenty years so it's worth giving a shot!

I heard Ticket to Ride: Europe is better than the first game (which covers the USA). I played two games in a group with a couple who didn't play board games before, they won the two games.

[Dark Jimbo]

Ticket to Ride: Europe is great. Really popular with both those of my friends who play board games regularly and those who rarely do (or who we've only recently roped into doing so). In essence it's very, very simple, and the turns are incredibly quick, so it feels really fast-paced - but the game can go any number of different ways and there are plenty of startegy/tactis to be tried out. The golden number of players is four, although you can play with two to five (two or three means little competition for routes, whereas five can sometimes mean a little too much!) I haven't picked up the expansion yet, but I'm thinking of doing so - nobody's bored of the game, but I'm intrigued as to how the new stuff changes the play style.

[radiator]

After lots of umm-ing and ahh-ing I ordered Ticket to Ride: Europe and Tsuro last night, and plan to get a couple more games for my birthday next week.

I'm particularly keen to hear suggestions of good games for two players, either 1v1 or cooperative, as my partner and I need something to keep us occupied now we're away from all our friends. I've been looking at Carcassonne: The Castle and Rivals For Catan but have read mixed reviews of both - I'm also considering (both 2 and 2+ players) Dominion, Forbidden Island, 7 Wonders, Alhambra, Settlers of Catan, Fluxx 4.0, A Game of Thrones (FF), Pandemic, Lewis & Clark: The Expedition, Tikal and Aricola, though I'm worried that some of them look a little unappealing to the average punter.

[JamesC]

I've just ordered some games for an event we're putting on at work.
One that came highly recommended was Love Letter. It's a card game for 2 or more players and is apparently brilliant, strategic and easy to learn. Only takes 20-30 minutes to play too.

I also ordered an X-Wing core set for some quick dog fights, Carcassonne, Munchkin and a few other bits that I can't remember.